Tanner

by Kathi S. Barton

  After thanking her, he got up to sit on the edge of his desk, waiting for Giyanna to come back his way so that he could talk to her. When he reached out to touch her, it was as if that had been all she was waiting on and she burst into tears, clinging to him as she told him what Chloe had. “She had children that missed her. He killed her for no other reason than to prove a point to me, I guess. It was lost on me then, and even now, why he had to murder someone like he did. Was it to frighten me? I was already afraid of him. I don’t understand why he thought it was all right to kill anyone, but this woman had a family. She was a good person. People have been looking for her since she was killed.” He held her, listening to her disjointed conversation. When she started to calm a little, he picked her up in his arms and took her to the couch that was in his office. There he sat with her, just holding her as she cried again. He’d never been good around crying women. He knew that there were a few of them that thought that was the way to get him to do whatever it was they wanted. But he was more turned off about that than he was if they whined. And Tanner hated a whiner. But this was different. She wasn’t asking him for anything but support. Nor was she trying to get anything from him. “Chloe said that you were helpful in the search. Had you not then they would never have found her to help the family.” She laid her head on his shoulder but didn’t say anything. “I’m sorry that I was joking around with you. I had no way of knowing that you were that upset or why.” “I shouldn’t have snapped at you. I’m not used to people being...well, being kind to me, I guess. I’m new to this kind of feelings for someone.” He asked her who had been mean to her. “I only just realized that I became an attorney for all the wrong reasons.” “I’m sure that you’re just upset.” She told him she was, but that wasn’t it. “Then tell me why you think they were the wrong reasons.” “I wanted to see justice for that woman. And I thought if I was this great attorney that I could have my brother arrested and taken to jail, and I could come home again. I missed my brother, Tyrrell, the weather here, believe it or not, and the way people are here. They’re not as nice sometimes as they are where I was, but here was home to me. But I couldn’t return even after I got my law degree because I was afraid of Rogan and what he might do to me even then.” Tanner told her that he was someone to be afraid of. “Yes, well, a woman never got the proper burial, and her family didn’t get the closure that they needed because I was afraid of him. But they will now, damn it, even if I have to pay for it all by myself.” “I’m so very sorry.” She didn’t move but stayed on his lap with her head resting on his chest now. “Rogan wants to see you. He’s going to tell you that he’s sorry, or so he told me. He goes to court tomorrow morning. I told him that I’d not go to bat for him unless he told you how sorry he was. I don’t think it’ll be all that sincere, but he is going to say it to you.” “I don’t want him near me.” He nodded and adjusted her on his lap so that his erection could get a little relief. She sat up and looked at him. “You’re very hard, aren’t you?”

  “I am. And I’ve been in a constant state of arousal since I met you. You have no idea how hard I’ve been since I’ve met you.” She looked at his mouth, then at his eyes. “You’re very beautiful, Giyanna. And I’d like nothing more than to kiss you again. But I want you to realize that I want you very badly, and have since I touched you the first time.” “It’s inevitable, isn’t it?” He asked her what she meant. “That you and I come together. That we have a relationship that will be based on DNA rather than love.” “I do love you.” She started to move, and he held her. “No, wait, let me finish. I do love you. And perhaps, yes, it’s DNA that makes me love you after such a short time. I don’t really care how it worked out. You’re my other half, the woman that was to make me a whole person, and you did. More than that, you gave me something that I didn’t realize I was missing, and that is calmness. Loving you is nothing that I ever expected to happen. Not the way that I do. I knew that you were coming. With the rest of my family mated and happy, I knew that it was only a matter of time before I was as well. However, I never thought that I could be like my brothers in their relationships. I thought, and this was before I met you, that I wasn’t going to have time to have you changing me. I liked me the way I am. But you came into my life, and it’s like I’ve been waiting my entire life for you to be there with me. My home is that, a home now, when before it was just a house, a place where I slept and ate leftovers from someone’s house that I ate at the night before. My life seemed to be going along like it should. But it was far from perfect, as it is now with you here. I’m more relaxed, happy with the turn of events, and I couldn’t love you any more than I do right now. I’d die for you.” “Why?” Tanner asked her what she meant. “What is it about me that you love? I’m not much like the women you more than likely dated before I came along.” “You’re very different than they were. When I dated, which really wasn’t all that much, I’d go out with a friend of a friend. A sister to one of the women that my brothers were trying to woo. It wasn’t that I didn’t have fun, I really did, but it wasn’t all that exciting to me.” She asked him if he thought she was exciting. “You are. And funny. You have this calmness about you that brings me in too. Makes me feel relaxed, and I can think better. And sometimes you make me feel more like a man than I have before.” “I don’t know how to be the woman that you might need. I’m just me.” He asked her again what she meant by that. “You know, pretty and bright. I have opinions and ideas, and I’m not afraid to voice them.” “You think that I’d not allow you to have an opinion?” She shook her head. “Then we can mark that off the list. All right. Ideas. Yes, you should have them. And act upon them if you want to see them work. The fact that you had no trouble going to see Chloe and helping her makes me believe that you have a sense of justice. That you wanted to help, and you did so. I’m happy for you in that. Happy for all the people involved in you coming forward and finding out who this woman was.” “She could have been buried a long time ago. With her family knowing what had happened.” He nodded but waited for her to say more. “I should have done this much sooner, before leaving. Maybe gone to another police station or called them with a tip. Of course, I had no idea what her name was, nor where he might have buried her.”

  “You could have, certainly. What do you think would have happened back then?” Giyanna asked him what he meant. “You know that the force was corrupt and that they had their own set of rules. Do you think they would have brought your brother in? Put him in jail? Or would they have gone after you? A young pretty woman that tells on her own family? I shudder to think what might have happened to you had you done either of those things. And, as you said, you had no idea where she might have been, nor her name. They would have marked you as a crackhead and jailed you for fun or sent you back home to Rogan.” “They would have brought me in, like you said, and jailed me. Perhaps sent me home with him too. I would have been unable to get away when I did.” He nodded. “My brother would have come to get me, and no matter what I had told them that Rogan had done, they still would have given me over to him, and I would have been killed by him too. And probably even buried next to the young woman, where my body would never be found.” “Yes, he would have.” He held her tighter and she laid on his chest again. “I never would have met you. I would have been a lonely man for the rest of my life, wondering what had happened to my other half. And your poor brother, he would have been killed as well. There wasn’t going to be any way that anyone would be able to think it was anyone but Rogan that had done it.” She got up then and stood in front of him. He wasn’t sure what she was thinking, but the smile that she had on her face brought out his own. Tanner would have given everything that he had to know that he’d been responsible for such a look, but for now, he’d take whatever he could get from her. “I want to go shopping.” He said all right. “I need some clothing and some other shoes. I know that I can make them. I can, right?” “I don’t know how that will work for you.” She closed her eyes and he thought even her c
oncentration was beautiful. When she was suddenly in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, he laughed. “I guess it does work for you. All right then, what are we shopping for? The reason I ask is, we have to find the perfect store.” “I want to go and see Second Time Around. I heard that Noelle and Marty have the nicest things in there.” He took her hand when it was offered. “Also, your grandda was telling me about the buildings that are being renovated. I’d like to see those as well. Show me our town, Tanner. I want to see it all.” She had said our town, but he didn’t get his hopes up yet. They had a lot of things to work out, the two of them. And he wanted to get a start on those things right away. But not today. Today was for fun. He was going to show her the entire town, take her to lunch, then he was going to take her shopping anywhere she wanted to go. Tanner was nearly skipping when they left the house. Giyanna was telling him about her home, the one that had been left to her in Ireland. And that she wanted to keep it so that she could go and visit sometimes. It was a place that was near to her heart simply because it was the first one that she’d ever owned. He agreed with her, telling her that at one time, he thought his family had owned a few houses there. His grandparents liked to travel, but they hated hotels.