by Kathi Barton
Meghan wanted to cry. She’d hurt one of her friends and she felt horrific about it. Going to sit beside her, holding her hand when she asked, Meghan tried to comfort Sunny while she fought her own emotions.
“The person—or in this case, the people—that are calling you are Nathan’s biological parents. They’ve been notified of his impending adoption by you, as well as how you are related to the Whitfield family.” Meghan asked her what they wanted. “A great deal, as a matter of fact. First of all, they’re seeing an attorney to find out how to go about suing you. Not that they’ll ever have the chance to do so, but that’s not stopping them from trying.”
“I don’t understand. They abandoned him, basically stripping him of his right to be in a healthy and safe environment.” Sunny asked her how much she knew about the Whitfields. “Nothing much. It’s not like they’re any relation to me or Nathan. I mean, yes, Ollie set me up with this home. I figured that they have money. How much? I don’t know. It’s none of my business.”
The women all looked at each other. Meghan glanced at Ivy and asked her what was going on. Of all the people in the room, she knew that her sister would tell her the truth, even if she didn’t want to hear it.
“All right. The Whitfields are wealthy. I don’t mean like I am, which I am a millionaire, but they have several billion dollars. Each.” Meghan shook her head. “They do, Meghan. They’ve been investing well and taking care of their money all the way back to—I guess forever. As I said, they’ve invested well, bought cheap and sold high. You name it, and I’m pretty sure that they’ve had their hand in it concerning the market and money.”
“Okay, I’m still having a hard time putting the money with these people. Not that I don’t believe you. But you have to admit, they look less like billionaires than anyone I’ve ever seen. Not that I have a lot to do with—” She shook her head again. “I’m babbling. Another thing that I rarely do that I’ve only just started doing. Billionaires? Are you...and you’re a millionaire? Christ, Ivy, I’m so very proud of you.”
Sunny laughed, then Eve joined her. Meghan didn’t know what was going on. Were they making fun of her, or were they just—?
“They’re after money. These people, they’ve found out that Nathan is staying with me, me adopting him, and they want me to...well, the only thing that I can think of is that they want me to pay them. For, I don’t know, keeping him?” Dylan told her that it was more than that, probably. “Can’t we just tell them that I’m not a Whitfield? And that I don’t have access to any kind of money that they’re hoping that I’ll give them?”
“Two things—first, they’d never believe you. Secondly, you do have access to any amount of money that you want. I don’t mean for this, but for anything that you wish. The moment that Ivy became a part of the family, so did you.” Meghan told her that Ollie had told her the same thing. “Then you should believe him and us. They’d drain you dry if they thought that you’d give it to them. Which, we will not.”
“I’m assuming that you don’t believe that they’ll just give up if I don’t connect with them. What will they do, kidnap Nathan and hold him until I agree to their terms? If so, then you have to know that I’d never give in to them. And if they touch one hair on his head, even to ruffle it up, then I will kick their ass all the way to the fucking rock that they slipped out from under.” Sunny laughed first, then Eve. It wasn’t long before they were all laughing, and it took Meghan a few minutes to figure out that they’d not been making fun of her, but of what she’d said. “What do I have to do to make them give up? I’m willing to do just about anything.”
“I’m glad to hear you say that. Because I have a plan, and it’ll take all of us to make it work.” Meghan had always thought that Dylan was scary. All of them, as a matter of fact. But she wanted these people to realize that she wasn’t one to fuck with either. “First thing you have to do is find out from Nathan what he wants to do. I honestly don’t think that he’d want to go back with them, not the way that they treated them, but he has to be made aware that they’re going to fight you on you adopting him. This is a decision that he must make on his own.”
“I agree. And I’ll talk to him as soon as he gets home. But what do I do about these calls they’re making?” Carter told her that she’d have to talk to Nathan. “You think that he’ll want to speak to them? Or worse yet, that he wants to go with them?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to say there isn’t any way, but I just don’t know. Even with the fact that he doesn’t know them, hardly at all as a matter of fact, there is also the fact that they are his parents.” Meghan nodded, and the phone rang again. “I’d not answer any of the calls until you’ve talked to Nathan, as I said. Even after that, I’d not talk to them until they leave you a message. But if he wants to talk to them, I’d allow him to do so.”
She didn’t want to do that. It worried her to no end that they’d be able, as his parents, to talk him into whatever they wanted. Meghan was sure that her heart would shatter if he were to leave her and the rest of them. Having the little man in her life had given her more hope and happiness than she’d had in a very long time.
Meghan had decided that she’d tell him what she knew, not showing any emotion at all, and let him come to his own decision. As soon as he got off the bus, it was all planned out. She had written and destroyed several ways to tell him about his parents.
But, as usual, nothing worked out the way she wanted it to. As soon as she saw him, Meghan lost control of her tightly held sorrow. Babbling it all to him, what they knew for sure and what that would do to him should he have his parents back in his life, Nathan held her tightly as he too cried.
“I’ll let you do as you wish. I’m not saying that I won’t miss you terribly, but they’re your parents, and that’s all that you should think about. I won’t ask or beg you to stay. This is for you to decide, not me.” Nodding, Nathan held her, not saying anything. “I’ll let you think on it. And I want you to know, I will support you in anything you wish to do.”
Chapter 9
Ivy was exhausted. She’d had three back to back surgeries last night well into early this morning, and she wasn’t sure that she could hold a fork in her hand to feed herself, she was that tired. Standing under the spray in the bathroom, Ivy leaned against the wall, letting the warm water rain down over her body. It wasn’t until someone said her name that she realized that at some point she’d dozed off while standing up.
“Ivy are you all right?” She didn’t recognize the voice but knew that it had to be Adam. He’d called her earlier, just as she was closing up her last patient, and asked if he could do anything for her. “I brought you some breakfast and some hot tea from home. There is also a bag of apples and some juice cups here. Will you come out and eat?”
“Yes. I’m coming. I have to check on my patient, but I’ll be able to eat after that.” He told her that Evan was doing that, and that he was going home right after. “He’s so sweet. The car accident, did he tell you about it?”
Now she was drying off, her hair wrapped up in a large towel. Twice she had to remember if she’d brushed her teeth or not, and went ahead and did it anyway. Now she was debating if she could curl up under the sink and sleep until she didn’t hurt any more.
Adam came into the spacious room with her and sat on the commode while she tried to run a brush through her hair. Ivy was seriously tired. Not since she’d been in her last year of her residency had she felt like this. When he took the brush from her and sat her on the counter, Ivy leaned into him while he helped her get put together.
“I know you don’t like to know the names of the people you work on, so we’ll just have them numbered. Okay?” Nodding, she didn’t say anything as he hypnotically ran his fingers over her skull. “Number one is in intensive care but doing much better than expected. He is still on the vent, but Evan doesn’t think that he’ll be there for much longer.” When she nodded, he picked her up in his arms after finishing with her hair. “N
umber two has to be transferred to a bigger hospital that can care for his type of injury. The medic that was riding with him to OSU told Evan that the man had coded twice, and he didn’t expect him to make it there. Evan said that he’d let you know what happened after you got some rest. What happened to him?”
“A drunk driver took a turn too quickly and smashed the family’s car into a sidewalk full of people. Seven were killed, counting two children on the crosswalk and the family in the car. The drunk, of course, walked away without a scratch. The family of the man that we worked on were all killed because of him. Because instead of plowing into the sidewalk, he turned to avoid the children and put himself in the line of a semi-truck. The driver of the truck died too.” She looked at the food all laid out on her desk. “I’m so tired.”
“Number three didn’t make it.” She nodded—she would feel the pain of it later. As soon as she was on his lap, he picked up the fork and started filling it with the foods that she loved. “I have it on good authority that the drunk driver is going to prison. A friend of mine that works at the station said that he’s being charged with seven murders, and that he was going be spending a lot of time in prison. Number three, as I said, didn’t make it, but you’d prepared her family for that, so they are upset and devastated, but taking it better than anyone thought they would.”
“She was too heavy. And since she wasn’t doing much to take care of her weight or her diabetes, she didn’t stand a chance.”
“Evan said that he’d been telling her and her family for years that she needed to drop the weight. I guess you had as well.” She nodded and moaned when he put mashed potatoes and gravy in her mouth. “I’ve spoken to Meghan. She wanted me to tell you that she and Nathan have spoken about what is going on with his parents, and that he wants nothing to do with them. But, I’m to tell you that he’s going to talk to them. Meghan wanted me to thank you for telling her that would be better for them both.”
“He might change his mind later, and it wouldn’t do her a bit of good if he thought that she was keeping him from them—or worse yet, that she had lied to him about any of this.” When he pushed the plates away, she realized that she’d eaten all the food. “You’re too good to me, you know that, don’t you? I wouldn’t have done any of this for you.”
“Yes, you would have. But you would have made me feed myself and been a bully about it. How are you feeling right now, babe?” She told him that she hurt. “Yes. I talked to Evan. He said that you did such a wonderful job in the operating room that he almost forgot a couple of times that he was a doctor too. Said that you put him to shame in there.”
“I very much doubt he would allow me to put him to shame. He’s a glory hog, did you know that?” Adam pointed out that he’d grown up with Evan, so he knew that he could be selfish when there was praise handed out. “He’s a dream to work with. I’ve enjoyed it a great deal. Your brother is good at what he does too. Don’t let him tell you any differently.”
She must have dozed off. When she woke, Adam was holding her in his arms and sleeping too. Moving so as not to wake him, she got up and stretched. Adam laughed when she bent at the waist and touched her toes.
“Are you terribly tired?” Turning to glance at him, Ivy had to smile. The man was a wonder to her. He could bring her out of her bad mood when one struck her, or he could make her feel like the sexiest woman in the world with just the sound of his voice. “You keep looking at me like that and we’ll never make it home. And I have such plans for you when we get there.”
“Like what sort of plans? Are you going to make me scream out your name? Perhaps make me beg for more? What kind of things are you going to do to me?” Adam laughed and told her that she was a selfish lover. “You have no idea. I’d like nothing more than to sit on your naked cock and ride you until neither of us can walk.”
He unbuttoned his pants and pulled on the zipper slowly. Ivy’s mouth watered when he moved them down further on his thighs and stroked his cock through his boxers. It was the most frustrating and erotic thing she’d ever seen. Turning around to face him, she began telling him what she wanted to do to him while she too removed her clothing.
“You are going to scream out my name several times before I come myself. That’s the plan at least. You have a way about you that makes me melt when you touch me. My skin feels like it’s on fire when you blow your breath over me. And when you eat me, I cannot think beyond letting my body do what you want it to.” He pushed his boxers down over his cock, the tip leaking so badly now that she finished stripping and got down on her knees. “The thought of tasting you, having you fill my mouth, makes me so wet, Adam, that I could easily come right now, without you even touching me.”
Kissing just the tip of his engorged cock, she nearly came when he moaned, some of his warm liquid sliding across her lips as she licked him around the crown. Each sound that he made, every time he rose his hips up for her to take him deeper, Ivy felt her pussy gush with her cream, so much so that she had to touch herself for some relief, no matter how unfulfilling it was.
“Take me into your mouth, love. I want to feel what fire feels like. I want to fuck your mouth like I’m going to do your pussy. Then when I’m ready, I’m going to pull from your luscious mouth and cover your face and breasts with myself.” She moaned, her body on fire for what he said to her. And when she looked up at him, his cock in her mouth, she swallowed him down past the tightness of her throat.
Nothing could have prepared her for the feeling of him filling her mouth and her throat. She cried out around his cock, making him scream out her name over and over as he came.
Adam held her head to him, fucking her hard enough that she knew that her throat would be tender tomorrow. But she didn’t care—she loved this man, and no matter what he did to her, she’d gladly take it.
When he pulled from her mouth and tossed her to the floor onto her back, Adam went from male to cat in seconds. And when he clamped his sharp teeth into her belly, she screamed out not in climax, but in sickening pain. When she thought that she could take no more, he bit her hard into her shoulder. The bones breaking there had her sick with it. Ivy turned her head away and threw up on the carpet.
Dizzy now with pain, she felt him bite her thigh. At this point she wasn’t sure that she could have felt anything. The pain all over her body was too much to bear. Just as she was slipping into unconsciousness, she heard Adam telling her over and over how sorry he was. Ivy put her hand onto his large head as he deepened the bite at her thigh.
“It’s all right. I’m all right.” Ivy wasn’t sure that she was, but he was so upset that she couldn’t tell him that she thought for sure that she was going to die. “I love you so much, Adam. More than I think that my heart can hold at times.”
This time when she was sick, there was nothing left on her belly. Blood pooled at her navel, and her heart started to slow a little more with each beat. When her hand slipped from his head, she didn’t have the strength to lift it back up again and closed her eyes. Ivy loved Adam. And whatever he’d done to her just now, she knew that he’d never meant for her to hurt so badly. Then, closing her eyes, she was sure that she was dead, and she told him once again how very much she loved him.
~*~
Adam knew that his cat had to do this to her. He just wished that he would have listened to Evan and held off for a little while longer. They were to be married in the morning, and she was going to be very pissed at him because she wasn’t going to be up to making it. And his mom and dad would kill him. Christ, he was terrified.
He’d never changed anyone before. Not ever. While he knew that it was painful on the other half, there was also a slim chance that they wouldn’t survive it. When his cat let go of her leg, then himself, Adam held Ivy in his arms while rocking her back and forth.
“I’m sorry, love. I should have had more control over what he wanted. My cat loves you so much—so do I—but we both should have waited until we were wed, don’t you think?” He laughed a li
ttle. “You’re going to kick my ass when you wake up. And I’m going to let you. Although, I think that you’d do it anyway and make a good showing of putting me in my place, when I’m just sitting here whining like a big baby.”
Wrapping her up in the blanket that was lying across the back of the couch, he laid down with her and held her tightly to him. Adam wasn’t going to leave her, not now but he also didn’t want his family around. He loved them, but this, to him, was a private time between the two of them. It wasn’t until Dylan contacted him through their link that he remembered that he should have asked her permission before doing this.
Is Ivy all right? He told her that she was resting and that he was sorry. Don’t be. I’m glad you did it. She’s not in any kind of danger with this happening to the two of you. But I’m sure that sometime she’ll be thrilled to death later that you changed her. When she wakes up, let me know and we’ll have a large party.
Do you realize that she’s the first mate to come to us without any bad guys after her? And that she has all the issues that she might have had taken care of long before we met? Dylan laughed. I hope she finds what I’ve done to her just as funny as you think it is now.
She will. You have a very intelligent mate there, Adam. I do hope that you tell her how lucky you are to have her every day. He promised her that he would. Good. I do have some news for you. Nathan’s parents are in the local B&B. I’d like for you to also think about having that place that you and Evan are working on up and running soon. There are two more mates coming. And if the mates come here and the bad guys after them need a place to stay, perhaps we can get rid of them in our own setting and not mess up the bed and breakfast.
