Guarding His Heart

by R. Cayden

  Another sharp bang made him jump in place. Gritting his teeth, he tugged the door open.

  “Mr. Kaiser?” Seb asked.

  The man furrowed his bushy brows as he stomped inside. “Declan.”

  Seb’s eyes lingered. Next to the tattoo on his neck there was a thick scar, and when he stared at it, he had to gulp to keep his composure. “Come in,” he said. “I’m Sebastian.” He almost stuck out his hand, but it seemed wrong, like Declan might yank his arm off. “Can I offer you anything? Water? I just put on some fresh coffee.”

  Declan studied Seb carefully, his flashing blue eyes tracing over Seb’s body like a heatwave. Seb’s heart pounded in response, the intensity of the stare capturing him and a strange tingle prickling his skin.

  “I’m good,” Declan said. “My contact here in New York had me on the phone yesterday, gave me all the info. There’s a room in this place where I can stay?”

  Seb nodded, relieved that Declan seemed to want to go straight to business. “You’ve got the south wing,” he said as he started to walk Declan over. “You have your own bathroom and living quarters, and the technology is already hooked into the security apparatus up front.” He paused at the double door that opened to Declan’s wing. “You have some bags with you?”

  Declan nodded his head toward the front. “In the truck, but not much. My team is sending along equipment that should arrive the next few days.”

  “Good. Well…” Seb flexed his fingers, feeling anxious and uncertain. “The main kitchen is in the middle of the house. You’re welcome to use it, too, including all the groceries that get delivered. I’m almost always in the lab. Did they tell you about that?”

  “You’re a scientist.” Declan’s voice was gravelly, like the way a motorcycle sounded.

  “Right,” Seb answered carefully. “Let me show you.” He started walking back across the house. Even though it was his home, he suddenly felt self-conscious and out of place, like Declan was going to cast judgment on everything—the weird artwork he had framed, the books he left scattered around, his unkempt hair…

  Not that he cared what the security thought, really. His focus was on his experiments, not impressing some stranger with intense eyes.

  “This is where I work,” Seb said, leading them into the lab. “If you ever need me, just knock.”

  Declan nodded. He’d taken his jacket off, and Seb was unsurprised to discover that dark tattoos of flowers and birds snaked up his arms, curling around the ropes of his muscles. “I won’t need to bother you,” he said flatly as his eyes drifted across the room. “I’ll do perimeter checks every couple of hours to keep an eye on a short radius around the house, but outside of that, just think of me as your secret weapon, hidden away in case anything gets bad.”

  Seb chuckled awkwardly. “I highly doubt that will happen.”

  “Me, either,” Declan said, turning his eyes from the lab equipment. “Hard to imagine a local gang would care about all this.”

  Seb bristled. “That’s not entirely true. There are lots of valuable things here, both the electronics themselves and the data I’ve gathered and processed—”

  “Not the point,” Declan interrupted. “The threat against you comes from some local group who are trying to make a name for themselves. They call themselves the Blue Devils, which makes them sound like a bunch of jokers to me.” He licked his teeth, studying the room once more. “Amateurs like them? They wouldn’t know what to do with this mess of stuff, and they wouldn’t have a damn clue how to kidnap a guy like you, either.”

  Seb grumbled, even though he had used to the same logic to argue against Declan being hired in the first place. For some reason, he felt an urge to convince the bodyguard that his work mattered, to tell him about the important steps Seb had made in recent months, even though he knew none of that would be relevant to the older man. If Declan hadn’t looked so grumpy, Seb probably would have slipped into a lecture about alternative energy sources right there, explaining in detail why his unique work had proven him such a valuable scientific mind.

  Instead, he bit his tongue. “The household staff will be in tomorrow,” he said, stepping slightly back. “They’ll be able to show you around, answer your questions, that kind of thing.”

  Declan nodded, then pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his back pocket. “I’ll go check the place out,” he said. “Get settled in.”

  “Right,” Seb answered, a strange mixture of relief and disappointment washing over him. “Welcome, I guess.”

  “Sure,” Declan answered, then walked away.

  Seb let out a breath he felt like he had been holding since Declan pulled his truck up to the house, then leaned back against the wall. He felt shaken, like the earth had just shifted under his feet.

  “Pull it together,” he muttered to himself as he returned to his desk. Sure, a lot of people would think Declan was hot. He had that bad-boy vibe, with a weathered glare, but he was handsome, too. He smelled like leather and gasoline, and his face was chiseled into sharp lines. But like Seb told Alexandria, he wasn’t about to let himself get distracted pining after some man, especially someone who was probably straight anyway.

  “Back to the research,” he grumbled, eager for the ridiculous threat to pass and his solitude to return.

  Declan

  Declan set a few empty beer cans on a stump, then dragged his ass back through the snow until he was a good fifty feet away. The cold made his fingers ache, and he cursed Big Paolo again for dragging him away from the sunshine.

  “At least I can enjoy a little peace and quiet for once,” he grumbled.

  He pulled the butt of the rifle to his shoulder, then took aim, measured his breath, and squeezed the trigger. The first can blew off to the side, skittering across the snow. Declan ejected the spent casing, then blasted the remaining cans, the bang of the gun echoing through the trees.

  “Still got it,” he grinned to himself. He figured target practice every couple of days would make it clear to anyone watching that the place was protected. And a good thing, too, because both of the guns waiting had been jammed up, ready to backfire if Declan had grabbed either in an emergency.

  Anyway, he had shit else to do out in the middle of the mountains. Back in Vegas, he had gotten out of the habit of shooting just as soon as he’d stopped working for Big Paolo. After growing up in a family of criminals, he’d been happy to leave a lot of the life behind. Sure, he had kept a couple of doors open, just to make sure things stayed entertaining and to put some extra cash in his pocket. He shipped a little weed when the offer was right, helped move some tequila, and of course, still enjoyed a nice game of poker.

  For all the good that did him.

  But shooting rifles? Throwing fists? Taking a beating? Declan had been happy as a pig in shit to leave that behind.

  When he turned to the house, he spotted Sebastian, standing in front of those big windows and staring out. When Declan’s eyes landed on him, Sebastian startled, then stepped back into the shadows of the lab. Declan couldn’t help but laugh at how nervous the guy seemed during the past few days of awkwardly avoiding each other, like Declan might bite him.

  “Cute kid,” he muttered to himself. For most of his life, Declan had gone for men who were older than he was. Especially when he was Seb’s age, he’d craved older guys with tattoos, worn muscles, and mean glares. As he got older himself, he’d started to find himself attracted to men like Seb, too, guys who were soft in the ways Declan was hard, who were tender to touch. It wasn’t a fantasy he had ever indulged, knowing he was likely to bring a world of hurt and pain into some innocent kid’s life, but he couldn’t deny that Seb had that look that really turned him on.

  The look that made Declan think about removing Seb’s clothes, gently setting them aside, and then working that little genius over with his tongue and his hands, and feeling him come undone, one whimper at a time.

  Declan adjusted his sudden erection. Wind whipped through the air, and he rubbed his bicep
s to warm himself, wishing he had thought to pick up a proper winter jacket. Tossing the rifle over his shoulder, he headed back to the house for the heat, shaking the other thoughts from his mind.

  One thing that was clear from this job: rich people fucking pampered themselves. The groceries showed up on their own, someone cleaned the bathroom when Declan wasn’t looking, and he even woke up in the morning to some kid shoveling the driveway.

  He grumbled as he stomped his boots off, then wandered back into the house, the rifle still slung over his shoulder. Most people thought men like Declan were a problem, but the guys like Sebastian’s pops, the ones running those billionaire dollar corporations—most of them were a whole new level of crooked.

  Declan grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge, then headed back into his wing of the house. There was a big sitting area, a bathroom with a massive tub and walk-in shower, and a bedroom the size of his old garage. After he deposited his rifle in its spot by the bed, he flipped on the monitors that helped keep an eye on the hundred-acre property, then went to work unpacking the boxes that had been delivered.

  “Smoke grenade, ammunition, goddamn body armor…”

  Declan sighed. Why the hell his contact from Big Paolo had to send that type of junk, he had no idea. If Declan hadn’t asked about the reputation of the street gang who had made the threat, it all might actually worry him. But a bunch of small-time guys on motorcycles didn’t faze Declan. The equipment was just another waste of fucking money, but at least it gave him something to play with while he was killing time.

  Once he had everything sorted, he grabbed his smokes and headed back toward the yard. When he passed the kitchen, Sebastian was standing there, chewing on a sandwich while he jotted notes on a piece of paper. Declan would have just walked by, but Sebastian noticed him passing.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked. “There’s an extra sandwich. It’s from a deli in the city.”

  Declan turned to take the younger man in. He was wearing a slightly rumpled blue shirt, worn loose and unbuttoned over a white T-shirt. Sebastian had soft cheeks, and his green eyes were bright as the snow outside. It made Declan smile that the kid didn’t bother to brush his hair, just letting it fall over the place, and Sebastian paused to tuck a strand back while Declan stared at him.

  You’d think a guy with a big fancy science lab in his house would have been uptight, but something about the way Sebastian fixed his hair tugged at Declan. He looked gentle, but in a way that made Declan fantasize about how much fun it would be to bruise his hips and paint his face and feel him come undone right between Declan’s hands.

  “Declan?” Sebastian said, like a nervous mouse. “It’s roast beef.”

  Declan grunted yes, then joined him at the long kitchen counter. The house looked kind of like it was from the future, with all these clean surfaces and sleek edges. Declan felt funny sitting there in his ragged flannel shirt, eating a sandwich.

  He did his best to bury down the steamy fantasies Sebastian was starting to inspire. It wasn’t just that Big Paolo would have Declan’s head if he screwed the job up, although he would. Declan was too stubborn to let that stop him from having a little fun. No, he buried those desires because he knew he would feel like a piece of shit, ruining a bright kid like Sebastian. Declan’s hands were scarred and rough, and he had no business rubbing them up on a shy sweetheart.

  “I saw you firing a gun earlier,” Sebastian observed.

  “Yup,” Declan answered, then bit into the sandwich, practically moaning when the rich sauce landed on his tongue.

  “If you do that again, could you go a little bit away from the lab? It makes it hard to concentrate on my work.”

  Declan nodded. “That makes sense, sure.” He had his wing of the house, and Sebastian had his. He had no problem extending those boundaries to the acreage outside, too. “What are you working on?”

  Sebastian shrugged, then turned his eyes away shyly, sending another flood of filthy thoughts through Declan’s head. “Most people find it boring…”

  “I’m not most people,” Declan said with a grin, then took another bite of his sandwich.

  Sebastian laughed as his shoulders relaxed. “I guess nothing to worry about, then. It’s a little hard to explain, but lately I’ve been focusing on photocatalytic water splitting and quantum yields in visible light in particular.”

  Declan grunted. “I’ve never been much of a book type, but I’m guessing even people who are have trouble understanding you.”

  Sebastian laughed again, a beautiful sound that rang out through the kitchen. “That’s true. I’m mainly interested in green energy. I’m hoping to contribute something meaningful to the world by helping us face climate change. It’s going to take everyone working together to build the future we need, and I know this is something real that I can do to help.” When he said it, he straightened his back a little. Unlike when Declan first met him, when he just seemed tired and distracted by work, Sebastian suddenly looked proud with purpose. “A lot of people in my field say I should just get a regular job and stop wasting my time on pipe dreams, but I know what’s possible. I know I’m capable of something bigger than that.”

  “So you’re doing science experiments in there? Do I need to worry about explosions or poisonous gas or anything like that?”

  “Nope,” he said cheerily. “Most of the experiments are run in the laboratories that my father’s corporation owns. They send the data back here for me to study, just like how I send them some of my results.” He drummed his fingers on the counter. “I’m actually coding, more than anything else. By designing bots that can extrapolate from the datasets that—”

  “Okay,” Declan interrupted quickly, his mind turning inside out the second Sebastian started using that language. He was honestly curious, but hearing Sebastian talk was going to give him a flashback to failing high school science. “I trust you. And it sounds pretty cool.” He took another big bite of his sandwich, and Sebastian looked at him with a smile curling up the corners of his mouth.

  “Got to say, though,” Declan added. “I’m surprised.”

  “By what?”

  “Your dad’s business. I thought that was a bunch of oil money.”

  “And tech money, and shipping money, and everything other kind of money,” he answered. “What’s your point?”

  Declan scoffed. “If that’s the case, why do they want you doing research into green energy?”

  Sebastian nodded. “That’s a very smart question.”

  Declan grunted. “I know it is.” He’d learned to be skeptical of people the hard way, and he knew that corporations didn’t give a damn about supporting some kid’s environmental dreams, no matter how much his dad might like to spoil him.

  “Let me show you something,” Sebastian said, a twinkle in his eyes. “Come here.”

  Declan shoved the rest of the sandwich in his mouth, then followed Sebastian deeper into his wing of the house. When he pushed open the door to the lab, sunlight poured across them. Sebastian headed over to his desk, then pulled out some papers, displaying them.

  “What’s this?”

  “It’s a contract,” he said. “See? I made my father sign it when I turned eighteen. It says that any projects we work on together can be used only for approved purposes. I let him utilize my research, but only for developments I approve ahead of time. In exchange, I get this whole setup, and I’m allowed to pursue my own interests without someone looking over my shoulder.”

  Declan nodded carefully. He wasn’t sure he followed all the details, but Sebastian looked so damn proud, it almost made Declan feel proud for him, too. “Sounds like a pretty sweet deal, kid.”

  Sebastian nodded, then shoved the papers back in the desk, looking suddenly shy again.

  “I’m going to have a smoke, maybe walk the perimeter,” Declan said. His gut told to him to pry a little bit, to push his way past Sebastian’s shyness, but he knew better than to let his head get clouded by something like that.
>
  “Sure,” Sebastian answered, his eyes darting back to his computer. “I should get back to this, too.”

  Declan was surprised by the tension in the air when he pulled himself away, grabbing his jacket and scarf on the way to the door. It must have been nice, he figured, to have something in life you cared about the way Sebastian cared about his projects.

  Not that a life like that was ever in the cards for Declan. For as long as Sebastian had been alive, crunching numbers on his computer, Declan had been throwing punches and fighting tooth and nail for a piece of the action. If Sebastian understood that reality, he’d probably freak the hell out, and kick his bodyguard out of the house in a heartbeat.

  Declan stepped outside and lit up his cigarette, then squinted into the sunlight. His talents might not have been fancy, but it was a waste of them, having him cooped up in this house. No one was coming for this geeky guy or his fancy science experiments. There was no threat on the other side of that wall, just a rich old man who threw money at any problem that came his way, thinking it would disappear.

  Declan puffed on his cigarette, then sighed. “Six months to a year,” he grumbled.

  Maybe this time, at least, he’d finally learn to stop drinking goddamn tequila shots when he was playing poker.

  Sebastian

  Seb laid in bed, the latest issue of a research journal open on his laptop and electronic music humming through the speakers. The sun was just finally up in the sky, but he’d woken when it was still dark and hadn’t been able to fall back asleep.

  He sighed and kicked his feet under the blankets. There was nothing Seb hated more than being distracted, but the past couple of days, he had barely been able to think about object-oriented programming. Instead, every time he turned a page, his mind would wander, and he’d start fantasizing about the man sleeping down the hall.

  He curled his fingers, knotting the sheet, then gave in to temptation and grabbed his cock. He pushed two fingers back behind his balls, rubbing closer and closer to his hole as he stroked, stiff with the thought of Declan.