Page 16 of Beautiful Sight

Tessa nodded her head up and down against the fur covering his chest as she yawned widely. “Sounds like a plan to me.”

Jefferson felt his woman relax and her breathing even out as sleep pulled her under its spell. Closing his own eyes, he took a deep breath, relaxing and allowing himself to be pulled under as well.

****

By the end of the day, their mating was complete, and Jefferson could breathe again. He had not only found his woman, but claimed and mated her, all in a twenty-four hour period. He also now understood how Kingsley James and Livingston Daniels felt when they’d met and mated their women.

When his phone beeped several times in a row with messages, Jefferson groaned as he reached for the phone. Tessa shifted beside him, but a stroke and kiss settled her back into sleep. She had admitted at one point that she had suffered from insomnia for years, and he wanted her to sleep as much as she could before he had to introduce her to the pack she would help him rule.

Scrolling through the messages, he growled with frustration. All he wanted to do was spend an indeterminate length of time here in this bed, in this room with his mate, and life was already getting in the way. His job, however, demanded he get back to work to deal with the monsters who had kidnapped both bland and supernatural women. He wanted to help negotiate a peace treaty with the gnomes and pixies, and arrange a proper introduction of his new mate to the rest of their community. The last message was the most disturbing.

Tessa’s son had gone missing.

Chapter Nine

“What do you mean, my son is missing?” Tessa asked three days later. She had known something was bothering her mate, but only now did he share this distressing news. “How long have you known?”

Granted, they had spent the last three days in bed talking, napping, and having mind-blowingly amazing sex, but still, if her son was in trouble, as his mother, she should have been told. Even if he had basically sold her to that man, Sonny, in order to cover his debts.

“Three days ago,” Jefferson began, “Jacobi and his men went to talk to him about what had happened and try to find out more about this Sonny character. When they got to his apartment, he wasn’t home. Jacobi said it looked like there had been a struggle. They’ve been watching the apartment ever since and he has not yet returned. Is there somewhere he might have gone to hide from Sonny?”

Tessa tried to think past the fear that pulsed through her for Theo.

No, not that I know of. He broke up with his last girlfriend about a month ago and as far as I know he hasn’t started seeing anyone else.”

“How about his job? Would they send him on a trip?”

Tessa rubbed at her forehead where a headache was starting to thump. “No. He’s a computer tech for the city. They never send him on trips. Do you think Sonny might have taken him because I got away?”

She could not help the tears that filled her eyes and overflowed. She wiped her cheeks as she cursed the disease that had blinded her and made her more of a liability when it came to situations like this.

“Shh, tigress. Relax. We’ll find him and make sure he’s safe, though I’m not going to let him near you in the foreseeable future. What kind of child, what kind of man does such a thing to a parent?”

“The kind that doesn’t know any better,” Tessa answered softly. “All his life, I’ve been there to bail him out of whatever trouble he got into. I have to admit I probably spoiled him, but I was never able to draw the line. He probably figured giving me to Sonny was just another way I would save his hide.”

Jefferson’s roar and a smashing thud had Tessa freezing where she sat at the kitchen counter.

She had to roll her lips over her teeth and clamp her jaw tight to keep from apologizing. Jefferson had begun smacking her ass every time he heard the words, “I’m sorry” come from her lips. And his hands were hard and though she thought he might be holding back the power of the strokes, they still hurt like hell.

Silence settled over the room, though Tessa felt the icy cold waves of rage rolling across the room from where Jefferson stood. She took a breath, then another, and though the urge to apologize swelled in her like a balloon, she remained silent.

Jefferson’s ringing phone had her jumping on the stool. She remained stone still as the man swore softly.

“What?” he barked a moment later.

Though her blindness had enhanced her other senses to near superpowers, she still could not hear what the person on the phone was saying.

“Thank you. I’ll be down shortly,” Jefferson said before apparently hanging up.

Tessa heard him move toward her, but fought to remain still and silent. No need to upset the man any further.

When a warm palm cupped her cheek, she stiffened for a moment, then relaxed when he did nothing else.

“I have to go to my office to deal with an emergency. Would you like to come with me or stay here?” He turned her stool so she faced him. He then stepped close and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned into his chest and held his shirt just above his waistline.

“Would it be okay if I came with you?”

Jefferson took a deep breath and she felt him relax. “Of course you can. There may be times in the future I’ll have to leave you alone while I’m in a meeting or such, but I’m hoping we’ll be together all the time otherwise.”