by Hope Ford
His nostrils flare as he moves closer to me. He’s across the room and then right in front of me in an instant. “You can keep trying to convince yourself that we mean nothing to each other. Whatever you need to do to make yourself feel better. But the fact remains, I can’t keep you safe here. Obviously there’s a leak of information or a tracker of some sort. I’m taking you home with me where I know my men will keep you safe.”
“And then what? What happens then?”
“I’ll take care of hitman number four, and this will be over. You can come back here to the life you want.”
I take a deep breath. It would be so easy to just forget the past and beg him to love me, but I can’t do it. He’s hurt me before, and he’ll do it again. “Fine,” I tell him. “Where am I going to stay? My parents moved to Vegas after I left and...”
“You’ll stay with me.” He says it in a way to where I understand he doesn’t want me to argue with him.
“So you can protect me?” I ask. I don’t know what I’m hinting at. Maybe for him to tell me he wants something with me, but when he shrugs his shoulders and nods his head, I leave it alone.
He wants to question me, I can see it in his eyes, but he doesn’t. “Pack some bags.”
I walk a few feet away, and he stops me with his hands on my waist. “Let me go first.” He walks through the apartment, checking everything before he walks back out of my bedroom. “It’s clear.”
I nod and walk in. He stands at the door, his arms stretched over his head as he holds on to the door frame. I force myself to look away and put my head in the closet to find my suitcase. “How long should I pack for?”
I come back out of the closet because I swear it sounded like he said forever. “How long?”
He clears his throat. “I don’t know. A few weeks to be on the safe side. You want me to pack your camera equipment?”
No doubt he noticed the bedroom that I turned into my studio. There’s a lot of equipment and processing photos. “Yeah, that’d be great.”
Relieved to have a few minutes alone, I keep my mind busy and mentally check off everything I’m going to need and do. I need to call the school, and I’m not even sure what to tell them about what’s going on. I guess I’ll have to ask Colt about it. There’s a long list of things I need to do, but I just keep packing clothes and bathroom items. When I have everything I think I’m going to need, I walk into the spare bedroom, where Colt is sitting on a chair, looking through a photo album.
I step into the room and resist the urge to pull the photo album from his hands. “I’m ready.”
He’s staring at a page, tracing his finger along the picture. I take a step closer with no doubt what I’m going to find. This is an album I created a long time ago and added pictures to through the years. The whole album is Colt and me. The pictures tell the truth of how I felt about him all these years. There was no hiding it. In some of them, I even made myself believe that the way he was looking at me told the same story.
I look down at the page he has opened. It’s the one at my high school graduation, and I swear it’s probably one of my favorites. I have my cap and gown on, and Colt has his arms around me. I had looked up at him, probably to tell him something—I don’t even remember what it was—and my mom took the picture as we were staring at each other, smiling. I’ve spent many nights staring at that picture. It’s obvious that I love him in this picture. There’s no doubt, my whole face is lit up with it. But the way Colt’s looking at me, it always gives me goosebumps. He’s looking at me in awe, as if I’m the most important person to him.
He looks up at me. “This was your high school graduation.”
I nod, itching to take the album from him. Him looking at this album gives him so much inside information to what I’ve felt for him through the years. I take the album and set it on the side of the desk. “So did you get my camera?”
“Yeah,” he says, as if he’s deep in thought. “I got your camera, lenses, battery packs. I also loaded up a bunch of photographs. I noticed there’s a lot of pictures taken at the park and around the city. I’m wondering if you took pictures of something and that could be what they’re after. Maybe they thought you saw something.”
I lift my shoulders as if I’m exhausted by the whole thing. I’m just ready for this to be over with. “I guess that’s possible, but nothing that I took pictures of triggered me in any way.”
He puts more photos in a bag. “I’m going to take these with us. Maybe we can go through them on the way home.”
I nod and turn away before he sees my reaction. Home. He says it with confidence. I don’t really have a home. Not anymore. I used to think home was wherever Colt was, but I gave up that dream a long time ago. I nod and walk out the door, trusting that he’s packed all I need and he’ll follow behind me.
We make trips to the car, and the whole time, we’re both on edge. I’m not ready for another hitman to show up. I’m tired of being in danger, worrying about me, worrying about Colt. I just need this over so I can go back to my dull, uneventful life.
8
Colt
“Thank you for the ride, Jax,” Kinsley tells him as he picks her up in a big bear hug.
He’s holding her in the air and looking at me over her shoulder. He’s always been friends with my sister May, so in turn, he’s nice to Kinsley. But I know he’s going overboard, and I know he’s doing it to make me jealous. He’s like a brother to me, we served in the military way before we started with Ghost, but there’s only so much shit I’m going to take from him. Especially where Kinsley is concerned.
“All right, that’s enough. Let’s go.”
Jax laughs but sets Kinsley back on her feet. She looks at me curiously, and I don’t even try to hide the jealousy on my face. She walks past me up the steps to the plane.
“I thought you were coming home alone?” Jax asks with a smirk.
“Yeah, well, I couldn’t very well leave her in some shit, and everywhere we turned there seemed to be a big pile of it.”
He drops the smirk and looks at me intently. “Is that the only reason?”
“That’s the only reason I’m ready to talk about right now.” I pat him on the shoulder. “Thanks for the ride.”
We get settled, and it isn’t long before we take off and head east.
“Are you sure you don’t know these people?” I ask Kinsley.
We’ve been in the air for almost six hours. Kinsley slept for the better part of it, and when she woke up I had gone through all the stacks of pictures. I was able to pull out five different pictures that she’d taken that could be questionable.
Two of them were of couples where the men seemed to be looking around as if waiting on someone. The longer I’ve looked at them, the more I’ve wondered if maybe she’d caught these people cheating on their spouses or something. I believe there’ve been hits for less than a cheating man exposed. I put those two to the side and look at the remaining three. The rest are images of men that seem to be in the middle of some kind of deep conversation, one of them even trading what looks like money. It could be a simple drug deal, but from the picture, there’s no way to tell.
“I have no idea who they are. I take my classes on field trips and one of the assignments it to capture people in candid photos.” She points to the five pictures. “Do you think these could be why someone wants me dead?”
Rage soars through my veins. It already pisses me off that we’re here at this point where I’m trying to find out why someone would want Kinsley dead. But hearing her be so nonchalant about it pisses me off even more. “It’s not going to happen, Kins,” I tell her through gritted teeth.
“I know it’s not, Colt. But what if this never ends? You’ve saved me three times in the last two days. You can’t guard me forever, and I won’t be able to deal if something happens to you.”
My muscles flex where she’s touching me. I cover her hand with mine. “I know what I’m doing, and it’s not going to be forever. I’m g
oing to make sure you’re safe and then I’m going to end this.”
She turns her hand and threads our fingers together. Jax is in the front, steering the plane, acting like he’s not being nosy and listening to everything we say, but I know it’s a damn lie. But she surprises me with what comes out of her mouth next. “I hate being weak. If you have time, can you teach me to protect myself?”
I nod because the way she’s looking at me I know I can’t tell her no. And I know it’s a good idea. If I hadn’t shown up when I did, I hate to think what would’ve happened to her.
When we land in Knoxville, I help her from the plane and into my truck. Jax helps me load all her bags and equipment, and I leave the airfield for my house. She walks in behind me, and I can tell she doesn’t know what to expect and there’s definitely surprise on her face when she walks in to my living room. I look around at the big cherry wood furniture, the huge-ass sectional couch, and the television on the wall, trying to see it through her eyes. But she’s not looking at any of that. She’s looking at the mantle, and before I can stop her, she walks over to it and points to a picture. “That’s me.”
I nod. “Yeah.” I stroke the scruff of my beard. “I’ll just go ahead and warn you, you’ll find more of you hanging in the hallway and on the nightstand by the bed.”
She startles, and I can see the question on her face. “Where? Where’s your room?”
I point down the hallway. “First door on the left.”
She walks away, and I continue bringing in bags. I could’ve had someone come and take the pictures down, but I wanted her to see them. I need her to know that even though I screwed up three years ago, I haven’t forgotten her or ever stopped wanting her.
Once everything is in, I secure the house, set the alarm, and go in search of her. She’s sitting on the edge of my bed, and I lean against the door frame, just watching her. How many times have I imagined this, her here with me, in my bed? Too many times to count.
She looks up at me with tears in her eyes. “Why?” She holds the frame up, but I don’t need to look at it. It’s a picture I took of her with my phone the day I left for my first mission. She was asleep in my bed and even in her sleep, she looked happy and satisfied.
“Because I love you, Kinsley. I’ve never stopped loving you.”
Her cheeks turns red, and confusion is etched on her face. “But you broke up with me... you never wanted to see me again.”
“I told you the truth about that morning. I wanted to keep you safe. I wanted to protect you from always waiting on me, worrying about me. My job... shit, Kinsley, my job is dangerous, and I was afraid—I’m still afraid that it will bring danger to you.”
She sets the frame back on the nightstand and looks at me. “You broke my heart, Colt Stone.”
I feel the strength behind her words. I know what I did to her, and I’ve hated myself since. “I know. I’m sorry for what I put you through.”
She searches my face, and I can’t look away. I hope she finds what she’s looking for. Respect, trust, love. It’s everything I feel for her, and I want her to feel that right now.
She stands up and walks toward me. Her hands go to my chest and slide up and around my neck. “Have sex with me, Colt.”
9
Colt
I shake my head. She still doesn’t get it. It’s never been just sex with us. “I’ll make love to you, Kins.”
I pick her up, and her legs go around my waist. Because I can’t wait a minute longer, I press my lips to hers and kiss her like it’s the last breath I’ll be taking.
She moans, and I angle my head, deepening the kiss. My body trembles from having her in my arms again, and I vow to myself I’m not going to fuck this up again.
I carry her next to the bed she just left and let her feet fall to the soft carpet before I let her go.
I want her naked. I want to see her and taste every inch of her, but she has her own plans. She reaches for my pants and hurriedly undresses me. I step out of them and kick them to the side just as she reaches in my underwear and wraps her fist around my already hard cock. My head falls back, and I groan loudly.
My underwear falls to my ankles, and I kick them off. She strokes my manhood from root to tip. “I need you, Colt. I need to feel you inside me.”
I push her backwards to the bed as I pull my shirt over my head. “You have too many clothes on, Kins,” I tell her as I make quick work of pulling off her shirt and pants. I lean over, kissing her exposed skin and pushing her bra up until her breasts are free. I take her in my mouth, suckling her as I stick my hand down the front of her panties. She’s wet, already soaked for me, and I slide my fingers through her heat.
Her hands are everywhere, across my chest, my shoulders, and down my back. If I rub her clit, her nails dig into my skin, and I groan. She peels off her underwear, kicks them to the floor, and wraps her hands around my hips, bringing me over her.
She arches her back, and I move to her other breast, giving it the same attention as the first one.
She plants her feet on the bed and lifts her hips to meet mine. She reaches between us and holds me to her so I slide through her slit. I push my hips back and forth, and each time I touch her clit, she moans and whimpers.
“I need you. Fuck me, Colt.”
I put my hand at her waist and hold her hips to the bed. I keep thrusting my hips, but I don’t touch her where she needs me. I won’t, not until she understands.
“Love, Kinsley. I’m going to make love to you. That’s what there is between us. Nothing less.”
She looks back at me, and I see the fear in her eyes before she looks away. I fucked up, over and over, and I did this to her. “Look at me, Kinsley.”
She’s staring at me with a glazed-over look, and I lean down to kiss her. With my movement, my cock hits her clit, and she raises her hips to mine. “Yes,” she whimpers.
“I need to be inside you so bad, baby. But I can’t, not yet, not without telling you first. I love you. I always have. I always will.”
Her hands go down my back, and she wraps her legs around me. “Yes. Make love to me, Colt. Please.”
And I don’t have a choice. I’m leaking cum like a teenage boy instead of a disciplined ex-soldier. I rut into her over and over until she’s screaming her release and her pussy pulsates around me. I should pull out. We should have talked about protection, but I don’t even care. I want her pregnant. I want to fill her with all my babies and tie her to me forever.
I stop once I’ve filled her womb and rest on my elbows over top of her. We’re both breathing hard, and my face is cradled between her breasts. I’m pretty sure I’ve died and gone to heaven because nothing could be better than this right here. Or so I think.
“Colt, look at me.”
I lift my head, and she’s staring down at me, biting her lip. “Did you mean it?”
I run my thumb across her lip to stop her from hurting herself. “I meant every word. I love you, Kinsley Adams.”
A smile takes over her face, and her eyes light up. “I love you too, Colt Stone.”
10
Colt
I don’t want to wake her. She’s sleeping so peacefully, but there’s no way I’m leaving her here alone.
“Kinsley.” I say her name softly.
She doesn’t move, and I smile as I lean across the bed and kiss her lips. “Kinsley, sweetie.”
She startles, and her eyes pop open. “What? What is it?” she asks, looking around the room.
No doubt she’s having flashbacks of the last time I woke her up and had to shove her under the bed. “We need to go in to the office.”
We talked about this last night, and I told her I was going to have to go in and meet with the guys so we could get a plan together. I wanted to introduce her to everyone and make sure she was comfortable before I head back west.
“I don’t like it,” she says for the tenth time since she got out of bed. I cleaned up the pizza box in the kitchen, and unfortunate
ly the only thing I have to feed her for breakfast is toast and coffee.
“I’ll get you something else on the way.”
She rolls her eyes. “I’m not talking about the food, and you know I’m not. I’m talking about you going back to California. I’m talking about you leaving me here. I don’t like it.”
“I need you to trust me to do this.”
“I do trust you, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
She follows me to the car, and I drive downtown. I pull up to the nondescript building with the accounting sign out front. She looks up and down the road. “Accounting?”
“What? I don’t look like an accountant?”
“Well, with that beard, those muscles and tattoos... no, you don’t look like any accountant I’ve ever seen.”
I grab her hand and am so thankful she’s smiling. The plan for today is to meet with the guys, take her to the gym and teach her some self-defense moves, go home, and then tomorrow I head back to California. The guys will protect her while I’m gone. I know they will.
When we walk in, Nash, Knox, Jax, and Bear are already in the conference room. I make the introductions, and even though I trust the guys, I keep her by my side. Especially when Bear comes over to hug her. He’s called Bear because he literally is as big as one. The man is massive, and no matter where we go, the women seem to be really into him, even though he never notices it.
We sit down, and I look around. “Where’s Riggs?”
Knox jumps in. “He’s in his office. He’s checking on something, and he said he’ll be in a minute. I might have to duck out. I got a call from someone, and I need to go check on it.”
