by Sybil Bartel
He spared me one more glance. “Go, now.”
I drove straight to work.
Tyler was waiting and opened my door for me as soon as I parked. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” Seeing a familiar face, being in the secure underground parking, my heart rate slowed marginally. “Listen, I’m sorry about—”
A huge smile spread across his face. “No way. Is Ariel Walsh apologizing? I didn’t think I’d live that long.”
His jab, his easy demeanor, it almost cut through my tension. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He grinned. “You’re not the apologizing type, sweetheart. You’re more a take-no-prisoners kind of woman.”
I cringed at the mention of prisoners and my tone came out way more snappish than I intended. “I am not.”
Tyler laughed. “Case in point. But don’t take offense, all the guys love it. You’re the best hire Luna ever made.”
I scowled at him. “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit, Tyler.”
“It’s the truth.” He took my arm and helped me out of the truck. “All the guys upstairs trip over themselves every time you walk through the offices.”
“That’s because I’m the only female at Luna and Associates. And I never walk through the offices.” I was always downstairs in the lobby.
“You’re right.” One side of his mouth tipped up. “You don’t walk, you strut.”
My eyes narrowed. “Did you just say I strut?”
He held his hands up. “Hey, I’m just calling it like I see it.”
“Mama!”
“See?” Tyler opened the door to the extra cab. “Even he thinks I’m right. Don’t you, buddy?” He stepped aside so I could get Conner.
“Come on, sweet boy.” I took Conner out of his seat.
Tyler ruffled Conner’s hair. “Did you have fun in the big truck?”
“Truck!” Conner smiled his toothy grin.
“Yeah, trucks are awesome, buddy, aren’t they? One day maybe you’ll drive one.”
His easy demeanor with Conner, the fact that I was desperate to take my mind off what was happening, it made me break one of my own rules and ask a coworker a personal question. “Do you have kids?”
“Nah, just a bunch of brothers.”
“A bunch?” I grabbed the diaper bag but Tyler took it from me.
“Yep, six.”
“Your mother had seven boys?” I was an only child. I couldn’t even imagine that. “Where did everyone sleep?”
Tyler chuckled. “Bunk beds in two rooms. Now you know why I joined the Marines—for solitude.” He laughed.
“I’m sure that worked out for you.” I glanced at the garage entrance, but there was no sign of Viking or André.
A frown clouded Tyler’s features. “Better for me than some of the other guys.”
I didn’t comment. A lot of the guys at Luna and Associates had served with André and all of them had lost friends. “Did Viking tell you what I should do with his keys?”
“Viking?” Tyler tickled Conner’s belly and Conner giggled.
“Neil,” I corrected.
Tyler whipped his head up and looked at me like I had two heads. “Does he know you call him that?”
His expression pissed me off. “What do you care?”
Alarm spread across his face then bled in to disbelief. “You and Christensen?”
“What? No.” Definitely no.
Tyler shook his head. “You need to be careful, Ariel.”
“I’m not dating him. Not that it’s any of your business.”
He ignored me. “We all have a healthy dose of fearful respect for Neil Christensen, for good reason. You should too.”
Tyler probably knew Viking better than I did, that is, if anyone actually knew him, which I wasn’t so sure about. But his fearful respect comment and telling me to be careful irritated the hell out me off. Viking hadn’t put three crates of guns in my car. “Drop it,” I warned. “I’m going to wait upstairs for André. Are either of the small conference rooms open?” No way was I going to hang out with Conner in the glass-enclosed lobby. I didn’t know who the hell would come after the guns. I felt relatively safe at work with all the guys but I still wasn’t going to risk it.
“Got you covered.” Tyler put his hand on my back. We turned toward the elevators and suddenly, Viking was in front of us.
A sharp breath of surprise escaped my lips. “Hey.”
Tyler stiffened. “Christensen.”
His chest heaving like he’d been running, his glare trained on Tyler, Viking bit out one word. “Leave.”
Tyler turned to me and opened his mouth to speak.
Viking cut him off. “Now.”
Conner squirmed and held his arms out to Viking. “Neil!”
Silently reaching for my son, his eyes on Tyler, Viking took Conner and held him high on his chest. He murmured a few words in Danish and Conner tucked his head against Viking’s massive shoulder.
Tyler watched the interaction and his frown deepened before he turned back to me. “Ariel, if you need anything at all, call—”
“I said, now.” I’d never seen Viking lose his cool, but in that moment, I would’ve bet good money that if he weren’t holding my son, he would’ve leveled Tyler.
“Thanks, Tyler,” I managed through the testosterone-fueled tension.
“No problem.” Tyler handed me the diaper bag then turned on Viking and dropped the polite pretense. “Luna’s on his way. He said to wait for him.”
No nod, no reply, not a single sign of acknowledgement. Viking didn’t even blink.
Tyler took three steps backwards then pivoted and disappeared into the stairwell.
I said the first thing that popped into my head. “Well, that’s one way to piss a line in the sand.”
His gaze cut to mine, sharp and unforgiving. “I was claiming nothing.”
“Of course you weren’t.” I ignored the sting and stepped toward the elevator.
“I will defend neither my actions nor my reputation.”
I turned and suddenly I was caught up in a storm. Three crates of guns in my vehicle, my life beyond a mess, I stared into gray-blue eyes and my shit was completely eclipsed by the expression on Viking’s face. Every ounce of control I’d ever seen in him was gone. He wasn’t just out of breath, he wasn’t only frowning, his whole body was rigid with the strain of a tight control that was about to snap.
“Transport of stolen weapons with a minor in the vehicle is inexcusable,” he ground out.
“I know.”
Viking stared. “You should have called me.”
I was pretty sure that to Viking, showing emotion was equivalent to weakness. Probably worse. But he was standing in front of me, protectively holding my son and doing exactly that. It shouldn’t have touched my heart, but it did. A big, giant, six-foot-six-sized impossibility not only reached a part of me I swore no one ever would again, but the sentiment was trying to take up residence. I needed a dose of reality. “You told me you aren’t looking to be a father figure.”
His jaw ticked. “That is a separate issue.”
“Is it?” The flaw in his thinking was insurmountable.
“Yes.”
“Then that’s where we have a problem. I can’t un-attach the two. You want me to rely on you? Count on you? See you as a friend?” Viking and friend in the same sentence wasn’t even in my vocabulary, but I didn’t know what the hell to call what was happening right now. “Then you’re going to have to get used to the fact that not just me, but my son, will get attached to you.”
“No attachments.”
I sucked in a breath and tried not to feel the sting of rejection. “Then give me Conner and walk away.” I reached for my son, not sure who I hated more in that moment, Viking or Jason. “You don’t get to have this both ways.”
“Ariella.” Low and throaty and sexy as hell, my name rolled off his tongue in a warning.
My thighs clenched and my stomach fluttered, but
I was done with this bullshit from him. “No, you don’t get to show up whenever you want and jerk me around. Chauffer me, chastise me, compliment me, yell at me—you’re all over the place and if you think for one second that what you’re doing is any better than what Jason did to me, you’re wrong.” Conner leaned toward me but Viking didn’t let him go.
He stepped into my space and his hand landed on my nape so quick, my breath caught. “I did not jeopardize you or the child.”
His scent washed over me like hope but his tone crushed it. “No, you didn’t. You jeopardized something else.” I regretted saying it the second the words came out of my mouth and Viking’s lips drew into a thin line.
André pulled up in one of his company SUVs and got out.
Viking didn’t waste a second. He thrust my son at him. “We need a minute.”
André took Conner but eyed Viking with disapproval. “Hey, little man.”
Conner looked at me nervously and I barely had time to force a smile. “It’s okay, Conner. I’ll be right back.”
Viking steered us around a corner and the second we were out of sight, he turned on me. “Explain.”
Pissed, tired, at the end of my emotional rope, I snapped. “Explain what?”
“Jeopardize.”
“Seriously?” I hissed. “Seriously? You’re going to stand there after the morning I had and demand an explanation for why I shouldn’t get attached to an overbearing asshole?” I avoided a real answer and swatted at the hand he still had on my nape.
“Language.”
“How’s this for language?” I held my middle finger up. “Fuck you.”
His hands landed in my hair, my head whipped back and his body loomed over mine as his voice dropped to a low growl. “You want to be fucked?”
Holy shit. I sucked in a breath and forced the words out. “I’m already fucked.” My prints were on those crates.
“Not by me.”
I hated how much I liked his hold on me. “And that’s your problem, isn’t it?” Gorgeous or not, he was just like every other man I knew. “You can’t stand it when a woman turns you down.”
“You did not turn me down. I did not proposition you.”
“Really? Because seven hundred bucks wasn’t your idea of a proposition? Are you even capable of asking someone out? Or do you just throw money at women and expect them to spread their legs?”
His hands fisted and pulled my hair tight against my scalp. Tingles of awareness shot through my body as he leaned close enough for his minty breath to wash over me. Two inches and his lips would be on mine. “You have no idea what I am capable of.”
I stared at his perfect lips and fought for control. “I know exactly what a man like you is capable of.” Traitorous fantasies of his tongue and everything he could probably do with it filled my head, but I wasn’t an idiot. “You’re just like every other alpha soldier who thinks he’s invincible. You fuck like a champion and fight like a warrior.” His weighted glare bored into my soul but he didn’t say a single word, so I plunged into the deep end. “But you hide like a goddamn coward.”
He released me so fast, I stumbled.
I took my first breath untainted by musk and spice and a surge of adrenaline kicked in. Stress, guns, Jason, my shit life, it all swirled into one single mass of suck and I attacked what was closest. “You intimidate, you scare, you do whatever it is you have to do to avoid the one thing you’re not capable of.”
Viking snatched his keys out of my hand and started walking away but I wasn’t finished.
I scrambled around the corner after him. “That’s right. Keep going. You’re almost there. You almost made a clean escape. Oh, wait! You forgot about the two-year-old who WORSHIPS THE GROUND YOU WALK ON. How’s that for attachments?”
Viking got in his truck and the engine roared to life.
“Chica,” André breathed.
STARING AFTER THE TRUCK’S TAILLIGHTS, André slowly shook his head. “Not cool, Ariel. Not cool.”
I took my son from him and fought back stupid tears of anger and regret. “We need a ride home.” Conner snuggled into me and remained silent.
André’s hands went to his hips and he sighed. “What happened with Tanner?”
“Ask Viking,” I said belligerently.
“Little hard now that you pissed him off and he drove away.”
“Ever hear of a cell phone?” I was on a roll.
André leveled me with one of his looks. “You think I have time for this?”
I hated how that stung. I hated that I had no car and I hated Jason so much it hurt. “Forget it, I won’t burden you anymore.” I hefted the diaper bag. “You’ve got a company to run. I’ll find my own way.”
“Dios mios.” He threw his hands up. “Did I say you were a burden?”
“You didn’t have to. Don’t think for one second that I didn’t know I was a pity hire because my best friend was marrying your Marine buddy.” I may not have been educated, but I wasn’t an idiot. There was nothing smart about hiring a single mom with no work experience except stripping to be the receptionist for your security company.
“You think I hired you because you were Layna’s friend? How stupid do you think I am?”
Pretty fucking stupid. “Dumber than most to have hired a stripper.” A stripper with an ex who left three crates of guns in her car.
“Christ, Ariel.” André was incredulous. “What kind of a woman do you think is gonna be strong enough to deal with twenty-five ex-Marines in a work environment and still answer the phone with a smile? A prep school graduate?”
Okay, so he may have had a point but I wasn’t in a mood to let him off so easy. “Do I need to tell you how sexist that is?”
André shook his head in irritation and changed the subject. “What did Tanner do?”
“He got arrested,” I snapped.
“Not what I’m asking.”
Tyler burst through the stairwell door with two new guys André had hired last week. All of them were in matching black Luna and Associates polos and black cargo pants. I had to admit they looked intimidating as hell. “Boss, we got a problem. The Heiress dodged her detail and now she’s in South Beach. Colin needs crowd control.”
André had taken on some chart-topping pop princess as a client last week while she was in town on vacation and she’d been a handful ever since. The guys had nicknamed her the Heiress.
“Jesus,” André muttered. “What’s she doing?”
“Shopping.” A huge grin broke out across Tyler’s face. “In a bikini.”
The two guys behind him fist bumped.
André glared at them then gave me a look. “We’re not done talking.” He inclined his head at Tyler. “Stay with Ariel. Find someone to replace Colin.” He got in the SUV and the two new hires followed, joking about who would carry the Heiress’s bags.
Tyler glanced around the parking structure. “Where’s Christensen?”
“Gone.”
He took the diaper bag off my shoulder. “Come on, we’ll get you set up in a conference room.”
“Just drop me off at home. I need to put Conner down for a nap.” It was almost the truth.
“No nap,” Conner protested.
“Yes, nap.” I needed out of this building and out of the city. I didn’t want to wait for my boss to come back and if I was being honest with myself, I didn’t want to face Viking ever again. I needed a rental car and a road trip to my mother’s in North Carolina. I didn’t even care about my stupid rent anymore.
He frowned like he knew I was full of shit. “André said to keep an eye on you.”
I piled on the attitude. “I’m sure you can manage to call and check in on me later.”
Tyler hesitated then glanced at the empty row of parking spots where the fleet of company SUVs were usually parked. His gaze swept to his red Camaro. “I don’t have a car seat.”
“It’s a few miles. I think we can manage.” Not giving him a chance to back out, I started toward his c
ar.
Five minutes later, we were pulling up to my apartment building. My heart rate kicked up and I casually glanced around. Looking for who, I didn’t know, but I figured I still had a little time before someone came looking for those guns. It’d been less than an hour since Jason was arrested and it wasn’t going to take me half that to pack some shit and call a cab to take me to a rental car place. I planned on being on the highway heading north within the hour.
Tyler cut the engine. “I’ll walk you up.”
“No, I got this. You’re only going to make it harder for Conner to fall asleep. He’ll think you’re coming up to play with him.”
Conner leaned into me and let out a sad protest. “Nooo, Mama. No nap.”
It worked. Tyler put the key back in the ignition and laughed. “I get it. Call me when he wakes up. One of the vehicles should be back by then. I’ll come get you.”
“Will do.” The lie rolled easily off my tongue as I hurried out of the car before he changed his mind.
I rushed up the stairs to my apartment, threw the dead bolt once I was inside, then set Conner down. “Sweet boy, we’re going to take a little vacation. Do you want to help Mama pack up?”
“Ca-shun?”
I squatted in the small entry hall and kissed his forehead. “That’s right.” He was so innocent and beautiful, a tired smile spread across my face. “Va-ca-tion,” I pronounced slowly. “It’s when you go away somewhere fun for awhile. What do you think?”
He smiled, glorious and uncomplicated. “Beach!”
“We can go to a beach.” Maybe. “But I need you to go get your backpack and put whatever you want in it, okay?”
“Ca-shun!” He nodded and ran to get his toys.
I walked into the living room and froze. A huge, brand-new TV was mounted on my wall above the entertainment center, which now had a cable box and two remotes sitting on it.
Guilt and regret hit me so hard, tears welled. I dropped to my old couch and stared at the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me as a sharp knock sounded on my front door. I knew it wouldn’t take Tyler long before he spoke with André, but I thought I’d get at least twenty minutes. I pushed to my feet and the knock came again. Reaching for the dead bolt, I checked the peephole.