“Well, leave the big stuff to us. I left a key for you on the counter so you can come and go. There’s plenty of food in the fridge. I’m sure you’re hungry after last night.”
Oh sure, make that sound all sexy. She pulled her legs together since the mere thought of the things they had done to her made her sex scream, “Give me more!”
“Okay.” What a dork. What the hell was she supposed to say, though?
“After we get off later today, we’ll help get what you can’t. I’ve got some guys coming to help too.”
Emotion clogged Anna’s throat. When she’d moved out of the house she’d shared with Peter, she’d done it alone. Her embarrassment over the situation and her own damn pride wouldn’t allow her to ask for help. Some of the bigger things she’d either taken apart completely and reassembled them at the apartment, or had bought new and had delivered. To have help this time from two men she barely knew—beyond carnally—felt…shit. It felt fantastic.
“Thank you,” seemed to be all she could say to him. They’d retrieved her car, fixed the flat, dried her phone, and left her a key. Not to mention they’d sent her flowers and fed her sundaes. They’d taken care of her. How long had it been since she’d been taken care of?
About fifteen hours.
Okay, but she didn’t mean taken care of in the biblical sense.
“We would have woken you this morning, but you were really out. We decided not to disturb you. How are you feeling?”
Her cheeks heated. Colton asked the question as if he were asking how she felt after being sick. Not like they’d ravished her and left her a puddle of goo.
“Um…”
“I think things got a little rushed. We need to talk. Tonight. But I’m not sorry about what happened.”
“Okaaay.” What the hell did that mean? They’d had sex. Lots of sex. Well, lots to her, anyway. More than one round was lots to her. What was there to be sorry about?
He cleared his throat. “So, we programmed our numbers into your phone. If you need anything today, you can call us. Marc might not be able to answer right away, hell, I may not be able to, either, but you can leave a message.”
“Okay.” Lord, she had issues. Of the tongue-tying variety. What in the frick was wrong with her?
He chuckled again. Great. She was becoming a great source of amusement for him. “Not a morning person?”
“More like an awkward, no clue what to do, morning after person,” she admitted.
“Fair enough. I left a toothbrush on the sink for you. Feel free to search the place for whatever you need.”
“Thanks.” Gah.
“I’ll talk to you later, Anna.” He may not have laughed, but she could hear the smile on his face through the phone.
“Bye.” She disconnected without waiting for his response and flopped onto her back. “Can you be a bigger loser, Anna?” She tugged a pillow over her face and screamed into it. Time to get up. Take a shower, eat something, drag her ass to her apartment, and get started with the move. Hopefully she’d get the majority of it done before they got home.
She rolled to the edge and stood. Damned if she wasn’t still butt naked. Hmph. They could have at least salvaged a shred of her dignity by slipping one of their shirts on her.
Speaking of shirts… What the hell was she supposed to wear today? She slunk off to the bathroom and the promise of a nice hot shower to dull some of the twinges in her muscles. Tears stung her eyes when she stepped through the door because there on the counter were her clothes. Washed, dried, and folded, just waiting for her. What time had they’d gotten up to do so much work for her while she snoozed the morning away?
Anna stared at herself in the mirror. There were red marks where strong hands had held her hips in place. Her breasts were slightly abraded from beard stubble, the nipples beaded tight and slightly darker than she remembered them being. Not that she spent an inordinate amount of time looking at her nipples. Her neck held a myriad of love marks and… She leaned closer.
Freaking bite marks?
They’d bitten her. How in the holy hell had she missed this? Twice! One on each shoulder. Actual teeth marks. Healed ones, not bleeding or even scabbed, but teeth marks just the same. Had she actually been so far over the edge in orgasmic bliss that she hadn’t given a fig that they’d bitten her?
Was this the mark? Had they mated her and not told her?
Is that what Colton had been referring to when he’d said they needed to talk?
She’d kill them.
“Bite me. Nobody bites me without my permission.” She yanked the toothbrush from its package and jerked all the cabinets open to find the toothpaste. “Who do they think they are?” She glared at herself and the marks again. A tiny tumble of something flipped over in her belly. “You let them bite you,” she accused herself. “And you liked it. You’re a slut. That’s what you are, Anna Belky.”
Christ. How could she be mad at them when she’d never once said no? If they’d mated her, then it was all on her. “Good job, girl.” Her reflection mocked her.
She hung her head. Not a damn thing she could do about it now. Like Colton said, they’d sit down and talk about it later. In depth. And without any more biting. Or sex.
The shower helped alleviate some of her sexcapade aches, but it did nothing for the rumbling of her stomach. She hadn’t eaten since lunch yesterday. After dressing—it should have been supremely weird since they’d washed her undies and bra—she headed for the kitchen. What did wolves eat? The same things humans did? Would she find raw meat in the fridge?
She decided not to chance it and opted for toast instead. A loaf of bread rested next to the toaster, so she dropped two slices in and set it to four. A coffeemaker to the left caught her eye. They’d left some in the pot with a little note. “Fresh this morning, baby.”
“Gag.” She was going to have to get used to the names, she supposed. Neither of them seemed the type to stop. She hunted for a mug, poured herself a cup, heated it in the microwave, and carried it to the sink where one of her favorite views of the lake could be seen from the window.
She stared at the sun shimmering on the water, lifted the mug just as the toaster popped, but instead of her lips meeting the hot liquid, the mug slipped from her fingers to plunk into the stainless steel sink, splashing coffee on her arm, which she barely felt.
There, in the middle of the yard, right where she’d wanted it, Colton and Marc had planted her tree.
•●•
It had taken Anna more than a few minutes to fight the tears over the tree standing proudly in the middle of the yard. She couldn’t believe they’d gone to the trouble of planting it. In fact, she’d even walked out to it to make sure she wasn’t imagining the damned thing.
Half an hour later, she pulled into her parking spot at her apartment and mentally prepared herself for the task ahead. Thank God most of her stuff was already packed. It was really just a matter of transferring things to the car and then unloading them at the house before doing it all over again.
A few times.
Moving sucked.
She slid the key into the door, pushed it open, and gasped in complete astonishment.
Her place had been ransacked. Boxes were dumped, their contents smashed. The vase of flowers the guys had gotten her was in a hundred pieces on the floor. Her TV had a hole in it. She could see clear into the kitchen and her dishes scattered over the floor.
“Son of a bitch.” She couldn’t even summon the energy for sad. She was pissed. Hell just kept sucking her deeper and deeper into its depths.
Why? Damn it, she was a good person. Who the hell had she pissed off so much they felt the need to do this to her?
“Hey, baby.” Colton spoke into her ear.
Anna turned around looking for him, only to realize she had her phone in her hand and had dialed his number.
“Anna?” His concern filtered over the line.
“Someone trashed my apartment,” she whispered.
> There was a moment of silence and then, all business, Colton said, “Where are you?”
“At my apartment.” She took the phone from her ear and looked at it. Where else would she be?
“Go out to your car and stay there. Anna, do you hear me?”
“Yes.”
“Go now, Anna. And stay. I’m on my way.”
“Okay.” He didn’t answer because he’d already hung up. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” She couldn’t move from her spot in the doorway. She’d never felt so violated. Part of her wanted to search the rest of the place. The other part of her told her to run and not be the stupid clichéd movie chick who goes back in the apartment only to be surprised by the killer waiting behind her bedroom door.
Instead of doing either, she stomped off to her neighbor’s and pounded on the door. No way no one heard what had happened in her house overnight. She didn’t get a response. Mr. Miller had likely been at work for a while now. So why hadn’t he called the police? The man was far from deaf, she knew because of the times he’d asked her to turn down her TV.
Anna went to the apartment on the other side of hers and banged on the White’s door too. The couple were in their eighties, and Mrs. White was hard of hearing, but still. They had to have heard the melee through the shared wall.
The white-haired, stooped-over-with-age woman peeked through the crack allowed with the safety chain until she saw Anna and then opened it farther.
“Anna. So good to see you.”
“Mrs. White,” screw formalities, “did you hear anyone in my apartment last night?” She pointed toward her stoop.
“I did. You young people and your parties. You really should try and keep it down when you’re in an apartment, dear.”
Anna’s mouth dropped open. “Party?” She shook her head hard. “Someone broke in and trashed it, Mrs. White. I wasn’t home. No party.”
“Oh, dear.” Mrs. White covered her heart with her hand. “I’m so sorry. We just thought you were entertaining.”
Entertaining who? The entire circus? “My whole place is destroyed. All my dishes smashed and furniture torn to shreds.”
“My goodness. I told Irvin we should have called the police. He told me it was just you young people having a good time.”
Anna wanted to scream. She nearly pulled her hair in frustration, but this wasn’t the White’s fault. They hadn’t known what was happening, and for whatever reason, they decided it wasn’t weird that their single neighbor, who’d never invited anyone into her apartment, had decided to throw a wild and crazy party with lots of crashing noises.
She stiffened her spine and swallowed her anger. “You may want to watch things for a while until they know who did this.”
“We will, Anna. I’m sorry we didn’t do anything.”
Anna nodded in dejection and turned to wait for Colton. Unbelievable. She’d thought her life couldn’t get any more bizzare and yet…
“Why aren’t you in your car?” Colton reached for her and pulled her into a tight embrace. He kissed her forehead. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Pissed, but fine.” She threw her hands up. “It looks like everything I own is destroyed.”
“Things can be replaced. People cannot.”
She looked at him. Had he lost his mind? “I wasn’t here. I was with you last night, remember?” Because she would never forget.
He smiled and held her chin in his palm. His voice dropped. “Oh, I remember, trust me.” His lips met hers, opening her up for his tongue to invade. The kiss was brief, over almost before it began. With a hand in her hair, he forced her gaze to his. “Now get in your car and wait for me to come get you.” He spun her around and pushed her toward the parking lot.
Only then did she realize they had an audience. Two officers were waiting at her steps for Colton to join them.
“Mrs. White thought I was a having a party,” she called over her shoulder as she walked to her car. “That’s why no one…called the…police.” She stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth hanging open in astonishment.
Sitting in the place Colton had stood moments ago was a wolf bigger than any she’d ever seen, his clothes in a heap next to him. His fur mimicked the shade of his human hair, and his eyes held the glowing yellow she’d seen once or twice before. Damn. She wanted to run her hands through the thick pelt. Wondered if it was as soft as it looked.
Unable to resist, Anna stepped toward him. His low growl brought her to a stop.
“Did you just…growl at me?” Oh, hell no.
A chuckle to her right drew her attention. “He’s only wanting to get in and see if he can track anything, ma’am. It’s why Detective Montross is a huge asset to the department.”
She clenched her hand into a fist. “Fine.” She pointed at him then. “But you don’t growl at me, wolfy.”
He nodded once and then jerked his muzzle as if shooing her on. Anna huffed, pivoted, and stalked off. When she sat firmly ensconced in her SUV, she watched as they, the two officers with guns drawn and Colton in his fur, entered her apartment and disappeared. The place wasn’t all that big, just two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a living room. But damn, what if the intruder was still inside. What if they shot Colton thinking he was a dog and not for one second realizing the wolf was a shifter? Long minutes passed while Anna sat on her hands to keep from biting her nails.
Suddenly the door opened and Colton was there, in the flesh, waving her in. He stood just inside the door with his hands on his hips, a mixture of anger and regret plastered on his face.
Anger and regret didn’t even begin to break the surface on how she felt. “I don’t understand why someone would do this.”
“Me, neither.” He tugged her close and wrapped an arm around her. “Can you think of anyone who’d—”
“No.” She honestly couldn’t. “Peter, well, I don’t think he’d do this. It’s not like he’s paying me alimony, and he’s the one who fucked up, not me. If anything, he’d be begging my forgiveness.”
“He sold your home.”
“Touché.” Since she hadn’t spoken to her lawyer today, Anna had no news about that situation, either.
“Anna.” He turned her to face him and put a hand on both her shoulders. “Is there a possibility all of these things are related? The house, the stolen car, the flat tire, this…”
She swallowed down a sudden rush of nausea and thought about it. “What for, though? Seriously, the only person I can think I might have pissed off was the waitress the other day. You know, the one who was ready to have your babies?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw, and she placated him by putting a hand on his chest. “I met her after the house and stolen car. I’m just saying. I don’t know anyone else who’d do this. Unless, like you said, it’s Peter, and I can’t wrap my head around why he’d do this.”
“But you said he’s missing, right?”
“Well, yes, he’s on a business trip, and he’s changed his phone number, so I can’t get ahold of him.”
Colton nodded. “I think it’s time I found out a little more about your ex.” He took her hand and led her through the mess. One officer had taken a fingerprint kit to her back door and the other was picking through papers on her table. “If you notice anything is missing, let me know, but I get the feeling this wasn’t about a robbery.”
“Great.” She stepped gingerly through the mess when all she really wanted to do was kick things. But dammit, they were her things. Broken or not. Her boxes were upended, their contents smashed and thrown everywhere. The floor was littered with shattered dishes, torn clothes, ripped photos. Her walls were punched with holes.
How any of her neighbors could mistake this angry slashing of her life as a wild party, she had no clue.
Turning in a slow circle in the center of her living room, Anna deflated. Even if she had been able to stay in her apartment, she couldn’t now. The place needed one of those disaster cleaners, not to mention no-way-in-hell would she stay alone here.
<
br /> “I can’t begin to tell if there’s anything missing. Just looks like it’s all mangled. I had almost everything packed in the remains of the boxes you see. Any important paperwork is at the bank, so the rest is mostly stuff.”
She picked her way into her bedroom, stopping briefly to see the same disaster in the extra room. “Jesus. There’s really no way for me to tell what might be gone. It’ll have to be one of those things where I need something and I can’t find it. Then I’ll know it’s gone.”
The notion was rather pathetic. Strong fingers kneaded the tense muscles between her shoulder blades. Tears pooled in her eyes, blurring the scene in front of her. What the hell. She needed this.
Anna spun, threw her arms around Colton’s waist, and buried her face in his chest. His muscled arms engulfed her and hugged her tight. His chin settled on the top of her head. He didn’t speak, simply held her and rubbed her back.
Minutes later, she pushed back, and then frowned at the spot left on his shirt by her tears. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be.” He tilted her face up with his thumb under her jaw. “It kills me to see you this way.”
“Yeah, this hasn’t been my finest week.” She sniffed, and twisted to take another look at the damage. “Do you think we can go for a while? Come back later to start cleaning? We could hit Fair’s for a chocolate shake or an old-fashioned soda. Unless you have to get back to work. I forgot you were at work. And Marc’s at work, so you could just drop me off so I could have a soda, or maybe leave me at the Maid-Rite for a b—”
His lips landed on hers, effectively shutting her down. His tongue tangled with hers, teasing her into calmness until she relaxed in his embrace and kissed him back.
She swayed and pulled back, licking her lips as she did. “You do that so well.”
He chuckled. “Kiss?”
“No, make me shut up.”
The pad of his thumb traced her cheekbone. “Definitely effective. And fun.” He grabbed her hand and started toward the front door. “A soda sounds good. I haven’t had an old-fashioned in a long time. And you don’t need to be alone right now.”
Overcome Page 10
