How About No

by Vale, Lani Lynn

  “What do you mean by cringing when the kids come?”

  My protective instincts were raring, and if two little girls that I had held and loved on since they were tiny little babies were suffering, I wanted to know.

  Liner’s eyes turned down to study me.

  “I think there’s more yelling going on than there is parenting,” Liner said. “I don’t ever hear specifics, because she rarely comes outside with them except to put them in her van and to take them where they’re meant to be going, but the muted screams through her closed doors, as well as the way she looks when I glance at her through the open front windows…yeah, I wouldn’t want to be her kids.”

  I swallowed hard and felt my fist clench.

  Then a wet nose briefly touched the back of my hand, and I looked down to see Capo close—but looking the other way.

  My heart lightened a small amount.

  “I need to get on my Facebook page and start doing damage control,” I sighed. “Hopefully I don’t have to pay back all those donors. I don’t have the money to do that, but this whole situation makes me feel awful.”

  Wade’s arm tightened around my waist briefly. “We’ll figure it out, honey.”

  His low rumbled assurance had me believing him, even though I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that easy.

  And I was right.

  The moment that I posted about the woman on my dog rescue page, the shit hit the fan.

  One, Debbie Schultz went nuclear and started a war by declaring us business partners and accusing me of stealing people’s money—though I only knew that secondhand since I’d blocked ol’ Debbie Doozy.

  Two, people started to demand their money back—from me.

  Three, someone tried to set my daycare on fire.

  Chapter 15

  I give just enough fucks to stay employed and out of the back of my husband’s police cruiser.

  -Landry’s secret thoughts

  Landry

  “No,” I moaned, looking at the firetrucks putting out the blaze that’d started in the storage shed beside the daycare.

  “They have it contained, honey,” Wade promised. “The building is perfectly fine. The only thing that we’re going to have to worry about right now is the electric. But that was turned off when this all began.”

  “I’m not going to be able to open tomorrow,” I murmured.

  “No,” he agreed. “Once they clear the building to us, I’ll get an electrician out here to disconnect the power to the storage shed from the main breaker. when that’s done, I’ll get someone out here to remove the shed—after the insurance adjuster takes a look.” He paused. “But, even when you can reopen, I don’t think that you should—not until we get this crazy bitch squared away.”

  “Do you think the cameras caught anything?” I asked hopefully.

  The state-of-the-art system had to come in handy at some point. All I’d really been able to utilize it for was firing employees who took naps during kids’ nap times.

  I’d appreciate it if something positive came out of this horrible day.

  “I got the stuff.” Liner came up to us, Hoax at his side.

  Wade grunted. “Good. Take it to the house and see what you can find. Cameras twelve and fourteen have the best possibility of catching what we’re looking for. But, hell, she might’ve done us a favor by being stupid and parked in the front lot.”

  I snorted. “She wouldn’t be that dumb.”

  She was that dumb.

  ***

  “I wasn’t there!” a woman screamed at the top of her lungs. “I was at home in bed!”

  I’d come into the police station get my restraining order against the woman currently screaming. When Wade and I had walked in, it was to see all hell breaking loose in the bullpen.

  Why you ask?

  Because Debbie didn’t like being accused of something that “she didn’t do” according to her.

  Except we’d seen her do it. Mostly.

  Her van had been parked in full view of the cameras that Wade had trained on the driveway, and there was no mistaking the letters on the license plates or the stickers on the back glass declaring her a member of the Bear Bottom PTA.

  “All right, you’re all set,” Castiel said, handing me the paperwork. “Since she’s here, we’ll go ahead and inform her of her limitations when it comes to you. But, just sayin’, she’ll likely stay pretty far away after she was caught doing this.”

  Wade grunted. “I doubt it.”

  “Well, she didn’t make bail because she spit on the judge,” Castiel said, eyes twinkling. “And you know how ol’ Judge Painter is. He doesn’t tolerate this kind of behavior on the best of days.”

  I tuned them out.

  I was tired.

  I hadn’t slept in well over twenty-four hours, and honestly, I was ready to go fucking home.

  I was so tired that I couldn’t even work up any rage over the fact that she was likely responsible for burning down mine and Wade’s house. I was just happy that she’d been caught pretty much red-handed doing the same to my business.

  My phone vibrated again, but I didn’t pull it out of my pocket this time.

  I knew that it was someone wanting their money back—money I didn’t have to give.

  But hopefully once this was all settled, I’d be able to file a civil suit against her that would generate the funds to repay all of the people who had so graciously donated.

  “Let’s go home, honey,” Wade said, giving me a slight jiggle.

  I blinked, unaware that I’d gone so far into my head.

  “Okay,” I said, bringing my eyes up only to find Castiel staring at me with confusion.

  “What?”

  He didn’t say anything, only looked at me.

  Not in the mood for his shit, either, I turned on my heel and started walking as fast as my rapidly deteriorating body could muster.

  Wade caught up with me just as I passed the desk that Debbie was currently chained and cuffed to.

  She saw me, and her eyes narrowed. “You bitch!”

  I stopped, unwilling to allow this moment to pass.

  “What did you do to the dogs that you stole?” I hissed.

  Debbie’s lips twitched. “Had them put to sleep. The humane thing to do.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “The dogs—the ones that I fight for—aren’t on death’s door. They’re older and have at least a few more years of good times left in them. They are not ready to die.”

  Debbie scoffed. “Whatever. You don’t need to be taking care of any dogs. You’re pretty shitty at watching things that are important.”

  I didn’t miss the underlying accusation.

  “I’m sorry,” I told her. “I’ve already told you I’m sorry a hundred times. But, Debbie? You not watching your daughter wasn’t my fault. It was yours. I’m not sure why you can’t see that.”

  With that, I left before I said something that I’d regret.

  Wade stayed silent as well until we got home—to his home that had absolutely nothing in it still. The moment we got inside, he didn’t let me get more than a foot in the direction of the bedroom before he stopped me with a hand on my wrist.

  I turned and didn’t stop moving until my face was buried in his chest.

  “I just want it all to go away.” I moaned.

  He inched my shirt up and let his palms smooth over the skin of my lower back.

  “We’ll figure it out, baby,” he promised. “And when you’re done freaking out over this, we need to start looking at houses. We got our check from the insurance adjuster for it.”

  I blew out a breath. “They covered everything?”

  “Yep,” he promised. “Now all you need to do is find somewhere. Though, I was thinking if you were open to it, we might purchase some land and use the check to build the house.”

  That sounded…divine.

  “I like that idea,” I said sleepily, not rea
lizing what exactly I was agreeing to—IE building a house with Wade, which smacked of permanence.

  Then suddenly I was up in his arms.

  Wrapping my arm around his neck, I tried to ignore the fact that he was limping heavily and not as steady on his feet as he used to be.

  It was only when I jolted hard that I said, “Maybe you should put me down.”

  “Capo decided not to move out of the middle of the floor and I had to sidestep him and shifted you in my arms as I did,” he explained. “I wasn’t almost falling.”

  I snorted. “You don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “I know you,” he promised. “I also know that I want to lay you down in that bed and make you forget your day.”

  Which he did moments later.

  Following me down once he placed me directly in the center, his mouth met mine, and I decided that sleep was overrated. Especially when you had a man like Wade in your bed willing to make you forget your bad day.

  “Lift your hips,” he instructed.

  I did, and he yanked the comforter out from underneath of us, tossing it somewhere in the vicinity of the floor.

  Before I could gasp or protest the fact that the blanket was now touching the ground, Wade’s mouth came down on my neck. I hated when stuff fell on the floor. It seemed like it would be dirty to me after that happened, and I certainly didn’t have time to be washing a comforter tonight.

  He started to press soft, wet kisses down my throat, tracing a path to the neckline of my shirt.

  “Shirt off,” he urged.

  He didn’t help me except to push himself up on his arms, lifting his weight off of me from the waist up.

  It was then I felt the hard column of his cock press into my most delicate place, and I smiled.

  “What’s the creepy smile for?” he teased.

  I lifted my shirt up over my head, then stuck my tongue out at him before tossing the shirt into his face.

  He caught it without hesitation and tossed it on the floor, likely near the comforter.

  I snickered when he looked pointedly at the bra.

  “You said shirt,” I told him. “I specifically heard shirt.”

  He rolled his eyes and grunted at me. “Get it off.”

  I took it off but didn’t throw it at him. Instead, I rolled slightly—as much as his body on mine would allow—and tossed the bra on the nightstand for me to put back on tomorrow.

  I was still down to limited clothing choices, and if this hit the floor, I’d have to wash it. I was anal, so sue me.

  Wade’s hand smoothed down the exposed expanse of my back and stopped at the curve of my ass to give it a little squeeze. “Pants, too.”

  I rolled my eyes but went ahead and completely disrobed before flopping back onto the bed. “Better?”

  His eyes went down the length of my body, stopping to linger at my breasts and the apex of my thighs. “Much.”

  Then he dropped down and pressed his mouth to mine and totally destroyed my bad mood with one single kiss.

  Thoroughly.

  “God, your mouth is intoxicating,” he growled, dragging his bearded face down the length of my jaw. “All day I wanted to pull you in tight and keep everything and everyone away from you. But you wouldn’t have allowed me to do that, would you?”

  Hell no.

  He knew better than that.

  I wasn’t the type of woman to be coddled, and it warmed my heart that he realized that.

  He knew me better than I knew myself.

  “No,” I breathed, feeling my stomach clench when he hit that spot just below my ear with the tip of his tongue. “I would’ve hated it.”

  He growled against my skin. “It’s not a bad thing to allow someone to take care of you,” he teased, running his hand up the length of one thigh.

  His callused hand felt rough and unforgiving against the smooth skin and I thanked my earlier judgment of shaving my legs with Wade’s razor as I moved to capture the mouth I loved so much.

  “So fuckin’ smooth,” he whispered, echoing my earlier thoughts.

  “I like your razor,” I told him. “You might need to go get me one exactly like it.”

  He pulled back so he could see my face. “You shaved your legs with my razor?”

  I nodded. “I also shaved my bikini line,” I felt it prudent to point out.

  He snorted. “I thought we had that talk before when we were married. You are not, under any circumstance, allowed to use my razor on your pubic hair.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I remember you saying earlier that you missed having all of my shit lying around. Even missed all the weird things that I used to do.”

  He had said that, almost verbatim, while we were getting ready to go file my protection order.

  He’d said he missed all my stray hairs that I left on the counter after brushing my hair and the way that I never managed to put the lid on the toothpaste or my deodorant. Then there was the fact that I hung my bras up in the shower, forcing him to move them almost daily before he took his morning shower after his workout.

  “I also don’t remember mentioning that I liked shaving my neck and plucking your pubes out of my mouth.” He paused. “Any other time, like when I go down on you, is perfectly fine. But when I’m shaving? Yeah, I don’t like that.”

  I lifted my hand and let it rest against his neck. “How do you possibly get my pubes into your mouth when you’re only shaving your neck?”

  He shrugged, hitting me with that grin that never ceased in making my heart race.

  “It’s kind of like asking how the fuck your hair finds its way into my ass crack.” He paused. “I can guarantee your hair wasn’t anywhere near there.”

  I felt a grin start to overtake my face. “I was there the day before yesterday,” I pointed out. “Remember, I was massaging your back?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I had underwear on when you were doing that.”

  True.

  “I also found it after I took a shower.”

  I shrugged.

  “That’s just one of life’s unexplainable phenomena, then,” I teased.

  He pushed my leg up and out to the side, making my lower half become almost completely open to his gaze.

  The cool air on my overheated pussy felt damn near unbearable.

  His eyes lifted to mine. “Unzip me.”

  I went a step further and unbuttoned him, as well as pushed his pants down his hips while I was at it.

  He didn’t object to my attentions until I reached out to wrap my hand around his distended cock.

  “Don’t,” he said when my fingertips brushed his cock head. “I want you to put your hands above your head.”

  I blinked, staring at him in stunned silence. “Why?”

  He’d never denied me before, and his refusal to allow me to touch him honestly shocked the hell out of me.

  “Because I want to do things to your body, and to do that, I need to hold on to at least a little bit of my control,” he explained. “I can’t do that when your hand is touching me.”

  Slightly mollified, I reached my hands up above my head and grabbed the bottom of the wooden headboard.

  His eyes drank me in while I did what he asked. “Why does that give you such a sense of satisfaction?” I questioned.

  “You’re doing exactly what I asked you to do,” he stated, pushing up so that his cock now lay against the exposed center of me. “Now why would that be a turn on?”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re terrible.”

  He ground himself down onto me. “Maybe. Maybe not. Whatever the reason for it, I don’t care. Pull your other leg up and out like this one.”

  He gave the one he still had in his grasp a squeeze, and I felt things inside of me clench.

  I loved it when he was in charge and acting like this.

  I shifted my weight and actually bumped against his hurt leg, causing him to flinch. “God, Wade. I’m sorry.�
��

  He leaned down and pressed a kiss against my downturned mouth. “Didn’t hurt that bad. Honestly, just a surprise.”

  I scowled, causing him to laugh. “Really. I swear it didn’t hurt that bad.”

  I instinctively started to reach for him with the hand that wasn’t holding up my leg where he wanted it, and he shook his head. “Nuh-uh. Put that one back up on the headboard.”

  I did as he asked, putting it up on the top rail while also digging my nails into the back of my thigh where my hand rested, holding my leg in place.

  I felt exposed and raw, and I wasn’t sure where he was going with this whole thing.

  “On second thought,” he said, gesturing to my leg with his head. “You take this leg, too.”

  I did, hooking both arms around the backs of my knees and pulling them even farther up and out.

  The moment that I was where he wanted me, he started to rock his hips.

  The tail end of his shirt tickled my belly, and I wanted nothing more than to fist it and yank it off of his body.

  “What do you want?”

  He’d always been able to read me so easily, sometimes I was surprised by how well he was able to tell when something was bothering me.

  “I want you to take your shirt off,” I growled.

  In fact, I wanted nothing more than to feel the hair covering his groin drag against my clit.

  Which he easily interpreted with only a small grimace on my part.

  He ripped the shirt off and over his head by hooking his thumb into the collar at the base of his neck and yanking it up and off of his head.

  I wasn’t sure why it was always so sexy to see a man—my man—take off his shirt, but goddamn was it a sight to see.

  Wade had never been what you’d call a tidy man. He was a very hairy guy, and his chest was one of the places that I loved to drag my fingers along while absently reading a book. He had a chest full of hair, and his lower happy trail connected up the center of his abs to the chest hair that grew in copiously.

  It was dark brown, matching the color of his beard, and made his chest appear even bigger than it actually was.

  But his man pelt as I’d so kindly named it when we were first married was one of my favorite features about the man.