by Lacey Thorn
“I need to go down there. Take a look. See if anything is missing.”
“We’ll go with you,” Rick offered.
“You don’t think he’d be back do you?”
“From what you’ve said, he doesn’t sound all that sane where you’re concerned.” Phil took her hand again and guided her to the door. “While you’re at the apartment, why don’t you throw a bag together. I don’t want to take any risks with you staying there.”
“Pack only what you need. We don’t want it to look like you’ve left. Just that you’re not home if and when he does show up.” Rick moved toward her, softly trailing his fingers down her cheek. “We have the upper hand right now. We want to keep it.”
“Where will I stay?” She was pretty sure she knew the answer to that, but she preferred to take the guessing aspect out of it.
“Here. With us,” Luke said with a wicked grin that had carnal thoughts exploding in her mind. “My bedroom. Phil’s. Rick’s. Or if you absolutely have to, we have a spare room. Maybe you should try them all out to see which one feels best.”
Heat pooled in her pussy at his implication. “And if I choose the guest room first?”
“Well, you can’t blame us if we do our best to change your mind?” Luke wiggled his brows at her. She bit her lip to hold back a smile.
Focus. She had to focus on the task at hand and quit letting Luke distract her. He was great at that. One thing was certain. She wasn’t scared anymore. Hell, she found it hard to remember that Raymond was here. And that was why she needed to step back. She needed to make sure she wasn’t making a similar mistake again. It would be a hell of a lot harder running from three men than it was from one.
She was a trained police officer, despite the fact she’d never worn the badge. She had a gun and knew how to use it. She was trained at hand-to-hand combat. But when it came right down to it, when it was her safety threatened, she froze. Terror locked her up. She’d hoped the training she’d received would change that, but it really hadn’t. She’d made it through the academy with only her closest friends knowing the truth.
She often wondered if Kat hadn’t come up with the private investigator idea as a way to shield River and keep them all together. Kat’s protective instincts were ingrained as deep as any male’s. She missed her friends.
Phil tugged at her hand, bringing her back to reality. “The guest room is fine. No one but the three of us has access to the penthouse. He’s been inside the building. It stands that he can get in again. But he can’t get up here.”
River nodded. “I’m not sure why you’re helping me.” Luke laughed, and she rolled her eyes. “Okay, I know why you’re helping me,” she said to Luke. “But I want to say, thank you. I—”
“Shh…” Phil put his finger to her lips then shocked her by replacing it with his lips. Soft, just the press of lips. There and then gone. “You’re safe with us.”
“As safe as you want to be,” Luke added under his breath, though, she was sure he wanted her to hear it.
Luke was right. For months, they’d played the dance around one another. Flirting with the possibility of more. A casual rub of flesh, the stroke of fingers over exposed skin. Laughter and innuendo. They’d all been party to it. She’d been flirting with the idea of choosing one of them to help pass the time while she was here. Flirting then discarding the idea each time it entered her head.
She thought it was because of her fear of a repeat of Raymond. But was it? Suddenly, it seemed like she was allowing her fear of him to control her life, keeping her running even while she stood still. Running from the possibility of being vulnerable with another man, of opening herself up to the possibilities sex might lead to. Or of simply experiencing sex for the sake of sex with no fear of the outcome.
He’d done more than make her run with his obsession. He’d changed who she was. He’d quieted the girl she was, the one who embraced life with arms wide open. The one who took risks and let the chips fall where they may. The girl unafraid to be with a sexy man if she wanted to. She’d let Raymond have far more control than she realized. To stop him, to take a stand and quit running, she needed to reclaim that girl.
The guys joked with each other as they rode the elevator down to her floor. She laughed and made token responses, but she wasn’t really paying attention. She was waking up in a sense, and it made her angry. Angry to realize how easily she’d let Raymond manipulate her, even when he was no longer with her.
“River,” Phil called her name, prompting her back to the here and now.
They stood in front of her door. They’d closed and locked it when they’d left yesterday, and she used her key. Stepping inside, she took note of the bland, empty walls. She’d made no attempt to hang the few things she’d brought with her. It wasn’t home. It was a place to lay low, to hide.
“We left it as we found it,” Phil said.
“In case you changed your mind about calling the police,” Luke added, “which I really think you should do.”
“I can’t prove he was here. At this point, it would be my word against his. If they could even find him.”
“She’s right. We have to catch him breaking in,” Rick said.
“I’ll go check the bedroom and put a bag together.” She moved away, leaving them in the living room.
“Let me take a look first.” Luke shifted around her and disappeared into her bedroom. After a few minutes, he reappeared. “All clear.”
“Try not to touch the wreckage he left behind,” Rick warned. “Just in case.”
River nodded. She stepped into the room and shut the door behind her. Her eyes widened. Every scrap of underwear she had was shredded and discarded in a pile on the floor. The drawer she’d kept them in had been ripped out of the dresser and lay broken on the floor, as well. Her closet was flung open. He’d moved her dresses to the center of her closet, so they were the first things her eyes landed on.
Unable to avoid it any longer, she let her eyes land on the bed. A shudder wracked through her. He’d laid the red nightie he favored her in on her bed. It was the same one he’d wanted her to put on the night she’d left his apartment. Her fingers itched to rip the material from the bed and shred it as he’d done with her things. She wanted to yell and scream, throw a full-fledged tantrum.
Instead, she grabbed an overnight bag from the top of her closet and threw a few things inside. Jeans, t-shirts, a pair of sleep shorts with a matching cami. Then it was off to the bathroom for her brush, moisturizer, lotion, and toothbrush. She threw her make-up kit inside on the off chance she felt like using it. Taking a second look, she put her toothbrush back and grabbed an unopened one from under the sink.
She emptied a few things from the make-up bag and put them back on the counter. Turning the water on, she splashed her face and hands then used the hand towel to dry off. She reached over and turned the shower on. If he came back, he might notice these things and believe that she was out, not gone. Sometimes, it was the little things that tripped you up.
She stepped back into her bedroom and ran into Luke. Phil and Rick hovered at the door. She lifted her brow at them in question.
“We thought you were taking a shower,” Luke said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“So you decided to check for sure?”
“Have to admit, most of my fantasies have centered around you being wet and naked,” Luke purred.
Somehow, she didn’t think wet referred to fresh from a shower. She almost moaned. Her pussy was wet, wet and ready for him to slide deep.
“I was doing a few things to make it appear that I’m staying here.” She took a deep breath and reached for her trashcan, already prepared for their reactions when she began scooping the debris from the floor.
“If I leave it out here, I might as well leave a note that says, ‘set-up’. He knows this would make me angry. He expects me to run. Me throwing it away, staying? My guess is that will confuse him. I think we’ve both forgotten the girl he first met.” She re
ached for the red on the bed, but Phil grabbed it first.
Crushing the lace in his hands, he tossed it into the trashcan she held. “Reminding him of who you were might make him want you all the more. After all, he wanted that girl.”
“No, he wanted the challenge of taming that girl. I almost let him.”
“So…what do you want to do now?” Luke asked the question.
Rick moved into the bathroom to shut off the shower then rejoined them. All eyes were on her. She set the trashcan down and reached for her bag, but Luke picked it up instead.
“I thought we might go back upstairs,” she purred, throwing a swing into her hips as she walked out of the bedroom with them trailing behind. “That way I have time to try all the…beds out. Decide where I want to snuggle up and go to sleep tonight.”
Male groans filled the air, and for the first time in too long, River felt powerful.
Chapter Four
River could hear her heartbeat pounding loud in her ears as they took the elevator back up to the penthouse. Her palms were sweaty, and God help her, she was nervous as hell.
“What exactly do you guys do for a living? I mean, as bodyguards.” It made sense to get to know a little more about them. She had little doubt that sometime in the next few hours they were all going to be naked and getting to know one another on a purely carnal level.
Rick grinned. “You’re standing with three of the most sought after bodyguards around.”
“We’ve guarded everyone from pop stars to politicians,” Luke offered.
“I prefer the pop stars,” Phil said. “Less drama.”
She found herself giggling. “So, I have my very own bodyguards. It must be my lucky day.”
“If you play your cards right, you could get even luckier,” Rick murmured with a wink and grin.
The doors opened, and she followed Phil into the corridor, Luke and Rick right behind her.
“I’ve got a cell phone you can use as soon as we get back inside.” Luke pressed his hand softly against the small of her back as he spoke. “In case you want to call your family. It’s secure. Though it won’t matter much at this point. He knows where you’re at.”
“Tara and Kat are all I have. My parents were killed my senior year of high school. Drunk driver. I was eighteen, so I inherited the house and was able to stay on my own. Legally, I was an adult.”
“I’m sorry, River,” Rick said softly. “I know how hard that can be.” He reached out and took her hand, giving it a squeeze before releasing it and moving over to the bar. “Want a drink?”
“From you?” She lifted her brow. “I think I’ll pass.”
Luke and Phil started laughing.
“Very funny,” Rick said, but even he was smiling.
“Actually, I’d love to call Tara and Kat if you don’t mind.” She hadn’t spoken to them since she’d packed and left. They had no idea where she was. Raymond couldn’t get them to tell him what they didn’t know. But in the end, it hadn’t mattered. He’d found her anyway. How? How had he known where she was?
“River?” Phil stroked his fingers down her cheek, bringing her out of her thoughts. “Luke has the phone for you.”
Luke was holding it out to her and she took it, just holding it for the first few moments.
“You can go wherever you wish for privacy,” Luke offered. “Or we can leave you in here if you prefer.”
“No, I’ll go,” River stated as she moved. She pushed into the first room she came to. It was a bedroom, obviously masculine, but she had no idea if it was one of theirs or the spare room. At the moment, it didn’t matter.
She walked to the bed and sat, pulling her legs up and crossing them as she took a deep breath. Praying, she pushed the ten-digit number and hit call. Please let them be there still.
“Angel Investigations.” The abrasive tone of Kat’s voice had tears filling River’s eyes.
“Kat, it’s me.”
“River? River!” Kat must have pushed the phone to the side, but River could still hear her screaming. “Tara, get in here. River is on the phone.” More moving and then River’s voice coming to her with a bit of an echo. “I’ve put you on speakerphone.”
“River!” Tara’s soft voice sounded choked with tears. River understood. She was pretty choked up herself. “Is that you? Are you okay? Where the hell are you?”
“I’m fine. Better now that I can hear your voices.”
“What the hell is the matter with you? Why would you run from that prick? We’re a team, River. We stand and fight. As a TEAM!” Kat’s anger traveled just fine over the phone line.
“I couldn’t do that to you guys. Raymond’s my problem.”
“You should have given us a choice in that,” Tara said. “We’ve been worried sick about you.”
“We would have worried you were dead except for the fact Raymond wouldn’t leave us the hell alone.”
“I’m sorry, Kat. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“Raymond is gone, River. He got kicked off the force. His family and friends have all turned against him. They couldn’t ignore his crazy after…”
“Shut up, Kat,” Tara said in a hushed whisper River could easily hear.
“After what?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Tara said. “What matters is that it’s safe for you to come home. Come home, River. We miss you.”
“I miss you guys, too, but I can’t come home yet.”
“Why not?” Kat demanded.
“I have a few things to take care of first.” River bit her bottom lip. If she told them Raymond had found her, they’d demand to know where she was and run to her. Obviously, Raymond was full-blown crazy if even those closest to him had turned away.
“Well, you have a lot of making up to do when you get your sorry ass back here,” Kat stated with a huff. “We’ve been carrying this partnership on our own for the last six months.”
River laughed. Kat liked to pretend she was all badass, but she had the most heart of any of them. “I love you, too, Kat.”
“Come home, River.”
“Are you okay, Tara?” River could hear something in Tara’s voice and wondered what had put that sadness in her friend’s tone. Tara was always the bubbly one, the first of them to see the humorous side of things.
“I’m fine, River. Just tired. Haven’t been sleeping well since you disappeared, leaving only that half-ass note behind.”
“I’m really sorry. I was only trying to keep you guys safe.”
“So why now? Why call us now? What changed your mind?” Leave it to Kat to hone in on that fact.
“I’m tired of running,” River stated. It was the truth. Not the entire truth. She’d tell them everything…after it was all over. Yeah, they’d be pissed. But pissed she could handle. If something went wrong and one of them got hurt… Well, she’d never forgive herself.
“So when will we get to see you?” Tara murmured the question.
“I’ll call and let you know. Promise.”
“Let me get your number.” She could hear Kat shoveling stuff around in her search for a pen and paper. “Okay shoot.”
“I—” She almost shrieked when Phil interrupted her to rattle off the number. She caught herself in time and managed to repeat it, sending a glare his way.
“Who was that?” Kat demanded. “Are you with a man? Christ, River, didn’t you learn anything from Raymond?”
“Yes, I did. He’s nothing like Raymond.”
“Good for you,” Tara said. “Hopefully, we’ll get to meet him.”
Phil was stripping his shirt over his head. Every drop of saliva left her mouth to pool much lower while her eyes traced each line and muscle displayed. God, his shoulders. So broad and perfect. He slid his hand down his stomach, and she traced every movement, watching as he popped the top button of his jeans.
“I gotta go.” She could hear Kat and Tara talking, but had no idea what they were saying. She licked her lips, following the slide of his zipper with
her eyes. “I’ll call you again soon. Love you guys.”
She disconnected and tossed the phone onto the bed behind her. It bounced and thudded off the side to the floor. The carpeting was thick enough she didn’t need to worry about it being damaged, and she could keep her eyes trained right where she wanted to. On Phil and the jeans he was sliding down his hips.
He wore boxer briefs that cupped his burgeoning hard-on and had her licking her lips again.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you. Just planned on taking a quick shower. Hadn’t realized you decided to try my bed first.”
His eyes smoldered with lust, and River was pretty sure hers reflected that desire. She wanted. She needed. Six months of running, denying herself any form of pleasure. No contact with those she considered family. Keeping to herself, staying as isolated as possible. Taking dead end jobs she only kept for a few weeks before moving on to the next. She was tired and hungry. Starved. And Phil was practically naked in front of her.
Coming up onto her knees, she reached for her shirt and ripped it up over her head, tossing it off the side of the bed. She flicked the snap on her jeans and slid the zipper down. Then Phil was there, looming at the foot of the bed. Reaching out, he gave her a shove that had her falling onto her back. Reaching for her feet, he discarded her shoes and socks before grabbing the legs of her jeans and pulling them down and off.
He climbed onto the bed with her, crawling up her body until his knees were beside her hips and his head was level with hers. “I want you, River. Be very sure.”
She nodded her head. “I’ve wanted you since the first moment I saw you.”
“You were wearing that pink Victoria’s Secret t-shirt. I wanted to rip it off and see what type of secrets were under it.”
She moaned. He slid a hand along her rib cage, brushing under her breast before cupping the globe and giving it a soft squeeze.
“So full and firm.” He traced a finger over the top of her breast where it rose out of the demi cups. “So soft. I want to taste you. Here.” He brushed over her again then slid to trace a slow circle over her nipple making it harder. “Here.” He reached up and brushed over her lips. “Here.” Then his hand slid over her stomach, leaving a heated trail as he caressed down to the edge of her panties, tracing the material over her crotch. He rubbed her plumped lips, and they both groaned. “And I really want to taste you here. Feel you come while I suck and lick your pussy.”
