by Honor James
“I have met them all,” he said. Shifting in his chair, he scooted it out, and then lifted her into his lap. Michael wrapped her in his arms, pressing her cheek to his chest as he began to rock her, stroking her hair gently. “I’m sorry, honey. I wish I’d been here for you. Why didn’t you tell me any of this, Gigi?” he asked quietly.
“Because you needed to keep your mind on keeping yourself safe.” She didn’t hesitate to tell him. “And honestly, I didn’t want you to worry. I know you and I know you would worry. I also know that you would have done anything you could in order to come home but you were needed over there and I know that.”
“I’m still not happy that you didn’t tell me, Gigi. I should not have to learn about you getting shot from your SS agents and their fucking reports. While they are incredibly thorough, they don’t tell me about your emotional state.” Michael pressed a kiss to her neck and left his head lowered there as he hugged her close.
“Wait.” She pulled back with a frown and looked at him. Cocking her head to the side, she asked, “What do you mean, ‘their reports’? Why were you getting them? I don’t understand. What in the world is going on here?” She knew that her guards had all reported back to her dad, as did the agents that watched over her now, but she had no idea that Michael knew about it as well.
“Oh, didn’t I mention that?” he asked. At her look, he rolled his eyes. “When your dad arrived in the country with my new orders, he handed me a pile of them. The reports, I mean. He had the one with the shooting incident on top and told me to read that one before any others. He had to practically sit on me, him and the entire division that is. I was not in a happy place when I read you’d been shot, two fucking months ago. I was packed and on the plane out of there in under an hour, paperwork all completed.”
“You mean something to me, but I’m not sure why you would be so upset.” She shook her head and added, “No, I take that back. I can understand why you were.” Because she would be heartbroken if he had been shot and she hadn’t known about it. “What’s happening between us?” She was so uncertain about everything when it came to a personal relationship. She had no good models as to what a true relationship should be. Heck, Sandy and her husband already were going through divorce so she just didn’t know. “I don’t know what’s going on between us, but I like it and I know it’s big and it’s important. Right?” Maybe she was just putting more into the thoughts of her and him than there were?
“You are very right,” he said softly. Pressing a kiss to her lips, he cuddled her closer to him. “I would tell you, but you tend to get skittish whenever the word comes up so I won’t say it. You’ll figure it out in time, and I am more than willing to wait for the realization to strike you. I think it’ll be pretty damn spectacular.”
She hated not realizing what it was. It was important, what they had together, she knew it. “I’m going to feel very, very stupid, aren’t I?” she asked with a frown. “Don’t answer that.” The only word she got skittish around was the L-word, and that fast she pulled back from him. She pushed back so hard that she literally took a tumble. “Oh shit,” she whispered with wide eyes. “I—” She couldn’t think.
She rubbed her temple, and from the floor where she had hit with her backside, she whispered, “Holy hell. I’m in love with you.” She didn’t think that word would ever, ever cross her lips but there it was. “Is that it?” It felt right. The second she thought about it, the second she whispered that word she knew that was the truth. She was in love with him.
He was there as soon as she took the fall, on his knees reaching for her. “Yeah, that’s it,” he said in a gentle tone. His expression was worried as he stared at her, watchful, too. “Are you going to be okay with that? Being in love with me, I mean. Because I’m in love with you, have been since pretty much day one I think, but I know it freaks you out so I’ve been careful not to bring it up.”
She didn’t say anything. Instead she got up on her knees and wrapped her arms around him. Her lips met his and she kissed him. In that kiss she hoped to express just how much that meant to her, that he would care for her as she did him. When she pulled back she licked her lips. “Only if you promise me we won’t turn out like my messed-up family. That we will stay together until we are both old, gray, and losing our teeth? I don’t want a part-time love, I want forever. Can you give that to me?”
“Hell yeah,” he said. He put his hands on her face, cradling her with infinite care as he smiled. “I’m not going anywhere, Gigi. You are stuck with me for the rest of your days, no matter how much you kick and scream. I love you, honey. Today, tomorrow, and when we are older than dirt.”
“Good.” She whispered and stroked her fingers over his cheeks and then lips. “I think that I have from the first moment I met you. Weird, I know,” she said with a frown. “And here I blamed you for being a bridesmaid in that ugly dress.” She grinned. “It’s okay though. In the end I got you, right?”
“Yes you did,” he told her. Getting to his feet, he took her hands and tugged her up. “Is your ass okay? You hit the floor pretty hard, honey. Fuck, you still look pale and shaken. Maybe I should have eased you into the idea a little more gently than I did.”
“Honestly, I’m scared to death that I’m dreaming and the one time that I’ve said the L-word to anyone other than my father or mother is a dream. I’m scared spitless that I will wake up and this will be a dream and I will be alone again.”
“No dream,” he said. Pulling her into his arms, he hugged her close. “I promise, I’m right here in your kitchen, with you, and we both said the infamous L-word. Why don’t you have a seat while I clean up our mess, and then you and I can go and snuggle some more? Actually you’ll be snuggling, and I’ll probably be sleeping.”
“How about this. You go back to bed and I will clean up. When I’m done I will come and climb back into bed with you,” she asked and reached out to touch him. “Go. You are exhausted. I can clean up in here. Promise.” She turned him toward the bedroom and gave a small push. “Really, I’m good with this. Go. Just make sure to leave room on the bed for me.”
“There will always be room in any bed I occupy for you,” he said over his shoulder. Michael stopped in the doorway and shot her a look. “You sure?” he asked. “I mean about cleaning up. I was brought up that the cook never did the cleanup. It feels wrong leaving you to clean up this, at least by yourself.”
“I’m perfectly sure. Go. I’ve been cleaning up after myself for a long while and I can handle doing it once again.” She did, however, walk to him, lean up on her toes, and brush a kiss to his cheek. “Now go. I don’t want to crawl into a cold bed please.”
She caught him rolling his eyes at her as she drew back. “I see why you’re tossing me out of the kitchen now. Fine, I will go, and be a bed warmer. Don’t take too long, honey.” A quick kiss to her lips, and he spun away. She got to watch the muscles of his ass flex and move as he walked away from her.
Like any normal red-blooded woman, Gigi watched him as he walked away, fanning herself with her hands as she did so. Shaking her head out of her own stupor, she began to get everything cleaned up and set the coffee maker so that she could have, no so they could have coffee in the morning.
When she finally joined him, he was on his belly, head turned to the side, and an arm thrown over her side of the bed. It was almost as if he was reaching for her. She hadn’t thought she’d made any noise, but she must have. Michael’s eyes snapped open, and he shot her an alert look over his shoulder before his face relaxed into a lopsided grin. “Hey,” he said in a sleepy tone.
“Hey yourself.” She stripped out of the robe and turned off the side lamp. Once that was done, she climbed into bed with him and grinned when he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her tightly to his side. “I could become very accustomed to this,” she confessed and let out a yawn. “Rest. When we wake up, we will figure out what we are doing next. Right?”
“Doesn’t matter, you are mine for a ful
l week. It’s all been arranged with your agents,” he said against her neck. His breath was warm on her skin, creating little shivers down her body. “All I really care about is that you will be naked most of that time.”
“At least now I know why my fridge and freezer are stockpiled.” She teased and shifted so she was closer, her front to his, her leg between his. “I think sleep is good. When we wake up we will have a bath in my nice big tub and then we will figure out what else we are going to do. Deal?”
“Deal,” he said. Pressing a kiss to her lips, he smiled against her mouth. “I love you, Gigi,” he whispered. Another gentle kiss before he moved his head to rest against her shoulder, his nose pressing to her neck. She felt the deep breath he took, and when he released it his body seemed to relax over hers.
That had her smiling and she moved in closer. Letting out a sigh, she closed her eyes and yawned once more. In the smallest of whispers she said, “I love you, too, Michael.”
Chapter Ten
Three days of being ensconced in her home with Michael had helped Gigi to forget about all the troubles that had plagued her. Unfortunately on day four it wasn’t to be ignored any longer. It all started with a sharp knock on her door that had both of them scrambling for some form of clothing so they wouldn’t flash the visitor, or the neighborhood. No way in hell was she letting the neighbors get a gander at Michael in the buff.
Michael was the one to answer the door. He peered out and then shot her a confused look as he opened the door to their visitor. It was Reece, and he didn’t look happy.
When the door opened and Reece stood there, Gigi was finishing buttoning the shirt that Michael and tossed at her. “Reece? Hey, what’s up? Is Daddy okay?” Her mind turned to her father immediately, nothing else. “Come in, tell us what’s going on. Please?”
“Your father’s fine,” Reece said as he stepped in. He paused and looked at her. “Uh, you missed a button there,” he told her. He was wiggling a finger toward the front of her shirt and obviously trying not to grin.
“Doesn’t matter. What’s up?” She turned her back to him so she could undo the buttons on her shirt and then redo them, shooting Michael a grin as she did so. “Besides, I haven’t had much need for clothes the last little while so yeah.” Once they were all done up, she turned back around. “Now, what’s going on?”
Reece coughed into his hand and was now looking anywhere but her direction. “You’d better grab your laptop, Gigi. This is a show and tell. Your dad received this at his office, which is an issue of its own, but the bigger issue is what’s on it. You’re not going to be happy.” He said that specifically to Michael.
She looked at the video that she pulled up on her laptop and frowned. She leaned back and tilted her head. “Wait. That’s...” She trailed off immediately, however. The scene was through her bedroom window, the curtains not fully drawn and showing her fully naked. She gasped and put her hands to her mouth when she saw Michael walking up behind her and lifting her, obvious what they were doing. “Oh God.” Someone had caught their most intimate of moments. “How?” She whispered and looked to both men, Michael looking like he was ready to kill someone and Reece flushing with anger as well.
“We don’t know, but he got in close enough to tape that. It wasn’t rigged, we’d have seen it on our sweeps through the yard,” Reece said. He began to pace around her living room. “If you turn the volume up high enough you can hear the breathing. The fucker was getting off on watching you two, I’m sorry to say. The video came with an e-mail.” Digging into a pocket, he handed a sheet of paper to Michael. Giving it a read, she watched all expression on Michael’s face drop away, leaving nothing but a chilling mask. He passed her the sheet, his eyes meeting hers, and she was shocked at the anger she could read in his blue eyes.
Gigi read the note and felt her face lose all color as well. Her mouth went dry and she suddenly felt dizzy. “What do we do?” she asked and swallowed, hard. “How? Jesus who could have possibly gotten this close to our home?” She lived on a large piece of land with high walls, security and dogs. How? The note though, she was scared shitless with that note. This is your last warning. Unless you want to see what the inside of her looks like as well as the outside, I suggest that you do as you have been told.
“You know the security measures as well as we do, Gigi,” Reece said. “Somehow this asshole is slipping through it all. There are very few men, or women, that could. Your dad used items not even on the public market, for the love of God. We have to move you two, period. Your dad wants you at his place. He feels the more people we can surround you with Gigi the better.”
“Who the fuck is this person?” Michael asked. She didn’t like how he spoke, it was so cold and detached. He reached out to her though, like he’d read her thoughts, and took her hand in his giving it a squeeze.
“Not a clue. We never have a clue as to who is behind this. We don’t know what he’s warning against, why he’s targeting Gigi or her father. We have absolutely dick all. This guy is getting around every security measure we have, which shouldn’t be possible without a full team. Yet there’s no way he could have hidden that many on this property.”
“You said you have dogs, right?” Michael turned to look at her suddenly.
“Yes, there are dogs. Since I was shot, Daddy brought in trained dogs. They roam the property and the only ones that are able to get by them are the ones on the team. There are the four that were inside the house with me and what, three outside?” she asked Reece. She felt ill. She had a feeling that what she said next was going to not be received well. “Could it be one of the men?” she whispered.
“Never,” Reece protested immediately.
“I agree,” Michael said. “I’ve read all their records, and did a lot more digging into each of them. They are all well-off, so bribes wouldn’t work. Their families are being watched over, so there’s no chance of blackmail. It is someone that knows you, knows your father, and knows how to get around those dogs. I’m betting it is someone military, who’s either worked with or been around the service dogs. You’d have to know all the appropriate hand signals and cues to get one of them to not attack.”
“Fabulous.” Gigi wiped the tears from her face and stood. She began to pace with her arms around her middle. “So what next?” She wanted to know. “I don’t know if going to Daddy’s is going to stop this. It might just make things worse. I don’t know what to do.” She turned to Michael. “Michael, what are your thoughts?”
“We’re not going to your father’s,” he said. “We need to draw this fucker out. But we’re also not leaving here, not yet. I need to talk to your dad about something, see if he can swing it. If he can, then we’ll head out in a couple of days. Until then, we go into full lockdown. Two of the agents inside, never in our bedroom though.” He shot a warning look at Reece that promised horrible things would happen if anyone breached their space. “Once I have things in place then we get out of town and take this fucker with us to somewhere he likely won’t like being.”
“Okay. Whatever you think is best.” She moved to Michael and leaned against him. She didn’t wrap her arms around him, just leaned into him. “Whatever it takes. I want our lives back. I want to be able to have that time with you without fear. I don’t like this. At all.”
Michael had his arms wrapped around her by that point and squeezed her close. “I need to get my phone, love. It’s secure so I know no one can tap it, at least not right away. I’m going to call your father at his office. He is at the Pentagon right?” he asked of Reece.
“Yeah, he had meetings all morning, but I know he told his secretary to put through any calls from either of you immediately.”
“Good, then we’ll have a secure line at that end, too. Makes it a lot tougher for anyone to get in on the call that way. Gigi, honey, I need you to turn on some music, the TVs, and get them all reasonably loud for the next while. That will ensure that if anyone’s trying to listen through other means they aren’t go
ing to get anything but racket. I’m going to grab my phone, cop a squat in a closet, and make the call. If you want to come with me, you can,” he said to her. “I’m sure your dad would like to talk to you,” he added softly.
Gigi just nodded. She moved to start to turn things on without saying a word. When that was done, she slipped her hand into Michael’s and nodded. “Reece will keep an eye on things out here, right?” She turned to face the guard to ask that question. When he nodded, Gigi went along with Michael toward the hall closet so they still had noise around them and watched as he dialed her father’s office number.
He nodded when he’d asked to speak to her father. “She’s grabbing him out of the meeting,” he said for her benefit. Easing to the floor, he pulled her down to sit straddling his lap. Looping an arm around her waist, he rubbed his hand up and down her back while they wait. “Sir, yes sir, we’re both fine. She’s right here, hold one minute.” He passed her the phone.
Gigi took the phone and said, “Daddy. Yes. Yes I’m good.” She rolled her eyes and smiled. “Good lord, Daddy, he’s only been here a few days. No, absolutely not.” Damn her father for asking her if there was going to be something between them other than just sex. She didn’t like that thought at all. She rather loved the idea of being able to have Michael with her without any thoughts of commitment or the likes.
When her father demanded she put “that boy” back on the phone, she handed the cell over to him. Michael was grinning as he put the phone to his ear, but his voice was dead serious. “Sir?” She could hear her father’s voice through the phone given how close they were. She couldn’t hear what he was saying though. Michael was just giving yes and no answers to everything.
Apparently there was something he’d said that was satisfactory since Michael was able to soon lay out his plan to her father. It was surprisingly simple, yet infinitely difficult and hinged on her father’s massive pull coming into play. But if her father could pull it off, and she had no doubt in the man, then the nightmare that had begun on an island during a wedding would finally be over.