Chapter 5

Sterling - Chapter 5

Marty loved the way he was looking at her. It was sort of a cross between lust and hunger. No one had ever made her feel so desirable before, and she doubted very much if anyone would again. Just this man, the one before her, could love her like she wanted to be. Keep her safe as she'd never been able to do. And most of all, he would be the one that, no matter what, would cherish her.

"I love you, Sterling." He stood up then, pulling her into his arms. When he kissed her, she knew that this was right…the feelings that she had for him were true and everything that she'd hoped they'd be. "Now. Lie down. I'm going rock your world."

He sat and grinned at her. "You already have, love. Ever since the first time I saw you you've done nothing but rock my entire being. And to know that you love me only makes what we're about to do seem so perfect. It is perfect."

Marty was going to make this good. While she had no idea what it took to be sexy or even how to make him want her, she was going to rely on every trick she'd read in books. Most of it just meant letting him do all the work, but she was going to try and make him nuts with desire. And if the look on his face was any indication, she was pretty close to that already.

Slipping her bra down her arms, she held it over her breasts and watched his face. His gaze was intent on her body, her breasts. Taking it off and then dropping it to the floor with the rest of her clothing, she stood before him in her panties. Cupping her breasts in her hands, she tugged at her nipples and smiled at him.

"Do you like what you see?" He nodded. "Would you like to suckle at my breasts? How about taste my pussy? It's so wet right now."

Sterling was suddenly not there, and in his place was his wolf. And Christ almighty, what a wolf. She started to back away from him, not sure what had happened, when he growled low and took her hand in his mouth and nipped her. It hadn't really hurt but she was surprised by it. And afraid. He hadn't bared his teeth at her, but she could see the fur along his back standing on end.

He wants you. Marty shook her head. Not to have sex. I'm sorry, honey. I truly am, but he wants to mark you. Taste you. He's a lot more aggressive than I am.

"He's huge." The wolf laid down and whimpered. "I think he's beautiful. I've never thought of.... Are you sure he won't try and have sex with me?"

Yes. I'm sure. He just wants to taste all of you. Spread your legs and I promise you that he won't hurt you. She didn't know what to do, but when the wolf jumped off the bed, she backed up again. He won't hurt you. Ever.

She still wasn't so sure. But when he came to her, his head down and his body low to the floor, she watched him. Then he licked her ankle, knee, and then her thigh. It was warm and soft, his tongue. The texture of it made her wetter, the thought of him touching her with it, on her pussy, made her think this might not be too bad. When she opened her thighs for him, he moved slowly, his teeth, nipping a little hard at her skin but not enough to draw blood, making her dizzy with the need to come.

"What do I do?" Sterling told her to lay down on the bed. As she sort of stumbled to the bed, the wolf was right beside her. Her knees were wobbly and weak with need. "Now what?"

Take off your panties, or he can. She thought of that and didn't move. Would he tear at her skin too? Would he lick her through them if she didn't remove them? All the ideas and thoughts in her head were making her warmer, her body humming with a profound need. Good. He'll love that too.

His teeth pulled at the little straps at the side of her panties. When he yanked on the silky material, she nearly came at the sound of it tearing. Then before she could ask what she would have to do now, the wolf was licking her from gate to clit and causing her to scream out a quick release. Holy Christ, this was much better than she could have imagined.

The wolf licked her to completion so many times that she was woozy with it. Every time she thought that she'd had enough, he would nip at her thigh, her pussy, or even her knee and she'd come again. Sliding his tongue into her, fucking her with it, he made her scream so many times that she was hoarse with it. Ready to faint with pleasure, she looked up when Sterling touched her.

"He might have killed me. I don't think I have anything left in me to make love with you." Sterling grinned at her. "I'm serious. I'm done. I'm sorry, but I don't think—"

Sterling filled her. It wasn't painful, him taking her, but he simply filled every part of her body when he slid his cock inside of her pussy. Holding him, just keeping her hands tightly gripped to his arms, she looked up at him and felt his love pour over her. He hadn't moved, not once, but she could see on his face what it was costing him not to do so.

"I need to make love to you, darling. To make you mine as my wolf has done. Fill you with my seed so that we'll be one." She nodded, her eyes filling with tears at the way his voice seemed to caress her. "I love you, Marty. Every day, I'll love you more for as long as I live."

He made love to her. Not just her body, but her heart and her mind as well. Each time he moved deep into her, he kissed her. His tongue traced her chin and her ear. Marty wrapped her legs around his, riding upwards when he came down into her. And when he nipped at the pulse at her throat, Marty didn't care if he tore into her now. In fact, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for her to offer herself to him.

"Come." The single word brought her body up off the bed, her heart sputtered to a stop, and she was sure that her blood had heated to a volcanic temperature. And when Sterling bit down on her throat, instead of pain, she felt connected. Her mind open to his as Sterling's was to hers. She came to be centered, her life complete for the first time. And Marty knew a love so deep that she couldn't imagine being without it.

Childhood memories. Hurts and pain. The she-devil the night that she'd marked him. The people he'd watched being killed. The witch, Chris Bentley. Myra, the second to Chris. His mother, his dad, all his family were there as well. The day that the demon had come to them, taking away not just his nightmares but his need to die. She felt his sorrow at life. His need to stop breathing, and the love that he had for her and his family. And then she came.

Stars. Rainbows. Flowers. They danced behind her eyelids for several seconds until her body started to function again. Her vison blurred, then she snapped out.

Waking, the room was darker. The fireplace was roaring in the room, and was the only light. Rolling to her side, she was pulled closer to Sterling, his arms wrapped around her, and he snuggled into her neck. Marty wasn't sure she'd ever been this comfortable before. Not in a very long time anyway. Wrapping her arms around his, she laid there and thought of spending her life with this man, and thought there couldn't have been anything better than that.

"You're very wonderful to wake next to." Marty rolled to her back and looked up at him. The wolf was there, his eyes glowing back at her from Sterling's face. "I love you."

"I can see him. Your wolf. I think I might love him as well." Sterling kissed her, taking her breath away with just the simple touching of their lips. "I've never spent the night with anyone before. What do we do when we wake in the middle of the night?"

"Make love again? However, as much as I'd love to take you several more times before the sun comes up, I'm starving. I bet you are as well." Her belly growled loudly. "I'm going to take that as a yes. Let's go raid the kitchen, and perhaps I can find someplace to fill your other needs as well while we're at it."

"You're on." They got up and she realized she had nothing to wear here. Sterling told her to look in the closet or dresser for something of his. She walked into the big room and stopped. "Sterling? There's women's clothing here that wasn't before."

"I bet it fits you too." Marty ran her fingers over the blouses that were hung on padded hangers. The drawers were filled with bright and colorful sweaters. Opening the drawer to the big dresser in the middle of the room, she squealed with delight. Sterling joined her in the room. "What did you...? Christ, knowing that you're going to be having that on under your clothing is going to keep me in a constant state of arousal. Try one of them on."

The bra and panty set was beautiful. Sensual too. The bra was a dark green lace, and her breasts felt supported yet sexy too. Sterling moved his fingers over the lace and looked at her. She moved back so that she could pull on the panties before he tore them off her.

"It's beautiful. I've never had anything so nice before. I usually buy my things at the local department store, but this...I'm betting this is more than I made in a week in tips during the holiday season." He smiled and sat on the bench in the room. "There are about a dozen sets like this. And look, the ones I took out? They've been replaced by another set. Oh Sterling, this is amazing."

They dressed quickly then. Sterling went to his part of the closet to dress while she lingered over which sweater to pull on. It was like Christmas for her, having so many things, beautiful things to choose from. As they made their way to the lower level, Sterling held her hand and Marty felt absolutely wonderful.

The refrigerator was full of things to snack on. She had thought that Alta had left it for them, but Sterling said that it was the house again. It was there to anticipate needs. She thought she could get used to this, having her every whim taken care of. There would be drawbacks, she knew, but for now, she was happy and content. As they were eating a cheeseball and crackers while Sterling made them sandwiches, Alta joined them and started fussing at Sterling.

"You should have called me. I would have fixed you something hot to go in your bellies." He told her that he had it, she should go back to bed. "I don't sleep. Too old now to take the habit up. There is just too much to see and do to be lying about in a bed that has to be done up all the time. Besides, I love cooking for you, but having a missus here, this will be the best thing for this old witch."

They ate ham and eggs, fluffy homemade biscuits, and gravy. By the time she was pushing her plate away, Marty thought she might bust. And when Alta shooed them out of the kitchen, Sterling picked her up in his arms and carried her back to bed. She was too exhausted to protest.

~*~

Noelle was setting up a display on one of the tables she'd gotten in a few days ago when Sterl and Marty came in. Smiling, she looked at them. They were in love. It shined off them like sunlight. She was so happy for them and the future they'd have. And Noelle was going to get a good friend out of this too.

"Coming to work, Sterl?" He said that he had some paintings to pack up. "All right. If you'd like to hang out with me, Marty, I'm sure he won't be too long. I have no one to talk to, so the distraction will be nice."

"What is it you're doing?" Noelle explained to her that she'd been collecting furniture and things from vampires and other older creatures and helping them make a buck or two. "That's nice. I would imagine that they'd have a lot of things from over the years."

Noelle finished the display and wandered over to where Marty was looking at a desk. "It came in a few days ago. I'm not sure what I can do with it yet. It doesn't have a chair that works under it, and there are several stubborn drawers that I can't get open. I think it belonged to a large estate, but the person who brought it by just dumped it by the back doors and didn't leave any kind of reference for it. I'm almost afraid to sell it because they might be back for it, but Chloe said that I should go ahead since I reported it here. What do you think of it?"

"It's called a bootlegger's desk." She moved to the side of it and ran her fingers along the top. "I took a few classes in college that dealt with antiques. There is usually a small button to open— Here it is."

Noelle looked in the drawer when it opened, then at Marty. The expression on her face was exactly how she felt. Shocked. Fear. Excitement. All the things one would expect when they opened a drawer with a gun and lots of cash in it.

"Don't touch anything." Noelle said she wouldn't. "I don't know what all this means, but I'm reasonably sure that it's not good. I mean, these are one hundred dollar bills, and it looks like the date is from the thirties."

"There's a book too. Do you suppose it has a name in it?" She realized she was whispering, as did Marty when she told her she didn't know. "We have to call someone. I was thinking Tanner. He's an attorney."

"All right, but no one else. I mean, I've talked to Sterling's family and they can't keep a secret to save their lives." Noelle laughed, then covered her mouth. "This is some serious shit here. I wish now that I'd not shown you."

"What about the other drawers?" Marty moaned and she laughed again. "We've already opened one of them. We might as well do the rest."

"But after Tanner comes here. We need a witness, I think." For what, they had no idea, but Noelle agreed with her. "Also, just for now, I think we should just close this and hope that it doesn't open again. I was just showing off, I think. I never dreamed that it would be like this."

"I'm glad that you did it. I would have hated to have sold this to someone and find out that I gave away riches that might belong to someone else." Marty said they were more than likely from some honest to goodness bootlegger. "That's what I was thinking too."

Tanner arrived about twenty minutes later. They'd not told him what they needed him for, but lucky or unlucky for them, TJ was with him. This man could and did talk a mile a minute, but right now, as he peered in the first drawer, he was speechless.

"We need the police." Marty said nothing, but Noelle asked him what they'd do. "Well, they need to be involved in the event that this is stolen or illegal money. I'll call Chloe and see what she can tell us. Being family and the chief of police, we know she can be trusted."

Noelle was glad they'd been able to convince her sister-in-law to take the job with the police department. It had been a while since anyone had been trustworthy in the place, and now that most of the people working there had been taken to prison, things were going much smoother. Most, if not all, of the police had been hitmen that were working for the former chief, and had been taken down by the Feds. Anastasia, one of the agents that Chloe had called, had been helping her find good, trusted men to fill the positions as well.

The book was removed by Chloe, and everything they did was being recorded. TJ was helpful in that as he had his phone ready. Noelle had to tell Elijah; he had felt her fear and had decided to come by to watch the proceedings rather than have her tell him about them. After they opened the second drawer and began the inventory on it, the entire family was there, including Sterl. It was becoming a fun affair really, with everyone having their own version of what had transpired to have so much money in the desk. She thought that Jasmine's was the best and more than likely most truthful.

"I think that some old gangster had this desk, and he hid the money away so that his men wouldn't find it. His wife would have known, but maybe she died before he did. Then no one, for many years, wanted it, so this poor old desk sat in storage somewhere until they opened the space and found it. And that book? All those people there are more than likely gone as well, or even too old to remember the man, much less this desk."

"I'll see what I can find out with these names. For all we know, they might live right here in town, or close enough that they might have a claim on this money." Noelle thought that was unlikely. "I know you said that you have records of who brought you what, but you said that this was just at the back door of the place the other day, so we have to make every effort to find them, just in case they claim later that we stole it from them."

They'd counted the money four times. It was just under two hundred thousand dollars in cash. But there were other things to consider too. The book with some sort of code in it, jewels and loose diamonds in a felt bag that weighed about three pounds, gold bars, three of them, with the Treasury Department stamp on them, as well as deeds to several pieces of property and a book for a bank in Europe. Noelle didn't want to have to be the one to search for what would basically, from the dates in it, be a hundred-year-old bank account.

Marty showed them what she'd found when she looked for a maker's mark. The woman knew a great deal more than she did about furniture, and Noelle was going to ask her to be her partner when this was cleared up. For now, they all watched her as she showed them not only the manufacturer, in this case a single-family name, but also the year it had been made. Nineteen-twelve.

"I was going to put it with the things that we have for the resale items. I had no idea that it was so old." Noelle ran her fingers over the inlaid top of several different kinds of wood. "I bet when this was brand new it was so beautiful."

"It would be easy to clean up and made to look good." James looked at the desk with Scott and they determined that it only needed some love. "I think we can bring her back to her old self with a little stripper and some polish. You let me know when we can start on it and I'll do it. I'm thinking that I'll look it up, some way to make it pretty again without hurting the finish on those woods. Might even be able to name a few more of them by then too."

"I want it." They all turned to Jasmine when she spoke. "I'll buy it off you, but I want it for my house. I love it. And it's so lovely that I think it would look very special in my office. You tell me a price and I'll pay it."

Noelle wouldn't charge her anything, but she was sure that she'd not take it then. They'd talk later, she thought. When there was less going on. Christ, so much had happened since Marty came in with Sterl.

Just before she closed the doors for the day, Sterl came down again from his studio. She was glad to have him working up there. It gave her a little bit of security knowing that a wolf was up there all the time. As well as now that he had a mate, she had constant company. Marty hung around with her the entire day, each of them making the displays prettier by just bouncing ideas off each other. Noelle asked Sterl what he was doing with his paintings as they were counting out the day's cash.

"I have a gallery opening in two weeks, but don't tell anyone." She sat down and glanced at Marty when she sat beside her. "I'm not sure if this is a good idea or not, but I don't want the family to know so they can tease me about it when it's a flop."

"It won't be a flop. I've told you that." Marty patted him on the back when he sat down and spoke to her. "He has it in his head that no one will show up, and that those that do will think him too deranged. I think they're very powerful paintings. The two that he has at the house are something that you have to look at several times to see it all. And even then, I'm betting that I missed something."

"How many do you have?" She had to ask him to repeat himself when he said two dozen. "You've been painting a lot then. I want to go to the opening. Please? I won't tell anyone there that you're my brother-in-law, but I so want to go. And I think you should tell your family, too. I doubt anyone would be making fun of you."

"Grandma knows. She's the one that set this up. I think this guy owed her a favor or something. He said that I'd sell out the first night of it. I hope that Grandma isn't buying them to make me feel good." Noelle thought she'd do that, Jasmine was a very kind hearted woman, but she wouldn't do that to Sterl. At least she hoped that she wouldn't. She'd be too afraid that he'd find out, and it would hurt her for him to feel that way. "Anyway, the gallery opening is in two weeks. I have to be there, but Isaac said that I didn't have to let anyone know who I was unless I wanted to. All my work is signed with just an S."

She wanted to beg him to see his work. Sterl had been so quiet about what he was doing up there, just coming in and painting at all hours. Sometimes here before her and leaving after she did for the day. And now she found out that he had a gallery wanting his work. Noelle was so excited that she wanted to hug him, but she knew that of all the brothers, Sterl was the hardest to get to know, and she didn't want to embarrass him. She thought it had to do with what that monster had done to him.

"See? I told you that you should tell your family. They'd be as proud of you as I am. And if not, I'd kick their asses." They all laughed when Marty spoke. "How about we have them over for dinner tonight and tell them then? You know as well as I do that as soon as they find out, they're not going to be happy with you for not telling them before."

"I know, but I don't want to look like a failure in their eyes. I've been a pain in the ass for a while now, and I don't need to have them feeling sorry for me any longer." He took Marty's hand in his and kissed the back of it before continuing. "If they make fun of me or tease me in any way, I'm going to blame it all on you."

"Deal." They both laughed and Noelle was glad. Then it occurred to her what else was in two weeks.

"What's the date of your opening?" He told her. "That's pretty close to Thanksgiving. We'll have to make hotel reservations now or we won't have anywhere to stay. And maybe while we're at it we could all have dinner together, sort of bring in the holidays like that. I mean, it's the Friday before turkey day, so we could even get a bit of shopping in as well."

Her mind was working out details as they sat there. Not only would they need a hotel, but dresses too. Noelle was getting large enough now that people could tell that she was pregnant, and she was happy about that, as well as being proud of having twins. As they worked out when they were going to leave, she started making notes on what to take with them. This was going to be so much fun, and she had no doubt that Sterl was going to be a great success.