by A. Gorman
I bristled as his words, but I had already learned not to let him see me upset. “Duke, what is this place? I mean, it looks as though nobody’s set foot in it in decades.”
He walked toward me and got within inches of my face. Looking down at me with those eyes, he said, “It’s a safe house. Bureau keeps them all over the country. They literally choose one at random and this was your lucky draw, Blondie.”
Now he was pissing me off. “I have a name. It’s Rayanne Mari Lynch. You could at least try using it. You can even call me Ray, if that’s easier for you.”
“What the hell kind of name is Rayanne anyway?” he asked.
“Dad’s name is Ray, mom’s name is Annebelle.”
His eyes still locked on mine, I saw a small amount of amusement dancing in them. Scrubbing a hand over his beard, he smirked at me. “Charming.”
Stomping my foot on the cracked yellow and white linoleum of the kitchen floor, I huffed and turned around, storming off to my room.
Chapter 9
Duke
Holy fuck, this prima-donna was already on my nerves. “Accommodations” – who was she kidding? She’s got a hit out on her damn life and she’s worried about some dust? It was gonna be a long 10 days.
With a grunt of annoyance, I set my bag on the floor of my room and pulled the cover sheet back. Some psychedelic-looking bedspread all yellow and red greeted me. I threw it to the floor and set my bag on the bed. I rifled through it until I found my toothbrush and paste. Walking down the small hallway until I reached the house’s one and only bathroom, I cursed when I saw a light illuminating the cracks around the closed door. Of course it was locked.
As I was about to turn around to go back into my room, Rayanne came out wearing nothing but an aqua-colored night shirt that definitely did not leave much to the imagination. Because I’m a dude, my eyes went straight to her chest, where her hard nipples were on display, poking through the shirt.
Her arm clamped over her chest, and I brought my gaze up to hers and smiled. “It is a bit chilly in here. I’ll go find the thermostat.” But I didn’t move. I just let her narrow her light brown eyes at me.
“Excuse me?”
I watched with amusement as she stormed off to her room and slammed the door. The doorknob fell off with a clank to the wood floor and rolled in circles. Then I heard her scream in frustration, and I lost it. I was laughing so hard at her irritation, even though I knew I shouldn’t be. She was so damn uptight.
Shaking my head, I wandered through the small house until I finally found the thermostat. It was one of those old-fashioned dial types, and I had to put my face right up to it to read the numbers. Good God, it was 62 degrees in here. Turning the dial, I cranked it past 70 and heard a loud boom from somewhere in the back of the house. I immediately smelled gas. “Fuck.”
The house, which was probably more like a cabin, was one story. No upstairs, no basement. So where would a freakin’ furnace be in this house? Garage? Negative, there was no garage.
There was no way I’d sleep thinking we were gonna die of carbon monoxide poisoning, or get blown up in this old piece of shit house, so I went in search of the furnace. I finally found it off the kitchen when I heard Rayanne call out. “Duke? Did you hear that noise?”
Rolling my eyes, I barked out, “Yes, I’m on it. Go back to bed.”
I heard her mumble a curse but couldn’t make it out, nor did I care. The damn furnace had to be 30 years old. Plumes of dust were still billowing up from it. I got on the floor and looked into the bottom. I used my hand to clear away dust and cobwebs. Dammit, the pilot light was out. No wonder the thing was banging and clanging. I pushed up off the floor and decided I’d search the kitchen drawers for some matches.
A worn and faded box of long matches caught my attention on top of the furnace and I smiled. At least whoever had stayed here last had had a small bit of common sense. Grabbing the box, I struck one against the side and watched as an orange flame danced to life before my eyes. Its heat felt good against my face and hand and I realized how truly cold it was in here. I’d been in colder situations than this, though. Most people don’t understand how fucking cold the Afghanistan desert can get at night. Trying to stay awake while on patrol was hard, but falling asleep wasn’t an option and the freezing cold sort of sobered you up.
I lay on my belly and lit the pilot light, right as a voice startled me.
“What are you doing, Cowboy?”
I slithered away from the flame, blew the match out, and stood up. I saw Rayanne standing there with her arms folded across her chest.
“I thought I told you to go back to bed.” Then my eyes went to her chest again. Dammit.
She looked slightly annoyed but held my gaze with her infuriatingly pretty eyes. It was then I noticed they had little yellow and green flecks in them.
“You did, but you’re not my father, so what’s going on in here?”
I held up the still smoldering match. “Lighting the pilot. Hopefully it’ll warm up in here.”
“Well I can’t sleep when it’s this cold.”
A million perverted thoughts and comments went racing through my brain but I clamped my teeth shut to avoid them expelling from my mouth. So instead, I did something even stupider. I moved closer to her and put my hand, which was warm from the flame, on her arm. She was freezing.
“Wow, you are cold.”
Her eyes darted down at my hand around her bicep, then up to mine, widening in surprise.
For the first time in a long time, I was rendered speechless. I swallowed hard and pulled my hand away. “I’m gonna go try to find some more blankets until it warms up in here,” I mumbled.
I left her standing in the small, old kitchen. Making my way to the narrow hallway, I found its one and only closet, so I opened it in search of more blankets. I sighed in relief when I found plenty of them folded neatly on the shelves. I pulled out four of them.
Turning around to head back to her, I almost yelled when I saw her standing right behind me. She had startled me so badly, I instantly became angry. I don’t know why being scared makes me angry, but it just does, and I’m still learning to control it. Impulse control, however, I hadn’t mastered. I shoved two of the blankets in her arms and said, “Here, take these and pile them on your bed until it warms up in here.”
She looked like she wanted to say something but I didn’t let her. I stormed into my room and slammed the door with a huff. I then realized I’d left my toothbrush and paste in the kitchen but I didn’t care. I wasn’t going back out there.
* * *
I’d slept like absolute shit in that tiny bed. Plus it never really warmed up. I’m a warm-blooded guy, but unless I have a naked body next to me in a house this cold, I really couldn’t create my own heat.
Checking my watch, I could see it was 6 a.m. I scrubbed a hand over my face and flipped the covers back. I needed to check on the vic.
Yawning, I lightly knocked on her door. I didn’t get a response, so I knocked louder. Still no response. Seeing as the doorknob was still missing and lying on the floor in front of the door, I crouched down in nothing but my sweatpants and peered through the empty hole. Rayanne was lying in bed, her back to the door, all the blankets piled on top of her. Her blonde hair was over her face and I watched intently for movement to make sure she was still breathing. I stared at her a little too long, I realized, and turned to go back to my room. I wanted to grab a shower before she woke up and hogged the fucking bathroom.
The shower was hot and it felt good. I soaped up my body and was annoyed at the damn hard-on that wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t believe I was hard just by watching her sleep. I kept fighting with myself, saying I didn’t find her hot. She’s just the vic and I’m her protector for the next ten… no, nine days. Keep it professional, I told myself. Did my dick listen? No, of course not. It stayed hard, imagining her in the shower with me, soaping me up, her small, pale hands with those pretty fingernails running up and down my body
. From the tops of my shoulders, down my biceps, wrists, to my hands, and then my abs. Then she’d bend down to soap up my hard thighs, then calves, then feet. She’d work her way back up until her hand wrapped around my hard length and then she’d start soaping that up, too. Up and down until it was really, really… clean.
Clean?
A knock on the door dragged me from my lusty thoughts and I rinsed off quickly and shut the water off. Without drying off completely, I wrapped the small towel around my waist and slid the shower curtain back, opening the bathroom door with as much thrust as I could.
Rayanne’s eyes were big, her mouth in a small “O” that I wanted to fill up with something. My hands instinctively went down to my crotch, protecting my not-so-secret secret.
“What?” I asked.
“Uh…” she started.
I huffed and raked my fingers through my wet black hair. “What do you want, Blondie?”
“I… I just needed to use the bathroom,” she stammered.
I looked down at her hand to see some sort of feminine product in it. She quickly hid it behind her back but I had seen it. I suppressed a gag and looked into her eyes. “Give me two minutes.” And then I closed the door.
Scrubbing my teeth quickly and slapping on some aftershave, I hung the towel up over the bar and slid my athletic shorts up. I didn’t bother collecting my toothbrush and paste, I left them on the outdated countertop and opened the door. Steam billowed out and I made my way past Rayanne and into my room, closing the door behind me.
Feminine products… no wonder she’d been so bitchy. That explains it. She’d barely said two words to me on that tortuous twelve-hour drive from Florida to here. Thank God for the radio because I was going insane. I hated road trips as it was, but with silence, it was torture.
Don’t get me wrong, I hated it when chicks babbled on and on. I had a girlfriend once who apparently couldn’t handle the silence and would just jabber on and on about stupid shit like her job and her family. I seriously wanted to punch something every time she spoke. It didn’t help she had the most annoying high-pitched voice ever.
Yeah, that was annoying, too. But complete silence, and having the vic staring out the window the whole time was almost just as bad. For fuck’s sake, just say something.
Back in my room, I sat on the bed, my head down, my hands cradling my face. I still had the thick hard-on irritating me under my shorts but I ignored it. With a huff I got up and put some clothes on. Plucking my phone from the table beside my bed, I checked it to see I had no missed calls or texts. I hadn’t expected much, but if they’d at least checked in on me, that would have been nice. It was as if they didn’t give a shit at all.
And they probably didn’t.
Chapter 10
Rayanne
I took care of business in the bathroom, including a shower, and went into my room to get dressed. I had only brought a small case with me with a few outfits and bare essentials as far as toiletries and makeup go. Unfortunately, I did not bring enough… feminine products.
After getting dressed, I wandered out into the small house and found Duke cooking in the kitchen. It smelled good and I stood in the doorway watching him. His jeans fit his butt perfectly and that light gray T-shirt he wore hugged every muscle in his back – which was huge. His arms were already straining the sleeves of the shirt but his back was rippling as he moved. It tapered down into a trim waist. He had a belt holding his pants in place, and I grinned.
Without turning around, he grunted, “If you want coffee, it’s in the pot.” He used his spatula to point to the right.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you heard me come in.”
He shook his head. “I didn’t. I smelled you.”
Oh, crap.
“Uh, well, I just showered, so, I hope it was a good smell,” I replied, trying to lighten the mood.
He was always so damn grumpy. I decided while I had been in the shower that I was going to make it my mission to break through his hard shell. I don’t know why he was so hardened and grouchy, but the more time I spent with him, the more I really wanted to know why he was that way. I also noticed he walked with a limp. It was slight, but I could see it, and I was curious about that, too. I wonder if he got shot. He is in the FBI, after all. I think.
Pouring myself some coffee into an old ceramic mug I’d found in the cupboard, I planted myself in one of the wooden chairs of the outdated dining room table set.
“So what are you cooking?” I asked.
“Bacon and eggs. Not the most exciting breakfast, but they only stocked the fridge with the bare essentials, and honestly, I was surprised to see bacon in there.”
“I see, well that sounds good. I’m starved.”
He nodded and used the spatula to move the food onto a plate. I got up to grab it but he walked toward me and set it before me. Surprised by the nice gesture, I said, “Thanks, Duke.”
“No problem,” he replied.
Sensing he was in a better mood than he had been in the bathroom earlier, I decided to waste no time asking him what I needed to ask. After swallowing a bite of eggs, I said as he sat in front of me and shoved a fork into his eggs, “I am going to need to find a store of some kind. I need a couple things.”
He shoved the eggs in his mouth and looked at me with those dark blue eyes. They were framed by long, black eyelashes and I almost choked at the look he gave me. It was a look I’ve never seen before, and I couldn’t quite figure it out.
“What?” I asked.
He swallowed his food and I watched his sexy Adam’s apple bob up and down.
Sexy Adam’s apple? What the hell is my problem?
“What could you possibly need at the store?” he asked, picking up a piece of bacon.
“Tampons,” I said bluntly.
His bacon was paused at his mouth, then he dropped it on his plate.
I gained way too much satisfaction watching the red creep up into his cheeks once it climbed above his beard. That sexy, sexy beast of a beard.
Wait, what? Damn hormones!
He picked his bacon up, cleared his throat, and while concentrating on the, apparently, very interesting bacon in his hand, he murmured, “What, didn’t you bring any?”
Hiding my smile of satisfaction behind the coffee cup at my lips, I said, “I did not bring enough.”
He nodded, shoving the entire piece of bacon into his mouth, then followed it up with two more pieces. God, he was such a guy.
So I continued, pointing at the fridge. “I find it hard to believe they supplied us with enough food and supplies for 10 days anyway, surely we’d have to go to the store eventually.”
His eyes lifted to mine. Those infuriating blues reminded me of the ocean in winter when it was cold, but the waters were still dark blue, as if they were waiting for the warmth again to lighten it up. The same storms that stirred the ocean when it was warm was what I saw brewing in Duke’s eyes. Nodding slowly, he said, “I don’t think what’s in there will last nine more days.”
Grinning in triumph, I said, “Great, what time do we leave to go into town?”
* * *
The town of Pembroke was small. So small, we had to go to the next town over just to find a Walmart. Satisfied that it would have what I needed, I told Duke he could wait out in the car, since he was clearly uncomfortable. He didn’t care for that too much and got red in the face again.
“I can’t protect you from the car. Not only that, Blondie, waiting in the car makes me a pussy.”
After pulling me from the car, he’d grabbed my hand and practically dragged me into the big store.
I went to pull away from his hand once we got inside, but he kept it held firm. He not only held it, he had his fingers interlaced with mine, like couples do. I looked down at it, then up into his eyes. “What are you doing?”
“We’re just a normal couple, strolling through fucking Walmart. Just be quiet and roll with it. This is the best way I can protect you.”
We
had just gotten inside the store and had stopped to grab a shopping basket. I rolled my eyes at him. “As if anyone will find us here.”
He looked stormy again. Grabbing my face between his fingers, he said, “Do not ever underestimate anyone who wants to kill you. I did my best to make sure nobody followed us but if someone is determined enough, or is getting paid enough, they can track down anyone they want. Do not question my motives or why I do what I do.”
He let go of my face and looked away, his eyes scanning the store.
I swallowed hard and nodded, getting strangely aroused by what he had just done and said. This guy was a complete jerk. An alpha male who seemed to want to be in control and thought he could boss me around. So why was I so suddenly turned on? Infuriated with myself, I turned my face away from his and, with his hand still interlaced with mine, led him to the area of the store I knew I’d find what I was looking for.
I’d do anything to buy some extra time to not have to go back to that house so soon. There was nothing to do but watch TV and read, and being that there was no cable, books had become my best friend. Which reminded me, I had to pick up some more paperbacks.
Duke pulling his hand away from mine bolted me out of my thoughts. I looked up at him in question.
“Imma go get some soap and shit,” he said, pointing to the next aisle over. “Scream if you see anything strange.”
Scream?
“Uhh, okay,” I said.
I found what I’d been looking for and plucked the box from the shelf. I went in search of my Knight in Shining Anger.
“What. The. Actual. Fuck?” I heard him say.
My eyes got big. “What?”
He pointed. “What is anal bleach and why would you need it? I need some damn bleach for my eyes now. Never gonna be able to unsee that graphic on the box.”
I giggled and asked, “Do you really wanna know?”
“No.” Grasping my free hand, he led me to the shampoo aisle, found what he needed, and headed toward the grocery section.
