Kaleb (Samuel's Pride Series) (15 page)

“
No. You were a pleasant surprise to us. Not at first mind you, but you have proven that you’re not like your sire.” She snorted. “I have insulted you?”

“Not really. I’m not at all like my father. Or at least I hope I’m not.”
She looked at the door when she realized how quiet it was. “Is he dead?”

“He is…he is not as he was before.
And no, my lady, you are nothing like the man who lays yonder.” When the door opened, Phillip stood back but said nothing as Kaleb staggered out. Phillip helped him to the kitchen, where he sat him down and handed him a bottle of beer.

“I’m guessing you’re with the witch?”
Phillip shook his head at Kaleb’s question. “Then what the hell are you doing here? I know you’re not human, and that would have been nice to know earlier.”

“
It was not my place to tell you. And I am not human, no. And the mistress of witchcraft did not send me, but her daughter did.” Phillip handed Kaleb an envelope as he continued. “She has been watching over you since the two of you met. There was a time when she despaired of you making it, but behold, you have proven over and over that you are a man of worth.”

“The
witch’s daughter.” Phillip nodded to her. “And your relationship with her is something more than her being your mistress.”

“It is. You are very smart. When the man named Horne calls you, we would like for you to say yes to his question. And I am her mate
, as I assume you have guessed.” It took Thor’s mind a few seconds to catch up. And when the phone rang, she looked at him. “You will tell him yes, my lady. It will be better for us all if you do.”

When she took the phone from him
, she looked at Kaleb. He and Phillip were talking about something. Mayor Horne asked her if she was all right.

“I’m fine. Some…we’re moving things around a little
bit here. New home and all. What can I do for you, sir?” She wanted to follow the men out of the room to see what was going on, but the house phone prevented her from doing that. Who the hell had a corded phone anymore anyway?

“I was wondering if you could come in and talk to me. I have a job I’d like to offer you
, and the sooner we get it taken care of the better. I need a man on the job I can depend on.” She started to tell him she wasn’t a man, but he continued before she could. “I want you to be the chief of police here. It would be something I believe you’d be good at.”

“Chief? What the hell happened to Anton? I though
t he was there until someone had to carry him out in a body bag.” When there was silence at the other end, she closed her eyes. “He died, didn’t he?”

“
Yesterday morning. He didn’t die with his boots on, so to speak, but he did go sitting at his kitchen table before coming in. I had no idea the man was so old. He would have been seventy-one on his next birthday.” Thor sat down on the chair, too shocked to try and stand any longer.

“I
can’t do that job. I’m not cut out to be in charge.” Mayor Horne laughed. “Well, I’m not. I’m more of a rebel-against-the-man sort of employee. Who would I have to bitch about if I’m the one in charge? You have to be able to think of someone else for the job.”

“No, you’re the first pick
, as well as the second and third.” He laughed again. “I would really like for you to think about it. The hours are long, the pay sucks, and we’ll be calling you all hours of the day and night. But the perks are, you’ll get to work with me for the next two years.”

They worked out a time for her to come in
, and she told him she’d have to talk it over with Kaleb. There were things he might know that would prevent her from doing the job. Being a bear that could shift into anything else might be just one of them. When he and Phillip came back into the room, Ana was sitting on Kaleb’s shoulder.

“We’ve taken care of the mess.” She started to ask about her father’s body but didn’t when he shook his head.
“I’m sorry, love. I know that you wanted to bury him in the backyard, but this way is much better. No one will ever come back on us about their deaths.”

“Langley is dead.” He nodded
, though she hadn’t asked him a question. “And now what? Do we go on as if they’ve never been born?”

“I would say that is the best way to do this.”
Phillip sat a tall glass of amber liquid in front of her. “You will need to drink more, my lady. There are things afoot that you’ll need your strength for. And the mayor, he will need you in the most fit shape you can be.”

“I
didn’t tell him I’d take the job.” He grinned at her, and she had a feeling that she and Phillip were going to butt heads a great deal if he’d remained as their butler for much longer. He was too stubborn. “And I’m not sure I will.”

She told Kaleb about the job offer and asked him what he thought about her being a bear and going to work with assholes. He laughed at her
, and she thought if she could work with him being an ass, she could more than likely handle about anyone. Kaleb was driving her nuts.

“You’ll be fine. And Phillip is right. You being on the force could be very helpful to us as weres. Not to mention you’ll get to kick some major ass when the mood suits you.”
Kaleb pulled her into his lap from her own chair as he nuzzled her neck. “I want you.”

Nodding
, she started to stand up when the phone rang again. Thor wanted to ask why they had one that didn’t allow movement when Phillip picked it up off the cradle and handed it to Kaleb. It was kind of creepy when he nodded at her and handed her another glass of the brown stuff.

“It’s a protein shake. It will keep you and your animals happy.” She started to shove it away. “It will also help you deal with them better.”

She got up off of Kaleb’s lap so she could speak to Phillip while Kaleb spoke to whoever he was talking to. “What do you mean, deal with them better? I think I have a handle on them.”

“You cannot control them as well as you’d like. I have seen you struggle with the animals when you’re tired or upset.” She nodded and played with the glass. “It is only honey and tea with some fruit in it. I have not put
anything in it that would harm either of you. Mr. Vicente drinks it, too.”

“I don’t know what I am.”
She looked up at him when he didn’t say anything. “I’ve brought this on to both of us. I’m not sure what we are and what we’re supposed to be.”

“You’re supposed to be Kaleb and Tania Jonas.
You should be welcomed wherever you go simply because of that, but it will be more because of the money you have. Lastly, and I believe you know this, you’re a select shifter.” Phillip sat down across from her when they moved to the dining room. “A select shifter means that you can take on the appearance of a shifter, yet you are so much more. Not like Mr. Hawk, but you can do things that other shifters cannot.”

Before she could ask him what Hawk was, Kaleb came into the room. He did not look to be very happy.
She glanced at Phillip when he left the room. Kaleb sat down and stared at the table for a long while before he spoke.

“Long ago there was an investment I made.
I made a great many of them over the years. Some would make money, some didn’t. I had plenty of time to recoup whatever I lost, and—”

“Just fucking get to it.”
He looked up at her and smiled. “I’m the type of person who wants the information and then details later. That way I can work through them easier. Spit it out, Jonas.”

“Our investment paid off. We just recouped nearly ninety billion dollars on a product that I own by selling it to a larger company.”
Thor sat there for several seconds, then got up and punched him in the nose.

Chapter 15

“Your increased pay will begin from the moment you started on this case. It will reflect any and all hospital stays as well as any vehicles that you needed to rent or ammo that you purchased.
There is no need for you to give us receipts. I trust you.” The mayor looked at him, and Kaleb smiled. The guy was good, he’d have to give him that. But he still hadn’t sold Thor yet.

“I want to be a stay
-at-home wife. I might even decide to open my own firm.” Horne looked at him again as if he could help him. “I have things I want to do for me.”

“You’d have time for that. Whatever you want.
We need you, Thor. The last administration…well, you know what they were about. The place is in need of a firm hand.” Horne looked down at his desk then up at her. “I could offer you more money.”

“Money is
not the issue.” And it wasn’t. Of course, it had taken Kaleb nearly all night to convince her of that, but she got it now. When she shifted on her seat and glared at him, he remembered how much fun he’d had in teaching her that lesson.

She’d ended up in the kitchen after she’d bloodied his nose. He wasn’t upset about it
, but it had hurt. When he picked her up by slinging her over his shoulder, he knew two things at once. He should have checked her for weapons, and he forgot she’d had a good deal more training than he had. Kaleb was suddenly looking up at her from the floor and she was over his body, holding him there with a knife to his throat.

“I don’t enjoy being tossed around like a sack of potatoes.”
Kaleb nodded and slowly moved his hands down to her hips until he could wrap his hands around her. “Behave. I’m pissed at you.”

“For making us rich?”
She nodded, then shook her head. “Or was it the way I delivered the information? Christ, do you have any idea how much I want you right now?”

He moved her down to his groin and rocked his hard cock up into her.
Her moan was all the encouragement he needed. Rolling her to her back, he settled between her legs.

“Why did you hit me?” Kaleb pulled her shirt up and then her bra. Taking her nipple into his mouth
, he nibbled on the tip until she was writhing beneath him. He looked at her when she hadn’t answered. “Thor, why did you hit me?”

“You pissed me off.
Please don’t stop. I want to come.” He took the nipple into his mouth again and toyed with it with his tongue while watching her face. This time when he lifted his head, she curled her fingers in his hair and pulled him back.

“How
did I piss you off? I only did what you asked me to do.” She growled, and he felt his cock thicken. “You like to give the order but when you don’t like the results, you get pissy. Why is that? Or does it have to do with our money?”

“Your money. That was yours long before you met me.” Kaleb rolled over and swatted her ass. “Ouch, that fucking hurt. What the hell? Are you trying to get me out of the mood?”

“I need only to touch you and you’re hot for me. And the money that I had before I met you now belongs to us both. All of it now and any we make in the future.” She didn’t answer him and he slapped her ass again. “Say it, Thor. Say that it’s our money.”

“I’m not stupid
, you know.” Kaleb was slightly confused by her hurt tone. “You’re going to say I have to report all spending to you and keep an accounting of it. I won’t have anyone tell me how I spend my money, so you can keep yours and I’ll make my own way.”

“Who did this to you?” She flushed and
started to move off him. “No, you’ll tell me the name of the bastard who put you on a budget and monitored your…Christ, you father did that?”

“He never had any money. But I did it to myself.” She flushed again, a deeper red than he’d ever seen.
“I know it sounds stupid, but I didn’t have anything growing up, so I put myself on a budget, a very strict one that kept me with money in the bank in the event that I needed it. I sometimes would go without food if something came up that I hadn’t expected.”

“Like giving money to your father.” Thor nodded.
“Did you ever buy things for yourself? Something that you didn’t need, just wanted?”

“
No. I didn’t want to put myself in a position where money was an issue.” She had, but he didn’t say anything. “I had to make sure that no matter what happened, I could still pay my bills without depending on someone else.”

“Money
is no longer an issue.” She shook her head, and he smacked her ass again. He thought maybe he was enjoying this a little too much when a tear rolled down her cheek. “Honey, I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t know if you’re going to keep me.”
His heart took a hard twist when she laid her head on his chest and sobbed. Kaleb had never had a woman he loved so much, who could even kick his ass, be so insecure of herself before. Not sure what to say to her, he held her until she stopped crying.

“I love you.”
Thor didn’t say anything, so he continued. “I love you with all my life. I would die for you, I would kill for you.”

“I’m not all that special.”
He chuckled and her head came up. “What’s so funny about that?”

“You’re very special.
I mean, look at you. Here you are lying right over top of me and you’ve got me hard as a rock. Yet I’m too worried about hurting you when I know for a fact that you have a gun in your pants, a knife in the top of your boot, as well as any number of things over your body that you could use to hurt me.” He pulled her down for a quick kiss. “And you should also know that as of the moment you moved in here, I’ve had the house and all my accounts put into your name as well. Tania Jonas, I mean. So you’ll have to marry me soon.”

“I’m not sure how to be rich and idle.”
Thor moved down his body, kissing any area that she exposed with her nimble fingers. “I guess I could learn how. Do you suppose people with a shit ton of money have sex wherever they want?”

“If they d
on’t, then they don’t deserve to be rich.” Thor sat up and moved her fingers over his pants, and in seconds had his jeans opened. “Thor, if you touch me right now, you’d better be prepared to have sex right here. I’m not going to move once you—”

Kaleb looked at the person touching his arm.
He was ready to snarl at them when he realized he had no idea where he was right now or who the person in front of him was. When someone said his name, he looked to his right. Thor was grinning at him. She’d been trying to bring him around.

“Where did you go?”
She smiled at him as if she already knew. “The mayor is asking you a question.”

“You’re going to pay for this.”
She laughed at him through their connection, and he looked at Horne. “I’m sorry. I was thinking about a few deals that I left unattended this morning. What is it you said?”

“Thor said that you’re going to
help her run her investigative firm. I was wondering if you could talk her into helping us out when we need her.” Kaleb didn’t even look in her direction, afraid she’d make him laugh. “She’s a hell of a detective, and we need more like her on our force.”

“I don’t think we’ll have a problem helping you out
, but our own customers must come first.” He had no idea if they would ever have any customers or what they’d do with them once they did, but Horne seemed satisfied.

After a few more minutes
, they were standing in the elevator. Thor was leaning against the wall across from him and he could see that something was bothering her. Before he could ask, someone came into the cell with them. He reached for her mentally.

“What happened while I was thinking of you naked with my cock in your mouth?”
She looked at him and he wasn’t sure she was going to answer, but when she did, all he could think about was shoving the person out at the next stop and taking her to the floor.

“I was thinking about how I could get you naked and your cock in my mouth. And how
quickly I could make you come.”
When the doors opened, he grabbed her hand and nearly ran out of the building. Her laughter made him smile, but when they got to the limo, he shoved her in the back seat and told Phillip to simply drive until he told him otherwise. The faerie was laughing when he got back into the driver’s side.

She was pulling off her shirt when he got in beside her.
He pulled his tie off and tossed it to the floor while she stripped off her skirt. Christ, he was never going to make it. When she lay there in her thigh-high stockings, bra, and panties, he told her to stop.

“My turn.”

~~~

Thor watched him move to her and
felt her body respond to it. She’d been so wet in the mayor’s office that she was sure that she was going to ruin his seat. For some reason the thoughts of Kaleb leaning her over the desk and taking her hard from behind would not go away. And when she’d noticed that he had that dazed look on his face, Thor knew his thoughts were the same.

Kaleb licked her ankle and she nearly came up off the seat. When he nipped at her calf
, she moaned and wanted to close her eyes against the overwhelming emotions that flooded her. But watching him move up her body to where she wanted him most was too much fun. He closed his mouth over her thigh. She cried out when he bit her. Not from pain but from the small orgasm that hit her.

“You’re so wet I can almost taste you going down the back of my throat.”
She moaned again as he continued. “I’m going to drink my fill before I fuck you hard. Then if you’re a really good girl, I’ll turn you over and fuck you like an animal.”

“Please.” She wanted it all and he seemed to know it. His fingers slid under the elastic of her pantie
s and her breath caught when he teased her. As soon as his finger entered her, she started riding him up and down.

“You like this
, don’t you?” All she could manage was a hissed approval. “I love the way you ride me. The way you scream when you come.”

His mouth replaced his finger and she cried out his name.
The way he ate at her made stars dance behind her closed eyes. Curling her fingers into his hair, she opened her legs wider for him and let him have her.

Kaleb lifted her up by her ass and looked
down at her as he devoured her. With only her shoulders touching the seat, she could reach him. Wrapping her hand around his cock, she moaned when she felt the stream of precum fill her hand. Moving up and down his shaft, she knew that as soon as she came, he was going to join her. But she wanted his cock inside of her when he did.

“Fuck me.” He growled at her
but never stopped fucking her with his tongue. “Kaleb, fuck me. I want to feel your cock inside of me when we come.”

He didn’t so much as move her as he jerked her to him and slammed her
down over his cock. Riding him fast, she picked up a rhythm that had her grinding her clit against his body every time she moved. Kaleb grabbed her hips and pulled her tighter and tighter against him with each stroke. She nearly screamed when he nuzzled her throat and bit down. Her climax ripped from her on another scream until her vision was pinpoints of light. As soon as he rolled her to her back and started to pound into her, she ran her nails down his back and felt the slick heat of his blood.

“Come.”
He lifted his head and looked at her with blood on his mouth. “Come for me. Come now.”

Her body came apart several times as she did what he commanded of her. Shattering again when he sucked hard at her throat
, she nearly passed out when she bit him. As soon as his blood filled her mouth, she came again, this time losing the battle with consciousness. Everything blacked out the moment she sealed the wounds.

When she woke
, she was in bed. Kaleb was sitting in the window seat that looked over the backyard. As soon as she sat up, he turned to look at her. Smiling, she motioned for him to come to her.

“If I do
, then we’ll never leave this room. And, frankly, you’ve scared me enough for one day. I thought I broke you.” She looked out the window and saw that it was dark. He laughed when she asked him what time it was. “Nearly midnight. You’ve been out for nearly fourteen hours. I was so afraid that I called Samuel. And so you know, he’s not welcome here anymore.”

Laughing
, she got up, just noticing that she was wearing one of Kaleb’s shirts. “What on earth did he do?”

“He said I had killed you and
proceeded to tell me the way I was going to be punished. It might have worked had he not burst out laughing when I asked him if I could take your body with me. Bastard.” Thor could see Samuel doing that. “He thinks he’s so fucking funny. I was sitting here thinking of ways to get back at him. I think I might have the perfect plan.”

“I’m sure
you set him straight.” Kaleb laughed and nodded. “What did you do to him? Something that is going to piss Kennedy off. She can be very protective of her mate when she needs to be.”

Thor sat on the window seat beside him.
Kaleb pulled her to him and sat her onto his lap with a short “behave yourself.” She settled in and watched the deer she thought he’d been looking at as they romped in the yard below them.