I nodded back at Mercer to make sure he’d keep her where she was, in case she tried to come out. Then I did my job. I slipped out and checked around the vehicles and building for signs that someone had been around. It was clear.
I knocked twice on the door and Mercer opened it. He pushed Sonnie out and into my arms, where I tucked her into my side and hurried her into my truck. I had to call on all of my training to ignore the feeling of her curves pressed against me, but I did it. I pushed her down so she was laid over in the seat and then rushed around to the driver’s side. In seconds, I was speeding out of the parking lot and heading away from Black Dog.
Sonnie was still bent over in the seat beside me. The bench seat meant that her head was next to my thigh and her sweater provided a clear view of her very impressive cleavage.
I kept my eyes on the road, only glancing up to make sure Mercer was following behind me. “You can sit up now.”
She sat up with a huff and stared over at me. “What was that?”
“That was a tactical move to make sure you were safe, in case there was anyone out there with a gun. Again, it’s probably excessive, but we don’t take unnecessary chances.”
“A gun?” Her voice went high enough to make me wince.
“Precaution. Nothing else.”
“This is too much.” She fanned herself and continued to stare at me. “This is crazy! You guys are intense. I don’t need intense. I need like… a restraining order, or a dog. I’ll get a dog. That’s what I’ll do. I don’t need all of this, though. This is stuff for the president or something.”
I slowed and turned onto a side street. “We’re just being careful. What’s the harm in that?”
“The harm is that you scared me half to death. You don’t get it. I’m not cut out for this. I ran away from someone today. Like I was in a horror film. That’s not me. This isn’t my life. Oh, shit.” She fanned herself faster and panted. “I write children’s books! For a reason! I’m a gentle person. I can’t have tactical moves happening around me. I need kids and pretty colors. Puppies and kittens!”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. It was obvious that she was having a moment and I didn’t want to be an asshole, but she was cute. It was hard not to at least grin at her.
“This is what I was afraid of. I was afraid of starting back at go—because you never know what the new path is going to hold. My new path has taken a wild freaking turn and I’m not strapped in! Maybe I should’ve just forgiven the trio of hookers. I should’ve stayed on that path. I could’ve just gone to the bedroom, put on that stupid lingerie, and joined in. At least then I wouldn’t be involved in a military operation.”
I turned onto her street and looked over at her. “A trio of hookers?”
She frowned. “I don’t know that they were actually hookers. I didn’t ask. It didn’t seem important at the time.”
“Of course not.”
“Are you laughing at me?”
“Of course not.” I bit my lip harder and pulled into her driveway. “Stay in the truck until I come around for you.”
“I don’t want to do more tactical stuff.”
I held her gaze and tried to sound as calming as I could. “Sonnie, humor me—okay? I know it seems silly, but it makes me feel better. As soon as we get inside, the tactical stuff can stop and you can pretend like I’m not there.”
“Fat chance.”
I laughed and shrugged. “Hang tight. I’m coming around.”
By the time I got around to her side, all of five seconds later, she was pouting in her seat with her arms crossed over her chest. I opened the door and grinned in at her. Her cheeks went red again and I wondered if she was as physically aware of me as I was of her. It seemed crazy to think that, with what she was going through, but a man could hope. Hope, and hope alone.
“Come on. Let’s get you inside and you can tell me all about the possible hookers and stupid lingerie.” Realizing what I’d said too late, I cleared my throat. “Or just the possible hookers.”
She let me lead her inside and then hurried up the stairs once past the threshold. I watched her hustle up them and groaned under my breath. Her ass swayed from side to side in a rhythm that called to me.
“Hey, asshole, she’s a client.” Vince slapped the back of my head and gave me a smirk when he did. “I never would’ve been able to do that if you’d been paying attention. Number one reason why you keep your hands off her.”
I glared at him, without any real feeling behind it. “Number two reason: we’ve both got too much shit going on right now.”
“You telling me or yourself?”
Myself. Definitely myself. I wasn’t going to admit that to him, though. “Fuck off.”
“That’s what I thought.” He laughed and shook his head at me. “Did you get anything out of her? Anything we need to know about the ex?”
I thought about the trio of possible hookers, and, more pointedly, Sonnie in lingerie. “Not anything useful.”
“That look on your face is weird, man. I don’t even want to know.” He held up his hands. “I’m out. I’ve got a thing tonight. Call me if you need anything.”
Branson came into the foyer where we were standing and looked between the two of us. “Do I want to know?”
Vince grinned. “Coop’s got the hots for the client and keeps staring after her like a pervert. I’m heading out. You coming?”
Branson nodded. “Yeah. I’ll look around the area once more. I’ll call you if I see anything. You call me if you need me.”
I said my goodbyes and watched them leave. Then it was just me and Sonnie in her home. She was nowhere to be seen, so I walked around the bottom floor, getting familiar with all the entry points. I was starting up the stairs to do the same on the top floor when a door opened and Sonnie appeared at the top of the stairs.
She froze and backed up. “Sorry. Go ahead.”
I took the stairs two at a time and stepped out of her way. “I’m just checking out the windows and doors.”
She nodded and stared at my left shoulder. “I just remembered that I left groceries on the kitchen counter.”
“I’ll be back down in a minute.”
After checking everything out, I went back downstairs and found Sonnie staring into her open fridge. I watched her for a second before speaking. “Everything okay?”
She turned to me and the look on her face said that no, everything was not okay. “Did he put my groceries away for me?”
Anger coursed through me and I rested my hands on the island, forcing myself to appear relaxed. “It might’ve been Vince and Branson.”
“Is that something that they’d do?”
I hated to disappoint her, but I wouldn’t lie. I shook my head. Those guys weren’t exactly domestic.
She closed the fridge door and slumped against the counter. “This sucks.”
“I’ll order something. The diner delivers. Do you want something from there?”
She scrubbed her hands down her face and through her hair. Mascara streaked down her cheeks, but she didn’t notice it. “Mac and cheese. That’s what I was going to make for myself when I got home.”
“Got it. I’ll order food for us. Why don’t you go take a bath or do something relaxing? I’ll get the food when it comes and call you down.”
“You don’t have to do that.”
I just smiled. “It’s fine. I’ll take care of everything tonight. You’ve had a long day.”
Sonnie’s eyes filled with tears that she quickly blinked away. “Thank you.”
I forced myself to look away as she left the room and pulled my phone out. Ordering food and then looking around the downstairs again, I thought about how I clearly needed to go out more. I was feeling an abnormal amount of attraction to Sonnie and it couldn’t happen. It wasn’t professional and it was a distraction. It must’ve been the fact that it’d been months since I’d been with anyone.
I rolled my eyes at myself as I sat at the kitchen island,
the only space with a clear view of both the front and back doors. I used my training to slip into a focused conscious, cutting off the part of my brain that couldn’t stop thinking about Sonnie in lingerie.
Chapter 7
Sonnie
I was feeling what I liked to call fear regret. I’d made a decision while scared that I wanted to take back. Badly. There was so much happening as a direct result of me getting scared. It was almost as bad as the fear itself. I wanted to take it all back and face Jake head-on. Then I wouldn’t have five men interrupting their day to take care of something that was actually nothing.
Not to mention the fact that I’d almost had a full-blown freak-out in Cooper’s truck. It was mortifying. And probably over nothing. Jake had gone too far, but he was just being a jerk. There was no reason for tactical anything. I’d brought so much attention on myself and when it became clear that Jake wasn’t a threat, I was going to look stupid.
Or desperate. “Single woman fakes attack to gain attention of five hunky security guards.” I could just see the headlines.
I wanted to crawl into a hole and hide. Instead, I had to go downstairs and eat dinner with Cooper. Cooper, who was probably the most gorgeous man I’d ever seen. Cooper, who was being so sweet. Cooper, with the daughter and, most likely, the wife.
Groaning, I slipped under the water in my bath and blew out air bubbles until I had to raise back up to breathe. How embarrassing. It was all enough to make me want to become a hermit. If I never went out again, I’d never have to face running into one of the men around town.
When my water started to go cold, I got out and dried off. I pulled on underwear and then stood in front of my closet, debating what to wear. If I wore my usual loungewear, I chanced looking like a mix of a homeless person and a prostitute. Though, if I went down in nice pants and a blouse, I chanced looking absolutely insane. A skirt was ridiculous. A dress seemed way over the top. I even looked longingly at the floor-length robe Kellie bought me a few years before. It covered everything from my neck to my toes, but the idea of not being fully dressed under it, around Cooper, sent heat flooding my face.
I was still debating when a light knock came at the door. I squeaked and snapped my arm over my chest while practically lunging into my closet to hide.
“Everything okay?” Cooper’s low voice came through the bedroom door.
“Y-yeah!” I had to clear my throat to get my voice to actually work. “Just getting dressed. I’ll be down in just a second.”
There was a moment of hesitation. “Okay. I’ll be in the kitchen with dinner.”
I fell into my clothes and shoved a sweater into my mouth so he wouldn’t hear me groan. I was an idiot.
I pulled on my favorite sweater, an oversized number that felt as soft as a puppy’s fur, and leggings that only had a few holes in them. I slipped on socks and put my hair up in a clip. I spent too long looking at my reflection in the bathroom mirror and then made myself go downstairs.
I wasn’t going to win any awards for being the prettiest. End of statement.
Even with my padded feet making no sound, Cooper turned to me when I came into the kitchen. His eyes ran down my body and then moved back to the countertop. “I got you mac and cheese, but also their bread pudding. They have delicious bread pudding.”
My stomach growled loudly and Cooper chuckled.
“I feel the same way about their bread pudding.”
He’d put the containers of my food in front of the stool next to him and I felt like it’d be rude to pull them farther away. So I sat awkwardly close to him at the island, feeling like a nutcase who’d lit her house on fire to get the sexy firemen to come.
Cooper opened his container and I saw that he’d ordered a huge burger for himself. He’d skipped on the seasoned fries and got chips instead. I also saw that his container of bread pudding was twice as large as mine.
He saw me looking and grinned. “I have special pull at Apple’s.”
I focused on opening my mac and cheese. “Girlfriend-in-the-business special pull?”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I wanted to chase them away and pretend they hadn’t come out. I hadn’t meant them to sound like I was fishing for information. I didn’t want to increase the desperate look I had going on.
“No; no girlfriend.” He took a big bite of his burger and left it at that while he chewed. “What about you? Is there a boyfriend you should call and let know you’re okay?”
The lid to my mac and cheese went flying and I laughed awkwardly. “Um… No. The last one didn’t end so well.”
Cooper’s eyes were on me, meaning he’d turned slightly to face me. His knee brushed my leg and instead of pulling back, he let it rest there. “I just ask.”
I looked over at him, confused. “What?”
He grinned, revealing that damned dimple. “I ask for extra bread pudding. That’s my special pull.”
I laughed and looked back at my food. A companionable silence settled over us as we ate. I still wasn’t exactly comfortable, sitting with a stranger whom I found incredibly attractive, after I’d made a fool of myself. Especially with the way our knees still touched. I was sure he didn’t realize that we were touching, but I felt it down to my toes.
He finished his before me and took a long pull from the old-fashioned bottle of root beer he’d had delivered. “That was delicious. How’s yours?”
I licked a stray bit of cheese from my lip and nodded. “Really good. This hits the spot.”
“Stressful day, huh?”
I pushed the tray away and rested my elbows on the table. “I may have overreacted.”
Cooper put his hand on my shoulder and shook his head. “You were scared. I saw you. He did something that made you that scared.”
“I don’t think it was worth all of this, though. I feel silly.” I shrugged. “He’s never been violent or anything. It just scared me that he’d come into my home when I wasn’t here.”
“Did he have a key?”
“No. He’s never lived here. After we split up, I moved here. He’s never been allowed inside. He’s been trying to come in lately, though. He’s pushing for me to get back with him.”
“And he thinks scaring you half to death will do the trick? What an asshole.”
“You said it. He is. There’s no way in hell that I’m getting back together with him. It wasn’t good even when I didn’t know that he was cheating on me. I have some dignity. I’m not taking back someone who could be such a jerk to me.”
Cooper turned completely to face me, his thighs bracketing me in. “So, he was never violent?”
I shook my head. “No way. He was angry a lot, but he never got physical. A few days ago was the first time he ever did anything that felt physically imposing. And then the diner.”
“Tell me about it.”
I winced. “It’s embarrassing.”
“For him. You’ve got nothing to be embarrassed about. It’ll help me get a better idea of what’s happening.”
I swallowed my pride and told him about what Jake had been doing. I made sure not to speak with too much emotion, so I didn’t seem like I was dramatizing anything.
When I finished, Cooper stared at me with narrowed eyes and shook his head. “You have every right to be freaked out. He’s getting aggressive. I’m no expert on domestic violence, but it can progress fairly quickly, Sonnie. If you can’t afford to hire us, we’d be more than willing to do it for you free of charge. To make sure you’re safe.”
“No. I couldn’t do that. If I feel like I need y’all, I can afford it. That’s the whole reason Jake wants me back. I can afford lots of things.” I groaned. “The last four, almost five years we were together, he didn’t work. When I served him with divorce papers, he thought he’d get alimony, so he was okay with it. He just found out a couple of weeks ago that he isn’t getting anything. He must’ve run out of money.”
“What a fucking dick.”
“Yeah.”
; Cooper sighed. “Don’t turn down having us here because it seems like a stretch that you’ll need us. Better safe than sorry.”
I shivered at the idea of what sorry meant. I pulled my sweater back up on my shoulder from where it’d slipped down, and blew out a breath. “It’s just too much. I’m just trying to live my life. I had to start all over. I’ve just started getting comfortable here, on my own. I don’t want any more changes. I’m tired of changes. Even if they have been for the better… despite what I said in the truck.”
“I get it. Divorce isn’t easy.” He pulled my untouched bread pudding towards him and opened it. “This helps.”
I smiled up at him and scrunched up my nose before taking a bite. With him watching me, something as simple as eating suddenly felt erotic. I was instantly aware of the fact that Jake had never made eating erotic. Not even close. Not even when we’d been teenagers and turned on by everything.
Cooper’s light-brown eyes watched me through lowered lids, his thick lashes brushing his cheeks when he blinked. He was closer. When had he moved close enough for me to see the details of his eyes?
I looked down at his mouth and licked my lips again. His mouth was naturally pink and his lower lip was fuller, begging for someone to bite it.
That thought shocked me and I looked back up, into his eyes, and sucked in a breathy little gasp. Closer still, his eyes had darkened and his exhaled breath brushed over my mouth.
His hands gently cupped my face, his fingers locking into my hair. Slowly, he closed the small gap between us and kissed me. Soft and easy. His mouth was warm. He tilted his head and kissed me again, and again.
My body reacted like he’d poured kerosene on it and lit a match. I reached for him and ended up with two handfuls of shirt at his sides. I leaned forward too far and slipped from my barstool. Cooper easily slipped one of his hands down and wrapped his arm around my body, securing me against his.
With all of me pressed against all of him, I could feel how much he was enjoying the kiss and it pushed me past the point of dainty children’s book author. I licked the seam of his lips and tasted sweetness, heard his responding growl. His arm tightened around me and his mouth opened for me.
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 5