For the Love of Beard

by Lani Lynn Vale

“You do too much around here,” he said.

  I snorted and walked to the fridge where my glass of cold water sat waiting for me.

  “I do what needs to be done,” I told him. “And I like doing it. I got twenty-one eggs today. I think that’s my favorite part of the day.”

  He gave me an irritated look.

  “I don’t think you signed up for this,” he snapped. “Just look at me. I haven’t accomplished a goddamned thing in over a month.”

  “At least you’re making headway in finding the woman your brother might’ve gotten pregnant,” I pointed out.

  He grunted. “Narrowing it down to three ladies isn’t really much of an accomplishment.”

  He gave me a look that clearly said I wasn’t helping.

  “I’m a fuckin’ invalid.”

  I looked at him, really looked at him, and started laughing.

  “You’re still in excellent fucking shape,” I told him, walking toward him seductively, dropping an article of clothing each time I took a step. His eyes watched me rapturously. “You may not be able to do any legs for a few more weeks yet, but your arms are getting downright massive. Every single time you move your wrist, this bulging muscle in your forearm starts to pop.”

  I placed my finger on the bulging muscle in question. “Every time you scratch your back, this muscle right here,” I touched a fingertip to his triceps. “Bunches and releases. It’s one of the most erotic things I’ve ever seen.”

  He inhaled deeply, and I started to strip.

  Once I was finished, I moved around his front once again, letting him see my eyes. “And your pecs,” I touched my finger to his chest, bringing it sideways to run over the top of his chest. “It’s nearly impossible to see this bulge without jumping onto your thighs and fucking you like I want to; so badly that it hurts right here.”

  I picked up his hand and placed it on my now unclothed pussy. “It hurts, Tobias.”

  “Then why didn’t you say so?” he rumbled. “I wasn’t the one keeping you away. You were.”

  And then I found myself in his lap.

  My earlier desire wasn’t a lie. I wanted him so badly that it hurt.

  What I did not want to do was put any pressure whatsoever on his leg or thigh where he had multiple bullets tear through him.

  “I can’t,” I moaned, moving away from him. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  His growl was downright angry.

  “If you don’t get over here, I’ll literally fucking leave.”

  I snorted and walked to the shower. A cold one sounded mighty fine right now.

  I’d called his bluff. I knew he wouldn’t leave. First off, he had no way to leave. Secondly, he wouldn’t get a ride from his family, because they were under strict orders from me to not enable his disobedient behavior in any way.

  Turning the shower on as cold as I could stand it, I stepped in and stifled a scream as the cool water hit my overheated skin.

  Although Tobias’ tractor had a cover shielding me from the sun, it wasn’t enough to stop the heat, dirt and grime from sticking to me. I had dirt caked on my arms and legs.

  Who knew that bush hogging a pasture was such dirty work?

  “If you don’t get out of there right now, and come over here and take care of this, I’ll walk out of this house right now and leave my crutches behind.”

  My eyes opened and narrowed. “No, you will not. You have two more weeks on those puppies, and you’re not fucking it up right now just because you’re horny!”

  His eyes seemed to spark fire. “I wouldn’t be in this situation right now if you hadn’t worked me all up, getting me this hard,” he squeezed the bulge in his knit shorts, “And then left me high and dry.”

  Literally.

  “Tommy said no sex for six weeks,” I stated. “He’s adamant that any exertion on your part could possibly strain the stitches that were put in. If you fuck this up, you might not recover fully.”

  He shrugged. “At this point, I don’t fucking care.”

  I threw the bar of soap at him.

  “You better fucking care!” I snapped. “You can’t chase after our kid if you lose your fucking foot.”

  His eyes widened, his ire taking a back seat to surprise for a few moments. “You’re saying you’re pregnant?”

  I shook my head. “No. But I will be one day. How are you going to teach our kids how to run and play in the ocean, or ride a freakin’ bike, if you catch another infection in the bone like you had when you were in the hospital? That could’ve been so much worse than you think, Tobias. I’m a nurse. I’m not stupid. This shit scares the absolute hell out of me, and I don’t want to see you in any more pain.”

  He was right back to angry.

  “I didn’t ask you to stay.”

  The next thing to go sailing at him was my travel-sized bottle of lotion that I put on once I’d dried myself off.

  Why it was in the shower, I didn’t know, but it was, so I’d used it.

  It hit him on the shoulder.

  “Fuck, ouch, that hurt.” He rubbed his muscle, and there went the need that started to race through my veins again. “Don’t be such a b…”

  I threw the cap to my razor next.

  It was a tiny plastic thing, but it hit him in the cheek.

  His eyes narrowed.

  “I know you weren’t about to call me a bitch.”

  “If the shoe fits…”

  I growled at him. Literally growled.

  “You’re such a douchebag lately. Do you know that?” I screeched, splashing him with water.

  His eyes stayed locked on mine. Both of us so angry that our breath was heaving our chests.

  “Marry me!”

  Those words, out of his mouth, were enough to freeze the bottle of shampoo that’d been in my hand—the one I’d been about to send sailing straight at his head if he wasn’t careful with what he had to say next.

  That’s when I started to laugh.

  “You’re joking, right?”

  He shook his head.

  “I am as far from joking as I can be right now,” he informed me. “I’ve been an ass. I know I’ve been an ass. I hate seeing you walk in, sweaty and tired, from doing the stuff that I should be doing.”

  My ire disappeared.

  “I like mowing,” I told him. “And I was listening to an audio book the entire time, and really didn’t want to stop what I was doing, but I was finished. So you see me hot and sweaty, but I truly had fun. I’d never lie about that.”

  He held his eyes to mine.

  “You didn’t answer me,” he pointed out.

  My mouth curled up into a smile.

  “Ask me again in two weeks when you’re cleared from the hospital.”

  “Why?” He was back to snapping.

  “So I can ride you until you die.”

  His head dropped, and he brought his hand up to the back of his neck while still managing to hold both crutches in place.

  “Two weeks is all you get.” He finally brought his head back up. “It doesn’t matter if they clear me or not. In two weeks, you’re mine. All of you.”

  That ‘all of you’ was quite ominous, but he was gone before I could ask him to be more specific on what he meant when he said ‘all of you.’

  ***

  Two weeks later, I was practically bouncing out of my chair as I waited for Tobias to get back from not only his doctor appointment where he would be cleared to go back to work, but also his re-entrance test for the highway patrol.

  He’d scheduled both for the same day so that he could get back to work immediately, and now I was waiting for him at one of our favorite restaurants in town, a tiny little taco shop that was about a half a mile from Tobias’ house.

  My favorite thing about this taco shop was the way that the owner, a woman named Dali, used movie titles as the order numbers. They were three by five inch cards with the name printed on them in bold p
rint, and on the back had a description of the movie.

  “Black Hawk Down, your order is ready!” Dali called out.

  Today, my movie title was one of my favorites: The Proposal with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock. I’d just started reading the movie’s description on the back of the slip she’d handed me when I froze.

  I’d thought I knew the movie until I started reading the description, and at first, I was confused.

  But as I continued to read, understanding began to dawn.

  Women are a lot of trouble, especially one in particular. Tobias knows this, yet that knowledge doesn’t stop him from doing the one thing he knows that he shouldn’t do—fall in love with the woman that he’s been repeatedly warned away from.

  All he was supposed to do was retrieve a friend’s sister from a fate that will surely mean her death.

  Yet, when he arrives, he can’t help but fall for the defiance that Audrey exudes with every single word that leaves her mouth.

  Audrey is tired of being scared. It’s been six years since her assault, yet it feels like it just happened yesterday.

  She tries to be normal. She tries to have a life. She tries and tries and tries, but she always seems to fail, and she’s ready to take that first step that’ll help her heal. She’s done hiding her head in the sand.

  With Tobias’ help, she slowly comes back to herself. She gets a job that she adores. She finds a place in this world, and she finds herself falling further and further in love with a man who sets butterflies fluttering through her belly every time she looks at him.

  The only problem is that somebody is out to get him. Someone is trying to take away her chance for a happy life, and she’s not going to stand by and watch it happen.

  It’s time for her to show everyone that she’s not some freak show any longer. She’s a warm-blooded woman who’ll do anything for her man, even face death to save him.

  After showing him what she’s willing to do to protect him, he feels that there is no other choice for them. She has to marry him.

  I looked around, surprised by the words on the page, and froze when I saw that familiar dark-headed form standing in the open doorway to the taco shop.

  And before my eyes, and everyone else’s in that little taco shop, he dropped down to one knee.

  “Audrey Morrison, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

  My breath hitched in my throat, and I got up to walk to him.

  “Will you buy me tacos every Tuesday for the rest of my life?” I asked him, tears starting to spill from my eyes.

  He reached for my hand and slid the ring onto my finger. A perfect fit.

  “Yes,” he rumbled. “And if I ever get too old to go out and buy them for you, I’ll make them.”

  A sob caught in my throat and I threw myself at him.

  He let out a soft ‘oof’ but didn’t otherwise protest as I hit him hard enough to rock him backward.

  “Yes,” I said, peppering his face with kisses. “Yes, yes, yes!”

  He growled in triumph.

  “I love you, Audrey Morrison, soon-to-be Hail.”

  I squeezed his neck tighter. “I love you right back, Tobias Hail.”

  Chapter 23

  I don’t have a sense of humor anymore. It’s literally just sarcasm and a general hate of the majority of the human population.

  -Fact of Life

  Tobias

  “I can get you maybe five minutes inside with him,” Ghost said. “My guard buddy is going to take a break and leave his post. It’ll get suspicious if he’s gone more than five minutes, though.”

  I nodded.

  “Make sure that you stay toward the front so the cameras won’t be able to pick you up,” Ghost continued. “You want the handcuffs on or off?”

  I grinned at him.

  “Let’s make this at least a little bit fair.” I said. “Off.”

  Ghost nodded and left, leaving me at the entrance to the cell that held the man who had hurt the woman I loved.

  I may not have been with her at the time that the assault had happened, but I was there for the aftermath, even if it was six years later.

  I opened the door to the cell without knocking, and I smiled when I saw Josh sitting on the john.

  “Hello, mate,” I called out. “Do you know who I am?”

  I was in uniform.

  I just wasn’t in the right uniform for the facility I was in, at least not in this section of the building.

  Josh didn’t even bother to get up, nor reply. He only stared at me with a bored expression.

  His cellmate, however, swung his feet over.

  “You might want to sit up there and stay out of my way,” I told him. “I have to deal with this…filth.”

  I took a step into the room and glanced up.

  The cameras were there, but they were pointed at each other, just like Ghost had said they would be, giving me the ability to move around the room as long as I didn’t go all the way to the front where the window was, and the shitter that Josh was currently sitting on.

  “You might want to finish up,” I told him. “I’d hate to beat the shit out of you while you’re on the john.”

  Josh sighed and pulled up his pants. Without wiping.

  “Gross,” I bared my teeth. “At least wash your hands.”

  He didn’t, and I crossed my arms.

  “You didn’t answer my earlier question,” I said.

  Josh grunted. “And what was that question again?”

  I bounded across the room in two strides, latching my hand around Josh’s neck and lifting him clear off the ground.

  “I asked,” I said slowly. “If you knew who I was.”

  He shook his head, or at least tried to.

  “No,” he gagged.

  He couldn’t get much air due to my tightening grip around his neck, but he didn’t need it. At least not right now.

  I let him go anyway, though, dropping him to his feet so abruptly that he wasn’t prepared and fell straight to his knees.

  I used the position he was in to my advantage, and lifted my knee up to aim at his face.

  His nose crunched, and blood and snot started to spew.

  “Let me enlighten you,” I hunkered down to his level, and stared him straight in the eyes. “You raped and assaulted my very soon-to-be wife.”

  “And what, you’re here to kill me?” Josh shot back nasally.

  I shook my head. “No. I’m here to let you know that you didn’t break her.”

  Josh’s head tilted. “Why the fuck would I care?”

  I shrugged. “I’m also here to tell your cellmate that you raped my woman. Do you know why he’s in here?”

  Josh’s eyes flicked up to the bunk, and then back to me, panic started to leach into his eyes.

  “I see that you do.” I stood up and backed away, nearly smiling when Josh’s cellmate got off the top bunk and hit the solid concrete floor with a soft thud.

  “You told me you were in here for boosting a car,” Josh’s cellmate snarled, rage clear and evident in his voice.

  “I did boost cars,” Josh lied frantically.

  I backed away until I was now standing in the hallway.

  Once I was clear of the door, Ghost shut it.

  “I can’t believe you were able to get him moved in here with that man.”

  Tate Casey was a bruiser. His arms were lined with tattoos, and it was clear that even while on the inside, he hadn’t missed a workout.

  He was one of my brother’s men. He’d worked for Hail Auto Recovery and had been on a job one night when he’d come upon a couple of gang members raping a young girl, no older than fourteen.

  After beating each and every one of them to death, he’d then gone and taken out five more of the gang before he was caught and detained by police officers.

  Though he’d done the city justice, Tate Casey had priors, and he was sent to prison for his m
isdeeds.

  He was going to spend a few years in the pen, but those years would be easy years. At least in prison standards.

  “Thanks for the favor, man,” I said to Ghost as we walked down the hallway.

  The guard who’d been on ‘break’ came back and nodded at us as we passed, grinning slightly when he heard Josh’s screech of pain. “Have a good day, boys.”

  The older guard was fuckin’ hilarious, and obviously didn’t like Josh all that much either.

  Although we could’ve done this without him, it worked out well that he was helpful.

  “Anything else you need help with before I head home?” Ghost asked. “Mina’s been texting me all day telling me that the girls are driving her nuts.”

  I grinned.

  “I got one text today,” I said. “Audrey told me that I better have chocolate and dinner waiting for her when she got home from her shift, because she had a ‘really awful, no good, very bad day,’” I chuckled. “Thanks for the help,” I said to Ghost, offering him my hand.

  Ghost took my hand.

  “I’d do anything for you after you put a smile on my sister’s face like the one I saw yesterday,” he told me bluntly. “If you ever need me, I’m there.”

  We parted ways, and as I drove home, food and chocolate in the seat next to me, I realized that I’d hit the proverbial jackpot.

  And as I pulled into the driveway, I saw Audrey waiting on the porch for me, eggs in a basket at her side, and a feeling of peace swept over me.

  Stepping out of the car, I rounded it and grabbed dinner, holding them both up for her inspection.

  “Good?” I asked.

  Her eyes crinkled at the sides.

  “Perfect.” She stopped. “Almost.”

  “Almost?” I asked, heading up the her.

  She nodded. “Almost.”

  “What would make it perfect?” I asked, stopping two steps down from her, making us at almost eye level.

  “If you kissed me.”

  Epilogue

  Real men make triplets.

  -T-shirt

  Tobias

  I stared at my phone, confused.

  “You want to do what?” I asked.

  Audrey started to growl under her breath.

  “But we’re getting married in four hours,” I tried.