Trent (6 page)

He moved closer to her, his fingers spreading
her nether lips open as his mouth descended to her. When he suckled her clit
into his mouth, she watched him, riding his mouth as he brought her to peak
again. When he lifted his head from her, just enough that she could see his
mouth, she wanted to beg him not to stop, but he slid his fingers over her clit
again and spoke.

“I’m going to stretch you for my cock.”
Nodding, she wondered aloud if it would hurt. “No. I hope not anyway. But I
plan to eat you until you’re so ready for me that you won’t care if there is a
little pain with it.”

“I’m ready for you now.” He shook his head
and fucked her with his fingers. “I like that. Very much. More. I need more.”

He fucked her this way, his mouth devouring
her as his fingers moved in and out of her faster and faster. She never came
again; it was wonderful, but as soon as she was ready to release he’d pull back
and start anew. Joe was ready to hit him when he stood up over her.

His cock was thicker than it had been before.
Longer too, she thought. Sitting up, she reached for him only to have him step
back. He told her if she touched him, he’d come now instead of inside of her.

“I want to be there when I come, deep inside
of you. Feeling you tightening around me as you come.” She wanted that as well
and lay back when he told her too. Opening her legs felt strange, but she was
so needy by now that she would have done most anything for some sort of relief.
As he joined her on the bed, pulling her to the middle where he was, she felt
her body tense up again.

“No, love, don’t. I just want to taste these
lovely breasts now.” He leaned over her and took just her nipple into his mouth
and nibbled. She rose up, curling her fingers in his hair in hopes of him
giving her something more. But the harder she tried to get him to touch her
again, the more he pulled back. Finally, she rolled him to his back and sat
over him. His cock was just between her nether lips, and she ran her finger
over the crown that was dark and full of blood.

“I want to feel you now. I need to have you
inside of me so that I can come again.” He nodded and helped her sit up on her
knees. As he held his cock in his hand he told her to lower herself over him
slowly so as not to hurt either of them. She leaned on his chest and watched as
her pussy seemed to eat his cock. It was erotic seeing him like this, and she
felt him fill her up even as she knew it was hurting him to be so gentle with
her.

“Slowly love. Please, go slowly.” She moved
her hips, trying her best to feel every inch of him. But when he moaned, she
stopped and looked at his face. He was in a great deal of pain, she thought. “I’m
trying not to slam you down over me. I want to take you hard and fast, but I
know that it’ll hurt.”

Moving her hips again, she watched his face.
Yes, he was in pain, but not the kind from a wound…he was in pain from trying
to keep her safe. Moving her hips once more, she took a deep breath and moved
downward, impaling herself over him. The pain of it took her breath away and
she couldn’t hold back the scream that spilled from her throat. Stilling
herself over him, wondering why she ever thought this would be good, Joe wanted
to lift her body off his and move back to Noah.

Joe realized that he was speaking to her. She
didn’t know what he was saying, but he was talking in low soothing tones as he
held her. His cock was still inside of her, deep and painfully so, but when she
moved, just enough to try and dislodge him, the pain was replaced by the most
incredible pleasure. His hand at her ass stopped her from moving again.

“Don’t move just yet, baby. Please?” Nodding,
she moved again anyway. “Christ, you’re killing me. I want to fuck you but I
know that you hurt.”

Moving her hips again, she felt his cock fill
her again. When he rolled her to her back, his body between her legs, she
lifted them up and wrapped her feet over his thighs. As he moved, slowly at
first then with more power and speed, all Joe could think about was there was
something there, just out of her reach, and he was keeping it from her.

“I’m going to bite you.” Yes, she told him,
and tilted her head so that he could. She had no idea how, but she knew that
his bite, his teeth taking her flesh, was going to be much better than the few
times that Noah had bitten her. “Christ baby, I’m going to come if you keep
this up. I need to fill you. Mark you.”

As soon as his teeth grazed her throat, she
came. It was as if that was all she had been waiting for. And when he bit her,
tore into her throat, Joe came again, screaming out her release as if it were
coming from the bottom of her feet. Biting him on the shoulder to try and stem
the feelings that were washing over her, she tasted his blood as it bubbled up
on his skin.

Nothing could have prepared her for the
immediate and profound connection. His thoughts were hers, his need filled her.
Even his need to keep her from hurting too much touched her mind. And when he
bowed up from her, his mouth still stained red from her own blood, she watched
as he threw back his head and howled, his wolf racing along his skin, which
touched off another powerful climax in her.

Joe felt the tug of darkness as he filled her
again, his body pounding hard against hers, his cock filling her in a way that
she knew no one ever would again. And when he held her to his throat, she did
what seemed as natural to her as breathing and bit down on his pulse, tasting his
blood as it not only filled her mouth, but her every fiber as well. It was all
it took to take her over the edge again and into the abyss of darkness.

When she woke she was alone in the big bed. Stretching,
she tried to tell herself that she’d been stupid for doing this with the man,
but she felt much too good to listen to her head at the moment. When she heard
him whistling she realized that she might come to enjoy living here with him,
if only for a little while, and got up to find something to wear. As she was
searching for her panties, she saw him standing in the doorway.

“Seems a shame to cover all that beauty up. But
I’m sure that you’re as hungry as I am.” Nodding, suddenly embarrassed, she
covered her body with the shirt she’d unearthed only moments ago. “Are you
sore? I can run you a bath if you want. We’re having chops on the grill, but I
can take them off if you need a bath first.”

“I can eat first.” Nodding, he didn’t move. “I
didn’t know that you were going to be here. I was told that I could stay here
without any trouble.”

“I’ve been thinking about that as I made us some
dinner. I think we’ve been set up. I’m not sure yet by who, but I’d bet that
either my dad or mom did this. Noah too, I would guess.” She hadn’t thought of
that, them being thrown together on purpose. “Come into the kitchen when you’re
ready. I have things just about done, and we’ll talk there.”

Joe thought about calling out to Noah to find
out if he had done this to her. She was just mad enough at him to leave him to
his own devices. But she wanted to talk to Trent first; he might have already
spoken to him. Not like she was going to, but she would give him a piece of her
mind when she did. Pulling on her clothing, she made her way to the kitchen to
find the table set for two and fresh flowers in a pretty pottery vase in the
middle of the table.

“They’re for you. I went out and picked
them...it’s kinda dark out, so if some of them are weeds and not flowers,
that’s what I’m blaming it on.” Nodding, she sat down when he pulled out her
chair for her. “I wasn’t sure what kind of vegetables you ate, so I made a
variety of them. I can cook a little, mostly the simple things, but I wanted to
make this special for you.”

“Why?” She flushed when she realized that she’d
spoken aloud. “I’m sorry. I just don’t understand how you can be like this when
we’ve been played. And we were, weren’t we? Played like we have no sense to
come in out of the rain.”

He put two chops on her plate and handed her
a bowl that had peas, carrots, and corn all in different places inside of it. She
watched him pull rolls out of the oven and bring those, as well as two glasses
of tea, to the table. When he sat down, she stared at all the food, then at
him.

“I know, it’s a lot of food. But I’ve been in
a funk and this is the first time I’ve felt hungry in a while.” Nodding, she
watched him pick up his first pork chop and eat it like one would an ear of
corn. “As for us being played. I really can’t find that I’m mad at anyone over
it. I had messed up with you, badly, and I was feeling sorry for myself at my
mom’s home when she kicked me to the curb. This, coming up here, was my way of
making it up to her. Or so I thought. I think now that it was a plan all along
to get us in the same room. I’m not...I’m sorry that you were put here this way,
but I can’t be upset about the outcome.”

“You said that I was your mate. I know what
that means, but I’m not sure what that will entail when I have to leave when
Noah does.” He told her that she wasn’t going anywhere unless he did too. “There
is no reason for you to leave your home. I can come to you when you need me.”

“I need you all the time. Not just sexually,
but in my life.” He put down his second chop bone and looked at her. “I want
you in my life. I need you there. I haven’t felt this good in months…hell,
probably years. You’re my mate, and while it’s nothing we can control, I do want
to make you a part of my life. And with that, be a part of yours.”

“I’m not human.” He grinned at her and told
her that he wasn’t either. “No, you don’t understand. I’m an immortal. I
have...Noah made me one when he asked me to be his day walker. I cannot die. You
will. This cannot work. You have to see that, Trent. I’m going to live forever.
We don’t have a lot of time together as mates.”

“Yes, it will work, and we have as much time
as we can give each other. If we aren’t together, I’m not going to be able to
live anyway, now that I’ve found you. And we’ll have to put as much living into
our lives together until I’m gone. I want you to remember me forever, even
after I’m gone.” She nodded, not sure he was understanding what she was saying.
“I’m not going anywhere, Joe. And I hope that you won’t either. We are together
in this, even if only one of us is in the ‘till death do I’ part.”

She picked up her knife and fork and thought
that what he’d just said wasn’t funny. True, but not at all funny. Biting into
the chop, she moaned. Okay, if he cooked like this all the time, she might
enjoy this more than she was already.

Chapter 4

Max stood on the front stoop for ten minutes
after ringing the doorbell eight times. Wherever the bastard was, he wasn’t at
home, he realized. And he needed to talk to Trent right now. He wanted him to bail
him out like he’d said he would. Moving down the steps to his car, he wondered
where the hell the man could be after leaving the hospital, and thought maybe
he’d gone to his mother’s house.

“I’d be no more welcome there than I have
been anywhere else, I’m sure.” His driver said nothing when Max spoke his
thoughts aloud. The man had been trained not to ever speak or repeat anything
he might hear as his driver, or he’d meet the same fate as his predecessor. Death
was hard to overcome when you fucked up with him.

As he was driven home again, Max wondered why
the deal had been suddenly stopped. He knew that he had covered his tracks well;
hell, there were times when he couldn’t remember where all the skeletons were
in his own closet. But this man had figured out something that had been buried,
hidden away or simply killed. Whatever it was, someone was going to pay for
that mistake coming to light. Pulling out his little black notebook, he marked
when he was at Trent’s home and who was with him. He even put that the man
didn’t appear to be home. For all he knew that man could have been hiding in
the hallway just where he couldn’t see him. Then there was the matter of Noah
Stark.

Noah had fucked with him years ago. Not that
he didn’t deserve it, but there had been no reason for Noah sticking his nose
where it didn’t belong. Which was just as Max was going to come into some big
money via marrying a bitch that had more money than she did good sense. As was
the case for most women he knew. Stupid women were his biggest victory, he
thought. Except that one time…but he’d gotten her in the end too.

Max had spent a great deal of money and time
on getting not just his appearance changed, but his prints had been burned off
and his identity erased as well after that. He wasn’t the same person he’d been
all those years ago, and had the scars to prove it. Even his weight, which had
been well over three hundred pounds, had been shed in an effort to keep Noah
from finding him. And now here he was, right in the middle of his biggest money
maker yet. Or at least that fucking woman was, and he knew that Joe was a good
deal smarter than the average women. Maybe smarter than most men he knew as
well. Max had dealt with her before and had come out the loser.

Benson Cartwright, the name he’d been going
by back then and his real name, had been stupid. Only in the sense that he’d
allowed himself to get caught. The plan had been brilliant and would have
worked, had Noah not come upon him and the woman one night when he’d been about
to convince her to marry him.

Sydney Carlin had been a hard sell. Harder
than any other women he’d scammed before. He had tried his best to be friendly
to her, even going so far as to court her, but the kid next door and the
stubbornness of the stupid woman had made the deal harder and harder to close. Then
Noah had shown up. Max had tried his best to stand between him and his intended,
but neither of them seemed to notice him.

“Hello, Sydney. How have you been?” She told
him that she’d been great and ignored introducing Max to the man. “I see that
Benson has decided to pursue you in the worst kind of way. My dear, I do hope
you have hidden away all of your jewels. He’s a known rake and thief. Not to
mention, he is more than likely a murderer as well.”

“To say such a thing. I don’t know you from
anyone else.” Noah said nothing but looked at Sydney. Max tried again to push
his way between Sydney and Noah, but he just wasn’t having it. “You should
really leave us to our business.”

But Noah didn’t leave, nor did he stop. How
he knew anything about Max was beyond him, but he knew and had taken it upon
himself to tell Sydney all of it, even his plans for taking her money and her
life. And he didn’t stop there either.

“Sydney, don’t marry this man. He really does
mean to take your money and then your life. You would be better off going on
and never talking to him, seeing him, or having anything at all to do with this
man, period.” Noah had glanced at him before looking back at the woman of his
dreams, rich and stupid. “In fact, I would tell everyone you know. Spread his
name and his picture to every one of your friends. Take out a small
advertisement in the paper. Tell everyone what a scoundrel and a cad he is.”

She’d done just that. After getting up from
the table, leaving him with the bill, Sydney left him sitting there. Then Noah had
walked away, laughing. The next day he’d not only been unable to see the woman,
but the paper had put out a half page ad about him, including his financial
information and that he was preying on others to line his pockets. Max had left
in a hurry after women and men started showing up at his door to blast him.
Some even threatened to tar and feather him. Max knew that it was all because
Noah had told them to do it. Not even the brat next door had given him this
much trouble.

But as with many things that he did, Max came
out on top, and in a small satisfying way, he’d gotten some of what he’d wanted.
Sydney was dead, and no one was none the wiser.

And now here Noah was again, intruding on his
business. But there was the added fact that Noah didn’t know him. Or anything
about this new person he’d come to be. Max thought that he might just have a little
fun with the other man and see if he could ruin something for him while he was
at it. Maybe even take away the one person that the man seemed to love more
than he did anything else. Joe Samuels.

“Sir?” Max looked at the open door to his car
and the man’s face there. He had no idea how long they’d been stopped, but Max
didn’t care that the man seemed to be laughing at him. Lifting his foot up, he
slammed his booted foot into the man’s face and smiled when he stumbled back to
the sound of breaking bones. Not even bothering to step over the man, Max made
sure that he ground his foot into the softest part of his body as he made his
way out of the limo to the house. He’d bet anything that the man would show up
to work tomorrow with his face bandaged up, and without a word about what he’d
made Max do to him. As soon as he was in the house, he told the butler to have
the man fired and his things tossed out with his body first thing. Not waiting
for an answer, Max made his way to his office. Things would be done the way he
wanted them or there would be hell to pay.

He wasn’t surprised to find his phone ringing
the moment that he sat down at his desk. Things were progressing now, at least
he hoped they were, and they would be finished before he moved on to the last
phase of his plan. His plan to be one very wealthy and happy man living as far
from here as he could.

“Where the hell have you been? I’ve been
trying to contact you all day.” He cocked a brow at the tone of the man on the
other end of the phone and didn’t bother answering him. The sooner this man was
out of his life, the better that would be as well. “Did you see today’s paper?
What the hell are we going to do now? Huh? Answer me that. You said this was a
done deal. It doesn’t sound like a done deal to me.”

“Perhaps if you gave me some idea as to what
I might have missed while trying to line up a meeting with our Mr. Calhoun,
then I could answer you.” Jefferson Marshall only huffed at him. Pulling his
gun from the top desk drawer and laying it on the top of his blotter, Max felt
better just knowing that soon this man would feel the bite of his wrath too. “Jefferson,
take a breath and tell me what I have missed.”

“Trent Calhoun is out of town indefinitely.” That
certainly wasn’t in the plan, but was nothing that couldn’t be overcome. He
asked him why that was so earth shattering. “Because, according to this
morning’s paper that you have not even bothered to read, he might be closing
down his business. Sources say that he has had enough and won’t be opening when
he returns, if he even returns. I’m having someone look into seeing if this is
true or not. But I’m telling you right now, this will be the end of us if he
doesn’t help us out of this hole you got us in.”

Max tried to slow his mind down to the
implications of what this would mean. What could have happened to Calhoun that
he’d just forsake all his clients? And he had a great many of them too. Max had
done his research on the man and knew that he had money enough to burn. And
then some. Something had gotten to him...or someone. Noah Stark. Max thought
for sure that Noah was behind this closure.

Max realized that Jefferson was still talking
and asked him to please shut up. The silence was so abrupt, he’d thought he’d
hung up on him. Jefferson didn’t know the half of what was going on with their
business. He had no idea that Calhoun had backed out of their deal, and he
certainly had no idea that Noah was behind all of it, nor what Calhoun had said
to him that day in the office.

“I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to
decline going into business with you.” Max had laughed a little and the younger
man only stared at him. “My brother and I have been looking into some of your
dealings, and we’ve found that you’re not telling the entire truth, are you? Like
for instance, where is the money for the retirement funds for the people that
work for you? Also, you haven’t paid their insurance premium in months, and the
company is going to cut them off soon.”

“I don’t know where you’ve found that
information, but I assure you, none of it’s true. We’ve been in business for a
while now, and we’ve always kept up with those payments. I’ll have to talk to
my partner…perhaps he knows.” Elijah said nothing, but slid a paper toward Max.
Right there in black and white was his name on all the billings, as well as his
address. “This can be taken care of when you and your firm bail us out. It’s
what you do, right?”

“No. We help companies grow…we don’t keep
them from prison. And we certainly don’t get in bed with crooks.” Elijah sat
down just as the door behind him opened. “Mr. Edwards will show you out, Mr.
Ford. Have a good day. And good luck with getting anyone else to loan you any
money.”

And Elijah had been right. No one else would
touch him, not even enough for him to make an appointment to tell them what he
needed. He really needed this to work. But he had to get rid of Jefferson for
now.

“I’ll call you back when I find out what is
going on with this. I’m sure that we just have to figure out what their plans
are for all of this. We can only hope that it’s nothing more than an
overzealous reporter with too much time on his hands.” It would be just Max’s luck
if it were true and he’d be out all his money. Noah was going to pay for
fucking this up for him. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow when I go into the offices.
In the meantime, just sit tight and let me handle this.”

“Letting you handle things is what got us
into this in the first place.” Max started to tell the man to fuck off, but
didn’t get the chance before he spoke again. “You fuck this up, Max, and I
swear to you I’ll not work with you again.” Big threat. He wasn’t going to be
around to work with anyone.

After he hung up, Max tried to think of what
he could do now. He didn’t even have enough to leave the country right now. All
his money had gone into making a good impression on the stupid dog and to Max’s
accounting firm overseas. His plan to leave the country with a great deal of
ready cash was slowly falling apart. Calhoun had really fucked up his plans in
backing out. Max wanted to think of a way to make him come up to the plate with
money in hand, or he was going to have to think of more creative ways to get
the money from someone else. He wasn’t above kidnapping and holding someone for
ransom at this point.

“But it wouldn’t get me nearly what I want in
all of this. And there is the risk of it not working. Then I’ll be fucked too.”
There was money, a great deal of it. Just where he couldn’t get to it just now.
Max had thought as he was sending his money out that he should have some rainy
day money and he’d had a little, but he’d spent it. Lavish dinners, limo
drivers, and a few new suits had taken care of that. He had travel expenses to
gather, and he wanted to go out with a bang. When he left this country, he was
going to make sure that everyone knew that he’d been here.

Max knew that he could call and get money
wired to his bank here. And he’d thought of it several times over the last few
days. But doing that would be evidence that he had money elsewhere. Not to
mention the penalties and fines that he would incur when he did that. Max
looked down at his new suit and smiled. Being broke right now had really given
him a fine set of clothes.

When his phone rang a little before seven,
Max actually thought about not answering it. He was in the middle of making
plans, poor ones, but making them all the same, and finally reached for it with
a bark of his name. When he was greeted with silence on the other end. It took
him several seconds to realize that he might have pissed someone off, like he
even cared.

“Mr. Ford?” He felt his balls crawl up into
his body. No one had this number but his business partner and his butler. They
were the only two that could call him directly. The voice at the other end of
the line had a tone that made him think that they’d gone to great links to get the
number…and not only that, they had enjoyed it too. “Mr. Max Ford, correct?”