by Lucy Monroe
"Yes." She didn't want him touching it. It was bad.
She didn't care if the thought made sense.
"Okay, let's do that then." He led her over to the blanket, where she carefully laid the gun on the edge of the blanket.
"We need to call 911."
"I'll call Benji Sutherland. We're close enough to Cailkirn, he'll get here sooner than State Police would."
Sooner was good. "Who is Benji Sutherland?"
"Cailkirn's sheriff. He's a vet."
"Doesn't that keep him really busy?" Were there a lot of animals in Cailkirn?
"A veteran, sweetheart, not an animal doctor."
"Oh, of course. My brain is not working."
"You're in shock, I think."
Maybe she was. "He knows what to do with guns, I guess."
"Yes."
"Good. And miscreants like those." They'd ruined her perfect moment. She wanted to kick them in the kneecaps, only maybe Rock had already done that.
"Yes, that too."
"Call him."
Rock kept one arm around her while he pulled out his phone to do just that. Deborah listened while he explained what had happened to the sheriff.
"Yes, I disarmed the idiot. I don’t know. Virgil and Amos. You can check their wallets when they get here for last names."
Deborah shivered.
"Look, I've got to go. Just get out here and you'll have all your answers then."
Rock put his phone away and the pulled Deborah tightly into his body. "It's going to be fine. Benji will be here in about thirty minutes."
"What about them?" She indicated Amos and Virgil with her head.
"I need to secure them for Benji."
Deborah took a deep breath and let it out. "I'll help."
"You sure?"
"Yes."
Rock nodded. "Okay."
He went over to Virgil and said, "Give me your shirt."
"Suck my dick," the other man sneered.
Rock shrugged and grabbed the arm that was cradled protectively in front of the man sitting awkwardly on the ground, his knee cocked at a strange angle. Virgil yelled and started swearing.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
"I need ties and I'm not cutting up my Grant plaid blanket for assholes like you." Rock sounded imminently reasonable as he yanked the man's vest off none to gently.
Virgil yelled, "Amos has got some of them zip ties in his back pocket."
Rock went still, his features going stone-like. Deborah felt sick to her stomach at the implication of Virgil's words. The last fifteen minutes reframed quickly in her thoughts to something a lot more sinister.
Amos chose that moment to stir.
Something came over Deborah, rage and the need to do something. Before she knew it, she was rushing toward the big, bearded man. Without thought or hesitation, she swung her foot. It connected with a satisfying thud and his head snapped back. He fell backward, going limp again.
Rock came up beside her. "Damn, hot stuff, remind me not to piss you off."
"He has zip ties in his pocket, Rock." Just saying it made her sick.
Rock nodded grimly, then knelt down and retrieved the restraints and used them to make sure that the next time Amos woke up he wouldn't be doing anything but a centipede style crawl. He went back over to Virgil and did the same thing to the other man, though Virgil begged him not to, promising he wasn't going anywhere with his knee and arm out of commission.
Rock stared down at the man and asked in a deadly voice. "Just how much mercy did you show the people you used those zip ties on?"
"They was for our game, that's all."
Rock secured the man's ankles amidst a lot of loud cursing and yelling. "You've got to be a better liar than that if you expect me to believe you, Virgil."
Deborah didn't know about Rock, but Deborah preferred to think about the two men hunting game rather than people and said so.
Rock's gorgeous mouth twisted in a grimace. "Baby, men don’t hunt game with a Glock."
"There is that." Deborah sighed. "So, Sheriff Sutherland should be here soon, huh?"
"He will be."
"You're not going to get in trouble for breaking his arm and whatever it is you did to his knee?" She didn't know how much a force a civilian was allowed to extend to protect himself.
"It's his wrist I broke and I hyper extended his knee. He'll survive. And no, I won't get in trouble."
She hugged herself. "I can't believe you went after a man holding a gun."
"I wasn't going to let them hurt you." He cupped her face, as if emphasizing his point, but didn't let go right away, just kept their gazes locked.
She swallowed, her eyes burning, though she didn't know why. "He could have shot you."
"He didn't."
"But he could have."
"It wasn't likely. Men like that. They don't expect you to fight back."
Deborah spun away from Rock, immediately missing the warmth of his hands on her face. She turned back to face him and glared. She glared up at him. "But he could have, Rock. He could have shot you. You know he could have."
Rock didn't answer. He just grabbed her and pulled her close, wrapping his arms tight around her, like he knew that was exactly what she needed so she wouldn't feel like she was shaking apart.
That's how Sheriff Benji Sutherland and two of his deputies found them fifteen minutes later. Rock was still holding her tight against him, promising her it was alright, it was always going to be alright, telling her he was fine, that she was fine, that the bad guys were trussed up like turkeys for the authorities.
Something about his methods worked, because when the sheriff arrived, she was able to step away from Rock without feeling bereft. She was able to talk without her voice shaking and her shivers had stopped.
The officers made quick work of searching Virgil and Amos. They found one wallet between the two men which identified Virgil as one Virgil A. Jerome, two Bowie knives, a package of six condoms and a set of truck keys.
"We'll need your statements," Sheriff Sutherland said to Rock, his gaze shifting to encompass Deborah.
Rock nodded once. "We'll follow you into Cailkirn."
Deborah would have protested but they couldn't put it off to tomorrow. She had to work.
The statements took much less time than she expected.
"The benefits of small town sheriff's department," Rock replied when she brought it up on the way back to his place. "Benji wasn't going to make us wait until he'd processed Virgil and Amos to take our statements."
"He's a nice man, but kind of quiet." Intense too, but she didn't need to mention that.
"He's young for a sheriff, but he gets the job done."
"You said he's a vet."
"He served two tours in the Middle East."
"And he came back to Cailkirn."
"It's home."
"He's related to the man who owns the Northern Lights Lodge?"
"His grandson. He's cousins with the mayor too."
"Small town connections."
"Not like LaLa Land."
"You'd be surprised at the unexpected connections you find in LA politics, police and other public service agencies." Her lips twisted cynically. Sometimes it was downright incestuous.
"I suppose."
Her fingers drummed a random pattern against her thigh. "That was crazy."
"It was." He flicked her a sidelong glance, but she couldn't tell if there was concern in it or not.
"Are you going to tell Carey and Marilyn about it?" Carey would make a meal of it for sure. Marilyn…well, Deborah wasn't sure how Rock's sister would react to news of her brother facing down gunmen.
Rock let out a bark of laughter that didn't sound so much amused as cynical. "If I don't, I imagine you will."
"You imagine right." And it wasn't because she was a gossip. "Their brother is a hero."
"I'm just a man, beauty. I've never been a hero." Was that a blush showing through Rock's blond stubble?
"Oh, I think b
oth your brother and sister would disagree with that statement before I ever tell them about what happened today."
Rock was the kind of man who saved people without ever standing in the limelight to take the credit. He'd raised his sister and brother, saving their family, saving their childhoods. He'd stepped up to the plate even more when their parents died, and then after. Who knew what all he did behind the scenes even now for others?
She'd bet he was on the board of a bunch of charities no one knew about. And the stuff he did for his small town? Deborah had no doubts it was as numerous as it was unacknowledged.
Rock was that guy. The larger than life hero who pretended to be normal, who acted like making a fortune out of a small insurance policy and a lot of hard work was nothing special. A man who considered using that fortune to take care of his siblings as well as a tiny dot of a town in Alaska to be nothing anyone should consider special.
Rock made a disbelieving sound. "You're nuts, beauty, but you turn me on."
"You can't be thinking about sex."
"Can't I?" he asked in that tone that never failed to send her mind in that direction too.
"Aren't you exhausted?"
"No."
She laughed. Well, that was definitive. Come to think of it. She wasn't as tired as she'd first thought when leaving the Sheriff's Office either. What was it about this man that made her think about making love even after the kind of afternoon they'd just had?
She smiled over at him. "Well, you just might be able to convince me."
Rock listened to Deborah recount their afternoon, making him sound like some kind of damn Kung Fu expert with a heavy dose of action adventure hero thrown in.
"I disarmed a couple of idiots who crashed our picnic. Story over." Rock glared at his siblings, daring them to keep making a meal of it.
Neither seemed impressed with his ire.
Marilyn's eyes filled with tears. "You took on a man with a gun? Was it loaded?"
"Damned if I know if it was loaded. I didn't check."
"I bet it was loaded," Carey said, his voice filled with awe.
Well, shit. Now his brother had that hero worship thing going on. It wouldn't keep him safe in Cailkirn though, would it? No, Carey would be headed back to the bright lights of Los Angeles just as soon as this movie was done filming.
"It was loaded," Deborah said, her voice quiet and serious. "I asked."
"So, he held it on me for about three seconds."
"Long enough to pull the trigger." Marilyn was definitely crying now.
Rock gave Deborah a look that let her know who he blamed for this situation. "We couldn’t have waited until tomorrow to tell them about today's adventures?"
Like when he'd be working and the sister's tears could fall on Deborah's shoulders without his knowledge?
"You would not have put off telling us!" Marilyn smacked him on the arm. Hard.
"Damn, girl. Are you trying leave the bruises they didn't get a chance to?"
Marilyn's eyes went wide and then she burst out with a sob and threw herself and him. Feeling that panic that always hit when his sister went all emotional, he caught Carey's gaze. His brother looked back with the same panic Rock felt.
No help there.
Rock patted Marilyn's back. "Come on, sis. It's fine." He looked at Deborah with appeal. She was a woman, damn it.
She'd initiated this meltdown; she could do something to mitigate it.
But her eyes were bright too, her face filled with emotion he didn't understand.
"Shit. Carey, do something," Rock demanded.
"Well, did you have to take on armed gunmen?" Carey asked with annoyance.
"You think I should have let them hurt Deborah?"
"No, of course not."
"Besides, armed gunmen is redundant. If he's a gunman, he's armed."
"That's really beside the point here, big brother."
Marilyn sniffled and hugged Rock tighter. Deborah's breath hitched alarmingly and a stray tear spilled over. Rock let a word slip that he rarely said.
His sister reared back and stared up at him. "Rock!"
"What?" he asked, feeling a hell of a lot more stressed than he had staring down the business end of a gun earlier.
"You said fuck. You never say fuck."
"And if you think you're too old to have your mouth washed out for saying it, you're sadly mistaken Marilyn Kathryn Jepsom."
She gave a watery laugh.
Which had not been his intention, but he would totally take the win. He handed her off to Carey. "Take her into the media room and put on The Quiet Man. Watching that always makes her feel better."
"I don't know why. She spends half the time yelling at John Wayne and the other half at the long dead producers and directors."
"It's still a good romance," Marilyn declared staunchly.
She and Carey argued as they walked away toward the media room.
Rock turned to Deborah, who still looked on the verge of emotional melt down. Damn it. He did the only thing he could think of. He walked forward, swept the woman up into his arms and started up the stairs.
She caught her breath in shock, then demanded, "What are you doing?"
"Showing you just how okay we both are."
"I know I'm fine, Rock."
"Sure you do, hot stuff. You know I'm fine too. You can see it, but I guess you need some more proof and I know just the kind to give you."
"Just like a man to think sex is the solution."
"I'm a man, so that works for me."
She frowned up at him. "I wasn't giving you a compliment."
"I wasn't worried about it."
"You're so damn confident." She crossed her arms, but the gesture lost its intended effect as it pushed her breasts into prominence and had another impact on him altogether.
After taking a leisurely look at the beauty on display, he winked. "You swore."
"Are you going to threaten to wash my mouth out with soap?" she asked, all snippy.
"I have better things to do with your mouth."
He pushed the door open to his bedroom with his shoulder.
She pressed her hand against his chest her fingers clutching his shirt. "I don't know what I would have done if Virgil had shot you."
"Don't think about that. It didn't happen."
"It's not that easy."
"Let me make it that easy." He laid her on the bed and came down on top of her, letting his bigger body cover her smaller, feminine one completely. "Let me make you forget everything but how much we enjoyed being together today."
Damned if she didn't look at him with a combination of hope and trust he found irresistible.
He kissed her, soft and slow. There would be time for the powerful passion that always rose up between them, but right now she was so darn fragile. She needed gentleness.
So, that was what he'd give her.
Deborah wanted to tell Rock he didn’t have to be so careful with her, that he didn’t have to lay her on the bed with gentle movements. Only the words would not come.
She watched in silence as he turned and shut the door, locking them into seclusion where no one could intrude without her or Rock’s permission. A press of his finger against the remote control and heavy drapes that covered the floor to ceiling windows whisked into place, but the still bright sky shone through the sky lights. The sense of expansive privacy grew.
"You’re all mine until seven thirty tomorrow morning, beauty."
She’d had earlier casting calls, but right now she didn’t want to think about how early that could come. "Okay."
"And I’m all yours."
"It was a good day until…"
"Yes, it was." Rock pulled his shirt off over his head, revealing defined muscles only she got to touch.
For now.
His dark blond hair glinted in the light coming in through the skylights, his gaze dark with desire and emotions she wasn’t foolish enough to try to name. "You like what you’re looking at,
hot stuff?"
"You know I do."
"And look, not a mark on me." He turned in a circle before flipping the button on his jeans and then lowering the zipper with deliberate, slow movements.
"What are you? A tease now?" Her voice had gone husky, but she’d take it over the shaky whispers of earlier.
"You know what they say." He pushed his jeans down his thighs, revealing an erection already pressing against his underwear. "It’s only teasing if I don’t follow through."
She licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry, her brain going foggy. "I don’t know about that."
He kicked his jeans away before coming toward her. His expression was so intense, his jaw rigid, his eyes dark with blown pupils, his body sinuous as he made his way onto the bed, each move fluid and gorgeous and calling to her on a primal level she had no hope of denying.
"What if we’d been making love when they came up on us?" she asked, voicing one of her worst fears, hating the sound of tears in her voice, the ones she absolutely refused to shed.
He leaned down and kissed first the corner of her left eye and then her right. "They didn’t. Focus on that truth, beauty."
Then he began undressing her. Slowly. Oh, so slowly. Excruciatingly slowly. Every inch of her skin revealed got kissed. Soft, sipping kisses, some followed by gentle bites, some followed by licks, others the simple press of his lips against her skin before he moved another inch of cloth.
By the time he’d removed everything but her panties, she was no longer thinking about what could have happened earlier. She wasn’t thinking about anything but how she felt right that second.
Her body was on fire, her nipples tight and aching though he’d left them surprisingly untouched when he’d removed her bra, the only stimulation they’d gotten the feel of the fabric sliding away from them and then the sensation of air against them.
He’d sensitized her entire body to his touch. She ached for more; she couldn’t get enough air.
She gasped as he kissed the valley between her breasts, his stubble brushing against the inner swell of her sensitive curves. "What are you trying to do to me?"
If her words came out in disjointed, breathy bits, who could blame her?
"It’s all pleasure here, beauty."
"I want you, Rock." Just in case he’d missed it somehow.