Satisfying Extortion (6 page)

“Are you crazy?”

Marcus had never been the romantic type and he wasn’t one for small talk either. In fact, he couldn’t remember enjoying easy conversation with anyone except another guy. He just didn’t have a way with women, unless he was fucking them.

His cock thrummed in his boxers. His cockhead pressed against the small buttons up the front of his shorts. His erection pressed against the zipper, now tight against his shaft.

Good Lord, he’d never known such profound and disturbing lust. His skin tingled. His eyes moistened. He was certain if he didn’t take her, claim her as his mate, he might suffocate.

The thought of her hands on him, touching and caressing him—fondling him even—made his heart swell with a new emotion he’d never felt before. Could he possibly love this woman? Had he already fallen for her? He’d heard other wolf shifters describe their mate lust and some of them had admitted to loving their women from the moment they set eyes on their chosen one.

He took a deep breath and lowered his head. “Don’t say a word until I’m done.”

“What are you doing?” Her voice pitched an octave higher.

He cupped her cheek and whispered across her lips. “I’m fucking you. Once we get the mating out of the way, maybe then I can take you out on a ‘date’ as you suggested, but for now, I’m doing what needs to be done to ensure your safety.

“I’m claiming you as my mate.”

* * * *

“Sit down, Bart,” Kurt grated out, not at all happy..Marcus had made a first move.

“I’m checking on my wife.”

“Oh for God’s sake,” Blaine said. “You’ve been hollering about
your wife
since these boys rode into town, but how long has it been since you’ve even talked to Suzette?”

Bart appeared dumbstruck. “I talk to her whenever I call about the kids.”

“And from what I hear, they haven’t talked to their father in a while,” Blaine said.

“I’ll follow Suzette home and see them tonight.”

“The only reason you’d follow Suzette home is to ensure I’m not in her bed,” Kurt said, wondering how Randon and Pageant put up with this idiot.

“Mr. Dandridge, I’m not the least bit worried about you being in my woman’s bed.”

“Your woman?” Blaez’s voice was loud enough to shatter glass.

“She’s the mother of my children,” Bart said, his voice soft. After a distant moment, he added, “And I’ll follow her home and check on the kids tonight. I need to be with my family.”

“That’s my point. You’re a little late for that,” Blaine said.

Bart snarled. “I can see my kids anytime I want.”

“Not right now you can’t,” Randon said, standing next to Blaine. “Suzette sent them out of here yesterday.”

“Bullshit! Why would she do that when she knew I was on my way?”

Kurt wanted to celebrate right then and there. He’d been trying to figure out the logistics of mating with Suzette with a houseful of kids under foot. He hadn’t quite come up with an ideal plan. Now, he wouldn’t need one.

“They’re staying with your
ex
mother-in-law,” Blaine informed him.

“That’s good,” Bart said quietly. “I’m okay with that.”

Blaine snorted. “We all feel a hundred percent better to know you’re okay with that, Bart. We’ve been fretting over how we might break the news to you.”

Bart and Blaine had worked together for a few years. At one time they were good friends, but it was obvious to Kurt that Blaine had lost respect for his former subordinate. Perhaps he had indeed abused Suzette or maybe Blaine didn’t have any tolerance for a man who suddenly turned his back on his family. Sure, Bart had a lot of problems, but who didn’t have troubles? A real man didn’t walk away from his small children. This prick didn’t even know where his kids were staying until an outsider told him!

Kurt and Blaez locked in a knowing exchange. Kurt dragged his hand down his face. Shit. Sure enough, Blaez was one of Suzette’s mates. He seemed equally agitated by Bart’s very presence there.

“Why don’t you call your children?” Pageant suggested.

“That’s a good idea,” Bart said quietly, stalking by Kurt.

Blaez immediately wagged his finger in front of him. “Not this way.” He tilted his head at the far end of the room. “Over there.”

“Just who do you think you are?”

Blaez crossed those boulder-like arms over his chest. “It’s not who I am that should concern you. It’s what I’m capable of and believe me, you’re no match for me, Bart.”

Bart held his head high. He apparently thought about challenging Blaez. Reluctantly, he finally backed away without another word.

Minutes later, Bart stepped inside the former deputy’s office and called his children. Blaine shuffled through some old files and occasionally paused long enough to complain about the limited notes. Pageant and Randon sat at the table like a lovesick couple, holding hands and speaking in low voices.

“So what’s the plan?” Kurt asked, joining Blaez at the window. “Are we staying holed up here for the next few days? Do we all wait in one spot, just hoping this thing will finally strike?”

“I don’t like the idea any more than you do but I have a feeling that’s the way it’s going down.”

Kurt took a deep breath and decided to just put it all out there. “You’re her mate.”

“You are, too.”

“No shit,” Kurt snapped.

Blaez smirked at his outburst. “Marcus, too…in case you’re wondering.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Right.” Blaez laughed.

“Damn.” Kurt stared down the hall. “I gathered as much. Does she know?”

“You haven’t spent a lot of time with Marcus, I take it.”

“Not in recent years,” Kurt admitted. “Why?”

“He doesn’t have a natural way with the ladies. If I had to guess, he’s probably in there telling her that they’re mates and they need to hurry up and fuck.”

“And you’re okay with all that?” Kurt wasn’t all right with it.

“The way I see things? We can either accept the fact or fight it. If we fight this, we waste valuable time and energy on a battle we can’t win for an outcome we can’t change.”

“We’re talking about a woman here, not an extortionist.”

Blaez stared at him with cold blue eyes. “You think this is a lost cause?”

“Suzette isn’t a lost cause.”

“You know what I mean.”

“I’ve been up against these things as much as you have.”

“And?” Blaez pressed.

“The way I see it, man, there’s no way to stop them. While we were dealing with the Pleasant ordeal, there were several other similar cases all over the South. We were all hunting a killer, praying we’d stop him if we happened to meet him face to face.” Kurt focused on Pageant and Randon for a moment. “Pageant lucked up. She was in confined quarters and was able to throw a dead shifter in front of the extortionist just a fraction of a second before he invaded her body and destroyed her. How many other people will have the same good fortune and abruptly stop the extortionist sent for them?”

“That’s not what concerns me. What bothers me is how many humans are already walking around with one of these possessed freaks living inside them.”

“It would probably terrify us if we knew the accurate count.”

Suzette’s lips burned as if they’d been scorched by the sun. As Marcus’s mouth skimmed her own, her hunger grew, her need intensified. Had she ever enjoyed a more desire-driven kiss? Had she ever been more desperate for completion, for an earth-rocking orgasmic climax that left her gasping in pleasure, screaming out for a mix of hard-throttling satisfaction?

She tried to break their kiss, place some distance between them, but he brought her closer, pulling her tighter against his chest as he pushed the weight of his heavy cock against her mound. She wiggled again, urgent now for freedom as he thrust his tongue between her lips and smiled into their kiss.

“You’re not going anywhere, sexy lady.”

Good Lord! She wished she could record this event, just to ensure the lust hadn’t driven her mad, made her reinvent the wheel by perhaps deluding her into believing sweet nothings had been whispered in her ear, delivered in another round of heart-pounding, jaw-dropping kisses.

She was drowning in a sea of desire and Marcus probably assumed she had no idea why she was inexplicably drawn to him. Thanks to Bart and the rampant rumors in small town Pleasant, Suzette understood precisely what was going on here. The gossipmongers had talked about Pageant as if she were a storybook character, supercharged by love, empowered by mate lust.

Oh yes. Suzette understood what was happening to her.

This sexy man was a shifter, part wolf and part human, and he was claiming her as his mate. The urgency in his kiss fed her own lust and it was a crazy kind of claiming, a maddening kind of longing, and one which worsened by the second.

One moment
, she just needed a minute to regroup. Then, she’d shove this guy away and gather her wits about her. To her surprise, he paused then.

She then took her moment. Instead of using the time wisely, she gripped his shirt and slammed her body against his, crawling all over him now, eager and willing to do whatever necessary to make herself available, to allow Marcus the opportunity to claim her.

Considering the timing of this claiming, she couldn’t help but question his motives. Why was it so important to “claim” her now?

He gazed into her eyes as if he already held her in such high regard, as if he already possessed so much compassion for her, so much…love. She gasped then and her hands went to the base of his neck. She traced his veins, feeling the rapid pulse of his excitement vibrating against her fingertips.

“Why is this happening now?”

“You’re my mate,” Marcus said simply, ducking his head for another kiss.

She turned her head and stared at the wall of photographs. The recently fallen weren’t there alongside the other deceased individuals. The last of their town’s police force had scattered after the town had fallen victim to senseless killings, murders that shouldn’t have happened. Innocent people had become a madman’s prey and now the MC, wolf shifters from around the country, had been called in to help.

“What’s the rush?”

“You’re mine,” he whispered, nipping at her lips.

“Am I theirs, too?”

He stilled then and she searched his face for some semblance of an explanation. When he didn’t answer her, she jerked his shirt and held him within a breath of their next kiss. “Answer me, Marcus. Do I belong to them, too?”

He slowly nodded.

She gasped at his unspoken reply. “That’s why you’re in such a hurry.” She trembled at the thought of being some egotistical male’s prize. “That’s why you want to ‘mate’ with me so badly. You want to
fuck me
before they have a chance.”

“No.” He shook his head. “That’s not true.”

They stared at one another for a minute more and then the raw and possessive male rolled to the fore. He ground his hips against hers and cupped her behind, forcing her against the firm rigidness of his pulsing cock.

“I like it when you talk dirty to me, Suzette.” He palmed her butt, dragging her hips up and down, forcing her crotch against the heavy weight of his erection.

“I didn’t.”

“Fuck.” The word fell from his lips in a guttural manner. “Say it again.” He kissed her then, pulling her against his erection as he thrust his tongue inside her mouth.

“Say it.” He nipped at her bottom lip and his eyes darkened. “Let me hear you, sweetheart.”

“Fuck.” Her mouth fell open as his worked along her trunk and chest. Her wet pussy clenched around the emptiness as she rocked against him then. She wanted to fuck him. She wanted him to throw her down on the floor and just strip her clothes away from her body and pound into her with all the passion and heat she’d read about in romance novels.

Instead, her sensibility won out again.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered, turning her head away from him and loving the way his hot breath against her ear drove her back to his lips.

“You can.”

She shook her head. “No.” Her fingers locked around the tiny curls at the base of his neck. “I’m a mother. Good moms don’t make out with strange men.”

“I’m not a strange man,” he assured her, pushing her arm down the front of his body. “I’ll be your man soon enough.”

She froze and he cradled her jaws. He cupped her face tenderly as he tilted her lips to his. “Love me, Suzette. Fuck me. Rock my world. Whatever you want to do to me, do it and know. You belong to me. I’ll take care of you.”

“I don’t—” She stalled. She wouldn’t say it. She couldn’t. For months now, she’d raised her children all alone.

Bart hadn’t been there for her. He hadn’t come to visit the children. He hadn’t sent child support. He’d more or less just lain down and died after the extortionist attack. Very often he’d told her how much he wished he’d died that day. Perhaps her children would’ve been better off if they’d believed as much.