Cocky Protector: A Hero Club Novel

by Kat Mizera

  Shannon, you were the light of my life, and I wish I’d been around more when you were growing up. I loved serving my country, but the sacrifice was time with you, which, as we now know, was far too short. You’re a smart, loving woman who’s much stronger than you let on. It took guts to come to me about Douglas’s vasectomy and to walk away without looking back. He was the wrong man, but Ace is the right one, so fight for him. Don’t let him walk away; he needs you just as much as you need him, and you two have known that almost from the beginning. Sometimes, you just know. I knew the minute I laid eyes on Samantha she was the one for me and I think the two of you did as well.

  Together, I hope you’ll do all the things I didn’t get to do. My service, my sacrifices, my country, took too much. Learn from my mistakes and live your lives to the fullest. Together. You can serve in other ways, Ace, and Shannon, put yourself first sometimes. Demand his attention, because men like us sometimes need to be put in our place.

  Shannon, you and your mother were never close, but she promised me before I died that she would do everything in her power to change that. If she did, and you two built a relationship after I passed, please don’t hold this against her. I made her promise she wouldn’t rest until you two were somehow together. I gave her some ideas but I know she can go overboard sometimes. Please don’t let my machinations from beyond the grave impact whatever ground you’ve gained—she needs you more than you know, my sweet girl.

  Ace, take care of both my girls. Sam is a little prickly and opinionated, but she loves Shannon and she’ll love you too. Give her a few grandbabies and everything will be right in her world. I promise.

  Well, it’s late and Sam says it’s time for my meds, so I’m going to finish this, seal the envelope and give it to her to put away until the time is right.

  I love you, my lovely Shannon, and you were like a son to me, Ace. I’m getting a lot of pleasure thinking about the two of you together.

  All my love,

  Dad (Wayne)

  I was crying by the time I finished, my eyes red as I folded it and put it back in the envelope.

  “I want to be mad at him,” Ace said gruffly, wiping my tears, “but I can’t because if he and your mom hadn’t done this, I wouldn’t have you now.”

  “I said some mean things to my mother,” I sniffled. “I have to apologize.”

  “We should go see her.”

  “She’s here in D.C. We flew in together.”

  “Are we spending Christmas with her?”

  “I’m not sure. I was wondering if you wanted to go see your parents?”

  “We’re here and tomorrow is Christmas Eve. I think we owe it to your mom—and your dad, in a way—to spend it with her. If you want, though, after Christmas, we could fly to L.A. and I could introduce you to my family.”

  “And Chance and Aubrey are close by too.”

  He grinned at me. “You and Aubrey going shopping?”

  “I haven’t talked to her yet, but I’m sure we will.”

  “Works for me.” He kissed me again, his tongue toying with mine. “Want to play a game?”

  I chuckled. “Do you play it naked?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Sure.”

  “Every time I make you come, I get to read an entry in your diary.”

  “Diary is locked up tight in a new spot back in Cologne.”

  “A new spot?” He arched a brow at me.

  “My boyfriend is a freakin’ spy. I can’t hide anything from him.”

  He laughed. “That’s okay. I can keep track of how many pages you owe me until I find it.”

  “I didn’t agree to this game yet.” I was laughing too.

  “I can make you come using just my tongue, just my fingers, and just my cock… That’s three times right there. You sure you don’t want to play?”

  “What do I get every time I make you come?”

  “What do you want?”

  “Do I have to decide now?”

  “Nope.”

  “Then me first.” I dipped my head beneath the sheets.

  Epilogue

  Ace

  We got back to Cologne late on a Sunday, the day before Shannon had to go back to work. We’d packed a lot into the last twelve days, though. Christmas with her mother, several days with my family, New Year’s with Chance and Aubrey, and then four days on a beach in Mexico having so much sex I was willing to admit she’d worn me out. I still had a fantastic libido, but my girl, well, Shannon gave me a run for my money. Whether it was because she’d gone so long without sex, and had never had any good sex before we got together, or because of how passionate things were between us, I didn’t know and didn’t care. I just knew how good it was.

  “I’m going to be exhausted tomorrow,” she said as we unpacked, “but it’ll be worth it.”

  “I’ll get the laundry done and pick up some groceries while you’re at work,” I told her. “And hopefully we’ll both get some sleep.”

  “For sure.” She gave me a happy grin as she disappeared into the bathroom.

  Things were pretty great between us and I hadn’t thought about the CIA, Limaj or anything else related to being a spy since I’d quit. We’d done a lot of talking and soul-searching the last two weeks. Shannon was still harboring some frustration with her mother, but was determined to work through it, for her father’s sake if nothing else. I wanted whatever she wanted, and I thought Samantha was bending over backwards to make things right with her daughter.

  We fell asleep early that night and when I woke up in the morning, Shannon was in the shower. I had a lot to do today, both to help us settle into our new routine and on a personal end for myself. I hadn’t spoken to Erik in almost two weeks, and I owed Chains a phone call too. I hadn’t told either of them that I’d quit my job, and I had a lot of things to think about in that regard.

  Shannon and I had decided we would live here in Cologne until school was out for the year. She didn’t want to leave her students, especially the seniors, in the middle of a school year, so she would stay until June and we would reassess at that time. I didn’t mind since I liked it here and I was close enough to Limaj to get there quickly if something happened. My loyalty to Erik and his family went far beyond the CIA. We were friends, very much like family, and I would be there for him in an instant if he needed me.

  I was going to take Shannon there this summer, for Prince Sandor’s wedding and to meet everyone, see how she felt about the place. I’d been thinking of settling there before she’d come back into my life, so I wanted to test the waters, see what she thought about everything. But she deserved six months to wind down her life and career here. That was only fair.

  I walked her to work since I had to go out anyway, and then stopped at the bakery and the grocery on the way home. Once I was home, I put everything away and called Chains. I knew he’d be up, since it was only midnight in Las Vegas, and he answered cheerfully.

  “There you are. Been wondering when you’d appear. Happy New Year!”

  “Happy New Year. How’s everything?”

  “Right as rain. You?”

  I told him about leaving the agency and moving to Cologne with Shannon.

  “Well, good for you. You were about done with them anyway.”

  “For sure.”

  “You looking for work?”

  “Not full-time work. I just wanted to let you know if you need anything in this part of the world, I’m available.”

  “You talk to Erik yet? Lot of changes happening over there as well.”

  “He’s my next call.”

  “Talk with him, think about what you want to do, but you’ve always got a job here if you want it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Tell Shannon I said hello.”

  “All my love to Emilie and the kids.”

  “Cheers.” Chains disconnected and I sat on the couch thoughtfully. I had so many options open to me, but I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to do except make love to m
y girl and think about some romantic way to ask her to marry me.

  It hadn’t taken me long to come to the conclusion that this was forever. We hadn’t used the L word yet, not officially, but it was written all over both of us. As Wayne had said in his letter, sometimes you just knew, and I definitely knew. She was the one for me.

  She wanted babies, and while it made me a little nervous, I wanted what she wanted. I needed something more, though, like a job, but not yet. Right now I was content being a civilian and getting used to my new life. Maybe down the road I’d work with Chains or help Erik get his intelligence agency off the ground, but until then, this was all I needed. Shannon was all I needed.

  She came in the door a little before four, her hair windblown and cheeks red from the cold weather. She dropped her things on the floor and straddled me on the couch.

  “I missed you,” she announced, kissing me.

  “I missed you too,” I laughed, cupping her ass.

  “Let’s get naked. It’s been more than twenty-four hours.”

  I snorted in mock horror. “I’m sorry, my lovely nympho. I won’t make that mistake again.”

  She was leaning in to kiss me when she paused and frowned. “What’s that?” she asked, noting the bulge of something stuffed behind the pillows.

  “What?” I feigned innocence.

  “Andrew Ross, what did you do?” Her eyes narrowed.

  “You owed me forty-three pages.”

  “Pages?” She blinked.

  “For forty-three, and soon forty-four, orgasms.”

  Her mouth fell open. “You counted?!”

  “We had a deal.”

  “That’s cheating.”

  “Didn’t you count?”

  “No!” Her eyes twinkled with feigned annoyance.

  “Not my fault.”

  “You can’t—”

  I dug under the pillows and whipped out her diary. “Told you I would find it.”

  She burst out laughing. “Not fair! Give that to me.”

  “There’s a page that says, ‘People’ magazine has it all wrong—the sexiest man alive is Ace Ross.’” I held it out of her grasp as she tried to take it from me. “Do you really believe that?”

  “No.” She pursed her lips. “The sexiest man alive wouldn’t read my diary.”

  “Okay, you get credit for the pages I read when I searched your apartment the first time. I won’t read anymore.” I handed it back to her and she stuffed it under the cushions.

  Then she looked up at me.

  “I thought you said you hadn’t read anything about yourself.”

  I shrugged. “I might have fibbed. A little. Because you were embarrassed and I figured it would be even worse if you knew what I’d read.”

  Her cheeks turned pink. “So you already read everything?”

  “Not everything. But enough to know you never stopped thinking about me.”

  “Oh.”

  “But here’s the thing.” I twirled a lock of her hair as I stared into her beautiful blue eyes. “If I’d kept a diary, it would’ve been filled with my fantasies about you. So even though I didn’t because I couldn’t, where it counts—” I patted my heart, “—it’s all there.”

  Her eyes burned into mine. “I love you, Ace. I always have.”

  “I love you too, baby. And I always have as well.”

  “Will you marry me?” She clapped a hand over her mouth, as if she hadn’t meant to say that out loud, but I just cocked my head.

  “You sure that’s what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’m currently unemployed.”

  “I have a good job.”

  “I don’t know where we’re going to end up or what I’m going to want to do once the novelty of being retired wears off.”

  “I already told you I didn’t care as long as you love me.”

  “I might need to do a little spy work once in a while.”

  “I might need to do some tutoring once in a while then.”

  “Sounds like you’ve given this a lot of thought.”

  “I have.”

  “Then yes, I absolutely will.”

  “And you’ll make a baby with me?”

  “Yup.”

  “Two?”

  “Maybe.” I was teasing her and she knew it.

  We grinned at each other, and she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Ace?”

  “Yeah, honey?”

  “You can read my diary. I have nothing to hide from you.”

  “And that’s why I don’t have to. I already know everything I need to know.”

  “Then you know what I want to do next.”

  “Uh, well, yeah, you kind of told me the minute you walked in the door.”

  “No, silly. After that.”

  I arched a brow. “Shopping?”

  She laughed with delight. “You are my favorite spy in the whole world.”

  “I fucking hope so.” I kissed her pretty pink lips and she lifted her shirt over her head. God, I loved this woman.

  ***The End***

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