Under His Protection

by Katie Reus

  And he wasn’t going to fuck this up and do what he always did. He didn’t want to just jump into bed with her. Okay, he did want to, but he wanted to take things slow with her. Well, slower than normal, and get to know her more.

  “Got them,” she said, smiling at him as she shut her car door.

  He just nodded because he didn’t trust his voice and followed her up the walkway to her two-story house. He was surprised by how big it was since she hadn’t mentioned roommates.

  “You don’t have to check it out, but I really appreciate that you are,” Julieta said as she slid her key in the lock. Her alarm started beeping as they stepped inside, but she quickly disarmed it and turned to face him with a half-smile. “This place is kinda big for just me. I don’t even have furniture in two of the bedrooms so it shouldn’t take long.”

  He glanced to the left at the dimly lit living room. One lamp illuminated it, highlighting her bright, eclectic taste. A pale green loveseat was across from a long leather couch. Different shaped and colored throw pillows were on both. A giant throw rug covered a good portion of the dark hardwood floors. Striped ceiling to floor length curtains that made him think of Arabian nights overlaid the front windows. “This place looks like you,” he murmured. Vivid, beautiful, full of life.

  “Is that a good thing?” The hesitancy in her voice surprised him.

  He looked back at Julieta to find her watching him curiously with those big brown eyes. And she was nibbling on that full, lush bottom lip that made him wonder what it would feel like to have her mouth wrapped around his cock.

  Getting hard at that thought, he tore his gaze away from her and glanced at the stairs behind her. “Definitely good. Bright and cheerful.” He couldn’t get out more words than that as he took a step toward the stairs. “Do you mind if I check upstairs?” he asked, needing to move and put a little distance between them. His brain threatened to short circuit when she was around. It was a constant thing and threw him off his game. He was always in control except when she was near. Around her all he could think about was raw fucking or burying his face between her legs. Would she be bare or… Damn it. This was not helping the state of his dick.

  Belatedly he realized she’d said “no problem” so he headed for the stairs and did a quick, but thorough sweep of her place. When he reached her bedroom he tried to ignore the giant king-sized bed in the room, but it was damn hard. All he could do was imagine her stretched out on the multi-colored comforter in one of those skimpy lingerie pieces from her shop. Something sheer that left nothing to the imagination. He wondered if she used any of the toys she sold. Or brought herself to orgasm while thinking of him… His erection grew even harder at the thought so he backtracked from her room and barely managed to get himself under control.

  Sweeping her place was easy enough because she hadn’t been kidding about two empty bedrooms. After securing the upstairs and downstairs he met her back where she still waited in the foyer, arms wrapped tightly around her middle.

  That foreign possessiveness swept up inside him again at the sight of her distress, even as subtle as it was. He wanted to reach out and comfort her but wasn’t sure if he should, if it was too soon. They’d only gone out once and tonight hadn’t exactly been a date. He’d never been in a relationship with a woman so while he knew what to do in the bedroom, he had no clue how to act now. For the first time in as long as he could remember, he was unsure of himself.

  “Everything’s clear and if you set your alarm system after I leave, you’ll be good.”

  She visibly relaxed, her hands falling to her side and she gave him one of those soft smiles that took his breath away. “Thank you for doing this. You seriously went above and beyond and I really appreciate it.”

  He didn’t want her gratitude.

  Moving slowly, he lifted his hand to cup her cheek, giving her plenty of time to stop him or pull away if she wanted. Her eyes widened but she didn’t step back.

  Instead she took a small step forward, the action letting loose a fraction of the control he’d been keeping on lockdown.

  He was just going to comfort her, really. But when she reached out and placed a hand on his chest, his entire body tightened, pulling taut with the kind of raging hunger he’d never experienced except in her presence. She clenched her fingers against his pec and he shuddered.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered. Her eyes widened in pure shock the moment she’d uttered the words, as if she couldn’t believe she’d said them.

  Ivan didn’t need more of an invitation than that. He ordered himself to go slow, to be smooth about their first kiss, but all that vanished the second his lips touched hers. She was so damn soft. Something electric arced between them, a tangible thing taking them both by surprise.

  Feeling almost possessed, he grasped the wrist of the hand she had on his chest then caught hold of the other. Holding her hands above her head, he backed her up against the door in an unmistakably dominant move as he devoured her mouth with his, stroking, teasing, taking. He wanted to take everything she had to offer and then some. He wanted to imprint his mouth on hers so that she felt him after he’d left tonight, that his taste lingered with her when she laid her head on her pillow later. What he really wanted was to take her right up against this door, to claim her.

  She let out a moan, maybe in surprise, but her tongue tangled with his hungrily as her body arched into him. Even with heels, she was a lot shorter than him so he bent over her, holding her wrists in place just so he wouldn’t touch her anywhere else.

  Because he was incredibly tempted. He wanted to grab her hips and hoist her up against the door, pressing himself against her fully so that she’d feel what she did to him. But he was already walking a thin line with her, his control damn near in tatters. He wasn’t going to lose it tonight.

  Not yet.

  She made a soft little mewling sound and nipped his bottom lip playfully, her breathing just as harsh and erratic as his. She tasted sweet, like the after dinner coffee she’d had. It had been one of those specialty drinks with chocolate in it and mixed with her natural taste, it made him crazy.

  He wasn’t sure how long they stood there making out like teenagers, but the feel of his phone buzzing in his pants’ pocket jerked him back to reality. Groaning, he pulled his head back from her and dragged in a ragged breath. He couldn’t ever remember being so damn hard. His erection was a heavy club between his legs and there wasn’t a damn thing to be done about it.

  Julieta watched him with heavy-lidded eyes, her full mouth even more swollen and red, all traces of her lip gloss gone. Even though he didn’t want to, he let her wrists go, but placed his hands on either side of her head because he wasn’t ready to step back from her just yet. The phone call could be important, hopefully Lizzy getting back to him, but right now, all his focus was on Julieta.

  “Dinner. Tomorrow.” The only two words he could manage at the moment. He knew they’d already confirmed their date but he wanted to hear her say yes again, needed to know without a doubt that he’d see her soon. He felt almost possessed with the damn need because soon he wanted her under him, on top of him, saying his name as she climaxed around him.

  Blinking, as if coming out of a haze, Julieta nodded. “Yes.”

  As more oxygen returned to his brain, he forced his throat to work again. “Pick you up at seven?”

  She nodded again.

  He let his hands fall and forced himself to step back even though he wanted to bury his hands in her hair and pull her close to him, to tease his tongue against hers again, to kiss and discover every inch of her tight body. “Make sure you turn your alarm on the second I leave.” He’d be watching her house anyway, because he couldn’t just leave her unprotected, but that alarm was important.

  At the mention of the word alarm, some of the lust in her gaze dimmed, likely as reality set back in. “I will.”

  “And you’ll call if anything doesn’t feel right?”

  “Yes.”

  There wa
s a long pause as they both stared at each other, their hunger a palpable pulse of energy and damn it, he wanted to kiss her again. Deep down he knew that it wouldn’t take much to get her into bed tonight. Not because he thought she was the type of woman to have one-night stands, but because she wanted him as much as he did her. But he didn’t push because he didn’t want to do things the way he always had. Julieta was different.

  She moved away from the door almost reluctantly, and he grasped the handle with a shaking hand. Shaking. That never happened. With his current job and his time with the Rangers, precision was everything. He never lost control. He couldn’t afford to if he wanted to stay alive and keep his men alive. Not to mention the people he guarded depended on him to keep a level head in all situations. He’d be shitty at his job if he didn’t.

  So the actual tremor in his hand took him off guard. It was slight and he didn’t think Julieta even noticed but he did.

  As soon as she shut the door behind him, he heard the lock slide into place. But he didn’t move.

  “I want to hear you set the alarm.” He thought he heard her laugh, then a few seconds later he heard a beep as the system armed.

  “Done,” she called out and yes, that was definite humor in her voice.

  He was glad that even with the crap she was dealing with, she was comfortable enough to relax around him now. Smiling to himself, he headed back to his SUV after doing a visual sweep of the street and a scan of her backyard. Later he wanted to install security lights for her but figured bringing it up now would be too much like ordering her around. From the short time he’d known her, he figured that might push her buttons the wrong way.

  And he was all about infiltrating her defenses subtly, because the most primal part of him knew that things between them were never going to be casual, that once they crossed that line, he wouldn’t be able to walk away from her. He wasn’t even sure how he knew that, but he’d always trusted his instincts and he wasn’t about to start ignoring them now.

  Once in the SUV, he didn’t bother turning it on as he pulled out his cell phone. Lizzy had called as he’d suspected. He immediately called her back.

  She picked up on the second ring. “Hey, Ivan.”

  “Hey, any news?” He didn’t bother with small talk. It was late enough and Lizzy had a family he doubted she wanted to be kept from.

  “I scanned that video a couple dozen times and pulled everyone’s face from across the street except one. A man. He’s wearing sunglasses and a hat and the angles just never worked right because he was leaving the scene. Even if it wasn’t intentional, stuff like that messes with my recognition software. I pulled everyone’s names and some info on the majority of them, mostly from social media. People share way too much—just saying.”

  He allowed himself a brief smile. “Anything stand out?”

  “I’ve already sent you the file of what I collected, but no. Most of the people either live in the surrounding neighborhood or work at one of the shops. Not everyone though. I know the cops have info on the phone numbers she was texted from but I’m still trying to find out more about those numbers too. Nothing yet, but I’ll let you know what I find out.”

  Ivan rubbed the back of his neck as some of the tension eased from him. It wasn’t much, but it was a start. “Can you look into a guy named River Aguilar? He used to work for Julieta, but she let him go about two months ago.”

  “Yeah, I remember him.”

  “Listen…I know this isn’t official Red Stone business so whatever the cost for your time, bill me, okay? Julieta doesn’t need to know.” He didn’t want Julieta dealing with anything extra and if he could take some of the burden from her, he wanted to. It was foreign feeling so protective but at the same time, protecting her felt impossibly right.

  “Ivan, Jules is my friend. One of my oldest, best friends. I’m not charging anyone anything for this. I already gave Porter, Grant and Harrison a brief rundown of what’s going on so they know I’m using company resources and none of them care. Jules is like family to me.”

  Which meant she’d be family to Porter, Lizzy’s husband, and the rest of the Caldwell family by extension.

  “I don’t care how long it takes, we’re going to figure out what’s going on and help her,” Lizzy continued, her voice heated.

  Ivan grinned even though she couldn’t see him. He’d only known her a few months, but the woman was loyal, something he could appreciate. “Good. And thank you.”

  She snorted. “Since we’re on the subject of Jules, let me be clear, you hurt her, I’ll hurt you.”

  He jerked against the seat in surprise. “Lizzy—”

  “Look, we haven’t known each other long and I’m not judging, but I’ve heard from Mina that you like the ladies. And I’ve seen the way you look at Jules when you think no one is watching. Jules deserves—”

  “Lizzy! I’m not going to hurt Julieta. I couldn’t. Give me some fucking credit,” he muttered.

  “Fair enough, but you’ve been warned.” Her voice was light, but he knew she wasn’t kidding.

  Once they disconnected, Ivan leaned back in his seat but didn’t let his guard down. He didn’t know if he would stay the entire night, but his sixth sense told him he shouldn’t leave her alone tonight. Realistically he knew he couldn’t watch her 24/7, but things between them had just changed and he couldn’t let anything happen to Julieta. Even if there hadn’t been a spark between them, he’d want to protect her.

  An hour later he was glad he’d listened to his gut. A motorcycle cruised down the street, stopping three houses down where the male driver parked. But he didn’t go inside, instead making his way down the sidewalk straight for Julieta’s house. The man walked with purpose. It was almost ten o’clock, way too late for a visitor and she’d said she wasn’t seeing anyone.

  Ivan watched as the man paused at the corner of her yard and looked at the SUV, but with his tint job, no one could see inside. The guy didn’t come over though, just headed to the side of Julieta’s house, his helmet tucked under his arm.

  Ivan’s senses sharpened and he withdrew his SIG. If someone thought they could come after her on his watch, they were about to discover what real pain meant. Moving quietly, he slid from his vehicle. He’d long ago disabled his dome light so it didn’t come on.

  Instead of shutting the door fully, he pushed it so that it almost closed, but didn’t connect to the frame. He didn’t want any telltale noises to signal that he’d gotten out.

  The relative darkness gave him cover as he hurried across the yard, weapon gripped tight in his hand, but with the street lights and other house lights on in many homes along the street, he couldn’t blend into the shadows as well as he’d have preferred.

  Once Ivan reached the corner of her two-story stucco house, he peered around it.

  The man had set his helmet on the small stone entryway outside Julieta’s kitchen door. He was bent over the handle, jiggling it.

  Weapon out, Ivan rounded the corner. “Put your hands in the air where I can see them,” he demanded.

  The man froze for a second before his head snapped up. In the dark Ivan couldn’t see his face well, but a small light came on next to the kitchen door, illuminating him perfectly.

  A younger man with dark hair and dark eyes stared at him in pure shock. Then his gaze landed on Ivan’s weapon and his eyes widened even farther.

  “Hands up!” he ordered again.

  The man started to lift them and some of Ivan’s tension lessened. Until he heard the sound of the door unlocking.

  Julieta.

  Chapter 6

  As the door swung open, the sharpest sense of fear slammed into Ivan’s chest. On instinct borne out of the need to protect Julieta, he strode forward, closing the distance between him and the unknown man. From what he could see the guy didn’t have a weapon but that didn’t mean anything.

  And Julieta was about to walk right outside to be faced with her possible stalker. It didn’t matter that the guy didn
’t have any visible weapons, hands could be effective and deadly and there was no way Ivan was letting this guy touch her.

  “Julieta, don’t open the door!” he shouted as it opened a few inches.

  The door stopped moving. “Ivan?”

  “There’s a man out here I caught trying to break into your—”

  “I’m her brother, I wasn’t breaking in!”

  The door flew open and Julieta’s eyes widened as she saw the weapon in Ivan’s hand, but she held up a hand and stepped in front of the other man protectively.

  Ivan immediately dropped his arm, pointing his weapon down.

  “This is my younger brother, Sandro,” she said softly.

  Ivan holstered his weapon and kept his gaze on her. “I saw a man on a motorcycle park a few houses down then head over here. It looked as if he was trying to break in.” He wasn’t going to apologize for wanting to protect her. He couldn’t even force the words out.

  “I have a key and who the hell are you? And why are pulling a fucking gun on me?” her brother demanded, trying to step around Julieta, but she held up an arm to block him.

  Ivan ignored him and Julieta did the same. “You stayed here to…watch my house didn’t you?” Her expression softened even more and he realized she wasn’t pissed he’d drawn a weapon on her brother.

  He nodded. “Yeah. Needed to know you were safe.”

  She gave him the sweetest smile, but it froze in a rigid line when her brother stepped up beside her, his body vibrating with tension.

  “Safe from what? What the hell is going on?” Sandro’s voice raised with each word.

  Sighing, Julieta tilted her head toward the open door. “Ivan, you want to come in with us?”

  He nodded and waited as she practically shoved her brother inside. The guy looked close in age to Julieta and it was clear the man didn’t want to go first, that he wanted to protect his sister, which was commendable. But it was also clear Julieta didn’t care as she pushed him forward. Ivan did a visual sweep of the side of her house and next door neighbor’s yard and home before following them in. He shut and locked the door then turned to find her brother standing with his hands on his hips next to the stove, all his attention pinned on Ivan.