by Leah Brooke
“Finished for the day? You look like hell.”
Julianna grimaced. “Thanks. Just what I needed to hear. I have to go up and check with Les before I leave.”
“The contractor? He left for the day. He went to your office but heard you talking to someone so he told me to tell you that everything’s running smoothly and ahead of schedule.” When he took her arm and led her toward the door, she couldn’t help but notice he always kept his right hand free. “Let’s go. Steve called a little while ago and told me to drag you out of here, bodily if necessary, in fifteen minutes.” He slid a glance at her as he opened the door. “You had three minutes left.”
His cold tone made her wonder once again what she’d done to piss him off, but with her head pounding, she didn’t feel up to finding out right now.
Once outside, she turned toward the parking lot, brought up short when Mike tugged her arm, leading her toward the limo parked out front. “I’m too tired to deal with him tonight.” Pausing on the sidewalk, she shook her head. “I can’t wait to buy my new car.”
Mike didn’t answer, obviously preoccupied. “Any problems?”
At first she thought he was talking to her, and warmed at his first show of concern in days. Then she saw that another man, one she didn’t recognize, stood next to the limo, his eyes sweeping the street as they approached. He stood a few inches shorter than her, but had shoulders like a linebacker. “No. Is she ready to go?”
“Yeah, I’ll drive.”
When a scent drifted to her on a breeze, she stiffened. A chill went up her spine, and she turned to Mike.
“The guy on the elevator. It’s the same cologne. Oh, my God, I think I smelled it in the alley, too.” She leaned toward the other man and sniffed, only to find he wore another, more subtle scent. She already knew Mike smelled nothing like it. “At least I think it is. I’m sure it is, but the guy in the elevator wore too much of it.”
She looked around, but saw no one else, but the scent still lingered in the air.
Mike’s hand tightened around her upper arm, his face lined with fury. “And you didn’t realize it was the same man from the alley until now?”
She blinked and looked uncertainly toward the other man, not quite understanding Mike’s accusing tone. “I’m still not sure. I just smelled it and it reminded me—Hey!”
Before she could figure out what he intended, Julianna found herself hustled to the limo and shoved inside. The door closed behind her as the other man hurried around the car to get into the passenger seat while Mike slid behind the wheel.
Gathering her jacket around her against the sudden chill, Julianna straightened in her seat. “Damn it, Mike. What the hell’s going on?”
Mike exchanged a look with the other man before starting the car and pulling away from the curb. “Julianna Lovette, meet Doug Fisher, your new bodyguard. Sit back and do what we tell you.”
Speechless for a minute, Julianna could only stare at the other man. “Bodyguard? Mike, don’t you think this is getting a little out of hand? I don’t need a bodyguard. Why the hell would someone who’s pissed off at Steve come after me? I’m only the decorator.”
Mike met her eyes in the mirror. “You’re more than that, and you know it. We have to assume he does, too.”
“This is ridiculous. It doesn’t make any sense.”
He shrugged, his eyes icy. “Nevertheless, I have orders to keep an eye on you. Now just sit back and let me do my job before you get us all killed.”
Knowing how loyal Steve’s men were to both him and Nick, she didn’t bother arguing. Mike and Doug had their orders, and nothing she said or did would change their minds. She’d make Steve see reason when she called him from home and get him to get rid of the bodyguard.
“You going to get that?”
Lost in thought, Julianna blinked. “What?” Only then did she realize her cell phone rang. She rummaged through her purse for it, only to miss the call and have it go to voice mail. “Damn it.” Before she could return the call, Mike’s phone rang.
He looked down at the display before answering. “Hey, Steve. We’re on our way. Yeah, she’s fine. Just daydreaming, I guess, and didn’t hear the phone until it was too late. Seems she suddenly remembered that the man that hit on her in the elevator wore the same cologne as one of the men in the alley. She smelled it again as she came out of the hotel. No, no one was around.”
A silence followed, with Mike watching her in the rearview mirror. “Yeah, another coincidence. We’ll be there in about five minutes.” Mike glanced in the rearview mirror again, meeting her gaze briefly with his cold one before turning away. “No, I didn’t tell her. Okay, see you in a few.”
Murmuring under his breath, he disconnected and tucked the phone away.
Scooting across to the other seat, Julianna leaned over the back of it between the two men. “What didn’t you tell me?”
“Move to the side a little. You’re blocking the rearview mirror.” Mike kept looking from his side mirror to the rearview mirror, his expression hard. “See him?”
Doug kept checking his side mirror. “Yeah, dark sedan, three cars back. Two men in the car. Miss Lovette, get down.”
Julianna moved back to the other seat to look out the back window. “What are you two talking about?”
Mike turned in his seat. “God damn it, get down!” He turned the corner fast, sending Julianna flying across the seat and to the floor just as the back window exploded. “Julianna, use your cell phone and call Steve. Tell him we’re coming in hot. Damn it, the limo in Miami has bulletproof windows.” He turned another corner, sending Julianna flying the other way. “I’m getting one for every damned city they have a hotel. Fuck.”
The tires squealed as he turned the corner, but Mike’s deep voice came through clearly, the anger in it unmistakable.
Amid shards of broken glass, Julianna scrambled around on her hands and knees, finally closing her hand on her cell phone. With a sense of unreality, she brushed glass from her hands and pushed her feet against the door in an attempt to brace herself as they went around yet another corner.
This could not be happening.
With shaking fingers, she dialed Steve’s cell phone, relieved that he answered after the first ring.
“Vanguard.”
“Steve, it’s me.” Julianna let out an involuntary squeal, falling to her side when Mike turned another corner.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay? What the fuck’s going on?”
Deciding that staying on her back on the floor would keep her from being tossed around the backseat like a rag doll, she tightened her hand on her phone. “Mike told me to call you and tell you that we’re coming in hot. Somebody’s shooting at us.”
“Fuck!” He turned his face from the phone and shouted something, but with Mike and Doug both cursing and yelling at her, and the squeal of tires on the pavement, she couldn’t hear him. He spoke into the phone again, a thread of panic coming through his otherwise icy tone. “Where are you?”
Julianna had to raise her voice, ducking as another shot rang out. “On the floor of the fucking limo. Somebody shot out the back window, and Mike and Doug keep yelling at me to stay down.”
“You do what the fuck they tell you! Tell Mike we’re ready. Are you hurt?”
“No.” She screamed when the side window shattered, instinctively raising her arms to cover her face.
“Julianna!” Steve’s shout came through the phone at the same time Mike yelled from the front of the limo.
Julianna yelled to Mike. “Steve said they’re ready! Stop yelling at me. I can’t get down any more. I’m on the damned floor.” Rolling onto her stomach to keep her face from getting hit with any more flying glass, Julianna put the cell phone to her ear again, wincing at the panic in Steve’s voice as he screamed her name over and over. “I’m here. I’m okay. Holy hell.”
“I see you now. I’m coming to get you.” He cursed and disconnected before she could reply.
Julian
na blinked and stared down at the phone, holding on to it tightly when the limo made another sharp turn. By the difference in the lighting and the way the sound echoed, she could tell they’d entered the parking garage beneath the hotel.
After another sharp turn and more squealing tires, the limo came to a screeching halt. The door flew open almost immediately, and before she even got a chance to scramble to her knees, Steve reached in for her.
“Come here, baby. We’ve gotta move.” Grabbing her shoulders, he pulled her out of the back of the limo, not even giving her a chance to get her feet under her before he raced toward the elevator, all but dragging her with him with one hand wrapped securely around her upper arm while the other held a gun.
Doug grabbed her other arm, and a glance over her shoulder told her that Mike followed, holding a gun pointed toward the entrance of the garage as he scanned the immediate area.
She turned back to see Adam holding the elevator door open, his face a hard mask as he held yet another gun, his gaze sweeping the area behind them.
Working together like a well-oiled machine, they hustled her into the elevator. Steve and Doug pushed her into a back corner and when Doug moved to stand in front of her, Steve shot him a look. Doug inclined his head and stepped aside, as Steve positioned himself there instead, blocking her in completely so she couldn’t even see around him.
Placing her hands on his back, she dropped her forehead between his shoulder blades, comforted by the contact. She was even more comforted when he reached back with his left hand and patted her thigh.
She thought it strange that no one spoke, not even when the elevator stopped on their floor. Hearing a flurry of movement, she started to take a step, only to have Steve push her back against the corner, his big body a wall of muscle in front of her. Although the elevator emptied, he didn’t move until Adam said, “Clear,” from somewhere in the hallway.
Steve reached back for her hand and pulled her out, moving quickly. The other men surrounded them immediately, and they all hurried down the hall to the hotel room, where Jay waited, holding the door open.
He eyed her up and down as Steve hustled her past him. “Is she hurt?”
Julianna moved clear of everyone except Steve, who wouldn’t release her hand. “No, she’s not. What the hell just happened?”
Steve drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. “It appears Munson decided to make a move. Christ, Julianna, you’re covered with glass.” He helped her out of her jacket, tossing it into the corner. “Are you sure you’re not hurt anywhere?”
“Positive. You should ask the men who actually got shot at.” She looked Mike and Doug over as they stood watching them. “Are you guys all right? I don’t know how to thank you. You reacted so quickly.”
Steve turned her face back to his, tilting her chin before bending to drop a quick kiss on her lips, and whispered against them. “You and I need to talk in private.”
Mike’s smile appeared strained, his tone gentler than she’d ever heard it. “We’re fine. That’s our job, and neither one of us got hurt, but I got careless.” Dropping into a seat, his gaze slid around the room, touching on each of the others. “If that was Munson tonight, he could have done worse.”
Doug’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t know much about this guy, except what you told me. Why do you think he backed off?”
Several of the men cursed.
Julianna looked up at Steve for answers. “What?”
Steve blew out another breath, running his fingers lightly over her arm. “He was on a fact-finding mission. He wanted to see how important you were to me and how far I’d gone to protect you.” He smiled faintly. “Now he knows.”
She couldn’t deny the warm glow that filled her, nor could she keep from leaning into him when he pulled her against him.
He felt so solid and warm, and his hands running up and down her back helped soothe the tremors she hadn’t been aware of until now. “Let’s get you in the shower and get all this glass off of you.”
Jay came forward with a small bag and set it on one of the chairs in the suite. “Let me see her when she’s done.”
Turning her toward one of the bedrooms, Steve called over his shoulder. “Sure thing, Doc. Can somebody please order some food?”
Julianna crossed the threshold, shocked to see several boxes against the wall, and what she recognized as some of her personal items spilling out of the ones on top. Shooting a glance at him, a shiver of unease went through her. “What the hell’s my stuff doing here?”
Steve closed the door behind them and pulled her to a corner of the room, where he began to undress her. “Let’s get your clothes off over here so, hopefully, you won’t walk on any glass that falls off of you.”
She fumbled with her shirt, grateful for Steve’s help in getting it over her head. The thought of all the flying glass made her careful, but she still hurried, wanting all of it off of her as soon as possible. “Steve, this whole thing is crazy. It’s like something out of a bad dream. Why’s this guy after you? Why did he shoot at me? What’s my stuff doing here? I don’t understand any of this. If he’s after you, why’s he trying to shoot me?” Not until she had trouble unfastening her jeans did she realize how badly she shook.
Steve balled her shirt up and tossed it aside before knocking her hands away and reaching for the fastening of her pants. “I promise, I’ll explain everything to you, but you’ve got to get out of these clothes and into the shower.” His short, jerky movements were nothing like the graceful way he usually moved. It contrasted sharply with his usual calm, almost playful demeanor and made her really nervous.
“But, Steve—”
“In a minute, Julianna. Just give me a fucking minute.” Once he had her undressed, he quickly rid himself of his own clothes and hustled her into the shower. He didn’t let her get her hair wet until he’d slid his hands through the strands several times to shake free any glass. Only then did he reach for the shampoo, deftly avoiding her hands when she tried to take it from him.
“I can do it, Steve.”
He didn’t answer, pouring a dollop of shampoo into his hand and shampooing her hair himself. After rinsing it, he washed and rinsed it again, never uttering a word. His granite-like expression, from his clenched jaw to the furrow between his brows, would have kept her silent, but the cloud of emotion swirling in his eyes had her reaching out to cup his jaw. “Steve?”
His reaction was more than she bargained for. With a groan, he wrapped his arms around her and yanked her against him, high against his chest and then down onto his cock. Swallowing her gasp of surprise and pleasure, he braced her against the wall of the shower and buried his face in her neck, his big body shuddering as he tightened his hold. “I could have lost you. Just like that, you could have been taken from me.”
His voice broke, alarming her. Shaken, she wrapped her arms and legs around him, holding him to her, her pussy clenching in spasms as she tried to adjust to his thick heat filling her so quickly. “Steve, I’m okay.”
Her inner muscles tightened on him, thrilling at the feel of having him fill her, as though he needed to be as close to her as possible. Turning her head, she touched her lips to his jaw, running her hand over his wet hair.
“I’m okay. I swear. Take me. I need you so much.” She clenched on him again, her body already tightening with need, but it was her heart that needed this more. She needed to feel closer to him, to have him make the last of the ugliness of the last several minutes disappear.
Steve lifted his head, his hand tightening on her bottom to pull her closer while his other hand slid to her neck, using his thumb under her chin to lift her face to his. “You know that after this, I don’t give a fuck if you want to move in or not. Your apartment’s empty, and all of your things are here. You’re going to be watched twenty-four-seven, and I don’t give a shit whether you like it or not.”
Julianna gaped at him. “I’m not moving in—”
He growled against her lips. “It’s a
lready a done deal, lady, and it’s staying that way.” He withdrew to surge into her, the strength of his thrust stealing her breath. “Say my name.”
Gasping at the force of his thrusts, Julianna tightened all around him, her pussy milking the cock that stretched her so deliciously, clamping down on him with every thrust. She threw her head back against the tile wall, closing her eyes against the spray of the shower beating off of his body, and dug her heels into his tight buttocks.
His head bent, and a searing, moist heat wrapped around her nipple as the hand on her bottom tightened. He sucked it hard, releasing it with a pop just long enough to nibble around it before moving to the other. “Say my name, damn you.”
“Steve.” She’d never seen him like this, so out of control, all playfulness gone. She had no defense against the intensity of his lovemaking, the relentless assault to her senses. He took her with a wild forcefulness that not only heightened her own femininity, but also created a wildness inside her that made it impossible to get close enough. His thrusts became more desperate and uncontrolled by the second as he surged into her repeatedly, the force of them stealing her breath as he answered her cries for more.
The slide of his cock over the walls of her pussy and the fullness within her, the undeniable strength in his movements as he took her sent her lust soaring. Gripping his shoulders, she dug her heels into his tight ass and rocked as much as she could to meet his thrusts, hitting her back against the tile wall.
Her body felt like one gigantic sizzle, every inch of it surrounded by the heat and strength of a man who made no bones about the fact that he took sex and pleasure very seriously.
He slid his hand under her hair and took a step back to allow her body to fall back even more, while protecting her shoulders, the angle now allowing his thrusts to go deeper. “Again, damn it!”
Her eyes flew open at the desperation in his voice, finding him staring down at her. Through the steam and the spray of the shower, she met his gaze, melting under the force of it. It struck her suddenly how careful he’d been with her before. Captured in his viselike grip, she cried out as he fucked her deep, his cock forging into her over and over, each stroke sliding over that ultrasensitive place inside her with a precision that drove her higher with every thrust.