“Did he train all of you in martial arts and how to shoot?”
“He might have done.”
“Haydn!”
“Along with our years of training in the army, yes.”
“No wonder the six of you are all so…”
“So?” he prompted curiously.
The warmth returned to her cheeks. “So able to take care of yourselves.”
“I don’t think that’s what you were really going to say.”
Her chin rose. “Prove it.”
He gave her a knowing grin. “I’ll give you a pass for now.”
Hailey took it. She really had no intention of admitting she had been going to say no wonder the six of you are all so buff. “Is your father completely retired now?”
“Semi.” Haydn grimaced. “I don’t think people who work for HM’s government in the capacity my father did can ever completely retire. Or their enemies ever completely go away.”
“Hence downstairs and the armory hidden there.”
Haydn chuckled. “Four guns and a few grenades is hardly an armory.”
And, Hailey realized, she was allowing herself to be side-tracked again. The fact the guns and grenades were there at all was alarming enough, but the reason Haydn had felt it necessary to release them from the concrete floor where they’d been hidden was even more so. “I thought your brothers were going to apprehend Ernesto before he got anywhere near here, but now I see I was wrong. You’re waiting for another call from one of your brothers.” There had been several in the past few hours. “Probably Logan, to tell you Ernesto has left his hotel and they’re going to follow him to Scotland.” It was a statement, not a question.
The blond of Haydn’s hair gleamed golden from the overhead lighting as he also rose to his feet. “They discussed that plan, passed it by me, and I agreed that apprehending an armed and dangerous Silva here, away from innocent bystanders, was the best idea.”
“But you didn’t run it by me!” she accused heatedly, no longer feeling in the least safe. She was also furious with Haydn for having allowed her to drift into this state of false security. “You let me think—believe—he would never get as far as Scotland.”
“I did no such thing,” he snapped back. “The decision to allow him to come here was made after Bryce was able to check out Silva’s hotel room when he went out to buy some fast food for his dinner. The six bullets missing from the box in his luggage and the absence of a gun in the room show that he’s moving freely about London in possession of a loaded gun.”
Hailey paced the room in her agitation. “Then inform the police. He’s broken his parole by coming to England at all, and now he’s walking about the London streets carrying a gun. They’ll send him back to the States, where he’ll have his ass throw back in prison.”
“Doing it that way, there’s no guarantee he won’t kill or injure someone before he’s taken into custody. Returning him officially to the States will only delay Silva coming after you until after he’s released from prison again. A couple of years at most for breaking his parole, and then he’ll be back looking for you. Because the bastard isn’t going to stop, Hailey,” Haydn stated with certainty. “He holds you responsible for the death of his twin, and he’s the sort of man who’ll keep coming until either you or he, or possibly both of you, are dead.”
All the adrenaline that had been coursing through Hailey’s body suddenly seemed to dissipate, leaving her to crash and burn along with it as she stumbled to one of the armchairs before dropping down into it. Because she knew Haydn was right. Ernesto and his threats against her were the reason she’d been put into Witness Protection in the first place.
She still couldn’t believe Bianca D’Angelo might have betrayed her to Ernesto. Admittedly, she and Bianca hadn’t physically met since Hailey left the States, but they touched base regularly via a secure telephone number.
The same secure number on which Hailey had spoken to the other woman earlier today. If Ernesto made plans to come to Scotland after that, then they would know—
As if on cue, Haydn’s cell phone buzzed with an incoming call.
Hailey only needed to take one look at Haydn’s face after he’d listened to the call for a minute or so to know that Ernesto was on the move and coming their way. The speed with which he had discovered her whereabouts told Hailey that Bianca, or someone in her office, was definitely involved in Ernesto knowing exactly where Hailey was.
“Are you going to sit there and sulk all night?”
Hailey turned from where she was sitting in the window seat at the front of the cottage, her knees drawn up beneath her chin as she gazed out at the black starlit sky.
Haydn moved to sit on the velvet cushion next to where her socked feet were resting. “We now know Silva is on the overnight train to Edinburgh. He then needs to get on another train up to the Highlands or hire a car—or possibly steal one. Either way, he isn’t going to arrive here until sometime late tomorrow morning or early afternoon.”
“Whichever he chooses, this is going to be over, one way or another, by late tomorrow afternoon.”
“That’s the plan, yes.”
Hailey released a shaky breath. “Do you have another option?”
“I doubt any of the brothers would be willing to make changes in the plan now—”
“I meant another option to my sitting here and sulking all night.” Her green eyes were openly laughing at him.
Haydn had spent the last half an hour clearing away in the kitchen, then going upstairs to make up the bed in the master bedroom in order to give Hailey time to get over her earlier feelings of betrayal. He now stilled, barely breathing, as he looked at her searchingly.
Hailey had been completely uncommunicative as she packed and stacked away the board games he’d deliberately used as a distraction. He hadn’t been sure she would agree to the alternative of the two of them spending the rest of the night in bed together.
Could Hailey now be making that suggestion herself?
He eyed her warily. “Is this a trick question?”
She gave a husky chuckle as she swung her legs down to the floor and leaned toward him. “I’m not angry anymore,” she assured him.
“Then what are you?”
“Why don’t you come a little closer and find out?”
He continued to eye her cautiously. “Nothing bad is going to happen to you tomorrow, Hailey. I won’t allow it.”
She tilted her head. “What about you? Can you guarantee that nothing bad will happen to you either?”
“There are no guarantees in life—”
“Exactly.” She made the move to be closer to him until their lips were almost touching. Certainly close enough that she could now run the moist tip of her tongue across Haydn’s slightly parted lips. “I want you, Haydn.”
He gave a low groan in his throat as the pleasure of that caress went straight to his balls. “You can have me.”
“Then let’s go upstairs.” She stood to hold out her hand to him. “What are you waiting for?” she prompted when he remained seated.
“I need to know if this is something you would want if we weren’t aware things could have changed considerably by this time tomorrow.”
“As in one of us could be dead?”
His jaw tightened. “No one is going to die.”
“Not even Silva?”
His eyes narrowed. “I can’t answer that. I won’t answer it.” He stood up to pull her into his arms. “I’m taking you to bed now, making love to you all tonight, and we’ll deal with tomorrow when it gets here.”
It sounded like an excellent plan to Hailey.
Apart from the “we’ll deal with tomorrow” part.
For whatever reason, this was her mess, and she didn’t intend for Joanne and Simon to lose any of their sons because of something Hailey’s father had set in motion eight years ago by being a complete and utter selfish bastard.
Chapter Fourteen
There wasn’t room on the ti
ny staircase for Haydn to carry Hailey up to the master bedroom, so he kept a firm hold of her hand instead as he led the way to the bedroom. He was unwilling to relinquish being able to touch her for even a few seconds.
Neither of them made a move to turn on the overhead lights, the moonlight shining into the room between the undrawn curtains enough for them to see as Hailey and Haydn turned to face each other as they stood at the foot of the bed. They didn’t touch, only their gazes connected, as they both slowly removed their clothes.
Hailey was completely unabashed by her own lack of clothing once Haydn stood equally as naked in front of her. The moonlight was a caress across all the hard and muscular contours of his body.
He was quite simply magnificent. From his golden hair, harshly sculpted features, wide shoulders and chest, narrow waist, powerful thighs, and long lean legs. As for his cock… Seconds ago, Haydn had rolled a condom onto that pulsing length, and it now jutted up toward his navel, very long and thick.
“Do you know how often I’ve thought of you like this?” Haydn began to say huskily. “How many times I’ve fantasized of seeing you naked before making love to you? Every damned night for the past year,” he gruffly answered his own question. “But you’re more delicious than I even imagined. Tall and strong and so absolutely perfectly beautiful.” His eyes gleamed his appreciation.
But still, even though Hailey ached for him to do so, Haydn made no move to actually touch her. She needed him to touch her. Needed him so badly she was already hot and wet—God, so wet!—between her thighs.
His chest quickly rose and fell. “I need to taste you.”
“Please,” she groaned encouragement.
She gasped as he sank more gracefully to his knees in front of her than she would have expected for such a large man, his hands hot as he firmly grasped her hips. Hailey parted her legs instinctively to allow the heat of Haydn’s lips and tongue to kiss and lick the sensitive skin at the tops of her thighs.
She began to tremble as he placed a series of kisses and then bites along that sensitive flesh, all the time moving nearer and nearer to where Hailey really wanted to feel those questing lips and tongue.
The trembling of her knees became a full-on shaking as Haydn stroked the velvet heat of his tongue from the folds of her swollen pussy lips to the throb of her clit, lingering to flick his tongue against that tight bud until she cried out her release.
His tongue continued to lash that pulsing nub even as his hands tightened on her hips to prevent her from falling. He quickly took her to another climax that caused her knees to completely buckle, and she began to sink downward.
Haydn rolled to the floor so that he was beneath Hailey when she fell. He chuckled softly as, once they were down, she aligned her body with his, panting softly as she nuzzled her face against his throat. “Are you falling asleep?” he teased after several minutes of that nuzzling.
Hailey raised her head to look at him. “Are you kidding me? How can I possibly fall asleep—why would I even want to?—when there’s a huge cock nudging between my legs wanting entry?”
“Huge, huh?” He gazed up at her appreciatively before sobering. “Hailey, I think that, considering there’s a bed just feet away, for your first time, we should—”
“I don’t care how close the bed is. It’s still too far,” she dismissed. “I want you now, Haydn. Right now. In fact…” Hailey sat up, her gaze holding Haydn’s glittering one as she rose to take his cock in hand before sliding it inside her dripping wet pussy. “I feel so full…” She bit her bottom lip, breathing shallowly when she felt the tight pinch of that thick cock pushing deeper inside her. She drew in a deep breath before deliberately sinking down to take that full and throbbing length completely inside.
“Hold still for a moment,” Haydn groaned, his hands on her hips to hold her in place. “Let yourself get used to— Or not.” He gasped as Hailey, having adjusted to the invasion, slowly lifted before sliding down again. “God, you’re so tight and hot.”
Hailey continued to hold his gaze as she began to move up and then down, taking his cock inside her and then lifting up again in a slow and sensual rhythm. His eyes had turned a dark and stormy gray.
She increased the speed of those thrusts after Haydn’s hands moved to her breasts, squeezing, caressing, pulling on her swollen nipples, the intensity of pleasure driving her nearer and nearer to the edge of release.
“I’m going to come, Hailey,” Haydn bit out between gritted teeth.
“I thought that was the point?” The softness of her laughter sent ripples of pleasure down the length of her channel, caressing the throb of Haydn’s cock.
“It is but— Oh God,” he groaned achingly, his cock jerking inside her when she deliberately tightened the muscles of her sheath to squeeze his already sensitized flesh. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” His hands moved back to her hips to keep her intimately anchored to him when he rolled to the side and then up onto his knees. Hailey was now beneath rather than above him. “Hold on,” he warned seconds before he began to thrust fiercely inside her. So deep, his cock hit her cervix each and every time before he pulled back and then thrust forward again. Pounding deep inside her as Hailey hung on to him, her arms about his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist.
It wasn’t enough, the primal and possessive part of Haydn needing Hailey’s complete submission.
He released Hailey’s hold about his neck to pull up and back until he was on his knees. His hands were on her hips as he lifted her bottom onto his thighs. This new position allowed his cock to thrust deeper still.
“You’re mine,” he growled at the same time as he began to pound inside her like a man possessed. “Say it,” he demanded. “Fucking say it now!”
Hailey had absolutely no doubt she was Haydn’s. That she had been from the moment she first saw him a year ago. But—
“Say. It.” His eyes glittered darkly, a fierce flush along his cheekbones, his fingers holding her hips tightly enough they were sure to leave bruises as he continued that remorseless pounding.
She knew she shouldn’t compound this any further by doing as he asked. It was going to be hard enough for her to leave him as it was. But how could she deny what she knew to be the truth? What they both knew to be the truth.
“I’m yours, Haydn,” she complied huskily.
“All mine,” he pressed fiercely.
“Yes.”
“Always.”
She balked, unwilling to lie to this man she loved to the very heart and bones of her.
He glared down at her. “Say it!”
A calm spread through Hailey at the realization she would always belong to and love Haydn. Whether they were together or not. Whether or not they were even in the same country. She would always love Haydn.
She smiled up at him. “I’m always yours, Haydn.”
Some of the tension eased from his body before he began to make love to her again. Slow and sensual and all-consuming until they reached an explosive release together.
Haydn was alone when he woke after what had to have been the most wonderful night of his life.
He chuckled softly at the memory of finally lifting Hailey in his arms and carrying her over to the bed to lie her down before joining her between the soft cotton sheets and taking her back into his arms. They had fallen asleep entwined together like that.
Haydn gave a leisurely stretch at the memory of the two of them making love twice more during the night, after Hailey assured him she wasn’t in the least sore from their first time together. Each kiss, every touch, bound them more tightly together.
Pity Hailey was already up and about, because Haydn, and his already aroused cock, would have liked to make love to her again this morning.
Which posed the question, where, exactly, was Hailey?
Haydn leveled out his breathing so he could listen to the noises inside the cottage. He could hear the soft, barely discernable purr of the range. The occasional contraction of a radiator.
The same with the floorboards.
Outside, he could hear the hum of the generator and the calling of several birds as they no doubt swooped down over the as-yet unfrozen lake in search of the fish that inhabited its depths.
But there was no sound of a shower running. Or the enticing smell of coffee percolating. Or food cooking.
Which meant Hailey wasn’t in the cottage.
Haydn threw back the covers and swung his feet to the floor. The same floor where last night, he and Hailey—
“She’s gone.”
Haydn’s gaze swung sharply to where Bryce’s bulk filled the open doorway. “What?” His tension could be heard in the harshness of his tone.
Bryce shrugged. “Hailey left a couple of hours ago.”
His chest tightened. “To go where?”
His brother strolled into the room. “If she’d wanted you to know that, then she would have waited to leave until you were awake so she could tell you where she was going. Woke up from what I’m guessing was a sex-induced stupor?” Bryce quirked mocking brows toward the obviously disheveled covers on the bed, top and bottom.
“None of your damned business.” Haydn was completely unconcerned by his own nakedness as he stood up. He and his brothers had all lived together at home until their late teens, and there was no privacy whatsoever in the military. “How long have you been here?”
“About three hours. Atticus is the one following closely behind Silva.”
“Where are the other three?”
“Around.”
Haydn gave a snort. “So, the three of you arrived three hours ago, and Hailey left the cottage two hours ago, but you have no idea where she is?” He would have time later to think of how he felt about Hailey leaving him at all. At the moment, her safety was more important than his bruised ego.
Bryce gave a grimace. “I didn’t say that.”
Haydn drew in a slow and steadying breath in an effort to try to hold on to his temper. Nope, not working. “Where the fuck is she, Bryce?” He stood to pull on a clean pair of boxers he’d grabbed from his bag before tugging on his jeans. “And don’t give me any more of those evasive answers,” he warned as he pulled his T-shirt on over his head, “because I’m really not in the mood— What the fuck?” he shouted in alarm when he heard the sound of a gunshot ricocheting around the valley. “What the hell is going on, Bryce?” he demanded as he ran over to the window to look outside.
Haydn (Steele Protectors 5) Page 11
