Guts & Glory: Mercy (In the Shadows Security Book 1)

by Jeanne St. James

  She closed her dropped jaw and struggled to swallow (sans pool water this time) as he began to strip off his clothes. First, that stupid jacket he wore in this insane summer desert heat. Then the leather shoulder holster.

  Her heart began to thump wildly and her pussy clenched involuntarily as he tossed his T-shirt to the side, exposing his broad, hairless chest and his so-ripped-you-can-bounce-a-penny-(No, a Susan B. Anthony dollar coin!)-off-of-it stomach.

  For goodness’ sake, she just might drown. They’d find her days later floating face-down and bloated with a stupid smile frozen on her face.

  When his long fingers went to the top of his jeans, she squeezed her thighs together and held onto the side of the pool more securely because if she did drown she would miss this show which might very well be the best male revue on the whole Vegas strip.

  He left those worn blue jeans gaping open with just a few dark hairs peeking out as he bent over to remove his boots and socks. Yes, his feet were still sexy as all get out. His were the first toes she’d actually considered doing very obscene things with.

  Her breath caught as he straightened and, keeping his gray eyes locked to hers, slowly stripped off those jeans. He shoved them down his long muscular thighs, then his calves, before stepping out of them completely.

  While his cotton boxer briefs weren’t silky Ranger panties, they still clung to everything that was Mercy. And, oh good lord, she hadn’t had breakfast yet so she was beginning to salivate.

  Within seconds after dropping those briefs, he dove cleanly into the pool with hardly a splash and she remained frozen where she was. Her breath fled her lungs when he surfaced behind her and pressed his hard... wet... hot... (let’s not forget naked) body against hers, sandwiching her between him and the side of the swimming pool.

  While she was not a big fan of sandwiches, she could appreciate this one. Especially since an anaconda must have slipped into the water because it was poking her ass. She suddenly discovered a fondness for large snakes, too...

  Her heart did flips as he pressed his mouth to her ear and, in a low voice that caused tingles in the very places she wanted him to touch, murmured, “Didn’t recognize it for what it was.”

  His words (among other things) weren’t helping her heart palpitations and the other palpitations occurring between her thighs. Her voice was unnaturally husky when she finally managed to ask, “What was it?”

  “Not was. Is,” he corrected as his arms circled her waist and one hand splayed over her stomach while he spread the fingers of the other directly above her throbbing mound.

  Would it be wrong to push his hand lower? Yes, because he was trying to communicate something very important here.

  “I thought an addiction. I was wrong.”

  “I’m not addicting?” she teased a little breathlessly, her lips curling slightly at the corners as she leaned her head back on his shoulder and turned her face until her cheek pressed against his damp neck. “So, what is it that had you get on a plane, which you admittedly dislike, and come to a city you despise to face something you’re feeling, which I really know you hate being forced to do.”

  “That’s simple.”

  “Then it should be a simple answer.”

  “And just to be clear, I’m not being forced to do shit.”

  “You’re not, huh? You want to be in Vegas with me in my pool admitting to something which most likely feels more torturous than pulling off your fingernails one by one?”

  “You got one thing right.”

  “Which part?”

  “The part where I want to be with you.”

  I want to be with you.

  For good. Forever. Completely.

  If you’ll have me.

  “Do you?” Rissa lifted her head off his shoulder and twisted in his arms until her back was pressed against the side of the pool and she was blinking her sky-blue eyes surrounded with damp lashes in disbelief at him.

  I might not be able to say out loud everything I’m feeling right now, but I hope you’ll be patient and the day will come that I can do just that.

  Jesus fuck, he’d missed her. That was a strange, unfamiliar feeling, but admittedly it existed. He could no longer ignore it. Not after he thought long and hard about Jewel’s unwanted lecture.

  “You pushed me away, Ryan.”

  Because this whole thing is a struggle. But it’s a fight I’m willing to fight.

  He hated the disappointment coloring her accusation but he couldn’t deny what she said. “Yeah.”

  “Yeah?” she echoed in a squeak, becoming stiff in his arms.

  Fuck. He needed to be upfront with her as much as he could if there was any chance of this working between them. “Yeah. To be honest, it might happen again. It might happen too many fucking times. Can’t promise it won’t. Just asking that you hang tight during those times until I get my head straightened out.”

  She softened against him, curling one hand around the back of his neck as she brushed her fingers over his jaw, then settled her palm against his chest.

  She could probably feel how wildly his heart was thumping. He was struggling to tamp down the rising panic. He needed to concentrate on how much he wanted the woman in his arms. What he needed to do to keep her. Nothing else.

  Nothing was more important.

  “So, you’re admitting you might try to drive me away?”

  “Possibly. But for fuck’s sake, Rissa,” his words caught in his throat so he cleared it, “when that happens don’t give up on me. You’re stubborn and strong. You’ll just have to dig in your heels and ride it out.”

  Her eyebrows pinned together as she frowned. “Why should I? Why would I want to make my life difficult like that?”

  “Because...” Fuck. He once again thought about Jewel’s words of wisdom. “Because I think we are worth it. We are worth fighting for.”

  I believe it. Do you?

  Can you?

  He waited. Eventually, he thought she wasn’t going to say anything but, Jesus fuck, was he wrong. He should’ve known better since this was Rissa he was dealing with.

  “I have an easy life here, Ryan. Well, until I was hunted down and almost killed. But besides that... I have an established practice. I can’t just close up shop just like that.” She snapped her fingers before planting her hand back on his chest. “Simply abandon my patients. Because I’m assuming you aren’t moving out here, right? You expect me to just pick up and move to Shadow Valley? You’re not proposing some sort of long-distance relationship, are you? Oh shit, are you? Is that what you’re proposing? A long distance thing where you call me every once in a while and say nothing on the other end of the phone? Where I’m supposed to carry the whole conversation and I only hear your heavy breathing? Then once a year you fly out here to scratch an itch but I’m not allowed to see any other men? And then—”

  He shut her the hell up by crushing his lips to hers and tangling their tongues together. After a few moments, once the tension left her body and she melted against him once more, he lifted his head. “Jesus fuck, woman, don’t make me rethink all of this,” he grumbled against her lips.

  “I can’t just up and leave, Ryan. Relocate my practice, my house, my life! Hell, my sister is coming to visit next month!”

  I’m asking a lot of you, I know. Just have some faith in me.

  “Instead of having to get on a plane to Vegas, Londyn can drive to Shadow Valley and visit,” he said. A simple solution to a simple problem she wanted to make too fucking complex.

  “Oh, can she now?”

  “Yeah, she can.”

  “And what about my business? My home here?” She put a hand to her mouth. “My friends?”

  He frowned. “Friends like Paranzino?”

  “Well, yes! I know you don’t like him—”

  Mercy grunted.

  She waved a hand around between them. “Even so...” She paused and her brows furrowed. “Speaking of Michael... He deposited a million dollars into my account. I
thought I had imagined it that day in my delirium. Am I wrong? Did you actually demand he pay me a million dollars?”

  Since that was a question she most likely knew the answer to, he wasn’t responding to that one. He wasn’t stupid.

  “I decided to give it to a charity which helps sex workers.”

  She did what? He couldn’t stop the growl in his voice when he stated, “You gave the money away.”

  She stared at him. “Uh, yes, since it wasn’t mine and I didn’t ask for it. I had assumed it was money he gave me out of guilt. But I couldn’t ask him because he refuses to return my phone calls or texts.”

  Good. As it should be. Otherwise, Paranzino was going to disappear like his former competition Nicco. Mercy wouldn’t hesitate for a second to take that motherfucker out if he needed to.

  “I don’t need it. I’m fine.”

  “You could’ve used it to pay for your move across the country.”

  “No, you’re going to pay for it with that outrageous bonus you extorted from him.”

  Was she agreeing to eventually move to Shadow Valley? She might be agreeing, even if it wasn’t right away. They’d have to work out the details but right now he wasn’t going to question it because he didn’t want her changing her mind. Instead he used a distraction tactic. “Earned every fucking cent of that bonus having to listen to your mouth.”

  Her head snapped back and her eyes narrowed. “Really.”

  That “really” sounded deadlier than an M67 grenade.

  And, Jesus Christ, did she just wind herself up and chicken neck?

  “If you expect me to be some sort of quiet mouse who does what she’s told, you’re in the wrong woman’s pool.”

  No fucking shit. “I expect you to use that mouth for something other than talking.”

  “Oh really?”

  Fuck me. She was lobbing grenades left and right. He had no choice but to slap on a flak jacket and tactical helmet and go in with guns blazing...

  “Yeah, really. If you need to flap your gums, do it with your new fucking patients in your new fucking practice in your new fucking town.” So much for working out the details.

  “Says you!”

  “Fucking-A right!”

  She pinned her lips together and her eyes crinkled at the corners. “That’s the only good use for my mouth?”

  “No.”

  “What else?”

  He reached down, grabbed her waist and lifted her out of the pool until she was sitting on the side with her feet dangling into the water.

  “Gonna show you.”

  “How about you show me what your mouth will be busy doing first?”

  “How fast can you get that bathing suit bottom off?”

  She glanced down at herself and when she lifted her head back up, she was smiling. “It’s a one piece.”

  He stopped fighting it and returned the smile. “Even better.”

  “That means if I take it off, I’m going to be out here totally naked.”

  “That’s exactly what it fucking means.”

  “You might have to cover my naughty bits with your hands and your face for my modesty.”

  “I can try.”

  “Oorah!” she shouted to the sky.

  He fought the roll of his eyes. “That’s Marines, not Army.”

  She lifted a shoulder. “You’ll have plenty of time to teach me the ins and outs of the Army.”

  “This soldier is an expert at the ins and outs.”

  “You’ll have to prove that to me, Sergeant Major. You can start now.”

  Mercy leaned over her, staring down directly into eyes that struck a chord deep in his very soul. Those blue rings had become his lifesaver, tossed to save him from drowning in that quicksand.

  Even so, life wasn’t going to be easy for her. For him. For either of them. But he was going to do his fucking best to make it worth her while.

  He might not be able to give her everything, but he would give her everything he could. Hopefully that would be enough.

  He would also do his fucking best to make her never regret being with him, even on his bad days. And on his good days, he would do his best to show her what she meant to him.

  “Hooah,” he finally whispered against her lips.

  Then proceeded to prove his claim of expertise by making her his.

  Forever and completely.

  Hooah.

  Turn the page to read a sneak peek of

  Guts & Glory: Ryder

  Guts & Glory: Ryder

  Turn the page for a sneak peek of

  Guts & Glory: Ryder

  (In the Shadows Security, Book 2)

  Sneak peak of Guts & Glory: Ryder (Unedited)

  Chapter One

  Out of all the places his ass could be, this county was not a place he wanted to be in. While he was sure some parts of West Virginia were just fucking lovely, this area was known for hillbillies, white supremacists and rednecks who thought bullets were more important than teeth.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, it was infested with members of the motherfucking outlaw MC, the Deadly Demons.

  How he got pulled into this detail, he’ll never know. No, fuck him, he knew. He drew the short straw this time. Just like he drew the short straw last time. And every other time when it came to this particular “job.”

  Ryder jerked the wheel of his ’78 International Scout into a dark, rutted dirt driveway surrounded by high weeds. After a few seconds his headlights bounced off an old farmhouse that was lit up from the inside.

  At least the shit hole had electricity.

  He pulled his Scout up to a line of Harleys parked across the uncut grass and sat staring at the run-down hovel for a few seconds as he braced himself for what was to come. Letting a searing curse rip, he shut his treasured vehicle off, yanked the keys from the ignition, and shoved open the driver’s side door. After climbing his tense body out, he jammed his keys deep into his jeans’ pocket, locked the door, and slammed it shut.

  The weight of his Glock .45 in its holster under his jacket, along with his tactical knife hanging on his hip at least gave him a little reassurance since he was walking alone into this den of vipers. Worse, he wasn’t even sneaking in. He was walking right through the fucking front door.

  He stalked to the rickety porch steps, carefully picking his way up the rotting boards. Ignoring the handful of drunk Demons hanging out on the slanted front porch drinking beer and smoking dope, he pushed his way past them through the wide-open door of the house to shouts of:

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Who’s that motherfucker?”

  “What the fuck?”

  If he cared, he’d be asking them the same questions. But, yeah, he didn’t give a fuck who those wasted, washed-out, beer-bellied bikers were.

  Once he stepped inside, he paused to inventory his surroundings and get his bearings.

  To say this house was bad was an understatement. It wasn’t only a complete fucking shit hole, it smelled like one, too.

  A tweaked-out, half-naked chick sat on the filthy floor of the hallway, the wall barely holding her ass upright. He nudged her with his boot to get her attention, since she was totally spaced. She might have been pretty once. But her bloodshot eyes, long stringy, unwashed hair and hollowed out cheekbones did nothing for her now.

  “Lookin’ for a woman,” he grumbled.

  She managed to straighten herself up some more, raking her glazed eyes down his body and running her fingers through her hair as if that would improve the nest that rats build on her head. “Found her.”

  Yeah, no. He’d prefer eternal celibacy than to stick his dick in anything like her. He lifted his hand to about mid-chest. “’Bout yay-high, long dark blonde hair, pretty blue eyes. Ain’t all bones like you, though. Got some meat on her.” Did she ever, the bitch had it all in the right places, too. “A bit of a stupid fuck, though.” Because that was the goddamn truth.

  She had been making way stupid decisions lately, and
tonight was another one in a long list of them.

  “Slash’s slit?”

  Slash.

  His jaw got tight. That wasn’t the first time he heard that name. But it was sure as shit going to be the last.

  “Where’s he at?”

  She lifted a finger that had one spot of black nail polish left in the center—the rest looked like it had been picked or chewed off—and pointed to the ceiling. “Probably up in his room. Said I couldn’t join ‘im when they walked past.”

  Thank fuck for that.

  Ryder lifted his chin in thanks and pushed past her, even though she reached out to grab his leg and gave a disappointed, “Hey, I could be your woman tonight.”

  “Next time,” he threw over his shoulder, as his balls shriveled up into his body to hide.

  At the end of the hall full of peeling wallpaper and water stains, he bounded up the stairs Hitting the top landing, he tilted his head and listened carefully. It was difficult to hear shit, since what sounded like a stereo blasted somewhere outside as well as another stereo blasted inside but with a different song. Even so, he held his breath, stilled every muscle, and listened anyway.

  Above the din, a female giggle came from two doors down. One that was closed with light spilling out from underneath it.

  In a couple long strides, he was in front of it. With a lift of his boot, he kicked the door with all the power he could muster causing it to splinter and crash against the wall as it swung hard.

  His eyes landed on the mattress that sat in the middle of the floor. Looked like Slash had been a busy boy.

  A naked man with shitty tattoos and long black hair sat up in surprise and the two other women in bed with him didn’t even notice the interruption.

  No, they didn’t. They were still going at it with each other, one on top of the other, kissing, fingering each other’s pussies and pinching each other’s nipples.

  What. The. Fuck.

  The one he was searching for was on the bottom, her normally pretty blue eyes closed, moans and groans coming from her as the fingers being plunged into her pussy sped up.