I’ve not been there in ages. Yes, I can bet that without all the city smog, it is really nice there. Cass told him what he was looking to talk to Rogue about. I told her we’ve served Missy with papers. The house and the bank account have been closed off to her too. I figured if she got wind of what we were doing, she’d make a hasty exit and perhaps take all the money and run. This way, I can keep her from doing that. Did you know Mark was worth a great deal of money? His insurance from his company alone is worth millions of dollars. They’re the ones that are saying we should have his body exhumed and tested. Also, the coroner that I’ve spoken to about the body said he did blood tests on the man and woman that had been killed because he thought it was not just a run of the mill robbery at a convenience store. I’m not sure what he meant by that. I have a meeting with him tomorrow, but things are hinky if you ask me.
Hinky? You’ve been hanging out with Grandma too much. But I understand. However, why exhume him? We all know he was murdered. What else could it be? Cass told him what he’d found out from the office he’d work out of. So they think that up until his death, he was being poisoned? Again, why does it matter? Murdered is murdered, correct?
Yes. But they seem to think it was his boss, a Mr. Charles Sampson, that might have been the one doing it. Then when it seemed to be taking too long, he hired someone to take him out with a robbery. Cass also told him that if that was the case, there was more money coming to Lily and the kids. Like millions more. Also, she’d own the shares that Sampson had, as well as her husband’s. Oh, I did manage to find some money for Lily that Missy couldn’t get to. The shares are worth a good deal, and the money from the stocks is going to be given to her in a fat check as soon as tomorrow from the dividends he had coming to him. He would normally reinvest his profits, but in this case, I thought it would help them along until I get this case won. I’m hoping I can be there when it comes. It’ll be nice to see her win something wonderful for a change.
So would I. I’m going to tell Rogue about this if you don’t mind. I want her to be prepared for her sister when it gets there. Cass thought that was a good idea. Thanks. I have them once in a while. By the way, the man Rogue works with is a bear shifter. He’s been watching over her since she started working for them. Makes me feel better about her being gone when I can’t go with her.
I think it would me as well.
Cass told him he was going to bed, but he’d be up about eight. However, he wanted to have Rogue call him when she was finished working. Telling his brother he loved him and would see him tomorrow made him think he needed to tell them all that he loved them more often. He also decided he was going to tell his mom that too. Also, on the way back to his house, he was going to buy her some flowers. It had been a while since he’d gotten her any.
By two in the morning, Rogue declared herself finished. He had gone back into the building at one point and heard her talking to Carlson about the things she had noticed. Bruising here and there meant the victims had been touched by the murderer, so prints were taken in the area she suggested. Apparently, too, the camera she used was strong enough to pick up slight alterations in the skin when it came to things like that. He didn’t have a clue but was glad it was helping the case move along.
Rogue decided to call Cass when she got up but did call him for a quick conversation. She told him she was exhausted, and he seemed to understand. But he did tell her about the money that would be coming to her house for Lily. She said she’d wait for him to show up before she called her over. After that, she fell asleep on Quin’s shoulder for the rest of the ride home. Quin didn’t bother waking her when they got there but picked her up and put her into their bed. They had the rest of their lives to make love, and he wasn’t in any kind of hurry to do it. Well, he was, but he thought he could hold off for one more day.
Smiling to himself as he made his way down to the kitchen, he laughed when not only was Jude there enjoying a hearty breakfast, but his in-laws as well. Sitting with them, he figured he might as well get used to it. They were family, after all.
Getting his day started early was something he enjoyed more than getting started on time. Of course, he knew he was going to be exhausted when he was finished up for the day, but he was working on things he would need at his office at the horse ranch when Brook joined him. She was really getting large with child, so he made her have a seat before she could talk to him.
“I’ve only just realized that it’s almost the end of summer.” He nodded, with no idea where she might be going with this. “I’m getting there. Just hold your horses.”
“I didn’t say anything.” She looked at him, and he was terrified she was going to start crying. He thought of a joke and told it to her. It was as lame as he thought it would have been, and she just stared at him. “I didn’t want Ronan to come here and beat me up because I’d upset you.”
“You didn’t. I’m upset all the time now.” He said it wouldn’t matter to Ronan. “I’ve noticed that too. He’s very…I was going to say weird, but that’s not it either. It’s almost like he’s about to explode or something. I’m terrified to tell him I’m in labor. What do you think he’ll do?”
“Explode. Just like you said.” He thought about what she’d said. “What do you mean, you’re terrified to tell him you’re in labor? You mean when you go into labor, right?”
“No. I’m in labor now.” He didn’t move for nearly a full minute, then he made sure she was comfortable. Not that she was an animal, but he examined her and said she was as ready as she’d ever be. “Yeah, I thought so. As I said, I didn’t want him to freak out. Will you tell him where I am and what’s going on?”
“Sure, throw me under the bus.” She laughed—having someone confirm she was in labor must have loosened her up a little because she laughed hard. “All right, but I want you to tell Rogue I love her very much, even though I had to more than likely deliver your baby while fending off the king of lions.”
Telling Ronan was easier than he thought it would be. He didn’t actually tell his brother but told his mom so she could tell him. When he showed up at his office with her, Quin was having Brook hold off on pushing so Ronan could be there when his child was born. As soon as he was ready, he had her bear down like she was having the greatest shit in the world.
“What a thing to say to someone.” Rogue showed up with the bag that had been packed for Brook and the baby. Then she helped Ronan stay on his feet when his daughter made her entrance into the world. Christ, she was the most beautiful baby he’d ever delivered.
The second child was a little longer coming, but when she came into the world screaming and crying, the entire room seemed to just break loose in cheers. He was an uncle again. And his brother was a dad. Nothing could have been better than to have a newborn, or in this case, newborns, bring everyone to a good mood. He certainly was now.
Since he wasn’t a medical doctor, Brook made a call to her obstetrician. Once it was established that she was going to rest and be pampered, she okayed for Brook to recuperate at her own home in bed for the next couple of days. If the doctor had seen Brook while talking to her, she would have understood there wasn’t any way she was going to rest, much less do it in a bed.
Taking the new family to their home, they had a small celebration with pizzas and cake.
“Do you want children?” Quin asked Rogue if she was asking him a trick question. “No. I’m serious. However, I can see where you’d think it was a joke. I want children. Not hundreds, but a couple. You?”
“As many as you will allow me to have with you.” She rolled her eyes. “Now I’m being serious. It’s your body, and I’d never do anything to make it so you weren’t happy with me. If you only wanted one child with me, I’d be thrilled beyond words to see you large with our child. Or fifty. Which, I might point out, isn’t a hundred.”
“I’d like kids. Soon.” He nodded, then wiggled his brows at her. “Yes.
I know how that works. We have to find time to actually make children to have them. My job, your job. Someday we might have to run away and have us a good fuck-fest without any interruptions. What do you think?”
“Fuck-fest? Yes, I’m all for a fuck-fest. When?” She said she’d have to make a couple of calls. “I will as well. I need to see if my insurance is paid up to date. You might not be able to kill me, but you can certainly make it so I’m incapacitated for a few years.”
She was laughing as she walked away from him. Pulling out his phone, he called Robby to let him know what was going on. The man thought it was great that the two of them were getting away and offered them his home in Florida. Taking him up on the house, Quin made arrangements to fly there and have some fun. Robby was going to stock the place, whatever that meant to the older man. Not that it mattered. They’d be away, having fun, and no one would know where they were. At least until they came back.
Chapter 5
They flirted from the time they left the house to when they arrived at the airport. It had started out that her dad was going to keep an eye on the house for them, but in the end, they’d gotten Cass to do it. Rogue sort of hated to leave her dad when he’d only just arrived, but he told her that if he was given a house to use on the beach, he’d have left her too. Laughing, he also told her he and Lexi were going to move closer to her and Lily.
“I’ve missed a great deal, and I’d like to make up for lost time.” She told him she thought them moving here would be a good start. “I’ve been talking to your sister a great deal too. She told me you had a long conversation with her.”
“Not so long. But over the course of the years. She just needed to step back and look at the whole picture.” Dad told her he was glad she’d done that. “I didn’t do it for you, Dad, but for her. I was afraid she’d get down the road, and it would be too late for her. She would be the one that carried the guilt. But I’m ever so happy the family is together again.”
The check came just as they were leaving for the airport. Calling her sister and telling her to get her ass over to her house brought her over, but she was spitting mad when she got there, telling Rogue that she was in the middle of making her first batch of jelly when she’d called. All Rogue did was hand her the large envelope the courier had brought. When she glared at her several times as she tore it open, Rogue couldn’t help but laugh at her.
“You’re so going to regret looking at me like this when you see what is in there.” Lily told her she doubted it. “All right. We’ll see.”
It was a good thing Quin had walked behind her when she pulled out the check. While she didn’t know how much it was, Rogue did know it was more than a million dollars. The money hadn’t been cashed in since Mark had died. When Lily was sat down on the chair, she asked her if this was a joke.
“You know me better than that. I’d never do anything so mean like that to you.” Lily handed the check to her. After looking at it, she handed it back. “This should be enough to keep you going until the trial is over, I think.”
“I should hope so. It’s for seven million dollars. Where the hell am I going to cash that size of a check? Do banks even have that much money?” She thought about it. “I wonder if I could have it all in ones. That way, I could have a nice bath in it.”
“You’d have so many papercuts you’d so regret that. But seriously, you need to get with Cass. He’s going to be the one getting this settled up for you and the kids. I’d talk to him about putting the money in a secure bank, one that Missy cannot touch.” Rogue told Lily where the money had come from. “Mark took good care of you. So you could take good care of his children.”
“They had to have my permission to have his body exhumed. I gave it, but then I was told it wasn’t necessary. That someone had confessed to killing Mark. I was supposed to talk to Cass about it yesterday, but I got sidetracked with one of the kids.” She told her what she knew. “Why would anyone kill him? Why would Sampson want to kill one of the nicest people there ever was?”
“Mark was planning to leave the company, as I’m sure you already knew.” Lily told her he was going to be spending more time with her and the kids. They were going to have more. “I thought you would have known. But it was Mark’s right to do so. He owned a part of the company too. Also, since he’d been there for so long, he wasn’t under any kind of non-compete contract to make sure he didn’t work for anyone in the same industry again. Sampson was afraid that once he started working on the same kind of programs his company was involved in, they’d find out that Mark was the only one that had done the work. The rest of them were hanging onto his success.” Lily was crying a little as she explained to her about how he’d been slowly poisoning him. “Then when that didn’t work as quickly as he’d hoped, Sampson hired someone to kill him. It just so happened that it was in a store where others were killed as well. Rather than face the death penalty, once the Feds told him about having the body exhumed, Sampson left a confession, then killed himself. You will be getting insurance money from that, as well as any and all shares that Sampson had.”
“So much death. All Mark and I wanted to do was to have our own family and spend as much time as we could with them. We had made so many plans.” Rogue hugged Lily and told her she’d be able to carry through on those plans for him. “I will too. I really will. Starting as soon as I figure out how to spend some of this money. What do you think of us going to an amusement park? With Lexi and Dad?”
“I think they would enjoy that more than they would anything else.” They did have to move around their house sitter, but in the end, it worked out well for them all. Now here she and Quin were, on the plane to a destination she was excited to be going to with him and only him.
Almost as soon as they were in the lovely little house, it was like a home to them. There was enough food for them for the next few days, as well as fishing equipment and instructions on how to fish for their dinner. They would get to that, she was sure. But right now, all she wanted was Quin. Naked and in bed.
The room they were to use as their own was filled with flowers. Not only had Robby given them the house, but he’d made arrangements for them to have champagne, roses, as well as a huge basket of fresh fruits from around the area. Quin was having a piece of mango when she came out of the bathroom, undressed.
“You looked good enough to eat.” She told him that was the idea. “Good. I have a hunger for you that I know will take me hours if not days to quench.”
He moved toward her, tossing the last of the fruit over his shoulder and out the open window. Quin’s body seemed to grow with each step. Not just his frame, but everything about him. Even his hunger, which she could feel, seemed to wrap around her until she didn’t know where she ended and he began.
When he touched her with just the tips of his fingers, it was as if small electrical currents were set off under her skin. His mouth at her skin at the most sensitive parts of her body was overwhelming yet not enough, not nearly enough for her.
“Your skin is so soft. So warm.” She couldn’t speak. Her mouth was so dry. “I love the scent you’re perfuming the air with. It’s all yours. It makes me think of spring and the earth.”
“Please, Quin. I’m so needy.” He moved his hands, barely brushing her skin to her ass. It was enough to make her catch her breath. The way he cupped her had her crying out, the short climax, or whatever it was, taking her to highs she knew were only the beginning. “More. I need so much more. Please?”
He lifted her and fit her to his body. His cock, so thick, was pressed against her belly, and she reached down and ran her finger over the hard crown of him. When he cried out, his body bent back just enough from hers that she could take his hard nipple into her mouth. Rogue bit down on it hard enough to have him crying out her name. Begging her for more and telling her he couldn’t take anything else, he pressed her against the wall behind her. Kissing her savagely, he pulled his mo
uth from hers just to watch her face as he adjusted her enough that he could slam his cock inside of her, filling her to the point where she was sure he was tearing her apart.
It took her a moment to realize he was talking to her. Then another moment to realize he was telling her how sorry he was. For what, she didn’t know but wrapping her hands into his hair, she pulled him up to see into his face. Christ, what a wonderfully handsome and beautiful face he had too.
“Why are you sorry?” He said he’d hurt her. “A little, but that is to be expected, I think. You’re built like a fucking horse.”
His laughter made her smile. Standing with her back pressed against the wall, naked as the day she’d been born, with a man’s cock deep inside her body, and he was laughing. She thought she should take offense but decided it was sort of charming.
“How did I live this long without you by my side?” Rogue told him he was just lucky. “No. I’m lucky now. Very much so. But if I don’t move soon, I’m going to hurt myself and you too.”
His body didn’t so much move as it seemed to just slide in and out of her. Quin’s hands never stopped moving, his mouth trailing quickly behind his finger. Every place his mouth nipped at her skin, he would kiss the tiny wounds he made. As she felt his movement, moving them to the bed, her body seemed to know to simply wrap around his. Her legs felt at home tightly around his hips. Her hands dug into his muscles as he did the same to her.
Her breasts were first abused, then loved. Each time her body felt like it was getting too much, he would touch her in another place where it wouldn’t be enough. Rogue was sure he was trying his best to kill her with sex. Her body ached with each small climax that took her. Again and again, she thought for sure it was going to take her over the edge, take her to a place only reserved for people who were in love. And every time Quin would take her to the point, then pull back.
Quinlan: Foster’s Pride – Lion Shapeshifter Romance (Foster's Pride Book 3) Page 7
