by E A Price
“It is him,” called a young blonde woman, “oh god, he’s probably here for me!” She fanned herself as her date put an arm around her and gazed at Marcus with loathing.
His snake rumbled in annoyance. “Enough,” he shouted, “I am not the Blind Date Killer, I am a bail bond agent, and I am here to take this gentleman back to jail for skipping his court date.”
“That’s exactly what he’d say if he were the Blind Date Killer!” exclaimed a middle-aged, balding man.
Marcus rolled his eyes. These people were idiots. Roughly he grabbed the camel and started pulling him to the exit.
“Stop him! He’s getting away!”
The next thing Marcus knew, he was being tackled by about ten off-duty police officers. Apparently, one of the rooms at Henry’s was booked out for a cop’s retirement party. While Marcus was being drowned under a ton of burly cops, Norman took the opportunity to scarper. Unfortunately, none of the cops took it into their heads to give chase.
Marcus spent the next few hours in a cold holding cell, until, finally, Detective Leeman was able to spring him. By that point, Marcus was fuming; the lion shifter found the situation hilarious.
Marcus checked in with Jackson and Logan; they were scouting the possible churches/farms where the python might be hiding.
He, on the other hand, decided to check in on Ling.
*
Marcus related an edited version of the events to Ling, and she tried, unsuccessfully, not to laugh.
“Sounds like you’ve had a busy day,” she said in between guffaws.
Marcus scowled at her as his beast rumbled. “I’m glad you find the situation amusing, after last night, I don’t find any of this funny.”
Ling sobered and carefully climbed on his lap. She kissed him and sighed. “I know, but if I didn’t laugh, I’d cry.”
Marcus hung his head. “I’m sorry; you’re in danger because of me.”
Ling nipped his ear and let out a tiny growl that sent blood rushing to his groin at an unbelievable rate. “It’s not your fault.”
She started pulling at his shirt buttons excitedly when her mother burst into the bedroom. She took in the scene on the bed and clucked her tongue. “I just wanted to know if the two of you would like some coffee.”
Marcus smiled graciously as his snake snapped his jaws at the interloper. “Yes, please.”
Fang’s jaw ticked and unwillingly she left the room, leaving the door open.
Ling groaned and rested her head on his shoulder. His chest shook with laughter. “It’s like you’re 18 again, huh?”
“Hardly, no boy saw the inside of this bedroom when I was living here. None of them dared to make it past my mother.”
“I’m honored to be the first.”
Ling smiled naughtily. “Well…”
“Ling, Marcus, coffee’s ready,” called Fang.
Ling grunted in annoyance. “We better go or she’ll just come up here.”
Marcus gave her a quick kiss before lifting her up and leading her back downstairs.
Chapter Fifteen
Ling remained painfully still as her door opened, and someone crept into her room. She felt her desire kindle as they carefully slid under the covers and brought their hands around her body to caress her breasts.
“Mmmm, about time,” she murmured. She’d been waiting for this moment for over two hours. She’d gone to bed naked in anticipation.
Marcus chuckled softly. “I had to wait until your parents fell asleep. Your mother was watching reruns of Castle for ages.” Her parents hadn’t seen him, but Shuang had passed him in the hall and gave him a knowing wink.
After a lengthy debate between Ling and Fang, it was agreed that Marcus could stay the night. The alternative was for Ling to go back to Marcus’ apartment because he refused to leave her. Ling was all for that, but Fang wouldn’t hear of it. Instead, Marcus was relegated to the guest room. Ling gave him express instructions to come to her room as soon as possible.
She groaned lightly as one hand cupped her mound. “I don’t care whether they know you’re in here.”
He flourished kisses on her shoulder and pressed against her body; his hot erection nestled between her buttocks. “I don’t want you to get in trouble,” he breathed in between kisses.
“Ooohhhh, I’m 28, it’s far too late for me to be a good girl now.”
She reached behind her and grasped his manhood, gently stroking him. She delighted in feeling him grow even bigger and harder in her hand.
Marcus grunted as he tried to stave off his own mounting arousal. He massaged her heavy breasts with one hand as the other sought her core. She moaned sweetly as she rolled her hips against him and her small hand rhythmically squeezed him.
He couldn’t wait any longer; with a rumbling growl he removed his hand from her sex and knocked hers away from his. He gripped her thigh, pushing it up against her chest, opening her to him, and slowly, he thrust inside her.
Ling smothered a squeal of pleasured shock as she felt every inch pushing inside her, parting her inner walls; he felt even bigger than before. With an effort, he held still inside her; his body trembled as he allowed her time to adjust. When he felt her contract her muscles around him, he began taking her with long, languorous strokes.
Ling covered his hands with hers and reveled in the feelings he incited as he rocked in and out of her body. God, she needed this. She couldn’t believe how little time had passed since they were last together. It had been far too long. She needed to be with him; she needed his talented hands on her body and his gorgeous member inside her. She needed this man who could be domineering and forceful, yet so tender and loving. She needed him now and forever. She needed him to be her mate.
The realization sent her over the edge; a powerful orgasm unexpectedly wracked her body, and she slapped her hands over her mouth to stop the ecstatic scream that yearned to escape. Her panda let out her little roar of satisfaction.
On feeling her body tightening and shuddering around her, Marcus drove himself inside her and tensed as he found his own release. He buried his mouth in her shoulder to stop himself from roaring as he clutched her body to his. His snake rumbled in satisfaction.
As they recovered, he loosened his grip on her, and his softening member slid from her body. She mewled at the loss but was pleased to feel him lying behind her, spooning her.
Ling dozed; her panda started to drift into peaceful sleep. Just laying in his arms made everything better and made her forget the outside world.
Marcus stroked her arm; being with her was soothing, but it didn’t completely take the edge off. His jaw ticked as he tried to control the urge to shift. Perhaps he just needed a little reassurance. “Do I have to worry about Myron or Robert?”
Her eyes snapped open, and she quickly twisted in his arms, so they were facing each other. At first his face looked blank, as usual, but on inspection she detected the worry and anger there. She was getting better at reading him.
“No, absolutely not.”
His eyebrow twitched. “But they’re not completely gone from your life.”
Ling sighed and curled her body into his. “Sadly, I don’t think Robert ever will be; he works with my brother and plays golf with daddy. As for Myron, eventually he’ll take the hint and stop calling. Either that or I need to change my number, move house and take on a new identity.”
“How about Mrs. Blau?”
Her panda was startled awake. She pulled back to look at him; the heat and intensity of his eyes told her he wasn’t kidding. “You really want to marry me?”
“Yes, I do,” he replied without hesitation. Vaguely, he was aware of all the vows he had made after he lost Kelly, but he didn’t care. Ling was his mate, and he was damned if he was ever letting her go. His snake would never allow it; he wanted her bonded and married to him. The sooner, the better.
Ling beamed and her panda pranced around like a lovesick puppy. “I’d be honored,” she answered truthfully. “I love you, and I want you
to be my mate.”
“I love you too,” he said, his voice laced with the heavy feelings of his heart. He looked down in embarrassment, “Although, I am sorry I didn’t choose a more romantic setting to ask you.”
“I think this is plenty romantic, and it’s very ‘us.’”
He quirked an eyebrow. “Us?”
“Yes, spontaneously romantic. We haven’t exactly had a normal relationship so far, but then it has only been a few days.”
Marcus ran a thumb over her cheek. “You don’t think it’s too quick?”
Ling fluttered her eyelashes. “Ten seconds after we met wouldn’t have been too quick for me.”
He gave her a warm smile before seeking her hand and pulling her fingers to his lips. “When this is all over, I am going to get you a beautiful engagement ring, that will not do you justice, but then nothing can compare to you.”
“Awww, you’re such a sweetie.”
Marcus snorted. “I am not a sweetie.”
Ling wrinkled her nose prettily as her panda yipped. “To me you are, don’t worry, it can be our little secret. But you don’t have to get me a ring – it’s not important.”
“To me it is,” he told her firmly, “I want everyone to know you belong to me.”
Ling heard the trace of hurt in his steely voice and wondered at it. She had wondered about what Madame Valeria had said to him the day before, but of course, more recent events had distracted her. She pulled his hand to her heart. “Marcus, is there anything you want to tell me about? Maybe about your wife?”
Marcus’ face turned stony, and her panda cowered a little. She almost told him to forget it, and that it wasn’t important. But that would be cowardly; if they were going to be together forever, she needed to know the truth. He knew about her past relationships – cheating, sleazy ex-husband, married, cheating, sleazy boss… She needed to know if he was holding onto something.
He tried to pull his hand away from hers, but she wouldn’t let go. She only had a small beast, but she could be pretty darn tenacious when she wanted to be. “It’s not important,” he mumbled, looking away from her.
Ling gently drew his face to look at hers. “It is important, and I want to know. There’s nothing you can tell me that will make me think less of you.”
Marcus huffed. She said that now… His snake urged him to tell her, to bare his soul to her, and with a worried heart he did.
“My late wife, Kelly, we met when I was running my family’s club, and I fell for her, hard. We got married quickly and for a while things were generally okay. I was more possessive of her than she was used to; she’d only been with humans before me, but I think it flattered her at first. I knew she wasn’t my true mate, but it didn’t make a difference. Kelly was human, and she didn’t want to blood bond, and I was fine with that. But I don’t know, after a while, I guess being married to a shifter wasn’t as much fun as she thought it would be. She started staying out late with her friends, and my beast…” He exhaled deeply, “My beast became even more possessive, always wanting to know where she was and who she was with, every second of the day. That just made it worse, she started refusing to tell me, and my beast was filled with rage at her.”
“It got to the point where she couldn’t even leave the house without us screaming at each other. I couldn’t take it anymore, so I started following her. I was out of control with jealousy by then. And at that point, I’m not even sure I loved her anymore, I’m sure she didn’t love me. Eventually, I caught her with another man and I… I…” He shook his head bitterly. “I beat the hell out of the guy, I almost killed him. I was lucky that he didn’t want to press charges; he didn’t want his wife to find out how he got hurt.”
Marcus snorted derisively. “He wanted to pretend it was a gang who picked on him at random. But obviously, after that, Kelly and I, we weren’t together.”
Her panda whimpered for their mate. “Marcus, I’m sorry.”
“I don’t blame Kelly; I don’t think we were well suited. I worse I got, the more she tried to antagonize me. We should have just broken up when we got bored of each other, but, sadly, we didn’t.”
“But I thought that…” How could she phrase it? Carly told me you nursed your sick wife while she was dying?
“When Kelly was ill, I was technically still her husband, and she was living in our house. She reached out to me to get her will in order, and so I decided to help look after her. She didn’t have any family, and I wanted to help her as much as I could to make up for how badly things had ended between us. We became friends, and I am sorry she’s gone. We made much better friends than we did lovers.”
Marcus was silent. Jeez, he hadn’t said so much all at once in years.
Ling kissed his neck. “Thank you for telling me.”
Marcus closed his eyes as his beast rumbled unhappily at what he was about to say. “Kelly was the only real relationship I ever had, and I’m just worried that the same thing will happen with you.”
“It won’t.” Her panda agreed emphatically with that.
Marcus shook his head. “Most of the time I can control him, but I don’t have a quiet beast. If I thought I was losing you to someone else, I don’t know what I’d do.”
“Marcus, I can’t promise that I will be a perfect angel or that our relationship will be easy, but I can promise that I won’t cheat on you. Trust me, I’ve been on the receiving end of that, and it’s not something I would ever put you through. You have my heart, now and forever.”
He ran his hands down her back as his snake preened. “How did I get so lucky in finding you?”
“Hmmm, ask me again when you take a look at my credit card bills and my pitiful savings account.”
Marcus chuckled. “Dang, and I thought I was marrying you for your money.”
“Just remember, when we’re married, my debt becomes our debt,” she murmured sleepily.
“I can’t wait, beautiful.”
Chapter Sixteen
Breakfast the next day was fairly similar to dinner the previous evening. Her family was still quite wary and tongue-tied around the snake shifter. Except now, her sister was smirking at her and her mother was glowering. They both knew what she and Marcus had been up to during the night. Her father looked the same. Ling looked at him fondly; he never knew what was going on.
“May I look at the newspaper after you?” Marcus politely asked her father.
He blinked owlishly and thrust the paper in Marcus’ direction. “Please, take it.”
Ling rolled her eyes in mock annoyance. “Daddy, he meant after you’re finished.”
Marcus graced her family with a killer smile. “Of course, I don’t want to impose.”
Fang clucked her tongue, and Ling was quick to reassure him it was no imposition.
Marcus’ phone chirruped, and he excused himself to answer. He came back a few moments later; at first glance, he seemed fine, but Ling detected the note of worry on his face.
“Has something happened?” she asked.
“I need to get going,” he replied, smoothly dodging her question. “Thank you all for your hospitality.”
Her father quickly twittered that it was their pleasure, and her mother reluctantly murmured her agreement.
Ling walked Marcus out and was surprised to see her bear cop guard had been replaced by a female coyote. No wonder Shuang hadn’t been popping outside every five minutes.
She leaned against his car door. He reflected that she looked sexy stretching herself out under the early morning sun, but he realized she was only doing it to block his way. “Has something happened?” she asked again, a little more forcefully this time.
Marcus took her face in his hands and gave her a soft kiss; both she and her panda swooned. “We’ll talk later. I love you; I’ll call you and stay safe.”
Ling suddenly found herself watching Marcus drive away. Damnit! How the heck had he managed that? Sneaky, hypnotic snake!
*
Marcus chuckled as
he saw Ling’s irritated frown in the mirror. She wasn’t happy with being left behind, or being stuck with her mother all day, and he could understand why. He wasn’t happy about being apart either, but it was safer than her being with him.
He was sure they were making progress in finding the python, but it hadn’t deterred him. Detective Leeman had called a few minutes ago to inform him that someone set fire to Ling’s house last night. Whoever it was didn’t do a good job, the fire petered out in her living room. It might need some work, and she would probably have to get rid of a number of her possessions, but the damage wasn’t too bad.
Still, he could only be calm about it because Ling wasn’t in her house at the time. Surely the python shifter would have realized that at the time, but then maybe he was just doing it to piss Marcus off. It was working.
The sooner he was found, the sooner Ling was safe and the sooner they could get married and bond. His snake hissed in happiness. Soon, she would be theirs. He couldn’t wait.
*
The day was passing interminably slowly for Ling. She tried to persuade her family to continue on with their normal lives, as if Ling’s wasn’t in danger, but they wouldn’t hear of it. They were determined to stay home and keep her company. It was torturous.
Marcus called a few times, and that was a welcome relief. He wouldn’t tell her anything about what he was doing, but hearing his voice was lovely.
She started wondering about their wedding. Would he want a big wedding? She doubted it. She was pretty sure that he would be happy with a wedding at City Hall and a wedding reception in their bedroom - where they were the only guests. Actually, she could get on board with that. Her wedding to Robert had been enormous; it had been a chance for him to show off to his business associates. The fact that she hadn’t even enjoyed her own wedding day really should have tipped her off that the marriage was not built to last.
Hmmm, would Marcus want to live at her house, or would she move into his apartment? She should probably get a look at it before she made a decision. It seemed unlikely that Marcus would want to live at her house; after all, it had been the house she shared with Robert. Marcus was the sort of guy who would get jealous about that. Not that she minded really. If the situation were reversed, she couldn’t promise that she wouldn’t react in the same way.