Ruby (23 page)

Josh nodded, and she started to touch
him again. Her finger was real this time, and as soon as she
touched him, he cried out from it. It was…it was an amazing
feeling. He could also feel his body strengthen. When she faded out
with another warning about how Ruby would die if he didn’t kill the
woman, he sat up and looked around.

“…
killing me. What do you
think you’re going to do? I’ve got you trapped in silver. Your mate
there is also bound in it. There are no others with you, and how
stupid are you to come alone? I heard them say that you were to
wait for them. By the time they get here, poor Josh will be dead
and so will you.” Lila raised the gun to Ruby’s head, and Josh
heard Ursula tell him,
Now
.

His wolf took him even as he leapt to
his feet. Josh hit Lila, or his wolf did, knocking her back against
the wall, and the gun skittered away. His wolf clawed at her until
he tasted blood. Josh let him go, letting his wolf protect him when
Josh knew that he couldn’t. It was over almost as soon as it began.
Josh had killed someone.

Chapter 15

Ruby was sitting in her office filling
out a schedule when someone knocked. Jenna had closed the door when
she’d left her over an hour ago, so Ruby simply yelled at the
person to come in. When the chair in front of her desk creaked, she
looked up. It took her a moment or two to realize who it
was.

“
I want you to get me my
job back.” Ruby stared at Cochran as he smiled at her. It was…it
was a fake smile that didn’t reach his eyes. More like he was
pained and needed something removed from him. “You can do it. All
you have to do is fire that man in my office and tell them you want
me back. I’ll wait here.”

“
I’m not going to do
that.” He huffed at her. “And you’re fucking nuts if you think I
would. Isn’t there a warrant out for your arrest or
something?”

He waved her off. “I’ve got that taken
care of. Once you hire me back, they’ll drop the charges. It was
wrong of them to replace me so quickly anyway. There is no profit
in doing things the way you are.”

“
No profit, but highly
moral. And that is making us a better hospital.” He tisked at her
and shook his head. “You should know that I’m not going to do this.
I have no idea why you’d even think I would consider
it.”

“
You know that I had your
best interest at heart.” She didn’t say anything, and he flushed.
“Okay, I didn’t, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t deserve to get
my job back. I was very good at it. People liked me.”

“
No one liked you.” She
reached for Josh to tell him what was going on.
Can you send security here now? I’m pretty sure he’s fucking
nuts.

I’m sending them now. What
the hell is he doing here?
She told him
what he’d said.
Yep, fucking
nuts.

“
You could be making more
money than ever before.” She realized she’d missed something in
talking to Josh, and asked him what he was talking about. “Bringing
me in as a partner. Hospitals all over the world are doing it.
Bringing in investors to help with the daily costs, and when the
place shows a profit—and this one had the potential to have a large
one—you could make millions. Especially with me in
charge.”

“
You are really nuts.” She
stood up, and he tensed. “You really think that I’m just going to
go down to my ma…husband’s office and tell him that I’ve changed my
mind about him being in charge, which I’m pretty sure that I can’t
do anyway, and you will simply move into his office?”

“
Husband? When did…you put
your husband in charge of my office? Why, of all the dirty stupid
things to do. He’s not going to do anything but fuck you over his
desk. You should—” Her fist came out and she hit him in the nose.
As he tumbled back and fell over the chair, her door opened and
three security guards came in. One of them was pack.

He was still laughing as they put
Cochran in the chair. Every time he turned and looked at her,
Herbert would laugh harder. She had no idea what he was laughing
about until she looked down at herself.

Her blouse was inside out. And not
only that, buttoned up all wrong as well. She decided right then
and there she was going to kill Josh. He was laughing when he
touched her mind.

You knew that I was a
mess?
Josh told her he’d had no idea, but
that Herbert had just contacted him about it.
You motherfucker. I’m going to…I told you that we’d get
caught if you screwed me on the desk.

So you did. And how would
you like to come to my office and let me show you how sorry I truly
am?
Her body reacted to his purr of a
comment
. I could show you how much bigger
my desk is than yours, and then you could suck my cock this time.
You distracted me too much before.

I came in there for the
chart. Which, I might add, I never got.
He
told her he didn’t have the chart anyway, that he’d just wanted to
fuck her.
You do know that we’re on duty
here? That we’re not getting paid to fuck on either of our
desks?

I do. That’s what makes it
so much fun.
She had enjoyed herself, and
he had as well.
Come here, love. Let me
taste that pretty pussy of yours again and then have you howl when
I bring you to climax again. You’ve no idea what it does to me when
you do that.

Your wolf has never eaten
me.
She felt her body warm at the thought
of his wolf marking her.
I want to feel
his tongue inside of me. Filling me the way your cock
does.

You’re coming up here
now.
She told him she had to wait on the
police and file a report.
Either come up
here now or I’ll come down there. And I promise you that the people
in your office are going to get quite a show when I do.

Herbert cleared his throat
and bowed slightly at her.
We have this,
mistress, if you need to go. The police will only take him away for
now, but there is no need for you to file a complaint. There is an
arrest warrant out for him anyway.
Ruby
nodded and moved by him. He bowed again as she left her
office.

The new pack that they were leading
was of about fifty wolves. They were starved for help. Not just
food and shelter help, but with their ability to be themselves. She
and Josh had bought the property of six hundred acres next to them
and told the pack that it was theirs to run in. They were scheduled
to have a large pack meeting next week at the full moon.

Ruby got off the elevator just as Josh
came out of his office, and he was already naked.

“
I’m going to shift. So
being naked now was easier.” He wrapped his hand around his cock
and fisted himself as he continued. “All I can think about is
fucking you with my tongue. Then taking you hard against my desk.
Come here, love.”

Ruby moved toward him slowly. Her
blouse was open by the time she was halfway there, and her shoes
she’d kicked off too. By the time he pulled her into his office,
she was so wet she could feel it running down her
thighs.

She tore off her clothes as he moved
back from her. His wolf, a light one with gold highlights, moved
toward her as soon as she was naked too. His nose was buried
between her thighs, and she moaned with it.

Sit on the chair and
spread your legs for him. Christ, he wants you.
She did as he said and put her thighs up on the arms of the
chair. Cupping her breasts and squeezing her nipples, she watched
him slowly walk toward her.
I’m going to
enjoy this. We all are.

The first swipe of his tongue nearly
took her breath away. Then the next time he tasted her, Ruby curled
her fingers into his fur to hold him to her. His tongue, rough and
long, entered her several times as she rolled her hips for more.
She came, crying out his name, and she watched him lick her thigh
this time and then tear into her muscle.

The pain was there, not bad but enough
to have her cry out. He whimpered once, but didn’t let her go just
yet. And when he did pull back, his mark faded into a scar. She ran
her finger over it. Josh shifted to himself and lifted her up. His
cock slid into her even as he shoved all his things on his desk to
the floor.

He took her hard, his cock filling her
completely. Then he pulled out to the tip before slamming into her
again. Ruby wrapped her ankles around his hips and dug her fingers
of her right hand into his arms as she offered up her breast with
the other. His bite there had her screaming out her release and
taking his throat.

~~~

Josh held Ruby on his lap while she
slept. He knew that she’d not been sleeping well at night and
didn’t wake her now. Looking down at her, he wondered how on earth
he thought he’d never fall in love with her. She was everything to
him and then some. Thinking about the other day when Lila had put
the gun to her head, he closed his eyes. It had been so…surreal how
it had happened.

Lila had been about to shift when
she’d come up off the floor to kill him. He knew it not because
he’d been told, but because he could see the cat. Ursula was right.
She was bigger than his wolf and a good deal meaner. But he’d
slashed at her with his claws and had gotten to her throat before
she could shift.

The blood that had filled his mouth
had been, he hated to admit, delicious. Not like Ruby’s was in that
it was sweet and spiked with her need when he tasted her, but raw
power filled his mouth when Lila’s blood did, and he knew that if
he let her go, they’d all be dead.

Tear it out.
He heard Ruby command him to do so, but he wasn’t
sure that he could kill her that way. He had…to be honest, he still
had no idea how he figured she was going to die, but tearing a
person’s throat out had never been something he’d ever thought of
before.

Ruby, stirring in his arms, had him
looking at her. She smiled at him, and he held her tighter. “I keep
seeing you lying there, and it terrifies me so much.”

“
She’s gone. All of them
are. They won’t be able to bother us again. I promise
you.”

Ruby nodded and wrapped her arms
around him. “I had no idea it was her. I think…I think that even
Cartwright was a little stunned there too. He thought she was a
man. She had been killing for him for years.”

“
To protect Teri.” He
shivered again. “To know that they had this planned out for months
before I even met Teri is…those notes they kept. Teri wasn’t a
tiger, because her father wasn’t and that sometimes happens. After
she started working for me I never knew that I had this…this
murderer in my company for all that time.”

The police had arrived just after he
was told to go away and hide. It had been easy for him to do that,
because he’d been so ashamed at what he’d done…he’d killed another
person. But when Blair had come to him, handing him a bag of
clothing, he had waited with him while the police talked to
everyone.

“
She would have killed you
all.” In his mind Josh knew this, but it was still painful. “Ruby
would have died, and it would have…Sapphire and the other women are
close. It would have taken a great toll on them as
well.”

“
I killed her. Tore her
throat out.” Blair had nodded at him. “How will I live with myself?
How will I face myself in the mirror? And she killed Dwight and
someone with...did she kill one of the women? Anyone we
know?”

“
No. I spoke to Dwight a
few minutes ago. Someone had come to see him, about an order or
something they claimed, but before Dwight could figure out what he
wanted, the man drew a gun and fired at him. He might have killed
him, but a pack member was with him at the time and attacked the
guy before he could fire again.” Josh nodded and felt staggering
relief. Blair had stood up and looked at him. Josh waited for him
to tell him he’d just have to get over it.

“
My wife is my life. She’s
given me a son to love, a part of us both that I’d die for, as
would she. My father has been at my side forever, loving me,
supporting me, and even at times making fun of me. But he’s been
there. Had you not killed that woman when you did, all of them
would have suffered. Maybe not at your hand, but what would have
followed from the pain she’d cause us. If she had killed my
Sapphire, my own Gem, I would have died with her. And my son would
have suffered, my father….” Josh shook his hand and felt the power
of the man he thought of as a friend. “If you ever need anything
from us, anything at all, you have only to ask. I owe you more than
I could ever repay for saving us.”

Ruby kissed him on the mouth, bringing
him back from the conversation he’d had with Blair. “The police
said that she had a list of the men and women she’d killed, and
that she had a trophy room with pictures of them both alive and
dead hanging beside it.” Ruby shivered and stood up to pull on her
clothes. “Cartwright had…they’re still digging around his property
looking for the dead. How can people be that cold?”

“
I don’t know.” He went to
his closet and pulled out the suit he’d put in there. As he
dressed, he thought of his conversation with Ursula. “That woman,
Ursula, she said you know her.”