Forever Mine

by April Zyon

  “Okay, give me one second here, Thomas.” He passed Levi off to Eli, Frank’s wife, with a grin. “Sorry, Mama, I have to take this. He’s overseas right now and I may not get another chance to talk to him for a while.”

  “Of course, dear, do whatever you need to. This will keep.”

  Kissing her on the cheek, he smiled. “Love you, Mama.” He shook his head slightly at Frank, and then left the room. Once he knew he was out of sight, he bolted out the front door. “I’m on my way, Athena. Do not touch anything. Are you safe where you are?” Jumping into his car, he winced as he turned the engine over. Everyone and their damn dogs would know he was leaving the ranch. Nothing to be done about that, though.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have called you.” There was worry in her tone, and shame. “You should stay. Your family shouldn’t have to pay for the trouble that I’m in. I’m sorry.” He noticed she hadn’t answered if she was safe or not.

  “They will still be there when I get back. Now fucking answer me, Athena Rhodes. Are you safe?” he demanded. Twisting the wheel, he did a controlled slide onto the highway. He’d have to slow down in ten minutes to ensure the deputies didn’t catch him. Then he’d have to be extra careful about his speed through town. “I’m fifteen minutes out. Answer the damn question.”

  She let out a snort into the phone. “Yes, yes, I’m fine. I’m just…”

  There was silence, and for a moment, he thought he’d lost her.

  “Yes, I’m fine. I hate this. I hate not being able to be in my own home without fear. Hate that my life has come down to this hot mess that it is.”

  “I know, sweetheart. But we’re going to get you the control back again. For the moment, lock yourself in a room where you’ll hear me and this beast coming. Once I’m there, unlock the door, not a minute before. Fifteen minutes, Athena. Stay safe,” he ordered before he hung up and floored the accelerator.

  ****

  Athena was in the pantry. It was the safest place to be because it led to her hidden storm shelter. She heard Eris and bit her lower lip. God, she felt like an ass for interrupting his family time because she was freaking out. She heard the knock on the door shortly after the car turned off and she headed to the front door. She took the chain off and opened it after ensuring that it was Martin on her doorstep.

  “I’m sorry,” she said softly. “That I took you away from your family. I should have thought about it before I called, but I didn’t think. I reacted. I freaked and I’m sorry.”

  “Shh,” he said. He pulled her into his arms and hugged her to him. “I’d rather you call me than not, Athena. I’m not here just to get the bad guys, sweetheart. I’m here to ensure you are safe because I never, ever want to see you hurt. Especially over something not of your own making.” Holding her close, he rubbed her back gently.

  Okay, so maybe she had died and gone to heaven. That had to be what it was because Martin Carver would never wrap her up in his arms. He would never hold her close like this man was doing. She had melted into his embrace the moment that he pulled her close. She had to pull back and look up at him to be sure that he really was Martin. He was. “I’m so confused.” Okay, so she hadn’t meant to say that, but she did. “About why they would do this to me.” Yeah, that was it. Nothing about the confusion she felt having him hold her or calling her sweetheart.

  “I know, and we’ll figure it out.” Dropping his hand to her lower back, he urged her into the house more, shutting and locking the door behind him. “Tomorrow, I’m changing all our locks out and getting you a decent security system. I want you to feel safe here. Hell, I want to feel safe with you here. Now, show me what’s been messed with, sweetheart.”

  She looked up at him with a frown. “Our locks?” Yes, she had latched onto that. “What do you mean our locks? Because this is my home. I’m a little confused.” He was only there for a job and she knew it. She had to keep that in her mind. She needed to ensure that she didn’t lose the last bit of her heart to him because she would never come back from that.

  “Because I’m damn well not letting you stay here on your own, Athena. So either you and the little furball come home with me to the ranch, or I move in here. Because despite what you think, this isn’t just an assignment for me. If I hadn’t wanted to be here, do you truly think they could have made me come back?”

  “Oh,” she said with wide eyes. “Okay.” She didn’t know what to say about that. At all. “Okay, where will be the best place to go?” She was trying to turn this all over in her mind, trying to make sure that she had everything right, but honestly, all that she could do was think about him with his arms around her. He was devastating like that. He could make her forget everything.

  “Well, here are the pros and cons. Three squares a day, all the coffee you can drink, and pretty much the entire family under foot at the ranch. Your own space, your own bed, a place your cat is familiar with, and me in your home. The last of each of those scenarios were the cons, by the way. So it’s up to you, Athena. The ranch or here? Where would you be most comfortable? Oh, I should also mention, if we go to the ranch, you will have a lot of rather probing questions from all my family members with the exception of Levi and Angel. They’re not yet at the stage of talking.”

  “Why in the world would they be asking me probing questions? It’s not like you and I are a thing, right? We aren’t, are we?” Heck, she wasn’t certain about anything right now. The only thing t she knew was how good it felt to be in his arms, how safe she felt when he had tugged her close and wrapped her in his wide embrace.

  “You’ve obviously never spent any time with my relatives. We’ll stay here. It’ll be easier for you, less disruption. Besides, I don’t think you could withstand interrogation by my mother. You wouldn’t even realize she was interrogating you until it was much, much too late. Which means that we will be getting new locks on the doors and a new security system. I’ll also need to get my bag out of the car. Thankfully, I didn’t take it into the house. The only problem now is explaining to my mother where I am and why.”

  “Wait, you didn’t tell her that you were leaving and coming here?” Athena pulled back with shock. “Oh, she’s going to box your ears,” she teased, but in reality, she felt sick. He didn’t want to be there with her, right? “You could just change my locks and go back home, right?”

  He let out a low growl and glared down at her. “Obviously you are missing some point, or I am. So let’s be perfectly clear about everything. I will be changing your locks, and your security system. I will be remaining here with you to keep you safe. If you’d rather not remain here, we will go back to the ranch where you will be staying in the same room as I am. So either we remain here where you can have a modicum of privacy even under my watchful eye, or we go to the ranch where my brothers, their wives, and my mother is watching every twitch you make. Remember, I have a couple of brothers who are federal agents. Well, technically one. I was never one hundred percent sure what Frank did for a living. I want to be here, watching over you, Athena. Because if anything were to happen to you, I would be a very unhappy man. One that is armed, and has never once missed a shot in his entire career. Does this help clear up whatever confusion you may be feeling? Or is there something else I’m missing here?”

  “Why?” That was the biggest question on her mind at the moment. “I think that it’s me that’s missing something right now. I want you to be here. God only knows that I’ve wanted you to be with me for many years, but why now? What changed?”

  He was frowning now, and looking confused. “What do you mean by what’s changed?” he asked softly. Martin lifted his hands to her face, cupping her cheeks. His thumbs drifted over her skin lightly.

  “You ran from Massey the moment you turned nineteen. You never looked back. You came back for your dad’s funeral, but that was it. I’ve wanted you for years, and now you walk back in saying that you want to be here. What changed? I don’t understand.”

  Stroking his thumbs to her skin a
gain, he let his hands fall to her shoulders. “Athena,” he said softly. Letting out a sigh, he rubbed a hand to her face and took one of her hands. “I think we need to sit down for this discussion. Come on.” He led her into her living room and tugged her down next to him on her sofa. “The only reason I came back to Massey was because it was you. Anyone else and I’d have told the director where to stick his idea, and I doubt he would have argued all that much. But it was you,” he said.

  “Me?” Goodness gracious, she was still caught up on that. “I…” Oh God, she was so lost. She wanted so much for him to want her the way that she wanted him, but it wasn’t possible. Was it? “Why me?” Okay, so maybe words weren’t coming to her. Typically, she was far more articulate than she was at this moment, but all she could do was feel him. She could feel him holding her hand, stroking his thumb over hers. Goodness, she needed to feel more.

  “What do you mean why you? Come on, Athena. You are an amazing woman. You always had this inner even when you were a kid. You also had a softness, a gentleness that was like a siren’s call. I’d likely have hung on your coattails if I hadn’t become such a tongue-tied buffoon whenever you looked my way. Even when you were across the room, you turned me in an incoherent goof if you looked at me.”

  “Me?” She shook her head. “It was you that did that to me.” She clenched her hand in his. “You were everything, always. All parts of you have always called to me, but you never saw me. You dated the cheerleaders, not the debate team geeks like me.” God only knew that the girls made sure she knew that. They had more than once put her in her place with ensuring that she knew that someone like Martin would never want anyone like her.

  “I definitely saw you, Athena. Always have. Which is why I came back. If this had been Helen, or Trudy, or Paige, I’d have told the director to send someone else. The instant I saw your name in that folder, I had to sit down. I could barely catch my breath, and I was on the verge of passing out. I was completely terrified something had happened to you. I’ve never read through a file so fast in my life to find out if you were all right. Then when I got to the part about why there was a file with your picture and name in it, I knew I’d be coming back to Massey. I had to, for you, to keep you safe.”

  “Why did you leave so long ago? If you felt like that, why? Why didn’t you tell me before you left? Why did you just leave me? I really think you should kiss me.” Oh crap, had she just said that?

  “Because I felt like I was suffocating,” he admitted. “Brant was in the Rangers, Frank was God only knows where, and Travis was already flying for a living. They were all living their lives, and I was here feeling like I was slowly being crushed. I don’t know by what, I can’t even fully explain the sensation, but I had to get out of here.” He stopped for a moment, looking like he was going to say something, but then changed his mind and let out a sigh. “The day I left, I went to find you, to tell you I was leaving, but you were busy and I didn’t want to ruin your life too in case my lofty plans failed miserably, so I just left.”

  “I would never be too busy for you,” she admitted to him, and pulled back. Okay, so she had asked for a kiss and he hadn’t wanted it. She was grateful that perhaps he hadn’t heard her.

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t know that at the time, did I?” he asked. He was watching her closely as he shook his head. “You had your own life, a life to still grow into, and I had no clue what the fuck I was going to do. Who knows what would have happened had you not been talking with Dillon that day.” Martin lifted his arm and wrapped it around her shoulders to pull her back in closer to him.

  “Dillon Masterson?” she asked with wide eyes. “You thought…” She shook her head. “He was telling me that he was going to go to California. Martin, he was in love with Mark Branford. The two of them ran away shortly after we graduated. I thought that you knew the two of them were an item.” She automatically wrapped her arms around him when he pulled her close to his body.

  “I knew, but you two were deep in talks and he looked so upset that I didn’t want to interrupt.” Dropping his chin, he rested his forehead to hers. “You’ve always been a healer, Athena. Even back in school, you were the one everyone talked to because you actually listened and heard them. You’ve always had a natural calling to your dad’s field of work. Besides, if you hadn’t been talking to Dillon, and we’d gone off together, who knows where our lives might be now. You might not be in a job you are clearly suited for, and I might not have had the chance to truly understand how important you were to me.”

  “And how is that?” She needed to know. “How you feel about me, that is. How do you feel about me? How important am I to you? I know how important you are to me. Even with the time apart, it doesn’t stop how I feel. Just seeing you once more has brought all of that rushing back to me.”

  “You sure are a demanding little thing,” he muttered with clear amusement. “I don’t recall that particular trait from our early years, so it must be new.” Lightly, he brushed his nose to hers before brushing his lips to her cheek. He slowly drew them across her skin, getting ever closer to her mouth. “Athena Rhodes, you are everything to me. Always have been, always will be. You are my dream taken form, a goddess among mere mortal men, and the only woman who’s ever shushed me and gotten away with it.”

  She shifted slightly, turned her head, and met his lips with hers. She hugged him tightly and let her emotions speak with the tone of the kiss. She moved her hands to his head and held him close, her tongue dueling with his as he opened up to her kiss as well.

  His arms wrapped around her tightly, and he drew her up against his chest. A moment later, she found herself dragged into his lap, straddling his thighs with his hands on her ass tugging her in tighter. Martin kissed her back with a hunger that matched her own.

  When they parted, Athena was panting, her forehead to his and eyes closed. “Heavens. I think that you should kiss me often when you are near me. I’m perfectly fine with you doing that at any moment in time. I don’t care where we are. I’m more than willing to kiss you back.”

  She could feel his chuckle as he dropped kisses to her cheeks, nose, and forehead. “I’m quite willing to kiss you at any time,” he said. “I’ve been dreaming about kissing you since those damned teenage hormones kicked in and girls were suddenly on the radar as more than neighbors and occupants of other school desks.”

  “Well then, we have a lot of years to make up for, don’t we?” Athena wasn’t dumb enough to think that he hadn’t had relationships since leaving, but she was hopeful that she might be his last one. “Just please tell me that there isn’t a wife or girlfriend or anything like that waiting for you back where you came from?” She didn’t think that there was one. Martin wasn’t that sort of male, but she needed to know, had to hear the words from his lips.

  “No girlfriend, no wife, no female of any sort awaiting my return, in anticipation of, or otherwise, so we’re clear. Been a little busy these last ten years. Even when I’m not working, I have always needed to be completely aware, and wary, of those around me. I don’t exactly live in a world that is what it appears to be to the common eye. Here, though, with you, I can be me and know that every word out of my mouth isn’t being gauged for its truthfulness. I don’t have to be one of those covers that I slip in and out of faster than I can a pair of shoes.”

  “I rather adore the you that you are. I want for you to be you,” she assured him. “So, now what?” She laid her head on his shoulder. “You said that you need to change our locks, get a new security system put in, and get your bag, right? Who should we go with for the security system?”

  “Frank,” he said. When she looked at him, he grinned. “Big brother can get just about anything. We won’t ask him how he got it, or from where. It’s usually best not to know those things. Keeps you breathing longer,” he muttered. Sighing, he rubbed her back gently. “I’ll get him to bring by the locks as well. For now, I’m going to get my bag, and then you are going to show me what’s been mov
ed around. I’ll also check the doors and windows for anything that might give us an idea of who was here, and maybe why too. Be nice to know who we’re dealing with locally. I also need to call Mama. I’m pretty sure she’s figured out I’m not coming back in for dinner.”

  “Oh heavens, yes, you should call her before you do anything else. I really don’t want your mom upset with me.” For calling him away from her, especially since he had stayed gone for so long. “Just please tell me that you will make sure you see her more than the few minutes you spent with her so far?”

  “I will see her for more than a few minutes. Promise,” he said. Pulling her in close, he kissed her gently again. “Slide off my lap, sweetheart. I’ll go get my bag and call Mom. Don’t touch anything in here, though, until I get back. Or anything more than you already have.”

  “Okay, you do that and I will start tea.” She knew he wasn’t big on tea, but the water would be hot and she could make him coffee should he want it. “There was nothing in the kitchen, other than the kitty food, that was messed with.”

  “Coffee, not tea. If you’re going to pour hot water over something, it needs to have some body, taste, and depth to it. Preferably strong enough to melt the spoon,” he told her. Getting up, he pulled her to her feet. “If it’s out on the counter, don’t touch it. We don’t know what this person touched. And because I’m super paranoid, if the tea is open, don’t use it. Only use a container that’s been sealed.”

  That had her frowning. “You know, the tea was open,” she told him. “The baggies that I use, typically, I keep them sealed and in a plastic baggie because I don’t like them to be in the open. Why hadn’t I thought of that?” With the way that she was, she should have thought of that, right?

  “All right, you are not touching a damn thing in there. In fact, you’re going to walk with me to the car, and then back in. Until I go through your house top to bottom, back to front, I don’t want you alone in here, and I don’t want you touching anything. God only knows what they might have done to make a point with you.” He held his hand out to her.