by Melody Anne
Tanner kept his eyes firmly on both of the men. “Call the police,” he told Kyla brusquely.
With trembling fingers, she pulled out her key and wrenched her apartment door open, then rushed inside to grab her phone. Tanner waited for the police to arrive.
Kyla didn’t reappear immediately, probably terrified that they’d try to attack again. The officers showed up soon and hauled the men out to their police car, then came back in and knocked on Kyla’s door, to interview her about the assault. When Tanner saw her again, he noticed the bruise forming on her cheek. For the second time that day, his stomach clenched.
How could any man hit a woman? He might not have treated all his dates with the utmost respect, but he’d certainly never abused them. The women he dated knew the score, knew he would wine and dine them. He didn’t expect sex, but if that’s how the evening ended — and it always did — it was mutually pleasurable.
He was repelled by the thought of what those men had done and had been trying to do. Freaking animals. No. No. Those humans were far worse than most animals. It sickened him.
“Come on,” he told Kyla when they found themselves standing alone in the hallway, the dirtbags gone in the back of a police cruiser.
She looked at him warily when he held out his hand. He didn’t want to scare her further, so he gave her his most trustworthy smile and waited. Finally, she wrapped her fingers in his and let him lead her into his apartment. After sitting her down at his dining table, he got a washcloth and put some ice in it.
Kneeling in front of her, he paused as he brought his hand up and ran his fingers softly across her swelling cheek. “I’m so sorry this happened, Kyla.”
Damn security!
It wasn’t something he’d even thought the building needed, which was foolish on his part. There were single women and children here in a less than respectable area of Seattle. A front lobby area was available. It wouldn’t be that difficult to have twenty-four-hour security present and keypads on all outside doors.
“They followed me home from the mall. I don’t understand guys like that,” she said, obviously upset, but holding herself together extremely well under the circumstances.
“They aren’t real men,” he said, raising the washcloth and placing it gently against her cheek.
“No, they aren’t,” she agreed, and her lips turned up just the tiniest bit.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get here sooner. I’m sorry they had the opportunity to hit you.” I’m sorry I was too cheap to add security to the building, he added silently.
“I’m just glad you showed up when you did, that it wasn’t worse than it was. I’ve never had a problem here before — not to that extent. The worst that’s happened in two years is the occasional drunken neighbor trying to talk me into a date. I just…” She stopped when tears filled her eyes and she started to choke up.
He was amazed she was able to sit there so calmly. “How did you end up here?” Okay, not so calmly; she flinched at that question. But Tanner went on. “From what I’ve observed over the last few days, you seem smart, too smart to be working as an elf and living in a dump like this.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she said, squirming in the chair in front of him.
“I want to know.”
“I…life happens.”
“Yes. Sometimes situations are beyond our control, Kyla. But I have a feeling there’s a lot more to you than meets the eye.”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, and her eyes met his with a challenging gleam.
He respected her bravery. “Sometimes it can help to speak to a stranger.” He didn’t know why he was pushing her, why it mattered. He should just give her the ice pack, lead her back to her apartment, and walk away. This woman was obviously too complicated, not his usual type at all.
He was stuck in this place, though, stuck here for another twenty-one days. And he found himself wanting to know her story, wanting to connect with her. It was probably just because he was bored, he told himself, that she’d piqued his curiosity, but there seemed to be something else there, something he couldn’t identify. Stupid.
“You can talk to me. I won’t repeat what you say. You never know…it might help,” he said, pushing back some loose strands of her hair as he watched the indecision flash in her eyes. He was surprised when she began speaking in an unutterably quite voice.
“A couple of years ago, I was with my family on vacation and there was a wreck. I lived. They didn’t,” she said with a shrug, as if she were over it, as if it were no big deal. But the pain radiating from every pore of her body contradicted the way she forced out those words with such feigned casualness.
“I can’t imagine,” Tanner said, completely out of his element, not knowing what he should say for the second time that day. Twice now, someone was telling him about losing parents way too soon. Was this fate that they had met? No! He didn’t believe in fate or any other hogwash like that. It was merely a coincidence. That was all.
But, fool that he was, he went on. “Did you have siblings?” He knew he should have shut up, let this go, but he couldn’t seem to control his mouth. And he had been the one to push her to speak.
Her eyes flashed with pain even more raw than before. “A little brother,” she said in a whisper.
“Oh, Kyla, that has to be really tough.” How lame, but that was all he could say.
“Those are the standard words I hear. It’s okay, Tanner. It happened almost two years ago. Almost to the day.”
“Christmas?” he asked, horrified.
“Two days before.”
Damn. He really had no clue what to say to her, no clue at all.
She looked down at the floor as she tried to compose herself. “I need to get back to my place,” she said softly. She brought her hand up and pushed at his fingers, which were still holding the ice to her cheek.
Tanner pulled them away, wincing at the sight of her delicate cheekbone; a slight bruise marred her features, but only that. At least the swelling had already gone down. He was glad he’d arrived when he did — it could have been so much worse. He set the washcloth aside and slid his thumb tenderly across the cruel mark before resting his hand against her neck.
Her gaze locked with his and she shivered. Almost against his will, Tanner found himself leaning forward, coming closer to her as his other hand rose and his fingers wrapped around the soft strands of her hair.
When Kyla didn’t pull back, Tanner closed the gap between them and kissed her, just a slight brushing of his lips against hers. When her sweet breath fanned out across his mouth in a shocked gasp, he deepened the kiss, tasting her lips with his and tightening his fingers on her scalp.
Kyla’s lips moved beneath his and her hands came up to grip his shoulders. When her breasts brushed against his chest, blood raced through his body and rushed instantly to one very sensitive location. The simple sigh that escaped her throat wasn’t helping; hell, it was far more erotic than the full-on striptease his last partner had treated him to.
He pulled back and looked into her eyes. “Kyla,” he whispered. He wanted her in his bed — right now.
She smiled, her eyes glazed, and she ran her tongue along her bottom lip, delighting in his taste, making his groin tighten even more painfully. Then, as he leaned forward, the spell was somehow broken. Her eyes flew open and the hands that had been resting against his shoulders stiffened; she pushed him away.
He wanted to lean back against her, take her into his arms, and show her how good it was going to be between the two of them. But that would make him no better than the monsters who’d just tried to force themselves on her.
“I have to go,” she said, a fit of trembling racking her body.
“I’ll walk you home.”
He stood up, and then, much to his surprise, she smiled.
“I live just a few steps from your door, Tanner.”
“I’m a gentleman. I always walk my dates home and make sure they get inside safely.”
“This was a date?” she scoffed, clearly trying to downplay the intense moment they’d just shared.
“I got a kiss from you. I’d say it was a pretty great date.”
“Well, then, you are a cheapskate date. I didn’t even get a meal.”
Tanner was shocked by her words. She was able to joke like this so soon after being attacked by two loathsome stalkers? One minute, she seemed so vulnerable, and then the next, confident and in control. Was it all an act to protect herself? Or to maybe drive him insane?
“I’ll feed you right now, sweetheart. Then I’ll feed you again…in the morning,” he added with a wicked smile.
“I’ll pass. I already got the goodnight kiss,” she said, and she moved toward his door.
Tanner followed her into the hall and waited as she pushed her door open with a swift thump of her hip to unstick it, and then she moved inside.
She turned around and looked at him for a moment, making his heart leap. Was she going to invite him in? He took a step forward.
“’Night, Tanner,” she said, closing her door a little before looking at him again. “Thank you.” Pain replaced the amusement in her eyes. She shook her head as if clearing it, and then she disappeared into her apartment.
Tanner stood there for several moments, just staring at her door. He should simply call this one a loss — she was far too complicated for what he was looking for. He just wanted a woman to satisfy his needs, primal and nothing more, while he was stuck under house arrest in this place of doom and gloom. There was no way he wanted a relationship, for Christ’s sake
But when he closed the door to his apartment and walked over to the chair she’d been sitting in, he knew he wasn’t going to stop pursuing her. She intrigued him too much. Besides, he now looked at her as a challenge, and he’d never been able to resist a challenge.
He just had to figure out what his next move was going to be.
After cleaning up, Tanner ordered takeout, then grabbed his laptop, grateful for the mobile Internet connection he’d managed to get. It was slow, but at least it was something. For some reason, though, he couldn’t force himself to work. There was a first for everything, he supposed.
Several hours later he found himself lying in bed wide awake, thinking of one blue-eyed woman who was stirring him in ways he didn’t want to be stirred, and he was even contemplating what life would be like in her shoes.
No matter how much he tried convincing himself that this was about the conquest, he couldn’t quite put Kyla into the neat little box he’d set up for her.
Damn!
Chapter Eleven
Kyla kept pacing back and forth, unsure in which direction she should go. She walked toward Tanner’s door, and then retreated to her own, her hands outstretched as she held the warm plate of cookies.
Saturday morning. She was assuming he’d be home now, since he’d worked Monday through Friday at the mall. She had her other job to go to in a few hours, but for now she was home and she really wanted to say thank you to the man who’d helped her the night before last. What he’d done had been kind — more than that, of course — and she needed to do something. Approaching his door again, she lifted her hand…then it dropped, and she groaned in disgust with herself.
“Oh my gosh, just knock on his fricking door,” she mumbled in exasperation as she reached up again.
Instead of knocking, she walked away and then wanted to kick herself for being such a coward. He’d helped her, saved her from who knows what was going to happen, and then soothed her before, like a gentleman, really, before giving her a heart-stopping kiss. She owed him at least a warm batch of homemade cookies. But no matter how much she told herself to knock on his door, she couldn’t muster the courage.
“It’s not like you have a crush on him.” Sheesh. What was it with this talking to herself? Were the doctors going to come in and drag her off to the loony bin?
“Can I help you, ma’am?”
The deep male voice stopped Kyla in her tracks. It was daytime, and she’d never had a problem in this apartment complex until those men attacked her, so she didn’t know why the shiver of fear ran down her spine. Shaking it off, Kyla turned and saw a man in a blue uniform with a silver badge on his breast pocket. He was staring at her.
“Who are you?” She knew that the way she said it was slightly rude, but she was surprised as sin to see a man who looked so official standing there in the building.
“I’m with the new security company the owner of the building hired. We’ve been watching you on camera pacing the hallway for the last fifteen minutes, so I just want to find out if there’s anything I can help you with.”
“There are security cameras?” Dumbfounded, she looked up at the low ceilings, trying to spot them.
“They’re being installed throughout the building, but this floor has been completed. We’re setting up our station in the front lobby. You should find a notice in your mailbox about the update.”
Kyla hadn’t been aware that any of this activity was going on. Of course, she hadn’t left her apartment the day before — not even once — but still, she should have noticed something, or maybe clued in to the noise that must have been happening in her hallway. No wonder she’d been a victim the other night. She just wasn’t all that observant.
“I…uh…no…I don’t need help,” she finally said, remembering he’d asked.
“Are you sure, ma’am? You’ve been pacing for quite a while,” he said as he looked behind her.
“No,” she said with a sigh, before handing him the plate of warm cookies. “One of the tenants did something really nice for me the other night and I wanted to bring him cookies, but now I realize that was a really stupid idea, and so I’ve been trying to knock on his door, but I just can’t do it, so you take the dang cookies and give them to the other guards. It’s my welcome. I’m so glad you’re here.” What a lot of rambling! She must sound like an utter loon!
He held the cookies away from him as if there might be bugs in them or something, and he eyed her warily.
“I can’t accept gifts,” he said, no smile in either his face or his tone.
“It’s not like it’s a bribe or something. They’re just warm cookies,” she said, instantly irritated with him. She’d spent all morning baking. The least someone — anyone — could do was take the stupid things and eat them. Okay, okay, and tell her they were wonderful, of course.
“I really appreciate it, ma’am, but I can’t accept your cookies,” he said, trying again to hand them back.
“You’re being rude,” she said, stamping her foot. But this was ridiculous. Why in the world was she fighting about cookies?
“Ma’am—”
He was interrupted.
“Just say thank you, Steve, and take the cookies.” Another guard had walked up, a man little shorter than the first one, but with a much more friendly demeanor.
“You know we can’t accept cookies, Wayne,” Steve snapped.
“Ma’am, are your cookies poisoned?” Wayne asked.
Kyla looked at him for a moment without knowing what to say. She’d given away a lot of cookies in her life and had never once been asked that question.
“No,” she finally murmured and looked back and forth between the two men.
“Good enough for me,” Wayne said before pulling the plastic wrap off the plate Steve was still holding and grabbing a cookie. “Delicious.”
Kyla beamed at the man and refused to look at the first guard again. How hard had it been to accept a gift? Granted, the cookies had been intended for Tanner, but she was just glad someone had taken them.
“I’m going back to the front,” Steve said, thrusting the plate at Wayne before spinning on his heel and heading the opposite direction.
“I’m sorry about Steve. He’s a ‘by the books all the way’ kind of guy. My philosophy is to just live a little.” Wayne finished his cookie and grabbed another one.
“I like that philosophy so much b
etter. Life is short. Why not enjoy it?” She knew she was grinning goofily, but she’d just been through several tense moments and now she felt like laughing. It was silly. Maybe she needed a spa day — not that she could afford that.
“What’s your name?”
“Kyla Ridgley,” she answered, extending her hand.
“Wayne Stint,” he replied, accepting her hand and squeezing.
“It was great to meet you, Wayne. I’m going to go back to my baking now,” she said before realizing he was still holding on to her hand.
He reached the same realization at the same time, and his cheeks flushed. He let go quickly and mumbled “Sorry.”
“No problem.” She stood there awkwardly a moment longer before she decided to just turn and walk away.
Making it back to her apartment, Kyla leaned against the door and sighed before she called herself all sorts of names. She should have just taken the cookies to Tanner. She still could. She had a lot more to make.
But she knew she wasn’t going to do it.
Chapter Twelve
Well, look at what we have here!”
Tanner froze. He didn’t need to turn around to recognize that voice. Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! His life was really going to hell.
“Mmm, what a very sexy Santa Claus you make. I heard the good news, but I had to come see it for myself.”
Jokes and guffaws at Tanner’s expense flew thick and fast. With a thunderous expression on his face — sadly obscured by his white beard and bushy eyebrows — he glared at his brother Crew and cousin Lucas.
“Do you guys have a reason for being here?” he snapped as he looked around to see whether any of his other relatives were nearby. He’d really hoped that the visit at his apartment a little over a week ago would be the only such surprise.
“Nope. Just had to come and see how charming you look in your Santa costume,” Crew said.
“What a peach you are, big brother,” Tanner growled, and he began walking away.
“Now, now, don’t be in such a hurry. We thought we’d take you out for a beer. I’m sure you could use it,” Lucas said, easily keeping up.