Possession: Steel Brothers Saga: Book Three (13 page)

I spiraled outward and then inward, every feeling, every emotion, every physical sensation, writhing into me, as my man fucked me. Fucked me into oblivion.

He groaned above me, taking me, marking me. Marking every part of me. God help me, I wanted to be marked. Wanted to be his.

Wanted to belong to him in every way I could.

“This is me, baby,” he said above me, his deep voice like a smooth red wine. “This is me taking you, possessing you.”

His words spurred me on. Yes, possessing me. I wanted him to possess me. His perspiration dripped on my cheeks as he continued pumping, thrusting, until that last thrust when he went so far inside me I thought he touched my soul.

He groaned his release, and when he finally pulled out, we were both panting. The balls tumbled out of me along with his essence.

We both lay still for a moment, until I felt the clamps release my nipples, the plug come out of my ass. And then he unbound my wrists from the headboard.

Last, he removed the bandanna from my eyes.

Finally I could look upon him, the man I loved more than anything. He was beautiful, covered in a glossy sheen, his hair tousled, the strands around his face wet with perspiration. He looked down upon me, his eyes still fiery and filled with a love I had never seen there before.

I closed my eyes, so relaxed, so at peace, and drifted away.

* * *

W
hen I woke up
, the room was dark, and Talon was nowhere to be found.

Well, of course. He refused to sleep with me. I knew he’d never hurt me, and I wanted desperately to spend the night in the arms of the man I loved.

But I’d told him I would be patient. I’d vowed not to push him. He would come to me when he was ready.

I got up and put on my clothes. It was eleven. I walked stiffly around the house, looking for Talon. I found him in his office, engrossed in something on the computer. I decided to leave him to his work. I walked down the hallway to Marj’s room. Under her door was a sliver of light, so I knew she was still up. I knocked softly.

“Yeah? Come on in.”

I opened the door. “It’s just me.”

“Oh. Hey. I didn’t know you were here.”

“I came over to see Talon.”

“He said you were in Grand Junction visiting your mom.”

“I was. She woke up. She’s doing well, and the prognosis is good.”

“So what are you doing here, then?”

I smiled. “I just wanted to see him. Now he’s in the office working, and I don’t want to disturb him. It’s late, and I don’t feel like driving back to Snow Creek.”

“So stay in your old room. No big deal.” Her voice was listless.

I sat down on her bed. “Marj, when are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

“It’s like I told you before. I can’t. I wish I could.”

I let out a sigh. “Okay.”

“How do you like your new job as acting city attorney?”

What a loaded question that was. “It comes with a little pay hike, so that helps. I just got notice that my student-loan payments are starting soon, so the extra they will take from my paycheck every month will make it a little longer to get that down payment for a car.”

“You can drive the Mustang as long as you want to.”

“I know. I appreciate it. I just hate sponging off you guys.”

She gave a little smile and let out a little laugh. The first laugh I’d heard from Marj in a while.

“Haven’t we gotten past that by now, Jade? We have more than we could possibly use, and I’m happy to share it with you.”

“I know.”

“Seriously, how’s it going? With work?” She paused a moment. “With Talon?”

“I think things with Talon are going well. He told me he’s in therapy.”

Marj widened her eyes. “He did?”

“Yes. To be truthful, I’m glad he is.”

“Me too,” Marj agreed.

“He asked me to be patient with him. Not to press him for information.”

Marj smiled again, this time a little bigger smile. “I guess I’ll ask you to be patient with me too. If I could tell you what’s going on, Jade, I would.”

“All right. I understand. By the way, Talon said we could make our relationship public.”

“That’s great.”

“And as for work, I still don’t know what to think. I can’t figure out why Larry disappeared. He’s been gone for a week now, and no one knows where he is. I’ll do some investigating of my own on Monday. See if I can figure out where he went.” It freaked me out more than just a little bit, but I couldn’t let on to Marj how much. After all, Larry had told me to research the Steels. I still had no idea what information he was looking for. He had been tight-lipped about the whole thing. “Do
you
have any idea why Larry might’ve disappeared?”

Marj shook her head. “I really hardly know the guy. I mean, I had heard that he had dealings with our family in the past.”

“I don’t like the guy, to be honest.” I sighed. “I mean, he gave me a job, which I needed. But he’s a horribly unethical attorney. Last Friday, the last time I saw him”—I wasn’t going to mention that I thought I had seen him talking to Nico in the hospital late Friday night—“he was wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt, getting ready to take his grandkids somewhere. He was looking creepy. You know the kind—like you wouldn’t leave children alone with him?”

Marj visibly shuddered, the look on her face unreadable. “What makes you say that?”

“I don’t know. He just looked creepy. And not that there’s anything wrong with this, but he was missing a toe on his left foot. That’s not what made him creepy though.”

Marj’s mouth popped open. “Are you serious? On the left foot? Are you sure?”

“Yeah.” What I didn’t tell her was that I’d dropped my gaze to his foot because I hadn’t been able to look into his eyes after I’d asked him about Daphne Steel being his sister. I hadn’t told any of the Steels about that yet.

Marj jumped off the bed and pulled me up with her. “Oh my God.”

I
finished
the accounts I was working on, sent a detailed e-mail to our accountant and financial manager, and even though it was nearing midnight, I decided to see if Ryan was up. I felt like sharing a drink with my little brother.

I wrote him a quick text, and sure enough, he was up.
Sure, come on over
, he texted. My brother always welcomed me.

He met me at the front door, wearing his sleeping pants and a T-shirt. “What you doing up so late, Tal?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“Not much. Was working on some paperwork.”

“Same here.”

He walked into his family room, and I followed him. He went behind the bar and pulled up a few bottles. “Peach Street, I assume?”

“That’ll do it.”

He poured me two fingers of the amber liquid and a glass of wine for himself. He sat down next to me on a barstool.

“So what’s going on?”

“Just felt like having a drink with my brother.”

“You don’t want to talk about anything? Therapy?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t even going to ask whether Steve Dugan had been in touch with him and Joe. “I am really looking forward to the time when not everything has to be about me. Tonight I just want to share a drink with my brother. Please, just accept that.”

Ryan clinked his glass to mine. “I can accept that, bro.”

We talked mainly about the ranch until we heard a frantic knocking at the front door.

Ryan stood. “At this hour?”

My first thought went to Dugan. As far I knew, my brothers hadn’t yet been questioned about Colin Morse’s disappearance, but why in the world would Steve be coming around after midnight on Friday night?

Ryan returned to the family room with my sister in tow.

“God, Talon,” Marj said. “Thank God I found you.”

“What’s going on?”

“First of all, Jade’s still at the house. She’s sleeping in her old bedroom tonight.”

“Okay. You pounded on the door to tell us that?”

She shook her head. “No. I have something way more important to tell you. I was just talking with Jade, and you know her boss, Larry Wade?”

“Yeah, she doesn’t like him much.”

“No, she said he’s unethical and creepy. And guess what else?”

“What?” Ryan and I asked in unison.

“Jade says he’s missing the littlest toe on his left foot.”

I let the words sink in for a moment. Larry Wade? Here I thought I might have found one of my abductors in Jade’s mother’s boyfriend, and another one might be her boss? How in the world had my abductors come so close to the woman I loved? I wasn’t protecting her very well.

Rage boiled within me.

Ryan sensed my fury. He placed his hand on my forearm. “Talon, a lot of people are probably missing a toe.”

“A lot of people here in Snow Creek?” I stood, agitated. “It just seems too coincidental, doesn’t it?” My nerves were on edge. My heart beat rapidly, the fight-or-flight instinct kicking in. I wanted to track down Larry Wade, question him, and then beat the life right out of him. “Jade’s in her own room?”

Marj nodded. “Talon, don’t bother her. She’s sleeping, and she’s just been through a lot with her mom—”

I stopped listening, striding away swiftly, out the door and back up the path to the main ranch house. When I walked in the back way, I ran through the kitchen and down the hallway to Jade’s room. I opened the door without knocking.

“Jade!” I yelled.

She sat up on the bed abruptly, her eyes full of sleep. “What? What is it?”

“It’s me,” I said. “I need you to wake up. I need you to wake up right now.”

“Talon, my God, what’s wrong?”

“I need you to tell me everything you know about Larry Wade.”

She yawned, rubbing eyes. “Right now? You know what I think of him. He’s a sleaze, and he’s unethical. What else is there to know?”

“He’s missing the pinky toe on his left foot, right?”

She nodded. “How did you know that?”

“Marj just told me. And I want to know why
you
didn’t.”

She blinked her eyes a few times. “Why
I
didn’t? Why would I? It’s not really anything to talk about. It doesn’t really come up in conversation. So he’s missing a toe. Who cares? Why do you care?”

“Suffice it to say that I do care. That little fact is important to me.”

“Why?”

“You said you’d be patient with me, Jade. I’m asking for patience now. I’m not ready to tell you why that’s important. But I need you to tell me, right now, everything you know about your boss.”

She yawned again and then took a drink of water from the glass on her nightstand. “This is obviously very important to you, Talon. So we can talk.” She turned on the lamp on her nightstand and then squinted against the light. “I don’t know much about him, but I do plan to do some investigating when I get into the office Monday. But in the meantime, there
is
something I know about Larry. It hasn’t been confirmed, but I’m pretty sure he’s your half-uncle.”

T
alon’s eyes widened
. “What the fuck?”

Quickly I told him the story about the birth certificates I’d found for both his mom and Larry. About how the name on Daphne’s birth certificate had been changed from Wade to Warren. And how someone had to have had big-time access to make those changes.

“That can’t be true,” Talon said. “And if it is…” His eyes were far away, and a mixture of rage and sadness laced them.

“If it is, what?” I asked.

“You say you got a creepy vibe from him, right?”

“Yeah. I suppose that could just be because he’s such an unethical attorney, though.”

“No, I trust your judgment, Jade. If you say he’s creepy, the guy’s a creep.”

“Like I said, I don’t really know that much about him. I plan to remedy that on Monday.”

“Goddamnit.” Talon stood, raked his fingers through his tousled hair, and paced around my room. “Goddamnit all to hell.”

“Talon, you’re freaking me out. What’s going on?”

He didn’t respond, just kept pacing, and then left my room. Since I didn’t have any clothes here, I was wearing my pullover top and my underwear as pajamas. I didn’t want to walk around the house that way, so I went next door to Marj’s room—she wasn’t there—and grabbed one of her robes.

Then I left in search of Talon. He was back in the office, sitting at his computer.

“Where’s Marj?” I asked.

“Over at Ryan’s, last I saw her.”

Why the hell was Marj at Ryan’s? But I didn’t ask. Talon was clearly on a mission of some sort. He was focused on his computer screen.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m going to find out who the hell Larry Wade is.”

“Why don’t you wait until Monday? I have all the state databases at my disposal at work. You won’t be able to find anything or do anything more than a Google search from here.”

“Not true. I have my ways.”

“Talon, it’s the middle of the night.”

He was clearly disturbed, raking his fingers through his hair constantly. “I don’t care. You know I don’t sleep much anyway. I’ve got to find out more about him and about that boyfriend of your mother’s.”

“Nico?”

“Yeah. Has he come back to see your mom yet?”

I shook my head. He hadn’t, and for the life of me I didn’t understand why. My mother had been fighting for her life for the last couple of weeks, and her boyfriend had up and disappeared. I didn’t get it.

“Do you want me to help you?” I yawned.

He shook his head. “No, go back to sleep, baby. I’m sorry I woke you.”

I smiled. I didn’t know what was bothering Talon, but the fact that he said he was sorry that he woke me meant the world to me. Whatever was going on in his head, therapy was helping. It might be that this rampage about finding out about Larry and Nico was just as therapeutic in its own way. I didn’t know, and Marj wouldn’t tell me. I just had to have faith that Talon would tell me eventually—when he was ready.

I walked over to him where he sat behind his desk and gave him a kiss on the top of his head. “Okay. I’m going to go back to bed. I love you.”

* * *

I
woke from a sound sleep
. My phone was buzzing on the night table. It took me a moment to adjust to my bearings. Light streamed through my window. It was morning—seven a.m. to be exact. Who would call me at seven on a Saturday?

I grabbed my phone—my father.

My heart jumped. Something must’ve happened with my mom. My skin chilled as I answered the call.

“Dad?”

“Yeah, sweetie, it’s me.”

“Are you okay? Is Mom okay?”

“Your mother’s fine. She woke up early this morning and asked for me. She and I had a very interesting talk.”

“Oh?” I was filled with relief that my mother was okay. Strange, I had never cared before about her well-being. Funny how now that I had almost lost her, I desperately didn’t want to. “What about?”

“This boyfriend of hers, this Nico Kostas.”

A chill ran through me. Talon was also interested in Nico, and I didn’t know why. “Did he come back?”

“No. He hasn’t been back at all. Your mother is beside herself.”

“I’m really sorry she’s upset, Dad. But honestly? Something in my intuition tells me it’s best that he stays away.”

“I have to agree with you, Jade, and I’ve never even met the man. Something that your mother told me this morning has me very concerned.”

“About what?”

“We were talking about him—this Nico—and your mother made a comment about a life insurance policy.”

“Yeah?”

“She said that Nico would’ve been a very rich man if she hadn’t survived the accident.”

My blood ran cold. I knew where this was going. “Oh my God…”

“Yeah. Evidently your mother had just taken out a one-million-dollar term life insurance policy and had named Nico Kostas as the beneficiary.”

“Why would she do that? As far as I know, she’s broke.”

“Which is maybe why Nico wanted to get rid of her. Your mother’s tastes are extravagant, as you and I both know. Maybe Nico got tired of footing the bill. Maybe he got tired of her.”

“My God, have you called the cops?”

“Yes, I have. They’re coming over to talk to me and to your mother. I’d like you to be here if you can.”

“Absolutely. I’m at the ranch right now. I’ll shower quickly and be on my way.”

“Great. I’ll see you soon.”

I ended the call.

Could Nico be a killer? I shuddered. Why in God’s name had I wanted that tattoo so badly? And it had upset Talon so much. I had already decided not to get that particular image because it upset Talon. Now I wasn’t sure I could get
any
phoenix image. All it would do is remind me of the person who might’ve tried to kill my mother. Why hadn’t I thought of it sooner? Nico’s airbag had functioned just fine. He had escaped with hardly a scratch. But for my mother’s not to deploy? Here she was suffering broken bones, multiple lacerations all over her face and body, and a severe concussion.

That motherfucker.

I stripped off my pullover and underwear and got into the shower. The heat of the water soothed my aching muscles but did nothing to calm the images flowing through my mind like a theatrical trailer. I let out a sigh and leaned my head back into the water to wet my hair. Then I squeezed some shampoo into my palm, rubbed my hands together, and began to wash my hair.

“Want some help with that?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin. Talon stood in the bathroom, his image a blur through the glass shower door awash with rivulets of water.

“You startled me,” I said.

“I’m sorry.”

I smiled. A little Talon therapy might help me right now. “What are you waiting for? You offered to help.”

His feet were bare, but he was still wearing his jeans and shirt. He stripped them off quickly and came into the shower with me.

“Have you been up all night?” I asked.

He nodded, taking over my hair washing. His strong hands were heaven on my scalp, kneading away the tension in knots.

“That feels good,” I said. “Did you find out anything? About Larry?”

“A little. I managed to confirm that the bastard is my half uncle. Son of a bitch.”

“Well, just because he’s your half uncle doesn’t mean anything really,” I said.

“Shh. The last thing I want to think about is that asshole Wade when I’ve got a naked, beautiful, and wet woman sliding against me.”

I let out a soft moan. I couldn’t agree more. He continued to massage my scalp, his able hands relaxing me, taking me away from the place I was stuck in. Yes, in a few minutes I’d be leaving for Grand Junction to talk to the cops about my mother’s possible attempted murder. But right now, Talon was my world.

“Lean back, baby, and let me rinse you.”

I did, and his strong hands pulled the lather through to my ends. I imagined it twirling in soapy bubbles down the drain. My eyes closed, I inhaled the comforting steam, the sweet scent of the coconut shampoo. I sighed again and then jumped as his lips clamped onto one of my nipples.

I opened my eyes. He was leaning down, sucking my hard nub. I smoothed his tousled hair, now half-wet. “Let’s switch places, baby,” I said. “You can nibble on me while I wash your hair.”

He groaned his agreement as we moved so the shower was pelting him, and his head was right at the level where I could shampoo him.

“Are you sure you’re comfy?” I asked.

He nodded against my breast. I shampooed his beautiful hair and then urged him upward so he could rinse it off, though I whimpered at the loss of his mouth on my nipple. We soaked each other and rubbed together to wash our bodies, and then he picked me up in his arms and set me down upon his beautiful hard cock.

Our bodies slid together, wet and soapy. I leaned down and took his lips with mine. We devoured each other, kissing hungrily, softly moaning, as he lifted my ass slightly and then set me down upon his cock once again.

It didn’t take long for my orgasm to build. Such sweet release, and oh, how I needed sweet release at that moment. We spiraled out of control, he and I together, as my orgasm pushed him over the edge.

He broke the kiss with a loud smack, panting in my ear. “Yes, baby, I’m coming. I’m coming with you, baby.”

Sated, I slid down his body. We rinsed each other off, and then I turned off the water.

I handed him a towel, and as he stood drying his hair and then his body, I said, “That was wonderful, Talon. You have no idea how much I needed that.”

“Baby, I always need you,” he said.

“I always need you too. It’s just that I got a phone call from my dad this morning.”

“Shit, I’m sorry, blue eyes. Is your mother okay?”

“She’s fine. Don’t worry about that. It’s just…”

“What?”

“It’s about my mother’s boyfriend, Nico Kostas.”

Talon visibly tensed before me, the striations in his muscles stark. “Yeah? What about him?”

“It seems that my mother had taken out an insurance policy on her life right before the accident. A million-dollar policy, and Nico was the beneficiary.”

He stood stock still, his eyes glazing over.

“Talon?”

“I’m telling you, blue eyes, that man is bad news. I mean it.”

“I’m beginning to believe that as well. And Talon? I’m so sorry about the tattoo thing. I just really liked a particular image, but trust me, I’m not getting a phoenix on my body ever. It will always remind me of the man who may have tried to kill my mother.”

“I’ll see that bastard in hell.” Talon threaded his fingers through his wet hair.

He was outraged. I could see it in his demeanor, his eyes, the way he was holding himself. He was ready to strike. But why? He hadn’t even met my mother, and he knew she and I were not close.

“Well, we don’t know for sure yet.”

He hung his towel on the rack. “I do, blue eyes. I know for sure.”