Protect Me - A Steamy Bodyguard Romance (You Can't Resist a Bad Boy Book 5)

by Layla Valentine

  My heart thundered. This couldn’t be the monster Tyler had told me about so many times, could it? I swallowed hard as an icy trickle of sweat ran down my spine.

  “Paisley, this is my father, Steve. Dad, this is my wife, Paisley.”

  “Good to know you,” he said, reaching out for my hand.

  I offered it tentatively, my mouth dry. I shot a questioning look at Tyler, who seemed to suddenly and belatedly realize that he hadn’t told me anything about this man apart from the worst bits. Tyler wasn’t the only one to notice my trepidation.

  “I see my son has filled you in on our checkered past,” Steve said with a tight smile.

  “I’m sorry,” I said, still trying to understand. “But…why are you here?”

  “Let’s go talk for a minute,” Tyler said, pushing us toward a small table in the corner. We sat down and I gripped Tyler’s hand tightly.

  “Tyler,” Steve sighed, taking his son’s face in. “You did all right, son. You did all right.”

  “Best as I could with what I had,” Tyler said lightly.

  “I hear that,” Steve said, picking at the tablecloth. “Before we start, I just want to let you know—both of you—that I’ve been clean and sober for nine years now. I’m sorry I waited so long. I did you wrong, son.”

  “Yeah, you did,” I blurted out.

  Tyler cast me a pained look, but I wasn’t about to hold back. He couldn’t expect me to play nice; every protective instinct in my body had risen to the surface, and I trembled with it.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Steve said, reserved and calm.

  “So?” I demanded, fumbling for words between the rushing waves of emotions.

  “I’m sorry?” Steve asked, confused.

  “So are you going to make it right, or are you just here as a body double?”

  Tyler squeezed my hand in warning and I snatched it away, crossing my arms over my chest. Steve considered me with that cool, neutral look that Tyler always had when he was thinking very hard about something. I refused to feel sorry for this man without an explanation, and I set my jaw against the storm I saw brewing in his eyes.

  “If I could make it right, I would,” Steve said quietly. “But there’s no way to undo the past.”

  “You can tell Tyler what happened to his mother,” I challenged him.

  The pain which crossed his face was almost palpable. I braced myself against it, cursing my own sensitivity. Steve cleared his throat, sniffing against a sheen of tears which had suddenly clouded his eyes.

  “I handled that…badly,” Steve said. “Very badly.”

  I didn’t say anything. Neither did Tyler.

  “Tyler… Your mother wasn’t from Memphis. She wasn’t from California either, or Kentucky, or any of the other places that she’s called home. When we met, I fell for her instantly. She was so alive, so full of fun and joy… All I wanted was to make a family with her. She said she wanted the same. We got married…real fast. Two months after I met her, I asked her. Or she asked me to ask her. A month after that, it was a done deal.”

  I banished shock from my expression, remaining as neutral as I could. I had the feeling that there was more to come. I slid my hand back under the table, offering Tyler comfort. He took it without hesitation.

  “When she got pregnant, things started going downhill. I guess that wasn’t part of her plan. She changed, always angry and yelling at me. I chalked it up to hormones and drank a little bit to get by until you were born. But it didn’t get better after that. I saw the girl I married when she held you and talked to you, all that joy and light…but if she wasn’t ignoring me, she was tearing me apart, piece by piece.”

  I glanced at Tyler, who seemed to be searching behind his eyes for confirmation or argument. The confusion on his face told me he found neither.

  “You remember Rob?” Steve asked.

  “Your cop friend?”

  “Yeah. He became my friend deliberately, trying to get close to Jemma. Your mother. Not like that, no. He was working in cooperation with the feds, trying to arrest her.”

  “Arrest her? For what?” The little boy in Tyler was rising to the surface, instantly ready to defend his mother.

  “Bigamy, theft and kidnapping,” Steve said tiredly. “I got the whole story eventually. She started in Alaska when she was sixteen. Married an old, rich guy. Guy doesn’t keel over on her timetable, so she empties his accounts and runs off. Meets a guy in Washington, same story. She worked her way across the states like that, and eventually her method changed. She never successfully outlived a husband—she was too impatient for that. God knows why she didn’t try divorcing them first, but…” Steve trailed off with a shrug, shaking his head.

  “Anyhow, by the time she got to me, she’d racked up thirty-two husbands all over the States. One of them caught her in the act and threatened her, so she took his kid. She made it two states away and left the kid on the side of the road. Daddy caught up quick and took the kid home, but she was officially wanted for kidnapping at that point.”

  “Jeez,” I breathed.

  “So, by my eighth birthday…”

  “She knew they were getting close. Rob had been at the house the day before, and they got to talking. She caught wind of his intentions before he got enough to confirm her identity. We were all set to have a big party for you, and we’d invited Rob and his brothers. His brothers who weren’t actually his brothers, but feds. They were kind enough to tell me everything after all was said and done. Anyhow, she took everything. Packed up in the dead of night, every picture, every scrap of clothing, everything she owned. Then she wiped everything clean.”

  “Fingerprints?” Tyler asked, crestfallen.

  “Got them off of everything,” Steve said with a grim smile. “She always was a neat freak. Never thought it was to hide her fingerprints, though. They dusted the whole house while you were at school that day. Nobody’s prints but yours and mine, like she never existed.”

  “What happened to her?” Tyler asked.

  Steve shrugged, raking fingers through his hair. “Far as I know, they haven’t caught up with her yet. Trust me, I’ve looked. Not lately. Quit that when I quit drinking. Couldn’t do one without starting up the other. Spent ten years drowning in it, and I just about pulled you down with me.”

  I could see the regret in his eyes, which squeezed my heart. Tyler stared at the table, processing. I could see it flickering behind his irises, the flurry of thoughts and memories and emotions, a puzzle flying together at supernatural speed. His hand pulsed in mine, and he turned wide eyes to look at me.

  “You fell in love with her,” he murmured. “Married her. Had a kid with her. She flipped on you. She disappears in the middle of the night. You find out you’re number thirty-three.” The intensity of his gaze was concerning, but I relaxed, trusting him. He turned back to his dad.

  “It was shitty to take it out on me,” he said.

  “I know.”

  “Real goddamn shitty, Dad. But I get it.”

  Steve and I both shot Tyler puzzled looks.

  “She didn’t leave you anything to burn or smash. No forwarding address, no closure. She took every scrap of herself away. Except me.”

  Steve dropped his head into his hands, trembling. After a long moment, he nodded. “You were so much like her. Two peas in a pod. My looks, her personality. Scared the hell out of me.”

  A lull settled over the table, and I sensed the need to push things to a resolution. I stood, marching around the table to put my hands on my father-in-law’s shoulders.

  “Welcome to the family, Dad,” I said, kissing his cheek. “I’m glad to know you.”s

  He smiled up at me, showing me Tyler’s physical future. It looked pretty damn good.

  “Hey, we gonna dance or what?” Tyler demanded.

  I grinned at him and grabbed my hand. Hell yes, we were going to dance.

  Epilogue

  Tyler

  My Dad and I had spent a lot of time talking during the
party, in those little moments when I wasn’t needed for ceremony or wanted by my wife. She had busied herself with her family and friends, reminiscing and laughing. Looking back on it, I think she did it deliberately, just to get my Dad and me talking more comfortably. It worked. By the end of the night, we had built a new foundation. He respected me as a man. I respected his growth as a person.

  It wasn’t perfect, but so few things ever are. Few…but not none.

  I turned away from the balcony doors as Paisley stepped into the room wearing a sheer nightgown, having cast off her gown. She swayed toward me, her painted toes sinking into the plush carpet.

  “What do you think?” she asked, spinning for me.

  “You’re perfect,” I breathed, pulling her into my arms.

  “Mm… You’re pretty damn perfect yourself,” she murmured against my mouth.

  She pulled me toward the bed, but I stopped her. “Come here,” I told her. “I want to show you something.”

  I switched the stereo on as I led her to the balcony.

  “What do you want to show me?” she asked. “And is it really more important than consummating our vows?” As she asked, she slipped her hands into the elastic waistband of my silk boxers, nibbling on my shoulder.

  “It’s about consummation,” I told her with a grin. “Look out here.”

  “I see the river, fields, the empty stables way over there. This was selling point number two of this house, I basically memorized the view.” She scrunched her brow at me, not understanding.

  “Tell me,” I whispered in her ear as I slid my hands around her waist, pressing my hips against her firm, round ass. “What you don’t see.”

  “Uh…” Her voice wavered with pleasure as I nibbled down her neck to her shoulder, scraping my teeth gently along it. “I definitely don’t see submarines.”

  I laughed, reaching down to slide my hands over her thighs. She whimpered, writhing against me. I could feel the pent-up energy of the day exuding from her, and I wanted it all, but I wanted it my way.

  “What else don’t you see?” I asked, pulling her earlobe between my teeth.

  “Um… People?”

  “There you go,” I breathed, grinding against her.

  “What’s that got to do with… Oh!”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  “Mm…”

  The cool evening breeze kissed our skin as we bared it, bathing in the moonlight. She glowed like a jewel in the night, calling to me to touch her, to caress her from head to toe.

  Taking her mouth in mine, I spread her legs with one hand, pressing her up against the stone balcony rail. Gasping and groaning into my mouth, she mounted my fingers before I knew what was happening, grinding her hot little clit against my hand as if she’d been dying for my touch all day.

  “Damn, Mrs. Macintyre,” I murmured against her mouth. “You must not get much at home.”

  “Not today,” she growled lustily.

  I spun her around, pushing her forward so that her top half hung over the side of the balcony. Her breasts and hair swung free in the open air as I entered her from behind, admiring the cool white glow of the moon on her perfectly moon-shaped cheeks.

  “Hold on, darlin’,” I told her.

  “Give me a reason,” she shot back.

  I never could resist a challenge. I drove into her savagely, giving her the hard fucking she’d been craving all day. She growled and screamed into the dark, her lusty cries echoing up the river banks and through the valley. Somebody somewhere was getting quite the auditory peep show, I thought. I decided to give them something more to listen to. Reaching my hand around her hip, I pressed two fingers against her clit.

  She was clinging to the rail for dear life now, her legs shaking as I thrust into her, rubbing on her clit with my fingers.

  “Oh God, yes!” she cried into the night. “Harder, Tyler, harder!”

  I wasn’t about to deny her. Slamming into her with everything I had, I felt her begin to swell and pulse around me as heat built up between us. Her ass slapped against my hips, jiggling like jelly, smooth as cream. I slapped it, making her cry out in surprise. I slowed my thrusting, wondering if I’d crossed a line.

  “Do it again,” she growled.

  “Yes ma’am!”

  Enthusiasm redoubled, I slammed into her. Each spank tore another primal scream from her throat, driving my own arousal to the edge. Fire spread from the base of my skull to the tip of my spine, spiraling through my hips, building behind my shaft. Knowing I was seconds away, I reached around, pressing hard against that sweet little button. Howling her ecstasy at the moon, Paisley came around my dick as I emptied into her.

  I stopped for a breather, but she wasn’t done. Wiggling her hips against me, she got me hard in a hot second, then turned to face me.

  “I’ve been needing you inside me all day,” she breathed. “I want you inside me all night.”

  “You got it, darlin’,” I said, wrapping my arms around her.

  With a wicked grin, she pressed both hands against my chest and shoved. I fell back over an ottoman and landed on the outdoor couch I’d tried to tell her not to get. As she pounced on top of me, I couldn’t believe I’d been so dumb; this was obviously the most important piece of furniture in the whole world.

  I sank into the shallow cushions hard enough to knock the breath out of me, and she was on me in a second. Pulling me inside of her, she settled all the way back on her heels.

  Groaning as I filled her all the way up, I wrapped my hands around her soft, round hips. She rode me like a cowgirl, spilling all of the excited energy of the day into the wild sky around us. She quaked and pulsed around me, soaking me in her passion, and didn’t even take a breath in between before grinding her way to another peak. She was beautiful, as free as a hawk, as sure as a horse thundering home.

  As she collapsed, spent, against my chest, I brushed the hair out of her eyes and gazed into them. She shimmered in the night, glowing for me. Touching my face with trembling fingers, she spoke the words I’d come to treasure.

  “I love you, Tyler.”

  “I love you, too,” I told her earnestly.

  We made love as the stars spun above us. The world turned around us, but there was nothing for us outside of these moments. Binding our bodies and souls together as one, we tumbled through the night. As dawn broke over the river, I cradled her head against my shoulder and kissed her hair.

  “And tomorrow, we get you a new manager.”

  “Yes, dear.”

  We rang in the morning with laughter, which I thought was really the only right way to do it.

  The End

  Triplets For The Billionaire

  Ana Sparks & Layla Valentine

  Settle in for one salacious offer, two lustful lovers, and three adorable babies!

  Triplets For The Billionaire is up next!

  Copyright 2018 by Ana Sparks and Layla Valentine

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part by any means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the explicit written permission of the author.

  All characters depicted in this fictional work are consenting adults, of at least eighteen years of age. Any resemblance to persons living or deceased, particular businesses, events, or exact locations are entirely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Charlotte

  The steady clacking of the keyboard is soothing as I sit alone in my apartment, searching for a job to replace the temporary position I was let go from a week ago. The job pool is as sparse as always; finding decent work seems to be harder than ever.

  Since being made redundant two years ago—when the company I worked for was taken over by the unstoppable juggernaut that is SharkTEC Financial—it’s been an agonizing and unending search, trying to find a position I can settle into. Jobs for temp agencies ha
ve reigned supreme, with small jobs in between that I’m almost always overqualified for, such as cleaning rich assholes’ penthouse apartments.

  I worked for years to get my bachelor’s in business and finance, and when I started working for Stratton and Company, I thought I had my whole life figured out. I thought all the hard work had paid off, and I would be set for life.

  I realize now how naïve I was, but when Dillon Bradshaw decided to sink his claws into the struggling company, no one expected just how many employees he would actually lay off. Even though I’d worked hard and made a name for myself at Stratton and Company, that didn’t save me from the dreaded ‘restructuring’ that CEO Dillon Bradshaw insisted upon. I was booted just like the rest.

  I would be lying if I said I don’t hold some bitterness, but I can’t exactly blame the Stratton family for selling up. With such stiff competition, it was becoming increasingly difficult to find loyal, reliable clients. SharkTEC Financial yanked the few clients we managed to snag right out from under us with the ease of taking candy from a baby.

  Ultimately, Bradshaw is to blame. The rich pretty boy is famous in business circles for his ‘talent’—though I’d say he’s just had a lot of dumb luck. He got a pretty big check from his folks when he turned 21, and unlike any normal guy in his early twenties, he decided to stick the cash into some investments.

  Now, eleven years later, he’s one of the richest men in the country. As much as I hate to admit it, the guy does have some entrepreneurial skills. He was able to start up and successfully run a multibillion-dollar company before 25, an achievement not many can ever dream of.