“Yes.” He wanted to make her ride him faster, let him peak now instead of later. But the look on her face, the face of pure enjoyment, made him slow himself. Putting his need behind her own was difficult, but he thought in the end it would be well worth it.
Thatcher couldn’t get enough of this woman. Not just sexually, though that was amazing, but just having her near him. Her laughter made him think life would go on forever. Her breath was like a fresh blooming flower in the spring and happiness, all rolled up into a neat loving package that was entirely his own.
When she said she was coming, screaming out her release, Thatcher watched her, marveling at the beauty that she was. And when she begged him for more, he rolled them to her back and pounded her hard, holding her hands above her head so that he could have his way with her.
“I need to touch you. Let me feel your skin.” He told her no. Not yet. “Please, I want to come holding onto you until I can’t any longer.”
“You’re much too greedy, did you know that? Just let me have my way with you, and then you can hold on. I think that you’ll need to when I’m finished with you.”
He suckled at her nipples, her breasts his to bite. Her body was his temple, his relief in life’s stress. And when he felt his own release coming to him, he put it off just a little longer, letting her hands go so that he could bring her with him, both of them coming to peak at the same time.
“Come for me, love. Come and let me fill you with everything that I am.” She screamed when he lifted her ass up to join his body tighter. “Again.”
Rogen was coming the second time when he finally let go. Thatcher had never come so hard or for so long in his life. And when the second climax took him, he could only hold on long enough to bring Rogen again before he dropped on top of her, his body not just spent but dead to the world.
When he woke, he was alone in the bed and her side was cold, so he knew that she’d been up for a while. Getting out of bed was hard—his body was sore from all the love making and coming as he had. Taking a shower, he reached out to Rogen to find out if she was home or not. He found her in the basement and smiled. She was working hard on something.
Thatcher stopped by the kitchen to see if Rogen had eaten. “No. She said that she’d wait on you. But I don’t think she thought it would be this long. I took her down some tea a bit ago. Whatever she’s doing, it’s very stressful for her, sir. She didn’t even notice that I was there and gone, I don’t think. You try and pull her away, and I’ll make you up something to eat. Dinner is all right, isn’t it?”
“Yes. And if I can’t get her to get going—whatever she is doing, it must be important—I’ll come up and get something for her to eat, all right?” Mrs. B said that was fine with her. “Good. Thank you for taking care of her.”
“She’s a right pleasure, she is. Nicest woman I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.” He kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t you be doing things like that, now. You might make her a bit jealous of us.”
Mrs. B was still laughing when he went to see Rogen. She had every light on in the place, and he noticed that there wasn’t anything on the walls. They were as stark as a basement usually was. Also, and for some reason this bothered him more than anything, there were no plants down here. Surely if he had them set back from the electrical things, there could be a few, he thought.
“Did you know that there are over five thousand bank robberies a year? And that ninety-eight of them are solved?” She hadn’t even looked in his direction before she started talking. “I can smell you. Is that weird?”
“No. Normal. Why are you looking for bank robberies?” She told him that was her job right now. Find the person that had robbed a bank in Colorado. “Do you know who it is?”
“Sort of. The persons who robbed the bank aren’t the ones with the money.” Thatcher sat down in one of the other half dozen office chairs. She looked at him. “I’m not sure what I’m looking at here, but it’s very strange.”
“Do you need me to look with you? I can be a fresh set of eyes. Oh, and dinner is about ready. Do you think we can go up and eat? I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.” She grinned and showed him the wrappers on her desk. “Good job. Would it be all right with you if I made the other half of this area into something more homey? Like add a few plants? A couple of rugs?”
“The men are coming back today to put a wall up in this part. I don’t think it’s very secure that you can see it from the door. So yes, that would be great. That way, we can enjoy ourselves down here and I won’t have to look at anything. Maybe we can put out a deck or something, and a table so that we can have a little breakfast or something out there and in here.”
“Excellent.” She stood up and stretched. “How are you feeling this evening? I have to admit, I’m a little sore in places. I don’
t think I’ve ever been sore before.”
“I’m sore too.” They made their way to the other area in the basement. “Okay, let’s get this started sometime soon. Make it very homey for us. Jamie would love this too. By the way, he needs for you to come out and help him with one of the pieces of equipment. He said that you have to okay him on it before he can use it.”
He was just getting his platter of food when the house phone rang. Mrs. B answered it and handed it to him. He was needed at the hospital and had to leave now. As much as he hated it, he knew that his job was important to someone today. After kissing Rogen and asking her to tell Jamie he’d get to him when he returned, he left. For as much as he loved his job and thought he was good at it, he really hated to leave home anymore.
There had been an accident on the highway, and there were two coming to his operating room. They were ready, waiting, when his nurse told him he had a phone call. Going to the phone that was covered in a nice plastic film, he said his name and asked who it was.
“It’s Dawson. I figured that this was easier on your staff. Your patient died on the way in, but he’s an organ donor. If you can do that for me, I might be able to save the oldest son. His heart has been damaged.” He asked him if the paperwork was filled out. “It will be by the time he gets to you. I need this done now, Thatcher. The kids will have lost both their parents and the oldest child all in the same day. Please?”
“I’ll do it. Just make sure they’re typed and matched, Dawson, and we’ll have it done when you’re ready for me.”
It would mean a longer day, but perhaps someone would be able to live after he was finished. Not only did he have to take the heart from the father, but he’d then have to transplant it into the son. It was hard work, often dangerous for the receiver, but the boy might live, and that was a better chance than he had right now.
The operating room wasn’t set up for a transplant, so they had to work quickly in getting it ready. After making sure that everyone had eaten something and had gone to the bathroom, he was as ready as he’d ever be. All they had to do now was wait.
Dawson was going to assist him on the moves. He was a good doctor and a very good surgeon, but Dawson preferred to work in the emergency room more than where Thatcher worked. He said that he got to be there firsthand for anything that came along in the ER, and he never had the same day twice in a row. That was good for him. But Thatcher liked to have the same sort of day. Let him do surgery of any kind, especially when it came to working with the heart, and he was as happy as a camper.
Three and a half hours into the surgery, he was contacted by Rogen. She said she was sorry but asked if it was all right with him if she met with Shane. The pack master wanted to talk to her.
Are you afraid of him? She said no, but she didn’t know how it worked with them, leader to leader—Shane being pack leader and Thatcher being in charge of a destruction. Then she asked him why they called themselves that. My dad did that. He thought that a pack of wild cats, what he said we were when growing up, was an apt name for the group. There were very few of us in the area then, shifter tigers, so the council made him the leader by default. When he retired, I took over with about a dozen of us. If you want to meet with Shane, you can. You don’t need my permission to do that. He’s a good man, a better pack leader than we’ve had in a while, so go for it.