Chapter Fifteen – Lia

Lia woke up with a fuzzy head, and a feeling she had to be somewhere.

Work. Mr. Delamere did not approve of tardiness.

Sitting up, Lia pulled the sheet around her and slipped her foot out of bed, before it dawned on her where she was, and who was lying by her side.

“Hey, you OK?” Sam asked.

“I’m not sure,” Lia answered, rubbing her forehead with the heel of her hand. “I had a dream.”

“Not a good dream.” Sam threaded his arm around her waist and pulled her close. She nestled against his body, the knowledge that this was where she belonged drumming a beat in her head.

“I woke up thinking I still worked for Total Solutions. Now it’s all coming back to me.” She inhaled his scent, letting it calm her.

“It’s on your mind. Understandable, since today we go and face the devil.” He chuckled and raised himself up on his elbow, kissing her neck. “Did I tell you hunting devils is one of my best character traits?”

“No, you skipped that one.” Lia appreciated Sam’s efforts at trying to put her at ease.

“Well, since I am a bear, and you are my mate, I want you to know that I will protect you with my life. And I have no intention of dying today.”

Lia turned around in his arms and looked at him, running her fingers through his blond hair. “You look tired.”

“I was awake a lot of the night, but I finally found the leverage we need.”

“Leverage? That sounds as if we plan to blackmail Mr. Delamere. I’m not so sure I like the idea of that,” Lia said.

“Not blackmail. I was thinking of getting Mr. Delamere and his goons off our back for good.”

“My back,” Lia reminded him.

“And what a lovely back it is.” He stroked his fingers along her spine, making her shiver in anticipation. He awoke parts of her she hadn’t known were dormant.

“You are such a charmer, I think we should send you in to speak to Mrs. Delamere and get you to give her your best twinkling smile, and she will do anything you command.” Lia slipped herself up and down his body, her stomach pressed against the head of his cock.

“You would give me away so easily, Lia?” He kissed her lips, his hand cupping her cheek.

She chuckled. “Don’t worry, I would not want you to go anywhere near her, or I might have to rip her heart out for touching what is mine.”

“My thoughts entirely.” He nuzzled her neck. “We’re going with plan A. Plan B does require death and maiming, not my first choice, but if we have to…” Lia could tell he was joking, but his next words were the truth, because she felt the same way. “I want us free of this. I want you to feel safe, and not have to look over your shoulder all the time.”

He’d witnessed her unease last night when they left the hospital. Before they crossed the parking lot to their borrowed car, Lia had checked to see if anyone was watching. Then, when they arrived back at her house, she had not been able to rest until she had done her habitual checks.

Lia lifted her knee and hooked her leg over Sam’s thigh. “Morning sex is just what the doctor ordered,” she teased.

“Then let’s follow doctor’s orders,” Sam replied, threading his right hand down between their bodies, and slipping one finger inside her. She was wet, and ready for him. She always was. Sam only had to look at her with his baby blues and she went all hot and needy.

“You are the cure to all that ails me,” Lia said, biting his ear, her teeth grazing the soft flesh, making him groan.

“Damn it, Lia, I don’t know how I lived without you.” He guided his hard cock into her.

Lia pressed down, wanting to take him inside fully. There was no feeling in the world that matched being made love to by your mate. As Sam lunged forward, and she groaned against him, she silently wished everyone could feel like this at least once in their life. Sam pulled back out of her and then thrust forward hard, and everything else slipped away. Sam’s plan for dealing with Mr. Delamere held no meaning. The person who was trying to set her up was forgotten, all that mattered was that Sam was inside her.

Sam stroked her back, her arms, her bottom, pulling her tight against him. He lowered his head and captured her nipple and rolled his tongue over it, all the time he thrust in and out of her, his body brushing her sensitive clit. She wasn’t going to hold off her orgasm, this was not going to be some long drawn-out lovemaking. Pity, because each moment she spent in bed with Sam put off the inevitable. And she would much rather be here than meeting Mrs. Delamere unexpectedly and unannounced.

Lia’s climax hovered before her eyes, she just had to reach out and take it. She didn’t, she put her mind elsewhere, and let her other senses take over. The softness of his lips, the roughness of his stubbled chin, which he would shave before they left the house. The scent of him, pine trees and fresh air, mingled with his cologne. She hadn’t known him long enough to know the brand.

Sam shifted his weight on the bed, changed the angle of his body, and slipped his hand from her bottom to the sensitive place between her legs that throbbed with need. He pinched her clit, while his mouth nipped her breasts. The pain was exquisite. She gasped and pressed herself closer to him as if she could climb inside of his skin and be one with him. Wouldn’t that solve all their problems, if she simply ceased to exist?

But to exist outside of Sam was even more amazing. To exist here, with her body next to his, and his cock inside her, was the most incredible thing. So incredible. So amazing. So satisfying.

Lia could hold on no longer, his hands and mouth assaulted her senses, his cock lunged in and out of her, and she finally allowed her orgasm to claim her. With a grunt, Sam followed, his cock spurting his seed deep inside her. Hard, he plunged into her, and she placed a hand on his butt, feeling his muscles working as he came.

Sam cried out, calling her name, telling her of his need for her.

As their lovemaking ended she knew he had given her the strength to face the day. Because she loved him so much. Too much. They were as one, not skin inside skin, but souls connected, and damn anyone who tried to come between them.

The fire in her belly carried her through taking a shower, getting dressed, and eating breakfast. It propelled her forward as she drove to the Delamere’s residence, and helped her raise her hand to ring the doorbell. It made her feet stay firmly on the doorstep as footsteps from inside the house walked toward the door, and the door was pulled open to reveal Mrs. Delamere, a look of surprise on her face.

“What do you want?” Mrs. Delamere hissed.

“I need your help,” Lia began.

“My help?” Mrs. Delamere’s face turned red. “Why would I help you, thief?”

“I am not a thief.” Lia kept her voice level. “Can we talk inside?”

“I don’t want you in my house,” Mrs. Delamere said vehemently.

“Then you won’t get to hear what I have to say before I go public.” Lia took a step back. “Sorry to have troubled you.”

“Wait. Come in.” Mrs. Delamere beckoned Lia inside. “You have five minutes, then I’m calling the police.”

“An empty threat and we both know it,” Lia said hotly as she entered the house. If Mrs. Delamere was a dragon, she would have been shooting fireballs at Lia, but she wasn’t. The question Lia was here to find out was whether Mrs. Delamere was a shifter at all.

“Four minutes.” Mrs. Delamere stood with her arms folded across her chest.

Lia slipped her hand in her pocket and pressed the dial button on her phone, hoping Sam was in position and had a good signal. Not wanting to tip Mrs. Delamere off that someone might be eavesdropping on their conversation, she began her own interrogation of her boss’s wife. If Sam was wrong, she was going to make a complete fool of herself. But if he was right, this was all going to be cleared up quickly. And permanently.

“What exactly are you, Mrs. Delamere?” Sam had told her to go for the jugular straight off.

“I am the wife of the man you stole from.” Mrs. Delamere was going to be a tough nut to crack. Unless Sam had gotten this all wrong. Then Lia was going to be in trouble.

“Come on, Mrs. Delamere, we both know that I didn’t steal anything,” Lia said, accepting no argument before moving on. “I know you took the necklace and earrings from the safe. And now you are blackmailing your husband. Is that because you have a lover? A mate?”

“You would know all about lovers,” Mrs. Delamere hissed, coming toward Lia. “Thief.”

“I told you, I am not a thief, I never stole the items from your husband’s safe, you know that.”

“Yes, I know it, but that isn’t what I’m accusing you of stealing,” Mrs. Delamere’s accent grew thicker the angrier she got. And she sure was angry.

“Then what are you accusing me of stealing?” Lia asked, confused. Sam told her there was nothing else missing from the safe.

“You stole my husband, or at least you tried. But I stopped you. I got rid of you.”

“By planting the necklace at my apartment?” Lia nodded, her heart racing as she tried to figure out why Mrs. Delamere thought she was trying to steal her husband.

“Yes, I planted the jewels. I showed Martin what you were.” Mrs. Delamere’s eyes flashed with anger.

“Because you thought I was having an affair with him?” Lia asked, still trying to figure out what evidence Mrs. Delamere was basing her accusations on.

“Yes, do you take me for a fool? All those power naps. You both thought I was too stupid to know that it was a ruse. You don’t think I knew what you were doing? It wasn’t napping, was it?”

“Yes. At least Mr. Delamere was napping. I was working,” Lia assured her accuser.

“You liar. I heard you.”

“Heard us what?” Lia demanded.

“I came by and heard you. Grunting, groaning. I know what my mate sounds like when he is being pleasured.” Her voice rose to fever pitch, and the air began to shimmer around her. If Lia had any doubt that Mrs. Delamere was a shifter, it was now gone.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Lia closed the space between her and Mrs. Delamere, grabbing hold of her, not wanting her to shift, because she wasn’t sure what she was going to shift into. “I am not having, or never have I had, an affair with your husband.”

“Liar!” She lashed out, but Lia dodged back. “He should have hunted you down. After I sent those men to your apartment.”

“You sent them? Did you tell them to threaten me?” It all made sense now, all the fragments fitted together.

“I wanted to make sure you never came back here. So that you never came between me and my mate again.”

“I never got between you two in the first place. You made it all up,” Lia accused.

“Do you know what it’s like to have a man, the only man for you, and see him fawn over another woman? Lia this, Lia that. And then the gifts began. I knew then that he was guilty.”

“The gifts?”

“Yes. He even let you choose them. Did you think I was too stupid to notice that he actually started to give me gifts I might want? That he bought tickets to the theater and took me to the best restaurants. After ten years of marriage, ten years of being blind to my needs… He’s my mate.”

“I understand,” Lia said, trying to soothe Mrs. Delamere. “But I need you to know, I have a mate too. And Mr. Delamere, your husband, is not him.”

“You are a liar. You thought you were going to steal him away from me.” Mrs. Delamere took two steps back from Lia and shifted.

Into a big, freakin’ mouse.