“Easy now, don’t make yourself sick,” he told her.
“So thirsty. Always thirsty. Never enough water.”
She felt Curt tighten his hold on her. “Fuck,” he muttered under his breath.
“Don’t swear,” she chided, remembering how he liked to scold her for doing the same.
“Sorry, baby.”
He was being so gentle. He kissed the top of her head as he rocked her. She could snuggle in against that wide chest and let him take care of her forever. Let him take care of everything. It would be so easy to allow him to take charge—to give up.
But she couldn’t do that. She had to fight. She was stronger than this.
“Flashback?” Travis asked, crouching in front of her.
“Yes,” she answered as steadily as she could manage. There was no use denying it.
“Do you have them often?”
He kept his voice low, and his face was filled with sympathy, but there was no pity that she could see. And that gave her the courage to answer him.
“Not anymore. When I . . . when I first got home I had a hard time adjusting. Sometimes I would wake up and I wouldn’t know where I was. I’d think I was back there. In that hut. Or in the village, standing next to Alana as she was shot.” She gulped, resisting the urge to bury her face in Curt’s chest and hide. “Sometimes things would set off a flashback. A noise or a smell.” She stiffened, trying to remember what she’d been doing in the moments before the flashback. “I’m not sure what happened this time.”
“A car backfired,” Curt told her.
“Ah, right.”
“Although you seemed on edge when I knocked on the door.”
She frowned. Then she remembered. “My phone. Where is it?” She tried to push away from Curt, but he kept a tight hold. “I need to find it.”
“Stay still. I need to hold you a little longer.” She froze and looked up into his face, shocked by his words. He stared down at her with haunted eyes.
She cupped his face. “I’m okay, Curt. I’m fine. That wasn’t even a bad one. Sometimes I’ll wake up in the middle of a full-blown panic attack. I rarely get them anymore and when I do, they don’t affect me as badly. Plus, this time . . .” she trailed off.
“This time what?” he asked.
Before she had to answer, to tell him she thought she was coping better because he was here, Travis had found her phone and returned it to her. “Here it is.”
She opened the messages and held her phone so they could both see.
“Mother-fucking bastards,” Curt swore. This time she didn’t bother to scold him. She totally agreed with the sentiment.
“I’ll send the phone numbers to Jace so he can trace them,” Travis said. “If you don’t mind me taking your phone for a bit?”
She half-laughed. “You can have it. Don’t think I want it anymore.”
“There are some voice messages on here, do you mind if I listen to them?” he asked, taking the phone and flicking through it.
She shook her head tiredly. “Nope, do what you like. I was going to call my mother, but I don’t feel like doing that right now.”
Travis nodded, patted her shoulder, then left. Leaving her and Curt alone.
She attempted to pull herself from his lap, but he held on tighter. When she looked up at him, she saw how tense his jaw was, the muscles in his neck tight. He was staring at the wall, thinking hard about something.
“Curt? What is it?”
He glanced down at her. “I thought this would happen, but seeing those messages, people threatening you, it . . . pisses me off.”
She got the feeling he wanted to say something else but was holding back.
“I know. I guess part of me thought you guys were exaggerating. That this would all be fine.” She shivered. “It’s horrible to think perfect strangers hate me so much.”
“They won’t touch you. You know that, right?”
“I know,” she said softly, sensing he was the one who needed reassuring now. “Thanks for being here for me just now. Usually, after one of these flashbacks it takes me hours to recover. Having you guys here helps.”
Having him here helped. Having him hold her was more comforting than anything anyone else had done. But she couldn’t sit here forever.
“I’m going to go take a shower now.”
He didn’t move.
“Curt?”
“I’m sorry if things I’ve said have upset you,” he said stiffly. “Around you, for some reason, my mouth seems to talk before my brain catches up. I don’t mean to hurt you. I never have.”
“I know.”
He stared down at her, and she nearly gasped at the pain she saw in his eyes. “I acted like a jerk. I shouldn’t have said what I did to you that night in my apartment.”
“It’s okay, Curt. I get it.” And it was. Because no matter what hurt he’d put her through, he’d also helped her move on. “If it wasn’t for you, I might still be stuck living in my parents’ house, letting them coddle me. I don’t think I would have come here and made a life for myself like I have. You helped me heal. So, you see, I owe you for rejecting me. I don’t know what I was thinking, like we would have worked as a couple. We’re much better off with as friends.”
We’re much better off as friends.
Christ, he’d really screwed this up. He sat on the bed, listening to her shower. He’d pushed her away, not ready for a relationship, thinking it was better for her. And now that he’d decided he wanted her, she’d decided it was better they just be friends. She’d thanked him for turning her down.
Was he too late? Had he ruined any chance of having her? Could she really love living here?
He ran his hand over his face. There was still something there. He was certain of it. They’d nearly kissed last night before Travis had interrupted them. No, there was something there. The question was, what exactly was it? He knew what he wanted. Her. All of her.
But what if she just felt a sexual attraction and nothing more? What if she didn’t want a relationship with him? What if this town was really where she truly wanted to be? Would she move to be with him? Curt couldn’t live here.
Fuck.
What was he going to do?
Chapter Twelve
Everyone turned to stare as she entered the gym the next morning. Not that people were looking at her. No, the looks were for the two men walking in behind her.
The two testosterone-laden, muscular men whose work-out gear only served to highlight their firm bodies. Not that she’d looked at Travis’s body. Well, not much anyway. She wasn’t a saint after all.
After last night’s embarrassing flashback, plus receiving those horrible messages on her phone, she’d expected she wouldn’t have been able to sleep. But she’d had an amazing rest and had woken up full of energy and ready for this morning’s class.
Travis’ brother had traced some of the numbers; they belonged to some people with mental health issues. She was amazed by how people had discovered her phone number so quickly, but apparently, very little was private nowadays. Most of the recorded messages were from reporters.
Brye walked toward them, looking Travis and Curt over as though sizing them up.
“Jenna.”
“Brye, hi,” she said cheerfully. “Meet Travis and Curt. They’re staying with me for a few days. Curt was married to my cousin.”
Brye held out his hand and shook theirs. He was a little shorter but just as muscular. Brye had been Special Forces before he’d retired and moved to Haven.
“Is it okay if Travis and Curt use the gym equipment?” she asked.
“Sure. Any friends of yours are welcome here.”
“I’m going to the class with you,” Curt told her.
She gave him an exasperated look.
“We don’t allow men in our self-defense classes,” Brye told him.
Curt turned to her, giving her a thoughtful look.
“It makes the women nervous to have someone watch. I�
�m sure you understand.” Brye raised his eyebrows at her as if questioning Curt’s overly protective behavior.
Curt sighed. He pointed at her. “Fine. Stay here, though.”
“Got nowhere else to go.”
He was being ridiculous> after those messages last night, he’d become even more protective.
As soon as Curt and Travis left, her friends surrounded her. She gave Mel a hug for her birthday yesterday.
“Whoa, girl, don’t tell me you’re sleeping with both of those hunks of spunk,” Mel said.
Jenna blushed. “Of course not.”
“Just one of them then?” Josie asked. “Which one? Because I call dibs on the other.”
Hannah whacked their friend on the head. “Josie, you can’t just call dibs.”
“Thank you, Hannah,” Jenna said.
“Not when I saw them first.”
Melody rolled her eyes. “Guys, give Jenna break. Well?”
“I’m not sleeping with either of them. They’re just here because they had to deliver some news in person. They’re leaving soon.”
Around her, faces dropped.
“But they’re coming out tonight, right?” Melody asked.
“Um, I don’t know. But I can ask.”
Brye called them all over for their lesson.
Suddenly, she regretted she hadn’t left for Dallas already.
***
After their workout, Curt followed Jenna out to her car. He kept his gaze on their surroundings. Mostly. The sight of her ass in those Lycra pants was not something to be missed, that was for damn sure.
He wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms, place his hand firmly on that tight ass, and make sure all the assholes hanging around knew exactly who she belonged to.
A bit caveman-like, but he was feeling like a Neanderthal right now.
Travis had driven his own car to the gym so he could talk to Jake about the messages and phone calls Jenna had received. After listening to a couple of the sick voice mails, Curt had been so filled with rage he’d had to go for a run to clear his head. He and Travis had agreed that Travis would handle the messages on her phone. Curt didn’t trust himself not to call the bastards back and threaten them with bodily harm.
As Jenna drove them back to her place, Curt’s phone rang. Looking at the screen, he saw it was Travis.
“Yeah?”
“Just answered a call from Colin Richards on Jenna’s phone. He’s the vet. He’s been taking care of that old woman’s dog. Anyway, the dog isn’t very happy, and he wants Jenna to stop by the vet clinic to see it.”
“All right.” He ended the call then relayed the message to Jenna.
“Oh, no, poor Daisy. Okay, the vet clinic is just a few minutes away. We’ll head over and see Colin.”
When they arrived, the door to the clinic opened, and Curt saw the guy from the other day step outside. He’d been the one waiting with a tranquilizer gun.
“Colin, how are you?”
He smiled. “I’m good, Jenna. You still sore?”
“Bruises are still a bit tender, but I’m okay.”
She hadn’t told him any of that. Curt scowled. She shouldn’t have been participating in that self-defense class this morning if she was still in pain. But he made certain he removed the frown when she turned to look at him. He wasn’t doing anything to ruin the truce they’d come to. This morning, she hadn’t fought when he’d told her they were coming to the gym with her, and that was a step in the right direction.
“Sorry to call you like this on a Saturday morning but I’m worried about Daisy. She’s not eating and she appears to be moping.”
“Oh, poor baby. She’s probably missing Mrs. Childs.”
“I’ve been to see Mrs. Childs. She’s going to be in the hospital a while,” Colin said as he led them down a hallway and into a large back room. Daisy sat in a big pen. She had a large bed and blanket as well as dishes filled with food and water. She simply lay there, her head resting on her paws as she watched them approach. The vet was right, she did appear to be moping.
Jenna crouched down. “Oh, Daisy, you poor girl. Are you missing Mrs. Childs?”
“The thing is, I don’t think Daisy can go back to living with Mrs. Childs. We could be talking months by the time she’s recovered enough to look after Daisy, and, even then, Mrs. Childs has told me she’s thinking about going into a home. As much as it pains her to do it, she’s decided that the best idea would be to rehome Daisy.”
Jenna turned to look at Colin, her face filled with sadness. “Oh, no, that’s terrible. She must be so upset.”
“She is. She really wants Daisy to go to someone who will love and take care of her. Someone the dog loves.”
Curt could see where this was going even if Jenna couldn’t and he didn’t like it. Not that he had anything against dogs, although this dog was more the size of a small horse. How much would she eat? If Jenna had a dog this size she might not be inclined to rely on Curt for protection, and, right now, that’s all he had to tie himself to her.
“What are you going to do?”
“Well, both Mrs. Childs and I put our heads together and we came up with someone we thought would be perfect.”
Colin was silent for a moment, obviously waiting for Jenna to figure out who he meant. But Jenna was busy patting Daisy. Curt resisted the urge to snatch her hand back, remembering the way the dog had stood over Mrs. Childs, snapping and snarling at everyone. A dog this big could do a lot of damage to someone Jenna’s size. How the hell could she be expected to take care of her?
Curt gave the other man a warning look. The vet just smiled and shrugged. Then he pointed down at Daisy as her tail started wagging when Jenna patted her head. The dog stared up at Jenna with such hope in her eyes.
“That’s the first time I’ve seen her tail wag since I brought her back here. We definitely made the right choice.”
Jenna stood, and Daisy followed her with her gaze, a look of doggy devotion on her face. “What do you mean?”
“Daisy loves you, Jenna. It’s clear to see you’d be the perfect person to look after her.”
“I can’t.”
Exactly his thoughts. He gave the vet a triumphant look. The other man just looked patiently at Jenna and waited. Jenna bit her lip, looked at Daisy then back at Colin. “You really think I’m the best person to take her in? I work all day. Won’t she be lonely?”
“She’s a pretty easygoing dog. She’s well-trained, and if you exercise her a lot, I think she’ll be okay. You could pay someone to walk her. I’m also certain you could arrange something with Doc so you could take her to the clinic. I could take her out to the ranch, but she definitely doesn’t react to me like she does you.”
Jenna bit her lip a little longer then stared over at Curt. “I might need to go back to Dallas for a bit. Some family stuff is going on.”
“She can come with us,” Curt told her in a gruff voice. Clearly, she wanted the dog. Damn dog was going to take up most of the backseat. Although the look on Travis’s face when he told him the dog was going to ride in his brand-new truck with its leather upholstery would be worth it.
Her eyes lit up. She smiled at him like she’d won the lottery.
It was also worth it to see her face.
Colin opened the pen. “Come on, Daisy girl, looks like you’ve got a new home.”
Daisy shocked them all by bounding out of the space and bowling into Jenna, who would have gone flying if Curt hadn’t caught her.
“I thought you said she was well-trained,” he snapped at the vet.
“She is,” Colin said, looking surprised. “She never once jumped on Mrs. Childs.”
They both looked over as Jenna giggled; Daisy was licking her hands. “It’s okay, I think she’s just excited, aren’t you, Daisy girl?” She ruffled her fur. “We’re going to have so much fun together, aren’t we?”
He’d now hit a new low; he was jealous of a damn dog.
Chapter Thirteen
>
“You’re not going.”
“Yes. I am.”
“It’s a bar filled with people. I can’t protect you properly there.”
“Curt, you’re overreacting. I know you take this whole bodyguard thing seriously, but I’m not in any danger.”
“You’ve received death threats!” he yelled. And each one filled him with mindless fury. He couldn’t stand that he had no way of stopping these people from hurting her.
“It’s Mel’s birthday. I said I’d go. I want to go. I’m going. With or without you.”
He ground his teeth together.
“Does anyone else think this feels like déjà vu?” Travis asked, looking up from his laptop as he sat on the sofa.
Curt just growled at him.
“Curt, it will be fine. You can come if you like.”
“Like you’d be allowed to go without me.”
She rolled her eyes at him. His palm itched with the need to pull her over his lap, tug up that ridiculously short skirt she was wearing, pull down the panties she wouldn’t be allowed to wear once she was his, and paddle her ass.
She was in sore need of discipline.
“And what about Daisy?” he asked, pointing at the dog, who sat on her bed in the corner, chewing on a new toy Jenna had bought for the mutt. As if sensing the attention on her, she looked up and gave a doggy smile.
“Daisy will be fine, it’s just a few hours. We’re going.”
“Good, it’s settled.” Travis stood and stretched. “I could use a drink.”
“No drinking on the job,” Curt told him then he turned back to Jenna. “And you have to promise not to go anywhere without one of us.”
“Last time I looked you haven’t got the bits to allow you entrance to the women’s bathroom.”
“You’ve been looking at my bits?” Travis asked with a grin. “I’m flattered.”
Jenna blushed, and Curt scowled at the other man. Travis held up his hands in surrender, although it was clear he was trying hard not to laugh. “I’m going to go get ready. It’s been a long time since I had a good night out.”
To Save Sir (Doms of Decadence Book 7) Page 15