“I’m in here,” he called out to her when she yelled his name. “I just got home a few minutes ago, and I was going to catch a nap before supper. How was your first day of working with the others?”
She kicked off her shoes in the closet before coming into the living room. “Do you think they’d humor me at something I did?” He didn’t know what she was talking about, but he did have an answer for her. “I didn’t think so either. Apparently, they think they’ve found my dream job. It’s really fun, so I’m having a difficult time thinking of it as work. They’re having me make up models of crime scenes. Rogen ordered all kinds of tools for me to use when working with them. Also, and I find this a little hard to believe, they’re buying a building that I can work from so that I can spread out. Can you rub my shoulders, please? I have a pulled place there.”
She sat down on the couch when he sat up. “I take it that you’re going to be working full time with them. I have to say, I think it’s wonderful to have you here all the time. Which building are they thinking about?” She told him one of the larger buildings on the main drag through town. “I know those buildings. Any one of them will be good for working from. What is it you’ll be doing with them?”
As she described what she’d done today and how it had helped, he knew for a fact that it hadn’t been a humor job. They had been bitching about the bakery robbery for two weeks now and had been no closer to finding the person who had supposedly robbed the place.
“As it turned out, she’d been the one who had been robbing the place each time it had been done. Figuring out that she’d been using the money for family functions really pissed off her bosses. She’d ask for a few days to a week off after each time to settle her nerves. She was just going on vacation or something when the place was looked over for flaws.” She sighed when he hit a sore spot, she told him. “I have to be trained on a 3-D printer too. Have you ever worked with one? Oh, that’s perfect right there.” He told her that he had, but he’d not been all that successful at it. “I wonder what will happen if I can’t make it work either.”
“I don’t see you having issues with it. You can draw better than me, and that is where I messed up. Did you know you’re bruised right here? It must have been recent, or you would have healed by now.” Beckett loved how they could keep up conversations with each other and have other things to say as well. “It’s fading, so it’s nothing to worry about now.”
She leaned back on his chest when he’d finished helping her out with her neck. It sounded like she’d had a good day. So when he was asked about his day, he almost didn’t tell her.
“It started out well enough. I was supposed to look over some of the books for a company that makes salad dressings—all sorts. Before I even went to the place, I bought a few of their brand and decided I didn’t care for it. Mom said she’d not cared for it either when she saw them in the fridge.” When he told her the brand, she said that she hadn’t cared for them either. “So I try and go in with an open mind. Once I was there, I saw a lot of health code violations right off the bat.”
“Is that something you do as well? See if they’re going to pass inspections?” Beckett told her not usually. “I would think that would be something someone would need to deal with right away. Yuck. Don’t tell me what they were. I don’t want to know.”
“I wish I hadn’t either. Anyway, I reached out to Thatcher and my dad—they used to have something to do with that sort of thing. I let them know what I was looking at and where I was. Both of them showed up on the pretense of having lunch with me. But as soon as they were in the door, the entire scam fell apart.” He laughed a little. “Dad was appalled by what he’d seen. Thatcher gagged like fifty times when he saw it.”
“Don’t. Just move on to the part where the health department closed them down.” He laughed all the harder. “They did, right? I’d hate to have to start a protest of the place. I will, too, if they make one more bottle of that nasty shit.”
“Not only did they shut them down, but—” He was laughing too hard to catch his breath now. “Thatcher got sick, right there on the floor, while the inspector was pulling things away from the wall. Christ. Dad, he was patting my brother on the back, gagging too. It was, now that I’m not there, one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Employees were trying to clean up the puke, slipping and sliding all over the place. The inspector was ill too and had run to the bathroom three times before the police showed up. Oh, Allie, you’ve turned my shitty day into something I can laugh at now. Thank you, love.”
“You’re very welcome.” She laughed with him when he described how green Thatcher had gotten. He told her how he’d had to go and shift to get the scent out of his nose. “I can almost see him doing that too. He’s so stodgy. I’d not equate him with someone that would get sick when there is puking going on.”
“He’s always been like that. If one of us was sick, we’d never call on him. He would be joining us. Mom can just hear it, and it has her sick too.” He pulled her over and sat her on his lap. He’d been thinking about her all day. “I wanted to tell you something. It’s really important. But it’s also something that was done behind your back. I didn’t, but Rogen and the others did. They know who the vampire was that kidnapped you and hurt you. He’s dead, as you well know.”
“They felt I needed to know, right?” Beckett told her it was important that she knew, in the event, one of their children was a vampire. “I didn’t think that would even be possible. Not with me being changed into a tiger.”
“I don’t know a great deal about it either, but I did get to talk to Dad about it. He said that the chances were slim, but something that we’d need to be prepared for. Not that I’d have any trouble with it, but they didn’t know how you’d feel.” She said if it were her child, she’d not care either. “I thought that was what you’d say. His original name was Hampton. We’re not sure if it was his first or last name, or just the one he went by. He was born in the late seventeenth century and had been alone for most of that time.”
“If you’re going to tell me that’s what made him crazy, I think I got that.” He said that was some of it, but not all. “Did a redhead do something to him?”
“Yes. His wife, not his mate, had stepped out on him. Then she’d turned him in as a night creature. The police had tried to catch up with him, but he was just too slick and fast for them. It turned out that she, Lily was her name, had turned in his kiss too. There was a great deal of money to be had for doing something like that.” Allie asked if they’d had children together. “Yes. Two. But neither of them survived. It was thought that they’d been taken by some humans and killed. However, now they’re thinking Lily herself killed them.”
“Hampton. He kept telling me over and over that I was going to be his greatest catch. That years of research would proclaim him as a genius. I just thought he was loony. Until he started cutting on me.” Beckett felt her tension and how she seemed to shake it off as quickly as it had come over her. “No one would believe me when I told them what had happened. I told your family just the one time, and they figured out everything. I didn’t want to like them, I will tell you that, but I do, each of them. They’re harsh at times, the women, but I’m learning to stand up to them if something isn’t right.”
“Did they tell you what they do? And who they do it for?” Beckett didn’t think they had, and he was right. “They each—and you would be considered a part of what they do—they’re different parts of the whole that kills people that are fucking with the country. When we first met Rogen, she’d been hurt badly, saving a family. While we were trying to figure out where to put her while she healed, all kinds of government agencies came around to see how we’d measured up to what she would need in a cover.”
Allie didn’t say anything for a few minutes, but he could almost feel her mind working. When she turned to him, he could see that it only just occurred to her what he was saying. When she
got up to pace, he waited until she had gone over everything in her head before she spoke.
“I thought they were attorneys or something that would work with them. Because of the way they wanted me to do the crime scenes so they could have the person arrested or something like that.” He said that they more than likely did. “Let me think for a moment. Tru, she’s the hitman or something like that. A cleanup person. The books she gave me were on things like going into a house and coming out with whatever they’d been sent in for. Anna is…she’s a computer whiz. Not like Rogen is, but someone that can break into them and get what she wants out of them. Rogen, like I said, is the one that finds the person. Perhaps even tags them when the hit is called.”
“You nailed them all.” He grinned at her. “You only spent the day with them, and you pegged them perfectly. What gave them away?”
“The way that Rogen, while sort of bossy, is never as secure in what she’s doing unless she’s sitting in front of a computer. She tries very hard to hide it, but it’s a giveaway when she’s right about something. Like she’s surprised that she was. Let me see. Anna is a little harder to tell. She’s street smart and rough around the edges. Hard, I think she’d be called. So is Tru, but she doesn’t give two shits what you feel about her. Not even if you were to insult her to her face.” She grinned at him. “I could be wrong about those traits. However, I do like them. They’re mean when they mean well. They show affection like a schoolyard romance by hitting you. And when they love you, respect you, they rain it down on your head like it’s a snowstorm in the mountains.”
“I love you.”
Allie looked at him with a strange look on her face. Beckett didn’t know what she was thinking. Before he could ask her, however, she spoke.
“And I love you, Beck. I think I have for a while now. Even before I met you, I believe I was in love with the love you’d give me. You are the man I’ve dreamed of having in my life. Even before I knew I needed someone to love me, an image of you was right there, waiting and keeping me focused. Today when I saw your dad with your mom, all I could think about was how you were so much like him. Soft when you needed to be. You laugh when you find something funny, even when those around you are still trying to figure it out. Your wonderful patience with everyone. Not just the babies, but with your brothers and me.” She sat on his lap, facing him. “Would you take me away? Make love to me? Claim me as your mate?”
“Yes. But I won’t make love to you. I will make it with you. The two of us, we’re a couple. I won’t ever rule you. I will offer my opinion, and I know that you’d give it as much consideration as I would yours. I will love you until there is no more breath in my body, and even after death, I will have you in my heart. You are all that I ever wanted in a mate. A person to love. A partner to raise our children with. For all eternity and beyond, you are the only woman I will cherish and love like no other.” He grinned at her. “Now, if you don’t mind, my love, I want to fuck your brains out.”
Allie was laughing all the way up the stairs. He was hungry but thought he could feast on the woman he loved. Beckett, or Beck, as his family was beginning to call him, thought that he had it the best of all. Life.
Chapter 5
Every place his fingers ran over her skin, she felt like he’d marked her. Allie had had sex before, but with Beck making love to her, she thought that was all it had been. Sex. This was making love. Touching. Feeling and tasting each other. The way his skin warmed beneath her own hands. She wanted to explore all of him, taste the parts of him that called to her. Allie wanted to experience this man.
“Your skin is softer than I’ve ever touched.” She moaned when he kissed her breast just above her nipple. “I love the way your nipples tighten and swell. Almost as if they’re begging me to taste them.”
“Please. Do it.” She should have been prepared for his mouth over her breast. Allie knew on some level that he wouldn’t just taste. He suckled hard on her nipple, then took her breast entirely into his mouth. “Yes, Beck. Please. I need more.”
His pants were undone, the zipper tight against his cock. When she couldn’t get it to pull down, she bypassed the zipper and slid her hand into his pants, wrapping her hand around his thick cock. Beck moaned when she did. A course of amazing feelings sounded out in the room around them.
She realized she was naked but didn’t feel chilled. They’d yet to touch the bed, but she felt like she was on the verge of something big. Something monumental that would forever change her. Putting her arms around Beck, he kissed her with passion and hunger. Before she could guess what he would make her feel next, she was lifted up and pressed against the wall.
“I’ve thought about taking you right here since the first time I thought of you in this room.” She looked around. “You’ve been sleeping in my bed. It’s been difficult for me to sleep in another room when I knew that you were just down the hall from me and in my bed.”
His cock was at her clit. Each time he moved, she could feel the thickness of him, the veins down the sides of it. The crown was so full she wanted to taste it. Beck lifted her up, taking her breast into his mouth, and slid into her so deep she thought he’d touched her womb.
“Christ, don’t move.” She couldn’t help it. Her body, adjusting to his size, had him crying out. “You’re going to end this before I’ve had a chance to make you come for me. I want to feel you coming all around my—”
She rolled her hips, ending his ability to speak, she thought. When he took her hard, filling her from her hips to her throat, Allie held onto him like her life depended on it. Then he came.
Her body felt turned inside out. Even though she’d not come, her body seemed to need to wait for him. His cock and body did things to her that she’d never experienced before. It wasn’t just taking her, but a becoming of one. The two of them melted into a single entity.
When Beck pressed hard against her body, Allie knew she was going to lose it. Her body and mind just snapped out of time and space. The climax that rolled over her was too much. Sliding into a place of sweet smells and darkness, Allie knew forever she’d be safe where she was.
“Are you all right?” She looked at Beck as he leaned over her. They were in the bed, atop the blankets, and the curtains were drawn. Allie stretched and asked him what had happened. “I think you tried to kill us both. That was short but very satisfying. For me. I’m sorry that you didn’t get to come more than one time.”
She just stared at him. “People come more than one time? Never mind. Don’t answer that. If I had come anymore, I think I really would be dead.” He kissed her then, and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “That was wonderful. I bet you’re the best one in your class.”
He laughed, and that was what she had intended for him to do. “I was in the top of my class, yes. You’re beautiful, all tousled like you are. If you’re up to it, I’d love to see you as your cat. I’m betting she’s as beautiful as you are.”
“Doubtful, but I would like to see what I look like. How do we do this?”
She thought about her cat, the way she seemed to be lurking right there for her. Pressure over her body made her feel like she was falling off the bed, and she looked at Beck. He was laughing.
“Usually, someone will wait for an answer before they shift. Christ, you’re more beautiful than I ever imagined. Don’t move. If you do, we’ll need a new bed and furniture. You’re such amazing colors of reds and golds. It makes the black on you— Let me take your picture. You’re not going to get it just with me telling you.”
He took several pictures of her as she lay on the bed. Twice she had to remind herself that she couldn’t stretch out her hand. Her paw, larger than she thought her real hand was, spouted long claws out the tips that she was sure could ruin a bed in less time than she could make it. Beck went to the door that led out onto their deck and opened it for her. Again, reminding her not to let her claws out, Beck al
so told her that she would have a little trouble walking on four feet rather than just the two.
She’s larger than I thought she’d be. Like, look where her head is compared to you. He said she’d weigh more, too, simply because of the muscle mass she had as a tiger. I guess that makes sense. It’s not too hard to walk on four feet. It’s like crawling, I think.
The floor in their bedroom was hardwood and a little slick for her. But she managed to get all the way to the door and the deck beyond without making too much of a fool of herself. The urge to leap over the railing was making her itchy. Looking at the distance to the ground, she decided that she could do it. Running a little, she stretched out her body and soared through the air long enough to hit the grass beneath her.
“Bravo! That was amazing! You did it.” She felt like she’d won some sort of contest when Beck called down to her. “I got it on my phone. I couldn’t believe it when you just jumped. I think it took Rogen like a month before she got the hang of flying.”
It’s so amazing feeling this way. Like I could take on a fight and come out on top. Two tigers came out of the woods. Watching them, she figured out who they were by just the way they walked. It’s your dad and Thatcher, isn’t it?
“Yes. Dad saw you leap. He wanted to tell you how much he enjoyed that.” They rubbed heads with her. Beck told her they were marking her as their own so that other tigers in the area would know she was a Robinson. “I’m going to shut the door here, and I’ll join you.”
He leaped over the railing as well. Beck was smooth about it. He also didn’t show off. While he was with his dad and brother, Allie explored the new world she’d been given.
What surprised her the most was how much better she could see. It wasn’t in color like she’d thought, but in hues. Like red, when it was a living thing. Blues for the trees. It took her a moment to realize that the red thing she was seeing in the wooded area behind the house was a person. Human. Turning back to the men, she backed to them rather than showing her rear to whoever was out there.
Beckett: Robinson Destruction – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance Page 6
