Embattled Home (28 page)

“Can I hold your hips?” he gasped.

Lora nodded, too caught up in the sensations to answer him any other way. Strong, lean fingers gripped her hips, with the thumbs teasing just above the cleft where they were joined. But he didn’t make her move. He just held her and allowed her to make the next move.

Seated as deeply as he was inside her, Lora felt every heartbeat that quivered down his shaft. Lifting her hips, she paused at the tip, almost releasing him, then glided back down. Oh, god. She repeated the maneuver until she was riding him, with no pauses between. That felt…sublime. She sped up, losing focus of everything around her except the building need that had to be met. The first orgasm he’d given her had been amazing, but this one felt like it would be truly awe-inspiring.

Chad gasped beneath her and she felt his hands move up her body to cup her bouncing breasts. Lora moaned, curling her body tighter against his as that brilliant need flared brighter. The sound of their skin slapping together was as sexy as anything she’d ever heard before, but she needed something more. Chad lifted his hips and braced, his need as great as her own, and she had that extra little something she needed. A sensation unlike any other made her cry out, arching on top of him, the orgasm slamming through her till she thought she would splinter apart. Chad groaned beneath her. His hands left her breasts to grip her hips again, bowing up as if to seat himself as deeply as he could as his climax overtook him. Lora felt his ejaculation surge inside her and he cried out, every muscle straining across his chest as the orgasm played out.

Lora lost herself to the movement of their bodies, tears dripping down her cheeks as she reclaimed her sensuality. As Chad relaxed into a quivering heap beneath her, Lora felt some intangible chain fall away from her being.

Chad noticed her tears and sat up beneath her to cup her face. “What did I do? Did I hold your hips too tightly?”

She shook her head but he didn’t seem to see.

“I shouldn’t have pushed there at the end. I’m so sorry, Lora. I couldn’t help myself.”

“Chad, stop it. I’m not crying because you hurt me. I’m crying because it was more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. You need to not freak out every time I react to something. You’re making me grow, and I appreciate that more than I can ever tell you.”

Cupping his face in her shaking hands, she was overcome with such a sense of rightness it made fresh tears course down her cheeks as she leaned in to kiss him. Chad cradled her to his broad chest and fell over to the mattress, holding her hips to him so that he didn’t slip out of her. As they curled up on the sheets, they fell asleep sharing breath and space, and it was the most content she’d ever been.

L
ora stared at
the man and woman sitting on her couch in the living room a few days later. They both wore blue suits, though the woman’s was markedly more feminine. Even without being introduced, she had known these were the lawyers from New York. Very high-paid lawyers, judging by the way they carried themselves. But the shrewd look in their eyes as they looked around her house made her cautious. The looks had screamed disdain.

Chad stood just behind her chair, arms crossed, expression forbidding. He didn’t like these people being in her house any more than she did.

“Ms. O’Neil, before Mrs. Malone died, she had modified her will. Her son, well,” the man, Doug Sanders or something, trailed off. “In light of the series of events he has been involved with recently, Mrs. Malone had the foresight to change some things, effective weeks ago. The most important being that Derek Malone was no longer her heir.”

Lora’s eyebrows popped up in surprise. “She disowned him?”

The female lawyer, Nilson,
or was it Nelson?,
nodded her sleek blond head.

“Wow.” Lora shook her head. “He was her only child. I never would have thought she’d do that.”

“Well,” Sanders sighed, “she did. Quite emphatically, I might add.”

“Mrs. Malone did not plan to retire from her position at the company in the near future, though she gave directives in case something happened to her. She expected those directives to be used years from now.”

Lora cocked her head. “What directives are you talking about?”

The two lawyers looked at each other. Sanders then turned his gaze to her. “She left the company to her only living, recognized heir… her granddaughter.”

She stared at him for several long seconds, trying to figure out who that was. When it dawned on her, she could only shake her head. Chad and Palmer had said something about this days ago, but she never imagined it would actually happen. “She left the company to Mercy?”

The two of them nodded together.

“She’s six. What the hell is she supposed to do with it?”

Mr. Sanders lifted a brow at her. “Well, the granddaughter is too young to run day to day operations, obviously, so that aspect would be left up to the child’s legal guardian.”

Lora’s consciousness shifted for a moment and she could find no words for the shock pouring through her. Chad’s hand on her shoulder grounded her and she looked up at him.

“That was why he was after her,” he told her quietly.

All of the puzzle pieces began to fall together. Rosalind’s attempt to reconnect with Mercy and Derek’s interest in her. It was all because of the company.

“I thought the FBI had been investigating the company.”

The lawyers shifted uncomfortably but Nilson dug into her briefcase. “This is a deposition by the company. I’ll wade through all the convoluted talk and just tell you that basically, the illegal dealings and money issues stopped when Derek left the company. The FBI has released the Malone Corporation from all liability. I will say that restitution was paid to the affected account holders and the charges against the company itself have been dropped.”

“Holy shit,” Chad breathed.

Lora was thinking the same thing, just couldn’t get her tongue moving to say it. “Um, I’m not a company CEO. I’m a high school secretary and mother. How on earth am I supposed to run this company?”

The lawyers looked at each other, and Sanders took the lead. “Well, Ms. O’Neil, you would have to appoint a proxy to do business in your stead. Or hire a reliable business manager.”

Shaking her head, she leaned back against the chair. “I wouldn’t even know where to hire one of those.”

Mr. Sanders smiled at her kindly. Lora expected to see shark’s teeth behind his lips, but no. “We’ve been the Malone lawyers for a long time Ms. O’Neil. We are here to help.”

“I truly appreciate that, Mr. Sanders. Thank you.”

His smile dimmed. “It’s Samson, Ms. O’Neil. Doug Samson.”

Lora cringed. “I’m so sorry, Mr. Samson. I have a lot on my mind right now.”

The lawyer gave her a tight smile.

“I think,” Chad interjected, “Ms. O’Neil is going to have to think about things and get back to you. In the meantime, why don’t you look for a few options for her?”

The lawyers did their bobble-head nods and gathered their briefcases. Unfortunately they left stacks of information for her to read.

Chad ushered them out of the house and turned to lean against the door, one brow raised.

Walking across the room to him, she wrapped her arms around his waist. “The man is haunting me,” she sighed.

Laughing, he squeezed her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “No, he just did what a lot of exes do when they die: leave a lot of crap for those left behind. We’ll deal with it. Or appoint somebody else to deal with it.”

She shook her head against the solid wall of his chest and leaned back enough to look at him. “You are amazing. Do you know that? They wouldn’t have even made it in my door if you hadn’t been here and you asked what I needed to know. Thank you.”

“I’m always ready to help you. Always. I love you. How could I do otherwise?”

The words rolled over her and she couldn’t believe them, not yet. “We’ve only known each other five weeks. Isn’t it too soon to be professing love?”

Chad grinned down at her, shaking his head. “Maybe for you but not me. I started to fall in love with you before I even met you. I knew the kind of woman you were.”

Laughing, she ducked her head and tightened her arms around his waist, running her hands down his back and tight butt cheeks. In response, his hips shifted toward her, excitement building between them.

They’d slept together all last night. And the night before. And the night before that. The sex had been cataclysmic, but the cuddling afterwards had been sublime. They suited each other so well. They were narrowing down what triggered negative reactions from her and they worked around them, and she felt more free than she ever had.

Chad took some time off from LNF and encouraged her not to go back to work. The school had promised to give her time to deal with what was going on and she was taking them up on it.

The first day they spent together lazing around the house. They took a walk around the block and Lora tried to change her hyper-attentive ways. The second day he showed up, he brought Mercy a bright blue bike with training wheels. When he lifted it over the side of the truck, Mercy had given a little scream. “I’ve always wanted a bike,” she cried.

Lora gave her a look because this was news to her. “Why didn’t you say something?”

Mercy blinked up at her. “I didn’t want you to have to worry about me.”

Tears came to her eyes at the amount of maturity in her child’s expression. “Well, our life is changing. If you want something like that, you tell me.”

Mercy grinned and nodded her head, then turned her attention to the bike.

The third day they’d spent together at the zoo, navigating screaming crowds of school children. Lora was truly frazzled by the time they made it all the way around the loop, and if it hadn’t been for Chad’s endless supply of Starlight spearmints and buffering hugs in the midst of the crowds she would have melted down.

Later on that night they ordered pizza to be delivered. Another first time event. Mercy hid behind Chad’s legs as he paid for and took the boxes, shut the door and locked it. She let go when he walked the pizzas to the coffee table and set them down. As they pulled pieces from the box and munched happily, Mercy looked up at her. “Mom, I want something.”

Lora grinned at her daughter, knowing that at some point she would have to curb the ‘I-wants’, but not just yet. “What’s that, honey?”

“I want Chad to stay here with us. All the time.”

Chad went still beside her, but when she looked up, he was grinning at Mercy. He glanced at her, brows raised, to check her response.

Lora sucked in a breath, knowing that she was on uncharted, sandy ground. In her deepest heart, she wanted the same thing, but did she dare say it? As she looked into the gentle reassurance in his expression, she knew it would just take a tiny leap of courage. “Chad, would you like to stay here with us?”

Lora forgot how to breathe as she waited for some kind of response. Chad seemed to be dragging out the anticipation though. After several long seconds, he nodded his head. But he held up a cautioning finger. “I would love to be a kept man, but it kind of goes three ways.” Moving from the couch, he went down on one knee in front of Mercy, sitting on the floor. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny gold ring. “Mercy O’Neil, will you marry me and be my awesome daughter? To have and to hold, in muddy times and clean? And help me keep your mother happy and safe?”

Mercy nodded her head as hard as she could, laughing and crying at the same time. She flung her arms around Chad’s neck and sobbed.

Lora’s eyes were leaking as well, so overcome with love that he had thought to include Mercy. But then he turned his damp eyes to her and she was rocked with the deep-in-her-heart knowledge of what was coming next. Levering to his feet, still holding Mercy against him, he circled the table to kneel in front of her. Then he reached into that pocket again and pulled out a shining white gold solitaire ring. His eyes incredibly kind, he held it out. “Lora O’Neil, would you do me the honor of wearing my ring? I promise to protect you and love you as long as I’m allowed, in whatever way I’m allowed, and I promise to always have Starlight mints at the ready.”

Lora wept with fear and joy and laughter, knowing that she would never find another man like him. Nodding, she held her shaking hand out and allowed him to slip the ring onto her finger. Then she whipped her arms around his neck, and the three of them rocked back and forth. He pulled back enough to capture her lips with his own, sealing the love between them.

“No rush,” he murmured in her ear. “We’ll take it a day at a time. Just know that I love you with all my heart.”

“And I love you,” she whispered. “More than I ever dared dream I could.”

Mercy wiggled to get free. “Can I eat my pizza now?”

Laughing, they all separated to finish their meal, but Lora and Chad sat hip to hip, basking in their adoration for each other.

The End…

Five million thoughts raced through her head as Cat shoved her way into the hospital room. She had no idea who the men were, only that they were keeping her from her husband.