First to Fight Box Set: Books 1-5

by Nicole Blanchard

  “Rough call from last night?”

  “You can say that.”

  “I’m not sure it’s worth much, but I’m sorry.”

  “You’re feeding me, so at least something decent came of it.”

  I wave it away. “I’m just being neighborly.”

  “For someone who habitually carries a gun, you’re being very hospitable.”

  Shrugging, I take a bite of casserole. “Turning over a new leaf.”

  He studies me. “Is that what you’re doing here? Turning over a new leaf?”

  “Trying to.”

  “I’m not going to ask, but I’m here if you need to talk about it.”

  I look down at my plate, afraid his finely tuned senses can read my eyes. “Thanks. Same goes, apparently.”

  “Make sure to tell Aunt Diane about this conversation. She thinks I interrogate you every chance I get.”

  I surprise us both by laughing. “I’ll do that.”

  “What made you come to Nassau?” he asks.

  “My friend Chloe. I used to own a travel agency out of Jacksonville.”

  “Used to?” His eyes are intense and assessing. I remind myself to be careful with details. It’s easy to let down my guard around him, to forget he’s also a cop.

  I lift my shoulders in what I hope is a casual gesture. “She’s managing owner now. I was ready for a change.”

  “So you’re from around Jacksonville?” He shifts, and I spot an arm going under the table and the happy slurps from Rocky. Logan looks back at my incredulous expression. “What?”

  “Are you trying to teach him bad habits?”

  He grins. “Are you trying to avoid the question?”

  “Don’t feed him from the table. He’ll learn to beg whenever I’m eating if you keep it up.”

  “I’m going with my gut, and I’m gonna say if you’re not originally from Jacksonville, you’re at least from Florida. Am I right?”

  To cover my surprise, I take another bite of casserole. Another drink. He sees far too much. “Your aunt was right to think you interrogate me.”

  “Not an interrogation.” The implied “yet” doesn’t need to be spoken. “Just neighborly conversation.”

  “Originally Alabama, but I’ve lived in Florida, yes.” There, close enough to the truth. Not specific enough to point to my real identity.

  “There? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

  “Why do you care so much?”

  “Natural curiosity.”

  “Is that why you became a cop?”

  “Partially.”

  I raise my brow when he doesn’t elaborate. “Now who’s dodging questions?”

  “Touché.”

  Plates cleared, he stands and takes them to the sink and surprises me by washing them instead of leaving them for me. I let Rocky out back, where I’ve staked off an electronic fence to keep him from wandering. Then, out of sheer habit, I leave Logan in the kitchen while I check the locks on the doors and double check that the windows are secure. When I return, I find him watching me with his patient gaze as he sips from another beer.

  “Making yourself at home?” I tease.

  “Afraid of something?” he counters, and my smile falls.

  He sets his empty bottle on the table and crosses the room to where I’m standing. Everything inside me goes on alert. With a man like Logan, I would have to be dead not to respond. For a long time, I thought I was, but as he grows closer my whole body comes back to life.

  “What are you doing?” I ask. The words are barely discernible over the loud rush of my breathing.

  I don’t realize I have been moving backward until my back touches the wall. I bring my hands up automatically, and they come in contact with the expanse of his chest. My eyes dart to his face, which is surprisingly close to mine. Then, I stop breathing altogether.

  “Don’t be afraid of me.”

  Then he draws me close. The move is so smooth, I go with him. His lips are so soft and so unexpected, I sigh into them. He doesn’t move other than to rub his lips against mine, nipping at them with a gentle bite of his teeth. When his tongue presses forward and caresses my own, I snap out of my stupor and pull back.

  I press a trembling hand to my lips. “I can’t.” Furious at the tremble in my voice, I slide out between him and the wall, desperate for cool air to clear my thoughts and take away the heat licking at my insides.

  He takes a step to the side and blocks my departure. “Seems like you just did.”

  Shaking my head, I say, “No, you don’t understand.”

  When I try to move around him again, he sidesteps. “I’m a pretty intelligent man, Sienna. Why don’t you try to explain it to me?”

  Blindly, I run a hand through my hair, tugging at the ends and hoping to regain some common sense. I grasp for the first explanation I come across. “You don’t even know me.”

  “I know enough.” He moves closer, and it’s as if he sucks all the air from the room. “I’ll get to know more.”

  “No you don’t.” I gasp for air. “You won’t.”

  One hand comes to rest on my hip, searing through the material of my jeans. For one white-hot second, I imagine those hands on my skin without a barrier, and my heart leaps inside my chest. When I refocus on his words, I wish I hadn’t. “I know you’ve got secrets. A past. I know you tremble when I touch you. That you sighed just a little when I kissed you. I know you like to garden, love my family, and, despite your initial skittishness, you’re kind to everyone.”

  “We’ve barely met.” Even to my ears, my voice sounds desperate.

  “What? Are you fishing for compliments? Do you want me to tell you that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met? That I dream about you and the way you looked at me the first night I saw you? About getting between your thighs and hearing those sighs in my ear as you’re holding on to me? Do you want me to tell you how much I want to know what makes you look so sad sometimes?”

  I close my eyes, trying to block out his words. “I don’t want you to say any of those things. I don’t want you to feel any of those things.”

  “You can’t control me any more than you can control the world around you—no matter how hard you try.”

  “I’m not ready for this. It’s too fast.” I look away from him, but he takes my chin gently between his thumb and forefinger and turns my attention back to him. I want to tell him to stop, but the words won’t come, and he presses a soft kiss to my lips.

  “Fair enough, for now. We won’t get into it all until you’re ready.” He moves away, and I resist the temptation to follow after him. The cool air swirling between us clears my mind somewhat. He takes another step toward the door and then grins at me, breaking some of the tension. “We’ll save it for the second date.”

  He’s halfway out the door when I realize what he said. “This wasn’t a first date!” I call out after him and he turns back to me, his hand still on the doorknob.

  “Are we going to argue over semantics? There was a dinner if I recall correctly. Conversation. I even kissed you good night, though you can get credit for walking me to the door.”

  I grasp blindly for an excuse. “Logan, just a few days ago, you thought I was trying to pull one over on your family.”

  This finally gets him to come back, but now all the playfulness has been replaced with a serious expression. “Pretty sure I was just being stubborn.”

  “Stubborn isn’t really how I would describe it.”

  He shrugs. “It’s not every day a man meets a woman who stops time just by walking into the room.” With a tug of my hand, he pulls me closer. “That’s what you do for me, Sienna. You stop time.”

  He kisses me again, and this time, I don’t push him away.

  Logan

  For the next few weeks, I give her time—not only to think about us, but because I’m so swamped with the Elizabeth Gallagher case I don’t have time to pay her attention properly. Besides, with a woman like Sienna, I shouldn’t pursue
it until I can go all in. I still make sure to stop by the B&B more regularly, grab a cup of coffee, fluster her a little bit, get her used to seeing me.

  She’s not always pleased to see me, which only tells me I’m making progress.

  On one such morning after a long night, I tromp up the mud-splattered walkway to the back entrance of the B&B, but Sienna’s already waiting by the back door with a fierce scowl. The sight of it just makes me smile.

  “What are you doing here?” she hisses.

  “Why? Aren’t you happy to see me?”

  She tugs my arm and pulls me into the hall and pushes me inside an over-sized pantry, then slams the door behind us. “What? Are you stalking me now?” She glances over her shoulder and keeps her voice low, probably worried someone may overhear us.

  There isn’t much room to maneuver in the small space, but I think I can make it work for me. “Is that what you think?” I ask, my voice is equally low to match hers.

  Her scowl deepens, and I take a second to think about tracing the lines of her lips with my tongue. She snaps her fingers in front of my face. “One kiss doesn’t mean you can harass me at work, Logan.”

  I turn, using my grip on her arms to pull her into me as I lean against the shelves. They dig into my back, but I’m much more interested in how she feels when she loses balance and falls against me. She blows her hair out of her face, and I grin. “This isn’t me harassing you, but I can if you’re into that. My aunt owns the place. We live next to each other. You’re gonna have to get used to seeing me.”

  She rolls her eyes and tries to wiggle out of my grip, but it’s only a halfhearted attempt. “You can’t keep coming to see me at work like this.”

  “Oh, I can’t?” I twine my arms around her and dip my head so the next words are muttered against her lips. “I think you like it.”

  A surge of triumph crashes through me when she sighs and her hands twist around my neck. I’m sure she will deny it later, but she is the one who closes the tiny distance between our mouths.

  In our urgency, we knock over a tower of cans, and they tumble to the floor with dull thuds. Sienna pulls back, cheeks flushed and eyes wide. “Do you think they heard us?” she whispers.

  We listen for a few tense seconds. When it appears they haven’t, I tug her back to me. “Go out with me.”

  Her dazed eyes blink up at me. “What?”

  “Go out with me. Date two, remember?”

  I kiss the resulting frown off her face.

  “I don’t know.” Despite her protests, her head tilts to the side, giving me access to her neck. I would have to be completely dense to pass up the offer. Since I’m not, I drop my lips to her soft skin and suck and bite until her nails are digging into my arm.

  “We won’t call it a date. You have to eat, right?”

  “Hmm?” I take her earlobe into my mouth, and she shivers against me. When she can breathe again she adds, “Oh yeah, mhmm.”

  “Then let me take you to dinner.”

  She swallows thickly, and I twist so she’s pinned between me and the wall. Her eyes are overbought and half-closed. “I have to stay late tonight. Your Grandma has a late doctor’s appointment so I’ll be closing up and finishing dinner here so Diane can take her.”

  My groan is muffled against her throat. “What about after?”

  “After?”

  I chuckle, but even to my own ears, it sounds thin and desperate. “Yes, after dinner. After work.”

  “We’ve been over this,” she says as her hands fist in my shirt. “I can’t.”

  This time, my laugh is dark. “Oh, I think you can,” I say, kissing her again.

  She sinks into me, into the kiss, and I can’t remember ever enjoying the taste of a woman so much. I’m not even sure she realizes how much she gives herself over. Based on how much she’s been holding back, how much she’s been hiding, having her give in is a reward a man like me doesn’t deserve. But I take it, and I demand more. Her mouth is my new battle ground, and I use every weapon in my arsenal to make her surrender.

  When I pull back, she’s limp in my arms. “So,” I say between breaths, “I’ll pick you up after your shift?”

  “What?”

  “I’m gonna pick you up after work. We’ll take Rocky to the park and let him run around.”

  “He’d like the park.”

  “What time do you get off?”

  There’s a soft knock, which startles us into silence, and then Aunt Diane says through the door, “Sienna, when you’re done, can you fetch me a couple cans of peaches? I think we’ll have cobbler for dessert later.”

  Sienna stuffs her face into my chest, her shoulders shaking under my hands. When she can control herself, she says, “Yes, ma’am.” She pauses and shoots me a worried glance. “Do you think she knows what we’re doing in here?”

  Before I can answer there’s a polite cough. “Logan, when you’re done badgering her, there’s food out here for you if you’re hungry.”

  Sienna looks up at me wide-eyed and flushed. Oh my God she mouths in shock. She starts to pull away, but I keep her in place with one arm. When I open my mouth, she slaps a hand over my lips and frantically shakes her head.

  I kiss her hand and then pull it away. “Yes, ma’am,” I say to Aunt Diane, who chuckles as she shuffles back down the hall.

  “Kill me now,” Sienna says into my chest.

  “I’d rather not.”

  “What is your aunt going to think of me now?”

  I tuck a piece of hair behind her ear and tip her chin up with a finger. “She’s gonna think you have great taste.”

  Sienna growls in the back of her throat and pushes away. “You’re going to go now so I can make sure I still have a job.” She scans the rows of canned goods and selects a couple of canned peaches. “You have to stop dropping by while I’m at work.”

  While her hands are occupied, I take advantage and kiss her again, causing her to suck in a surprised breath. “I like starting my day off with seeing you.”

  She shakes her head. “You’re impossible.” Despite her words she steps up to me and kisses me. It’s the first she’s ever initiated.

  Inside I’m crowing because I know I’ve won this round, but I don’t let it show. Don’t want to spook her off. “I’ll pick you up around six? It doesn’t get dark till about eight.”

  She opens the door and looks back. “You aren’t going to stop until I give in, are you?”

  “Now you’re learning.” I follow her out into the hall and wave at Aunt Diane and Grandma Rose who are sitting at the kitchen counter with smiles the size of the Mississippi on their faces. “I’ll see you at six.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she says as she walks away.

  “Don’t think you can run,” I say to her back.

  She waves a hand over her head.

  As I leave, I hear Aunt Diane say, “He’s right, you know. If you run, it’ll just make him chase you.”

  “This is a momentous occasion,” Jack says from the phone attached to the dashboard as we video chat.

  Because I’m an adult, I ignore him. Ben, who is in the passenger seat beside me, does not. “The last of the single men. We should light a candle or some shit. Throw a party. Something.”

  I pull out of the gym parking lot and resist the urge to lay out both of my best friends. “I’m going to lock the both of you up.”

  Jack snorts. “I’m way the fuck in the desert. If you can find me, you’re welcome to lock me up.”

  “Don’t tempt me,” I mutter darkly.

  Chloe’s cousin Ben laughs and punches my shoulder. You’d think after our time in boot camp after the three of us joined the Marines and countless sparring sessions would have made me immune to his right hook, but nearly a decade later and he still packs a helluva punch. “We all went through it, man.”

  “Yeah,” comes Jack’s warbled voice from the video chat. The picture fades in and out, but all of us are well used to the shoddy connection. “’Bout fuckin’
time you met a nice girl. You deserve it after all you’ve been through.”

  “So who is she? My cousin Chloe’s been pretty tight-lipped about her,” Ben adds.

  “Since when did you become such a chick?” I ask Ben, who angles his head toward me, reminding me to be sensitive to his single-sided deafness. During his last deployment a couple years ago, some of the men in his unit had been hit by rockets. When he went to help provide cover, concussive grenades killed nearly everyone. Ben managed to haul the only survivor, a man named Scott Green, out of the wreckage, nearly killing himself in the process. Green lost a leg and Ben lost his hearing in one ear, but they both lost what they used to love the most—being a Marine.

  Ben just laughs and I know his family—his wife Livvie and their son Cole—help him cope with the life he lost in the explosion. “Sue me,” he says. “After the last woman you were with, I’m a little overprotective.”

  “It’s his overdeveloped father instinct,” Jack chimes in. “Ever since he became a dad, he can’t help it.”

  Ben flips Jack off, who laughs and I sigh. “She’s a little gun shy right now, so I don’t need the two of you fuckwads ganging up on her.”

  “Hey!” Jack protests. “What can I do? I’m thousands of miles away.”

  I shoot him a look. “Wait until you go on leave. What is it? A couple weeks.”

  Jack mimes zipping his lips. “As if I’d tell you. I want some alone time with my own wife before I get an ass kicking.”

  “She in some kind of trouble?” Ben asks, ignoring the two of us.

  “Uh-oh,” Jack says. “Here we go.”

  Rolling my shoulders, I change lanes to head to Ben’s house. “I’m working on it.”

  “It’s like he doesn’t even know what he’s walking into.” Jack cackles into the phone while looking at Ben.

  I scowl at him. “It’s a good thing you’re deployed.”

  “I miss you, too, asshole.”

  I glance back at Jack and find his expression has turned serious. “Something wrong?”

  “No, I’m just worried about Sofie. Worried she may be pushing herself too hard.”

  “What do you mean?” Ben asks.

  “I can tell when she has a case is all. She gets tense.”