“Want some popcorn?” she asked.
“No. We’ll have dinner at 7,” said Lucas.
“Oh. Why does it make me feel like a child when you say that? Now don’t go spoiling your dinner, little girl,” she said.
“I don’t know. Why does it?” responded Lucas.
She pushed by him. “I may be late for dinner. Or maybe I won’t come at all.”
“Brighton!” Lucas called.
“Sir?”
“Never mind.”
They turned around and walked up the stairs. Why did he feel like the two of them were going on a date? He was tempted to shut it down, to tell Brighton it was inappropriate, but he had yet to figure out how all of this was going to work. Maybe if he thought more about Blanco than about Audra, he would get mad and stay mad, and the other shit wouldn’t bother him.
5
Bill Taylor was on duty, sitting outside her room again, and Lucas had his night-vision binoculars this time, standing in the darkened kitchen. All the lights were out on the first floor.
He examined the trees but saw nothing. He let the glasses dangle around his neck and walked out onto the back porch. The crickets and frogs were well into their nightly chorale which caused him to relax a bit.
He walked back inside, then out front of the house, looking down toward the empty house. There were no lights and no sign of the pickup, but it was still early.
He appreciated the fact that for their comfort and safety, the back yard was completely private and enclosed without inlet or outlet except through the house. However, since there was only one ingress to the house, there was also only one egress which could get sticky.
The upstairs windows in back were over the yard, so jumping out there with someone in pursuit would mean disaster unless the person could easily scale an eight foot wall. He could, and he figured Brighton could, but he was also sure that neither Bill nor Audra would be able to.
The front upstairs windows would put someone quickly out into the street providing they didn’t injure themselves jumping down or that the intruder didn’t figure it out and follow their path back to the street. He had known all of this years ago, so why had he chosen this place again? He realized how really untenable it was and decided he would make plans for them to go out to the camp.
The camp was more remote and had more than one escape route. It just had a lot of advantages all around. He had come here for nostalgia, and it hadn’t been the best choice he realized now. He had also requested it because he thought it would appease Audra to be able to get out into the community a bit, but he could see now that even that wasn’t possible. If she was going to be isolated anyway, it just might as well be really isolated and better protected. This was a complete game change, and it would take a few days to put together. He would just try to relax but stay wary until they were able to leave.
The next morning, he called in a secure request to have the camp prepared for them in a week. He received approval without having to explain his rationale to anyone. When he disconnected, he felt as though they knew something they weren’t telling him.
That evening, he knocked on her door for his customary night check. He checked the windows first and walked away from them.
“Turn off the light,” he requested, and she complied.
He waited several seconds, then stepped up to the window with his night lens binoculars. He examined everything he could possibly see in the yard and beyond but saw no sign of anything out of place.
When at last he went to put his arms down, he felt her, soft beside him and realized she was standing a hair’s breadth away in her nightgown.
He slung off the binoculars and set them down. He hesitated, but engulfed in darkness like this, it seemed unreal. He reached down, touching her face. She quickly pressed into him, and he dropped his hands to her neck. She stood on tiptoes and breathed a sigh into his chin. He could feel everything pressing against him through her gown.
He grabbed her, pushing her head back, and attacked her mouth. He drew up her nightgown with his left hand and cupped her cheek. When he realized she didn’t have panties on, he wanted to ravage her and take her on the spot. He reached around in front, probing her wetness and plunging a finger inside her, stroking twice, hard. Then, he inserted another finger, continuing to plunge into her. He was trying to be rough to get her to back off, but she responded by getting wetter.
When she started to moan, he shoved her away. His prick was throbbing. He grabbed her again, pushing her back onto the window seat, engulfing her mouth. She sucked his tongue, and it was as though a string was attached from his tongue to his erection. He could almost feel her mouth around it. He put his knee onto the window seat, lifted her gown and lay upon her. It was a good thing he had camos on. The thickness wouldn’t allow him to feel her dampness.
He humped, pumping hard, three or four times till she gave a little cry of pain. Then, he backed away from her without a word, picking up the binoculars.
She reached for him again, but he sidestepped her. He put the binoculars around his neck, crossed the room and opened the door. He cleared his throat as he stepped through it and said, “All clear,” to Bill.
She lay there breathless, reaching down to feel her wetness, feel where he had been just a few seconds ago. Her nub was swollen, and she was so aroused. However, she could sense that this was a very angry man.
Lucas hurried down the stairs and out the front door. He willed his erection down, but when he turned to look at the empty house down the street, it was like a cold shower. The pickup was back.
He scanned around it, looking for any signs of light in the house. Detecting none, he raised the binoculars again but saw no one. The windows still looked blank, not at all as though someone was moving in. Maybe he was being paranoid, but he didn’t think so. He stood there for several more minutes, but seeing nothing, he decided to revisit it later.
By the time he was calmed down and returned to the house, he heard Audra’s voice in the kitchen, talking to Bill. He walked in to find them at the table, each with a cup of tea.
“Is this becoming a nightly routine now?” he asked.
“Why not?” she asked. “Would you like some?”
“Sure, but not that sleepy stuff.”
“You don’t want to sleep?” she asked.
“I’m supposed to be on duty,” he said.
“Brighton and I can handle it,” Bill said.
“I don’t know. I don’t think I’ll sleep again until we get out of here.”
“When?
“A week from now. We’re moving up to the camp.”
Bill raised his eyebrows. “Why?”
Lucas shrugged. “Call it intuition. It just feels like the right thing to do.”
Just then a shadow appeared, and Brighton stepped into the brightly lit kitchen. “Hey,” he said, “shouldn’t somebody be watching the place?”
“I just finished a check,” Lucas said, “and our charge is right here. Take a load off, Brighton,” he said, pulling out a chair for him.
“Well, don’t you just look like the queen of it all, sitting there in your silk robe?” Brighton said admiringly, as he sat down.
She flashed him a smile as if there was a shared secret between them.
Lucas just looked away. He hoped Brighton wasn’t as smitten as he was.
Audra glanced at Lucas who frowned at Brighton.
“She is the queen of it all, right now,” Bill said. “She’s the reason we’re working.”
Brighton snorted. “I’d be working with or without her.”
“Hey,” Bill said, “what’s eating you?”
Lucas was still looking frostily at Brighton as if he was trying to analyze him but with an expression that said he wished he would drop dead.
Brighton dropped his tense stance and leaned back. “I don’t know. This place is creeping me out for some reason.”
Lucas glanced quickly at Audra and then back to Brighton. Lucas didn’t wan
t him frightening her.
“What creeps you out?” Audra asked, a bit of anxiety in her voice.
Brighton caught Lucas’s look and just shrugged in answer to Audra’s question. The other two didn’t say anything.
“Dang. Everybody got quiet,” Brighton said, looking around.
“Hey!” Audra said, trying to dispel the gloom. “I found a cupboard full of board games upstairs. Anybody want to play?”
“It’s my watch,” Bill said. “The rest of you go ahead. I’ll watch for a while, but I’ll have to patrol.”
Lucas looked at Bill. “I’ll spell you off and on throughout the night.”
“What games are there?” Brighton asked.
“C’mon, I’ll show you,” Audra said, halfway out the door, with Brighton on her heels.
Bill and Lucas sat and looked at each other.
“You might as well switch watches with him—looks like he’s going to be on her like white on rice.”
Bill shook his head. “Dumb puppy. He’s creeped out, but we’re doing the watches.”
“He said that to disconcert Audra. He’s working up to something, but I’m not sure what,” Lucas said.
“I am,” said Bill.
“Better not be,” Lucas said.
6
Audra felt like she was caught in a whirlwind. One minute she’s this happy college graduate as normal as most anyone she knew. Then whooosh! That life was over and she was in the midst of terror—shot, a month in the hospital, surrounded by cops, DEA agents and other law enforcement officials. Her boyfriend hadn’t had much to say, and she stopped returning his calls. Her girlfriends didn’t know what to say to her, either. Then, her grandmother and uncle were murdered, and she was whisked away from everything familiar.
Now, whooosh again! Here she was, the captive audience of three men. Or were they her captive audience? She wasn’t sure. She was just numb about it all now. She had left everything behind and couldn’t go back, and her only friends were her bodyguards.
She had hoped to have a little woman-to-woman contact, but Lucas had let the cook/housekeeper go after two days, saying they just didn’t need her. She wondered what that was all about, but she guessed having to do some cooking and housekeeping tasks would give the four of them something else to do.
She thought about the three men and how different they were. Bill Taylor was as nutty as a Southern pecan, and absolutely adorable. He joked around a lot, but she could see he was very serious about his job.
Brighton was an enigma. He paid much more attention to her than the other two, but almost to the point of forgetting what he was there to do. She was flattered by his attention, and he made things somewhat more bearable because they watched movies and played games together. She had even helped him do his laundry— although she suspected he wasn’t nearly as helpless in that department as he let on.
He touched her, sort of like someone would touch their sister, but she knew he would be eager as hell if she crooked her little finger. Sometimes she flirted with him just to piss Lucas off.
And then, there was Lucas. He was constantly broody, always busy, well, trying to look busy anyway. Angry and sarcastic, she barely opened her mouth to him now because he always had something surly to say. If Lucas was attracted to her, it had worn off quickly. Now he barely tolerated her, as one would a whiny sibling.
And yet…she couldn’t let go of the passionate moments they had shared. Was he just another horny guy? She didn’t think so. She had finally come to the conclusion that he had no idea who she was on the plane. It was just one of those unfortunate incidents, as he had termed it.
But those other times. Was she really a temptress as he had said? Maybe. Whenever they were alone, in the dark, she felt wild and out of control around him. He was pretty careful these days to not be alone with her except when he came into do the window check every night. It felt to her like they were reaching out to each other in the dark, but she would huddle on the bed, and he would come in and go out, giving the “clear” sign to whoever was on watch.
Why was she thinking about them all, anyway? In her head, it sounded like she was analyzing each of them, trying to choose which one was right for her. She guessed it was just a game her mind liked to play with nothing better to do with its idle self.
Just then, Brighton stuck his head in the door, without knocking she noticed.
“Are you up for playing a game right now?”
“How about Phase 10?”
“Only if you’re content to have your ass whooped.”
“Oooh. Is that a threat or a promise?”
Lucas was walking by just as that exchange took place. It pissed him off the way she was fawning over Brighton. He moved quickly into his room so that he didn’t have to confront them.
They sat down in the game room, and she started to shuffle.
“So, did you have a boyfriend?” Brighton asked her.
“Of course,” she said.
“Were you serious?”
“I think we just floated along, thinking it was just expected of us. He was my high school sweetheart, and we just stayed together.”
“That sounds like…well, I don’t know what that sounds like. Were you in love with him?”
“I loved him,” she said, “but I don’t think I was in love with him.”
“That’s kind of weird, isn’t it?”
She shrugged again. “I don’t know. Is it? My experience is not very broad.”
“Don’t you read romances? I thought all women read romances.”
She laughed. “Not all. I prefer thrillers, paranormal thrillers, especially.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“So, did you guys ever…you know…?”
“Have sex? Of course. I’m not a prude.” She recalled, guiltily thinking about Lucas that first night and realizing that sex with John was nothing like the heat she had experienced in the few minutes she had connected with Lucas. She blushed.
“Why are you blushing then?” Brighton asked.
“I don’t know,” she said lamely.
“I think you were thinking dirty thoughts, and I caught you.”
She snorted and laughed, just shaking her head.
“Was it really tough to leave him behind? I mean, did you actually break up, or will he be your forever love, at least until somebody else comes along?”
“No, he and I did not part on the best of terms.”
“Oh, why?”
“I take it you haven’t read my file.”
“Nope. Lucas won’t let anybody else touch it.”
“Well, then, let’s just say that he let me lay bleeding and vulnerable to my would-be-killers, and it cooled my affection for him.”
Brighton whistled. “Kind of a chicken liver, huh?”
“Chicken liver? How about gutless invertebrate, right up there with jellyfish.”
“Ooh.”
“I realize that he might have been injured or even killed, too, but I thought he would have waited around or at least come back to see whether I was okay. He didn’t even come back after all the emergency vehicles and law enforcement showed.”
“Well, girl, if you ask me, he didn’t deserve you. Maybe it’s a good thing….”
“Sorry, I’m having a hard time making a good thing out of any of this.”
He reached across the table and touched her wrist. His mouth said, “I’m sorry,” but his eyes reflected no sorrow at all.
# # #
It was her turn to cook. She thanked the stars that her grandmother had taught her how to cook well, and that she had lots of practice as she grew up. Fried chicken was not in her repertoire, but finding an old Betty Crocker Cookbook in the kitchen helped. She was of a mind that if one had prepared enough food throughout their lives, then knowing the ingredients, one could cook almost anything.
She was grateful that Lucas allowed the woman to bring them fresh vegetables every few days. This might actually prove exc
iting once the apple harvest was on. The last time, she had also brought late harvest peaches. They had corn on the cob which she had gotten Brighton to help her shuck, so dinner was going to be fried chicken, corn on the cob and peach cobbler for dessert.
They liked it when she cooked, and also when Bill prepared the meal. Lucas’s cooking was good but predictable. He claimed his cooking skills were pretty much survivalist style. With Brighton, one never knew what they would end up with. She figured at home he must pretty much rely on frozen, boxed, and fast foods. However, he was good kitchen help and good company when she wanted it.
As they prepared to sit down for the meal, Bill looked around the table. “Where’s the taters and gravy? Or biscuits?” he asked.
She got a kick out of him talking like a hillbilly because one-on-one, she knew he was anything but.
She shook her head. “Sorry, Bill. No taters. You’ve got plenty of carbs in the corn, the fried chicken batter, and the dessert.”
“Dessert? There’s dessert? Well, okay then,” he conceded. “Wait, is it a healthy dessert?”
Audra laughed. “No, it’s made from a standard recipe with standard ingredients. I put a little of my own pizazz into it, but I didn’t cut any carbs or fat if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Oh, good,” Bill responded.
Lucas cleared his throat. “Look, I know Audra doesn’t like to talk shop at the dinner table, but I would like some feedback. I was thinking about going up to the camp.”
“Just to get us out of here for a while?” Bill asked.
“No. For the duration.”
“Why?” Brighton wanted to know. “I kind of thought things had calmed down, and we were getting used to it.”
“Getting used to it is exactly the issue. I had some major concerns at first that I don’t think were entirely unfounded. It would be easy to get lulled into thinking everything was okay.”
“It’s all right with me,” Bill said as he tore into a chicken thigh. “But can we wait a month or so? I’m really liking this cookin’, and it won’t be like this up there.”
“Not that you have much say in it, Audra, but I would like to know how you feel about it,” Lucas said, looking at her.
BILLIONAIRE BIKERS: 3 MC Romance Books Page 47
