My phone sits on the night stand reminding me of a warning that is sure to come. I don’t know who will be the one to dispense it, but it’s coming just as sure as death and taxes.
It’s a few minutes past five. Tris sleeps next to me in this old bed—the only bed I have owned since moving to California four years ago, a bed that no woman has slept on before tonight.
Tris takes my breath away. If I’m being honest, she’s had my undivided attention since the very first moment I laid eyes on her. My life has been a series of missions and my new mission is to protect her freedom and happiness whatever the cost. To me, the mission is everything. That’s the one thing she can count on.
When she turns in her sleep, the covers peel off her, revealing her delicate collarbones and her perfect breasts. It all happened so fast. I can’t believe we fucked again last night. Her body feels so amazing, so warm and tightly caressing. Her heat thrills me even while it heals me.
There’s no going back. I had every intention of staying away, but instead I fell all the way into her. We’re together now. It’s done. For better or worse.
She senses I’m watching. Her eyes half-open as she stretches one arm over her head. My own eyes focus on the way her nipples stiffen almost immediately when she realizes they are exposed.
“Good morning, Princess,” I say, burying my face in the spot where her neck meets her shoulder.
“Asshole,” she says, turning to me and placing a hand on my cheek.
I kiss her small shoulder. I kiss her ear which makes her giggle.
“Stop,” she says.
“I’m just getting started.”
“Stop tickling me, bad boy.”
“You think this is bad? It could get much, much worse.”
She bites her lip while I tease her ear. “I dare you to show me.”
A challenge. Has she any idea at all who I am? Challenge me and I’ll spend the rest of my life rising to the occasion.
“You should not dare me, princess. Even being involved with me is dangerous. I’m not one of your college boys. My world is a dark place and my appetite in bed is no different. You are too pure, Tris. And I am too savage.”
“Involved? Did that word just come out of your mouth? You said you didn’t want that, Tanner. Has something changed?”
I’ve spent my life avoiding the feelings and words she wants to hear. “You know things have changed. Why do you want me to say it?”
Her lips come for mine. We get lost in a long, soft kiss that rouses my insatiable hunger for her. My heart stirs with anticipation which, of course, hardens my cock. A fact that does not go unnoticed.
“I want you to say it because I love watching your lips in action,” she says. “And you’re so hot when you’re vulnerable.”
“I’m never vulnerable.”
“Oh, yeah,” she says and violently clenches my hard cock.
“Listen, Tris, I owe you an apology for last night. Please take your hand off my cock. I’m serious.”
“You have a serious cock,” she teases. “It just gets more excited the more I try to hurt it.”
“You could never do anything but please it,” I tell her. “But I am trying to be real now.”
She releases her stranglehold and even that pleases me. “So be real, big guy. What’s on your mind?”
She’s so fucking beautiful. “I should have used a condom. My only defense is that it was not planned and you are fucking gorgeous.”
“You didn’t use a condom the first time,” she says with teasing eyes. “We’re fine. I’m on the pill and you’re a hermit, remember?”
Fuck, she never misses a beat. “Yeah,” I say with a grin. “I’ve been chilling a little ever since…” I stop. Why did I want to bring that up? Fucking moron. Just tell her you’re clean and move on.
Too late. She knows what I was going to say. She sits up a little and pets my hair. “I hope that one day you will feel comfortable enough to tell me your story.” She traces my face with her fingers ever so lightly, making my skin tingle. “I know your life has been hard. It’s written all over your lifeless face.”
“If my face is lifeless, how could you read it?”
“Easy,” Tris says. “Someone who doesn’t want to feel anything, usually has a reason. “
I take her face in my hands and place a kiss on her nose. “Everybody has a sad story to tell, Tris. And if they don’t yet, they will.”
“That’s depressing.”
“It’s reality.”
“No, it’s not,” she says. “It’s a small part of reality and you’re just making it everything. You know what else is reality? Kisses. Your cock in my hand. Puppy dogs and rainbows and all the good shit.”
I laugh. She’s too much.
She grabs my cock again, squeezing as hard as she can, burying her nails into the flesh. I love it. I kiss her roughly, parting her lips with my tongue so I can taste her. I want to quench the thirst I have for her, but the more I get, the more I need. My plan is to lick her from head to toe, leave bite marks all over her beautiful naked body like a savage, and then hold her in my arms until the world ends and sand covers all things, including our naked bodies.
“What is that?” she says, breaking the kiss.
I follow her gaze to the single tree branch I brought in last night after she fell asleep. I put the branch in a vase and decorated it with colorful Life Savers candy I found in a kitchen drawer.
I didn’t know what else to do for her. She deserves Christmas and I took that away from her. Fuck, it’s Christmas morning. Now.
“That’s my last-minute Christmas tree,” I say. “Do you like it?”
She scrunches up her face like I’m insane. “Do I like it?” she repeats. “Would a girl like a man to go out in the night and make something pathetic and sad for her in hopes to make her Christmas just a little bit more charming?”
“Yeah,” I say.
“Tanner, I love it. I’m just trying not to get emotional, you fool.”
Placing my hands on both sides of her ribcage, I can feel her heartbeat on my fingertips. It’s fast and strong like the girl herself. I move my hands upwards to the sides of her full tits. She sighs before she throws her arms around my neck, pulling me closer to her warm body.
I devour her lips again when my phone rings.
An expected call, no doubt.
“I need to get that,” I tell her as I retrieve the phone.
“Dominic here,” the voice on the other end says.
“What took you so long?”
“Kane has asked for your head. Not that you didn’t know that.”
There’s actual fucking sadness in his voice. Whether it’s because he feels sorry for me, or because he feels I let him down, I do not know. It’s true that what I did was a betrayal in the eyes of everyone in the business.
“Thanks for the heads up, man. I won’t forget that.”
“Anytime. Stay alert.”
I know that Dominic can’t afford to be openly on my side either. I don’t begrudge him that. The underworld is no playground. Bite the hand that feeds you and all bets are off.
“Who was that?” Tris says. She’s probably good at picking up my signals of distress. She has been studying me for years, trying to figure out how to stay one step ahead of me.
“We have to go,” I say, getting out of bed.
“What? Why?”
I sit back on the bed and take her bandaged hand in mine. “Because eventually they will find this place. No one knows about it, but my name is on the lease.”
“I have free will. They can’t force me to go,” she says, sounding less certain than she realizes. “You’d stop them, right? Tanner?”
“They wouldn’t ask nicely,” I tell her, not wanting to go into the grisly details of what my fate is likely to be. “We need to lay low for a while. Your father is furious right now. I humiliated him in front of his people. He’s going to need some time.”
“Tanner, my dad is a ba
stard and he’ll want revenge but not today. It’s Christmas. He won’t make this an ugly day for our family. It would ruin every future Christmas. He’ll wait before he does anything. I know him.”
She’s right and I’m impressed, but that doesn’t change anything.
“That may be true, but we still have to go.”
“Go where?”
That’s a good question. It has to be somewhere where Kane has no connections, somewhere where his long arm cannot reach us until I’m ready to fight back. “I’ll figure it all out,” I tell her and then I get to work.
I find my spare gun on a closet shelf in the hallway and load it. I find the gym bag which is filled with my emergency extraction supplies, including water bottles, protein bars, dry snacks and a medical kit.
I shove the gun into the bag along with an extra pack of bullets.
I stare across the hall at the bedroom door. Tris is still inside the room, probably getting dressed. This gives me a few moments to come up with a viable plan.
My gaze falls to a piece of paper on the coffee table. I pick it up absentmindedly, trying to figure out what the writing on it means. The L. org. unable to solve this. Money is no object.
That’s right. That’s me taking notes back in the summer when Carter Wade was trying to recruit me to protect his daughter, Ella, while a mob syndicate wanted both of them dead. I have a bullet hole in me to prove it.
I connect the dots fast. Carter Wade has stayed in touch, grateful and feeling indebted to me for having helped him out when he needed all the help he could get. He called a few nights ago and he was in a talking mood. He casually mentioned that his daughter’s away in a cabin up in Big Bear. My connection to Ella is one I kept under the rug in order to protect her from any association with the likes of me, but as it turns out, my decision might actually work in my favor.
This is my chance. I pick up the phone and dial Carter’s number. It’s about time he paid back that debt of his.
“Tanner,” he says as soon as he picks up. “I didn’t expect to hear from you on Christmas day.”
“Yeah, I don’t have time for all that. I need a favor.”
“Name it.”
“I need to get in touch with Jaxson and Ella.”
Carter Wade considers my words. I can almost hear how he licks his lips before he answers. “Should I be concerned?”
“They’re both fine, it’s me who’s in trouble and I need their help.”
I almost certainly expect him to refuse as he’s so fucking protective of Ella. But he doesn’t. “Ella would want to help,” he says. “She thinks highly of you. She’d never forgive me if I tried to prevent you from talking to her.”
That went easier than I thought. “I’m looking for their address in Big Bear”
“Yeah. No problem. Let me find the paper, but you have to promise to keep both of them out of whatever you’re running from.”
“I’ll keep them clear,” I assure him.
After a long pause, he gives me the address. I write it down on the same piece of paper from last summer and then head for the bedroom.
Tris is standing in her lilac evening dress with her hair pulled back in a ponytail. I forgot she doesn’t have any other clothes. I can’t take her to the mountains in that flimsy, long dress and high heels.
She gives me the most sincere smile I have ever seen on her face. “I actually looked for women’s clothes in your closet. I know it’s silly, but I’m so happy I didn’t find any.”
“We’ll buy some clothes on the way,” I say, as I go through my sweaters to find one that might keep her warm. I help her put it on, careful not to mess with her ponytail. Tris looks smaller now. Her neck is so slim. I love it just like I love everything else about her.
“On the way to where?” she asks.
“We’re going visit some associates of mine. They’re friends, really,” I say as I roll the sweater sleeves up to free her hands.
“You have friends?” she says with a chuckle. “Associate friends?”
“Yeah, up in Big Bear. The closest thing I have to friends.”
“I’m curious now,” Tris says. “What must people who are almost your friend be like?”
“They’re just people,” I say dismissively.
“What kind of people?”
“I did a job for her,” I say, surprised at my own honestly. I show her the small purple scar on my left shoulder. “I got this scar for my efforts.”
“Her?”
“Yeah, her name’s Ella.”
“I’ve wanted to ask about this since Canada,” she says, tracing the scar with her fingertips before I put a t-shirt on. “I should be mad at that Ella for putting you in danger but she’s been promoted to a friend. Wonder how that happened?”
“It’s not like that. Jaxson is her boyfriend. You might have heard of him. Jaxson Cole. Maybe they’re married by now. I heard he proposed.”
Her eyes sparkle. “Wait, Jaxson Cole? Like the model Jaxson Cole?”
“Yep,” I say, not sure I like the excitement in her eyes.
“OMG, he’s fucking hot.”
I actually fucking roll my eyes at her and slap her ass crisply.
“Hey,” she says, rubbing her butt. “That actually hurt.”
“As was the intention.”
She sighs. “There’s no need for you to be jealous, but it’s totally cute that you are. I like my men rough around the edges.”
“Since when?” I say, remembering some of the skinny hipsters I’ve seen her date in the past.
“Will you stop?” she says.
I’m not sure why but I want nothing more right now than to get her on her hands and knees and fuck her brains out from behind so she never dares tease me about another guy again.
“Let’s just get moving,” I say trying to end the conversation.
Tris takes my right hand into both of her hands. She pulls me down so she can give me a quick, wet kiss.
“Touchy, touchy,” she says.
Chapter 11
Tanner
You have to love this country. On Christmas morning we were able to walk into a gas station travel center and buy groceries, clothes and western-style boots for Tris. She pulled an ultra-cheap, tight-fitting white hoodie over her head that featured a dog chasing a pheasant and actually looked fashionable on her.
“I like it,” she said as she looked at her distorted reflection in a tin-sided Slurpee machine. “Trailer Park Chic. It’s cute.”
It is. Not sure how she can make anything into a good look.
I glance at her next to me now in the car. She has a face as fresh as a young girl, but her lips are as full and sensuous as any woman on Earth. Her tight $5 jeans and tan, pointed boots give her a rustic vibe that makes me want to make love to her in the next barn we come across. Every line of her body makes my mind into a hot JELL-O of need. She looks tired but content. No dress in Paris would make her any more beautiful than the armful of tacky gas-station clothes has made her.
I want to see her wearing everything and I want to see her undressing from everything she wears. Day after day I have been hypnotized by her various outfits navigating her hot curves.
We’ve arrived. I should have probably called Ella and Jaxson before showing up, but I didn’t want to use any technology that could be traced. You never know the reach of Jordan Kane’s power. The King of Shadows could be anywhere and everywhere.
“What are we waiting for?” Tris says, squeezing my hand as we stare at the cabin in front of us in which our unsuspecting hosts are enjoying their last few moments of privacy.
Her question is a fair one. I’m hesitating. That’s not a good sign. That is not me, not how I made my name. I’m stone cold. I do not hesitate. I do not second-guess myself. That’s a given in my chosen profession.
“I like being alone with you,” I say to cover my ass.
She tilts her head and stares at me curiously. “You’re the one who wanted to come here. I’d rather be
alone, too.”
I really need to get my shit together.
I place my hand on her thigh, rubbing it like it’s my good luck charm. “Nah, let’s go ruin their Christmas,” I say, kissing her on the lips.
We walk up the few stairs to the front door hand in hand. It’s cold and the snow falls softly on the ground, forming small heaps on the edges of the steps and covering the front porch with a glistening white blanket.
“What’s with us and snow? It’s the second time in a week,” Tris says. “Every time we see snow as we grow old, we’ll always remember the snow brought us together.”
Grow old. Together. I can’t go there… whatever. This is not about me. It’s about her. I squeeze her arm gently before I knock on the door.
We wait and listen. No sound whatsoever on the other side of the door.
“Maybe they’re not here,” Tris says.
“They’re here. The car’s in the garage.”
“Can you see through walls?”
“No. I can’t explain it. It’s a combination of senses. I just know.” I can’t explain it to myself either. Maybe it’s the slight tracks in the driveway that have been covered by today’s snow, but not completely. Maybe it’s the absence of gas in the air or the presence of a very slight smell of oil. Maybe it’s the time of day. Maybe it’s all these things. I don’t know, but I do.
It’s the sense of a cook or a gardener or a poker player. A knowledge that sinks into the bones after total immersion into a certain discipline that can’t be captured in words and shared.
“Okay, I totally believe you, but maybe don’t tell anyone else about your special abilities,” she says with a smile.
I bang on the door again, harder this time.
We hear some movement inside. “Who’s there?” Jaxson says from the other side of the door.
“Tanner Hayes.”
The door opens instantly. Jaxson stands in his boxer briefs. Not something I ever needed to see. Probably a bad time, but that was a given.
“What is it? Is it Carter? Is he okay?” Ella says, pushing past Jaxson. I can’t blame her for being concerned. Her father is a man whose enemies might appear on any day at any hour. His death will never be unexpected.
“As of this morning, he was fine,” I answer quickly to reassure her.
Bodyguard Dearest (Bodyguard #1) Page 7
