by Vanessa Vale
This.
Fuck, this. I kissed across her closed mouth, learning every bow and curve from corner to corner, flicking my tongue out to lick, taste. When she opened for me, I didn’t hold back. I took, but I gave, too. Fuck, this was what I’d been aching for since the moment I saw her. All the time, I knew she was thousands of miles away, and I couldn’t touch her. I’d wanted to ease that fear, even of a damn elevator, and I’d ease it now. As long as she was sitting in my damned lap, everything was going to be fine.
She whimpered and began to shift in my lap. There was no chance she could miss how hard I was. I wanted her. Literally ached with the need to be inside her, but it wasn’t the right fucking time. When I claimed her, I wanted her mind solely on me. Hell, I wanted her mind completely blank.
I pulled back but held her head still, took in how her long, dark lashes were fanned over her pale skin. Her eyes opened slowly, met mine.
“Hey,” I murmured.
She offered me a small smile—this time genuine. I loved the way her cheeks flushed, and her eyes had lost the fear.
“This… thing between us?” I slid my thumb over her cheek. “It’s my job to protect you. That’s how this works. You give me your problems, and I take care of them.”
She licked her lips, and I stifled a groan. “Just like that?”
“Just like that. Do I look like I’m not strong enough to take care of you?” Her gaze raked over me, and she shook her head, her silky hair sliding over my fingers. “Tell me.”
She looked down, but I wouldn’t have it. I easily lifted her, so she straddled me, but this time she was wearing a pair of black yoga pants and a thick hoodie sweatshirt. My hands went to her hips, held her in place, but my thumbs stroked over her taut muscles. She wasn’t going to avoid me any longer.
“Beautiful, tell me.”
“I told you about my brother, at least a little bit on the phone.”
I wouldn’t forget what he’d done, giving her to his friend to fuck.
“He’s always been in trouble of some kind. Cheating in school when he was a kid. A gambling ring in high school. He went to three different prep schools before he graduated because he kept getting kicked out. He went out of state for college, so I don’t know much of what he did there, but I’m sure it was a lot of the same thing. Only worse.”
I watched as her throat worked when she swallowed.
“Two years ago, he got in over his head with this guy. Owed him tons of money.” Her dark eyes met mine… then dropped,,, then she lifted her chin, so she looked at me dead-on. “I was at a family wedding. A distant cousin. One of the hotels in downtown Denver. I was leaving, going to my car in the parking garage. Cam was there with some men, but I ignored them. I… I don’t like my brother, so I always stayed away from him.”
I didn’t say anything, and I tried as hard as I fucking could not to grip her hips. I had an idea of what was coming next, and while I didn’t want to hear it, to know it had happened to her, it had to come out. Like a damn splinter under the skin.
“The men—not Cam—got in the elevator with me. They stopped it between floors and… came on to me. Said they were taking me back to their boss as payment, but they’d try me out first.” Her eyes went hazy at that, as if going back to that moment in her mind. “I… I panicked, obviously. The one who’d been touching me, I kneed in the crotch. He let go, fell to the floor. The other guy grabbed me, and I fought him. He ripped my dress. It’s a blur after that, but I jammed my stiletto into the top of his foot. It stopped him long enough, so I could push the button to get the elevator moving. I swiped all the floors, and the door opened. By then, one of them had me, and I fell. I screamed, kicked and got away. The doors closed, and I was on the valet level of the parking garage, and they’d continued down. People were there, and I got help.”
Fuck. No wonder she was scared of elevators and freaked out the first time she saw me.
She took a deep breath, all of that having come out in a rush. “The men got away.”
“And your brother?” I stroked my thumb over her cheek.
“When I told the police what happened, that my brother was behind it, my parents got involved. Got him out of the charges by saying I’d willingly gone off with the men.”
My thumb stilled, and I couldn’t help the way my fingers gripped her hip. “Your parents said that? They chose your brother over you?”
She nodded. Her hair was sloppy, as if she’d fallen asleep with it wet at some point, but I wanted to touch it, so I tucked a tendril behind her ear. “They always have.”
“You flew home on Christmas because…”
She bit her lip. “Because I was spending it alone. At least on the flight, they gave out free drinks.”
“Beautiful,” I said, drawing out the word on a sigh. I pulled her head in, our foreheads touching. I could feel her heat, her breath. “All you had to do was come to me. I was waiting for you.”
She pulled back her eyes wide with fear again. “That’s just it. I shouldn’t be here. They’ll hurt you.”
I couldn’t help my eyebrows going up. “The guys in the parking lot?”
“They said they’d been here, but I just hoped maybe they were wrong. If I kept my lights out, stayed hidden, they’d give up.”
I frowned. “You kept your lights out?”
She nodded. “I didn’t want them to know I was home—they might try to get in.”
This was so fucked up. Especially since she thought she was alone in this. Dealing with these assholes.
My mind churned through everything she said. “Wait. What do you mean they said they’d been here? You talked to them?”
Now she looked away. “They were waiting for me at the airport. They… they slashed my tires.”
I knew the men were long gone from the lot by now, Gray and the others ensuring it, but I wanted to hunt them down and kill them for fucking with Harper. It seemed I had to make a list of who to hurt. Her brother, her parents. Those assholes who slashed her tires.
“Why now? If they got away with it two years ago, why are they back?”
“Cam. He’s out of jail.”
“I thought your parents got him out of his involvement with your assault.” I bit out the last few words.
“He was, but a week later, after he was cleared, he was arrested for drug possession with intent to sell. My parents… well, my dad, who’s a lawyer… got it lowered to a misdemeanor. Cam had no choice but to do two years.”
“And?”
“And he’s out now. But those men? They never got the money Cam owed before he went to prison.”
I couldn’t help but frown. When I thought she had some issues, I had no idea it was like this. And she wanted to push me away. “Okay, but why go after you? Why weren’t they waiting for your brother when he walked out the prison gates?”
“Because they know he doesn’t have the money. He probably told them I had it to keep himself alive.”
To keep himself alive and put the heat on his sister. The fucking asshole.
“Do you have the money?” I was so confused. Why the hell was she mixed up in this? This mess was between a loan shark and Cameron Lane.
“Yes.”
I lifted her up enough, so I could slide out from beneath her, turned her so she was sitting in my chair, and I paced.
“You have money Cam needs to pay off his debt? His two-year-old debt?”
She nodded, curled her feet beneath her.
I ran my hand over the back of my neck. “When did you talk to him last?”
She looked as if she were scrolling back through a calendar in her mind. “Actually, it was right before I met you. The elevator panic attack. He’d called me, and I’d been upset, decided to run it off.”
Yeah, I could see now why she liked to burn off the angst and why she could run marathons.
“Like I said, me having the money is why he’s still alive, at least I assume. If they’d killed him in jail, they’d never get the money.
I guess they’re patient, or they expect a lot of interest, but now that he’s out, they want it.”
“And Cam?”
“I haven’t talked to him since that time, but he’s left messages, texted. Telling me to give it to him.”
“I assume you haven’t.” If she had, they’d leave her alone. No airport visits. No slashed tires. No parking lot surveillance.
She dropped her head back against my chair, closed her eyes. “That money? It’s hush money from my parents. My payment for my elevator experience. Cam knows they gave it to me and told me, at least the last time I talked to him on the phone, that I owed him. It was all because of him that I had it, and I should share some of it with him.”
I stopped directly in front of her, leaned down and put my hands on the arms of the chair, so we were eye to eye. “Your parents gave you money to drop the charges against your brother for giving you to a fucking loan shark and his… his goons as payment?”
I knew my voice was loud, that I could hide my anger no longer, but she wasn’t scared of me. No, she cupped my damn jaw again. “Now I have the money to save Cam from those men.”
My eyes widened, thinking the worst. “You’re not going to give it to him, are you?”
“And enable Cam like my parents? No. That money’s tainted.” She shook her head. “I won’t touch it. I’d rather move to the UK than do anything with it.”
“You’ll hide in your apartment with no lights on until it’s time to move?” She blushed at that. “I thought you said you were tired of running.”
Her chin came up. “I am, but every time I try to get on with my life, things keep messing it up. Do you think I wanted to be given to those men? Do you think I want my parents to call me and tell me to come to a party celebrating Cam’s release from prison? Do you think I want to have a brother like him?”
She moved to stand, and I let her go. She began pacing. I watched her get mad.
Finally. This was what I wanted. Harper mad. Pissed. So angry she stood up to her brother, to her parents, to those fuckers who assaulted her, instead of running.
“Do you think I want my tires slashed? That Cam calls and messes with me? I don’t want that. I don’t want any of it.”
On one of her passes, I grabbed her arm, stopped her. “What do you want?”
Her eyes dropped to my mouth. “You, but I can’t have you.”
Hope replaced all the anger. My heart leaped, not from panic or worry but from something else. Something new. Something… pure. She wanted me. I couldn’t help but grin.
I put my hands to my chest. “I’m right here. I’m all yours.”
Her gaze dropped to my mouth, then I saw disappointment fill her eyes as she turned away from me. “Do you know what those men will do?”
“That’s why you pushed me away yesterday. You’re afraid those guys will hurt me.”
She nodded. “If they discover we’re… together, then they’ll hurt you as pressure for the money. I don’t want them seeing anyone but me.”
I closed my eyes, opened them slowly. I took her hand, lifted it to my cheek again, held it in place. Her skin was so warm, and I seemed to hope her goodness would seep into me.
“I’m a professional fighter. Look at me. Do you think so little of me that I can’t protect myself and you? What about yourself?” I wondered. “Aren’t you afraid?”
She gave me a sad smile. “Afraid? I’ve been afraid for two years. The only time I haven’t been afraid is when I’m with you.”
20
HARPER
I took in the dark scruff on his jaw, the curved muscles of his defined shoulders beneath his T-shirt, the broad chest, narrow waist. He wore dark gym shorts and running shoes. He wasn’t sweaty like after a workout; his clean scent was heady. So was the intense promise in his eyes. I put my hands on his arms, felt the bulging muscles of his biceps, slid them down over the corded forearms to link my fingers with his.
I was riled, tense, angry. Reed had made me talk, forced me to tell him the truth. All of it. And yet, he was still here. He was strong. Strong enough for both of us. And yet, he lifted our linked hand to his lips and brushed a kiss over my knuckles. I felt it, like a jolt of sizzling electricity throughout my body. Strong yet gentle. He was unlike anyone I’d ever known.
“I just want you, too,” he murmured.
“But you don’t just get me. You know my problems, Reed. This is why I’ve been pushing you away.”
“Why we haven’t had phone sex?” he asked, the corner of his mouth tipping up.
I couldn’t help the smile his teasing words brought about. “I… I want you, but—”
With our hands tangled, he quieted me with a kiss. When he lifted his head, he brushed my nose with his. “There are no buts right now. Just us. You’re with me. You’re safe.”
I sighed and nodded, my nose sliding along his cheek, the whiskers there ticklish yet soft. The one urgent kiss now wasn’t enough. He was right in front of me, touching me, our breaths mingling, but I needed more. Turning my head slightly, our mouths met. I was tentative for a split second, a wisp of a thought that Reed might not want more flitted through my brain but was erased entirely when he dropped my hands and pulled me into him, one arm sliding down to grip my ass, the other cupping the back of my head.
He took over, dominated the kiss. And me. It felt so good to be held, as if I were so thirsty for contact. I was, actually. Real contact. For once, I didn’t hold back, and I opened for him, letting his tongue dip inside my mouth, find mine. He learned me, one delicious lick at a time. I whimpered, my skin heated, I relaxed, every tight line in my body curved and blurred.
I hadn’t realized we’d even moved until Reed broke away and dropped into his chair but kept an arm about my waist, so his face was in line with my hoodie-covered breasts. He kept his eyes on mine as he worked my sweatshirt up my body. I lifted my arms to help him then saw out of the corner of my eye when he dropped it to the floor.
“You’re wearing too many clothes,” he said, his voice a frustrated growl as he took in my T-shirt and yoga pants.
“So are you.”
His eyes flared with heat. With another one of those small smiles, he reached behind his neck, tugged off his shirt, dropped it on top of my hoodie.
“Like what you see?” he asked. It was only then I realized I was ogling. His body was tight with muscle. Shoulders round, neck angled. There was a smattering of dark hair on his chest that tapered down to his navel. The eight-pack of abs was impossible to miss. But it was the tattoos, the one that wrapped around his upper arm and down over his shoulder to just above the flat, dark disk of his right nipple that had me reaching out. My fingers hovered, worried I shouldn’t touch.
But when he grabbed my hand, pressed my palm against his hot skin, he groaned, and I gasped. When I didn’t move my hand, he did it for me, roaming over every perfect, chiseled inch of his torso. Only when I caught on to what he wanted did his eyes fall closed and his hand dropped to his lap.
Oh yes. Complete access to touch and study Reed’s body? It was my turn to groan. At least drool. His lips were slick and red, his nostrils flared as he breathed, his hands gripped his knees as if trying not to grab me.
“Harper,” he said, my name almost ripped from his throat. When he opened his blue eyes, he looked at me with a need so intense it stole my breath.
Two fingers gripped the hem of my T-shirt, and I felt the rough brush of his fingertips on the bare skin of my belly. I gripped his hand, stilled his fingers although when I thought about it, he wasn’t moving them. My eyes met his, and all of a sudden, I felt vulnerable.
But he deserved the truth. “I’ve… I’ve never let a man see me before.”
He frowned, a deep crease forming in his brow. “But you’ve—”
“I’ve had sex, yes, but it’s always been quick, with clothes on.” I tucked my lower lip between my teeth. “Or, only took off what was required. So…yeah.”
I sighed as Reed dropped his
hand.
“That’s not how it is between us, is it?” he probed.
I shook my head, tucked the hair that had come out of my bun behind my ear.
“I won’t take what you’re not willing to give,” he said. “But I want all of you. I want to see you, touch you. Have you in my bed. I don’t want anything between us, not even clothes.”
His voice was even, steady. I could step back if I wanted, to stop what we were doing. But after the past week, distance was gone. Secrets were gone. Everything was gone that separated us except for our clothes. He already saw me. Even the darkest spots within.
“You don’t have to hide yourself from me, but when you’re ready. If that’s not—”
I ripped my T-shirt over my head, let it fall to the floor, but that spurt of bravery disappeared, so I covered myself with my arms.
I met Reed’s gaze. He didn’t look away, didn’t look lower. “Beautiful,” he said.
I loved that he called me that, but I didn’t think he meant it now. “You aren’t even looking.”
He slowly shook his head, gently gripped my wrists from beneath my neck and uncrossed my arms, lowered them to my sides. “I don’t need to.”
I was before him in my bra and my black leggings. I should be shivering, but I was far from cold.
Finally… finally his gaze dropped, and I watched his face, watched his jaw clench, his pale eyes darken to a stormy sea blue. “Is this what you wear underneath those professor clothes?”
He raised his hand and with just the tip of his finger, traced along the edge of my pale pink bra. It was fine, sheer mesh, so nothing was hidden. I didn’t have to look down to know my nipples were hard.
“Except when I run, but yeah. I… I like lingerie.”
I had a drawer full of it. No one had seen any of it but me. Until now.
He grunted as his finger slid from the swell of one breast, into the valley between and over the other. I wasn’t overly large, a full B cup, but Reed seemed to be just fine with that.
