Ruined: (McIntyre Security Bodyguard Series - Book 6)

by April Wilson

  Sam rolls his eyes at me. “Cooper, this is Craig, the guy from Dayton I told you about. Craig, this is my boyfriend, Daniel Cooper.”

  Disappointment flickers across Craig’s face when Sam refers to me as his boyfriend, but I have to admit it gives me a hell of a lot of satisfaction.

  “Hi, Dan,” Craig says, hesitating a moment before he smiles and offers me his hand. “It’s great to finally meet you. You’re all Sam talked about in Dayton.”

  Reluctantly, I shake Craig’s hand, squeezing a little harder than necessary. When Craig makes a face and pulls his hand free, I smile. Hopefully like a shark. “It’s Cooper.” I cross my arms over my chest again, wishing like hell I was wearing my gun holster. I have no plans to shoot the prick, but it wouldn’t hurt to let him know I mean business. “So, what are you doing here, Craig?” I ask him, point blank.

  Craig laughs, obviously nervous, as his gaze darts from me to Sam. I’m sure he’s looking for Sam to help him out here. “I just wanted to check on Sam, you know. See how he’s doing? We got to know each other pretty well in Dayton, and I just thought—”

  “You thought what?” I say, glaring at Craig.

  Sam jabs me with his elbow, but I don’t let up on the glaring.

  Craig shifts his attention back to Sam, looking for support. “I just wanted to make sure you were doing all right. You know.” Even as he’s talking to Sam, his gaze keeps jumping back to me.

  “I’m fine, Craig, really,” Sam says.

  “Oh?” Craig says. He stands there for a long, awkward moment, as if waiting for Sam to elaborate. Craig leans closer to Sam. “Can I talk to you? In private?”

  I bristle at the suggestion, but Sam puts his hand on my shoulder, giving it a firm squeeze. I get the message. Calm down.

  “Yeah, sure,” Sam says, looking at me to judge my reaction. “Come on, Craig. I’ll give you a tour of the fitness room.”

  Then Sam looks right at me. “Wait here. We won’t be long.” Then he motions for Craig to proceed him down the hallway to the right. “It’s this way.”

  * * *

  I pace the floor outside the foyer, glaring down the hallway where Sam and Craig disappeared into the fitness room.

  Shane levels his gaze at me from over the back of the sofa. “Cooper, for God’s sake, sit the hell down.”

  “Not helping, Shane.”

  He and Beth both are watching me, Beth looking worried, Shane looking partly amused and partly exasperated.

  “I could go—” Beth starts to say.

  “No,” Shane says, pulling her into his arms. “You stay out of this pissing match.”

  “They’re just talking, Cooper,” Beth says, smiling at me. “Don’t worry.”

  I check my watch. “I’m giving them five minutes. Then I’m going in there.”

  Shane shakes his head at me. “You don’t honestly think Sam would—”

  I glare at Shane. “I’d like to see you remain calm if it was Beth and some admirer of hers shut up alone, out of your sight.”

  “That’s different,” Shane says, looking affronted.

  “No, it’s not.”

  “Are you saying you don’t trust Sam?”

  “Of course, I trust Sam!”

  “Then relax, man. He’s a big boy. He can take care of himself.”

  * * *

  I waited a full five minutes, just as I promised—five fucking long minutes—and then I took off down the hallway to the fitness center. I could hear Shane getting to his feet to follow me, instructing Beth to stay put on the sofa.

  When I get to the fitness room, I don’t bother knocking, but instead shove the door wide open and walk into the room, interrupting a rather heated conversation. Craig is practically in Sam’s face, gripping Sam’s biceps hard.

  “Get your fucking hands off him,” I say. It comes out more like a growl, but I can’t help that. All I can think about is that this asshole is trying to make a move on my guy.

  Sam looks surprised by my entrance, but also relieved, as he gives me a rueful smile. I expect he’s going to chew my ass off, but instead, he surprises me. “I’m actually surprised you waited this long.”

  “But he doesn’t deserve you!” Craig says to Sam, completely ignoring my entrance and shaking Sam as if he’s trying to talk some sense into him. The guy really has no sense of self-preservation.

  Sam looks Craig in the eye. “My relationship with Cooper is my business, and no one else’s. I’ll decide who deserves me. I don’t need anyone’s help.”

  “But you said it yourself! Cooper can’t meet your needs. You need someone who—”

  “Things have changed—he’s changed. But I don’t need to explain anything—”

  “Oh, come on, Sam,” Craig says. “No one changes that quickly. He’s doing a snow job on you.”

  Sam sighs, showing far more patience than I ever could. “Craig, I think it’s really…um, considerate…of you to come all this way to check on me, but a text or an e-mail would have sufficed. If you came here to talk me into leaving again, well, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time. You should have just called.”

  “But—” Craig huffs with frustration, glancing back nervously at me. Then he turns back to Sam, lowering his voice. “Look, is there somewhere we can go, just the two of us? Somewhere private? Let’s go out for a drink.”

  I’m so fed up with this guy, I’m ready to kick him out of our apartment. But I can’t do that to Sam. Sam has to make his own decisions.

  “I’m sorry, Craig,” Sam says. “There’s no point in us going anywhere. My answer’s not going to change. You’re welcome to stay here and visit for a while, but I’m not leaving with you to go out for drinks, not unless Cooper comes with us, which I really don’t recommend. You should have called me first.”

  “But I drove all this way to see you, man,” he says.

  This asshole walks into my home, trying to sweet-talk my lover…not cool. “Well, now you’ve seen him,” I say. “You can go.”

  Sam glares at me over Craig’s head. “Not helping, babe.”

  Craig’s gaze scans the room, going from Sam to me to Shane and Beth, who are standing out in the hall. I guess he can tell he’s waging a losing battle, because his shoulders slump in defeat. “It was worth a try, Sam,” Craig said. “You were worth a try.”

  * * *

  Craig leaves as quickly as he arrived, with little fanfare and his tail tucked between his legs.

  “Huh,” Shane says, after the elevator doors have closed on Craig and the security guard who’d escorted him up. Then he looks at Sam, a quizzical gleam in his eye. “Do you have any more secret admirers we should know about?”

  “No,” Sam says, looking almost bashful. “Can I help it that I have a certain effect on people?”

  Sam seems oddly subdued, and I wonder if he’s feeling bad for Craig, having come all this way just to be rejected.

  “Can we talk?” I say, nodding toward our suite.

  Sam nods, then heads toward our room. He doesn’t say anything as we step into our room and I close the door quietly.

  “Sam? Are you okay?”

  He nods. “I’m sorry about that. I had no idea he’d come here. We were friends, buddies, and that’s it—I swear. I never gave him any indication that there was anything romantic in our future.”

  I walk right up to him, eye to eye, and lay my hands on his shoulders. “I know you didn’t.”

  “I never gave up on us, Cooper. Even while I was away, I always had it in the back of my mind that we’d somehow work things out.”

  I nod, realizing just how close I might have come to losing Sam. I have to admit, Craig’s a good-looking guy, and he’s close to Sam’s age. Sam could have easily decided I wasn’t worth the effort and just given up on me.

  I cup the back of his head with one hand and meet him halfway for a kiss, teasing his lips apart, while my other arm snakes around him so I can draw him even closer.

  We stand there for a few moments, jus
t kissing.

  Damn, I came so close to losing him. “Hey, what do you say we go away for the weekend? We could leave tomorrow, after you pass your physical assessment test.”

  Sam pulls back, his eyes widening. “Really?”

  “Yeah. A romantic getaway, just the two of us.”

  I can tell by the smile on his face that it’s the right move.

  “What did you have in mind?” he says.

  “Somewhere private, some place secluded, where we can relax and do whatever the hell we want. We can spend the whole weekend naked in bed if you want to. I’ll ask Jake if we can borrow his cabin up in Harbor Springs.”

  Sam pulls me into a bear hug, nestling his hips against mine. “Yes!” he murmurs against my lips. “I would love that.”

  Chapter 26

  Sam

  I get up early Friday morning and join Cooper for breakfast. Since Shane’s been sleeping in with Beth lately, it’s just the two of us up at this quiet hour. While Cooper cracks some eggs and starts the coffee, I make toast. He’s already dressed for work, but I’m still wearing my fleece pajama bottoms and nothing else.

  While he’s standing at the stove, cooking the eggs, I come up behind him and slip my hands around his waist, linking my fingers over his washboard abs. “Don’t forget to pack your hiking boots for the weekend,” I say. “I feel like getting back to nature.”

  He laughs. “Will do.”

  We finish preparing breakfast together, then sit at the counter to eat. I love being with him like this, quiet and domestic. It makes me think about crazy things, like one day the two of us getting married. It’s so easy to picture him as my husband. Last night he made love to me with such a sense of urgency, which I attributed to him still being worked up over Craig’s unexpected appearance.

  I reach over and brush my thumb across the back of his hand, tracing the path of a sexy tendon. “Craig was never more to me than just a friend, you know that, right? I was always planning to come back. I just needed some space.”

  His throat works as he nods. He takes in a deep breath, then blows it out. His eyes are pained when he looks at me. “I know I drove you away. I don’t blame you—it was my fault. I deserved it.”

  “No, I—”

  “No, don’t. Don’t let me off the hook by giving me an excuse. I was a coward, and I let you down. I’m sorry.”

  I slide off my barstool and turn Cooper’s seat so that he’s facing me. I step between his knees and bring my hands up to cup his face. “I understand better now where you were coming from, and I don’t blame you for your fears. I know now that they were valid ones. We get a do-over now, all right? We get to start over.”

  I kiss him then, and he squeezes his eyes shut.

  * * *

  After we finish eating, I clean up the kitchen while Cooper finishes getting ready for work. When he’s done, he returns to the kitchen to give me a mint-flavored good-bye kiss. I walk him to the foyer.

  “Good luck with your assessment test today,” he says. “Don’t be too disappointed if you don’t pass this first time.”

  “Oh, I’m going to pass. You can bank on it.”

  He smiles at me. “Good. Then we’ll have something extra to celebrate this weekend.”

  I give him one last kiss before he steps inside the elevator. We’re so domestic—I could get used to this. And I really like the idea of going away with him for the weekend—we can play house out in the woods together and get into all kinds of trouble.

  “I’ll make arrangements with Jake to borrow his cabin,” he says, just as the doors begin to close. “We’ll leave this afternoon.”

  “Perfect.”

  Once he’s gone, I head to the fitness room to do some stretching and warm up to get in a couple of good practice sessions. I can crank out the push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups now…exactly as prescribed. And I can do the run, so I’m all set.

  A bleary-eyed Beth, still in her PJs, comes to find me in the middle of doing another set of pull-ups on the chin bar.

  “Today’s the day,” she says, grinning at me. “Do you think you can do it?”

  “I know I can do it. Consider yourself on parole starting around noon today.”

  “Can I come with you? We could stop at Clancy’s afterwards. I need to see Erin and check on my books.”

  “They’re your books, huh? All seventy thousand of them?”

  “Yes, they’re mine.” She frowns. “Besides, I miss my store, and I miss my friends.”

  “All right, you can come with me—you’ll be my good luck charm—and afterwards we’ll go Clancy’s.”

  Once we’re ready to leave, we stop at Shane’s open office door.

  “I’m going with Sam to the office for his assessment. And then afterwards—when he passes—we’re going to Clancy’s for a while.”

  Shane looks up from his desk, his brow furrowing as he considers her statement. I don’t think he missed that fact that she was telling him, not asking him. My girl is developing a backbone!

  Shane leans back in his chair, looking pensive. “Sounds like a great idea,” he says, and I think he managed to surprise us both.

  “Really?” she says.

  “Yes, absolutely. Have fun.” He hits a few keys on his laptop and closes the lid. “In fact, I might as well go back to the office. I’ll ride along with you.”

  I have to give the guy credit—that was slick. He let her have her way without exposing her to any potential risk in the process. He drives us in the Escalade and parks in the garage beneath the McIntyre Security, Inc. building. Once we’re in the elevator, he presses the buttons for the third and twentieth floors.

  “Good luck, Sam,” Shane says, when the elevator doors open on the third floor, and Beth and I step out. “I would say ‘break a leg,’ but under the circumstances, I don’t think it would be wise.”

  Shane leaves us as he heads up to the floor where his office is located. Beth follows me into the martial arts studio, and we find Liam on the mats with a small group of female employees. He’s barefoot, dressed in a pair of black cross-trainer shorts and a gray McIntyre Security T-shirt. The women, all ages and levels of fitness, are going through some repetitive motions.

  I’m a few minutes early for my appointment, so I steer Beth to sit in the row of chairs at the side of the room while we watch Liam conclude what appears to be a self-defense class.

  “You should take a self-defense class,” I whisper to Beth.

  “I tried that once. Shane freaked out every time someone threw me down onto the mat.”

  I laugh. “Why does that not surprise me? Maybe he’d be okay if Lia taught you some moves.”

  “She did teach me a few things.”

  Liam’s class finishes up then, and the women head for the locker rooms to change.

  Liam joins us. “Hi, sis,” he says, kissing Beth’s cheek. “Hi, Sam. You ready?”

  I rise from my chair, leaving Beth to sit and watch. “Yes. Let’s do this.”

  “What do you want to do first? Run or the mat work?”

  “The mat work.”

  “Okay.” He motions me toward the mats. “Go for it.”

  I shuck off my sweatpants, leaving me dressed in workout shorts and a T-shirt. I take a seat on the mat, and Liam crouches at my feet.

  “I’ll hold your feet,” he says, gripping my ankles. He’s got a stop watch suspended from a chain around his neck. “Ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be.”

  “Go, Sam!” Beth yells, offering some inspiration. “You can do it!”

  Liam glances at Beth, grinning. “You brought your own cheerleader?”

  “Yeah.”

  I crank through the sit-ups and push-ups with a few seconds to spare each time. Then I move to the bar anchored to the wall and power through the required number of pull-ups.

  “Great job,” Liam says when I drop to the ground. “Ready to run?”

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.” I head for the oval running track that hu
gs the perimeter of the room. I have ten minutes to run a mile-and-a-half, which is 18 laps around the room. Liam gives me the go-ahead, and as I start running, he goes to sit with Beth, the two of them chatting as I run my ass off.

  I’m tired from the mat work, but also energized that I’m close to being able to get back to work. I power through the run, digging hard for the speed and stamina I need to beat the clock. Beth follows my progress with her gaze, waving at me every time I run past her position. There’s a large digital timer on the wall I can use to measure my progress. Finally, with thirty seconds to spare, I hit my target and jog over to Beth and Liam.

  Liam stands and offers me his hand. “Good job. Welcome back to work, dude.”

  Beth jumps to her feet and gives me a hug, despite the fact that I’m a hot mess. I leave them to their conversation as I head for the men’s locker room for a quick shower and to change back into my street clothes.

  After I’m changed, I say my good-byes to Liam, and Beth and I take the elevator up to the twentieth floor.

  I pull out my phone and send Cooper a quick text.

  I passed.

  Cooper sends me a prompt reply.

  I knew you would. We’ll celebrate tonight at the cabin. Your ass is mine. Be ready.

  She watches me out of the corner of her eye. “What are you grinning about?” she says.

  “Nothing.”

  She pokes me with her elbow. “Liar. Did you get a text from your boyfriend?”

  I try to hold back my smile, but I fail miserably. “Yes.”

  “Is he proud of you?”

  I nudge her with my hip. “Yes. He’s taking me away for a romantic weekend. We’re going to spend the weekend up at Jake’s cabin.”

  “Oooh, I love Jake’s cabin. You’re going to have so much fun, just the two of you rolling around in the leaves.”

  When the elevator stops, we step out into the corridor in front of the administration suites. A glass wall has the McIntyre Security, Inc. logo etched into it. I hold the door for Beth, and we head to the desk belonging to Shane’s executive assistant—a sweet little lady with short, curly white hair and softly wrinkled skin.

  “Hello, dear,” Diane says, beaming at Beth. “How are you feeling?”