Until the Lightning Strikes: Happily Ever Alpha World

by Christensen, Elle

  Last year, Liam had loaned the college a collection of miniature landscapes that he’d painted for his first art show. They were each worth over a million dollars, but together, the collection was valued at over twenty million. The college was given permission to display them for a year, and then they were to be returned to him. I briefly wondered if that was why they’d called him and had all the security, to give him back the pieces and make sure he got them to their next destination safely. Except, why would I have been called to the office as well? None of this was making any sense.

  Instead of sitting, Liam stood behind me, with his hands on my shoulders. It was a supportive position, and it occurred to me that maybe I wasn’t imagining the vibe in the room. I hadn’t wanted to admit it, but I felt an undercurrent that was directed at me. Something was wrong, and these people seemed to think it had to do with me.

  “Why is the Sea Breeze collection here?” Liam asked, having also just noticed their presence.

  “We just recovered all of them this morning,” Dr. Leonard informed him. “They were stolen two days ago.”

  “Pardon?” Liam blanched and gaped at Dr. Leonard. She nodded and looked pointedly at me, making me gasp.

  “Why are you looking at me?” I asked, glancing at the artwork again before looking up at Liam. He was staring at Dr. Leonard with dark, angry features, but the gentle swish of his thumbs on my shoulders said none of it was directed at me.

  “The entire collection disappeared sometime between when the gallery was locked up Tuesday night and opening on Wednesday morning.” Dr. Leonard peered at me through her glasses, studying me intently. “We received a tip this morning that they’d been taken by Ms. Hill and when we searched her room, we found them in a lockbox in the back of her closet. The Sheriff’s department is here to arrest her as the school will be pressing charges. However, they wanted to ask if you’d like to add your own charges and to be present to ensure the items were returned to you.”

  I started to jump up, but Liam’s hands held me down and squeezed gently, his thumbs taking up their soothing rubbing again. Before I could come to my own defense, Liam asked, “First of all, I’d like to know why you believed the tipster, what evidence did you really have to search Rachel’s room?” It seemed like an odd request to start with, in my opinion, but Liam squeezed gently one more time, and somehow I knew he was asking me to trust him. And I did. So, I relaxed and let him handle it. Although, I still sent up prayers for help because I really didn’t see myself doing well in prison.

  “Well, they mentioned that she was in dire need of money to finish school and her parents—”

  “I’m extremely disappointed in you, Dr. Leonard,” Liam cut in. “Judging a person based on her parents’ actions and morality? Really?” His tone was harder than I expected and when I sneaked a peek at his face, he was staring at Dr. Leonard with an expression that said his question went deeper than basic right and wrong.

  Dr. Leonard inhaled sharply and sat up straighter, then cleared her throat. “Yes well, perhaps that wasn’t what I should have said, but the items were found in her room.”

  “Except, Rachel doesn’t live there anymore. She hasn’t for the last six weeks.”

  The campus security guy and Dr. Leonard shared a look, and he folded his arms over his puffed up chest, trying to appear intimidating when he turned his full attention to me. “That makes it the perfect hiding place then, doesn’t it?”

  14

  Liam

  Rachel tensed, and I put pressure on her shoulders once more, reminding her to trust me. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but I was one hundred percent sure that Rachel had nothing to do with it. It was clear to me that she’d been set up, but I needed to get her off the hook before I could dig into who had really stolen the collection and why.

  “Not really,” I responded to the Rent-a-Cop when he suggested she’d hidden the items in her room because she didn’t live there anymore. “Hiding them anywhere that is tied to her would be really fucking stupid.”

  My response took him off guard and his eyes darted back to Dr. Leonard. I was pissed as hell a the department chair. She came from a broken home, her parents having split up when she was fourteen. It wasn’t the broken home part that should have made her ashamed for what she said about Rachel. It was the fact that Dr. Leonard’s father was serving forty years for fraud, market manipulations, and other various white-collar criminal charges. Her mother abandoned her after her father went to jail and her aunt had raised her.

  Pot meet kettle.

  “All that bullshit aside though, it's worth noting that Rachel is brilliant and not fucking stupid, let’s talk about why the theft was never brought to my attention.”

  Dr. Leonard flushed with embarrassment when I called her out this time. “We were hoping to recover the collection before we were forced to tell you, so you wouldn’t have to deal with the stress of the investigation.”

  “Hmmm,” I mused as I scratched at my beard. “Did it ever occur to you that I had a right to know the moment you realized they were gone?” I took a deep breath to calm my growing rage. The school was going to get their assess handed to them by yours truly, but I kept reminding myself to get Rachel out of the line of fire first. “If you had, you would have saved yourself a lot of trouble.”

  Everyone, including Rachel, looked thoroughly perplexed, but she gave me a small smile to tell me that she was still giving me her trust. I gave in to the urge to trace her pretty smile with my finger before returning my attention to the lynch mob. “I’m not sure why your first question wasn’t whether or not Rachel has an alibi.” They had the good sense to look abashed. “Let me help you out there; she was with me all night. And before you suggest that she left while I was sleeping,” I hurried on knowing that was going to be their next tactic, “Even if she did, your contract for those pieces was up on Monday. Since they were still hanging on the wall on Tuesday, maybe Rachel decided to collect and store my possessions for me.”

  Rent-a-Cop sputtered, “But you didn’t know about it, so she didn’t have your permission, and that’s still stealing. We’ll be pressing charges.” His chest puffed up, even more, making him look like a balloon in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.

  I gave him a withering stare, and he shuffled uncomfortably, losing a little of his arrogance. “Let’s clarify one thing, the collection never belonged to the college, and you lost stewardship over it on Monday. So they weren’t stolen from you. And, it’s not stealing if the items belong to her.”

  “But they don’t—”

  “Shut the fuck up, Heeman,” I snapped. “Rachel is my fiancée. What’s mine is hers, get it?” I ignored Rachel’s stifled gasp. There was more shock coming her way.

  “You’re engaged?” Dr. Leonard asked, her brows drawing down in confusion.

  “She’s not even wearing a ring,” Rent-a-Cop groused, and if there hadn’t been real police officers I the room, I would have knocked out a few of his teeth.

  This was so not how I saw this happening, but circumstances being what they were…I’ll do it right later, I silently promised Rachel. Digging in my pocket, I pull out what I needed and stuck a mental needle in a VooDoo doll of Heeman. “I was going to talk to you about that, baby,” I said, stepping around to face Rachel and squatting down in from of her. “You left the house without your ring again this morning.” I slid the four-carat, emerald cut, diamond on her hand and winked at her slack-jawed expression.

  After kissing her finger once, I stood and turned back around, glaring at the people who’d just forced me into the crappiest proposal ever. “Are we done here?”

  “It was still breaking and entering. She’s under arrest,” Rent-a-Cop barked, trying hard to regain his superior footing.

  I took a step forward, unable to hold back any longer. I was going to beat the shit out of this guy, but Rachel grabbed my hand and held tight, forcing me to stay where I was and helping me to gain control again. “You still haven’t
proven to me that she took them in the first place.”

  When the security asshole opened his mouth, yet again, I speared Dr. Leonard with a warning glance. “You’re lucky I’m not going after the college for allowing them to be stolen in the first place, much less the fact that you knew about it for days and didn’t bring it to my attention until you were ready to accuse my fiancée of stealing them.”

  I finally gave my attention to the two policemen who’d stood silently and watched the entire exchange. “No one is charging Rachel with theft, and other than finding her in possession of something she had every right to have, what proof do you have to charge her with breaking and entering?”

  “Nothing, sir.” One of them answered.

  “Fine. So, we won’t leave town. Let me know if you come up with anything that isn’t fabricated bullshit and we’ll make sure to call our lawyer.” Both men nodded, and when Heeman looked as though he was going to argue, one of them clapped a hand over his shoulder and murmured something causing Heeman to back off.

  More than ready to get the fuck out of there, I offered Rachel my hand and helped her up when she took it. Then I guided her out of the office, but stopped at the door and met Dr. Leonard’s gaze. “Who gave you the tip?” I asked. She looked like she wasn’t going to answer, but one of the policemen piped up and told her that if the tipster hadn’t requested to remain anonymous, she was under no obligation to keep their identity secret.

  “Hillary Cramer.”

  I stomped down on my rage and tried to remain calm. It seemed like a bad idea to flip my shit in front of two cops. “And did anyone think to check on her alibi?”

  They looked at each other, and one fidgeted with his belt, while the other rubbed the back of his neck. “The items were found in Ms. Hill's room,” the fidgeting one began.

  “Oh, goodnight nurse!” Rachel snapped. “This is how you do your job?” She tugged on my hand, and I rotated my head to look at her. “Maybe we should call James Mayson.”

  “We’ll look into Ms. Cramer and get back to you,” the other cop hurried to announce.

  If I hadn’t been so fucking angry, I might have enjoyed the way they were squirming, but I just wanted to get Rachel out of there. “To avoid any more confusion, I want those”—I twisted my upper body toward the table and pointed at the miniatures—“put in the gallery vault.”

  Dr. Leonard nodded, and I didn’t wait for any other response before abruptly marching Rachel out of the room. We crossed the outer office area, and I pulled open the door and held it for Rachel to exit first. That’s when I spotted someone lingering in the hallway. She was trying to be inconspicuous, with her head down as she played on her phone. But, Hillary wasn’t stealth, and she glanced up when we walked out and her eyes darting behind us expectantly. When she didn’t see anyone following us, her expression turned ugly, but she didn’t say anything or approach us.

  I didn’t want Rachel anywhere near that bitch, so I decided against confronting her and gave Rachel a gentle push to get her moving in the opposite direction. Her blue eyes were narrowed, and her lips were pinched, but she seemed to understand that at the moment, the best thing to do was walk away because she followed my prompting and stalked in the opposite direction.

  We went straight to the car, and once we were on our way home, I hit the button for my Bluetooth and dialed the number for the Sheriff’s department. This situation was fucked up, and I didn’t trust those jack asses to do their jobs right. I was transferred to James Mayson, and when he picked up, I gave him a rundown of everything that had happened, emphasizing the fact that Rachel was being set up. He was pissed at the shoddy investigation and promised to look into it.

  Rachel had been silent through the whole exchange, but she piped up to thank him at the end of our conversation.

  “Are you okay, Darlin’?” he asked softly.

  “Yeah,” she assured him with a sigh. “It’s just a lot to take in. The accusations and”—she stopped for a second, glaring at the display in the dashboard as if he could see her—“do we need to inoculate every man who comes into contact with your sons, Sheriff?” she asked tartly. “This epidemic seems to be spreading.”

  James was silent for a moment, and then his laughter boomed through the speakers. “I take it Liam’s being a bossy, possessive son of a bitch?” he guessed as his mirth died down.

  Rachel huffed and held up her hand to stare at the ring on her finger. The one that was never coming off, I vowed silently. “Well, let’s see,” she mused, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “I’ve known Liam for three months, and I’m already living with him, apparently engaged, and knocked up!” She’d continually gotten louder until he shouted the last part.

  I hit the breaks so hard, the truck began to fishtail, but I regained control quickly and pulled to the side of the road. “Knocked up?” I repeated. Rachel’s face leached of color and she stared back at me with her mouth hanging open.

  James started laughing again, but I barely heard him, I couldn’t think about anything but the fact that the woman I loved was carrying my baby. “Sorry, Darlin’,” he said. “Like I told my boys, when it happens—BOOM!” Then he hung up.

  “You’re pregnant?” I questioned again.

  She shrugged and did a double tuck of her hair behind her ears. “It’s not for sure. I haven’t taken a test or anything but I’m—um—late by a couple of weeks.”

  Pride started to fill my chest, and I felt like shouting that I’d done my job as a man and put my baby in my woman’s belly. I didn’t have to ask how it happened; we’d gotten carried away a few, or more, times and forgotten to use protection. After the first time, I hated putting the fucking condoms on, so it was easy for me to overlook them once I’d sunk bare into her pussy.

  “Pretty proud of yourself there, aren’t you?” she quipped as she folded her arms over her chest. I responded with a grin and her lips curved just the little bit. She was trying to be indignant, but her blue eyes were sparkling, and she had a beautiful glow.

  Unable to resist, I pulled her closer and gave her a deep, soul-stealing kiss. When I finally managed to break apart, we were both breathing heavily and the air in the Jeep with thick with desire. I put the car into drive and eased back onto the road before capturing her left hand and bringing it to my lips to kiss her ring-adorned finger. After resting our joined hands on my thigh, I announced, “We’re getting married.”

  “Isn’t that the idea of this giant rock?” she asked sassily. “Without asking, by the way.”

  I shrugged. “Why ask when the outcome will be the same either way?”

  Rachel chuckled and scooted closer to rest her head on my shoulder. “You’re really happy with the idea of me being pregnant?”

  I turned my head just enough to brush my lips over her forehead. “Having you as my wife and starting a family with you. It’s more than I ever dreamed and makes me happier than I ever thought possible.”

  15

  Rachel

  Liam had me at the doctor the very next day where it was confirmed that I was indeed pregnant. I teased him that if he puffed up anymore, I was afraid he might explode. But, he just laughed and gathered me into his arms before swinging us around.

  When we got home, he swung me up into his arms and marched us right upstairs to our bedroom. Gently, he sat me on the bed and lifted my shirt up and over my head. Then he knelt in front of me and placed his hands on my belly before leaning in to kiss it, almost reverently. “We made a little person,” he murmured with awe. “There is a piece of both of us in there.” He rubbed his hand over the flat area and whispered, “Hey kid, it's your daddy.”

  I was too choked up to respond verbally, so I just ran my hands through Liam’s hair as I enjoyed watching him talk to our little one. After a few minutes, he gazed up at me, and there was so much love shining from his eyes, that I practically melted.

  His hands slid up and around my back, leaving tingles in their wake, as he unclasped and removed my bra. Then he cu
pped my breasts and kissed each tip, making them harden, begging for more attention. “I am obsessed with your tits, baby. But fuck, the thought of them getting bigger has me almost coming in my pants right now.”

  I giggled, but it quickly morphed into a moan when he sucked a nipple into his mouth. He loved on both of them until I was shaking with need, then removed the rest of my clothes and positioned me so that I was lying in the center of our big bed. His clothes were hastily shed while his eyes devoured me from head to toe. “You are gorgeous,” he rasped as he climbed naked onto the bed and covered my body with his.

  Our lips crushed against each other and neither of us seemed to be able to get enough. Liam had become like an addiction to me, but unlike my parents’ habits, he was good for me. He gave me strength, encouraged me, believed in me, and loved me. And, dang, did he know how to make me burn. But, he also knew how to take me to the ultimate peaks of bliss.

  Liam trailed a path of kisses down to my navel where he lingered for a few moments, then continued until he was settled between my spread legs. He pushed my thighs wide, then opened my folds and licked up my center. I cried out and arched my back, lifting my hips to try and get closer. He chuckled and blew softly over my wet center, making me shiver and moan. “I think you’ve gotten even more sensitive,” he praised before dragging his tongue up again and curling my clit a few times. I was ready to beg for more after he did this for several minutes, occasionally adding a thrust of his tongue into my channel. “You need to come, baby?” he purred.

  “Yes,” I panted. “Make me come on your face,” Liam growled and startled me when he jack-knifed up. He took both of my hands and pulled me up until I was kneeling in front of him, then encouraged me to turn around face the headboard. The next thing I knew, he was reclining on the pillows in front of me and crooking his finger. “You want to come on my face?” I nodded. “Then come sit on it and take what you want,” he commanded.