by J. A. Coffey
She chuckled and quoted, "'Life is not a race to the finish line, but a path to be wandered and enjoyed.'"
He suckled her finger for a long moment and was rewarded with her soft sigh of contentment. He grinned and said, "Sage words from someone with seventy days of accumulated vacation time."
Her smile dropped.
He patted her hand and shifted back into the driver seat. "Okay, my love, we still have a lot to do. We need to get to the pet store and get your kitties set up properly." He leveled her a meaningful glance. "I don't think those cardboard trays are going to hold much urine."
She nodded and looked down, appearing dejected all over again. "Would it be better if I moved into a hotel?"
"What?" He whirled on her, incredulous at her question. "No. Never. Why would you even ask that?"
She shrank away from him. "I...just feel like I'm imposing. You don't strike me as the animal type."
He scoffed and waved off her concern. "Nonsense. The only reason I don't have a pet is because I am never in one place too long. I love your dog and cats. At least," he cracked a smile, "the two cats I've seen."
She nodded but didn't look up. In a softer voice she asked, "When are you going away again?"
He took a deep breath while he thought of his next scheduled match. His sponsors were told of the death in the family and the legalities therein, but he still needed to let them know he required more time. A lot more time. He felt absolutely no haste to leave America's shores. "I don't know. I need to contact my sponsors and let them know this situation is taking longer than I anticipated. I received an email asking when I'll be back overseas to train." He sucked in air and added, "I'm not going anywhere until we have you settled and safe, and all this mess with Ollie's disbursement is behind us." He rubbed his neck as he said it, feeling his face darken.
"Situation," she echoed. "I hate that I'm a 'situation.'"
He smiled and started the car. "You're more of a trial than a situation, but I'll take you either way."
She jabbed him in the arm.
He backed out of her former driveway and shifted ignobly into gear. He jiggled the shift to make sure it was in place before ambling down her street. "Have to be careful with these. Not like I can go to a car part store and pick one up." Jess turned and watched her house get smaller and smaller, then closed her eyes once they turned away.
It broke Darius' heart to see her cry.
After driving in silence for four miles, Jess asked, "Can we stop by my store?"
"Of course. Know any back roads where I won't stop traffic?"
"Um," Jess inhaled a breath. "Yes. Turn right up here, then a quick left. That will keep us on the country roads."
He patted the steering wheel. "Just don't think these old bones can make it to fifty-five."
He made the required turns, then Jess faced him again. "What are we, Darius? I mean, really?"
He felt his face pale but was obligated to play it cautiously. "What do you mean?"
"I mean," she shifted on her hip, "we're intimate but we don't make love. You want me to live with you, but not in a carnal way. We're at odds over the inheritance, but yet I feel like we're best friends. You're setting me up to live in your house in your absence, like a chatelaine or something, but you don't even plan on living there. So I'm asking you, what are we? Really?"
Shit, he didn't know how to answer this. He did, really, but he couldn't just blurt it out.
He wanted her. He wanted to marry her.
Right now.
"I...don't feel like I'm able to answer that question right now. Not yet. I...need a little more time."
She tossed her hands in the air and flopped back against the bench seat. "Jeez, Darius, I'm already in limbo. I have no home-"
"You have a home."
"And no personal belongings, and my cats are hiding in a bedroom, and now, with this...." She buried her face in her hands, and he pulled over and parked when he heard her sobs. It didn't take much to collect her in his arms.
She needed to hear something and she needed to hear it now. He only hoped his words would convey what he felt in his heart. "Jess. Jessalyn. Relationships take time. Just because I'm trying to get situated here doesn't mean I'm not trying to find a way to fit you into my life, okay?" He kissed her head, loving the feel of her hair on his lips.
She hiccupped a few times as she nodded, wiping off her face. "I'm sorry. I'm just-"
"No apology needed." He collected her hands in his and kissed them. "We're both in a strange place in our lives." He lifted her chin and gazed into her eyes. "We both need to work through this, together. All right?"
"Together? Like a team?"
Team. Yes, he definitely wanted to be on Team Jessalyn. He liked that she could curtail her emotions just by him giving her some support. He liked that his touch calmed her.
Hell, he liked everything about Jess.
Ten years later.
He crooked a smile at her, knowing now what he needed to do. She seemed to study him for a moment, and he felt unease creep up his shoulders. This was the craziest thing he had ever done, wanting to marry a woman he'd only just met. But she rattled him and got under his skin, and he was so damned horny every time he looked at her that unless he possessed her, body and soul, he knew to his core he would know no relief.
He was a volcano ready to explode.
He hoped their kids would look like her.
She indicated with her chin that they should get moving, and soon pointed to their next turn. He lurched around a corner and down a small street, and the next turn had them at their destination.
The bus pulled away from letting off a handful of kids, and he watched a group of teens fan out around a small boy of about eight. Though Jess didn't see the boys and pointed to her store parking lot on the left, Darius yanked the car to the right and parked on the curb.
"Stay here," he said, his focus never leaving the group of teens who shoved the little one into the alleyway behind her store.
He slipped across the street and sidled along the building to peer down the alley. He watched them push the boy, trip him, kick away his book bag and move to push his face into the dirt.
Sizing up the situation, Darius stepped into the light. "How about you boys try to take me down first?"
Chapter Thirty-Two
Of course Jess had to follow him. Didn't the nurse tell her to watch out for him? And if she read him correctly, he was about to do something really....
Stupid.
She darted across the street and hugged the building the way Darius had. She saw him guide a little blond boy to his back, then wave him away, back toward the street where she stood.
He ran, and Jess caught his sleeve and pulled him close. The boy looked to be about eight, with a mop of yellow hair and disproportionately large blue eyes augmented by his enormously thick glasses. His frame was very slight, and she decided a stiff breeze would whisk him away.
"Who are those boys?"
"Bullies from school," he said, his little face dark with both shame and a large smudge of dirt.
"Why do they pick on you?"
His finger shoved his goggles back into place. His expression turned surly when he said, "Because I'm eleven and in high school."
She scooped him close, holding him to her stomach as they peered around the corner. "What's your name?"
"Colin Bates."
"I'm Jessalyn Swan."
Darius stood in the center of the circle of teenage boys, observing them cautiously. She knew on some level that she trusted he knew what he was doing, but for the life of her she couldn't see this riffraff being talked down from a brawl.
He turned in a circle, and she noticed all the weapons.
Two had knives, one had undone his leather belt, one had put on some kind of leather or brass knuckles, and one just seemed like the leader, the proverbial tattooed tough guy.
Nonchalant, Darius still turned in a circle. "No one? No one wants to start?"
"You're a cop, man," the leader shouted.
"Promise you I'm not," Darius answered. "Now, if you're tough enough to beat up a child, you should be man enough to take me on. Now, who's first?"
Belt boy raced in from behind, intent on looping the leather around Darius' neck. He ducked, faster than she thought possible, and twisted it back around his assailant's neck, swinging him into one of the knife-wielders and knocking them both to the ground. The other knife holder across from them twirled the blade in his hand like a baton, grimacing and waving Darius nearer. When that kid lunged, Darius pulled him forward by the armed hand and twisted him on his back to the ground, forcing the boy to drop his weapon.
The boy uttered a cry, and Darius booted him once on his chest. "Stay there."
But the two he had just knocked down behind him got up and charged, and Darius grabbed the knife-holding wrist with one hand and struck the kid in the chest with his palm. That kid landed on his back, winded.
Belt boy backed up and grabbed a stick- no, it was a mop handle- and tried to whack Darius over the head. He blocked and palmed the handle and broke it in two, then twirled both pieces out of the boy's hands and drummed him down.
When that kid fell down, Darius jabbed him hard in the solar plexus and commanded, "Stay down."
The kid wheezed and flopped.
One tired knife holder, brass knuckles, and leader were now flanking him, and Darius stood, hands down, waiting. Leader boy stood as still as Darius, and then his eyes flicked and both the other ones charged.
Darius ducked and kicked out, sweeping the legs out from under the nearest one, knife boy, and then he stuck him hard in the chest, making that boy flop to the ground. "Stay down."
Brass knuckles looked pretty scared, and Darius stood with both mop pieces in his hands, twirling them menacingly. "You're next."
The kid dropped his fighting pose and ran off, and Jess swore she could smell fear on him as he ran by.
That only left-
"Gun!" Colin yelled. Jess saw and gasped out a sound.
Leader stood behind him, gun pointed at his nape, as he pulled back the hammer on his pistol and said, "Drop them."
Jess felt something like sour lead drop into her stomach and watched as Darius released the two mop pieces.
He put his hands up to his head. "You gonna shoot me, punk? You think it's worth going to jail?"
"Shut up, man! Shut up!"
It happened so fast, she couldn't believe a human being capable of it. Darius wind-milled his arms over and behind his head and trapped the kid's elbows along his chest. Then, he punched the boy in the chest with the flat of his hand, kneed him in the stomach, and disarmed him as he fell.
Darius held the gun steady and pointed at the kid's face.
Around him, the three remaining kids rolled to their feet and backed up against the alley walls.
"Why don't you boys take your friend here out of my sight?"
They cowered near and collected the leader from his back, all of them coughing and moving slowly.
He turned with them, watching them skulk away. "I don't ever want to see you around here again, you hear? Or I'm gonna wait until you're eighteen and do some real damage."
One of them threw a dark look at Darius, but ducked first around the corner to avoid his baleful return glare.
The entire incident lasted about two minutes.
Darius tucked the gun and two knives into the back of his jeans and walked over, grinning ruefully. "Didn't I tell you to stay in the car?"
Far from cowed at his rash behavior, Jess retorted, "Didn't the nurse tell you no sparring, fighting, anything?" As phenomenal as it had been to watch, all Jess could think of was the risk he posed to himself. "That kid had a gun, for crying out loud," she railed at him, "not to mention if one of those punches had decked you in your incredibly thick skull."
Colin's eyes just about popped out of his head. "You were amazing." The last word lingered on his lips.
Instead of acknowledging the complement, Darius made a little smirk of rue to Jess as he shook his head. "My karate overshadowed my Aikido. That would get me disqualified." He then knelt on one knee before the boy, apparently dismissing his professional faux pas. "You see this beautiful woman? Her name is Jess. She owns Phoenix Antiques. If you ever have a problem with those boys again, you run in there, and she'll call me, and I'll come knock them on their butts again. Okay?"
Mutely, he nodded, then, "Are you a superhero?"
He chuckled. "Nope. Just well-trained."
"Can I be like you when I grow up?"
Darius rose and scrubbed the boy's mop of hair. "Only if you try really hard. Now, why don't you run along home?"
The boy nodded and sprinted down the alleyway.
Jess crossed her arms and leveled him a glare, fully intending to chew him out, but found herself breaking into a wide smile. "Wow. That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I mean, wow. The way you," she pretended to punch a punk, "and then," she pantomimed punching one down on the ground, "and then," twirling and grabbing the gun. "Oh my. I've never, it was-"
He touched her arm and lowered it. "It's what I do, Jess. At least, the Aikido part. Most of the punches were from my youth, from karate." He dug his thumb and forefinger into his eyelids and draped a heavy arm over Jess' shoulders. "I think I need to sit down. Ow." And he stumbled hard against her.
"Darius?" Panic filled her at his about-face from mighty to mousy. "Darius?" Vividly the nurse's warning about exercise and sparring and fighting surged to the fore.
"I'm fine. I just need to sit down."
"Okay, okay." Hoisting him to her side made her aware of his hardness, his strength, and his impressive weight, now drooping. "Store's right here."
Faith raced to greet them at the door, flinging it open for them. "Oh my God. You were fantastic! Are you okay? What's wrong? Wait! What happened?"
"Nothing," Darius said, but Jess spoke over him, saying, "The nurse told him to lie low. No fighting."
He squeezed both Jess' hip and his forehead. "My blood pressure, I think, got pumping. I guess I should take my prescription, huh?"
"Yes." Jess led him to her office, but he stopped to pluck a couch cushion off a vintage 50s neon green sofa prior to crossing her threshold.
"May I have a glass of water, please?"
His politeness in the aftermath of adversity really concerned her. Or, it touched her heart. She felt too confused to know for fact. "Certainly." Her hold on him tightened as she lowered him to the cushion on the floor. He accepted the Styrofoam cup of tap water from her tiny sink, took his medicine, and then rested the backs of his hands on his knees, thumbs touching his middle fingers, and closed his eyes. "Mind if I stay in the dark here for about twenty?"
How interesting that he meditated, she thought, when most people would lie down. She squeezed his shoulder, buzzed his warm cheek and said, "Be my guest."
She closed the door, only to turn and practically crash into a hovering Faith. She grabbed Jess by the wrist and pulled her away from the door. "You are seriously the luckiest woman on the planet. He is the hottest guy ever. Did you see how he took those guys down?"
Cocking a brow, Jess answered, "Yes, I did. But how did you?"
Faith pointed to the rear overhead lights. "They were out, so Duncan told me to check the mechanical room, and there he was, being recorded by our security system."
Then Faith proceeded to bounce in place. "Can we upload it to YouTube? Please?" Her hands were clasped and everything.
"Absolutely not," she spun and wiped her brow. "Those kids were all minors. The last thing I need is to have more cops tangling into our lives right now."
"Oh." The color washed from Faith's face, and the girl took an involuntary step backward.
An ominous wave lapped over her, making Jess' shoulders feel so inordinately heavy they drooped. "What is it?"
Those lively young eyes lowered, and in a soft voice Faith informed her, "Arthur called the c
ops when the fight started."
The only thing Jess could do was clap a hand to her forehead. "Great."
In a tone meant to be cajoling, Faith quipped, "I thought you said if Darius got arrested, all your problems would be solved."
Jess peered through her as-yet-unmoved fingers. "I did say that, yes." She wiped off her face. "But now a whole slew of more problems are going to come, and they are going to bring friends."
It only took about five minutes for the cops to show up, with Dillwright cutting off his partner to march first into the store. Darius must have heard the sirens, for he emerged from his cave and replaced the cushion, walking up to shake both officers' hands.
"Officer Dillwright, so nice to see you again."
William eyed both Darius and his hands. "You don't look like you were jumped by five men."
"Boys," Darius corrected, waggling a finger at him. "And it's not like they came on all at once."
Dillwright obviously didn't believe a word Darius said, so he turned to Arthur, who had just joined them.
"Arthur, tell me in your own words what happened."
"Well...." Poor Arthur hated being put on the spot. He tugged his collar down and looked at everyone. "Faith saw Darius here being surrounded by that no-account gang that's been hanging out around here. When the first kid charged, she screamed, and I called the cops. By the time I got off the phone, Faith said Darius had beat them all up."
Darius shook his head. "I didn't beat up anyone. I disarmed three assailants. Oh, here," he reached into his waistband and produced the gun and two knives and offered them to the police. "Bet you the gun's stolen." Jess loved the cocky grin he parted them.
The other officer had crushed Jess to his side, holding her still in a very pleasant, paternal-like grip. "Darius," she said, smiling, "This is Tim O'Leary. He was my mom's partner for seven years and a second father to me. Tim, this is Darius." She hoped Tim didn't ask for a qualifier, for she wasn't quite ready to start assigning titles.