by Petrova, Em
We take a moment to gather our breath. Her breasts press against me and I remain inside her. I’m not sure I want to let her go. The pain in my head is pretty much gone. Today has been incredible. If I release her, will it all be over? Okay so knocking myself out wasn’t so great, but being looked after by a sexy nurse has certainly made up for it. And now she’s admitted she loves me.
Reluctantly, I reach to the side and turn off the shower. I step out and help her before wrapping her in a hot pink towel and slinging one around my hip. She giggles and I raise a brow at her.
“What? Don’t tell me I don’t look great in pink?”
She considers me. “You look good in everything.” Her cute little tongue darts out to lick her bottom lip. “But pink is not your best color.”
“Maybe I should bring some more of my own stuff over.” I watch carefully for her reaction. Though I plan to stay until this hell with these drug guys is over, I’m still living out of a bag. Only my toothbrush and razor are any sign that I’m staying here.
“Maybe,” she says with a shrug of one shoulder and a mischievous smile. She slips past me and pauses in the doorway to speak to me over her shoulder. “You should come back to bed. You need some rest.”
“I’m coming to bed. But I’m not planning on getting any rest.”
Sienna simply laughs and dashes out the doorway. Damn, I’ve created a monster.
***
I wake with a headache. Not surprising really. I never did get much rest in the end. Thankfully, there are still painkillers on the bedside so I sit up enough to chuck a couple back with the glass of water Sienna left out for me. I slide back into the sheets for a moment to watch Sienna sleep. She’s not the kind to wrap herself around you at night, but that’s fine, I’m a sprawler. She seems to curl up into this tiny ball. I find it insanely cute. God, she’d kill me if she knew I was always thinking of her as cute. The damned woman is so determined to prove herself sometimes. But if it’s about give and take, is it so bad for a man to want to take care of a woman? Maybe I’m old fashioned but she does stuff for me, why shouldn’t I do the same for her?
On that thought, I drag myself out of bed to make a coffee. My leg is stiff so it takes me a couple of attempts. That fall yesterday cost me and I haven’t worked out in a few days. If it hadn’t meant Sienna admitting to loving me, I’d be cursing myself a lot more for looking like a weak idiot.
I make a mental note to take Sienna to the gym with me. I’m not letting her out of my sight but I need a workout. Besides she enjoys swimming and I wouldn’t complain about seeing her all wet and sleek in a swimsuit. She could swim while I hit the gym. Damn, I’m good. I’ve totally got this relationship stuff down.
I smirk to myself and slip my briefs on before carefully opening the door and padding into the kitchen. As I flick the coffee pot on, I consider the problem that is Sienna. I want to ask her to marry me but the sensible part of me—the one that’s usually overtaken by my cock or my impatience—knows it’s too soon. We’ve only been together like—what?—a day? But I’ve known her for years and nothing’s going to make me change my mind. I’m just going to have to tread cautiously and somehow curb my impatience. Convince her things will be different with me.
While I’m waiting for the coffee, I chop her up a big bowl of fruit. I’m not the best cook. Hell, what soldier is? But even I can’t screw up fruit salad. Strawberries, banana, berries and whatever other fruit she’s got. Some weird green thing. Avocado maybe. Then I pour the coffee and take them both through to Sienna. I sit on the bed and she grumbles as she stirs. I have to bite back a grin. She’s is definitely not a morning person. But I’ll work on that. I’m willing to bet that if I can get her hot and naked in my arms, she’ll begin to enjoy mornings.
But today, I really need to stop thinking with my cock. Things are too dangerous right now and I need to focus. Not only on getting her to agree to marry me, but figuring out how to get her away from these criminals. I’ve got to admit, I am out of my depth here. Give me IEDs or the Taliban and I’m your man, but drug dealing…
A slow smile curves across Sienna’s face when her eyes open. Damn, that’s got me turned on again already. She looks ready to eat me up. The woman is insatiable. We made love so many times yesterday, I’m surprised she’s not as stiff and as sore as I am. Stiff. Geez, wrong word choice. I glance down at my tented underwear and place the bowl and coffee on the bedside table.
“Thanks,” she mumbles sleepily as she takes a strawberry and bites into it.
Okay, this is not helping. I glance away from her strawberry-stained lips and concentrate on breathing and trying to think of something to turn me off. I picture my Great Aunt Aggie, bless her soul. She’s a darlin’ but ever since I was a kid she’s insisted on kissing me on the lips. I shudder and my libido seems to be under control again.
She picks up a little of that green stuff and eyes it with a bemused look. But she still eats it so I guess I didn’t do too bad.
“I think you should call that detective and insist on getting some help.” I sit on the edge of the bed.
She blows out a breath. “You might be right.”
“We’re not getting anywhere and we still don’t know what these guys are capable of. I’m scared for you, Sienna.”
“I know. I’m scared too really. And you can’t hang around forever.”
She’s right. As much as I want her by my side, I have to go back to work eventually and so does she. I can’t watch her constantly. It galls me to admit it, but I need help. “I’ll do what I can to protect you… I’ll do everything I can to protect you, but we can’t just wait around to see what they’ll do next. This is bigger than both of us, this drug shit. Who knows how powerful these guys are?”
“I know, I know. Let me eat this… uh… fruit salad and I’ll give him a call.”
Satisfied that we’re at least doing something, I drop a kiss to her forehead and head to the shower. I make it quick, keen to listen in on the call. By the time I’m done, she’s up and I can hear her in the kitchen. I dig a shirt out of my bag, shake it out a little and put on some clean briefs. I debate wearing yesterday’s jeans but they’re covered in dust from my fall so I dig out another pair and bundle up my dirty clothes. I need to prove I’m a little housetrained at least.
When I go into the kitchen to throw my clothes in the washer, I notice she’s standing by the window, coffee cup in hand. She’s wearing that silk slip thing again. It’s peachy and makes her pale skin luminous. Fuck, I have to persuade her to marry me. Waking up to that sight every morning would be amazing.
Then I spy the anxious expression on her face. “What’s up?” I ask as I approach.
“There’s a car out there I don’t recognize.”
I peer out but I don’t really know the cars that park round here so I don’t spot anything unusual.
“I think I’m probably being paranoid.” She laughs lightly but there’s tension in it.
“Maybe,” I agree, not willing to scare her.
These guys have been watching her, no doubt about it. How else would they have known when she left for work or when she went to the shops? For all I know, that car could be theirs.
“Which car is it?”
“That one. The dark blue sedan.”
I debate it for a moment. The urge to go down and smash my fist through the window is pretty strong but I have no idea if it is even these guys.
“Come away from the window,” I tug Sienna’s arm, “and get dressed. We’ll call that detective in a minute and see what he says.”
She nods vaguely and doesn’t protest when I take the coffee from her hands and usher her into the bedroom. I put the coffee cup in the sink and stop and think for a moment. Damn these assholes. Sienna should be moving on with her life, not dealing with this kind of shit. If it wasn’t for this, I don’t doubt we’d have ended up back in bed this morning and she wouldn’t look so haunted. I should never have kept this stuff from her. I guess I thought I was being honorabl
e, not telling her the truth about her husband. But now it’s one big fucking mess and I’m pretty sure I can take the blame for a lot of it.
But whatever happens, I’m going to get her out of this mess. One way or another. Making a snap decision, I push away from the sink and head out the apartment. I try to look casual as I step out the door and glance around but I don’t care if they spot me. I want them to know that I stand between them and Sienna. If they want her, they’re going to have to go through me.
I cross the road and stroll up past the car. The windows are slightly tinted so it’s difficult to see in but someone is sitting in it. I knock on the window.
The window rolls down and a red-headed guy glares at me.
It’s not the skinhead who attacked her, which is good news for him. Otherwise I might have dragged him out and left a few fingerprints and bruises on him to return the favor. I stuff my hand in my pockets and grin. “Can I help?”
“What?” He looks incredulous.
“Well, you’ve been sitting here…” I glance down at the discarded cigarette butts on the sidewalk, “for quite a while, I’m guessing. I just wondered if you were lost.”
“What’s it to do with you, buddy?”
“Well, if you’re not lost or visiting, why don’t you get moving? There’s been some trouble here recently and the cops are on the lookout for suspicious lookin’ people. Wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a criminal, would you?”
His eyes narrow and his jaw tenses. I don’t know how big the guy is, but I think I could take him. He’s older than me too with slightly pockmarked skin. But although he might not be a threat on his own, I don’t doubt this Johnson guy could be.
“You don’t know who you’re messing with.” With that, he winds up the window and starts the car.
I make a mental note of the license plate and wait until he’s gone, kinda pleased but kinda nervous. I’m not sure if I’ve just made things worse. At least before we knew where the bad guys were. However, now I know Sienna’s not paranoid. The woman is in danger.
I turn back to the apartment, moving briskly. I don’t want Sienna seeing I’m gone. Glad I can still remember the code to her building, I pause to pick up her mail in case she has already finished getting dressed. I’m still a little pumped when I return to her apartment so I take a few moments to calm myself before hunting her down in her bedroom. She’s just pulling on a pale yellow top and I regret missing the floor show.
“Did you go out?” she asks as she pulls her hair from her top.
“Yeah, just picked up your mail.” I put the letters on the dresser and sit on the bed to watch her brush her hair and do her make-up. I catch her bemused expression in the mirror but don’t make any excuses. I love watching her.
When she’s done, she thumbs through the mail and scowls.
“What’s up?”
Sienna waves a letter at me. “This company… I recognize the name. I noticed a monthly payment to them going out from our—mine and Rob’s—account the other day, but I forgot to call and find out what it was.” She tears it open and her scowl deepens. “It’s for a storage locker. I didn’t know we had a stor—Shit. You don’t think…?”
I stand and take the letter from her. I recognize the company name as one of the storage places in the city. And I realize what she’s thinking. What if that was where Rob kept the drugs? It’s got to be safer than keeping it around the house if he didn’t want to risk Sienna finding them.
“Yeah, I do think.”
“What should we do?”
“I don’t know, babe. I guess we should check it out. There’s no point in calling the cops if there’s nothing there.”
“But I don’t have a key or anything. And look,” she jabs the letter, “it’s in his name. I doubt they’ll let me look in it.”
“They might if you take his death certificate and your ID. I don’t know how it works if it’s not willed to you.”
“Damn.” She chews her lip. “I wonder…” Before I can say anything, she presses past me.
I follow her as she strides into the living room and starts digging through that damned box in the corner. I’ve been fighting the urge to throw it out the window. It’s been hanging around like a bad smell, reminding us of her marriage to Rob. But I knew I had to let her deal with it in her own way, so I haven’t pressed the matter. I must admit, any loyalty to Rob, no matter how buried it was, has completely gone now I know he hurt Sienna. Just the thought sickens me and I can’t believe she kept it a secret.
At least I don’t feel in the slightest bit guilty about falling in love with my best friend’s wife now. When this shit is all over, I’m going to show her how a real man treats a woman.
She tosses the wedding album aside, followed by some old military photos. In spite of myself, I kneel beside her and study one. I can’t help wonder what went wrong with Rob. The photo is before we met Sienna, real early on in our careers. We were both full of ourselves and convinced we were undefeatable. We couldn’t wait to go to war. And at that point, we really were best friends. I wonder if I could have done something to stop Rob getting so messed up but part of me thinks he was built that way. He never lost that feeling of being invincible, but I did the moment I got caught in a fire fight and shrapnel tore through my calf. Seeing your brothers die around you is enough to put your life in perspective. It’s what makes me so determined to keep hold of Sienna.
“Look!” Sienna declares suddenly, drawing me out of my thoughts. She’s holding up a bunch of keys. “I remember seeing these before and thinking I ought to return them to base as they must be for the house.” She begins to search through them. “I don’t recognize this one though. Or that one.”
“It could be a storage key, I suppose. If it had a tag, Rob might have taken it off.”
Picking up the letter she’s discarded next to the box, she glances over it. “Well, we know the locker number so we might as well try.”
I spot the excitement in her eyes and it scares me. She’s seeing this as an end to all this, but personally it feels like it’s just the beginning. What if we do find the drugs? Then what? I get the feeling these guys aren’t going to roll over and play dead if we hand them over to the cops.
“Come on. Let’s go check this out.” I grab my car keys off the kitchen counter and wait while she grabs her handbag and stuffs the keys in them. “I’ll drive.”
“Nick…” She puts her hands to her hips and I know I’m in trouble. “You should be resting.”
“I’m fine. I’ve got a hard head.”
“I can go on my own.” That cute chin thrusts forward.
“Nuh-uh. No way in hell.”
Sienna huffs but doesn’t argue anymore which surprises me. Maybe she’s getting better at letting me take care of her. Good. Maybe it will make it easier to persuade her to marry me.
Chapter Eight
Sienna
I’m smiling as we drive into the city. I shouldn’t be. It’s not over yet but it’s like a big weight has come off my shoulders and now I can focus on… on Nick. I glance at him. He doesn’t look so happy. His jaw is tense and there’s a slight scowl on his face.
I love him. Oh my God, I can’t believe I said it last night. But I’ll admit it felt good.
Maybe I’ve loved Nick for so long that I’ve just been dying to tell him. I don’t know. I always thought it might be only friendship and insane attraction, but perhaps I never wanted to admit I’d fallen for my husband’s best friend.
I’m a little giddy really. A little high on love. I want to remind myself to be wary, to recall some of that cautiousness, but I can’t summon any. It’s like Nick’s erased all those doubts. I’m waiting for them to come rushing back but it’s not happening. How the hell I can be so happy when life is still so up in the air, I’ve no idea.
But hopefully we’ll find these wretched drugs and I can move on with my life. And figure out exactly where things are going between me and Nick.
My feet are twi
tching by the time we reach the storage place. Nick still looks anxious. I see the tension in his arms, the veins standing out and I’m convinced he keeps checking his rearview mirror more than necessary. Did that strange car put him on edge? When we left, it had gone so I’m pretty sure I was just being paranoid.
We park up and I climb out before Nick has the chance to come around and open the door. Not that I’m trying to be stubborn but as much as I’m beginning to enjoy his gentlemanly behavior, I’m not going to wait around. I need to see what’s inside this locker. Somehow, I just know this is it. This is going to unravel everything. The full truth about Rob’s secret life is about to come out and I’m hoping—praying—this will not only ensure my safety, but bring me closure.
Maybe then I can take a close look at what’s happening with Nick.
He locks the car and takes my hand. I have to try real hard not to simper like an idiot. I can’t remember the last time I held Rob’s hand. Shortly after our wedding day, perhaps? No, he would hold it sometimes when we went to events. In a sort of possessive way. A ‘look what I’ve got’ way.
But that’s not how Nick holds my hand. It’s a strong enough grip but it’s reassuring and comforting, and still somehow sexy. Geez, I have it bad, don’t I? Since when is holding hands sexy?
“Have you got the letter?” he asks.
I pull it out of my shorts pocket with my free hand and study the header. “Yep, this is the place.”
I haven’t been to a storage place before but I’ve driven past this one to get to work when traffic has been bad. The lockers are huge—big enough to hold a car. Part of me wonders if we’re going to find millions of dollars’ worth of drugs… why did he need a locker so damned big? My stomach twists into a tight knot.
We approach the gates, still hand in hand and find them open. No one’s around, apart from a security guard in his little box at one end. He glances up and I wave the keys at him. This seems to satisfy him and he turns his attention back to his newspaper. Nick pauses and we take a moment to check out the locker numbers.