Sworn to Protect

by Diana Gardin

  The slick slide of our skin against one another is intoxicating; every nerve ending in my body is lit with a flame only Rayne can extinguish. She brushes my hair off my forehead and lifts her legs to wrap around my waist, seating me deeper inside of her. We both groan, her eyes fluttering shut as her hips rise to meet mine over and over again. Feeling her begin to quake just as my own control is fading away, I reach between us and rub her clit with my thumb

  “Oh, God, Jeremy,” she gasps as she clutches me tighter to her with both her arms and her legs. “I can’t…”

  “Yes, you can. Just fall, Rayne. I’ll catch you.” My voice is determined, my thumb insistent, my cock relentless, all in the pursuit of her pleasure.

  My own release is racing to the forefront of my thoughts, causing every muscle in my body to tighten and prepare in response, but I push it back and stay focused on Rayne. “Come on, baby. I got you.”

  Suddenly, her body tenses and her eyes fly open. The sexiest look of pleasure crosses her face as her lips part and her eyes roll back.

  “Jeremy!” she screams as her legs tighten around my waist.

  “Fuck yes,” I groan as I finally let my own release fly.

  I pump into her furiously as my seed flows out of me, and when I’m done, my body shudders as I roll to lie at her side.

  She’s sprawled on her back and me on my stomach as the world returns to normal and our breathing begins to slow. Opening my eyes, I see that her wide blue ones are staring right back at me.

  “That was…amazing.” Her voice is full of surprised awe.

  Smiling, I reach for her hand and feel all the pieces of my heart click into place. Like they were never broken. But I guess they were.

  “Did you think it wouldn’t be?”

  She shakes her head, still dazed and beautiful. “No…I knew it would be. I just…wow.”

  Chuckling I bring her fingers to my lips. “This is just the beginning, darlin’. We’re about to set the world on fire.”

  Her smile turns tentative. “What exactly are we doing? I mean…” Her eyes flick down to our naked bodies tangled together before finally settling on my face once again. “I just want to make sure we’re on the same page here, Jer.”

  Turning to face her, I pull her close to the warmth of my body, feeling the heat from hers washing over me. Her midnight eyes search my face for the answers she needs. I can do better than that. I can give them to her straight.

  “I thought I had my shit together, you know?” I watch as my thumbs caress tiny circles on the side of her face. “You know—leaving my grandparents’ bullshit behind, joining the army, then finding the Night Eagle team. All those things were things I did on my own, independent of my grandfather and his money. I’m a man who can make decisions without a backward glance, and I’ve made good ones. Finding someone to share all that with.…it was always on the back burner. I thought that maybe one day it would happen, but it’s never been a priority.”

  Her hand slides down over my shoulder, my bicep. Looking into her eyes, I see nothing but compassion and understanding. Like maybe there’s a part of her who understands what I’m saying because maybe what I’m feeling inside she’s feeling, too.

  “And then you came back to town.”

  Her bottom lip disappears between her teeth and a spark of longing lances through me, dragging embers of warning right along with it. I’m so hooked on her already, and I haven’t even begun to think of what it could do to me if I lost her. Or Decker.

  Slamming my mind shut against that thought, I go on. “Darlin’…you changed everything. The second I saw you I knew I’d never let you go again. And then you gave me the greatest gift I’ve ever gotten…my son. If you believe one thing out of my mouth, believe this: I’m all in with you. This can’t be just a fling. You mean so much more to me than that. You and Decker have just become my number one priority.”

  Her eyes go wide and her bottom lip quivers just the slightest bit. “You’re serious, Jer?”

  My gaze is steady on hers. “Don’t you want me to be?”

  Uncertainty flickers in her expression. My chest clenches when I see it.

  What if she doesn’t? She didn’t come back to Wilmington to look for me. When I first saw her again it was clear that she wished she wasn’t seeing me then. So what if this…me…isn’t what she wants now?

  My pulse is a dull roar in my ears as I wait for her response.

  A clusterfuck of emotions chase one another across her face while I watch. Fear, anxiety, sadness…and then euphoric happiness as she slowly begins to nod.

  “Yeah, Jeremy…I want this.” Her voice is just a whisper, ragged and hung up on the word yes.

  Pulling her face to mine, I kiss her softly. When I rear back to study her, I let my fingers tangle in her thick locks of black hair. “It’s always been you, Rayne. I just didn’t let myself believe it until you came back to me.”

  “Show me,” she whispers.

  With those words, I can feel myself growing hard again, and dip my head to her neck. My tongue flicks against her skin, tasting the sweetness and sweat from when we did this moments before.

  I make love to her. Again.

  And later, as I drift off with Rayne in my arms, there’s still a lot of resentment inside me. I still feel the need to step up to my grandfather and show him that what he did all those years ago didn’t break me, and that my family survives despite his best efforts to stamp it out.

  But the main emotion I’m feeling right now has nothing to do with anger and everything to do with the softness the woman lying beside me instills in me.

  19

  Rayne

  I giggle as I stare out the passenger-side window of Jeremy’s Land Cruiser, remembering the way he’d stared into his closet this morning in horror, eyeing the chaos strewn about the built-in shelving and floor.

  “I’m going to organize it,” I informed him.

  Everything I’d acquired since moving here, plus the things I’d borrowed from Olive’s house while I stayed there, are congregated in little heaps around the space.

  Both of his eyebrows had risen sky high as he whirled on me. “Yeah? I’m pretty sure this would take a professional, Rayne. I’m gonna have to hire someone to come in and sort out all your shit. Jesus.”

  Embarrassed, because let’s be honest: I’m not the neatest person, I avert my eyes as a hot blush crept into my face. Only to feel his finger under my chin, guiding my gaze back to his.

  “I’d take three messy closets just like this one,” he’d said firmly, “if it meant I got to have you and Decker in the process.”

  Jeremy glances over, one hand resting atop the steering wheel, the other resting casually on the gearshift. “What’s so funny?”

  Shaking my head, I glance to the backseat where Decker sits.

  “Gonna have a good day today, kiddo?”

  His dark hair falls over his forehead as he grins. “Yup. Jay says we have P.E. on Mondays. I love P.E.”

  I give him a solemn nod. “Yes. I know this.”

  Jeremy glances at Decker in the rearview mirror as he pulls into the school parking lot. We’ll drop him off before heading to work ourselves. His mouth pulls into an affectionate smile that tugs at all the softest parts of me.

  “We’ll toss a ball around tonight after your mom and I get off of work, all right, Deck?”

  Decker’s entire face lends itself to his giant grin. “Cool.”

  When Jeremy looks at me, my face matches Decker’s. He tosses me a wink.

  After dropping Decker off at school, Jeremy pulls into a gas station to fill up. Grabbing my purse, I meet his eyes over the hood of the SUV.

  “Coffee?”

  He smirks. “We already had coffee this morning.”

  My eyes narrow. “You can never have too much coffee, Teague.”

  Chuckling, he shakes his head. Crossing his arms across his broad chest, he settles against the cement post next to the pump and evaluates me with a smug smile. G
od. How in the world does he do it? His hair, all tied up in his loosely knotted bun is silky and soft, his skin positively golden in the morning sunshine. His green eyes glint and sparkle as he regards me with interest, and the bulge of his biceps on his crossed arms are calling me to wrap myself up in his strength.

  “Hey.” His voice is playfully sharp. “Eyes up here. I’m not a piece of meat, you know.”

  Completely unapologetic, I shrug before turning toward the market. “Then don’t look so succulent while you’re just standing there.”

  Once inside the bright gas station market, I head straight for the coffee bar and grab two giant cups. Maybe Jeremy doesn’t feel the need for a caffeine fix, but I’m sure going to give him one. I fill a third of my cup with vanilla-flavored creamer before pouring it to the brim with the steaming black liquid. For Jeremy, I just fill it up with coffee, knowing he likes it black. A man steps up beside me, grabbing a Styrofoam cup, and I barely spare him a glance as I open two raw sugar packets and shake the light-brown granules into my cup.

  “Thought he’d never leave you alone, princess.”

  The cool, collected voice comes from directly beside me. My entire body stiffens, turning me into a solid statue of unease.

  I glance at the man standing beside me, but he isn’t looking at me. He’s stirring the steaming coffee in his cup, a slow and steady motion of his left hand. His right hand, I notice, is casually resting in his blazer pocket.

  His look is nonthreatening. An unremarkable guy with light brown hair and medium-toned skin. He’s dressed casually in jeans and a lightweight blazer. If he hadn’t spoken, I wouldn’t have noticed him at all.

  But I’m noticing him now, and an icy sliver of dread slices down my spine.

  “Excuse me?” My voice is an octave higher than usual, but it doesn’t shake, and that’s a small miracle all on its own.

  I’m staring right at the man, but still he doesn’t glance my way. His voice chills me way down deep in my bones, wrapping around my heart like a vise. I attempt to make sense of him.

  “Your boyfriend. He never leaves your side. But it’s good for me that he has now. Put the coffee down. We’re going out the back.”

  The blood that pumps from my veins to my heart slows, sending a cloud of dizziness through my head. This isn’t…right. What’s he saying? Who is…?

  And then it clicks, the picture sliding neatly into place in my mind.

  Wagner. He sent someone after me.

  My teeth clamp together as a river of boiling fury invades my system. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  His stirring hand stills. “Make a scene and I’ll shoot you faster than you can scream. This gun in my pocket is the end-all, be-all here. You come quietly with me, or I end your life.”

  I suck in a sharp breath. “Wagner doesn’t want me dead. Or he wouldn’t have sent you here to get me.”

  He shrugs. “Not my problem. I’ll bring you back to him one way or another. Either way is fine with me. I’ll make sure I get paid.”

  He’s insane. Standing here so casually talking about ending my life like I’m nothing.

  Like I’m expendable. Which, to Wagner and this cold, callous man beside me, I suppose I am.

  But first…I know that Wagner Horton wants to find out exactly what I know and whether or not I’ve spread the word.

  I glance desperately around me. There are a few other shoppers waiting in line at the cashier’s counter, but no one is close to the coffee bar. No one for me to catch their eye or mouth the fact that I need help. And Jeremy is putting gas in the Land Cruiser outside.

  Dammit, Rayne! Think!

  As I’m standing there, the blazer man, sans coffee, takes my elbow in a strong, threatening grip and begins to steer me toward the back hallway leading to the restrooms. There must be another exit. I don’t want to go that way with him, not where we’ll be secluded.

  But if I scream…will he really kill me right here in the store and then escape?

  My stomach begins to somersault over and over again, the flipping motion in my belly causing me to feel nauseated as we near the door. With his hand still on my elbow, he takes the other out of his pocket to push open the door, and that’s when I act.

  As he pulls me outside, I yank my arm free and use the momentum to propel me toward him rather than away. I shove the heel of my hand up into his nose, feeling a satisfying crunch under my hand as bones break. The sting in my hand is irrelevant; I can’t stop moving now. His pained shout is cut off when I grab his shoulders and jam a knee into his groin. The tortured groan is a hefty reward as I silently thank the self-defense teacher I learned these moves from back in Phoenix. I never thought then that I’d have to use them.

  He goes down, but not before his fist closes around a chunk of my hair. Screaming in pain, I yank myself away and take off. My heels don’t deter me as I sprint for the corner of the building, knowing the back door we just exited will be locked from the outside.

  As I skitter around the side of the gas station market, Jeremy’s hand freezes on the front door handle when I scream his name.

  He catches me as I slam into him, holding me far enough away from his body to scan my face. He takes one look at me before sheer panic registers in his eyes.

  “What’s wrong?”

  My voice is nearly hysterical. “Wagner sent him…he grabbed me, made me go out the back with him!”

  Jeremy’s eyes widen just a bit before they narrow. “Are you hurt, Rayne? Did the bastard harm you?”

  Shaking my head, the panic bubbling through my body threatens to overtake me. I could be stuffed in a trunk right now, on my way to Wagner Horton. Thank God…

  “No. No, I’m okay, Jer.”

  He nods, his lips settling into an angry line. Gripping my hands, he pushes his car keys into them and gives me a gentle shove toward the Land Cruiser. “Lock yourself in the truck. I have to go after him, Rayne.”

  Sliding my hands down his arm, I grip his wrist. “Jeremy…don’t.”

  My brain says that I know Jeremy can handle himself. But my heart flips with fear. The only reason he’s exposed to this danger here and now is because of me. My problems. The fact that I’ve dragged him into it makes me sick.

  Leaning down so that we’re eye level, his voice steady, Jeremy wraps one big hand around the back of my neck. “Rayne…truck. Go, now.”

  Nodding, I head for the SUV. As soon as the door is safely closed behind me, Jeremy turns and springs around the side of the building.

  Waiting for him in the silent car, I begin to quake. My teeth chatter, slamming together violently first, and then my limbs start to shake. I suck in deep breaths, trying to control my body, but the shaking doesn’t stop. Instead, as the fight I just had for my life begins to flash through my mind in bits and pieces, the quivering and shaking just gets worse.

  My hands clench into fists in my lap, all of my muscles constrict as I relive it. I’m not sure which is stronger, the fear or the anger.

  By the time Jeremy trudges back around the side of the building I’m a hair’s breadth away from convulsions. Yanking his door open, he slams it behind him as he settles into his seat and starts the ignition. Pulling up hands-free calling, he pushes commands from his contacts into the dash screen, and Ronin Shaw’s name flashes in blue.

  “Shaw.”

  “Swagger,” Jeremy’s voice barks out.

  “Yeah. What’s up, Brains?”

  Jeremy quickly fills Ronin in on who Horton is and relays what just happened to me, and Ronin curses under his breath. “You get him?”

  Jeremy releases a frustrated growl. “Nah. She fought him off, and I was hoping that’d slow him down. But he must have had a car waiting. He’s in the wind.”

  Ronin’s heavy sigh echoes through the car. “I’ll let the team know. You coming in?”

  Jeremy glances at me, and I manage to nod. I want to go to work. If I don’t, I’ll crumble. And the last thing I want to do right now is crumble.
r />   “Yeah,” he barks. “We’ll be there soon.”

  He disconnects the call and immediately turns to me. He takes one look at me and curses. Then he takes both of my trembling hands in his and brings them to his lips.

  “I’m sorry, baby.” His voice is tortured. “Damn it!”

  “N-not your fault.” Why won’t my teeth stop chattering?

  He lets go of my hands to stroke my face. His eyes examine every facet of my expression before roving over me carefully to check for injuries. “Did he hurt you? Tell me, Rayne. I’m already going to hunt the bastard down, but I need to know if you’re hurt. We can head straight to the hospital.”

  I shake my head. “N-no. I’m okay, Jer.”

  His green eyes meet mine. His are full of angry pain. “No, you’re terrified. I shouldn’t have left your side.”

  I throw my hands up. “This is crazy! You can’t stay beside me twenty-four hours a day. This has to end, Jeremy.”

  Icy fear drags across my skin, raising goose bumps in its wake. “Decker. God, what if…? I’m going to call the school. They need to be aware that I’m being threatened, and to keep a close eye on Decker at all times.”

  Grinding his teeth together, he takes the wheel with one hand and intertwines the fingers of his other with mine. “It will stop, Rayne. I’m going to end it.”

  20

  Jeremy

  Calling in the authorities at this point would complicate things.” My steps halt as I address the Night Eagle team members in the conference room at the office.

  The conference room is directly above Jacob’s office on the second floor of the building. A long table, more than enough room for all the members of the team, plus any other guests or clients we might be meeting with, stands in the middle of the room. A large screen covers the opposite wall, and when we use it, a blackout screen lowers to cover the windows.

  After Rayne and I arrived at the office, she headed straight for the restroom to clean up. I wanted to go with her, more than anything, but she insisted I go and brief the team on what happened and start mission planning. If there’s anything I know how to do, it’s falling into strategy mode, so I did as she asked and pulled all the guys into the conference room.