Marc (5 page)

“You frightened her.” He nodded at his
mom. “And since, what have you done to make it up to her?”

“I’m at my wits’ end with trying to get her
to trust me. I’m not upset about her saying that to me. Hell, I feel like I’m
lucky that she didn’t kill me. But….” Marc looked at the people in the
restaurant as he continued. “She brings the same thing every day to lunch. Those
dried noodles in a bag that she cooks in the microwave, and bottled water. I
checked on how much they cost, and you know you can get like a dozen of them
for less than five bucks. She never goes out to lunch with anyone, and she
wears the same five shirts every week. She has no coat to speak of, and her
shoes are worn through.”

“You want to help her.” He nodded, still
watching the room and not his mom. He didn’t want her to see how affected he
was by this. But he was pretty sure she’d figured it out.

“I don’t want to just help her, Mom, I
need to. I find myself thinking of her instead of work more hours of the day
than I should. When she comes into my office I find that I can’t seem to breathe
until she leaves again, and then her scent is all over the office for hours
after she leaves.” He looked at her then. “And she hates me.”

She looked at him for a long minute, then
another before she spoke to him. Marc took her hand when she reached for it,
suddenly afraid she was going to tell him something he didn’t want to know
about Joan.

“Marc, have you given any thought as to
why you feel this way about her? I mean, beyond her working for you. Do you
know what it sounds like when you talk about her?”

He let go of her hand and stood. The
waitress brought him the check and he took it before his mom could. He wasn’t
going to dignify what his mom was implying with an answer. As he started to
walk away, she spoke again.

“It happens, Marc. Cats that lose their
mates for one reason or another find another later in life. It might be just as
you, too, believe it to be…she’s your other half.  Sonya was so young and so
were you, maybe this is your second—”

“I had a chance, Mom. And she died. There
will never be anyone to replace her and you know it.” He stretched his neck and
body, calming his cat before he continued. “Please don’t bring this up again. I
won’t…I can’t think along those lines only to be hurt again when it turns out not
to be her, and she leaves me again. I can’t do that again.”

She stood up and hugged him, and he felt
tears in his eyes. He’d not cried since he’d been told that Sonya had been
killed, and wasn’t going to give into them now. After helping his mom on with
her coat, he walked her to her car.

“Marc, I love you son. And I’m sorry
that I upset you. Will you forgive me?” He told her not to be ridiculous and
kissed her cheek.

He helped her into her car and drove
home. It wasn’t late, but he needed a good run. Stripping down, he shifted and
ran for over three hours until he was nearly falling over with exhaustion
before he even went into his house. But as soon as his head hit the pillow, he
was wide awake and wondering if Joan was warm enough or if she had enough food
to eat.

“This is stupid. Tomorrow morning I’m
going to kiss her and then that will be the end of this. Once I stop thinking
about how she will taste, I can move on with my life and get some work done.”
As he rolled over, he knew that he could no more go in and kiss her as he could
stop working. He was going to have to do something and soon.

Chapter 5

“Have you found her yet?” Roy wasn’t
sure why he was asking. He was pretty sure that they’d let him know if they
had. But it had been almost a whole month and he had orders to fill so he could
get inside the house. He looked at the ledger in front of him when Harris
answered.

“Been no sign of her since she left here
near about three weeks ago. I’m thinking she either left town with a stranger
or she’s holed up somewhere with a friend.” Roy knew that wouldn’t happen.
Jonny didn’t have any friends except for Anita.

“I have a request for nine panthers, and
no panthers. I have fucking wolves out my ass and a bear but not one fucking
panther.” He looked down at the numbers that had been coming in since she left.
“I could make twice that with the amount of money the rich and stupid would pay
for her. And she won’t play the game.”

Harris shook his head. “She’s a stubborn
one, she is. When I think of all that money you offered her and she threw it
back in your face? Makes me want to find her and beat her something good.”

An empty threat and they both knew it.
She’d kill Harris as soon as he drew back his hand to hit her. She’d hurt him
before, and the large scar on his cheek was the result of him trying to get her
to shift to human when he’d been trying to get her to come out of the cage.
She’d came out all right, all teeth and claws, and nearly tore Harris apart
before she’d been darted four times to knock her out.

“I want her found. She’s going to play
with us or I’ll just kill her. She’s costing me money every day that she’s
loose, and she is going to repay every penny of it as soon as we find her. And
we will find her, won’t we?” Harris nodded and stood up. “She has to be working
somewhere. See if you can find someone to run her Social Security number and
find her that way. If she doesn’t have a job by now, she’s either dead or
getting paid under the table. Either way, I want to know.”

After Harris left, Roy picked up the
ledger again. The bear had had a good week this week and the wolves were slowly
catching on to the program. Just how hard did they think this job was?

He’d been a small time thief before he’d
found his first shifter. Alex Spears had even come up with the idea of him
going into houses as an exotic pet and stealing from them. Roy’s job had been
to fence it for them. They’d split the money fifty-fifty. No one blamed the pet,
and when the folks were about broke, they’d given him back his “pet.” They did
this for over three years when they decided to bring in other animals, ones
they could control. Bear Black, his actual name, had been the first. But he’d
been sloppy and had been caught. When he’d killed the couple who had him, he’d
been put down before he could shift and give up what he truly was. Alex had
been so scared after that that he’d wanted out.

“You have to stop this before someone
else gets killed,” he’d told him that night. “I can’t stand the fact that this
has gotten someone murdered.”

“Murder is a very strong word for what
happened there. And Bear is dead now and no one will ever know what we’re
doing.” Alex was already shaking his head no. “We can slow down if it will make
you feel better. Then when the news moves on to something else, we’ll pick up
again. In the meantime, we can gather more shifters and train them…. What are
you doing?”

Alex started clearing out his desk even
before Roy could try to convince him to stay. “I’m done. You can do this if you
want but I’m finished with this. It was a good run, but it’s over. You should
get out too before it comes down on your head.”

The gun was in his hand before Roy could
think about it. He held it on Alex and told him to sit. When he continued to
pack up his desk, Roy thought to wound him, but he’d started to shift by then
and the bullet tore through his brain. He looked up at his secretary when she
came rushing into the room. Her smile was a little like seeing evil spread
across one’s face. She looked like she was born to it.

“I guess this means you need a new
partner.” She slithered in. There was no other word for how she moved into the
room and towards him. “I’ve been working on a list of my own, you see. I have a
few names of others like our poor stupid shifter here that we can recruit for
jobs.”

She’d nearly raped him in the chair
after that. He’d had her bent over his desk and fucking her as hard as he could
when she begged him to slap her. He’d hit her ass when she begged him for more.
Suddenly she was standing in front of him slapping him. He backhanded her once,
and when she hit the floor, she came up on her knees and took him into her
mouth and swallowed him. He’d never come so hard in his life. And had been
enjoying her form of sex since.

He looked back on it now and realized
she’d been creating tension between him and Alex for months. She’d been just
waiting for this to happen, he knew now. She would probably have taken either
of them at that time but he’d been the last man standing, so to speak.

She walked into his office just as if
he’d conjured her up. “I’ve been thinking about her. Jonny is probably trying
to get to her mommy and daddy. We should probably send out a little welcoming
party for her if she isn’t there already. They might even know where she’s at,
or at least heard from her.”

He’d forgotten about her parents. He
reached for Jonny’s file to find the address when she told him. He picked up
his phone and told Harris to get a few shifters out to that address as soon as
possible. He hung up the phone when she started to undress.

“You should know that I have a meeting
in an hour.” She nodded and continued to strip. “If you want the shit beat out
of you now, you’re going to look like hell when our prospective clients come to
call.”

“So don’t hit me and when we get home
you can make up for it.” She got down on her knees in front of him. “Or would
you rather have a bite to eat first before I suck you off?”

He wanted both and told her so. But she
shook her head. He watched the flare of excitement in her eyes when he hit her
on the face. He ordered her to lean over his desk and when she did it, he moved
his body toward her and picked up his ruler he’d bought just for her.

“I can always hurt you where they won’t
be able to see it. Then when I come all over your ass, you can lick me clean.”
She moaned and danced on her feet while opening her legs for him. “Christ,
you’re wet for me, aren’t you? It’s dripping down your legs.”

Roy tore open the fly on his pants, not
even bothering with taking them off. He was fisting his cock hard and using his
precum to lubricate himself as he prepared her ass for him. Coming in her ass
was as good as coming down her throat.

“I need you to spank me, Roy. Come on,
fucking hit me.” He brought the ruler down so hard it drew blood in a long cut
along her ass. She cried out and begged him for more. He slammed his cock deep
into her ass as he hit her three more times, each time a little harder than the
last. When she came, screaming out his name, he joined her, his cock exploding
into her. Before he was finished, she jerked from him and fell to her knees,
taking him into her mouth as he fucked her. She came again, her eyes rolling
into the back of her head as he felt his cock being strangled at the back off
her throat. Christ, how did he live without her before this?

After the meeting with a couple that
wanted to see if he had a leopard, he sat in his office and tried to think
where he’d get one when she came back into his office. She sat in the chair opposite
to him and grinned. He hated that grin.

“They told me they’d pay any price to
have a leopard. Any price. They want to show it off to their friends.” He
watched her as she slid a piece of paper toward him.

“That’s a shifter I heard of. He’s in
debt to his ass on gambling. I’m thinking you can buy him for the price of his
debts. And since we know the man who he owes the money too, we all win.”

He looked at the piece of paper before
picking up the phone. “And if he won’t sell us his marker, then what?”

She shrugged. “Then we kill him too.”

As she moved out of the room, he
shivered. Christ, she was cold. He looked at the name of the bookie and
wondered why she’d say that about her own father. Anita Kidd was one cold and
calculating bitch.

“Hello, Mr. Kidd. It’s Roy Dawson. I was
wondering if we could talk a little about Chris Reutter. I understand he owes
you a great deal of money.”

And just like that, he had a shifter.

~~~

Marc was in a shitty mood. Even the
others in the office were steering clear of him. When he came out of his office
for the second time in less than an hour to bark at someone, she slammed her
desk drawer closed and stood up. She was going to lunch early and he could fuck
off.

He watched her as she turned the service
over, and then followed her into the little kitchen area. She was waiting for
the water to boil in the microwave when he leaned against the counter beside
her.

“Is that all you ever eat? Don’t you
crave meat or an occasional vegetable?” She didn’t look at him when the machine
dinged. “I’m talking to you, the least you can do is acknowledge me.”

“Hello. Now get the fuck away from me.
I’m on my lunch hour. My time, not yours.” He growled low and her entire body
went on alert; her cat seemed to skim along her skin. She stood up, dumping her
lunch on the table, and backed up.

“You felt it, didn’t you?” He moved
toward her slowly as he spoke low. “You want to come to me, don’t you? You want
to touch me.”

“I’m not feeling well. I would like to
go home.” He shook his head and continued coming toward her. “You can’t keep me
here. I can go when I want to.”

The vending machine touched her back. She
knew she was trapped. Looking to her left, she could see the wall, and to her
right was another table. He was nearly to her when she looked at him. Putting
out her hand made him stop, but when he took it into his hand and then to his
mouth, she jerked away.

“You feel it. This attraction between us.
You want me as much as I want you.” She shook her head at him. “If I touch you
right now, what will you do? Will I smell your arousal?”

His words were having the strangest effect
on her. She tried to back further away from him as he closed the distance
between them. When he ran his finger along her throat, she moaned before she
could stop it. He leaned slowly into her neck and she tilted her head for him.

His tongue was hot and wet; it curved
around her throat to her ear where he nipped at her lobe. Putting her hand up
to push him away ended up with her curling her hand into his chest as he ran
his hand down her ribs to the top of her pants. As soon as his hand touched her
ribs, she moaned again. He lifted her up with his free hand and wrapped her leg
over his hip. His cock rocked into her as he cupped her breast from beneath.

He touched her everywhere. His hands
moved so quickly that she wasn’t surprised when she felt his mouth on her
nipple. He’d lifted her shirt up and her bra and was suckling hard on the tip. He
tore his mouth away from her breast to take her mouth, his tongue spearing into
her and dancing with her tongue like he’d been doing it forever. When he lifted
her up again, this time cupping her ass, she wrapped around him and locked her
ankles around him. He was fucking her through their clothes when she felt him
bite gently at her shoulder. Her cat snarled at her or him, she wasn’t sure
which, but he bit her again, this time hard enough to make her come.

Her body was on fire now. She needed
something from him, a great deal more than she was getting this way. When he
stiffened and looked down at her, she could see her cat reflected back at her.
Or was it? She heard someone coming and tried to struggle free of him. He
leaned to her ear and nipped before speaking.

“It’s Dennis. He’s not coming in here
but going out. Just be quiet and he’ll be gone soon.” He licked along her
throat again. “As much as I would love to finish this, we have to talk.”

Finish? She looked down at herself and closed
her eyes. She was half-naked in an office with her boss. A boss she didn’t
really like. She grabbed her shirt and pulled it back over her. He let her go
when she unhooked her legs from him and turned around to finish putting her
clothes to right. His chuckle made her turn around.

“This isn’t funny. I would very much
like it if you’d step back. I want to….” She wanted to have him lay her across
the table and take her, but knew that wasn’t the best course of action to take.
When he put his arms over his chest and smiled at her, she found she wanted to
hit him hard enough to knock him across the room, but found she couldn’t.

“You’re not going anywhere until we have
a talk. I want you to come into my office, I’ll order us a big lunch and we’ll
discuss what’s going to happen now.” He reached for her hand and she shoved
both of them behind her. “You have to know that things between us are different
now. I’ve marked you.”

She didn’t know what that meant, and was
pretty sure she didn’t want to know either. When he reached for her again, she
flinched away from his touch. She saw the hurt flare in his eyes and felt a
moment of regret for causing it, but she had to get away from him and think.
She said the first thing that came to her.