by Rosa Foxxe
Rosa Foxxe
Presents..
SEAL
PROTECTED
Chapters List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 1
The club was loud and rowdy.
Dozens of men and women danced to the rhythm of the pulsating music and the bar stools were packed with half-drunk dancers and Saturday night drinkers. I perched on one of the stools, ankles crossed and high heels clicking together. Taryn and Cindy – my two best friends – were tearing up the dance floor in their new dresses. I watched them from where I sat. Taryn was in gold and Cindy was in black. They looked a bit like a high-class bumblebee together. I cracked a smile as I watched them. It was easy to spot Taryn out on the dance floor – she was the tallest woman there and her natural afro hairstyle only added to her height. Beside her, Cindy wiggled to the music, her eyes closed as she gave in to the beat.
Cindy shimmied her way through the crowd and off to the dance floor She all but threw herself against the bar counter next to me. Her big blue eyes were shining but slightly dazed, and she grabbed my arm with her long, hot pink nails.
“Come on, girl,” she said, tugging me toward the dance floor. “You brought us here, so you have to dance!”
I rolled my eyes at Cindy and tried to shake off her hand. “Nuh-uh.”
With a grandiose and sweeping bow, Cindy twirled around me and lifted me to my feet. “Milady,” she drawled, kissing my hand. Despite my best efforts, laughter bubbled up in my throat, spilling out of my lips and filling the room with its bubbles. I used my spare hand to clap it over my mouth and tried to blink the tears from my eyes.
“You are ridiculous,” I said. Cindy just shrugged and dragged me to the dance floor, grinning all the while. The music picked up as the song switched. It sent a deep, pulsating beat through my body. Cindy caught my hips and we swayed together, bodies finding a rhythm in the bass. My hair, which had been tied back, came loose as I danced and it flew in my face as I spun. Faster and faster Cindy and I danced. I let the beat take me deep into the throng of dancing bodies. My arms twirled above my head, my hips swayed back and forth. The beat went deeper into my body, piercing my soul until I could feel my heartbeat syncing with the music.
Song after song pounded the speakers, reverberating me down to my teeth. I shimmied, wiggled, gyrated, and even flailed a bit to the music. Eventually, I had to stumble off the floor back to the bar. I clutched it, panting hard, and Taryn and Cindy soon joined me. They were laughing and grinning and Taryn’s hair seemed a bit puffier than it had before.
“That was fantastic!” said Cindy.
Taryn laughed. “Stupendous, even.” I just shook my head and leaned harder against the counter, closing my eyes and breathing deeply.
“You all right, Michelle?” A voice from above made me look up, eyes half-lidded. It was Dorian, the heavily tattooed bartender with the white and pink hair. He grinned at me. “Well, are you?”
I managed a nod. “Just tired. Haven’t had a workout like that in a while.” Dorian grinned and slid a lime green drink across the bar to me. Taryn practically moaned as he walked away, leaning heavily against the counter and staring at his ass.
“God, he is fine,” said Taryn. She licked her lips and Cindy and I shook our heads at her.
“You know,” I said, “he has a girlfriend.” I sipped at my drink.
Taryn flashed me a predatory grin. “I can work with that.” The words made me choke as I realized what she meant.
“Taryn!” said Cindy. “You can’t break them up or make Dorian cheat!”
“I don’t think she was planning to,” I replied. Taryn grinned in confirmation and Cindy went red.
“Oh,” she said in a small voice. Taryn and I both laughed and Taryn clapped her on the shoulder. I looked back over the dance floor and grimaced. The room suddenly seemed too hot and too small. I pushed myself up and grabbed my purse and jacket, stumbling away from the bar and toward the door.
The girls must have jogged after me, because they were there a few seconds later. “Michelle, are you okay?” asked Taryn. She reached out to touch my shoulder but stopped a few inches short. I nodded and slid my jacket over my shoulders. It took a few, shuddering breaths before I managed to find the words.
“I just need some air,” I said, almost too quietly for them to hear me. Taryn and Cindy nodded and followed me out the door into the side alley of the bar. Once outside, I sighed and leaned against the cool brick of the wall. My gaze went to the night sky above. We were too far into the city to see the stars, but a crescent moon hung in the sky, bright and slightly orange. I shivered and drew my jacket more tightly around me. The seasons were changing from summer to fall and the air grew colder each day. We only had a few more weeks before it would be too cold to get dressed up and spend a night clubbing. I was almost grateful. I loved clubbing, but sometimes it would have been nice just to spend a night drinking hot chocolate in front of a warm fire.
“I have to pee,” said Cindy, breaking the semi-silence of the back alley.
Taryn nodded and tugged Cindy back toward the door. “I need to get my purse from Dorian anyway, we’ll be right back.” I nodded and closed my eyes, listening to the distant sounds of the city streets and the sounds of the club on the other side of the wall.
A few minutes passed and the sound of the door opening caught my attention. I rolled my eyes and turned to face the girls, smiling. “Took you long-” I froze. The person who had come out the door wasn’t Cindy or Taryn. It was a man – shorter than me but much broader across the chest – he was stumbling a bit, his eyes unfocused. I swallowed hard and took a few steps back from the man. One of my heels caught the edge of a can and I stumbled. The sound was impossibly loud in the small space. The drunken man looked up, his eyes coming into focus when he saw me.
“You all alone out here?” he asked, taking a step toward me. I shook my head and he grinned. “You look alone.” His words were slurred and his breath was rancid – a combination of onion, alcohol, and something I couldn’t place. I took a few more steps back and squared my shoulders. My father was a senator, I reminded myself, and I was his daughter. I was strong. This man would not hurt me. But even as I locked my knees I knew I was in trouble. The man lunged, grinning at me. I stumbled and my foot bent sideways. One of my heels broke as I hit the gravel. He grabbed me and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist. His breath grew closer and fouler as he leaned in. One hand slid up my skirt and I shoved at it. With my good heel I kicked at him, driving the tip into his foot. He roared in pain and let go. I straightened - fists up - and kicked off my bad heel. I was panting hard. He grinned and lunged. I went left, but he suddenly slid left too and grabbed me again. This time his hands ripped my shoulder straps. I screamed and tried to kick him off. He laughed. He grabbed at my breasts and gripped tight. His lips found my neck. Tears welled in my eyes and I kept screaming and kicking. But he was too strong and the music was too loud.
“Hey!” The voice was sharp and high. The man jerked off me like a puppet pulled on its strings. He almost flew backward and hit the ground a few feet from me. Taryn stood a few feet from them, her hair even frizzier now and two of her long nails broken and bleeding. She grinned, feral, and eyed the man. “You wanna try that again?” she asked. The man cursed, loudly, and got to his feet. He stalked off, leaving the pieces of my dress he’d torn behind.
“Are you okay?” Cindy was at my side, brushing away my hair. I winced. I’d hit my head when I’d hit the ground and the left side of my face was throbbing. The world seemed to t
ilt one way, then the other. I shook my head slowly, but that made the world spin even faster. “Taryn, help me.” Together, my friends pulled me to my feet. My other heel had come off. I stood barefoot in the alley, shivering. My coat had fallen. Taryn picked it up. Cindy brushed at wetness on my cheeks and I was suddenly aware I was crying.
“Michelle, honey, talk to us,” said Taryn. I swallowed hard, tasting bile, and nodded to them.
“I’ll be okay.”
“We should call someone to pick you up,” said Taryn. I cringed, knowing what my father would say - that it was my fault; that I’d brought it on myself. I wanted to puke. Of course, he wouldn’t think of the disgusting excuse for a human being that man had to be. It was obviously my fault alone. I spat hard at the ground. The fear was gone from my body and I only felt a hot anger bubbling in my stomach. It churned the contents of my stomach, leaving me nauseated and disoriented. Tears blurred my vision again and Taryn rubbed my shoulders. Should I have been more upset about being attacked? Probably. I would be later, I knew. But for now, I was distracted.
Cindy dug into my purse and pulled out my phone. She walked down the alley as she dialed. Her voice carried down the alleyway, but it was broken up. I heard her ask for a car, say something about a club and a drunk, but nothing else filtered through the haze that had fallen over me. Then she hung up and walked back to us, nodding.
“The car will be here in a few minutes.” She eyed me again. “Are you sure you’re all right?” she asked.
I sighed and took a second to think about it. I was bruised, soaked, and bleeding. My face probably looked terrible, my dress was ruined, and the pain on my neck told me I had the worst kind of hickey. I was still crying, but the tears were starting to stop, and it took me a moment of thinking to realize I was shaking. I sighed, but it came out as more of a shuddering exhale. “I don’t know,” I finally said. “I honestly do not know.”
Cindy and Taryn tried asking me a few more questions, but I shrugged off everything and started to pace a small patch of the alley. What would I said to my father? What would I do next? I scrubbed my hands over my face. I was a grown woman – by all rights I shouldn’t have to deal with my father like this anymore. I wasn’t a child to punish; I was a woman to debate with. I almost snorted. Of course, he never saw it that way.
The car pulled up and I nodded to Cindy and Taryn as the driver got out. “Will you two be okay?”
“Yeah,” said Taryn. “We’ll call a cab and head back to my place, no worries.” Taryn frowned at me, her eyes shadowed by worry. “Stay safe.”
I swallowed around the lump in my throat and nodded. “You too,” I said. The driver gave a slight nod to me as I climbed into the car.
“Your father wishes to speak with you,” he said in a detached voice. I sighed and leaned by head against the window of the car, closing my eyes.
“I figured,” I muttered. “But first – cheeseburger.”
“Are you sure, madam?” he asked.
I said, “Yes. After all that, I want a damn cheeseburger. My father can wait.”
“As you wish, madam.” I swore I could hear him smiling. The car started up and drove down the street. The light of the moon touched my eyelids as we drove. I opened up my eyes and watched it pass us by. Despite my dread, I felt momentarily comforted with the thought that there was something watching over me – hopefully it would be as effective as my friends had been.
Chapter 2
While the driver had said my father wanted to see me immediately, by the time I got home his adviser had talked him down and I was told to sleep in my old room. I wanted to go home, but by then it was after two in the morning and sleep was more important than the place I slept.
I slept fitfully and when morning came I showered and scrubbed every speck of blood and grim off my body. The dress was going in the trash along with the shoes and the jewelery A purple bruise bloomed on the left side of my face, curving around my cheekbones and marking the outside rim of my eye. A small purple bruise on my neck reminded me of how close the man had come. I cringed, felt the pull of the bruised muscles, and bit my lip to catch a wince. My father wasn’t going to like this.
The driver from the night before was standing in the hallway when I opened the door and he led me down the hall to my father’s dining room. The large, empty house which I had grown up in didn’t feel any smaller than it had when I was a child. In fact, it seemed almost impossibly large now. The hallway stretched on for miles toward the doors, and I couldn’t help but swallow hard as the man pushed them open.
At the far end of a long, dark table in a room with dark paneling sat my father. It was a fitting atmosphere for my mood and for the conversation. Dark words in a dark room. I bit back a wry smile. My father’s glasses were pushed up, hiding his eyes in their reflective gleam, and his hands were clasped on the table in front of him. I studied him from the doorway. Tense shoulders, flexing jaw – anger, if I ever saw it. I sighed and stepped into the room. My head was held high and my expression did not betray my thoughts.
“Hello, Dad,” I said, nodding to him. He gestured for me to sit at the chair closest to me – directly opposite his own. I did.
“Before we begin, I have one question for you,” he said. His voice was smooth and low, a danger rumble of anger building behind coated words.
“Yes?” I asked, though I already knew what he was going to say.
His snarl answered my question. “What the Hell is on your face?”
I did not flinch, though I wanted to, from his words. He glared. His glasses slipped from the top of his nose to show his small, dark eyes. “A bruise,” I said. I mustered all of my self-control to keep my expression calm. He banged his fist on the table and cursed, though it seemed more to himself than to me. I frowned, studying him closely.
“Daddy?” I asked. He twitched at the endearment. “Is everything all right?” He sighed and shook his head.
“No, but it doesn’t concern you,” he said. I clenched my fists and let a low growl build in my throat. “He, however, does.” My father gestured toward a man in the corner – whom I only now noticed. He was a tall man, taller than myself, but not by much, with broad shoulders and pale eyes. Close cropped hair and stance made him look military – something I recognized from Taryn’s days in service. He did not look directly at me when he stepped out of the shadows. Instead, his gaze fixated on a point behind one of my shoulders. He was a handsome man – Taryn would have called him a beast, and part of me agreed – but his somber expression was a bit off-putting.
“This is Tom,” said my father, nodding to the man. Tom stood perfectly still. “He’s going to be your bodyguard from now on. He is a Navy SEAL and his training should prove adequate for protecting you.” My jaw dropped and I banged my fists on the table. A body guard? Over a little attack at a bar? This was ridiculous.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. The chair banged backward as I stood. “I can handle myself just fine!”
“The bruise on your face says otherwise.” The carefully schooled neutral expression was back on his face. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to take a breath.
“So a guy at the bar got a little bit handsy, it happens. I took care of it.” Well, Taryn did, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“You are my daughter, and so long as you are my daughter you will be protected.”
“I am not just your daughter – I am a grown ass woman, and I will be respected.” I stalked around the table and slammed my open palms into the wood inches from my father’s plate. “Listen to me. I will not have a bodyguard. I will not be followed around by a man I do not know.” No matter how handsome he was, I added internally. “You can’t control me.”
My father set down his fork, stood up, and turned to me with fire in his eyes. “I am your father and you will respect me young lady. Tom is your bodyguard. That is final.”
“But-“
“This conversation is over.” He turned and walked out of the
room. Throughout all of this, Tom had barely blinked and I turned to him and glared. He raised an eyebrow, seemingly immune to my anger.
“Touch me, and you will pay for it,” I stated. He opened his mouth to respond but I cut him off. “I’m serious. If you touch me or get in my personal space without my express consent, I will take you to court on assault charges. I do not care if you are my bodyguard. I do not care what my father thinks I need. You do not touch me. You do not follow me into my house. And you do not invade my personal space.” He said nothing. “Are we clear?” A nod. I nodded back and stalked out of the room, muttering ‘asshole’ under my breath as I went. I guess I was taking all my anger out on Tom just because he was the only person that was there.
It took all of ten minutes to call Cindy and have her grab Taryn and come meet me at the pizzeria a few blocks down. An older Russian man named Aleksis ran the place and his wife, an Amazon of a woman named Sasha, made the dough fresh every morning. They both greeted me when I walked in.
