Undeniable Attraction

by J B Heller

  I tried to smile at his attempt at humour but I just wasn’t feelin’ it. Using Ivy as bait didn’t sit right with me. It’s not in my nature; I’m supposed to be protecting her, not putting her in the firing line.

  Just then, an ear-piercing scream came from the front of the house. Kai and I were out the door and down the hall in seconds. When we caught sight of Tessa crumpled on the floor, tears leaking from her eyes, we stopped dead in our tracks.

  Kai went over and crouched down in front of her. He reached out for her hands and pried them from around her legs, then drew her into his chest and rocked her back and forth for a moment, then froze.

  I looked over Tessa’s shoulder and saw what it was that caught Kai’s attention. It was photos, photos of the girls in the shower, in their rooms, sleeping, exercising, and one of Ivy masturbating. Holy fucking shit.

  I swept the photos up and found another note in the process.

  Roses are Red,

  Violets are Blue.

  Oh how I love,

  Getting off with you.

  I heard Ivy approaching from behind me I didn’t want her to see these, but it was too late to hide them from her. She would have heard Tessa’s scream. I had the note crumpled in my fist with the photos. Ivy grabbed hold of my arm, her nails biting into my skin, and when I looked down at her, the fear shining brightly in her eyes nearly crippled me.

  I wrapped my arms around her and held her tightly. I wasn’t sure who I was comforting right now; her or me. But I knew we both needed it.

  When she spoke, her voice was soft and scratchy, “What does it say this time?”

  I released her from my grip and handed her the note. Her eyes skimmed over it quickly, her hands clenched into fist. Suddenly her fear evaporated as anger replaced it, no not anger, fury.

  She threw the note on the ground and stormed to the front door, bursting through it before I could stop her. She threw her arms out wide, wearing only my t-shirt.

  With her palms open to the sky, she spun around in a slow circle and yelled to whoever was out there, “What do you want from me you sick fuck? Here I am, come at me now. You leave my family alone you bastard or I’ll rip your eyes out! Do you hear me?”

  Her voice was hoarse by the time she was done. I swooped down to catch her as her adrenaline rush wore off and she began to sag from the release of her pent up emotions. She wrapped her arms around my neck, and rested her head on my shoulder as I carried her back inside.

  Kai was still sitting on the floor with a weepy Tessa in his arms. Ivy scrambled out of my arms and rushed to Tessa. “I’m so sorry Tessie, so, so sorry. I’ll fix this, okay, I won’t let him near you.”

  Kai looked over her head towards me. I lifted my shoulders and eyebrows at the same time. I had no idea where this was coming from either. It was a side to Ivy that I hadn’t seen before. And to be honest, it was scaring the shit out of me. I didn’t want her to do something foolish in the hopes of protecting Tessa.

  I came up behind her, crouching down the way she was and rubbed circles on her back. I rested my chin on her shoulder and inhaled her scent. “You just leave the protecting up to me, all right? I can’t lose you, not when I’ve just found you.”

  For a moment, she didn’t acknowledge me but then she gave me a slight nod and went back to soothing Tessa.

  The look on Kai’s face confused me. He was a hard prick, but whenever he was around Tessa, he softened. He joked and messed around with her and that’s not normal Kai behaviour. As he looked down on her, I could see how much he cared for her.

  Could Kai be jonesing for Bitch Face? I shrugged off the thought; I had bigger issues to deal with.

  After Tessa settled down, Ivy relaxed back into my body. We were all sitting on the floor, the silence and tension in the room so thick you could cut it with a knife. My phone rang in my pocket. It was Axel. They would have heard the scream too on the video chat. “It’s all right, man. He’s not here.”

  “Thank fuck. Blake and I were about to come over if you didn’t answer your phone,” Axel responded.

  “No, stay away, we don’t want him to know you guys are with us. It’s the only thing we’ve got going for us,” I said quickly.

  “What was it anyway?” Axel asked.

  “A pile of photos from inside the girls’ house. Photos of them naked, sleeping, showering, and another poem. The poem was pretty much the same as the other two,” I briefly explained.

  “Shit, man, good thing you got them out of there when you did. But you know, that probably means you’re on his shit list now.”

  “Yeah, I know. Doesn’t matter though, that’s not the issue here.”

  “You should reconsider the plan. It’s the best shot we have to get this done. You don’t want to wait for his next move.”

  “I know, I just—”

  Ivy turned in my arms; she could hear the whole conversation. She took the phone from my hand and put it to her ear. “What’s the plan?”

  Axel didn’t respond for a minute and I could feel Ivy’s patience growing thin. She was about to blow up my phone when he eventually answered her.

  “Hi, Ivy, I’m Axel. I’m going to help Gabe deal with this fucker okay? You don’t need to worry about anything. We’ve got it covered.”

  “Are you sure, because Gabe doesn’t look real convinced? Whatever your plan is, he doesn’t like it. I would normally be inclined to agree with him, but I don’t think he’s thinking the way he normally would. If I were anyone else, he probably would have already agreed to your plan. So tell me, what’s the plan?”

  “I think you and I are going to get along just fine, Ivy, I like you already,” Axel responded.

  Ivy rolled her beautiful blue eyes. “That’s lovely; we can be bff’s when this is all over. Now get to the point. What’s the plan?”

  I heard his laughter on the other end of the phone. Bastard was probably falling in love with my girl, and only after a few sentences. What the hell took me so fucking long? I snatched the phone back from her, “Keep it in your pants Casanova, she’s taken. Tell Blake the plan’s on. Call me later with the details.”

  I hung up on him before he could come back with some smart-arse remark. Ivy was sitting in my lap with her arms crossed under her perfect tits. My eyes zeroed in on them and my dick twitched, poking her in the arse. She jumped a little and tried her hardest to fight the grin threatening to steal away her indignation at being left out of the loop.

  I ran my hand through her messy hair and then brought it around to cup her cheek. I kissed her tenderly on her soft lips. I wanted to deepen the kiss but I remembered where we were and that we weren’t alone. Plus I knew she wasn’t going to let me off the hook for this.

  When I pulled myself away from her, I said the only thing that came to my mind, “I love you, Angel. I can’t lose you.”

  Her smile lit up the room as she pounced on me, tipping me backwards till I was flat on the floor beneath her. She ran her small hands over my chest and then cupped my face. Her eyes shone with unshed tears and love for me. “Don’t say it if you don’t mean it. I won’t be able to handle it if you take it back later, when this is all over. I’m a delicate fucking flower, Gabe.”

  “Silly girl, of course I mean it. I love you, Ivy. With or without this psycho hanging around. What is it they say, for better or worse? Well, right now, we’re going through the worse part, I can’t wait for the better,” I winked and she plastered her lips to mine.

  She was oblivious to our audience until Bitch Face piped up. “Ew, get a room! You two are so gross.”

  Ivy started laughing against my lips. She lifted her head slightly and turned towards her annoying cousin. She poked her tongue out at her whilst flipping her the bird, then promptly went back to devouring my mouth. It was so fucking cute but so hot at the same time. I cupped her arse in both my hands, pulling my body forward into a sitting position, before getting to my feet. I walked us over to the kitchen counter and sat her on the edge.

&nb
sp; She pulled back and gave me the cutest little frown. “No bedroom?”

  I could really get used to this. I ran my thumb along her moist bottom lip and she nipped it playfully. “We need to talk first, Angel. You wanted to know the plan, remember? If I took you back to the bedroom right now, we both know there would be very little talking being done.”

  She huffed, literally huffed at me, like I was being a major pain in her arse. “Fine, tell me this plan then take me to bed.”

  I gave her a mock salute, “Yes ma’am!”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  I was so preoccupied with Gabe telling me he loves me that I completely forgot about the plan. My hormones were taking over and I was losing all my common sense. I dreaded the thought of turning into one of them, the women without brains who could only think about sex. But I had to admit, if it were to happen, Gabe would be the one to make it so.

  The plan wasn’t ready yet but he gave me the gist of it. Basically, I’m bait. That pretty much sums it all up. These other two friends of Gabe and Kai’s had come to town to help out, but they didn’t want my stalker to know so they were staying in a hotel. I told Gabe I thought he was going a bit overboard. Then he told me the rest.

  I knew he’d been keeping something from me but I also knew it was just because he was trying to protect me, so I didn’t push.

  When he told me that the guy stalking me was an ex Special Forces assassin, I no longer thought he was overreacting. I told him from here on out, he would keep me informed or I’d hold out on the sex. He laughed in my face. Rightly so to, one look at the magical V pointing down to the most beautiful penis I’d ever seen, and the whole idea of holding out was out the window. But he did agree to keep me updated.

  That was two days ago and he hadn’t left my side for a moment since. He’d even started waiting for me outside the door when I needed to use the bathroom. That felt more than a little weird, but he explained that if Stalker Douche (as I now refer to him; it makes him seem less scary) wanted to get inside the house, he could. So I soon got over the weirdness.

  He tried to keep me distracted from the situation with normal everyday things like watching movies. But when that didn’t work he had the ultimate distraction device at his disposal, him. I’d had more sex in the last week than I’d had in all my life. And not just meh sex either, I’m talking mind blowing, orgasm inducing at the thought of it, kind of sex. The man had a gift.

  “What’s that look about?” Gabe’s voice pulled me from my daydream.

  I turned to look at him, “Huh?”

  “You’re all starry eyed. You look like you’re about to start drooling,” he smirked.

  I whacked his arm, “I do not. I was just thinking.”

  “You were thinking about me naked, weren’t you?” he stated with a smirk on his perfect lips.

  I could feel the blush creeping up my neck, “Maybe. You’ll never know.”

  He rolled over and pinned me to the couch, his body wedged between my thighs. He was hard already. My breath caught in my throat.

  He began nibbling my neck, “I like this side of you, why did you hide it from me for so long?”

  “You had other interests.” I sounded breathless. And I was. Having him pressed to me like this made it hard to breathe, hard to think.

  “But you hid yourself from me, so how could I have seen you as anything but my perfect little employee when you shied away from me like that? You let me think you were this delicate little flower,” he said as he continued to kiss his way up my neck.

  I shrugged, “Well, I am kinda delicate.”

  I had gotten used to hiding my feelings from him. It became a habit, one that was surprisingly easy to break once I made the decision to let the real me out of the closet. I wondered if Gabe would have noticed me before if I had just been myself.

  He laughed at my comment, a full belly laugh and I could feel the vibrations of it ripple through my body. I wrapped my arms and legs around him as he nuzzled his nose into the pillow under my head to muffle his laughter.

  I loved this feeling. It just felt right. Then the doorbell rang, and our playful moment was gone, replaced with tension and anxiety.

  Gabe lifted himself from atop of me and told me to stay on the couch. He strode out of the room with purpose. I couldn’t see him from where I was, but I could hear him.

  “Motherfucker!” he roared, his voice echoed throughout the house, followed by the loud slam of the front door. When he walked back into the lounge room, he sat beside me with a small package in his hands. “Angel, I don’t know how, but he’s been inside the house.”

  Panic blossomed in my chest and bled out to every pore on my body. No. “I don’t understand. We’ve been here the whole time. When could he have gotten in?”

  He gripped his forehead with one hand. “I don’t know, probably at night. I’m taking you away from here today. I can’t keep you here, it’s not safe anymore.”

  “What’s in the box?” I hesitated to ask.

  He handed it to me. It wasn’t very big. I opened the lid to find a set of dog tags. “Whose are these?”

  “Mine, they were in the safe in my office.”

  “Oh.” Oh, that’s all I could say. I wanted to reassure him, but I couldn’t even reassure myself right now. My bubble of safety had officially burst. I picked up the dog tags and noticed another note underneath them; it was another sick poem.

  Roses are Red,

  Violets are Blue.

  Get rid of the PI,

  Or I’ll take him out too.

  Fear rendered me motionless. He was threatening Gabe. He’d hurt Gabe. No, no, no, I couldn’t let that happen. Gabe hadn’t seen the note yet, so I tried to get rid of it before he noticed. But he was watching me so closely there was no way he missed my reaction.

  He snatched the box from my frozen hands and pulled out the note. “Don’t even think about it, Ivy. Not for a single second. Do you hear me! I’m not going anywhere, and neither are you. He won’t lay a finger on you, Angel, I swear on my life I will keep you safe.”

  That’s what I was worried about, “I won’t risk your life, Gabe, I won’t do it. I can’t.”

  “I promise you, I’ll be fine. I can handle myself. Think about it, Ivy, you know I’m right,” he begged.

  I did think about it. Gabe was more than capable of looking after himself. But from the little he had told me about Stalker Douche, I just didn’t know if Gabe could take him.

  Someone twisted enough to be doing this to another person for their own sick pleasure would fight dirty. In a fair fight, Gabe would dominate the best of them, but I couldn’t imagine Stalker Douche letting that happen.

  I shook my head before I placed my hand against his cheek. I kissed him tenderly and tried to hold back the tears, but they escaped anyway. I could feel it in my heart; this would be the end of us. One way or another, this guy was going to get what he wanted, and I refused to let Gabe be collateral damage.

  When I went to stand, Gabe grabbed hold of my wrists, his expression was fierce and if I didn’t know him so well, I would have been afraid. Every muscle in his body was strained, the tendons in his neck pulled tight as he clenched his jaw. He was using a great deal of effort not to hold my wrists too tightly. “No, Ivy. This is not the end.”

  He knew where my thoughts were going. He felt it in my kiss. It was foolish to think I could have one more kiss before I left but I couldn’t leave without it. I twisted my hands until he loosened his grip and I could free myself from his hold, at least his physical hold. The soul deep, earth shattering, emotional hold could never be severed.

  “I’m sorry, Gabe. You are my everything, and I will not put you in the firing line. I’ll be careful. I’ll have Kai take me to the same hotel where your friends are staying. I’m still good with the plan but you can’t be a part of it anymore,” I said as I stroked his smooth cheek.

  He released a breath I hadn’t realised he’d been holding. He sighed, half in relief, half in defeat,
“I thought you were going to just leave me altogether, and try to deal with this on your own.”

  A small smile touched my lips, “I’m not stupid, Gabe. I know Trixie and I can’t deal with the psycho on our own.”

  He reared back, “Who the fuck is Trixie?”

  He knew I owned a gun, well guns, “The gun I keep in my handbag. No need to use nasty words.”

  “You name your guns, Angel? I should think that’s weird, but I just think it’s cute. I’m such a fucking sap,” he laughed softly.

  I smiled at the sound and some of the tension in the room dissipated, but not all. We had to be proactive, so the plan needed to happen as soon as possible. I couldn’t have Stalker Douche in this house again, he could hurt the people I love. And I didn’t just mean Gabe and Tessa.

  I’d always liked and gotten on well with Kai, but since spending so much time in the same house as him, I’d genuinely started to care for him. He had become a part of my family now too.

  These were my people, and nobody fucks with My People. I was more determined than ever to get this done. I put my hand out to Gabe, palm up, “Give me your phone.”

  He eyed me suspiciously but slowly pulled his phone from his pocket and placed it in my waiting palm.

  “I’m calling your friends. We’re stepping up the plan,” I explained.

  He snatched the phone back and got to his feet in front of me, “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I think it would be best if I don’t know what it is, or where it’s going to go down. If I know any of the details, it’ll send me mad not being able to be there with you. I might not be able to stay away.”

  I raised a single brow at him, “That’s not going to work. In theory, it sounds all right, but it’ll be worse for you if you don’t know what’s happening. It’ll eat at you. I want to keep you in the loop, this is what you’re good at and I want whatever it is the boys have cooked up to have your seal of approval.”

  He nodded once then pulled me into his hard body. Just like that, I melted. He touched me and any resistance I may have been trying to hold onto to keep a level head, had gone off out the window, flying with the birds.