Without Warning

by Reese Knightley

  “Did you report Toby?” Harrison had caught up with him chopping wood out back of the cabin.

  “I did.”

  “Why?”

  “It’s not normal for someone to call you that often who isn’t your lover,” he said bluntly.

  Harrison had looked at him for a long time before nodding. It hadn’t stopped Toby from calling, but from that day forward, Harrison let the majority of the calls go to voicemail.

  Today was not one of those days.

  Yanking his phone out, Ryder punched in Logan’s number.

  “Anything?”

  “Carson and I both checked into Brian Sanders, Toby Grant, and Shelby Clark after your brakes were cut. We added in John Lister as well. Brian Sanders is as clean as a whistle. Shelby Clark grew up in an upper class neighborhood, parents are divorced. His sister still lives in the old house. Shelby went to a community college before earning his Masters in computer science. John Lister has a slight handicap from his accident, is not prone to violence of any kind, and lives at home with his mother. No prior arrests on any of them.”

  “And Grant?”

  “I went through other channels and did a search and found that Toby Grant has a military background with a regular discharge.”

  “Family?”

  “Father died when he was ten. Mother remarried and the stepfather worked at the dock loading ships. His mother passed away from diabetes a few years ago. Lower income but seems like he had a normal childhood.”

  “Something about Grant doesn’t ring true.”

  “What is it?” Logan asked sharply.

  “I don’t know. He rubs me the wrong way.”

  “Is it because he’s friends with Harrison or because you think he’s a threat?”

  Logan must have talked to Jaxon.

  “Both,” Ryder snapped and hung up on Logan. He shoved the phone away and raked his fingers through his hair. His eyes stayed locked on Harrison sporting a new look in tight jeans, chunky boots, and a white pullover.

  The new look was fucking killer on the guy. Harrison had gotten more than a few looks that had Ryder’s blood pressure rising and anger shimmering beneath the surface.

  Harrison ended his call, and those long legs brought him closer.

  “Hey,” the man’s soft voice traveled between them. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah.” He let out a hard breath. “Where’s the baseball cap I gave you?”

  Harrison’s nose wrinkled. “I don’t know.” The man ran his fingers through his dirty-blond hair and it ruffled in the wind.

  “I can’t do it all, Harrison. I can’t have you distracted even though I’m watching your back. Do you understand me? If you’re on the damned phone all the time, I can’t give you signals you’ll see,” he said, partially lying because he’d had a client that had been on the phone twenty-four seven and he’d managed to protect the client just fine.

  “Okay,” Harrison snapped. “You don’t need to yell at me.”

  He scowled. “I’m not yelling.”

  “Right.”

  He drew in a long breath and fought for his patience.

  “Now that we have your clothes shopping out of the way, let’s hit the grocery store before heading back. I want to stock up on supplies.” He glanced around and guided Harrison back to the sidewalk.

  He’d driven into Boulder to get their shopping done and now it was making him damned nervous.

  Harrison marched into the store, and Ryder took a quick moment to look behind them, his gaze moving up and down the street.

  Why the hell did he suddenly feel like he was being watched? He scanned the street again, possibly a reporter, but nobody seemed suspicious among the crowds of people going about their business on a nice summer day.

  Hurrying inside, he caught up to Harrison, who ignored him.

  Harrison grabbed a shopping cart and pushed it down the aisle, throwing things in it. All healthy stuff, but the way the guy shopped was careless.

  “We won’t need four boxes of cereal,” he scowled.

  “But what if I wake up and want a different kind than the one I bought?”

  Ryder clenched his teeth against the big, blue-eyed gaze. “Normal people buy one box and eat it,” he said more harshly than he intended.

  Harrison squinted at him and yanked the items out of the cart before slamming a box of raisin bran into the cart.

  “There, happy?” Harrison snapped and marched down the aisle toward the produce.

  Ryder lengthened his strides to keep up and lifted his eyes from Harrison’s tight ass just in time to avoid getting caught staring. He glared at a few customers along the way, feeling a bit like an idiot.

  “What kind of fruit do you want? Or are we only getting one kind of that, too?” Harrison said waspishly.

  Irritated, Ryder selected a few grapes, oranges, and a bunch of bananas.

  It was a very quiet shopping trip after that, and he didn’t have the courage to break Harrison’s icy demeanor until they were ten minutes away from the cabin.

  “I’m sorry,” he said gruffly. It hadn’t been the first time they’d butted heads, but it was the first time he’d actually apologized for being an asshole.

  “Why?” Harrison shot back. “Did you think that I wouldn’t hang up the phone or stop answering it if you asked me to?”

  “No. It’s not… easy for me to understand people,” he admitted, taking the turn off for the cabin.

  That wasn’t what he meant to say, but before he could change it to not easy for me to relate to people, Harrison spoke.

  “What do you mean, understand people?”

  He blew out a breath. Maybe that was exactly what he’d meant after all.

  “I didn’t understand my ex.”

  That seemed to catch Harrison off guard, and his face jerked toward him.

  “You didn’t?” Harrison’s tone sounded surprised.

  “Hell no.” Ryder gave a harsh laugh. “I never understood his goals or I wouldn’t have married him. I shouldn’t have married him,” he corrected.

  “Money.”

  “Yeah.”

  “It does ruin a lot.”

  Ryder popped out the question he’d been wanting to ask for a while.

  “Why don’t you give it up?” He tossed Harrison a glance and found him chewing on his bottom lip.

  “Honestly? I thought about it.” At his skeptical look, Harrison continued, “I did, trust me, long and hard, but I can’t. My father built the company with his own blood, sweat, and tears. That may sound like a cliché, but it’s not only that. It’s the only thing I have left of him.”

  “Where does your uncle fit into all this?”

  “Uncle Dean? He came to work for dad about a year after Aunt Julie died. That was probably, gosh, three years ago.” Harrison rubbed at his arm. “When dad passed away, I asked Uncle Dean to help me run the company. Dad hadn’t changed his will to include Dean yet, but I know he was going to. He just ran out of time.”

  “When did you start working for your dad?”

  “Oh wow, um I’ve been going into the office with him since I was ten until I went away to college. I came home every chance I got and worked with him during the summers. When I graduated, I worked alongside of him. That may not seem like very much time since I’m only twenty-five, but I invested every bit of knowledge and time I had learning from him. He taught me everything from the ground up. It’s my company as much as it was his.”

  “Did he know you were gay?”

  “Yes, he did, and he accepted me.”

  “Why the hell would he put this on you? To force you to marry to keep a company you both loved?” He shot the man a look, but Harrison looked away.

  “I honestly don’t know and he’s not here for me to ask, but it might be because I once told him that I would never marry or fall in love.”

  “Why would you say that?” Ryder pulled up to the cabin and shut off the engine before turning in his seat.

  Harrison
gave him a searching look before looking away. “I…don’t know.”

  There’s so much depth to this man. On the heels of that thought, he curled his fingers around the steering wheel.

  “It’s okay not to know,” Ryder said softly, looking over at Harrison’s sweet face. “That’s what life’s about.”

  “About what?” Harrison held his gaze.

  “Figuring shit out.” He offered a slight smirk.

  Harrison blinked and then laughed. “I guess it is.”

  Ryder cleared his throat and looked away from those bright blue eyes.

  “We better get the groceries in,” he said abruptly and left the SUV.

  Harrison followed him around to the back. Ryder lifted two of the four bags and Harrison grabbed the remaining two.

  “Are you still figuring shit out?” Harrison asked him curiously and shut the back of the SUV.

  “Every damned day,” he said and unlocked the cabin. He couldn’t stop the smile at Harrison’s laughter.

  Putting the groceries away, they started cooking dinner together. It had become a combined effort and something he looked forward to. It gave them time to talk.

  And an excuse to be in Harrison’s company.

  Typically, he spent the day waiting for Harrison to finish work on his laptop, answering emails, or talking on the phone. It was only later when they were eating dinner or watching a movie that Ryder finally got to enjoy his company. And that right there should have concerned him. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when Harrison had become more than a client he was supposed to protect.

  “Ryder?”

  “Yes?” He looked up from his last bite of pasta bake.

  Harrison smiled and tipped his head, looking thoughtful.

  “Have you ever brought any of the other people you protected here?”

  “No. I haven’t.” He pushed his empty plate away. “The only other person I’ve brought here was Warren.”

  “Not even your bodyguard buddies?”

  “Well, yeah. They show up randomly, but they’re like family.”

  “And Warren wasn’t?”

  He realized how odd he’d sounded and held Harrison’s searching gaze.

  “I guess not.”

  “How long were you married?”

  He sighed and figured he’d avoided this topic long enough. Might as well get it all out.

  “Two years, but we were separated a year of that.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.”

  “You hate him.”

  “No. I don’t hate him.” And as he said the words, he realized that he truly didn’t hate Warren. “We weren’t compatible. He had the guts to end it when I wouldn’t,” he said quietly, and tried to explain further. “I take marriage seriously. It’s a big step. It’s not something someone should walk away from when things get rough.”

  “If you truly love the other person, then you stick around and work it out,” Harrison said with a soft smile. “Something my father never learned.”

  He gave Harrison a sympathetic look and then got out the last of it.

  “I would have stayed and tried,” he finished, “but when he cheated repeatedly, I cut my losses and gave him the divorce.”

  “Do you still love him?”

  “No, no I don’t.”

  Harrison smiled and lifted their plates. “I don’t think my father realized the trouble he’s caused me.”

  “He hasn’t left you very much time to find love,” Ryder agreed.

  “He told me once that love was overrated.” Harrison’s pretty mouth turned sad.

  “Love is not overrated,” Ryder grumbled, grinding his teeth. He wanted to believe he would have liked Harrison’s father, but at this point, it was a struggle.

  “I can never tell if someone wants me for my money or not.”

  “I wouldn’t want you for your money.” The words came out before he could stop them. “What I meant is, don’t sell yourself short,” he corrected quickly. “There are people out there who don’t want your money, they’d want you for yourself.” He stood up quickly and gathered up the leftovers to put away.

  “Thank you,” Harrison said quietly after a moment.

  “No problem. I’m going to put on a movie,” he tossed over his shoulder on the way out of the room, kicking himself in the ass. How fucking awkward! Jesus Christ, Freeman!

  He was counseling Harrison. Not to mention, he was sharing things about his own life with a client. Yeah, but Harrison doesn’t feel like a client.

  He blamed Harrison for that one; the guy had that effect on people. Don’t you mean effect on you? the little voice in his head taunted.

  He grabbed a DVD and didn’t even check the title before popping it in.

  “Good,” he said with relief when The Matrix started. Explosions, saving the planet, and action were just what he needed to take his mind off the sexy young man in his kitchen.

  “Good what?” Harrison asked before elegantly sinking down on the couch next to him.

  “It’s a good movie,” he said, clearing his throat.

  “Oh, I love The Matrix,” Harrison said brightly. “I noticed we both like action. That’s another thing in common.”

  “Another?” He shot Harrison a curious look.

  “Swimming, reading, and we’re going to go hiking again now that I have the right footwear.” Harrison ticked off all the things they’d done together.

  He suddenly pictured Harrison sweating from their hike the other day and then afterwards, wearing that tight green suit to cool off in the lake. The vision of the tight suit took the place of the main character on the television. Ryder was still waiting for Harrison to one day pull on the tiny red suit. His crotch tightened and he shifted on the couch. Shit.

  The movie was good; he always loved watching all three in the series when he got a chance. When the credits rolled, Ryder glanced over and found Harrison turned on his side, asleep with his cheek pillowed against the back of the couch. He looked his fill before turning off the TV.

  He stood, but the movement didn’t wake Harrison like it usually did.

  “Harrison?” he called out, gently bumping his knee against the couch.

  Harrison stretched like a cat, and Ryder’s cock thickened. Thickly lashed lids lifted, and summer blue eyes glanced sleepily up at him.

  Oh fuck, there’s that smile.

  His blood pressure went into overdrive.

  “Is it over?” Harrison asked huskily.

  He couldn’t answer and swallowed.

  Harrison’s tongue darted out and licked at his bottom lip. When the man looked at him with so much desire in those expressive eyes, it was game fucking over.

  Ryder wanted things he knew he shouldn’t want, but he suddenly had neither the strength nor will to fight his bone crushing need any longer.

  “Fuck it,” he muttered and reached down to cup the back of Harrison’s head. Slicing fingers into silky strands, he lifted Harrison’s face and took a taste of the lips he’d been wanting for weeks.

  Harrison gasped into his mouth and moaned, returning his kiss. His hand tightened at the back of Harrison’s neck, carving into the soft, thick strands. Harrison slipped soft hands up his forearms. Their tongues tangled, and Ryder could still taste the after dinner cognac he’d tempted the man into tasting earlier on his tongue.

  Harrison moaned, that small little sound snapped him back into the reality of what he was doing. He pulled back and took several steps away from the couch and temptation.

  “This is a mistake,” he said roughly and moved farther across the den. “If you want to have me fired, Logan’s number is in my phone,” he muttered, not looking at Harrison, who rose from the couch.

  “I don’t want you fired.”

  “Why not?” He turned back with a frown.

  “Why would I?” Harrison planted his hands on his hips. “It was no big deal,” the man said and stalked from the room, leaving Ryder grinding his teeth at the insult. />
  Harrison

  Things were tense between them. Of course, Harrison hadn’t meant the cutting words. He’d only snapped back because he saw the instant regret on Ryder’s face.

  Denying it was no big deal, didn’t change the fact that the kiss had rocked his feet out from beneath him. He knew Ryder wanted him, he could see it. It was written all over the guy. And to prove his point, Harrison set about flirting every chance he got the very next day.

  For once in his life, he was going to take August’s advice, take the risk, and go after what he wanted. Was that so bad? He desperately wanted to believe he was worthy of love.

  It made his pulse hum when Ryder’s skin flushed beneath his teasing and he was gruffly ordered to knock it off, but he kept it up. Really, what do I have to lose?

  Little by little, Ryder thawed more and grumbled less. Earlier, Ryder had rolled his eyes and given him the first glimpse of a smile. Harrison could have crowed in triumph.

  After this morning’s swim, Harrison had felt an even bigger shift. Ryder had loosened back up and even laughed when he’d tried to dunk the man. It had ended with Harrison flying over the top of Ryder’s head into the deep end of the lake again, but he hadn’t minded.

  Coming into the kitchen, he found Ryder standing at the sink washing fresh spinach. When Ryder’s outstretched arm reached to place part of the spinach on the long kitchen counter, Harrison dodged beneath it and came up smiling.

  “Oh! Excuse me!”

  “For?” Ryder quirked one eyebrow.

  “Getting in your way?” he pointed out, grabbing a paper towel and then ducking back beneath Ryder’s arm again.

  “Yes, you are.” Ryder eyed him suspiciously, placing the washed spinach down and drying his hands on the dish towel.

  Ryder looked especially yummy today, barefoot, wearing jeans and a partially buttoned, untucked shirt.

  Plucking up a grape that was sitting freshly washed in the bowl on the counter, Harrison popped it into his mouth. He lifted another one and chucked it. The fruit hit Ryder in the cheek and fell to the floor.

  Ryder’s look was so surprised that Harrison laughed out loud.

  “Kind of slow aren’t you?” he teased and plucked up another grape. Before he could toss it, Ryder was snatching it from his fingers and popping it into his mouth with a smirk.