Forever Guarded

by Kathleen Brooks

  Piper nodded or, more accurately, she shook with the coldness of being in an ice cooler. Plus the cold desert night air had yet to warm up with the new day’s rising sun. “H-h-how l-l-l-ong?” she sputtered out through shivers.

  “We’ll reach the palace in an hour. Now, get in here and we’ll get you warm.”

  Piper sat in the middle of the bench seat surrounded by fishermen and with the heat on full blast.

  “You know, you smell,” the captain said with a smile.

  Piper narrowed her eyes and shot him the middle finger. It was a gesture they all understood. The guys laughed, and Piper finally felt herself start to relax. Phobos and his men would be searching Surman. They wouldn’t think to look for her at the palace of the king of Bermalia. Piper felt as if there were weights attached to her eyelids as the heat began to thaw her. Slowly, her lids closed. As she slept, she dreamed of Aiden. In her dreams, he was coming for her. But when the noise from the capital woke her, it was with the stark revelation that she didn’t even know if Aiden was alive.

  “I’m going to be sick,” Piper cried as the captain slammed on the brakes. Men fled the truck as Piper rushed out and fell to her knees. She sucked in air, but the image of Aiden dead and lying on the dinner table had her vomiting what little was left in her stomach.

  “And I thought you couldn’t smell worse. Come on, fish princess. We’re almost there,” the captain called out the door from behind the steering wheel. With a shaking, battered, and exhausted body, Piper pulled herself up. She could do this. She had to do this. For herself. For Aiden. For her family. For the people Phobos wouldn’t think twice of killing.

  “Up we go, princess,” one of the men said, shoving her by the butt into the cab. Piper scooted to her seat, and they were off once again. She looked around the capital with curiosity as they drove. Street vendors were opening. Their carts lined the river walk that ran through the middle of downtown. It was certainly a poor town, but one now prospering under King Draven’s more mature approach to governing. He’d learned from Zain and Mo, and then Suri had also taken him under her wing.

  “Here we are,” the captain said as he pulled up to a guard’s gate. Piper looked out the window at the giant palace with a massive painting of Draven dressed in full military uniform, brandishing a sword, and sitting astride a rearing warhorse. Okay, maybe he wasn’t fully mature yet.

  “Papers,” the guard ordered as everyone but Piper passed theirs over. “Yours too.”

  “Who, me?” Piper said in Rahmi.

  “Yeah, the smelly one.”

  Piper smiled and batted her eyelashes. “I don’t have papers. See, I was shipwrecked and these nice men rescued me and brought me here to see King Draven. I’m a friend of his.”

  “Sure you are. Out of the truck,” he ordered.

  “No, really. I’m a friend of his from Keeneston, Kentucky,” Piper said in Rahmi and then in English.

  “And I’m the next king of Bermalia. Out of the truck, now.”

  “You know me,” the captain said to the guard. “I believe she really does know the king. Maybe check first. You know he loves women. He might get mad if he doesn’t get his chance to sleep with her again.”

  Piper inhaled sharply to argue she’d never slept with the king when the guard shrugged. “Good point.” He held out his cell and snapped a picture of Piper in full righteous indignation.

  “I did not sleep with him,” she whispered harshly to the captain.

  “You can go through. A guard will meet you at the unloading dock,” the guard said with some surprise.

  Piper crossed her arms over her chest and fumed. Draven better not be getting any ideas. She needed his help as king, not as a horndog of the top order.

  Five guards were lined up when the truck pulled to a stop. “Out!” the leader ordered as the fishermen climbed from the vehicle and showed them their papers. “You all get to unloading. You, the smelly one,” he said, grabbing her arm, “come with me.”

  “I will do no such thing,” Piper said, digging in her heels. “I demand to see King Draven. I am a friend of his and—”

  “We’ve heard it before, lady. But never from someone like you,” he said with disgust as he and another guard began to drag her toward an outbuilding that was likely a jail.

  “Halt,” the command came sharply from behind where they were dragging her.

  “Draven!” Piper yelled over her shoulder as the guards’ eyes widened at her informality.

  “Piper Davies? I thought surely the disgusting woman in the photo wasn’t someone actually from Keeneston,” King Draven said with shock.

  “Yes! It’s me,” Piper almost wept with relief, ignoring the comments on her current looks.

  “Let her go.”

  Piper turned and quickly covered her eyes with her hand. “Um, you might want to close your robe.”

  When Piper opened her eyes again, he was standing proudly with his royal member dangling for the whole world to appreciate. “I remember everyone from Keeneston admiring the royal member.”

  “Look, I’m not interested in your royal member,” Piper said, trying to keep her eyes on his face. Because of that eye contact, she saw the moment he smelled her. His nose wrinkled, and his eyes began to water.

  “You have killed the royal member with that smell,” he said, looking at his retreating penis. “You don’t have to worry. It won’t touch you with a three-meter pole. Now, what are you doing here, smelling and looking like that?”

  “I was kidnapped,” Piper said, but before she could explain more there was the sound of an engine revving and yelling at the front gate.

  King Draven was shoved toward the palace, but he shook off his guards and grabbed the nearest gun. “Who dares to attack me at my home?” he shouted as he reached for Piper and flung her behind his back.

  “It could be Phobos and his gang. They want me.”

  “Who is this Phobos? It doesn’t matter. I will kill him for you and then you will bathe many, many times before you show me gratitude for rescuing you,” Draven said as he spread his legs, his royal member rising with excitement. He aimed his gun toward the Hummer barreling toward them.

  The large Hummer skidded to a stop, the door was thrown open, and guards shouted, but Piper didn’t hear them as the man emerged in full military gear armed to the teeth.

  “Aiden!” Piper shoved past Draven and raced toward him. She saw the second he found her with his eyes.

  “Piper!” Aiden let the guns he was holding in both hands drop. They were caught by the straps he had attached to his military vest and hung loose as he ran from the cover he’d taken behind his door toward her.

  Tears poured from Piper’s eyes as they collided. Her arms wrapped around his waist while his arms wrapped around her back. He pulled her tightly against him for a hug before placing both hands on her cheeks and crushing his lips to hers. Piper felt the urgency, the relief, and the fear in the wild kiss. “Are you okay, babe? Oh, luv, I was so scared. Are you hurt? I’ll kill them. I’ll kill them all.”

  “I’m assuming you’re not talking about killing the king,” Draven said drolly as he ordered his guards to lower their weapons. “And you must be in love with her, otherwise you wouldn’t risk your nose to kiss her. I’ll give it to you, you must have balls of steel for getting close to her right now.”

  “You do know your bollocks are just hanging out there, flapping in the breeze, right, mate?”

  The guards shifted uncomfortably and Piper laughed. “Um, Aiden Creed, meet King Draven of Bermalia. King Draven, this is Aiden Creed of England. King Draven is about to offer us shelter and a bath,” Piper said, catching a whiff of her fish smell as the breeze blew.

  “He’d better not be in the bath with you,” Aiden muttered.

  Draven raised an eyebrow and laughed as his balls bounced. “Draven, put that away. I saw enough of the royal member when you were in Keeneston,” Piper demanded.

  Draven tied his robe as he chuckled. “I have m
issed my Kentucky friends. I believe I will accompany you back to Keeneston to guarantee your safety. I recall one woman there who I think would appreciate my royal member very much.”

  “He’s talking about the slag, isn’t he?” Aiden whispered, and Piper was laughing too hard to tell him Nikki wasn’t a prostitute.

  “King Draven rescues internationally famous doctor.” King Draven smiled. “Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?”

  “I’m pretty sure I rescued myself,” Piper mumbled before her head shot up. “I have to call home! I’m sure they know I’m missing. And Sada? Was she—?” Piper couldn’t bring herself to ask if her friend was behind her kidnapping.

  “No, she was duped just like Dudley. She’s inconsolable.”

  “Come, come, we’ll all call Zain together. Is that little hellion there?” Draven asked as he led them into the palace.

  “Which one?” Piper asked. Little hellion described half the town.

  “Abigail. Talk about a woman to get a man’s motor running. You wouldn’t know if you were going to get the best sex of your life or end up dead.” Draven stopped in an office and typed away at the computer. A second later, Zain flashed onto the screen. Nash, Nabi, Ahmed, and Zain’s twin brother, Gabe, were behind him.

  “Draven?” Zain answered with surprise.

  “I have a surprise for you. Now, where is my friend?”

  “Sloane,” Gabe called to his wife. “Draven wants to talk to you. Look, this really isn’t the best time.”

  “Hi, Draven. Lord, can you cover up your junk?” Sloane said with a roll of her eyes. “That is not the surprise I was hoping for.”

  “Maybe this is,” Draven said, turning the computer’s camera around.

  “Piper!” they all yelled. Piper smiled as fresh tears started.

  “I’m so glad to see y’all,” she said as she sniffled. But that only made her gag. She really did smell bad. “Will you please let everyone know I’m okay?”

  “Of course,” Miles said as he pushed his way onto the screen. “Your backup is en route. ETA two hours.” Then Miles disappeared from the screen, and she could hear him calling her parents.

  “We’re exhausted and need to clean up. Can someone inform Jamal and have my man, Eddie, flown here?” Aiden requested.

  “On it,” Nash said before walking away with his phone to his ear.

  “I met Phobos,” Piper informed them. That quieted the whole room and stopped Nash in his tracks. “And we know him.”

  “What?” Nabi asked with surprise.

  “Agent Rand from Homeland Security. Remember him from Sophie’s incident?”

  “That asshole who wanted to get to the missile?” Nash asked, putting whoever he was talking to on hold.

  “That’s right. He’s Phobos.”

  “We’re on it,” Nash said before rapidly talking into the phone as he hurried to the nearest computer.

  “Get cleaned up and we’ll touch base in three hours,” Zain said with a nod before calling out his thanks to Draven.

  “Now, I get you for a little bit all to myself,” Aiden whispered in her ear as Piper clung to his hand. She was never going to let him go.

  21

  “Tomato juice?” Piper asked the stern maid Draven had assigned to her.

  “Yes, you stink. It works on dogs. Maybe it’ll work on you. Strip. We’re going to burn your clothes,” she ordered in a tone that evoked no argument from Piper. She was five-foot-nothing, perfectly rounded, around sixty years of age, and Piper had a feeling she was the force behind keeping the palace and Draven running.

  “This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to get you naked,” Aiden said with a smirk as he leaned against the vanity in the bathroom with his arms crossed over his chest. His eyes danced with amusement at the five-gallon bucket of tomato juice sitting in the shower and the rough scrub brush in the hands of the woman who had introduced herself as Mrs. Tuma.

  Before he could make another smartass comment, a hand thwacked him up against the back of his head. “Naughty. Out!”

  “Don’t leave me,” Piper pleaded.

  “Is he your husband? I don’t think so. Out!” she said, thwacking Aiden against the head again. “You help Mrs. T by taking clothes and burn them.”

  Piper looked with a combination of fear and laughter as the little woman shoved Aiden out the door and slammed the door on his face. “Strip. Now!”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Piper said on instinct. In the South, you always reverted to manners when faced with an angry woman and a five-gallon bucket of tomato juice.

  Piper stripped off her clothes and Mrs. T put them in a bag and shoved them out the door as Piper stepped under the hot spray of water and promptly gagged. The hot water made the smell of the fish even worse.

  “Now, we get down to business,” Mrs. T said, her voice suddenly sounding strange. When Piper looked over at her, she had a clothespin on her nose and yellow kitchen gloves up to her elbow as she advanced on Piper with the brush.

  “Swear to me you won’t tell another soul about this,” Piper pleaded as tomato juice poured over her.

  “Mrs. T swears. We must get you pretty for that man out there. That must be love. He still around when you smell like this,” she said with her restricted voice from the clothespin as she began to scrub.

  “You think so?” Piper asked as Mrs. T poured more tomato juice over her and went back to scrubbing.

  “Mrs. T knows. You two can’t stop looking at each other. And Mrs. T saw when you arrived. He storms a palace for you. You two crazy love.”

  “Crazy in love, you mean?” Piper asked before she was pushed back under the water to rinse off.

  “No. Crazy love. Love make you two crazy stupid. Who takes on a whole armed palace? And who hides in tub of fish? See? Crazy love.”

  Okay, maybe Mrs. T had a point. But love? As Mrs. T poured more juice over her hair, Piper was lost in thought. Thoughts of her, thoughts of Aiden, thoughts of how he was everything she thought she didn’t want in a man but turned out to be perfect for her. As the last of the juice was rinsed from her hair, Piper suffered a major revelation. Aiden Creed had found a place in her heart. How much of a place she didn’t know yet, but the thought of letting him go brought a pain to her heart. She had two more hours until they would talk to the group in Keeneston to develop a plan. For two hours, she was safe, clean, and wanted to explore what she was feeling. No more over-thinking. No more analyzing. She was going to follow her heart.

  * * *

  Aiden sat on the bed in the room they’d been given. King Draven had winked when he’d shown it to him and whispered to Aiden to check out the nightstand. After dropping off the clothes with a maid who was going to burn them, Aiden arranged for a set of clothes to be sent to Piper’s room and headed back to wait for her to finish her skunk scrubbing.

  Aiden had been to war, behind enemy lines, rescued hostages, and killed enough people that it unfortunately had become second nature. But never, not once, had he felt the kind of panic he’d felt when he’d woken up and Piper was gone. Aiden was ruthless and emotionally detached. It was why he excelled as a member of the SAS. But now, he felt anything but detached. Every move Piper made, every facial expression, every little breath—he felt them all. Mrs. T and Draven were right. He was in love. And not just a little. The kind that brought him to his knees and begged to be good enough for her.

  The knock on the door had Aiden answering and finding a woman holding a beautiful bright pink tunic embroidered with silver and white, wide-legged linen pants. Aiden thanked the woman and set the clothes on the back of a chair before his eye caught the nightstand. What was Draven talking about? There was a lamp on it, but nothing else.

  He listened and heard the shower running and decided to take a look at whatever Draven had left for him. Aiden crossed the brightly colored carpet over the tiled floor and went to the massive four-poster bed. He sat on the side and opened the dark wood drawer. He felt his eyes go wide and th
en a smile broke out across his face.

  “What are you smiling about?”

  Aiden looked up to find Piper wrapped in a towel, water dripping from her still wet body. Mrs. T sent him a wink as she carried the empty bucket from the room and closed the door behind her.

  “Draven left us a gift.”

  “What is it?” Piper asked as she padded over in her bare feet. “Oh my God,” she gasped as she looked into the drawer filled with condoms, lube, some toys that perplexed them both, and a giant, detailed, penis-shaped dildo. “You don’t think . . .”

  “Oh, I do. It’s a mold of his royal member. At least that’s what I’m guessing since HIS ROYAL MEMBER is engraved in the silicone up the shaft.”

  Piper broke out in deep belly laughs. Her head was tossed back and the sound was pure heaven to Aiden. This is how he liked her. Aiden closed the drawer and reached for Piper. His hands circled her hips as he pulled her between his legs. Her laughter stopped as she put her hands on his shoulders and looked down at him.

  “Piper, I’m not a man to talk about my feelings. I spent years doing everything I could to suppress any feelings I had so I could do my job and do it well. And I’m not exactly sure how to tell you now, but I thought I had died when I woke up and you were gone.”

  “I knew you would come for me,” Piper said softly as she ran her fingers through his short hair.

  “I’m so proud of you, Piper. You were braver and more resilient than most men I know. You didn’t need me to rescue you. I love that about you. That and a whole lot more.” Aiden held his breath as he waited for Piper to say something. They had talked about dating and about their mutual attraction, but one thing was crystal clear after his night chasing her down. He loved her, and he’d do anything if she’d give him a chance.

  Piper took a deep breath as she dropped her hands from his hair. “My brain tells me it’s our hormones reacting to each other. It could be smell or the fact that my genes find your genes desirable for human procreation. But that’s lust, and I’m way past lust. My dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin are in full gear, meaning I’m attached to you on a mental level as well as a physical level.”