by Em Petrova
After everyone filed out, Lars extended a hand to Roman. They gripped hard and thumped each other’s backs.
“Thanks, man.”
“I’ll defend you even in death,” Roman solemnly recited their creed.
Lars could only give a nod in response, too choked up by this point.
“Now Madeline’s the only one left who isn’t your supporter,” Roman said. “I don’t know what happened to that woman, but I’ve never met anyone so unmoving in her convictions.”
“Somebody hurt her, that’s for sure. I don’t think we’ll ever find out the particulars. Maybe she’ll soften up over a few more…decades?” Lars chuckled, and Roman joined in.
When Lars stepped back, he ran his fingers through his hair. What now? He didn’t have a clue how to approach Lillian. Show up at her door out of the blue? Call ahead and warn her he was visiting?
In the end, he walked into the church and found Oz. “Father, I need the jet, for personal reasons.”
Oz tossed him a grin. “It’s on standby for you. Godspeed, brother.”
* * * * *
“Hello, this is Lillian Delphine calling. I wondered if Monsieur Franco is available? All right—I’ll be right up to speak to him.”
Lillian spent so many hours immersed in this intricate scheme of hers that she had dropped her bundle of nerves, and all that remained was total confidence that the rest of her plan for Pierre would fall into place.
The movie deal had been surprisingly easy to procure. Filmmakers jumped at her suggestion, and she and Pierre put their heads together to select the best. Monsieur Franco was in the stands today to watch Pierre’s first race after Le Mans.
She edged through the crowd, moving toward her racer. He stood at the side of the track, speaking to a reporter, and her heart stopped at the sudden memory flooding into her mind.
How could she be so sure this was Pierre? She’d been fooled once before.
Don’t be silly. It’s Pierre.
She moved up beside him, drawing a deep breath and secretly hoping to catch a whiff of the pine she recalled so vividly from Lars. When she only breathed in a hint of Pierre’s expensive cologne, she tried not to notice how her stomach fell in disappointment.
She put a hand on Pierre’s arm, and he smiled at her. To the reporter, he said, “Have you met my press agent? She’s absolutely amazing.”
Someone snapped a photo of Pierre, and then the camera turned her direction. She smiled and nodded, acting as though she wasn’t still dying inside. Only days had passed, she reminded herself continually. Eventually she would draw a breath without thinking of Lars. But not today.
Pierre excused himself from the questioning and pulled Lillian to the side. His eyes sparkled. “You’ve done so much for my career, Lillian. I owe you so much.”
She returned his smile. “I’m glad things are going as planned.” She turned her face toward the glass-fronted VIP boxes where Franco sat waiting for her. “Your new producer is watching your every move, so make sure you get that win today.”
Pierre waved a hand in his confident manner. “The win is inevitable. Come, give me a kiss for luck.” He leaned in and offered his fresh-shaven cheek.
Laughing, she pressed a kiss to it. When she drew away, she could only think of Lars kissing her goodbye. Pain zigzagged through her chest.
“I’m going to pop up and say hello to Mr. Franco before the race begins.”
Pierre glanced behind her to a beefy man who’d been tailing her every step. “Take Robert with you.”
“I will. Thank you for seeing to my safety.” Pierre hired them each bodyguards, insisting they would never live through another ordeal like the one at Le Mans.
“Of course.”
“Good luck, Pierre.” She threw him a wave and headed toward the VIP box. Robert trailed behind her, giving her more space than Lars ever had. She experienced another pang, this one not as deep. Maybe she was healing.
After a brief conversation with Monsieur Franco, she continued on to her own box. The quiet room offered several screens of the racetrack all from air conditioned comfort. As she closed the door, she sent a smile of thanks to Robert, who remained outside.
Lillian swept into the plush leather seat and peered down at the track. Pierre’s car no longer sported the sponsor decals of Brun’s company. Instead, the brand-new orange stickers of the new sponsor stood out like suns on his car. While she wasn’t certain of Brun’s fate, she knew she no longer had to fear him.
The pit crews rushed around, doing last-minute checks. She held her breath, too afraid the past race would play out a second time. She never wanted to see another crash like that again.
Her phone rang, and she smiled at the familiar number. “Hello, Mère,” she greeted her mother.
“Hello, my darling. Your father is on the call too.”
“How are you, Papa?”
“Missing my daughter, but very proud of her.”
Lillian warmed from the praise.
“Today is the first race, Lillian. How are you feeling?” her mother asked.
One of the first things she’d done after arriving in France was drive to her parents’ home and tell them everything, from beginning to end. She didn’t even leave out the fact she’d fallen in love with her bodyguard. Her parents were close enough to her to know if she held back. Of course, many tears had been shed, of fear and relief both, and she reassured them she was fine and it was all over. She’d even offered them seats here today to watch the race with her, though they preferred to watch from their cozy armchairs at home.
“I have the utmost confidence in Pierre’s skills today,” she said to her parents.
“He will be fantastique. Will you come for a visit this weekend? I have a nice leg of lamb for dinner.”
“Yes, I’d love to join you.” She tracked Pierre as he raised a hand to the crowd and received a resounding cheer before climbing into his car.
“We’ll see you soon, then, Lillian. The race is about to start, and you need all your concentration. We love you!”
“Je t’aime,” she returned, her voice faltering over the words, and for the man who would never hear those words from her lips.
Leaning forward, she prepared to watch the race, lost in the ramble of the broadcasters discussing the odds of the race. When she heard the door behind her open, she turned, expecting to see Robert there with a question. What she saw made her fingers numb.
She slowly gained her feet, gripping on to the chair to steady herself as she faced the big, handsome bodyguard she never expected to see again.
His dark green eyes landed on her, and warm trickles ran through her belly.
“How did you get past the bodyguard?” Her voice broke, as if rusty from disuse.
He arched a brow. “That was no bodyguard.”
She stared up at him, and the ache quadrupled in her chest.
Lars ran his stare up and down her body as though drinking her in.
“Why did you come?” she asked after several seconds passed.
The race had begun, the announcers’ voices filling the space, but she only heard her own pounding heart.
Lars moved toward her, crowding close until she came up against the chair, unable to step away from him. He caught her hand, trapping her fingers in his broad palm and folding his long digits over them.
A tremor ran through her. Heart racing along with the drivers on that track, she searched Lars’s face.
“Lillian, I can’t leave things the way I did. I believed I had to, for the good of The Guard. I’ll explain all that in a bit,” he said before she could ask. “I came back here hoping…” He broke off, eyes burning.
“Hoping what, Lars?” She dared not allow herself to think he returned for her, because he couldn’t live without her.
“Hoping that when I tell you that I love you, Lillian Delphine, that you might accept me.”
Her heart hitched. “This can’t be real,” she whispered.
* * *
* *
He squeezed her hand, reeling her inch by inch to him, until she craned her neck to look up at him. Fuck, how could she be more beautiful than he remembered? She broke his damn heart, shattered it to a zillion pieces, with the unsure tears shining in her eyes.
She shook her head, and warm brown hair tumbled over her shoulders.
He slid his hand underneath her hair to cup her nape. Drawing her even closer, he realized he’d accepted his fate in loving her on that very first day. He’d just been too locked in to his role as protector to voice it.
“It’s real, gorgeous. Christ, I can’t believe I’m touching you again.” His gaze washed over her face and centered on her eyes. “I love you, Lil. I want you. I want us. It’s insane, and I thought my team would stand me against a wall and shoot me, except they didn’t. I’m free to tell you I love you every single minute of every single day. If…you’ll let me.”
Her lips parted on a shaky sigh. “Are you serious, Lars?”
“Yes. I was a fool, so many times over. I’m so damn sorry for the way we ended things, and for accusing you of being in on Brun’s scheme. The evidence may have pointed to those things, but deep in my heart I knew you wouldn’t commit such treachery. Still, you should tell me to go away from you and never come back. I deserve nothing less for being such a jerk.”
She narrowed her eyes, staring at his mouth. “I should. You were cruel to me, and you made me feel I was to blame even when I wasn’t. You made me feel even more foolish for falling for you.”
He cupped her nape, drawing her in another fraction. “Did you fall for me?” he rasped.
She nodded and then grasped his shoulder, fingers digging into his thick muscle just to feel that he was really standing in front her. “You know I did, you stupid man. I love you.”
With a huff of air, he dropped his forehead against hers. “Tell me again, Lil. Say it. Christ, I need to hear it.”
“I love you.”
He made a noise in his throat. “And I love you, more than my own fucking life.” He swept her against him. Her body slammed into his chest, and he closed his arms around her as his mouth crushed against hers.
Passion flowed up and bubbled out. She issued a breathless sound as she parted her lips for his. When her flavor rushed into his head, he moaned. He yanked her off her feet to cradle in his arms, mind spinning over all that had happened between…and all that would come.
He ravished her mouth for long minutes, pulled back and then thrust his tongue into her mouth again, plundering her over and over until she ripped away, gasping.
When she slipped her hand around his neck, she searched his eyes. “You really feel this way about me?”
He kicked the seat to the side so he could plop into it with her in his arms. “Jesus, woman, how could I not fall in love with you? From the beginning, you grabbed me right here.” He thumped a hand over his chest.
She curled into him, arms flung around his neck. “What happens now? I don’t know how this works for us.”
“I don’t know either. I only know I had to come for you or spend eternity wondering how to go on.”
“You can’t leave your career for me, Lars. Madeline told me—”
“I don’t care what she said. Things have changed. I happen to be friends with the man who wrote the rulebook, and he and a group of members agree with me. Though I was beginning to see it didn’t matter what the hell the rule stated—I don’t want to be without you, Lil.”
She shook her head. “I don’t completely understand your world, Lars.”
He turned his wrist over to show her the scar where the microchip lived underneath his skin. “I belong to an agency, privately operated, called The Guard. Our creed is to protect, but we are more of our own branch of military, and that means we have certain access that normal protection services don’t. I can access things, with this.” He pointed to the scar.
She stared, brows pinched. “A scar?”
“I bear a microchip, the ultimate technology. They can track me anywhere in the world. Though sometimes that isn’t helpful like times I wish to stay undercover.”
“It also opens door locks?” Her gaze flew to his.
He nodded. “Starts cars.”
“And jets. I noticed you jumped into that seat in the cockpit and all the controls came to life. I thought it was good timing.”
He grinned. “It’s a life of open doors for us, gorgeous. And I want to show it all to you. First, I have to know if you can accept me, as I am. I can’t leave The Guard. It’s who I am. I save and protect, and I took an oath. Though, I vow one to you too…”
She sucked in a breath.
“I swear to always make you a priority, Lil.”
She lowered her stare to her lap. “Thank you, Lars. I’d never ask you to leave behind the work you’re devoted to for me. Except it means you’d be gone for weeks at a time, guarding people, yes?”
“Yes.” He nodded.
“How would we keep love alive between us if we don’t see each other?”
“I’ve thought of that. I’ll give up half my missions, take time off between. Oz recently did the same, and his fiancée seems happy with the arrangement. What do you think, Lil? Can you live with me?”
“The question I’ve been asking myself…is if I can live without you.”
Issuing a rough noise, he swept in and kissed her with all the passion pounding through him. Hell, having her in his arms felt like a dream that he hadn’t thought would come true. Each soft flip of her tongue over his drove him to seek more. His cock stood erect and ready for her sweet depths.
Palming her hair off her face, he studied every speck of green, gold and amber in her eyes. “Tell me now. If you can’t take me as I am, then I’ll walk out that door and never bother you again.”
She gripped his shoulders. “Don’t you dare. I love you, you stubborn, difficult man. Love means love. It doesn’t have conditions. Though…I might have one request.”
“What is it? You want me to live here in France, it’s done. I’ll buy us the most beautiful country home you’ve ever seen, and all the fat sheep to graze in the fields you could want.”
She chuckled. “Not that, though it sounds like a dream fulfilled. What I’d like…”
“Anything, gorgeous. Just tell me.”
“I want you to make love to me. Here. Now.”
His lips tipped at one corner.
“Without barriers,” she added.
He stared at her, stunned speechless. “No barriers?” he whispered.
“None. I want to feel you bare, moving inside me when you tell me again that you love me.”
“How did I deserve you? Christ, Lil.” He claimed her mouth again, this time with more urgency. She kissed him back, hands working in a frenzy over his clothes as they tumbled out of the chair to the floor, below the window in the VIP box.
He captured her nipple on his tongue. “You’re missing your client’s race.”
“To hell with the race.” She moved in for a kiss and bit into his lower lip, raising a growl from him.
Once he totally bared her, he stopped dead, just staring at her. With love shining in her eyes, she trailed her fingertips over his chest and down his abs, over the base of his cock, to the tip and back up.
“What’s stopping you from sinking into me?” she asked.
“I just want to look at you for a moment. I want to see what’s mine.”
* * * * *
Lillian ran her fingertips over Lars’s stubbled jaw. Never in a thousand years would she have believed he’d return for her. Not this rough man who played by the rules. The fact he showed her his true emotions still made her reel.
“You’re not afraid someone will see me eating your pussy?” He eased a fingertip down her slippery seam.
“Oh God!” She arched against his hand.
His eyes darkened as he looked her over. “Anyone could walk in on us.”
She panted. “What would you say if I told you tha
t turns me on more?”
“Fuck, you are made for me.” He curled his index finger over her slit, dragging the tip through her wetness and up to her clit. She twitched at the pressure applied to her nerve bundle.
“More, Lars!”
Lying half on top of her, he watched her face while he fingered her with soft strokes over her clit and then pulled his finger free to drag it down through her folds and dipped into her entrance. As he sank his finger to only the first knuckle, she groaned in frustration. Then he teased back upward to circle her clit again, slicking her juices over her bud.
In seconds, he had her begging. He leaned in and kissed her with strong pulls of his mouth and flips of his tongue that mimicked the action of his fingers. The room blared with the details of the race.
“Your man’s in the lead.”
“My man is teasing me far too much. Make me come, Lars!” She parted her legs more and bucked into his hand in demand.
He rumbled a chuckle and shot her a wicked grin as he moved down her body. With her heart pounding and nerves pinging with the need to find her release, she watched him slip down her body.
He cupped her ass and lifted her to his mouth. When he parted his lips and flattened his tongue over her, she stifled a scream that coordinated with the crowd’s cheer. She knew by that sound that one of the drivers just made a maneuver to put them in the lead. She hardly cared as Lars made love to her pussy with his lips and tongue.
Shaking now, she stared down at him, watching every glide and thrust he gave her.
With a hum, he raised his head. “You do like watching, don’t you?”
She pressed his head down with both hands. His laugh cut off as he enveloped her sex again, licking and tormenting her until she balled her fists and held her breath. Her orgasm loomed ahead. She clung to reality for a shivering moment, and then tipped off the ledge with a cry.
Waves pounded through her, and she stopped thinking straight altogether when the mushroomed tip of his cock brushed over her wetness. She gasped. Their gazes connected.
In one hard thrust, he filled her. She threw her head back and shook through more pulsations of her orgasm.
“That’s it, gorgeous. Come on my cock. Keep coming for me.”
