Poisoned Ivy

by D W Marshall

  “I love her.” Shit. I can’t believe I just copped to that.

  “You have lost your damn mind! Where are you? I’m coming to get you and take her back to Dublin!”

  “The fuck you are! She needs this. Her parents were smothering her and her ex-fiancé was abusive. She can’t get better there. She is an adult. She asked me for help and I am helping her. End of story.” I dare say bold and explosive words to my father in a way that I have never uttered.

  “Then you can kiss your career goodbye.” He slams the phone down in my face.

  He is probably right. My career in protection is going to be over when rumors travel through our circuit that I ran off with the daughter of the man who hired me. But I can’t worry about that right now. Sometimes when you are helping someone you have to leap with them and hope things will turn out okay.

  My phone vibrates again.

  “Yep?” I say into the receiver. I knew my pops would call back. He would never end our conversation on such a bad note. That is not his style.

  “Are you sure about this, son?”

  “Yes I am very sure. You should see her, Pops. The farther she got from Dublin, the deeper she could breathe. She is coming to life.”

  “But ask yourself what happens when she goes back. She can’t run from her problems, son. How is this helping her?”

  I flop onto the sofa. “We are not running. Her problem is that her father never taught her to take care of herself. I get it. He thought he would be enough to keep her safe. But that wasn’t the case. She was kidnapped twice. Who gets kidnapped twice and manages to return back to their old life and just jumps back in? I’m going to train her to defend herself, to stop being a victim, to see with special eyes, head-on-a-swivel-type shit, Pops. Then when she goes back she will feel empowered to meet her life head-on. I’m not expecting her to chose me when she is ready to go home either, ‘cause love isn’t selfish like that. I want her happy and strong. That’s all.”

  There is silence. I am waiting for the shouting to begin. “Then, son, I am proud of you. If you need anything at all you let me know.”

  “Wow, thanks.” I pull my phone from my ear and look at it. Am I hallucinating? “Really? Why?” I have to know why he would feel this way when I have so obviously gone against every rule in the book.

  “Because I know your heart, son. You didn’t choose this path because it is easy. You chose it because you believed it was the right thing to do. You saw someone who needed our help and you are giving it to her, no matter the cost. How can I not be proud? I will speak with Peter O’Malley on this matter.”

  “Thanks, Pops.”

  We hang up on a shocking note. I never expected my dad to agree with my decision, but I am happy to have him on my side.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Maeve: Dreams and Nightmares

  I am out without a thought, but this time I dream.

  Miles has just punched Keegan in the face. I run up to him and jump into his arms in thanks for beating up Keegan. Miles attempts to set me down but I won’t let him. I want to be in his arms forever. When our faces are only inches apart I take my opportunity and kiss him. He doesn’t resist. Instead his tongue slips into my mouth and I am a ball of sexual need and want. It is oozing from every pore and my panties are wet with anticipation. “I want you.”

  Miles walks me into what would be my room, except it looks nothing like my room. It is shimmery jade green with gold accent furniture. We are completely naked and it feels right.

  “What’s this?” Miles asks, pointing at my pleasure pony. “It looks like it should be on a carousel but this is no kids’ play toy.”

  “I’ll show you.” I walk over to my armoire and grab a healthy-sized dildo. His eyebrow raises in curiosity. I cross the room and screw it onto the pony’s back. I push the button and we watch it glisten as lubricant covers and drips down the shaft. I dare a look down and he too is ready. His meaty cock is ready for action.

  Before I show him the full workings of the pony, I want to thank him more. I ease down onto my knees and take him into my hand. The skin is a smooth, warm covering over steel. I wrap my lips around him and thank the tip with my tongue swirling round and round. Then I take him deep into my mouth, until I can feel him at the back of my throat. Then I suck him. He pulls out of my mouth and looks at me with shock and awe.

  “Join me,” I say. I climb onto the pony facing backward. He climbs on with me, watching me with lustful eyes as I sink down on the long shaft, letting a moan escape from the back of my throat. Miles’s eyes grow big and then small as he enjoys my self-pleasure. Not content with being a spectator, he finds my nipple with his lips and his sucking makes me want to scream. I almost come undone when his other hand cups my clitoris and his fingers begin working on my pleasure nugget. I combust grinding on my oversized dildo, with Miles devouring my breasts and tantalizing my clit. Feck yeah.

  When I open my eyes I wish I hadn’t because we are not alone.

  “My turn with the little whore,” Keegan says, his cock swinging in wait. He snatches me off the pony. I look around for Miles and he is gone. The only people in the room with me are a naked and very erect Keegan and Mason.

  The screams that escape me wake me from my sleep.

  “Maeve! Maeve!”

  “Miles! Oh my goodness. Miles, don’t leave me again!”

  His arms comfort me, enveloping me with concern and care. I sob heavily into them. “You’re safe. I’m here. I won’t go anywhere. Try and sleep.” I lie back down and Miles lies next to me, his arms around me.

  “My dream started out so beautiful, perfect, and then nothing but darkness. It was so scary.” I sniff.

  “I’m sorry. I wish I could reach in and take all the bad dreams and memories out of your head.” He squeezes me tighter.

  “This helps.” I tighten my grip on his arms, instantly feeling less afraid of what will happen when I close my eyes.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Maeve: Restful Night

  When I wake up I feel refreshed. I am still in Miles’s arms and he is silent behind me. I have no idea what time it is. Midday naps are the worst because I am always disoriented. I begin to move and Miles’s arms tighten around me.

  “Where are you getting off to?” he asks, immediately releasing me.

  “Bathroom.”

  “I call next,” he says.

  “Uh, look around, I think this place has three bathrooms.” I wave my hands for effect.

  “True,” he says and hops up.

  I move quick as we race to the closest bathroom. I win, I’m sure because he let me. When I make it to the living room area, the curtains are drawn and the view is every bit as amazing as I expected.

  “How’d you sleep?”

  “Like a dreamless log. Thank you for sleeping with me. Can that be a thing for a while? I mean, I hate to ask you to blur the lines of our friendship like this, but I am terrified to go to sleep.”

  He crosses the room to me and wraps me in a hug that melts me. “Well, as your protector and friend I can’t have you terrified, so consider it done.”

  “Thank you, Miles. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

  A small laugh escapes him. “Well, I will see how you feel about that when we talk about some of the activities you will be participating in while we are here.” He takes a seat in a chair that overlooks the view of the Strip out of the gargantuan window.

  I follow and take a seat across from him. “I’m listening.”

  “Okay, so for starters I think part of your fear is a feeling of helplessness. Your parents hired us because they too believe that you are helpless, but you don’t have to be. Starting tomorrow, you and I will be training. Shooting, fighting, and observation lessons.”

  I pout a little. “That doesn’t sound like much Vegas fun.”

  He grabs my knees and gives them a squeeze. “Oh, we will have that too. We can even reach out to your friend Vivian and see if she and her boyfriend want t
o do some couple stuff,” he says.

  “You said couple stuff. Are we a couple?” Please say yes. Please say yes.

  “No. As much as I would love to be a couple with you, Maeve, that isn’t what you need right now. You need me to be your friend. You need me to teach you to be so strong that no one can hurt you again. It breaks my heart to see you so broken and I wanted to put a toe tag on the douche back in Ireland. But this is the only way I can see to help you.”

  I pout, then smile. “Well, that makes me want you less. Shite, did I say that out loud?” I cover my mouth.

  Miles’s laugh is hearty and I think he may have just blushed. “Behave yourself. Besides, when I tell you the next thing you have to do, you won’t want me at all.” He hands me a cell phone, like an olden days flippy phone.

  “What’s this for?”

  “Call your folks. The phone is clean. They can’t call you back on it.”

  “Miles, it’s like two a.m. in Dublin!”

  “If you were a parent would that time matter to you?”

  I sulk. “I guess not.” I mouth I hate you to him as I dial home.

  He laughs again. “I knew that you would.”

  Of course someone picks up on the first ring. “Anseo?” My da’s voice is sleepy but alert. Only bad calls happen in the middle of the night/morning.

  “It’s me, Da.”

  “Maeve! Where the hell are you? Are you okay, love? Where is Miles? Is he with you? ‘Cause if he is, he is a dead man for taking you away from us.”

  “Is that my daughter?” I hear Ma in the background.

  “Yes, love, it’s her,” he whispers.

  “Did you not get my letter? Miles didn’t take me anywhere. I confided in him that I was leaving and I asked him to travel with me so that I am not alone. I trust him with my life, Da. He is going to train me on how to protect myself.”

  Ma snatches the phone. “You get on the first plane back here, young lady. You hear what I’m tellin’ you?”

  I hold the phone in my hand away from my ear, while they fight over who is going to talk to me. I look up to heaven and then to Miles for strength before I put the phone to my ear. “Listen, you two. I am not coming home until I am good and damned ready. I am an adult, or have you both forgotten that? I am not strong enough to be there right now. It is too painful yet. I will return home and when I do I will be a new and improved, stronger Maeve. Miles is going to help me with that. He is a good friend. Now, I am going to put the speaker on and the two of you are going to thank him for taking all of this on when he didn’t have to.” I push the speaker button. “Talk,” I order.

  “Miles, the wife and I want to thank you for taking care of our Maeve. We know she is in good hands.”

  I can tell that was difficult for my da. But I can’t have them blaming Miles for just being an awesome guy. “Better. I will call you in a few days to check in. I love you both,” I say. “Kiss the twins for me.”

  “We love you too, baby girl. Be safe, and we will be seeing you soon?”

  “Yes, Da, as soon as I am ready.”

  We say our goodbyes and I disconnect the call.

  “I knew you had some strength in there,” Miles says.

  “Doesn’t count when they’re my folks.”

  “It’s a start. You hungry?”

  “Famished,” I say.

  “How a little tiny thing like you can eat so much is a mystery to me.”

  We decide on room service. Cheese pizza. Another thing we have in common. Miles runs down to the store inside the hotel and brings back some beer options. Sapporo, Guinness, and Blue Moon. A beer party. We sit on the floor in the living room drinking beer, eating pizza, and watching pay per view movies—comedies.

  We decide to hide the beers under the ice, in the ice chest that he bought, and whichever one we pull out we have to drink. Since I only like one out of the three, this is a challenge, and the absolute most fun I have had with a man in as long as I can remember. Just innocent fun.

  “You asked me if I wanted to be in security forever.”

  “I did, and you never gave me an answer,” I say.

  “Well, the answer is no. I consider the time I have spent and am spending as on-the-job training for my ultimate career.”

  “You don’t need all of this training to be my husband. Trust me, I’m not that much work!” I tease, the beer making me silly and brave.

  “Ha ha. Actually, you are a lot of work,” he teases back. “I was saying before I was interrupted.”

  I stick my tongue out at him and he copies me.

  “I want to run a training center. With defense classes for children, women, the elderly. I also want an academy that produces the finest high-level security agents in the world. That will allow me to settle down and have a wonderful life with a vibrant and beautiful woman who loves sushi and cheese pizza as much as I do.”

  I roll my eyes. “Ha ha, I got the joke. But seriously, that is an amazing plan. You get everything you want in life with a plan like that.”

  “Precisely.”

  “Well you, sir, deserve all of your dreams to come true and more.”

  “As do you, my lady.”

  What he says hits me and sadness clouds over me. I don’t want to spoil our good time but I realize I have no idea what my dreams are anymore.

  “You can always create new dreams, Maeve,” Miles says, reading my mind.

  “Am I that easy to read?” I ask, my face a mask of shock.

  “Transparent.”

  “Well I will drink to that. But then I’m Irish, so I will kind of drink to anything,” I tease.

  Miles is right, though. It is time I create new dreams for myself. Who says that the path I was on was the right one? Maybe being kidnapped had to happen so that I wouldn’t end up as an unhappy trophy wife. Also, if it hadn’t happened I would have never met Miles, and every moment I spend with him tells me that meeting him is a gift.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Miles: Second Sight

  I plan to take it easy on Maeve today, but training starts now. At the end of our training session her surprise will arrive. Maybe that is how we can arrange this: work, followed by reward. Incentive is always more motivating. I slide out of the bed so I don’t wake her. She is a hard sleeper, I have noticed.

  I turn toward the bed when I shouldn’t. Keeping our relationship platonic has been a challenge, because Maeve is fucking amazing! Adding sleeping together every night is definitely a judgment-clouder, but if it helps her escape the nightmares I will continue to do it without thought.

  She is so beautiful. Soft, creamy skin dusted with a healthy share of freckles. Red hair flowing over her pillow and down her back. Her body is equally beautiful—swimsuit model, this—with just the right amount of curves. Delicate. Everything about Maeve O’Malley is delicate. How can anyone hurt her? Keeping her safe is my first priority and helping her become a fighter is my second. Falling in love with her is one of those unforeseen challenges of the job. It is not unseen or unheard of. I’m sure it happens more than I know, but I can’t let my emotions guide my actions. Maeve can’t afford for me to.

  After a couple of deep breaths I walk out of the room of this woman who trusts me with her life. I grab a bottled water and bypass the gym, and run through a workout in the living room area. No weights needed.

  Twenty minutes later, I wake Maeve up so that she can get ready. “Hey, sleepyhead. Time to rise and shine.”

  She lifts her head up and stares at me like I’ve grown a second head. “What time is it?”

  “Eight o’clock,” I say, peeling my wet shirt off me.

  I don’t miss how her eyes widen at the sight of my exposed upper body. “In the morning? Are you insane? You get me drunk and then make me wake up at the crack of dawn?”

  I can’t help but laugh. “First of all, you missed the crack of dawn about three hours ago. And second, that is exactly what I’m doing. I’m heading into the other bathroom to shower. We need to get
clothes today and you are starting your training immediately.” I walk out of the room because her open mouth suggests a protest against everything I have said to her.

  “Training? I haven’t even had my tea yet!” she yells after me. The light, lyrical lilt of her voice warms my heart.

  “You can have your tea while you train, Princess.”

  Forty minutes later and Maeve and I head down to the buffet to eat. I figure that is a perfect spot for our first lesson. We don’t have to wait in line because our room affords us VIP entrance. When we are seated at our table, a waitress takes our drink order. When she walks away I ask the first question.

  “What color was our waitress’s hair?”

  Maeve looks at me as if I am insane. “I don’t know? How would I know that? She was only at our table for a second.”

  I sit back and watch her for a few minutes. “She had blonde hair with gray streaks. She was wearing small gold hoop earrings, and a gold watch on her right hand, suggesting that she is left-handed. She was no more than five-three, but I’m sitting so I may be off by an inch one way or the other, and she limped, suggesting left hip pain. Her nails are polished with a coat of clear.”

  Disbelief is the look she gives me. When the waitress returns with our drinks Maeve assesses her for the first time and takes inventory of everything that I said.

  “Wow, how did you do that?”

  “The same way you will learn to. We get so wrapped up in what is happening in our life right in front of us, we forget to see what is going on around us. That is dangerous. Chances are if you knew how to see with your second pair of eyes, you would have noticed that you were being watched before you were taken. Before we begin defensive training, we will start here. And there’s no more perfect place than Vegas’s busy locale. When you are done for the day, I have a surprise for you for all the hard work.”