“Until what? Why are you looking lost? Don’t tell me that you left her alone, Dimir.”
“It was only for a minute or two tops.”
“You’ve got to be kidding, Dimir. It’s not like it’s that damn hard to stand out here and make sure she doesn’t leave without a guard. This isn’t like you.” I rubbed my temples where I could feel my blood pulsing through in thunderous beats.
“Listen, Bruiser, I had to go to the bathroom to relieve myself. But I wasn’t away long enough for her to leave like that. She shouldn’t have—”
“Why didn’t you just lead with your bathroom break when I called you? Anything can happen in two minutes. She is gone, and no one is guarding her!” I yelled as I walked briskly toward the exit.
My mind reeled, thinking about what had happened to Alise. Dimir had not looked into Van Devereaux’s eyes and saw the maniac that I had seen. If he had, he wouldn’t have been so blasé about leaving her alone. I would deal with him later. Right now, I had to find out where she was and whether she was safe or not.
I was glad I drove the Charger tonight. I hopped in the driver’s seat and floored it all the way to her house. On the way over, I called her phone several times, but the calls went straight to voicemail, which only heightened my concern.
When I saw an empty white Range Rover parked a few doors down from Alise’s place, at a vacant house, I lost it. He was here. That punk knew not to come to the club, so he followed her here. Now, I had to do to him what I should have done the night I went to his house. See, I give my enemies a little rope, and they use the whole damn thing to hang themselves.
“Motherfucker!” I said as I hopped out of my car and sprinted to Alise’s door. If Van had harmed one hair on her head, not only was I going to dismantle him, but Dimir’s ass was next.
Relief calmed me a little when Alise came to the door with a wine bottle in her hand. She looked like she wanted to wield it at me, but I was just glad to see that she was home and safe. Classical music played in her house, and the scent of lavender hit me as soon as she opened the door. This setting did not go along with Van’s empty vehicle being parked a few houses down. If he wasn’t inside with Alise, where was he?
“What are you doing here, Bruiser?”
“You slipped away from us.”
“I told you that I wouldn’t need you guys every night. Well, tonight is a night where I’m good…”
“No, you’re not. Let me come in.”
Now that I knew she was safe, I was going to search her townhouse from corner to corner to make sure Van wasn’t hiding out, waiting for the right time to make himself known. After I searched the house, I planned to stay the night to make sure she didn’t slip out of my reach again. If I had to protect her against her will, that’s what I would do.
“Bruiser, I said no—”
I pushed past her and walked into the house. It was warm and cozy feeling inside and definitely decorated by a woman.
“Why are you here? Get out,” she argued.
“Stop being bullheaded, Alise. You have no idea what kind of danger you are in.”
“Oh, yeah? What kind of danger am I in?” she mocked.
I didn’t want to yell at her and tell her to stop taking this so lightly. Had I not come here tonight, I had no doubt that Van was going to make a move. His vehicle was parked right outside, and there was no way I was going to leave here without putting some lead in him first. I meticulously searched each room, one at a time. I looked under furniture, inside the closets, and I didn’t see a trace of him.
Alise followed me suspiciously as I searched her house.
“I don’t need you doing that. This is my house. What part of I can take care of myself is it that you don’t get?” she yelled when I looked under her bed. A little black and gold box with the label “Bedroom Kandi” sat in a neat little corner. I smiled. Now, I understood why she was yelling so much about me going under her bed.
“Alise, I know you can take care of yourself, but I can take care of you better.”
“And what makes you the authority on taking care of me, Bruiser? For all I know, you could have come here to hurt me just like Van.”
I looked into her eyes and saw that she didn’t honestly believe there was a chance that I was there to cause her any harm. If only she knew, I would hurt her, but in only the best possible way.
“I could be here to hurt you,” I replied. “But the way I would hurt you, you would be begging me to hurt you every time you see me.” We were past formalities at this point. I had just stumbled upon her bedroom toy stash, and the embarrassment on her face had been priceless.
“Bruiser,” she started.
“Do you really want to chase that rabbit down the hole? Pun intended.”
Her mouth snapped shut.
“Yeah, you really don’t want to go there, do you?” I asked.
“What I want is an evening alone, without any worries or drama.”
“Stop fighting me then. I’m only here to help you.”
“But you’re not telling me anything. Like why are you searching my house like this?”
“His Range. It’s parked a few houses down at the vacant house your neighbor moved out of last week.”
“Huh?” she said and turned around and walked to her front door, flung it open, and looked outside. “There is no one at that house. Not a Range. Not Van. Not one soul...”
I came to the door and looked outside, as well. Van’s truck was indeed gone.
“It was there when I pulled up, Alise. I know you think I have an agenda with you, but will you trust me on this one, for once?”
“That’s just it. I do trust you. It’s just that I don’t see it now.”
“He must have left after I pulled up, which is why I’m glad I came here. I wouldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you,” I admitted in a caring tone. I wasn’t used to caring like this, and definitely not expressing it, so this admission stunned me as much as it did Alise.
She stood there, looking at me with a frown that masked her appreciation. I knew her by now, so I could see the uncertainty in her brown oval eyes. She was a woman putting up a hard exterior, doing her best to maintain her independence when all she needed was the right man to pull her into his arms and kiss her like there was no tomorrow before bending her over and fucking her like she’s never been fucked before.
“I’ll always make sure you’re safe, Alise. But you can’t ditch your security. Don’t ever do that again,” I said, my usual gruff tone lowering an octave.
“Bruiser, I know you are trying to help me, but you can’t just tell me what I can and can’t do. You do not control me.”
There was that control thing again. She so desperately wanted to hold onto something that she didn’t have. I figured now was as good of a time as any to show her what her control was worth. I pulled her by her arm, and she came crashing into me. I then pushed her firmly against the foyer wall and closed the space between us.
“You don’t know a damn thing about control,” I whispered close to her ear. Her vanilla fragranced shampoo entered my nose and aroused my senses. Along with the lavender filling the air, her scent drove me up the very wall I had her pinned to. “If you knew about control, you would know that, right now, you don’t have any.”
She leaned back and looked into my eyes with fear. Yeah, that’s what I was used to. People fearing me. But she wasn’t afraid that I would harm her. No, she was scared of what I would do to her poor little body, and possibly her heart, if given the chance.
With the vulnerable way she was looking at me, I wanted to peel those pretty brown thighs apart and fuck her confidence back into her right then and there. She would take every inch of me happily. I just knew she would.
“You can’t say…”
“Say what? What’s obvious? You have no control.” I ran my free hand over the contours of her soft caramel-colored face to keep from running them over her thick thighs that would lead to me tasting tha
t sweet pussy tonight.
I didn’t want to have such lustful thoughts about Alise. I shouldn’t be. I should be doing my job. But my desire to give her everything she needed went beyond my contract to guard her. It was a different desire than I’d had for any other woman in my life. This was unavoidable. Like a train wreck.
“I think you should leave,” she said, her breaths coming quickly.
Was it the excitement of the night that had her breathing erratic, or did she feel the same way as I did about her? I would put money on the latter.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Go and get me a blanket. I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
“Bruiser, you can’t.”
“I am. It’s not up for debate.”
“If you don’t leave here, I’m calling the police.”
“Call.”
“Bruiser, I’m serious.”
“I am too. Call them.” I handed her my phone to make her call. She didn’t take it.
“Wouldn’t it be better for you to just leave?” Alise walked away from me toward her phone that was sitting on the side table in the living room.
“I’m protecting you.”
“Against my will.”
“If that’s the way it needs to happen, it will.”
“God, I don’t need this tonight!” Alise stormed off, walking toward her bedroom, slamming the door behind her.
An hour later, she came back out to the living room and tossed me a pillow and a blanket, hitting me in the chest with one and on the leg with the other.
“I don’t know why I hired you, but fine! I’ll give you your damn fake hero move tonight, but this is the last time you’ll barge in here and tell me what will and won’t happen in my house. I’ll be officially terminating our contract in the morning.”
She stormed back to her bedroom, talking about how there wasn’t even anyone parked at the house next door and that I probably made that up so that I could come in and try to get into her bed. It was her way of negating the way she felt about me. Her way of avoiding it. This made her feel as though she had regained the upper hand. Her power restored. I would let her have that, for now.
I didn’t care how much she pouted. I wasn’t leaving. I picked the blanket and pillow up and placed them on the couch, glad the pillow was firm. Then, I went outside to talk to Dimir, who I had texted earlier and told to check the block for Van’s vehicle. He replied, letting me know he didn’t find anything that stood out and that he was now posted up outside of Alise’s house.
As soon as Dimir rolled his window down, I drilled him again. “How the fuck did you lose her tonight, man? That shit was never supposed to happen?”
Worry lines instantly popped up on Dimir’s forehead. He was my right hand in the agency, so it was baffling that Alise pulled one over on him.
“Listen, Bruiser, as soon as you walked away from her at the club, she told me that she didn’t need me guarding her tonight. I didn’t pay that any attention because I know you want her guarded at all times. She went into her dressing room, and I thought she would be in there for ten minutes like she usually is. I ran into the bathroom, and she slipped away. This isn’t on me. She must have planned this. She should learn to stay in place,” said Dimir.
I tilted my head at him, the veins in my neck popping.
“No, you should learn to stay in place. You took a break without getting backup. I don’t think you understand how important of a job this is. I gave this assignment to you because I trusted you, but she could have died tonight because you had to use the bathroom. Tell me how that is acceptable?”
“It’s her fault for leaving. She’s always fussing with me about following her, but she never ditched me before,” he argued his case.
“Well, you’d better be glad she’s okay. Had something happened to her, you would have to answer to me.” A blind man could look into Dimir’s eyes and see he wanted a lot of things out of life, but answering for a mistake that put someone I cared about in harm’s way was not one of them.
“I’ll look out better next time, boss.”
“Nah, I won’t be needing you on this assignment anymore. Call me in the morning, and I’ll tell you what you’ll be doing from now on.”
“What? Man, are you serious?”
“Fuck yeah, I’m serious. You can’t handle keeping up with Alise, and she’s a very important client.” To me, for sure.
“This is bullshit, and you know it. I’m always on top of my shit. That damn woman is always arguing with me, and now she’s pulling runaway tricks. It’s her that we need to let go, not me,” Dimir argued.
“Don’t lecture me about what should happen with Alise. You know what, get the fuck out of here, Dimir. Get the fuck lost.” I glared at him, my brow raised in disgust. He looked at me as if he wanted to say more, but thought better of it and left.
I walked back into the house, sat on the couch, and allowed my tense muscles to relax for a minute. I was a ball of tension after talking to Dimir.
I went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Alise didn’t know it, but I actually had been inside her townhouse several times, to check the place out before she arrived home. I wasn’t a fan of surprises. I believed preparation led to a better outcome, which was why I had been making sure her house was safe for her to come home each night. Her disappearing act tonight had thrown me for a loop.
On the path to the kitchen, I stepped across the hallway. The master bedroom shower was running, and Alise was singing a melody that captivated me enough to halt my steps. The sound of her voice did that to me every time. I walked toward the sound until I was standing right outside of her bedroom door, listening to her sing freely.
“I’m giving him somethin’ he can feel to let him know this love is real. This love is real…”
I smiled.
Her bedroom door wasn’t closed all the way. I peeked inside and saw that her bathroom door was wide open. Her glass shower doors gave way to her naked silhouette, and the sight of her was enough to hold me right there in that spot forever. Watching Alise lather up, rub the cloth all over her body, then allow the water to cascade down her skin to wash the soap away had my mouth watering and my dick at full mast.
Walk away.
I was about to do just that when she stopped singing, and her body went still.
“Bruiser, is that you?”
“Uh, yeah. I wanted to know if you had another blanket,” I said, and there was so much thick lust in my tone that I knew that lie wouldn’t float with a life jacket.
Alise turned off the water, reached for the fluffy pink towel sitting on the toilet, and wrapped it around her while she was still in the shower. When she stepped out, my already hard dick jumped in my pants. She was so fucking beautiful wet. Knowing only a towel separated me from seeing every inch of her body sent another wave of adrenaline through me.
“A blanket?” she asked. “Are you sure that couldn’t have waited until I got out of the shower?” Her eyes traveled down my body, which was completely alive.
A devilish smile slipped onto her lips. Alise walked toward me until she was so close that I could breathe her in. She gazed at my erection that was about to burst out of my pants into freedom like a renegade. Biting down on her bottom lip, her sparkling brown orbs looked up into mine.
"Are you sure that's all you wanted, Bruiser?" she asked with fire in her tone. As her eyes went back to stare at my hardened dick, her towel loosened and fell to the floor, exposing her naked and wet body to my hungry perusal.
I dared to take one step closer, forcing my tongue to unstick from the roof of my mouth to speak.
"You know it's not, Alise, but you've been running from this thing growing between us from the start. What's changed tonight?"
Maybe, I should've kept my mouth shut and happily taken whatever she offered, but what I felt for her wouldn't lessen with a single night together. My heart was on the line, and I wanted, needed to know if it was th
e same for her... or not. Everyone should know where they stood.
"You changed, Bruiser. You're here. I'm here. There're no fans, friends, and stalkers to keep barriers between us, and I have only so much resistance to you."
That, I could work with.
"There's no going back to being just bodyguard and client if you... if WE do this, Alise."
"Let's take it one night at a time, Bruiser.”
Alise palmed the sides of my face into her soft hands and pulled me to her for a kiss. There would be no coming back from this. I hoped she understood that. I lost all control when my hands went to my zipper, and I quickly removed my pants and underwear.
“I’m on the pill,” she said between kisses.
“I’m clean. No diseases,” I replied, dragging her lips back to mine.
“Me either.”
The short time that our kiss disconnected for her to speak, I missed her desperately. She pulled my face to hers again and kissed me like I’ve never been kissed before. I felt crazy and ravenous when I picked her up into my arms, palmed her ass to hold her right where I wanted her, and shoved my dick in her hot pussy. It gripped me immediately. I had to fight back a tear from slipping out the corner of my eye. She felt that damn good.
Her pussy clenched and released around my cock and damn near sent me over the edge. Cursing under my breath, I withdrew only to drive balls-deep inside her sticky wetness that tormented me, challenged my stamina yet felt like home. Her heat seared my soul. I panted for air and control. Neither were anywhere to be had. This would not be a gentle first time.
Wrapping her limbs around me to hold on for all she was worth, she established scorching eye contact. Her hips thrust in time with mine. She moaned my name in the same way she sang lyrics, with soul and the haunting longing for something missing. For me, that was her.
She touched something way past my soul, deep inside me, the first time I laid eyes on her. There was no name for it. Whatever and wherever it was belonged to her. In this moment, I was convinced that would never change.
Losing myself in her stare, I hammered into her relentlessly. An urgency to be with her, everything she craved built until it was a living, breathing entity standing right beside us. The sound of flesh rhythmically hitting flesh in a beat for the only dance as old as time filled the room.
A Dangerous Way to Love (Dangerous Bonds Book 3) Page 7
