Singe (Guardian Protection Book 1)

by Aly Martinez

  “You begged me to take over the finances for you.”

  I had. Desperate and in hysterics. But it wasn’t like it had been a hard sell. When someone tries to hand you the reins to a multimillion-dollar empire, you probably wouldn’t say no. Unfortunately for my father, I was one of those few. But I’d given it to Pete knowing he’d manage it responsibly so I’d eventually have something to pass down to my children. Things like the beach house where I’d spent every single summer of my childhood, including those with my mother. The same one that now had tenants living in it.

  “Out!” I exclaimed. “I want them out. I don’t care what it costs. Jude’s daughter lives in LA, so I’m going to be spending a lot of time there. I want my house.”

  “Ah…so this is about Jude? Let me guess: You mentioned the beach house and he pounced?”

  It could be said that I was a bit of a pushover. Especially with the people I loved. And, I loved Pete. But he did not get to talk shit about Jude based on one emotionally driven experience with him. And he sure as hell didn’t get to pass judgment about my motives just minutes after telling me that he’d rented my house out without talking to me first.

  I squared my shoulders and confidently stared at myself in the mirror as I snarled, “No. This is about me. I want to go to LA to visit Val. And I want to do it in my father’s plane and stay in my house. And you are going to make that happen. And, while you are at it, you’re going to draw up paperwork so all of his physical possessions are back in my control. Do what you want with the companies. I’ve given you carte blanche there. But, if my father physically touched it, I want the final decision on what we do with it. That means the houses, the yacht, the plane, his cars, and whatever else is still left from when he was alive. Those are mine.”

  “Rhion,” he said, exasperation apparent in his voice. “You—”

  But I was done listening. I’d given him control over the money, not my entire life.

  “Mine, Pete! Now, let me know when you secure the LA house and get the plane back.”

  He didn’t immediately reply, and I had to pull the phone away from my ear to make sure he hadn’t hung up.

  “You sound like your father,” he said softly.

  My chest warmed. “The being-demanding thing?”

  “The being-right thing,” he corrected.

  My head snapped back. It wasn’t the first time Pete and I’d had our differences. He always gave in, but it was usually after a chat about how he was worried about me and looking out for my best interests, blah blah blah. However, if he was willing to save the lecture, I was willing to forgo the headache I’d get from rolling my eyes while he gave it.

  His voice was gentle as he said, “I’ll get you the house, but the plane is gone. I’ll have Sandy charter you something for your personal use.”

  I proudly grinned. “That would be great.”

  “You’re smiling, aren’t you?”

  “Like a maniac.”

  He chuckled. “I’ll also see what I can do about keeping my opinions to myself about the new beau.”

  My eyes flashed wide, and I mouthed, “Oh my God,” at my reflection. “That…would…be amazing.”

  His chuckle turned into a belly laugh. “You sound surprised.”

  “I am. A little. Okay, a lot. I think you’re losing your edge. Though, for what it’s worth, I’m sure Dad would appreciate your giving me crap about dating Jude. But I swear to you he’s a good guy.”

  “I hope so, Rhion. For his sake and yours.”

  I giggled at the idea of fifty-seven-year-old Peter Higgins going after Jude. Sure, Pete was tall-ish and liked to keep in shape, but come on… It was Jude.

  “You think that’s funny?” he teased. “I could have taken him the first time. He caught me off guard with that punch.”

  I laughed louder. “Of course. Of course.”

  “All right. Now, if you’re done laughing at me, I seriously have a meeting.”

  “Okay. I’ll let you go. Love you, Pete.”

  “Love you too, kiddo.” And then he was gone.

  Mentally making a note to ask Jude about a trip to New York to visit Pete and Sandy, I went back to doing my makeup and got ready for the rest of my day.

  Three days later…

  Finger-combing my damp hair, I meandered down the hall in search of Jude.

  Since assuming the position as my bodyguard, Jude had done a lot to up my security. Things like having all the keys to my apartment recoded. Now, Johnson, Leo, and Jude were the only ones who had a copy. Though he’d had a guy come in and rewire my door so that, in case of emergency, the security room could manually open it for any of the guys. It seemed a little extreme even to me, but Jude was no joke when it came to work.

  The first night we had gone out to dinner with Johnson, Jude had spent hours preparing: pouring over maps, plotting routes, and doing research on the restaurant. And I’d quickly learned that, during his “on-duty hours,” which he had magnanimously declared were eight to five, Jude was all business. Much to my dismay, not once had I been able to convince him to guard my naked body during that time. And that is not to say I hadn’t tried. I’d strutted around the apartment in a thong and a mesh corset just the day before. Jude hadn’t even looked up from his computer.

  I’d assumed having your boyfriend as a member of your security team would have its perks, but all I’d gotten was Mr. Serious and Professional. It should be noted that, while that guy was sexy as hell sporting tailored suits and a stoic glare, he was no competition for my Jude with that secret smile he reserved just for me.

  Luckily, the minute five p.m. rolled around, he’d give me my man back. And that usually consisted of me ending up on my back, but occasionally, he’d let me be on top.

  As I reached the end of the hall, I found him at my dining room table, leaning over a map of the city, his dark-blond, chin-length hair tucked behind his ears, a single strand dangling free in his face. He was looking downright edible in a white button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled up, showing his toned forearms off.

  It was then that I decided that it was time to press my luck.

  Maybe I just hadn’t been trying hard enough.

  I quickly peeled my robe off, which left me in nothing but a pair of panties, and prowled toward him.

  “Hey,” he said without ever lifting his head.

  “Hey,” I replied, dragging a finger over his shoulders. “Whatcha doing?”

  “Plotting our route for tonight.”

  “Uh, we’re meeting Johnson for dinner at the Copper Wire. It’s at the end of the block. I’m pretty sure there’s only one route to get there.” I lifted myself to sit on the edge of the table, careful not to wrinkle his papers, and waited for him to look up.

  “And that is why you’re the client, not the bodyguard,” he replied absently, continuing to draw little markers around what I assumed was our building.

  I smiled and plucked the pen from between his fingers. “Any chance I can be the filthy client who ravages my hot bodyguard?”

  He looked up at me, impassive as ever. “It five yet?”

  I rolled my shoulders back to press my breasts into his face. “No. But that’s what makes it so exciting.” Using my foot, I grazed the zipper on his slacks. “It’s forbidden, Jude. You could get fired if anyone found out.”

  His lips twitched as he pointedly glanced down at my foot. “Leo knows we’re together. I’m not getting fired.”

  I whispered seductively, “You don’t know that for sure.”

  “Yeah. I do,” he chuckled.

  I spread my legs wide and walked my fingers up the front of his shirt. “You can’t be positive though.”

  His gaze flashed down to my panties, but his eyes never lost the humor dancing within. “Yeah, babe. I’m pretty fucking positive, considering he hired me with a hickey you left on my neck.”

  My shoulders fell as I glared at him. “You’re seriously ruining this for me right now.”

  Gr
inning, he snagged the pen back. “Don’t you have a book to write?”

  “I do. But it’s a sex scene day. I could use a little…inspiration.”

  He went back to marking his map, muttering, “There’s porn on your computer, and I know all about the shit in your nightstand.”

  My mouth fell open. “You did not just tell me to go watch porn and pleasure myself.”

  He kept his head down, but I saw his mouth break into an epic grin.

  “And you think this is funny! I’m wasting away from sexual neglect and you’re laughing.”

  His head shot up, a mixture of humor and disbelief mingling in his features. “Sexual neglect? You’re kidding, right?”

  I was. Absolutely. But his eyes turned dark and, for the first time since I’d sat down, flashed to my breasts, so I went with it.

  “Not even close.”

  He cocked an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his strong chest. “Rhion, I fucked you in the shower before I started working.”

  “Yeah, but that was forever ago.”

  “Your hair isn’t even dry yet,” he countered.

  Damn it! He had a point.

  “That’s not the point!” I bit my lip to stifle a laugh.

  That laugh turned into a gasp as he plucked my nipple.

  “Yesss,” I hissed, my lids falling shut.

  His long finger trailed a path up my thigh to my core. “You want to come again, baby?”

  Moaning, I nodded eagerly.

  I felt him stand from his chair. At the same time, he hooked his thumb into my panties, pulling them aside. Lazily, he dragged a finger through my wetness and up to my clit, where he circled with gentle pressure.

  “Oh God,” I cried, gripping his biceps for balance.

  “Open your eyes, Rhion.”

  When they fluttered open, he brought his fingers to his mouth and seductively licked them clean. My core clenched at the sight. Jeez, why was that so hot?

  My tongue darted out to dampen my lips as I became entranced with his tongue laving over his fingers.

  “I want to come again, too,” he whispered, his breath ghosting across my skin.

  “Yes,” I moaned.

  And then I nearly fell off the table when he suddenly backed out of my reach.

  “But I’m on the clock. So it’s going to have to wait until five.”

  “Jude!” I scolded.

  “Put some fucking clothes on, Rhion.”

  “Are you kidding me? That was mean.”

  He glowered down at me. “No, what’s mean is you prancing your sexy ass out here in nothing but a pair of panties”—he caught my hand and used it to cup his thick erection—“getting me hard as a fucking rock, knowing I can’t do the first damn thing about it until I’m done for the day.”

  I scowled and jumped off the table. “You could do something about it. You are just choosing not to. I have no sympathy for you.”

  He scoffed. “Bullshit. Leo knows I’m fucking you. But he’s not paying me to fuck you. When I’m at work, I’m at work, Rhion.”

  Keeping my glare up, I walked to my robe and snatched it off the floor. “Perhaps you should start doing your work upstairs, then, so I don’t distract you.”

  He fisted his hands at his hips, his cock tenting the front of his pants, and replied, “Perhaps I should.”

  I shrugged the robe on, roughly pulling my hair out of the back as I said, “Perhaps you should do that now.”

  His jaw ticked as he watched me tie it closed. “Perhaps I will.”

  “Good.”

  “Good.”

  Unmoving, we defiantly stared at each other.

  His emerald-greens locked on my baby-blues.

  I licked my lips.

  He adjusted his cock.

  My nipples hardened.

  His face flashed with conflict.

  My hands went back to the belt of my robe.

  His gaze darkened, honing in on the movement.

  I untied the belt and allowed it to fall down my shoulders until it pooled on the ground at my feet.

  His breathing sped.

  My heart raced.

  “Fuck,” he growled.

  And then we both exploded forward, not stopping until our bodies had collided and our mouths had connected.

  Palming my ass, he lifted me off my feet, and I folded my legs around his waist. Our hands and lips were frenzied as he carried me down the hall. He bumped into the wall, sending pictures crashing to the ground and glass shattering everywhere. Neither of us gave them a second thought as he proceeded to my room.

  With three long strides, his legs swallowed the distance to my bed, where he dropped me, and just as quickly, he rolled me onto my stomach and stripped my panties down my legs.

  “Ass up,” he demanded.

  The sound of him undoing his belt and then his zipper made me shiver. Desire sank low in my belly when his wallet landed on the bed beside me, followed by the familiar crinkle of a condom.

  Smiling, I pushed up onto my knees, taunting him with a sway of my hips as I watched him roll the latex down his shaft.

  “Wipe that fucking grin off your face,” he growled. His palm landed on my ass with a slap that made me jump. “This can’t happen again.”

  I moaned as the bite of his hand traveled over my entire body, nipples to clit.

  I’d barely recovered when he drove in.

  Hard. Fast. Deep.

  Stretching me beautifully.

  “Jude!” I cried as he slid his hand into the back of my hair and pulled, forcing me to push up onto my arms and arch my back.

  His other hand roughly cupped my breast, and he nipped at my earlobe. All the while, his hips never faltered in finding a punishing—and magnificent—rhythm.

  “My job is to keep you safe, Butterfly. If I’m fucking you, I’m not planning.” With an intoxicating tug on my hair, he planted himself at the hilt. “If we have no plans, shit will go wrong.”

  A strangled moan tore from my throat, the biting pain at my scalp swirling with the intense pleasure of his cock filling me.

  “Jude,” I breathed.

  “Shit goes wrong, it might not just be scars this time. I could lose you.”

  “More,” I begged, circling my hips.

  Another tug on my hair.

  A slow withdrawal before a deep thrust.

  An explosion of euphoria short-circuited my wanton brain.

  His voice was gruff as he declared, “I will not fail you again.”

  The mixture of pain and pleasure was my favorite delicacy, but his words were salt in a wound.

  The same wounds that covered twenty-seven percent of my body.

  The ones that had healed long ago—at least for me.

  One sentence felt like he’d taken a sandblaster to them all.

  “You didn’t fail me the first time,” I breathed, my orgasm rising to the surface even as my heart ached in my chest.

  “I did. Because I wasn’t fucking prepared. That shit will not happen again,” he groaned.

  The peak of my high had begun to fade out of my reach as tension built in my chest. “That’s not true,” I argued, my voice thick with emotion. Reaching back, I caught his wrist and tugged it around to the smooth, unmarred skin at my stomach. “You did this, Jude.”

  “Don’t.” He jerked his hand away.

  But I intertwined our fingers and moved them up to my pounding heart. “You feel that? You did that, too. The fire—”

  “We are not fucking talking about the fire while I’m inside you!” he seethed.

  I clenched my muscles so they pulsed around his length. “We’re always talking about the fire, honey. It doesn’t have to be words, but every time my heart beats, every time air fills my lungs, every time I wake up in a warm bed and not six feet in the ground, it’s a conversation about that night.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” he rasped.

  “I’m alive,” I breathed, reaching
back and gently resting my hand on the scars at the back of his neck.

  His whole body tensed, and an agonizing groan rumbled in his chest. “Shut up, Butterfly,” he ordered on a pained whisper.

  I inched my fingers up and brushed the tips over the ridges of his hardened flesh. “And that’s because of you, Jude.”

  “Jesus, fuck,” he muttered, his patience snapping.

  Releasing my hair, he folded over me, forcing me to slap my hand down to keep from faceplanting into the mattress. His ribbed abs and sculpted chest came down flush with my back, his shoulders rolled forward, and his weight bore down on me. Shoving his agile fingers between my legs, he imprisoned me against the bed with his tall frame.

  I threw my head back, the erotic combination of simultaneously being trapped and freed triggering my release to rear up again.

  His hips began a torturous pace, coaxing me closer to the edge, all thoughts of the fire disappearing as I became lost in Jude.

  His mouth at my neck, biting and sucking, while our growls and moans joined in a feral symphony.

  Angry.

  Raw.

  Primal.

  Over and over, he mercilessly drove in, stretching the invisible rubber band within me tighter each time.

  “Jude!” I cried as my orgasm tore through me, slingshotting me into oblivion.

  My body shook as the aftershocks ravaged me, but Jude never slowed.

  Not his fingers. Not his cock. Not even his mouth.

  “No place I’d rather be, Rhion,” he panted. “All day. Every day. Never doubt that.”

  I pressed my ass higher against his hips in unspoken understanding.

  “But this…this is not going to keep you safe.” He finished on a drawn-out rumble as his body went taut. “Oh fuck, baby,” he groaned, collapsing on top of me, his weight crushing me, as he twitched and jerked through the wave of his release.

  “Can’t. Breathe,” I squeaked out, and he quickly pushed up onto his elbows to hover above me.

  We both lay there for several minutes, too sated to move as we caught our breath.

  Jude finally broke the silence with an ordered, “Say you understand.”

  A satisfied smile pulled at my lips as I turned my head so I could see him over my shoulder. “What I understand is that I’m never putting on clothes again.”