by Kathi Barton
“All right. Lily Donaldson is in jail. She has a trial date set for some time after the new year. I’m thinking that they want to gather up as much as they can, simply to make a better case. That’s what I’d do.” He asked her what she thought was going to happen to her. “Don’t know for sure, but a lot of people want her hung out to dry. Most of the board too. By the way, not only are your parents staying on the board, they’ve been asked to find trustworthy men and women to be there too.”
“So, this is done?” Carter told him that she thought it was only the start. “What do you mean? You think they’ll find more shit out about this place?”
“Could be, but I doubt it. But what I meant was, there will be a good many other hospitals that will be taking better care with their staff. No one wants the president and future president coming in and taking over.” Adrian could imagine that. He laid his head back and closed his eyes. “Adrian, you need to be aware that you’re going to have to start beefing up your security. I know that you can take care of yourself, but you’d be better off having men around you that you can trust. And soon.”
“You can be in charge of it. You and the rest of the Whitfield women. Not my mom though. She’ll have me wearing protective gear all the time. And my mate, if she comes around, won’t be able to find me.” They were all laughing when he got out of the car at his home.
Adrian wanted to just go in, get into his bed, and forget the day. But he’d promised Adam that he’d help him get the soil ready for the peas that they planted each year in late winter. His mom could make the best creamed peas that were ever made, as far as he was concerned.
He waited for his brother to come by for an hour. Adrian didn’t want to call him out, tell him about schedules, so he didn’t. Adam wouldn’t miss working with him unless it was an emergency. With a new mate, he’d bet his last dollar that she was the reason that he wasn’t showing up. And Adrian didn’t even care. He was too exhausted to do much of anything right now.
Going into the house, stripping down as he made his way up the stairs, Adrian thought for sure that he could very easily sleep for a month. Not even bothering with putting on his lounge pants, he fell into the bed. Whatever happened for the rest of the day, he was officially done.
Closing his eyes, he didn’t even feel sleep come over him. It was like he’d been hit by a freight train and it had knocked him out. His last thought was, if only being governor affected him like this, he could only imagine what being president would bring to him.
~*~
Adam was losing ground every day, it seemed lately. Just yesterday he’d meant to put in an order and had completely forgotten it. The seeds that he was going to plant for fun weren’t a big deal to not have for one more day, but he hated to not have his ducks in a row. Bending over his paperwork again, he looked up when he heard someone. Ivy was standing there, leaning against the door.
“Are you busy?” He started to tell her how frustrated he was with himself when she continued. “Yesterday I had a little talk with your family. They are blunt and right to the point, aren’t they? Anyway, I was going to talk to you about it last night, but I was on call and had to leave you.”
“What sort of bluntness was it?” Instead of answering him, she took a step toward him, pulling her blouse up and over her head. Then she dropped it to the floor. “I see. I’m assuming it was one of my brothers’ mates that you spoke with.”
“Yes. I guess that everyone knows what you did with me in the kitchen. I didn’t know.” By now she was kicking her shoes off, along with her pants. “I’m thinking that we should get some things straight, don’t you?”
“Yes. No. I have no idea. The moment that you took your blouse off, I couldn’t hear any more.” Ivy asked him if he needed a doctor. “Yes. I mean, if you’re meaning like I think you are, then yes, I very much need medical help.”
Adam stood up when she stood in the middle of the room. He wanted to rush her, to knock her to the floor and take her. But this was a game, a tease for them both, and Adam was thrilled to death to be playing with her. He took his belt off. Then he ripped off the T-shirt that he’d been wearing.
“You’ve put me through the ringer. I’ve wanted to take you, in any way that you’d allow me to, since I met you.” Her body warmed at his words—he could smell every part of her body lusting for his. Instead of going to her, doing anything to her, he needed to know why she was doing this. “I’ve been thinking of making love to you for several days. The thought of having you naked beneath me, having you scream out my name—”
“No, that’s not what I want.” His heart seemed to come to a screeching halt. Even his breath had soured in his lungs, his disappointment was so keen. “There isn’t any reason that you can’t be beneath me, is there? Unless you want to do this your—”
“No! I mean, no. I don’t want to do it my way. I’ll do whatever you wish.” She nodded and came closer to him. “You have no idea how much I’ve needed you. I wanted to give you time to trust me but taking cold showers several times a day was getting hard to explain. Especially since I’m not—”
“Adam, shut up.” His teeth came together so hard that he felt like his teeth had nearly shattered. “Strip for me. Then I want you to sit at your desk. In your chair. I’ve never done this before, so if it’s wrong, you’ll let me know, right?”
“Nothing you could do to me from this moment on could ever be wrong.”
He stepped back around his desk. When he seated himself, Adam had to stand again to adjust his cock twice. He’d never been so hard nor so aroused in his life. Adam remembered that she’d told him to strip, and he peeled his pants off, as well as his shoes and socks, in one motion. Looking up when she said his name, Adam swallowed twice, then two more times before he trusted himself to speak and not beg. Ivy was naked. And his.
“You are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. If I were to go blind at this moment, the memory of you standing before me like this would be all that I needed to sustain me for the rest of my days.” She flushed, her cheeks pinking up so much that her freckles disappeared. “I love you, Ivy Walton Whitfield. Take me.”
She sat on his desk and he wanted to take her then, shove everything off, uncaring of whatever broke, just to taste her. Instead he smoothed his hands over her skin. The warmth of her calves, her toes, even her knees made him harder still. At this rate he’d be dead, with only a smile on his face for others to wonder about.
It took her several moments to get where she seemed to be most comfortable. Adam had been told no less than a dozen times to keep his hands to himself. It was dizzying to watch her and not be able to touch her. When she leaned back on his desk, mindful of his paperwork, he looked her in the eyes as he slid his hand down her inner thigh.
Sliding his finger into her heat had her screaming out his name, coming so hard that Adam could feel her tightening around his finger. Leaning over her, inhaling her scent that would be his for a lifetime, Adam licked her from gate to nubbin. She gave him the richness of her body and he was able to taste her nectar while it flooded his mouth. Adam needed her, but first, he wanted her peaking several times more times yet. Then she screamed for him.
He couldn’t wait. Couldn’t be satisfied with just tasting her. Adam stood up and lifted her by her lovely ass, and Ivy wrapped her legs around him as he took her to the wall. Falling to the floor, he rolled to take most of it. Adam looked up at her as she sat up, her legs around his hips.
“I want to ride you.” Adam nodded. “Help me, Adam. I’m in agony just thinking about how you’re going to fill me. Bring me again and again. Then I want to bite you, draw your blood into mine.”
Helping her to rise up over him, Adam was nearly cross-eyed when she started to slide down his cock. Every time she had a tiny, heart stopping climax, he would too. There was more to come and he could not wait to have her—
“Holy Christ, that’s it.” He held her hips while she rode him. Adam couldn’t breathe well, couldn’t think beyo
nd what she was doing to him. And when she leaned down, her breast touching his chest, he held her there and took her mouth.
He kissed her savagely, leaving her no doubt that he hungered for her, needed her so badly. And when she offered her neck to him, her hand pulling on his nipple, Adam bit down just as she sank her teeth into his shoulder. Christ, he thought, she had actually killed him.
Adam cried out, his climax surpassing any he’d had before. Even the feeling of her coming around him had him holding her slim body to his. Rolling her to her back, he took her much harder than he had thought he would, pounding her with his body brutally. And when his body came again, with him thinking that saying he was coming with his mate seemed so mundane for how he felt, Adam bit her again, this time so deeply that he heard bones breaking, felt her blood fill him to the point of being giddy with her offering.
“Again, Adam. Please, I beg of you, make me come again.”
He didn’t think he had it in him. As it stood now, he wasn’t sure that he could even walk. But not wanting to disappoint his Ivy, Adam took her breast into his mouth even as he made love to her slowly this time. He wanted to satisfy her, make her know that he wasn’t a brute, but someone that loved her dearly, worshipped her like none other. And when he kissed her once more, taking his time with reaching the darkest, richest part of her mouth, she moaned. Adam even enjoyed the taste of that small thing, knowing that he was the happiest man alive.
Ivy came three times as he made love to her. She was so responsive, so loving. And when he felt his own release racing over him, he kissed her again, felt her nails dig deeply into his flesh.
Realizing that he’d passed out, whether from exhaustion or just simply the best sex that he’d ever had, Adam woke to find that at some point, he’d rolled to his back, and Ivy was atop him with a lap blanket from the sofa pulled over the two of them. Holding her, hearing her heart beating, her breaths blowing gently over his naked flesh, Adam closed his eyes and held her. When his brother nudged at his mind, Adam told Blake to go away, to leave him to his peace.
I’d like to, big brother, but I have something I need your help on. It’s concerning something I found out about the woman that came to your house blaming you for the boy, Nathan. His name is Nathan Hitchcock. Parents are Welham and Evelyn Hitchcock. The kidnapper is Shelby Crock. He asked him if it could wait. I would like to tell you that it could, but I’m afraid that it can’t. She’s out now—on bail, apparently—and no one knows how that came to happen. Also, about the little boy; his parents have taken him to the hospital and left him there. I haven’t figured out why they did such a thing, or where they are now. The house is being packed up. The drivers of the rigs have very little information other than that they were told to pack up the house and to donate it all to the local charities. One of them even asked me if they could take what they wanted of it first. I had no idea what to tell him, so I thought I’d contact you.
Okay, good to know. But what does that have to do with me? I mean, I don’t have any idea where they’ve gone either. Blake said that he knew that. I have a feeling that you’re trying very hard to give me time to absorb something. Tell me, Blake.
Nathan tried to kill himself last night. He was staying with his parents, of course, but when they dropped him off at the hospital, I guess they told him that he wasn’t wanted. He asked him how he’d done it. Sheets tied together so that he could hang himself in the bathroom. If it hadn’t been for the nurses coming on duty, he might well have died. They were doing a bed check for the next shift and had started with his room, rather than end with it. I guess they have a routine they follow, and they broke it and ended up in his room just in time.
Adam didn’t want to do it, but he woke Ivy. After telling her what had happened, she got up and started pulling on her clothing. He put on what was left of his—his shirt was torn to shreds, and he could only find one of his socks.
“Has anyone talked to him about what he did?” Adam said that he didn’t know and asked Blake. No, he said. No one had been in to see him, as he was still in intensive care. “I’m going to call Meghan. One of her many job choices was being a social worker. She was really good at it but frustrated by the red tape that came with the job. And I have a minor in psychopathology that I think might be able to help him as well.”
“If you think that she can help him, I’ll have one of my brothers pick her up and she can meet us at the hospital.” Ivy told him that she thought that her sister was the best. “Good. I’ll have Blake call her and then pick her up.”
He remembered that he was to have met his brother at the farm to get the furrows ready for winter seeding things. Embarrassed by having to tell him that he was sorry, Adam was also happy as hell that Ivy had come to be his mate in all ways today.
By the time they got to the hospital, not only had Blake spoken to Meghan, he’d also beaten them there. They were waiting by the desk when he and Ivy made their way to the children’s care unit on the third floor. The plan was to move him to the fourth, where they were better equipped to handle this sort of thing. Ivy didn’t want that to happen. She worried a great deal about his safety.
Being a doctor of good standing and one of the family members that had brought order to the place, she was given permission to take her sister with her as she went to examine the young boy. Adam and Blake sat in one of the many chairs in the waiting room. Adam had a feeling this was going to take a while and leaned his head back against the wall. Blake did the same, not wanting to abandon him or Nathan.
Chapter 7
Ivy knocked on the door. No one answered her, so she moved into the room with her sister. The little boy on the bed wasn’t moving, not even to look to see who had entered the room with him. She could almost taste the pain on Nathan. And that wasn’t even taking into account his injuries from his thankfully failed attempt to take his own life.
“Hello. My name is Ivy Whitfield.” That had him looking at her, more than likely remembering the name of his rescuer. “This is my sister, Meghan. We’ve just heard that your parents left you here. I’m sorry for that. Is there anything that I can do for you? I’d like to say that I think that they’re bastards for doing it.” He didn’t react, not even to blink as he looked at her. Her heart broke for the little man.
“They said that I was no longer their kid. That they weren’t going to take me back because that would stop the donations.” Ivy felt her anger and hatred toward the unknown parents all the way to the bottom of her feet. “I don’t have nobody now. That other woman was mean to me, but she didn’t throw me away.”
“You do have a lot of people, Nathan. There are a lot of people that are here for you and want to help you. Me especially.” Ivy moved back and let Meghan continue. “I’m so sorry that they were mean to you like that. I would never do that to anyone—not to my son, or even just my friend. I know that I’d be just as hurt as you are had that happened to me. I don’t have a great many friends here. I love this place, but I don’t have any friends. I could use one like you. You see, my parents were horrible people too. They ignored us until they needed something. Treated my sister and I like we were bothering them all the time. Isn’t that so sad? But I have to tell you, Nathan, something that’s also the sweetest thing in the world. My sister and I, we love each other so much that I could never be without her.”
“You got to be loved by someone though. Nobody wants me.” Meghan said that she wouldn’t mind having him with her. “You say that now, but what if the papers stop talking about you? You gonna shove me away too?”
“Heavens no.” She smiled at him when he finally looked at her. “I would love to have you come and stay with me. I think we’d be good for each other. I’ve a lovely home, plenty of room for you and I to be in. Mr. Whitfield, he told me that I could live there forever if I wanted. And he’d be glad for it. To be honest with you, Nathan, I should have gone with the smaller home. This one is meant for a family, not just a woman that is starting over with things. A family like
you and I could be.”
Hope. It was there in his eyes for a spilt second, then gone again. But instead of not looking at them again, at least not directly, he would sneak peeks at them. Ivy sat down beside the bed and picked up his arm. There were marks there, marks that she was all too familiar with in her line of work. Someone had tied him up and left him.
Ivy knew that he’d been undernourished when he’d been brought here the first time. He was also dehydrated, as well as banged up a bit according to the file. Turning his hand over into her much larger one, Ivy asked him a few questions.
“Were you tied up? I mean, before she took you to Adam’s house? When you lived with that nasty woman, did she hurt you more than just starving and hitting you?” Ivy didn’t think he was going to answer her, but he finally nodded. “Did she make you stay outside a lot, too?”
“Yes, ma’am. Sometimes I think she forgot about me, and I’d be out there for days and days.” Ivy knew that as a child, it would seem longer than it had been. But for some reason, she thought that he was dead on about how long he’d been there. “I never got to eat at the table either. I had to eat on the floor or outside.” Ivy had to let go of his hand or accidently take her anger out on him. Putting her hands in her lap, she had to calm herself before she could speak again.
“Nathan, if they were here right now, I’d tie them up and make them eat on the ground every day. Not even giving them a plate to eat off of either.” He grinned at her. “You know what else I’d do? I’d make sure that they paid for how they treated you. Going to jail for this? Well, it seems so little for what you’ve suffered.”
Nathan glanced at Meghan, then back at her. When he spoke again, his voice was low, fear lacing an otherwise wonderful kid’s voice. “Shelby used to make me pretend to run away so that she could come and find me. I was to go to houses that she looked at, and I was to let her in the house so she could take things.” Ivy asked him if he knew where the things were that she’d gotten. “No, ma’am. I know she took some of it to a friend of hers. He wasn’t nice to me either.”