by Rye Hart
“You weren’t the one grabbed last night,” I said, and anger ripped through me when Libby sighed. “I’m not being over melodramatic about it, Libby. I’m thankful that Harley was there to get the guy off me.”
“Yeah, he did,” Libby said. “That’s my point though. Harley won’t let anything happen to you.” She glanced over at the door adjacent to his room and leaned in to whisper, “I have never seen a guy toss someone like that. Have you?”
“No,” I whispered back. “Not ever.” A shiver ran down my spine, one that warmed my insides.
I never had my doubts about how physically strong Harley was, but witnessing it first hand was a completely different thing. I’d felt his strength when my fingers were on his thighs, and when he’d wrapped a secure arm around my shoulders. My stomach did that fluttering thing again just thinking of it.
“My Mom says he was in the Special Forces,” I whispered, unsure if Harley was even in his room. “That’s why my Dad hired him. Makes sense right?”
“Um, fuck yeah it makes a lot of sense,” Libby said.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz.
I leaned over to glance at my phone. Dread curled in my stomach when I recognized my Dad’s office number calling. Libby glanced down at it as well before rising from the bed with a grimace.
“I’ll let you deal with that,” she said. “I’m going to take a shower. I’ll meet you down on the balcony for some lunch.”
“I love how you disappear when the going gets tough,” I yelled out before reaching for the phone. Did Harley say something about last night? My thumb hovered over the answer button. If my Dad heard about it, he’d have Harley drag me by the hair to the airport to return home. I sucked in a deep breath before answering. “Hello?”
“I’m surprised you answered,” my Dad said. “It’s 8:00 am here, and I know how much of a morning person you are.”
I let out a pent up breath I didn’t realize I was holding. My Dad was never the type of person for idle chit chat before confronting someone with evidence and facts.
“Getting used to the time change,” I said. “What’s up?”
“I wanted to see how your trip is going.”
“Why don’t you ask your bodyguard?” I asked.
“I did,” he replied, clearly confused. “I talked to him this morning. He said that everything is going fine.”
“Oh.” He didn’t tell my Dad what had happened the previous night. I felt dizzy with relief that I sank back into the pillows. “Everything is fine, Dad. We’ve just been mostly sightseeing. It’s beautiful here.”
“I’m glad. I think I might take your Mom there someday for a vacation when I retire.”
“You should do it sooner than later.”
Voices mumbled in the background. I waited patiently for my Dad to return to the phone after speaking with whomever.
“I have to get going,” he said, curtly. “I was just handed a case by the FBI. Please be careful, Abigail. I already had a talk with Harley this morning.”
“About—”
He hung up before I could finish asking the question. I tossed my phone onto the bed with a sigh before finding a pair of sandals to wear. I knocked on the bathroom door before opening it to tell Libby, “I’m going down for lunch. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
“Okay,” she called out. “Be there shortly.”
I moved out into the hallway to find Harley already standing there. He looked up from his phone the second I opened the door. Seeing him after what had happened the night before sent an odd array of emotions through me. I didn’t know what to think, and the blank expression on his handsome face was yielding little as to what he was thinking.
“Hey,” I said, running a hand through my damp hair from showering earlier. “I didn’t think you’d be out here already.”
“I have to be,” Harley said. “It’s my job. Remember?”
The night before meant nothing to him. I was delusional in thinking he might have felt something other than the need to protect me - thanks to my Dad’s money.
“Right.” I twisted my hands around each other nervously while Harley watched me with that infuriatingly blank look. “Look, I’m sorry about yesterday. I didn’t mean to yell at you or-” I trailed off as my thoughts turned to me basically throwing myself onto him the night before. The center of my cheeks burned hotly with embarrassment.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “You were drunk.”
“I know, but still. I’m sorry for what happened.”
He shifted on his feet with a sigh. “Okay, let’s just forget it. I’m good, so let’s just move on about our day and leave the past where it belongs. What is on your agenda today?”
“Nothing,” I said, shrugging. “I just want to hang around today despite what Libby wants. Maybe some lunch on the balcony?”
Harley nodded. Silent as a shadow, he followed me all the way down to the balcony on the second floor. He moved to stand behind me, but I reached out to grasp his large hand in mine. Little shocks of electric current ran up my arms at the touch. I let go when Harley turned to give me an intense look that I couldn’t interpret.
“Please stay,” I said. “Sit down to eat me with me.”
“I’ll stand,” Harley said.
“Don’t be so stubborn about it. It’s okay to sit down to eat with me.”
“I’m not getting paid to be your friend, Abi,” he said, shortly. “That’s what Libby is around for.”
“Yes, but that doesn’t mean we can’t act like normal people, considering we will be on this trip for some time.” I smiled shyly up at him. “I’m not a scary person. I’m actually pretty fun once you get to know me.”
I concentrated on the delicious feeling of Harley’s calloused skin against mine. These hands once held guns, and most likely formed fists in fights. I couldn’t let go of how thrilling that felt to feel the tenderness underlying the callouses. How good they would feel along my cheek, running down my side, grabbing me to find his own pleasure.
The only trace of emotion was the vein in Harley’s jaw pulsating. He had to be weighing his options. Out of instinct, I let my fingers glide up against the strong tendons in his forearm. There were so many tattoos on his arms that I couldn’t even count them.
“You know you want to sit down next to me,” I said. Nothing besides utter stillness, but I glimpsed the conflict waging war on his face. We were blurring the lines a bit. I could read that exact thought in his head. “I don’t bite,” I added softly as a smile played at the side of my mouth.
“Right,” he mumbled and sat down, leaning back and clasping his hands over his chest. The delicious swell of his chest and stomach muscles pressed against his shirt and I had to stifle a sound of approval.
“You said before that there was a personal reason you left the service. What was it?” I asked, half afraid to hear his answer in fear that he would tell me he had a lover back home. He lifted an eyebrow as if challenging me.
I watched him with interest, pausing just long enough to let the bastard think I didn’t care. He tilted his head to the side, his lips pursed in a thin line.
God, you’re so hot.
“Well? Are you waiting for something?” I shot back, playfully.
“My mom’s sick.” He didn’t bat an eye. “Cancer and she needed help. I was about as fucked as a guy could get thanks to the shit I’d seen over there, so it was a win-win.” He shrugged, never taking his steeling gaze off of me. The deep tone of his voice deep beautiful eyes had my heart racing. We were talking about his mother being sick, and all I could do was think about how he looked naked. I needed help.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” I softened my expression. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would want too much attention, but who knew. “Is she taking Chemo?”
“Yeah, and radiation.” He moved to sit up, pressing his forearms against his thick thighs as his eyes moved across my face. “You need to be more careful while we’re here, Abi. You’re a beautif
ul girl-”
“Woman.” I corrected him.
“Exactly.” He licked at the side of his mouth subtly. Was he thinking of stripping me bare as well? The thought had my stomach tight, my palms sweaty.
“I need to take care of something in my room. Let me know if you plan on going out anywhere.” he stood to walk toward his room, “I’ll see you in a bit.”
He disappeared, and I sat up, trying to come up with any reason to bother him again. I sat there for a little while thinking about how hot Harley made me. He had a presence unlike any other guy I’d been around. My heart raced every time I saw him and I was constantly undressing him with my eyes. I needed to experience more of it, but I was afraid that once I got past his guard, I’d never be able to set myself free of him.
I walked into my room to find Libby her watching TV. She mumbled something, but I ignored her, pacing the floor in the bathroom instead.
“What could I… my charger!” I lit up like a Christmas tree. My charger was in his room from early that day. He needed one, and I lent it to him. It was now the perfect excuse to talk to Harley again.
I walked back out to the patio and knocked softly on the glass door that lead to his room. Nothing.
“Fuck,” I mumbled and pulled the door open, calling out quietly just in case he was on the phone or in the bathroom. “Harley? I just need to grab my charger.”
Nothing.
I moved into the room and the sound of the shower running caught my attention. Why would he be-? Oh. Oh.
The door to the bathroom was cracked, and steam billowed out of the small room, which was a little depressing. I was hoping somewhere deep inside that he needed a cold shower due to the sexual tension between us. I felt it every time he came around, though I played ignorant in front of Libby.
A deep groan filled up the room around me, and I moved toward the bathroom, pressing my shoulder to the door and getting a good view on him in the mirror. The steam was only a third down on the thick glass, giving me the perfect view of him soaking wet and straining against the pressure of his fingers wrapped around his cock.
“Fuck,” I mumbled and started to move back. The shower curtains were see through and if he found me standing there… He won’t.
Everything inside of me screamed for me to turn and run my happy ass back to my own room, but my feet wouldn’t budge. He moaned again, and my insides turned to liquid heat. Water ran in long rivets down his strong chest over his tight stomach and into a dark patch of hair that framed the thickest cock I’d ever seen. Not that I’d been exposed to any outside of my computer or Libby’s wild stories of sleeping with a million men, but fuck me… he was huge.
Chills raced down my back as he cried out again and pumped his hips forward, pressing his swollen tip through the circle of his fingers and losing himself. Thick rivets of come squirted up the shower curtain and dripped down as he closed his eyes and dropped his head back.
I had to go. Now. My pussy was contracting wildly alongside the vein on the side of my neck. Heat like I’d never experienced before threatened to consume me, and I walked back to the patio, closed the door and headed straight for our bathroom.
“Hey. Do you want to-” Libby started, but I cut her off.
“Not now. Just need a quick shower. My skin is itching.” I slammed the door behind me, turned on the water and stripped down. Soft mewling noises left me as I fumbled into the shower and pressed my back against the cold tiles.
“Harley,” I whispered and slide my hand down my stomach, pressing my fingers past my wetness and driving them into my center. I closed my eyes and the world disappeared and all that was left was him. On his knees. Fucking me with strong fingers and a wicked tongue.
I bit my tongue to hold back my scream as electricity exploded in the center of my stomach. I wanted him so bad it hurt, and I knew now that he must have felt the same way.
CHAPTER EIGHT - HARLEY
I woke the next morning with a headache like a mother fucker. All night long I’d been pacing the damn floor. After waking up just after midnight to the sound of gunshots, I had no choice. Madrid was a stupid choice for a trip, and everyone with half a bit of sense in their fucking head knew it. It wasn’t safe. Period.
“You’re kidding me, right?” I sighed in annoyance at Libby’s question. She looked up at me in her own visible annoyance from where she nursed a cup of coffee next to Abigail on the patio.
“No,” I said, shortly. “I’m not kidding. There are attacks going on. Neither one of you are allowed out of this hotel today until I hear clearance.”
“What are we supposed to do then?” Libby asked. “This is ridiculous, Harley. It’s not a big deal out here.”
“I’m being paid to protect you. Until I hear something, keep your ass in your hotel room. I’m not going to come rescue either one of you again if you go out without me knowing.”
Libby rose from her patio chair with an irritated huff. “Whatever. I’ll just go take a nap while I wait for this trip to turn fun again.”
“Libby—” Abigail started.
“Come get me when he gets that stick out of his ass,” Libby told Abi, shooting me a dirty look before going back into her room. The doors slammed shut behind her.
“I’m sorry,” Abigail said, setting her cup of coffee down. “She just thinks that you’re being paranoid about everything.”
“Did she not hear the gunshots last night?” I asked, sharply.
Abigail looked at me intently then. Hesitating for a moment, she reached forward to gently place a hand on my bouncing knee. “I heard them, but it’s fine. You’re here, and I know you wouldn’t let anything happen.”
The touch of Abigail’s hand on my knee instantly drew me out of those dark memories of Iraq a few months ago. I inhaled deeply to calm my racing nerves while I looked down at Abigail’s fingers resting on my knee. Her hands were so small and petite that I could easily shatter them by just gripping them too hard. Still, they held so much strength and warmth to them.
And I liked the feeling of her hands on my body a little too much. Heat flared beneath her palm and finger tips. I pulled my knee back subtly as possible and tried not to dwell on the disappointment of losing it.
Abigail’s safety was my priority and paycheck.
If I dwelled on the tempting thought of taking her into my bed, I’d cave in and fuck her against the first solid structure I came to. The past week she had stuck to my side like glue instead of walking ahead of me as usual with Libby. There was constant little touches and brushes that were hard to ignore. I couldn’t reach out and grab her the way I wanted to, but taking her in my mind while I worked myself over the edge in the shower would work. It have to. That was as close as I was getting to her sweet center.
Cold showers weren’t doing anything either. I ended up pleasuring myself in muffled silence just to ease the damn ache, but Abigail fueled it on. I could still see her in my mind’s eye, her chest pressed to the shower. I wanted to take her from behind, to slide past the slick curve of her ass and drive into her heat while I bit at the back of her shoulder and licked the long line of her neck. I could almost feel her squirming against me in the shower the night before, hear her moan as I tugged at the peaked nipple of one of her breasts. She’d come like a fountain, joining me before I put her on her knees to clean up the mess she made. Fuck. I was going to break my contract and take her before the trip was over. I wanted her too goddamn bad to deny myself. I was fucked.
I had a creeping suspicion she knew what she was doing, but there were times I caught those innocent stares. It was hard to believe she was a virgin still.
“Is it hard to fight?”
I blinked back from those thoughts at the curious question. I looked up to find Abigail curled up in her chair with her cup of coffee in hand. The strands of her hair were silky and straight today while they fluttered in the hot breeze. A rich floral smell followed every time the wind picked up.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
/>
“You know,” she said, shrugging her petite shoulders, “could you teach me how to fight?”
“Fight how?” I asked, perplexed by this conversation. Not once had Abigail ever expressed interest in learning how to fight. “As in self-defense with a gun, or—”
Abigail’s face contorted in fear. “Oh, no. No guns for me. I’m too afraid to pick one up, let alone pull a trigger.”
“A gun only does what it’s told to do,” I replied, sagely. “Then, what? To hit someone if they come at you?”
“Yes, that. I might need a few lessons in that department.” She gave me a shy glance. “You were in the Special Forces, so I assume you know how to punch.”
“I know how to kill people in one hit,” I said. “Not that you need to go that far, but I could teach you a few things. Self-defense type stuff.” I caught myself liking the idea of her wanting to know how to take care of herself. It caused my pulse to spike. “Are you sure?”
“Yes.” She stretched forward to set her mug of coffee on the table between us. Rising from the chair, Abigail stood in front of me dressed in a pair of tight under armor shorts and a tank top. It left little, but a whole lot to the imagination. Her bare feet scuffed the patio floor as she shifted nervously in front of me. “Okay, show me something.”
I rose from my own chair warily. Something about this felt off, but it wouldn’t hurt to teach Abigail the proper way to hit a person if they grabbed at her. At least she had some self-defense in the future after we returned back to America.
It only took once to show Abigail something before she memorized it. I admired her ability to move fluidly with athleticism and grace that I never once expected from her. Nor, did I expect the surprising strength behind her fists when she punched me in the palm as I instructed.
“How do you get someone off if they come up from behind you?” Her question was innocent enough, but I realized quickly that I’d dug myself into a hole.
“Press your back to my chest.” I reached for her and pulled her in close, her body tightly against mine. It was so fucking hard to breathe with her so near, her smell so clean and delicious. Her firm ass pressed against my cock in the most erotic way, and I had to take a step back as my body grew hard.
