by Paige Tyler
His mouth quirked as he grabbed a pair of dress socks from the drawer and put them in an overnight bag. It had been a strange couple of hours at the salon that was for sure. It was one of those fancy places with lots of potted plants, candles, and a soundtrack of popular music playing in the background.
Peyton had told him she’d be a while, so he’d settled in one of the stuffed chairs in the lobby to wait. They didn’t have any magazines to speak of—unless you counted a seemingly endless supply of women’s fashion magazines—but after spending an hour reading the latest college football preseason news on his phone, he’d been desperate for something to do and finally picked up a copy of Cosmo. If he’d gotten strange looks from the salon’s clients before, that was nothing compared to how they’d eyed him when they saw him flipping through an article on the wildest sex positions ever published.
While the women who worked there didn’t look at him like he’d taken a wrong turn somewhere on the way to the local gym, they kept asking if he’d like to get his hair done while he waited. When he politely declined—several times—they decided to offer him a mani-pedi.
“All the men are getting them now,” a freckled redhead had told him.
Not the guys he knew. And sure as hell not him. He’d lived for twenty-eight years without getting his nails filed and buffed. He was pretty sure he didn’t need to start now.
Talk about feeling like a fish out of water.
Noah picked out a light-blue dress shirt and a complementary tie to go with it, then added those to the bag along with a pair of black dress shoes.
Peyton was over by the fireplace looking at the framed photos on the mantel when he walked into the living room. There was one of him with his mom and sister, but the rest were of him with his SEAL team. Noah set down his suitcase, then draped the garment bag over the back of the couch and walked over to stand beside her.
She glanced at him, her lips curving into a smile. “Are these the guys on your SEAL team?”
He nodded. “That’s them.”
“You look like you had a lot of fun.”
He chuckled. “Most of the time.”
Her gaze lingered on a photo of him and the other guys with a dilapidated-looking mud hut in the background. “Do you still stay in touch with them?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Those guys are like my brothers. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them and vice versa. If any one of them called and said he needed me to go halfway across the world to help him, I’d go without hesitation.”
Peyton turned to face him. “Having a bond like that sounds amazing.”
They hadn’t been this close to each other since last night, and her nearness was making it hard to think. “Um, yeah.”
Way to sound articulate, dude.
He took a step back before he did something stupid—like kiss her again. “We should probably get going if we’re going to make it to the release party on time.”
She looked disappointed, but nodded.
Noah swore silently. He was sending Peyton so many damn mixed messages he’d be lucky if she even talked to him after this job was over, much less went out with him.
Chapter Eight
They stopped at a Chinese restaurant for takeout on the way back to Peyton’s house. Sharing spicy chicken and brown rice at her kitchen table seemed way more intimate than it had any right to be. Despite the promise he’d made to himself last night to keep his head in the game and his dick in his pants, it felt like the more time he spent with her, the less he was able to resist her. Noah was almost relieved when she went upstairs to get ready for the party.
He checked his phone for messages, then took a quick shower and put on his suit. He’d finished tying his tie in front of the bathroom mirror when he heard Peyton’s high heels echo on the wood floor in the living room. Turning off the light, he walked out to meet her and almost fell over his own feet at the sight of her standing there.
The blue gown she wore didn’t show any cleavage or have a slit that showed a flash of leg, and yet Noah had never seen a woman look sexier. He couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
She looked him up and down, her lips curving into a smile. “You clean up pretty nice yourself.”
If he didn’t know better, he’d think she was mentally undressing him right now. That was an image he really didn’t need. Not if he had any hope of keeping things professional tonight.
Noah tore his gaze away from her and picked up his shoulder holster from the couch, shrugging into it. Then he slipped into his suit jacket and grabbed his keys and wallet off the coffee table, shoving the latter into his back pocket.
“Ready to go?” he asked.
She nodded.
As they walked out to his SUV, Noah couldn’t help thinking this felt a lot like a date. He supposed that would change when they got to the release party and there were hundreds of fans pushing and shoving and screaming Peyton’s name.
“So, what are one of these release parties like?” he asked as he turned onto the street.
“Fun, crazy, and exhausting all at the same time.”
“That doesn’t tell me much,” he said drily.
She laughed. “What else do you want to know?”
“How many people will probably be there, for starters?”
She thought a moment. “Counting my publisher, editor, assistant editors, publicity people, agent, bloggers, and readers? Hundreds.”
He did a double take. “Seriously?”
“If I include Tabitha, your sister, and her friends, then yes.” Peyton grinned. “Don’t look so alarmed. Since most of my readers tend to be under twenty-one, there won’t be any alcohol served, so things won’t get too crazy. Unless we run out of books.”
Noah had visions of readers getting into a brawl. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Of course I’m kidding. We won’t run out of books. Even if we did, no one is going to get into a fight over it,” she said. “My readers aren’t like that. They’re there to hang out and have a good time. Some of them even come dressed up as the characters from my books.”
He gave her a sidelong glance. “Now you really are pulling my leg.”
“I’m not,” she insisted.
“That’s crazy.”
Peyton shrugged. “I think it’s fun.”
Noah turned onto the road leading to the hotel. “So, how close do fans usually get to you?”
She smiled as she enjoyed how uncomfortable the idea of being in the middle of a sea of obsessed fans was making him. “Think selfies and you get the idea.”
He frowned. After seeing how his sister had reacted to Peyton, he should have figured that. In his mind, that was a little too close for comfort.
Peyton put her hand on his arm. It felt nice. Too nice. “Stop worrying so much. I’ve done lots of these parties and nothing ever happened.”
“Someone wasn’t trying to steal your book then,” he pointed out. “And where is your book? That’s right. In your purse.”
She took her hand away with a sigh.
Noah pulled into the hotel driveway. “I know you have a hard time believing you’re in danger, but whoever tried to steal the book the first time might not be so nice about it again. Things like this tend to escalate. There’s nothing to say they won’t try to grab you next time, especially since they’ve probably already figured out the book wasn’t on either the computer or the laptop they stole.” He came to a stop in front of the valet stand, then put the SUV in park and looked at her. “If someone or something at the party looks suspicious, they probably are. So don’t do anything foolish tonight, okay?
She gazed at him for a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”
Noah quickly handed the valet the keys to the SUV along with a tip, then hurried around the vehicle to open the door for Peyton. He surveyed the area as they walked into the hotel, checking for potential threats. He didn’t see anyone or anything that made his SEAL instincts kick into a
lert mode. In a screwed-up situation like this, without any recon, that was the best he could hope for.
* * * * *
Claire met her and Noah outside the ballroom, along with her editor, Gwen Williamson, and two assistant editors, Hannah Anderson and Scott Moore. Since Claire wasn’t sure who else knew Noah was her bodyguard besides Gwen, Peyton kept the introductions simple and said he was a friend.
Kiki Rowe, the artist who did Peyton’s covers, couldn’t take her eyes off Noah. He seemed embarrassed as Kiki went on and on about how attractive he was, asking if he’d ever done any modeling. Gwen simply squinted at him from behind her glasses and nodded her approval as if pleased with the publisher’s choice of bodyguards. Then again, Gwen could simply be mentally undressing Noah. Even the extremely quiet Hannah went a little dreamy-eyed. The only one who didn’t look impressed by Noah was Scott, and only because he was a straight guy. Instead, he stood there looking bored, twirling that pen he always carried between his fingers the whole time. God, what an annoying habit.
“The place is packed. I seriously think we might be in danger of actually running out of books this time,” Claire said with a grin. “Do you need to run to the ladies’ room or anything before going into the ballroom? You might not get another chance after everything starts.”
Peyton smiled. “No, I’m good. Let’s do this.”
She glanced at Noah as they headed inside. He looked like he was walking into enemy territory rather than a room full of what she knew for a fact were the best readers in the world. None of them would ever try to hurt her. She smiled again, trying to convey that to him, but he was already surveying the room for potential threats.
Peyton sighed. If he had his way, he’d probably whisk her into the ballroom through a service entrance and keep everyone half the length of a football field away, only letting them approach to have a book signed. But then she would miss out on interacting with her readers, and that wouldn’t have been fair. She’d always been accessible to them and wasn’t going to change now. Knowing Noah was concerned for her was endearing—even if it was his job—but she honestly didn’t think there was any danger of one of the bad guys infiltrating the release party since most of them were teenage girls.
Even so, he seemed visibly relieved when the event started winding down almost four hours later. There were a dozen readers who hadn’t gotten their books signed yet, so that meant hanging around to finish up, but Peyton didn’t mind.
“See, Noah?” she said as the last person hurried out of the ballroom. “I told you everything would be fine tonight.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but Claire came over with Gwen then. Peyton spent another fifteen minutes talking to them about how fantastic the party went before she and Noah left.
There were a few people hanging around outside the hotel, including two guys halfway down the sidewalk arguing about something. Noah gave them a frown as he handed the valet their stub.
“Wonder what that’s about?” Peyton asked.
“I don’t know, but they both sound like they’re drunk as hell,” Noah said. “Those kind of things usually never end well.”
“You sound like you speak from experience.”
He shrugged. “You hang out in enough bars and you see these kinds of fights all the time. If someone doesn’t get between them, they’ll be trying to kill each other soon.”
No sooner were the words out of his mouth than fists started flying. Peyton gasped. Crap, she’d never seen a fight in real life. Beside her, Noah cursed under his breath.
He caught the eye of the guy manning the valet stand. “If this hotel has security, you might want to call them.”
Peyton cringed as the one man shoved the other to the ground, then jumped on top of him and started punching him.
“Um, I’m not sure we can wait for security,” she said. “Maybe you should go over there and do something before they get to the part where they actually kill each other.”
Noah snorted. “And leave you here by yourself? I don’t think so.”
“The valet’s right over there. I’ll be fine.” She made a face as she looked around him at the two men brawling. “Those guys might not be.”
Noah scowled, then cursed again. “Stay right here.”
Peyton nodded, but Noah was already striding toward the men fighting.
Noah reached down and jerked the bigger man off the top of the slightly smaller one, shoving him back from the fight. Then he bent down and helped the other guy off the ground. Peyton hoped that would be the end of it, but both guys went right back at each other, forcing Noah to get between them.
Where the heck was security? She glanced toward the hotel entrance, not understanding why there wasn’t anyone on the way.
She was so focused on the door she was caught completely off guard when a van squealed into the circular driveway and slammed on its brakes right near the valet desk. She jerked her head around in surprise in time to see a man in jeans, a dark sweatshirt, and a ski mask jump out the side door of the vehicle.
Peyton instinctively backed away, her heart suddenly pounding. She didn’t know how she knew the guy was coming for her, but she did.
She screamed Noah’s name at the same time she turned to run toward him, but Ski Mask grabbed her around the waist, picking her up off her feet and dragging her toward the van. She punched at the man’s arm at the same time she tried to elbow him in the ribs. He didn’t even budge.
“Noah!”
He was already sprinting toward her, but it was too late. She was already being dragged into van. The man fell backwards with her into the vehicle, not bothering to even close the door as he held her tight and told the driver to go. She screamed and struggled with all her might, terrified of what these men might do to her once they had her away from Noah.
The van rocked as it started to speed away from the hotel, but before she could do more than take another gulp of air to scream again, there was a blur of movement, then another big body was in the vehicle with her and the man still clasping her around the waist.
Peyton knew before she saw his face that it was Noah. She had no idea how he’d caught up to the speeding van—or what he was going to do now that he was in it—and she really didn’t care. He was here. Nothing else mattered.
Then Noah was leaning over her. One hand came up to gently move her head to the side as his other hand came down in a fist to whistle by her face and smash into the man in the ski mask. There was a double thud as Noah’s fist made contact, then the man’s head bounced off the floor of the van. The man’s hand slipped away from her waist and she being pulled away.
It all happened so fast after that.
Noah lunged forward and punched the driver in the back of the head, then tossed the first assailant out the open side door. Before she could even understand what was happening, Noah had wrapped his arms around her and was jumping out the door of the still moving vehicle.
Peyton thought she might have screamed—she wasn’t sure. All she knew for sure was she was prepared for a lot of pain the moment they hit the ground. The van hadn’t been moving too fast, but it sure as heck wasn’t standing still either.
When the impact with the ground came, it didn’t hurt at all. That was only because Noah had wrapped himself around her in such a way she never hit the ground at all. She stayed safety tucked in his protective embrace until they came to a tumbling stop on the sidewalk down the street from the entrance to the hotel. She was still lying on his chest, looking around in confusion as he sat up with her.
“Are you okay?” he asked urgently. “Nothing’s hurt?”
She was shaken, but moved her arms and legs, looking to see if anything hurt—nothing did. She shook her head. “I think I’m okay. How about you? I fell right on top of you.”
He smiled at her. “That’s kind of the way I planned it. But I’m okay. You’re pretty light, after all.”
She couldn’t believe how calm Noah sounded after what had happened. She
also wasn’t sure how he could have come through the jump completely uninjured. He’d hit the ground hard.
She was about to ask to see his back when she was interrupted by the sound of running footsteps. She looked up and saw a couple of men dressed in suits and ties—probably security from the hotel—looking down at them in concern.
Noah glanced at the men as he gestured with his thumb toward the sidewalk beside them. “Call the cops. That asshole there tried to kidnap Peyton Matthews. And if those two men who were fighting up by the valet desk are still there, keep it that way. Someone put them there as a distraction.”
The men looked down at her would-be kidnapper lying unconscious on the sidewalk about ten feet away, then one pulled out his cell phone and dialed while the other headed back to the valet desk. It was the first time Peyton had even noticed the guy. He was lying there all twisted up, with one leg still lying in the street and his ski mask half ripped off his face. Obviously, that guy hadn’t known how to hit the ground as smoothly as Noah had. Then again, the kidnapper might have been unconscious before he went out the door. That could have something to do with how poorly he’d landed.
She felt a hand on her cheek and she looked at Noah to see him searching her face. He helped her to her feet and made sure she was steady.
“Are you sure you’re okay? Did that son of a bitch hurt you in any way?”
Peyton shook her head, but then it hit her that she’d almost been kidnapped. Noah had been right to worry.
“No, I-I’m fine. They came out of nowhere and then he grabbed me…” She looked up at Noah, her voice suddenly clogging with tears as she realized how horribly this could have turned out. “You were right. About someone coming after me again to get my book. If you hadn’t stopped them…”
“Shh,” he whispered, smoothing her hair back with his hand. “You’re okay. That’s all that matters.”
He brushed his thumb tenderly across her lips and for a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her, but instead he pulled her into his arms and held her close. She wrapped hers around him, resting her cheek against his jacket. His heart beat steadily beneath her ear and she closed her eyes, smiling a little as she listened to the rhythmic sound. Being in his arms felt like the place she was supposed to be. Like the place she was meant to be. And if that sounded like something out of a romance book, she didn’t care.