Her Guarded Hero

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “Please,” she whined. Was that her voice?

  “So good. You feel so good. Ahhh Sunshine, what you do to me.” His lips touched hers. The kiss was reverent. She had to blink back tears. Never had she felt so close to someone. She savored the feeling. Then Dalton looked at her and gave her a wicked smile.

  “Are you ready?”

  Was she? She swallowed and nodded.

  He started slowly, a rhythm as old as time, smooth and languid, it started a slow burn deep inside her.

  In her body.

  In her heart.

  In her soul.

  She couldn’t look away from him, his eyes trapped hers, telling her things she couldn’t begin to understand, let alone believe.

  His thumb brushed back a damp tendril of hair from her forehead as he surged again and again. How could she possibly survive this dazzling assault on her senses?

  “Don’t close your eyes. Please, Aurora, I need to watch you.” Dalton’s voice was a thunderstorm of passion. She forced her eyes open and was rewarded with brilliant blue sapphires focused on her.

  “Ahhh.”

  She was past the point of being able to contain her sounds of pleasure. It had never been like this before. He was everywhere. His chest hair rasped against her nipples, sparking an erotic yearning that triggered even more pleasure where they were merged. She shifted against him, but it wasn’t enough, she began to undulate.

  “Jesus! You’re killing me.” He rasped.

  But she wasn’t, because nothing stopped his mind-numbing thrusts.

  “Please Dalton,” she begged right before she lurched up and bit into his shoulder.

  She thought she heard her name, but she was lost in his eyes, then all sound stopped. She couldn’t breathe, it was as if the earth fell away.

  Beautiful sapphire blue fire, so much joy, all wrapped in layers of ecstasy. Her last thought was that nothing would ever be the same.

  7

  She was a snuggler. He would have sworn that it would have irritated him having a woman burrowing against him. Aurora slept like she loved, her hand over his heart, ensuring that he was cared for. Lacey, meanwhile, had always rolled away from him, insisting that she needed her space. Even when Reagan had snuck into their bed after a bad dream, his wife had always pushed their daughter into his arms. He knew deep in his gut that Aurora would never have done that.

  As he eased out of bed, he brushed the softest of kisses against her temple and pulled the covers around her. He pulled on his jeans, then grabbed his other clothes and boots then left the bedroom. Dalton knew that the backdoor and all the windows were secure when he locked the front door behind him as he left the house. He stood on the top porch step and took a deep breath, loving how the scent of the pine and bitingly fresh air help to clear his mind. After long moments he heard a noise, not surprised to see Tate Dressler walking up the stairs toward him. There had been a question that had been niggling at him.

  “You serve?” he asked Aurora’s uncle.

  The man’s smile shone brightly in the night light. “Marine. Eight years.”

  Dalton looked him up and down.

  “Raider?”

  “If I answered, I’d have to kill you,” Tate smiled blandly.

  “Out of Pendleton?” Dalton pushed.

  Tate walked up the porch steps and was almost eye-to-eye with Dalton when he asked, “What’s with all the questions?”

  “Ned Little’s cousin, Ricky, spent six months in the Marines before he was dishonorably discharged.”

  “For what?” Tate asked.

  “Got into a fight over a pool game and broke the cue over the other player’s head and killed him. The bet was five dollars.”

  “Are you shitting me? So besides being booted out of the Marines, I take it he did time?” Tate asked.

  “A nickel in Chino for manslaughter. It’s a case of dumb and dumber working this operation. Both of them were seen in Reno together ten days ago.”

  “I’m taking it that your info is solid?”

  Dalton leaned back against the porch rail and stared at Tate.

  The man held up his hands. “Okay, stupid question. Did your source get anything else?”

  “Since Aurora sent him packing, Ned’s been floating around the Western United States, mostly picking up part-time work under an assumed name.”

  “If he was using an assumed name, how did your guy figure it out?” Tate asked.

  “It wasn’t hard. He called himself Ned Small.”

  Tate let out a laugh but stifled it quickly. He tilted his head and they both started walking away from the house. They stopped at the corral and Dalton rested his foot on the lowest rail as he stared off into space. “Turns out that in his late teens and early twenties he was in the rodeo circuit but was kicked out for cheating. He’s blown every opportunity he’s ever had.”

  “Still doesn’t explain why he would suddenly turn on Aurora now. Hasn’t it been two years?” Tate asked.

  “My guy is trying to sort that out. Our job is to find his happy ass and shut this shit down.”

  Tate gave him an assessing look. “Seems to me you and my niece have gotten pretty close, you still planning on leaving on Sunday?”

  “I can put in for more leave if I need to, but I’m always on-call. My preference is to get this shit with D&D sorted before I leave.”

  “D&D? Oh yeah, Dumb and Dumber. I’m going to call in my boys and have them start patrolling too.”

  “The football players?” Dalton asked.

  “Yep,” Tate said proudly. “Rhys is studying to be a vet. Luke is thinking about joining the Marines next year.”

  “Maybe a better idea is to have her go to your ranch for a day. Then we can lay in wait.”

  Tate turned away from the rail so he could look directly at Dalton. “I might be reading this wrong, but I’m not.”

  Dalton waited for the man to continue. He knew what was coming.

  “There isn’t a chance in hell that Aurora is going to be leaving you for the little time that you two have left together.”

  Dalton worked hard to keep his face impassive. Tate couldn’t be right, could he? He and Aurora had only known each other for four days. Granted the chemistry was off the charts. Hell, it was on no known chart that he’d ever seen or heard of, but it didn’t matter, he didn’t do relationships. Full stop. End of story.

  Tate frowned. “It’s like that, is it? So, you’re toying with my niece?”

  “No.”

  “Explain yourself.”

  “The only one I have to explain myself to is Aurora,” Dalton bit out.

  “Then you better fucking do it.” Tate’s eyes narrowed. “In the meantime, I’ll stay here with Hal and Erwin, tomorrow you and Aurora can spend the day at my ranch with Rhys and Luke.”

  Dalton pushed away from the rail and started to head toward the house, then he hesitated. Turning back, he looked at a man he respected. “I’m not going to hurt her.”

  Tate sighed. “Yes, you are, but you’re also making her happy, so Gunnar and I are going to see it as a wash.”

  Aurora was half asleep when Dalton crawled back into bed. He was cold. When she went to put her arm around his lean waist he stiffened and eased away from her. She rolled against him, so that she could at least warm him up, but again he pulled away, that was when she realized it wasn’t just his body that was cold.

  “Dalton?”

  He went still. “I didn’t mean to wake you,” he whispered.

  Aurora had to strain to hear him, since he was facing away from her and he didn’t turn over. “Were you outside? I thought I heard the front door,” she said.

  “Yes.”

  She waited for him to elaborate, when he didn’t she finally asked, “why?”

  “I thought I heard something.”

  It was obvious he didn’t want to be touched, but to hell with it. She tugged at his shoulder and he rolled to face her. He looked grim, almost as if he was carved out of stone.r />
  “Did I do something wrong?” Aurora finally asked.

  She watched as the strong line of his neck bobbed as he swallowed. “No. It’s not you.”

  “But it’s something,” she guessed.

  His eyes looked black in the moonlight, she had to imagine the navy-blue color as he looked down at her. “I don’t want to lead you on,” he finally said. “I’m going to be leaving soon.”

  His words hurt. They were so final, and they sliced through skin and twisted into her guts. There shouldn’t be any pain. She’d known. She’d known that this was just a moment out of time, but after the way they’d come together? It had felt like so much more.

  Suck it up, Buttercup.

  She plastered on a smile.

  “How could you possibly be leading me on?” she asked. “Dalton, you live five hundred miles away from me, I always knew this was a one off.”

  “Four hundred and fifty.”

  “Huh?”

  He cleared his throat. “It’s four hundred and fifty miles between Tahoe and San Diego.”

  She pushed upright in her bed and looked down at the man who had, just hours before, taken her to the heights of ecstasy. Dalton’s entire body was rigid, like he was expecting a blow. He was not some man who was just playing fast and loose with her, she knew it, he had too much honor. But looking at him, he reminded her of Aladdin. Who had abused him?

  “Look, I don’t need a geography lesson, so don’t play semantics. It doesn’t matter if it was twenty miles or two thousand I always knew this was going to be finite.”

  His impassive face twisted, a deep pain was etched across his features. “It’s not you, it’s me,” his normally smooth voice sounded like it had been scraped over glass.

  Her lips twitched, and he frowned. Long moments passed.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” he growled.

  Aurora bit her lower lip until she was afraid it would bleed, just to keep herself from smiling. “I know you don’t want to hurt me,” she finally said.

  “Are you smiling?” he demanded to know.

  She looked at him helplessly and shook her head.

  “Why are you smiling?” He was clearly frustrated.

  “You know that’s the oldest brush-off line in the world, right?”

  She saw the light dawn and he sighed. He sat up and pulled her hand into his and twined their fingers together.

  “I didn’t mean to demean our time together,” he said softly.

  With her free hand she touched the underside of his jaw, tracing downward to the rapid beat of his pulse. God, he looked so solemn. Who had hurt him, she wondered again.

  “It’s okay.” This time her smile was weary. “I know it’s not true, I know that you didn’t mean it.”

  His hand squeezed tight, “I did mean it. I am leaving.”

  “I know that,” she assured him. “You didn’t mean to hurt my feelings and give me the time honored ‘it’s me, not you’ line.”

  His thumb brushed tenderly over her knuckles and she all but melted. “How can you know me less than a week and read me so well? My-” His lips clamped shut.

  She wasn’t going to press him. The man had secrets, that’d been clear from the get-go, and the last thing she wanted to do is to be intrusive.

  “Dalton let’s just enjoy the time we have left, okay?”

  “I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. I don’t want to lead you on.”

  “You’re not. You didn’t. I promise.” She stroked her fingers down his neck, over his sternum. Now his skin felt hot. “Dalton, when you leave here, we might not be lovers anymore, but this is always going to be a safe place for you. A haven. You’re always going to be welcome back.”

  He had never met another woman like her. She was beyond his comprehension. She deserved him to be as honest as possible.

  “I’m not coming back.”

  She continued to stroke his chest. “Okay, but know that if you change your mind, the gate will always be open.”

  His forehead tipped in surrender to touch hers.

  “You need to know why,” he said hoarsely. He hated talking about this. Only his team knew, and now Zed.

  “You don’t have to tell me anything, especially if it is going to bring you pain,” she reiterated.

  “I’m a bad bet. The worst bet you can imagine.” A tiny cream casket floated behind his closed eyelids.

  Warm arms slid around his neck. How did she know what he needed, even if he didn’t deserve it?

  “I failed my daughter. She died because of me.”

  A soft feather of fingers fluttered through the short hair at the nape of his neck.

  “Tell me,” she whispered. He heard no judgement.

  “Lacey had been out of rehab for the third time. She’d been sober for three months, but that didn’t matter, I knew better. I fucking knew that this time wasn’t any different, but did I listen to my gut? Hell no.” How often had he replayed that last morning in his mind?

  Aurora moved so that her head lay on his chest. He soaked in the comfort.

  “Lacey had opened two credit cards while I was overseas and hid them from me. I was furious. I didn’t want to yell because Reagan would hear and get upset, so I just left to go to the gym. Then I grabbed a burger with Hunter and Dex and bitched.”

  The next words felt stuck in his throat, but he forced himself to push them out.

  “I was gone for hours.”

  He could picture it so clearly. It had looked like their apartment had been hit by a hurricane. Lacey and Reagan were gone. He’d found a half-filled suitcase underneath the dining room table, and then more clothes strewn in the kitchen. When he’d lifted a tiny pink sundress of Reagan’s that had been left on the kitchen counter, he’d found an empty wine bottle.

  Where there was one, Dalton had known there would be more. He yanked open the cabinet under the sink and found two more in the trash bin. He broke into a cold sweat and lunged for his cell phone. Lacey didn’t pick up. He’d raced to the parking spot where Lacey’s hatchback had been parked, the stall was empty.

  He stopped talking, thinking about those awful moments when he had realized that his drunk wife had driven off with his child.

  “I knew where she was going,” Dalton finally continued. “Her mother’s house. When I called Norma, she wasn’t picking up either.”

  He was aware of Aurora pressed against him, but he didn’t feel any heat, he felt frozen.

  It was the longest and shortest drive of his life. As soon as he saw the slow down on the highway he knew what had happened. It was a nightmare. He flew down the bicycle lane in his truck, honking the entire way. He had to get to the accident. He saw the flashing lights, so many emergency vehicles. Then he saw the silver that matched Lacey’s hatchback. He heard a sound pummel through his truck, it took a moment for him to realize it was a moan coming from his throat.

  The car that he had just washed yesterday was upside down, he couldn’t even make out a roof let alone windows. Where were the windows? The doors? How could it have collapsed like a pancake? Dalton swerved, missing a highway patrolman by less than a foot.

  “I thought I would rip through my seatbelt as I got out of my car. The guy tried to stop me from getting to Reagan. He didn’t stand a chance. I mowed over him and three others and got there in time to see them zipping up my baby girl into a body bag. I don’t remember what happened next. I went crazy.”

  Aurora’s cheek was now pressed against his, and he didn’t know if it was her tears or his that he tasted.

  He didn’t know if he could finish it. How could he? It wasn’t finished. It never would be. Aurora wheezed, that was when he realized he was squeezing Aurora so tightly that it was amazing she hadn’t popped.

  “I’m sorry,” he rasped.

  “I’m not.”

  He could barely understand her. She was shaking. So was he. Eventually he remembered holding his daughter’s tiny body in his arms. Reagan’s face had looked like she w
as asleep, but when his hand combed through her curls they came away wet with blood and…

  For a moment, there on that California Highway he thought he was back in Afghanistan, amidst the blood and gore of war. But then he saw his daughters’ dark eyelashes, then he howled. Dalton literally howled her name as if he could call her soul back down from heaven.

  Lost, his baby was lost. Gone forever.

  Aurora was on top of him, her hair a tangled jungle blocking out anything but her tear-filled eyes.

  “She’s not lost. Not with you as her father, she can never be lost. Do you hear me? Are you listening to me Dalton?”

  She wasn’t making sense, but her tears were. The anguish on her face made perfect sense.

  “She’s gone forever.”

  “Sweetheart, she’s in your mind. Every time you think about her, she’s here with you. She’s in your heart. You need to talk about her. You need to share her.”

  He couldn’t. It was like a serrated blade ripping through his gullet every time. He didn’t realize he was shaking his head until Aurora gently grasped his skull and held it straight. “Tell me what she looked like. I bet she had the sweetest smile. Did she giggle?”

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can, Dalton. Talk to me. Tell me about your baby,” Aurora’s words flowed over him. It took him back in time.

  “Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!” Reagan’s voice would shout out as she’d practically tumble across the grass of the little grass patch of yard to get to him when he got home. He swung her up into a huge hug, amazed how such a little package could hold his whole heart hostage.

  “High. I wanna go high,” she shouted. Her little purple dress flowed in the breeze when he zoomed her up in the air, her shrieks of laughter were heard all around the apartment complex.

  “Again, Daddy!” Her smile dazzled him as she looked down upon him. Dalton imagined that every single person who lived there couldn’t help but be touched by his little girl’s happiness.

  “You’re right Aurora,” Dalton said. “Reagan had the best giggle in the world.”

  “What a beautiful name.”

  “Reagan Elizabeth. Elizabeth was my mother’s name,” Dalton explained.