Love, Death and Justice Page 10

  “So good,” they moaned together. Both didn’t move but luxuriated in getting to know the feel of each other’s body.

  “I can’t take it anymore,” Lance cried out and with one swift movement he took her to the floor and thrust between her spread thighs, her sex open and sucking him into her body. They cried out at the intense pleasure, and Lance knew from being without her for so long he wouldn’t last. Catherine arched under him, meeting him stroke for tormented stroke. His cock exploded in release, his seed pumping into her channel and, before she had time to complain, he pulled out then licked her clit, tonguing the swollen bud until she writhed under him and screamed out her climax.

  She lay gasping and panting on the floor, and he came up to lay beside her.

  “Wow,” she giggled and he could only mumble in agreement.

  They intertwined their fingers. Lance glanced down at the love of his life and knew in his heart that, while Catherine was in his arms, he’d want for nothing other than to have more time with her.

  “What are you thinking?” she asked, moving even closer to him.

  “That I’m one lucky man and never want to be without you. I love you, Catherine.” He kissed her on the lips and then her belly. “And our unborn child.”

  “I can’t wait to have a family. I want loads of kids.”

  “Me too.” He chuckled, thinking of this once lonely house being filled with the sounds of children laughing and screaming. “We’ve plenty of room for them.”

  They lay planning their future together, so attuned to each other’s passions and wants in life. Finally, as the hours passed and the fire began to die out, Lance carried her to his room and snuggled her in bed.

  He went back to the office to try to get some last minute work done. The more work he did at home, the more time he had available to spend with Catherine during the day. He fired up his computer and paused as his mobile phone began to ring. ‘Unknown number’ flashed on to the screen and a sick feeling entered his gut.

  “Hello,” he answered hesitantly and got up to stand away from his exposed window. An anonymous caller in the middle of the night wasn’t what he needed right now.

  “Hello, Lance,” the sultry feminine voice spoke on the other end.

  Lance ducked and looked around—he knew that voice…

  “Last time I checked you were supposed to be dead,” he pointed out.

  “Since the last time I spoke to you, your protection detail has gotten sloppy. Didn’t I warn you the only way to take Cyril out was to keep yourself safe?”

  “Cyril is dead, Sidney. What the fuck are you doing?” he growled.

  “Let’s just say other business came up and I can’t just leave it. Besides, I bet you didn’t know Cyril wasn’t the main front of the business.”

  Lance continued to stand, intuitively knowing from the sounds in the background that she was far away and wouldn’t cause too much trouble. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Language, Lance… Do you kiss my sister and her baby bump with that mouth?”

  He froze. “You tell me what the hell is going on or I swear to God—”

  “Swear to God what? You’ll kill me? Listen up, hotshot—regardless of what you think, I’m on your side, and if Cyril Woods—wanker extraordinaire—couldn’t kill me, you can bet your sweet arse that you can’t, either. So let me tell you what’s going to happen.”

  Lance listened and swallowed against the onset of doom.

  “Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal,” he growled through clenched teeth.

  “Don’t be such a spoilsport, darling, and remember… Keep my sister safe, and if you tell her I’m alive I’ll fucking kill you regardless of you being my future brother-in-law. Until then, keep safe.”

  The call disconnected and Lance threw the device at the wall. He needed to keep Catherine safe, and it looked like they were in far worse shit than even he had thought possible.

  Epilogue

  Beth grabbed the mail from the post box, conscious of the bruises on her face and body. After three weeks they still hurt like hell. She couldn’t believe her own father would have tortured her like he had, although she was grateful he hadn’t laid a finger on Peter.

  Bills, bills and more bills. Shit. She’d lost her job, then, to add to the chaos, Peter had got the flu. She couldn’t handle this—stress after stress, her name smeared in the papers when people had found out who her father was. Why did Ben have to rescue her and treat her like a princess for the first few days she was in the hospital? His presence had caused more of a stir for her than it should.

  After everything he’d done to her in the past, she should have cut him out of her life and told him to get fucked. In the past, when she was young and innocent, she could have been misled, but now? Now she knew better. The sort of man that Ben was couldn’t be mistaken—a loner, a breaker of hearts…and he’d decimated hers the last time they’d got together.

  “Hello, Miss Woods.” A young boy on a cycle waved to her as he passed.

  She smiled and gave a wave, noticing her other neighbours trying not to stare at her.

  I’m nothing like my father. Please leave me alone. But she continued to smile and play her role, even with her ruined face.

  No longer coping with being outdoors, she turned and made her way into her house, shut and bolted the door, and leant back against it. Peter was in the front room, curled up on the sofa—a Toy Story blanket covering his small body and a T-Rex teddy held close to keep him safe. Sponge Bob Square Pants was playing on the telly—its theme music a song she wished with all of her heart she didn’t know the words to, but she did.

  “I’m going to make me a cuppa, baby, do you want some warm milk or water?” She knelt down and ran her fingers through his scraggly hair. She’d need to book him into the hairdressers soon.

  “Milk please, Mummy.”

  Chuckling, she made her way through to the kitchen and filled the kettle with water before turning it on to boil. Beth was just warming Peter’s milk in the microwave when there was a knock at the door.

  Sighing, she took the warm milk from the jug and poured it into a beaker. She handed Peter the cup on her way to answer. A knock came again.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming,” she called. “Wait… I said I was coming,” she called again as the knocking persisted. She opened the door and stopped, frozen in shock. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  Ben was dressed in trousers and a shirt and tie—the outfit looking out of place on the man who usually found comfort in a pair of jeans and some plain-coloured shirt.

  “How are you?” he asked.

  Her heart melted against her wishes. His voice always had the ability to undo her reserve to stay strong.

  “I’m fine but wondering what you’re doing on my front porch?” She closed the door a little to hide Peter away from the conversation.

  “I told you when you were in the hospital—I’ve changed, Beth, and I intend to stick around. I know I fucked up and I’m hoping I never do that to you again.”

  “And I accepted your apology then. Ben, why are you here?”

  Ben took a step closer to her, his hand covering hers where it lay on the door. She let out a gasp before she could control herself.

  “I’ve come to claim my son…and you.”

  Seconds later, the sound of a gunshot shattered the emotional moment and Ben collapsed to the floor. Beth screamed as blood soaked through his shirt.

  Also available from Total-E-Bound Publishing:

  The Valentines: Robert

  Sam Crescent

  Excerpt

  Prologue

  The Council of Vampires, somewhere in Beyer West.

  “You will allow this match to go through.”

  Robert Valentine glanced over at his father—head of the Valentine Corporation and leader of his family—feeling bewildered and angry.

  “It is just another human family on the verge—”

  “
I don’t care,” his father yelled at him across the room.

  Robert watched his mother flinch. His three brothers turned away, not wanting their father’s wrath directed at them. Robert understood. These were perilous times and his father had no room in his life for arguments. His two sisters were not even allowed access to the Council’s chambers. Instead, old traditions said they must remain outside at all times. One day, Robert wished to banish the old ways and start afresh. Rose and Dawn were equally affected by what happened in this place as he was.

  Robert looked at his father. He respected him but there were times when he despised the way in which the man worked. The laws that governed their society were archaic. If they didn’t change their ways soon, Robert believed it would get them all killed.

  “What have they offered?” Robert asked, trying to take some interest in the situation, since it was likely to affect his future. At the moment he had no power to change the outcome of tonight’s events.

  His father nodded to the guards to open the connecting door leading out to the human visiting room. This allowed humans a place to sit and wait, and offered protection against the abuses of the outside world. Vampire protection, among the humans, was considered a last resort, and only the most degraded and those without pride accepted such an alliance.

  A man and a woman entered the great hall. There was nothing fantastic about their appearance. They were dressed in business suits, neat and tidy, and he noted that they appeared to be in their late fifties. One of them carried a folder, which was odd. He assumed the folder contained information, but the Council usually had all the information it needed about human visitors petitioning for help. Beyer West might be a small town, but it was a Valentine-run town. His father was pedantic in his dealings with the human public. Every deal and alliance must be well-documented and sealed away for future reference.

  “Mr and Mrs Ford, allow me to introduce my oldest son, Robert Valentine.”

  Robert acknowledged the couple, bowing, as was the protocol among his family. He kept his attention on the Council and his own family, though. He knew of the Fords from his own company dealings. They were a prosperous family who should have no need of the Valentines’ services. Only last week Robert had checked the profit margins for the town’s most affluent families. It all seemed rather odd to him.

  The couple glanced nervously around them.

  “We need the kind of protection you are notorious for offering,” Mrs Ford said.

  Robert noticed that Mr Ford was scratching his head and felt like doing the same. How could this company need their help? Last time he checked, Mrs Ford stayed at home with the children while her husband ran the company. Robert couldn’t think of a single reason why they would be at the Council.

  “We are not a security company, Mrs Ford.”

  “I’m aware of that, but we can meet the price that you have set.” She handed over the file. “We’ve stumbled into some financial difficulty and we would also like assistance with this.”

  Robert Valentine opened the folder. An A4 picture of a beautiful young woman stared up at him, an innocent and carefree smile shining from deep within her.

  “Pretty girl,” he complimented her.

  “That is Sophie. My only daughter and not a girl but a woman of twenty-one,” Mr Ford corrected him.

  “With all due respect, Mr Ford, I’m more than five hundred years old. To me, she is a child,” Robert snapped, looking up to glare at the couple.

  He couldn’t deny the intrigue he felt about the girl, just from the picture he’d seen, but she was still a child. Her picture and family situation should not concern him or his family. Why did he suddenly have a bad vibe about the whole meeting? Robert glanced back at the file. The innocence clearly expressed in her beautiful features said that this girl hadn’t yet been tainted by the real world. He felt a tug at his heart, knowing that within months the smile would be gone, replaced by a frown and wary features. That was just part of life, but something within him didn’t want this girl to be affected by it.

  This meeting was getting odder by the second.

  Mr Ford retreated, leaving his wife to deal with the proceedings.

  “The protection you offer is that no harm will come to the family, as well as you supplying money to cover our debts?” she asked.

  His father nodded.

  “The deal would be between Sophie and me,” Robert interrupted. He found that he wished to see the real-life vision of the girl in the photo. To witness her innocence himself and to see her reaction to him. Would she be as affected by him as he was by her?

  “Sophie is outside.” Mrs Ford nodded at her husband to go and collect their daughter.

  Five minutes later a small, plump blonde entered—or rather was pulled by the elbow into the room, one of their security guards holding her as her father walked in front.

  “Get your hands off me,” the girl snapped, trying to shrug off the guard’s hold. After a few seconds of struggling, the guard left her at her parents’ side. Her father reached out to take hold of the same elbow the guard had been holding.

  Robert could see the fear on her delicate face. He could imagine that being in a room full of the most dangerous vampires in the world might be a little scary. After all, they could kill them all within seconds and no one would ever know what had happened to them. It upset him to see that the wary look he had predicted was already present in her eyes. Even now she held a world of knowledge that she had no business knowing.

  The Valentine family was extremely powerful. No one questioned them. They were a family to be reckoned with. It must have taken guts to come here begging for help.

  Sophie pulled out of her father’s grip. She might be frightened but the little wild-cat had fire. He liked it. Robert felt the beginnings of a stirring in his groin. It would seem that his body liked her, too. He watched her, his eyes straying to every move she made, as she shifted away from her family to stand near him. She kept her eyes on the other creatures present. She knew the threat in the room, and it wasn’t him or her parents—it was the mature vampire sitting further along the table.

  Robert admired her for stepping closer, but also for being alert. Sophie Ford wasn’t a stupid woman.

  “My daughter will be the price for this protection.” Mrs Ford gestured to her daughter, determination dripping from her tone.

  Robert could see the mother shaking for the first time since he’d seen her. It wasn’t an act…her daughter left her worried. Her daughter was unpredictable. Interesting.

  “Does your daughter know what would be expected of her?” His father was intrigued by the family—Robert could hear it in his voice. Hell, he was intrigued, too—by the woman to whom, only moments ago, he’d referred as a child when speaking to her parents. The first human female to capture and hold his attention in a very long time.

  He imagined it was the pure blonde locks. It had been so long since he’d seen natural, beautiful, long, blonde curls. Most of the women he’d met dyed their hair. The smell of the peroxide left a rancid taste in his mouth and the women always looked fake. He wondered if it was as silky as it appeared. The light on her hair gave the impression that the locks would be glorious and full. His fingers tingled to reach out and feel. He cut the impulse off. It wouldn’t do him any good, having her running away from him. Especially when they were about to partake in an intimate binding ceremony.

  “The daughter has a name.” When she spoke at last, her voice echoed around the big hall.

  He could hear her anger, resentment and defiance, all in that one brief sentence. His body responded to the outburst. All the blood in his body rushed to his dick. If he was alone, he’d take himself in hand and bring about a climax. It was like a beautiful pulse spreading inside his body, lighting up his world and mind. He would willingly have her talk the whole night away. In fact, he would fuck his fist as she whispered sexy, slutty stories to him. Robert shook his head. The woman stood less than three feet away—having sexy thoug
hts wouldn’t get him in her good books. First, he needed to make sure she agreed to the connection. At least he could say that her voice was pleasing to his ears, even edged with anger.

  “Well, then, be kind enough to share it with us,” Robert Valentine senior offered. Robert could tell that his father was amused by the girl’s guts. Very few humans had as much spirit when faced with something so much stronger than them.

  “Sophie.”

  “Well, does Sophie—”

  “Sophie is the one you should be talking to.” Sophie unfolded her arms. She passed her parents, sending them a glare that clearly told them to back off. She moved closer to the centre stage, next to Robert.

  Now he could smell her heavenly fragrance. Even her scent was delightful. He could live with this girl. Robert didn’t doubt it. The good thing about being a vampire was the ability to know and make up one’s mind when faced with something like this. It was why they were stronger. They took risks. This woman, he knew in his soul—the little he had, if he even had one at all—was meant for him. He had been taken by her at once, and he wanted her.

  He admired her spunk, her beauty and her tantalising voice.

  “Excuse me, Miss, but you must deal with respect—”

  “With all due respect, sir, I give my respect only to people who have earned it. And since, by definition, a person is someone who breathes, you don’t qualify.”

  Gasps of outrage filled the room. If Robert hadn’t been so amused by this little feminine package, he might have gathered the energy to be insulted.

  “I could have you killed.”

  “You can try—but just like you, I have a lot of backing. Besides, last I heard the humans were looking for any excuse to kick your sorry asses out of this town for good.”

  Murmurs of curiosity replaced the outrage. She had them intrigued. Shit, she had him intrigued—but for an entirely different reason. He imagined the whole Council weren’t visualising her naked and spread out on their silk sheets driving their cocks into her wet heat. When he took her she would be slick and melting—he’d make sure of it with his tongue.