Gerard (14 page)

“He said that a bedroom and bath could be put on each floor, with a sort of kitchenette. Then a bigger area could be made so it would accommodate business meetings should they need them, as well as anything else that they might need. They’d be pricey, I guess. It’s going to take a lot of work.” Gerard nodded, thinking of what the dirty hardwood floors would look like when they were sanded and polished up. “I love his idea about how to use the lower level; the street level could be a sort of shop and restaurant for the public…and for if they needed food up here, like he said.”

“I can see that too. Not a shop with things in it from all over the world, but local things. Things made by some of the people around here.” Susie said she loved it. “And so you know, I don’t ever want to have a dude ranch out there or here.”

She laughed, and he moved toward her. “You’re very sexy right now. I’m thinking that perhaps we could see if there is any place we can see if your cat is hungry. Maybe play around a little while the place is empty. What do you think?” He actually staggered a little. “Is he, Gerard? Is your cat hungry for his mate?”

He nearly let him take him, but they were miles from their house and going home as a cat could get him killed. While there were a lot of shifters in this town, there were still a great many humans that he’d have to walk by to get there. And being a naked human would be no less troublesome.

Gerard took off his shirt. He nearly dropped it on the floor, but hung it from a nail on a post next to him, and then took off his pants and boxers and hung them as well. His shoes he kicked off, and left his socks on to make his way to her. When she started to take off her blouse, he stopped her.

“I want to do it. Let me undress you so I can touch you all over.” She nodded and raised her hands above her head and held onto the post behind her. “You have no idea how much I want to taste every inch of you. Take my time with making you come. I want to drink from you, get my fill of you. Then I want to fuck you. Take you hard while you’re standing there dripping wet for me.”

“I’d like that too.” He opened her blouse up, taking the buttons from the holes slowly, peeling it away from her skin as he kissed the exposed area. When it was open, he moaned when she cupped his cock in her hand, and he rocked hard against her. “I want to feel you coming down my throat again. The taste of you is never enough for me.”

“Not this time. You offered yourself to us and we want you.” Nodding, she put her hands back up to the post. He wanted to beg her to touch him again, but he moved to his knees to take off her pants. “Do you have any idea how delicious you smell right now? And the more of you I see, the stronger your scent becomes for me. You’re like a drug. I can’t get enough of you.”

He pulled her pants down after opening the snap and pulling the zipper down with his teeth. Her moans were fueling him, her scent driving his cat wild. He moved along his skin, taking him along his arms, his hands changing to claws that bit into her skin. Gerard wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold him as he pulled her panties off. Dropping them on the floor, he let his cat consume him.

Not able to hold him back from taking what he’d been promised, his cat lunged at her. He was licking her pussy, lapping quickly at the juices that streamed down her thighs. Even as Susie spread her legs for him, he knew that it wasn’t enough. The cat, like him, wanted her all. When he nipped at her thigh, Gerard cautioned him to be careful with her, but the moment his teeth sank into her leg, he knew that he was marking her as his own.

The crush of bones made him wince. The sound of her screams had him begging him to let her go. But he held her in his mouth, almost as if he were thinking to change her. The power of what he was doing, the feel of something going on other than just her blood going down his throat, made Gerard moan. It was scrumptious…the only word he could think of to describe what he was tasting from her.

When he sealed the wound, his cat licked her pussy again before simply letting go. It had never happened that way with his cat before. He would usually have to take him, but this time, the cat simply let go of his human and he sat on his knees.

Gerard looked at the scar forming on her thigh now. It was a perfect imprint of teeth. The sharp incisors were there, the upper and lower jaw line outlined against her pale flesh. No blood marred the skin…a little bruising, but it, too, was going away as Gerard leaned down and kissed it.

“Please, I need to come with you.” He moved his mouth up her leg, to the juncture at her thighs that seemed to beg for him to take her. She came, screaming, her juices flooding his mouth. Even as he slid his fingers into her, she tightened around him as her next climax took her.

He fucked her, ate her until she was wobbly on her feet. He hadn’t had enough of her and wasn’t sure that he would ever have as much as he wanted. Standing up, helping her to hang on, he lifted her up by her ass and slammed his cock deep into her. This time he didn’t pause to let her adjust to him. He didn’t wait to see if she was ready for him. He took it. And took it hard.

Her nails dug deep into his arms. Susie’s face was rapturous in her release. He held her, enthralled with her beauty, knowing that he’d never see anything as lovely as she was at that moment. When she looked at him, her eyes dark with her need, he pressed her against the post again and fucked her slowly.

“You’re so tight around me. My cock can feel every muscle of your sheath. Every tightening of your pussy around me makes me weak with the need to empty inside of you.” Her nod, short and breathless, made him smile. “When I come in you, I want you to mark me. I need to feel owned by you, possessed by the woman that I love.”

“Yes. Please.” He fucked her harder, his body vibrating with the need to come. When he felt his spine tingle, a feeling that came over him a lot lately when he was with Susie, he knew that he was close. Tilting his head for her, he felt her mouth on his throat, her breath heating his already hot skin, and then her teeth scrape none too gently over his pulse. When her teeth took a small nip, breaking the skin but not tearing into it, he fucked her again, his body no longer caring about anything but filling her.

His climax took his breath away. For several seconds, no longer than that, his heart stopped beating, as if poised on the edge of life or death. And when Susie bit him, tearing deeply into his throat as if to take his life, Gerard cried out as another, equally powerful climax took him.

Lights danced behind his eyelids. Nerve endings seemed to vibrate and tingle every part of his skin and body. The roar of his blood echoed in his ears, and he even heard his hair move on his head as he leaned his head on the post behind them.

There was nothing left of him to move. He was literally drained of energy and anything else that might have helped him stand. Laughing slightly, he held her in his arms and tried to think how he could get them both to the floor without dropping her or falling on his ass while trying to do it.

“I think you killed me.” He lifted his head just enough to look at her. Focusing on her was an issue, but it didn’t matter as his hearing seemed to be coming back on line. “I’ve never felt…good lord, Gerard, what did you do to me?”

“Me? Oh baby, that was all you.” She grinned at him, and he wondered if she was in better shape than he was. He didn’t even have the energy for even that small task. “I think I want to sit down, but I don’t think I can do that and not drop us both on our asses.”

She giggled at him, and he felt better. There was something so loving about hearing her giggle that he wanted to make her do it again. When he was rested. Closing his eyes again, he leaned on the post. When she shifted enough that he had to let her go, he felt her body lean onto his then turn him so that his back was to the post.

“We should head home.” He nodded, not moving. “Gerard, it’s late. We need to get home. Come on, you can do it.”

“No. I don’t think I can. I think you just let me stay here and let me die with my dignity. I think I’ve been put to shame by you.” He opened one eye when something hit him in the face. “Yes. I suppose my drained body should be found with clothing on. My aunt won’t be so shamed if I’m dressed.”

“You’re being weird.” He pulled his shirt on, feeling a little better all the time. When his pants hit him in the same way that his shirt had, he thought about what they’d just done. Or as a matter of fact, what she’d done to him. “Are you getting dressed or not?”

“What did you do to me?” She asked him what he meant. “My cat. He bit you, and I swear that I felt something. Like a shift or something.”

“I don’t know what you mean. But if you’re taking about how it made me feel being bitten by your cat, then you’re right. That was pretty amazing.” He didn’t think that was it but didn’t say anything as he pulled on his pants. Christ, he really was zapped. “Do you think we should do what your brother said and renovate this building? I guess we could use it for about anything else if it fails or turns out to be not needed for meetings and stuff.”

“I don’t know. I mean, yes, we should buy the building, but even if the horses don’t turn out to be as big a deal as everyone thinks, we can always rent the place out for meetings. And I like the idea of having a restaurant on the lower levels. This area can always use a couple of different places to eat.”

He took her hand in his as they walked down the stairs again. He could see all kinds of things that would work in his building should the hotel of sorts not work out. And he voiced them to Susie.

“I can see that. A nice place for shops on the levels. That would mean having the elevators working. I don’t think they do.” He told her they did work, but they were a little dirty. “Okay. Let’s do it. So long as if that room is ever empty we can go back up there and have some more fun.”

He didn’t tell her that he thought it might kill him if they did, and decided that he was going to start running more. There was no way he was going to be that weak after sex again. And by the time they got home, he had an entire list of things he was going to do to get into better shape. Gerard was going to be the most fit of all his family even if it killed him.

Chapter 11

“Can you and Gerard meet me at the mill?” Susie handed the phone to Gerard. There was something about his voice, something so…she supposed it sounded like he was afraid and it made her cat nervous too. And when Gerard said nothing for several minutes, she had a feeling that it wasn’t just scary, but really bad. And when he hung up the phone a few minutes later, she watched him as he just sat there.

“They found Howard. He was in the back of the mill near the loading doors when Logan and a couple of other men went to unload another truck. Someone had cut his throat.” Susie nodded, her heart breaking for the man. “It must have happened some time during the night, of course, but Logan seems to think that it happened only an hour ago. He can still smell fresh blood.”

“Do they know who did it?” He shook his head. “The police don’t know who did it, or Logan doesn’t know who did it?”

“The police.” That scared her too, and she got up and put the dishes they were using for breakfast in the sink. She’d been washing the dishes up as she went and the water was still hot. As she scrubbed them, Gerard came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. He held her to his body as he continued. “Logan said that he can smell the man who did it to him, and he knows it was Vance. He said that the police are looking into all kinds of things, but he thinks maybe he killed his brother because he mentioned us.”

“So I should have let Mason bring him in. It’s my fault.” He turned her around so quickly that she nearly dropped the plate she had in her hand. “I should have listened to him, and now a man is dead because of—”

“Stop it right now.” Her eyes filled with tears when he kissed her. “You had nothing to do with this. You didn’t cut his throat. You’re not the one that tried to burn down our home, and you certainly had nothing to do with either him or his brother trying to take our family farm. These men were and are criminals. That had nothing to do with what happened to him. It’s sad, yes. But nothing to do with us.”

He held her while she cried. Gerard was right, she’d not done it to the man, but he was dead all the same. When Gerard told her that he had to go into town, she asked if she needed to go as well.

“No. You can stay here. I’m sure you can stay out of trouble for a few hours.” Susie smacked him on the arm. “Just be careful, all right? Don’t be trying to take on men that are bigger than you. I’m sure you’re meaner, but they don’t know that. And if you need someone, Paddy is still around the land.”

“I’ll be fine.”

When he left a few minutes later, she cleaned up the kitchen from their breakfast, then put on her boots to go to the barn. She’d gotten into the habit of putting her knife in her boot, as it was easier to get out from there than from her pants. As she pulled on Gerard’s jacket against the cold morning snow, she thought of what all she had to do today.

In a few days the horses from the Rose farm were being picked up, and she wanted to make sure that they were bathed and brushed. She didn’t know why it mattered, but it did to her. It was the day that the men were supposed to have left, but they were delaying things for a few days. Mason said that he wanted to see how they did this move of all these horses, and she was sort of excited about it too. The Jackson farm was coming in two days later to get their horses.

There were a couple of men in the barns when she walked in. Two she knew from around the ranches, and Paddy was there as well. He introduced her to the men that had come out to help her today. Then he asked to speak to her about something as the men scattered off to work. Soon it was just the two of them. She moved to the doorway of the barn when the stallion that she’d first talked to came running up to them from the paddock. Susie thought it was the wolf that made him nervous, but then she realized he was running at them, not away.

“What is it, boy? You get yourself spooked?”

Something hard fell against her from behind, and she turned to see what it was when something touched the back of her head. The horse in front of her was so agitated that it was all she could do to keep her cat under control. When the holder of the gun spoke, she immediately reached for Gerard.

“You’re going to come with me.” She told Garth that she wasn’t and glanced down at Paddy. He was bleeding from the head, and she started to lean down to him when the man behind her hit her with what she thought was a gun. “You’re not going to fuck around with me. I have a gun. Now, I want you to get in the car and take me to the bank. Then when I get money, you’re going to run me to the airport and make sure I get on the plane with no problems.”

“You don’t have any money, you moron. How do you suppose you’re going to get any money from the bank? I’m pretty sure they’re looking for you anyway.” He hit her again, and she saw stars. Gerard told her he was on his way, and she told him to hurry. Then she told him about Paddy when he asked where he was.

Christ. We were almost to the mill. Mason and the others are in town, but are coming as well. Aunt Georgie is on her way with Emma. Holly is calling the police.
She told him she was okay, but if he hit her again, all bets were off.
He’s going to pay for that.

Be calm.
He told her that he couldn’t be fucking calm
. Yes, you can. If you’re a cat when you get here and the police are here, who do you think they’ll shoot first?

He growled at her.
I hate it when you’re all logical and shit
. She had to laugh and felt a little calmer because of it.
Good girl. Just keep your head on you and we’ll be there soon. Aunt Georgie said that she’s coming up from the south side.

I don’t see her.
She looked in that direction. Then it occurred to her that she was looking for Georgie, not her cat. As Garth shoved her away from the fence and toward Gerard’s truck, she wished now that Zach hadn’t picked him up and Gerard had taken his own car.

They were both in the truck, the gun pointed at her, when she realized she’d have to go in the house and get the keys. For some reason, he thought that was stupid that they didn’t leave their keys in their cars when they were in the driveway. He asked her why they were in the house. She shook her head before answering his stupid question.

“Oh, I don’t know. Because of idiotic morons like you.” This time when he hit her, it was in the face. As her head was knocked sideways, she saw the huge cougar coming at her. Her own, on the edge since this man had come up behind her, simply took her.

He scrambled to get away from her. Susie had had enough of this kind of shit happening to her, but only sat on the seat next to him and snarled. When she swiped her paw at him, cutting him across the face, he screamed like she’d cut him worse. There would be a scar, of course, but she’d not hurt him enough to kill him. Yet, anyway.

“Let me out. Let me out.” She wondered if he thought she was holding him somehow when he was right there by the fucking door. “What the fuck are you? You just…fucking bitch, what are you?”

Snarling at him made him scream again. Watching Georgie go into the barn, she wondered if she was going to see to Paddy. And when two men came out with her and helped their alpha up, she watched them walk toward the truck. As soon as one of the men knocked on the glass on Garth’s side, he screamed again. He was the biggest baby she’d ever seen.

It took them several seconds to get him to roll down the window. The men were laughing and having a grand time, and Susie thought what the hell, she might as well too, and laid her head on the leg of Garth. His screams were getting on her nerves, and Paddy, at the window that had been opened, told him to shut up. With a small whimper, Garth finally did.

“Now see what you gone and did?” Garth told him to let him out. “No, I don’t think so. I like you right fine where you are. She’s going to ask you a few questions, and you either answer them right, honest and true, or so help me, I’ll tell her to tear your throat out.”

Garth looked at her, his body pressed hard against the door, but he only nodded. The screaming was done for now, she supposed, and she nearly laughed when he begged her not to hurt him. Georgie spoke to her just as she was thinking of touching him with her paw again.

Oh honey, not just yet. I’m having a hard enough time just not laughing at the fool man. If he wets himself, I’ll just lose it. I swear I will.
She told her she was having the same issues.
Now. I can talk to Paddy here and he can relay the questions or whatever to this idiot. Have you met a stupider human?

No. Not in a long time. Ask him if he killed his brother, to start with.

Paddy nodded after a couple of seconds and asked Garth if he had.

“My brother was a moron. Why did he have to tell you what we were doing anyway?” She did put her paw on his thigh, and was happy when she saw him piss his pants. “Please don’t hurt me. Christ, you’re a fucking animal, and all of you are going to pay for this.”

“You think so? From where I’m standing, you don’t have a pot to piss in.” Paddy looked at Garth’s groin, then up at her. “Well, I guess he don’t even have any piss to put in said pot, now does he?”

She was having a blast and asked if he had the money. As the question was being asked again, she reached out to Gerard to tell him she was all right and what they were doing.

Aunt Georgie is keeping us informed and entertained. Logan has slowed to a normal speed, and Mason has as well, he told me. Sounds like you have it under control. Oh, and the police are on their way. Aunt Georgie can still talk to Paddy, but she’s going to go to the house and shift and put on clothing before they get there. You, however, are going to have to think of something. I don’t want to have to visit you in the jail.

There might be a nice post you can hang me from at night when you come for some conjugal visits.
He laughed and she looked at Paddy.
I think I need to pay attention here. I’ll see you soon.

“He wants to know if you’re going to kill him or not. Personally, I’d be afraid of getting nasty from his smell. Might be that he’ll shit himself in a bit, and that’ll be funny too.” She told Paddy through Georgie to behave. “I’m not the one sitting in the car with him. Could be that he’s gonna do it there, and that man of yours, he’s not going to be too happy.”

“I want you to tell this bitch to let me go and we’ll go our separate ways. I want my money and then I don’t care what she does.” She told Paddy to tell Garth that they already had the money. “You do not. Howard told me you had no idea where it was. I’m the only one that knows now.”

Before she could think about what she might be doing, Susie put her paw on his leg again and dug deep into his flesh. He screamed this time as blood pooled under his leg. Susie reached into his mind to see if she could, and got a great deal more than she’d bargained for. Then she got what she wanted and pulled back just as someone came to her side of the car and opened the door. She took off to the house as she reached for Gerard again.

The money is in the beam over the counter where the cash register used to be. There is piece of wood that doesn’t look like the rest of the wood, and it’s latched with a nail that sticks from the upper flooring. Move it gently, as there is a gun there as well.
He asked her what the gun was used for.
Garth killed two men with it, and Howard was to have thrown it in the river, but he liked it. I guess he told his brother before he killed him.

You know this?
She told him what she’d done.
Don’t tell anyone. I don’t…please, just don’t tell anyone and I’ll figure this out.

You’re angry?
He told her no, but he needed to talk to her first.
What is it? What’s happened, Gerard?

I was sitting here minding my own business when I just…Logan was telling me he was all right. I know that he’s been sort of down lately and I’ve been worried about him, so I playfully punched him in the arm. I felt him, Susie. All of his thoughts and emotions. Not like a connection that we as cougars have, but actually felt them.
She told him that was what she felt when she had touched Garth, and the connection that she had with the animals.
That day in the building. I knew that something more had happened than the greatest sex I’ve ever had. We became one, I think.

As soon as she was in the house, she paused in pulling on a pair of panties. She’d pulled on her bra and shirt already, and was glad that when she sat down, the bed was close enough to catch her. Susie tried to think what to say to him.

You felt his emotions, but they were stronger, right? Like they were yours. Not like another leap member, but his pain and happiness that was there.
He said yes
. And you know things…a lot of things that you might not have been told.

I know that when he was ten years old he thought that he’d found his mate. A little girl in his class that was murdered a few months later in a car accident. Logan thinks that…he’s sure that his mate is dead. It’s what has him avoiding us and my other two brothers. He will…he thinks he’ll never have what we have.

But you know better.
Gerard said that he did.
It’s what I can do. Not just what…I could never touch a human before and read them. I did that today.

You think this has to do with last night? And what happened when I bit you? I do, but I’d really like to hear what you think as well.
She heard the police pull into the yard and looked out the window as she finished dressing. She wasn’t sure how to answer Gerard so said nothing to him. He seemed to understand.
We’re nearly there, love. We’ll talk when this shit is settled with Vance.