by Susan Stoker
“Yeah. I think so” was her quiet answer.
Blake carefully stood, making sure not to jostle Alexis in his arms, and brought her to the bed. Nathan moved, and Blake gently set her down.
“You’ll stay?” she asked, grabbing onto his arm with a surprisingly firm grip.
“Of course. I’m not going anywhere,” Blake reassured her. “Relax, sweetheart.”
“Sorry . . . I just thought . . . never mind what I thought.”
Blake kissed her lips softly and felt his muscles relax as she became less tense under him. “Nathan will stay here with you while I go find the doctor and see if she thinks you’ll be able to be released today.”
“Okay. Thanks, Blake. For being here today, for helping me, and for not thinking badly of me for what I did.”
“I could never feel badly of you for surviving, sweetheart. Put it out of your mind. I’ll be back soon.”
Her eyes were closed even before he left the room. Blake wanted to get Lex home, where she could heal and be around people who loved her. The thing with the Inca Boyz might not be done, but her role in the entire situation certainly was.
Chapter Eighteen
Alexis lay in bed with Blake at his house and sighed. “You’re being ridiculous.”
“Lex, a week and a half ago you were in the hospital. We have the rest of our lives. There’s no need to rush.”
“But you’re driving me crazy, Blake. I can’t stand it anymore.”
“You’re not the only one suffering. But I won’t hurt you. Not for anything. We can wait another week until you’re not in any pain.”
“If you think I’m waiting another week to have an orgasm, you’re insane,” Alexis stated bluntly. “I feel fine. Yeah, I still look like a poster child for an abused woman, but the bruises barely even hurt anymore. All I can think of is you. I need you, Blake. I need to know you still want me. That what I did and what I told those assholes hasn’t changed anything about our relationship.”
Blake immediately rolled until she was under him. He caged her body with his and held her head in his hands. The intense look in his eyes said more than he ever could with words. “I love you, Alexis. Nothing that has happened over the last week or so has changed that. No, wait, I think it’s made me love you more. I just don’t want to hurt you.”
“You won’t,” Alexis said with confidence. “I’m not saying I’m up for any crazy bed gymnastics, but I need you to make love to me. Please. For a while I thought that I’d never see you again. I need this, Blake. I need your arms around me, to feel you so deep inside me I don’t know where I end and you begin. I’m begging you.”
“You’ll tell me the second if anything I do hurts,” Blake ordered gently, giving in.
Alexis relaxed under him, knowing she was finally going to get what she wanted. What they both needed. “Of course.”
Without another word, Blake rolled over and removed his boxers and his shirt. He turned back to her and helped her push the boy shorts she’d been sleeping in off her legs and tenderly unbuttoned each of the six or so buttons down the front of the huge sleep shirt he’d bought her when she’d gotten out of the hospital. It had hurt for her to raise her arms over her head, so the button-up shirt was a must.
He eased it off her shoulders and leaned down to kiss each and every bruise on her battered body. They were mostly yellow and green by now, but he didn’t miss a one. The sides of her breasts where Chuck’s cruel hands had squeezed, the shoe print Damian’s shoe had made on her side, the mark on her neck where Kelly’s knife had nicked her.
By the time he made it back up to her mouth, Alexis was squirming under him with desire. The cut on her lip was mostly healed, and when Blake tried to be gentle, Alexis ignored his efforts and thrust her tongue into his mouth aggressively.
Loving that her actions made him lose a bit of his usual tightly held control, she reveled in the feel of his hard cock brushing against her belly as his hips thrust forward. She could feel his excitement against her skin, and she widened her legs and brought her knees up, bringing him closer to her body. Pulling her head back just enough to whisper against his lips, she said, “Now, Blake. I’m so ready for you.” Alexis tilted her pelvis up toward him.
One of his hands feathered down her side and under him, searching for her center. He ran his fingers through her wet slit once, then twice, testing her readiness, before his hand came back up and planted itself next to her side.
“You’re soaked, sweetheart,” he commented unnecessarily before shifting his hips. He was so hard he didn’t need to guide himself into her. The mushroom head of his cock found just where it needed to be, and he ever so slowly eased himself all the way inside her until their bodies were as close together as two people could be.
Then he made love to her. Slow and steady, without taking his eyes from hers.
Alexis knew he was looking for the slightest hint of discomfort from her, but he wouldn’t find it. She was stiff and sore in places, but nothing would make his loving her uncomfortable. Their lovemaking was sweet and slow, and Blake took his time bringing them both right to the edge.
“Please, Blake. I need . . .” Her voice trailed off as his hand once more moved down her body between them. His hips pulled back just enough to give himself room, and he fingered her clit. Hard.
Her hips bucked up against him, and she moaned, exploding almost immediately at his familiar touch.
As soon as her muscles squeezed his cock, Blake groaned in return and planted himself as far inside her as he could and let himself go.
Alexis had barely recovered when Blake rolled them, putting her on top of him so he wouldn’t put any of his weight on her still-recovering body. She lay boneless on top of him, feeling complete for the first time in almost two weeks.
“What are your thoughts about becoming a partner in Ace Security?” Blake asked in a low, tender voice once he’d recovered. “I talked to Logan and Nathan, and they agreed that we need more help in the office. I’ve been working more and more on jobs outside the office, and while Nathan is excellent at accounting, he’s not as good at answering phones and e-mails. And none of us is good at making sure we don’t run out of supplies. You’ve also really gotten good at digging into social media and researching abusers and finding out all the information about them they think they’re hiding but really aren’t.”
Alexis’s eyes popped open, and she lifted her head to look down at Blake. He was still semihard inside of her, and she’d just had the best orgasm she’d had since her ordeal, and he was talking work?
“You want me to buy into Ace Security?”
“Well, not buy. It’d be more of a gift. See, the way I figure it, as my wife you have access to everything I have anyway. But all of us have seen how much you love the research side of the business. We’d pay for you to take some classes if you wanted, and there’s an excellent computer guy, who consults with the navy and army, who would probably be willing to train you . . . if you’re interested.”
“Uh,” Alexis stammered, not sure she’d heard him correctly.
He took her statement to be one of uncertainty and hurried to keep talking. “I don’t think you really want to be out in the field, and I know I really don’t want to put you in any kind of position like you were in with the Inca Boyz, so this seemed like a good compromise. I love working with you, and we could see each other all the time, but you’d be safe.”
“As your wife I’d have access to everything you have?” Alexis asked softly.
Blake smiled, and his face gentled. “Yeah, sweetheart. I know it’s not much. Most of my money is sunk into this house and the business, but I’ll work my ass off to give you everything your heart desires.”
“I’ve got money, Blake.”
“And I don’t want a penny of it. I want to provide for you, not live off the money you got from your parents. Give it to charity, save it for our kids and for our nieces and nephews—give it all to charity—but I don’t want or need it. In
fact, I’m going to insist on signing a prenup that says I’ll never get one penny of that money if you leave me.”
“If I leave you?” Alexis asked, confused. Her head was spinning.
“Yeah, Lex. Because there’s no way in hell I’ll ever leave you. I hope you won’t decide one day that you married a bum. I know you’re so much more than I’ll ever deserve, but I’m selfish enough to take you any way I can get you.”
She smiled, her heart overflowing with love for the man under her. “You’re stuck with me, Blake Anderson. You don’t ever have to worry about me leaving or me deciding I want another man. And everything you said sounds wonderful except for one thing,” she teased.
“What? Name it and it’s yours,” Blake told her seriously.
Alexis leaned down and put her lips next to his ear and whispered, “You haven’t asked me to marry you.”
She was flipped in an instant, noticing that Blake was still being very careful not to hurt her in any way. He’d slipped out of her while they’d been talking, but as she lay under him, she felt his cock harden against her once more. He shifted and eased himself back inside her body once more. Then he braced himself up on his hands, and she curled her fingers around the forearms she lusted over and gazed up at him, love in her eyes.
“Alexis Grant, will you marry me? Will you spend the rest of your life in my bed, in my heart, having my babies if we’re so blessed, and working side by side with me to make the world a safer place?”
“Absolutely,” she answered immediately, without a trace of doubt in her voice.
“I have a ring,” Blake told her seriously. “It’s in the other room. It was my grandmother’s. My dad’s mom,” he clarified. “She never liked my mother and refused to let Ace give it to her when he proposed. My brothers said they didn’t mind if one day I gave it to the woman I wanted to marry. It’s old, so it might not be your thing, but I thought I’d propose with it and let you pick out what you wanted if you said yes.”
“If I said yes?” Alexis asked in disbelief, furrowing her brow up at him. “Blake, I’ve loved you from the second I laid eyes on you. I’ll love your grandmother’s ring. Promise. But we have another problem now.”
“We do?” Blake asked, looking both elated and stressed at the same time. “What?”
“We can’t tell our children, your brothers, and my parents that you proposed to me when we were both naked and in bed. You’re inside me and hard again for goodness’ sake. We’ll have to make something up.”
He chuckled, and Alexis could feel him jerk inside her. She squirmed, rubbing her clit against him in the process. Then did it again after feeling how good it felt.
“How about this? I’ll get down on one knee in the office tomorrow when Nathan and Logan are there, and maybe even Grace too. We’ll pretend it’s the first time I asked. Will that work?”
Alexis pushed on Blake’s shoulder and said, “I want to be on top.”
In an Olympics-worthy move, Blake rolled, keeping them connected until Alexis was on top of him once more.
“Yeah, that’s perfect. God, you feel good,” Alexis said, sitting up on top of him, noticing that Blake made sure to keep a strong grip on her waist to support her.
“What about Ace Security? You want to work there? Be our office manager and all-around social media expert?” Blake asked, holding her still against him.
“Yes. Of course. Please, Blake, let me move,” she begged.
“Slowly, sweetheart. Don’t hurt yourself,” he ordered.
“I’m not feeling any pain, promise,” Alexis told him, looking down at his muscular chest, then flicking them to his forearms. Her eyes dilated when she saw his muscles flexing as he held on to her.
“Alexis Anderson. I like the sound of that,” Blake told her, licking his lips.
“Me too,” she agreed.
“Make love to me, my beautiful fiancée.”
“With pleasure,” Alexis told him, losing herself in the love she saw in his eyes.
Nathan stared in frustration at the computer screen. He knew how to make numbers do whatever he asked them to, but he wasn’t as good at finding information on the net. And for some reason, he needed to find the mysterious Bailey. He didn’t know why—only knew with an increased urgency that she was in trouble.
She might be a hard-ass gang bitch, and might be hip-deep in another gang in some other city, but Nathan didn’t think so. Except he couldn’t find anything about her. Not her last name, not what she looked like, and not where she was or why she’d left the Inca Boyz.
It was frustrating as hell. After another thirty minutes, he finally turned off the computer and made his way out of the offices of Ace Security to his crappy Ford Focus. It was old, but he loved it . . . had even named it Marilyn, after the iconic movie star. Lately she’d been more and more finicky, and tonight, it took two tries, but the engine finally turned over, and he made his way toward his small apartment near the interstate.
Ace Security had other jobs they needed to concentrate on, now that the Inca Boyz investigation was over, but Bailey was always in the back of Nathan’s mind. Hopefully once Alexis started taking some classes and working for the company, she’d be better at digging up information and could find her. If Donovan really was looking for his ex-girlfriend, she’d be much better off if Ace Security found her before he did.
Five miles away, on the far side of Castle Rock, in a small ramshackle house tucked into the mountainside, Bailey Hampton sat at a rickety table, trying to balance the spreadsheets in front of her. After another hour she closed her eyes in relief. She was making it. On her own. Without using money her gang-leader boyfriend had given her, which he’d gotten from who knows where. She definitely wasn’t in the clear, but her job at the auto body shop was keeping a roof over her head and food on the table. For now it was enough.
Pushing back from the table, she padded into the other room and stood in the doorway, looking down at the small bundle on the bed against the wall. Joel slept, his face relaxed and open, with none of the stress he’d had because of her and choices she’d made in the past. He’d finally begun to look and act like a nine-year-old should, instead of being Donovan’s personal slave. Rubbing her hands over the tattoos covering her arms, Bailey swore she’d do whatever it took to keep her little brother safe from the likes of Donovan and the Inca Boyz. She wouldn’t allow him to be sucked into that world, not ever again. It had taken her quite a while, but she’d seen for herself how evil it was . . . and nearly lost her soul and her brother’s in the process.
The night she’d walked in on Donovan showing Joel a disgusting porn movie on the computer while holding a joint up to her little brother’s lips had been an eye-opener for her. She realized that if she didn’t do something right then, she’d lose Joel to the Inca Boyz and Donovan, and he’d become as big of a loser and a thug, or bigger, than the men she’d spent a lifetime around.
She didn’t want that for him. She was responsible for him, and she’d do whatever it took to allow him to grow up safe and happy, not surrounded by drugs, loose women, and guns.
She’d planned their escape for a few weeks, and it had been a close call. Bailey still didn’t feel safe—she figured she never would again—but every day she spent away from Denver and the gang culture was a good day in her eyes. She’d never rely on or trust a man to care about her and her little brother ever again.
Men were nothing but trouble, and she’d never met a guy in her entire life who cared about anything other than pussy, money, and looking out for himself. She didn’t think they even existed. Nope. She and Joel were doing just fine on their own.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to my readers. Without you, without your trust, there would be no stories. I appreciate your willingness to follow me into every new book with characters old and new.
Amy, you are the embodiment of the word strong. I admire you for your generosity, smarts, compassion, and stubbornness. I want to be you when I grow up.
Melody, thank you for taking my words and making my stories better. No writer gets where she is without an awesome editor standing behind her.
And to Maria and Anh, thank you for taking a chance on me. There are thousands of authors out there who would love a chance to write for Montlake, and you choosing me is humbling.
About the Author
Photo © 2015 A&C Photography
New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Susan Stoker debuted her first series in 2014, following shortly thereafter with her SEAL of Protection series. These tales of romantic suspense solidified her love of writing and of creating new stories for her readers to explore. She has a heart as big as her current home state of Texas, but this all-American girl has also lived in Missouri, California, Colorado, and Indiana. She’s married to a retired army man who now gets to follow her around the country. Visit her at www.stokeraces.com.
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