by Dale Mayer
Immediately Shane raced toward them. “Are you two all right?”
“The three of us are fine,” Shelly said, looking up at him. “Is it over?”
He nodded. “I think so. But I need to do another round to make sure there are no other gunmen.”
She motioned at him. “Go then,” she said. “Make sure they’re all dead. I’ll keep his weapon here.”
He nodded and asked, “Do you know how to use it?”
“No,” she said, “but believe me. I’ll figure it out in a pinch.”
He gave a hard laugh and said, “That’s my girl.” And he took off.
Shelly sat here, with Aleah trembling at her side, the baby tucked up against her mother, now happily nursing.
“Just hold that baby,” she said. “This will get better now.”
“How do I ever thank you?” she said. “To be forced to be with him would have been—”
“Not fun,” she said. “But he’s gone now.” Shelly stared at the man and shook her head. “You know what? I’ve seen more deaths in the last few days …”
“I’m sorry,” Aleah said. “You didn’t deserve to be brought into this mess. This is my family’s fault,” she said, shaking her head.
“Was your family,” Shelly reminded her. “Listen, Aleah. I’ve waited to tell you, but, well, your father’s dead too.”
“Good,” she said passionately. “I’ve never had anything much to do with him. He treated my mother so terribly. Then to find out that he actually sold me, just a child, and promised me to a man like that. All these years he’s acted like such a mighty and powerful man, but it was all a lie, and he’s been living off the fruits of that betrayal. No wonder my mother died so young.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Obviously a lot of changes are about to happen in your world.”
“After what I’ve been through already,” she said, “bring it on.”
Shelly laughed. “That’s the spirit,” she said. “We’ll need to get you some legal status here in England and make sure you have a place to live and that the baby will be fine,” she said. “But, for right now, we just need to sit here, until it’s all clear.”
Sure enough, both Diesel and Shane returned within minutes. They helped Aleah to her feet, and, realizing she had no shoes on, Diesel quickly picked up her and her baby and carried them around the burning house.
Hearing sirens approach in the distance, Shelly looked at Shane. “Do we need to get out of here before they arrive?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “Mavericks don’t stick around for explanations if they can avoid it.” Quickly they climbed into a black vehicle and drove off, traveling several blocks, before seeing the emergency vehicles. Shane looked at Shelly. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she said, “just damn glad it’s over with.”
“Me too.”
Shelly glanced at Diesel. “Did you get hurt?”
“Nope,” he said, “that was a clean run for me.”
“I don’t know how you guys can do this all the time,” Shelly said, yawning. “I’m exhausted.”
“Well, we’ll find a hotel,” Shane said. He looked at Aleah. “Are you doing okay?”
Aleah nodded. “Now I am,” she said. “Now I know I’ll be fine.”
“Maybe we’ll find a surprise at the hotel.”
Aleah just looked at him and said, “Honestly I don’t need any more surprises. I just want a calm, quiet place to raise my daughter.”
“Yep,” Shane said but didn’t elaborate.
“I wouldn’t mind a surprise,” Shelly said. “Like maybe a hot dog or something. I’m starving.” By the time they got to the hotel, a good forty minutes away, Shelly was tired but keyed up. There had been far too much adrenaline, too much pain, too much shock, too much everything, and she was just wired. They got out slowly, and she felt her body groan and complain with the movement. When she stood, Shane looked at her, smiled, and said, “You look like you could use a hot shower.”
“How about a hot dog?” she asked.
“Right,” he said, “we’ll see about that, after we get you ladies settled.” They got Shelly and Aleah up to their rooms, which had adjoining doors. He spoke to the tired young mother and said, “We already ordered some basic supplies for the baby. We’ll bring them up when they get here.”
She nodded her thanks. “I just need to get some sleep.”
“Yeah, maybe so,” he said. At the knock on the door, he walked over, turned, looked at her, and said, “You might also need this too.”
He opened the door to reveal a young man of maybe twenty-six or twenty-seven, standing in the doorway, looking at Shane in surprise and frowning.
He said, “Sorry, I was told to come here.” Then he turned and took one look at Aleah on the bed, holding the baby. His facial expressions went through myriad emotions but finally settled on pure unadulterated love, as he raced across the room to gather the two of them in his arms. Aleah immediately broke into tears and buried her face against the side of his neck, sobbing with joy and relief.
Shelly walked over and wrapped her arms around Shane and said, “That was a good thing you did.”
“Well, we do have pull in some high places,” he said. “They’ll have to work things out on their own going forward, but this is what we could do for them now.”
“That’s a lot,” she murmured.
He smiled, nodded, and said, “Now let’s see what we can do to get you taken care of.” They quickly closed the connecting door, and there was her bedroom. She looked around and said, “I don’t even know what happened to my overnight bag.”
“It’s probably still in the house on fire,” he said cheerfully.
She groaned. “So far I haven’t had a whole lot of luck keeping things safe around you.”
“Well, if you would listen to my instructions every once in a while,” he said.
“That won’t happen,” she replied, then walked into the bathroom. Grinning at the size of the bathtub, she said, “I’ll have a bath. I feel smoky, dirty, and incredibly tired.”
“What about food?” he asked.
“Food would be good, but I’m not up for anything big.”
“That’s fine. I’ll go see what we can get.”
She stopped, looking scared for a moment, and asked, “Where are you and Diesel staying?”
“We’re right across the hallway.”
“Good,” she said, “I don’t even know if I’ll sleep tonight. Everything’s been so messed up for so long.”
“You’ll sleep,” he promised.
She rolled her eyes and said, “Says you.” Walking to the bathtub, she put the plug in, turned on the water, dropped in some bath salts she found on the corner of the tub, and said, “If you happen to find a change of clothes, that would be lovely too.”
“That might take a little longer, but I can do it,” he said, outside the bathroom door, not quite shut between them.
“Aleah’ll need something too, plus the baby.”
“She’s taken care of,” he said. “I honestly didn’t think about you needing clothes.”
She snorted at that. “Right. What would I do? Walk around naked all the time?” When Shane went silent on the other side, she smiled. “Not happening.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure,” she said. “It’ll be too damn cold.”
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll be cold anytime soon.” Something in his voice had her peeking out of the bathroom and looking at him. “What do you mean?”
“We’ll be too busy.”
“Busy doing what?” she asked suspiciously.
But his expression was unreadable. He motioned at the hotel door and said, “I’ll be back in a few.”
The moment he walked out, she sank into the hot bath, moaning, as her multiple scrapes and bruises hit the hot water. But it felt so damn good. She closed her eyes and let her head sink under the water and then used the shampoo to soak and scrub her head sev
eral times—gently—but her head had stopped pounding thankfully. By the time she was done, she just lay in the heated, warm, secure blanket of a hot bath and enjoyed it.
When a knock came at the door, and it opened a crack, she said, “I sure hope that’s Shane.”
“It’s me,” he said.
“Good,” she said in a sleepy voice. “Were you able to find me some clothes?”
“Some,” he said. “I also found food.”
“Does that mean I have to get out?”
Poking his head around the door, looking at her buried in the water, he smiled. “Doesn’t look like you want to go anywhere just yet.”
“I don’t. I really don’t,” she said.
“I’m not sure you want to eat this in there though,” he murmured.
“Is it pasta?”
He stared at her for a moment, then grinned and said, “What do you think?”
Her eyes popped open. “Okay, I’m getting out.” Pulling the plug, she got out, dried off, wrapped herself in a towel, and stepped out into the room. “What did you get me for clothes?” she asked.
“Well,” he said, “I found a few things.” He pointed at a long robe, with a zipper in the front.
She quickly pulled that over her head, tugging the towel out from underneath, as he watched with interest. She just rolled her eyes at him. “Come on. Be a gentleman and don’t look,” she murmured.
“Well, if you won’t change, why should I?” Then he sat down at the table and said, “Come and eat.”
She walked over, inhaled the aroma, and smiled. “Now this,” she said, “this is lovely.”
“Exactly.” She ate half of her dinner and then shook her head. “I’m too tired to eat it all.”
“Then you can rest,” he said. “Go to bed and just sleep. Unwind.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “So many horrible things are in my mind right now that I don’t even want to close my eyes, in case they take over.”
“That’s to be expected, considering all you’ve been through.” He stood and picked her up in one quick move, making her shriek, then walked to the window, where a big armchair was. He sat down with her in it. She curled up in his arms and whispered, “This is much better.”
“It is,” he said. “You know what? Ever since Diesel met you, he’s been bugging me about why we weren’t together.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I said that we were good friends, and that it wasn’t part of who we were.”
“Interesting,” she muttered, not liking the direction of the conversation.
“He told me that I was a fool and that I wasn’t seeing what was right in front of me.”
“Well, that’s quite true,” she said. “You are a fool.”
He burst out laughing. “Maybe,” he said, “but I’m a fast learner. One of the things that I’ve learned is that, when somebody tells me something, I need to pay attention.”
“Yeah, and what did you need to pay attention to?” she murmured.
“You,” he said, reaching up and tapping her nose. “And I realized that the reason we’ve been such good friends is because we really care about each other. We care at a level that most relationships never even get to. We’ve been friends for so long that we’ve seen the ins, the outs—the good, the bad, and the ugly. We’ve seen each other with relationships and breakups. We both came close to getting married to someone else at one point in time,” he said. “And yet we didn’t.”
“Nope,” she said, “it wasn’t right.”
“So how do you feel about things now?” he asked. “Does this feel right?”
She pushed herself up from his chest, looked at him quietly, and said, “You mean, being in your arms?”
He nodded.
“Yeah,” she said, “it feels very right.”
“And we’ve never really been the kind of people to worry so much about tomorrow,” he said. “So, are you interested in seeing where this goes?”
“Yes,” she said, and then she hesitated. “But I’ll be pissed if it doesn’t go where I want it to because then I’ll have lost my best friend,” she murmured.
His gaze deepened, and he said, “I don’t see that happening.” And he looked at her. “Unless you do.”
“No,” she said, “I don’t. As long as you don’t.”
He burst out laughing. “And here we are,” he said, “both of us walking around each other instead of saying exactly what we feel.”
“No, you’re right,” she said. “I’d like to see where this goes.”
He slid his arms along her back, tucked her close to him, and said, “Good, because I really do too.”
“I thought you were the one who was holding back.”
“Yeah,” he said, “and then I realized that, when I think about all my journeys and missions—and who is on my mind when I get off work and where I want to go and who I think about when I want to talk about something—it’s always you. I don’t know why I didn’t see it before. I don’t know why I didn’t see you,” he said. “I presume we were just so busy living life and doing our own thing that it just never occurred to us to go that far.”
“I can agree with that.” She slid her arms around his neck and whispered, “So where does that leave us?”
“You know what? I think it leaves us as two people who have always loved each other, finally deciding to act on all those instincts kept submerged all this time.”
She chuckled. “We’ve been very good at it.”
“And maybe,” he said, “it’s just that the timing wasn’t right for both of us in the past, and something about right now is perfect.”
“I can accept that.” She leaned forward and kissed him gently on his dimpled chin and then again on his cheek, her fingers gently flowing across to his other cheek, then coming down to brush her index finger against his lower lip. He immediately nibbled on her lip. She murmured, “Are you sure you’re ready to do this?”
“Oh, hell, yes,” he said. “I’m ready to do this.”
She smiled and sat up on his lap, straddling him with one knee on either side. Cupping each side of his face with her hands, she kissed him deeply. His arms slipped around her waist, and he pulled her tighter against him. The kiss deepened into something so much darker than either had expected to develop so fast.
“It’s like the passion has always been there,” he murmured.
“I think it always was, but we took it for friendship,” she said. “We took it for best-friend love. Because we were still each taking our lives in other directions.” He kissed her again and again, then picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. “You’re wearing too many clothes,” she murmured.
He nodded. “And I should probably have a shower.”
“Afterward,” she said. He hesitated. She shook her head and said, “There’s nothing about a warrior that I don’t like, so get back down here.”
Laughing, he said, “I thought I was wearing too many clothes.” He pulled his shirt out of his pants and over his head, throwing it to the floor.
She immediately bounded to her knees, her hands exploring his chest, her fingers going to his belt buckle. By the time she had his jeans to his knees, her hands were already inside his boxers, cupping him.
He sucked in his breath. “You could take your time, you know?” he said, gasping.
“Oh, I intend to,” she said. “We’ve got all night.”
He groaned. “You’ll be just as feisty in bed, won’t you?”
“You wouldn’t want me any other way,” she murmured.
He laughed. “I think you’re right. I want you just the way you’ve always been.”
“It’s a darn good thing,” she said, “because that’s exactly who I am, in bed and out.”
He leaned forward and kissed her. As she slipped the boxers down over his hips, her hands circling around to cup his buttocks, he tried to kick out of his jeans, and he groaned. “I’ve still got my boots on, for Christ’s s
ake.”
She laughed and hopped off the bed, and, as he sat back down, she helped him get his boots and socks off. Then she pulled off the jeans and boxers. While he watched, she slowly lowered the zipper on her gown and stepped out of it, completely nude. She stood there in front of him and smiled. “You know what?” she said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been in this state together before.”
He shook his head. “Nope. Bathing suits, yes,” he said, “but like this? Never.”
She smiled, pushed him back on the bed and once again crawled up on his lap with one knee on either side of him. Only this time she teased the hard ridge of his erection.
He smiled, his hands on her hips. Then he stroked gently up her ribs and across her breasts, gently cupping one and then the other, his thumb sliding over the nipples, up to her collarbone, and onto her neck.
She smiled, leaned down, and kissed him gently.
He pulled her closer, so their tongues could war, as the passion between them once again climbed, albeit a little slower. She slid back and forth against his shaft, still teasing him, and her, moaning with pleasure. He gripped her hips and whispered, “That’ll make things a little too fast.”
“A little too fast is just fine right now.”
He groaned, as she kept up the movement. He whispered, “You could at least do that another way.”
She smiled and whispered, “Like this?” And she raised herself up, positioned his shaft, and slowly sank down on him. He groaned, his hips pushing upward into her, as she controlled the movement. By the time she was fully seated, or at least thought she was, she sat down and ground her hips against him.
He gasped, holding her hips and twisting beneath her. She reached behind to gently cup the globes and to stroke the softness between his thighs. He shuddered underneath her, and she watched the passion twist across his face, as his hands gripped her hips hard.
She slid her hands along his forearms to his shoulders and then braced herself and asked, “You ready to ride?”
“Nobody would ever say no to that offer.”
Slowly she lifted herself up the velvet shaft and then slid back down, up and then down, the pace increasing with every movement. Again and again she moved her hips frantically, as she drove toward the pleasure they both awaited, his hands trying to not force his own rhythm, until she cried out.
