“Shower? Why?” Iris had done some crazy things to escape her security detail, but showering had never been in the mix.
“Geek stuff. Drake uses some seemingly futuristic tech. It’s important you don’t have any of Mac’s DNA on you when we take you back. You leaned against him for the bike ride, so a shower and fresh clothes are imperative. I bought clothes for you — they’re in the master bath in a bag. Give him a hug and then go shower. Leave your riding clothes here, and they’ll be here next time you come.
Iris thought she might be sick. Her stomach threatened to eject the veggies, but she drank some tea to try to swallow them back down. “If Daddy finds out Danny’s in town, he’ll make me leave Chattanooga.”
“You’re a grown-ass woman,” said Bethany. “No one can make you do shit you don’t want to do.”
Iris sighed. “Money talks. His security people do what he says. They’ve physically removed me when I wanted to stay somewhere before, and then either taken me to Daddy, or to…” rehab, but she didn’t want to talk about that. “Or somewhere else they could put me on lockdown.”
“No,” said Bethany. “I live with two of his security people, and they wouldn’t kidnap someone just because her father told them to. They’d rescue a kid in trouble who didn’t have enough sense to know she was in trouble, but not a woman. No. They wouldn’t.” She looked to Danny. “Jonathan doesn’t work for him, and you know what Sophia would say if she found out Aaron was going to kidnap a grown assed woman just because her rich daddy said to.”
Danny put his hand on top of Iris’s, on the table. “This is what it means to have family at your back.” He looked at Harmony. “Let Bethany get Sophia on the phone for you, and then you can tell her the bare bones of it — enough to get her on board. I’m going to take Iris to the bathroom and get her started, and I’ll be back. If I haven’t told ya’ll lately, I love every one of you.”
Adrenaline shot through her veins as she was lifted in the air, into her Danny’s arms, and carried out of the room. Her mind shouted for her to fight the man holding her, but her body knew better and she curled into him. He’d always been so warm, and it comforted her. Part of her still wanted to protest at being carried, but Danny’s arms were home.
But then she was standing in his bedroom, her back against the wall. She lifted her face, met his gaze, and realized he was considering whether to kiss her or not.
Her lower belly flared to life, and his face tilted. She angled hers as well, and then thought she’d die when his lips met hers, and it was her Danny, kissing her. So possessive, so hot, so demanding. She opened for him, breathless as he claimed her mouth and made her unquestionably, irrevocably his.
No one else had ever kissed her this way. It wasn’t just about two bodies, but about two souls. His kiss shattered her defenses, and she didn’t care.
But she wasn’t the little girl who just let boys kiss her anymore. She’d learned to dominate men, learned to be the aggressor, and while she loved Danny’s possessive, territorial claim on her, she needed to place a few of her own claims.
She reached more with her tongue, tangled it with his in a sexy duel. She held the back of his neck, pulled him down a little more, and wrapped her right leg around his waist to pull him closer that way, too.
She felt him go still, almost like a wild animal before it pounces, and then his hands moved from her face and the back of her head, down. Down. Big, warm, strong hands. Proprietary. One landed on her butt and pulled her harder into him, so she could feel his length and width. The other stroked her side before returning to the back of her neck, holding her face still so he could kiss her breathless.
She hadn’t been able to feel trapped since…
It didn’t matter. This was Danny, and instead of throwing her into a panic, his hands and body and mouth and cock sparked a blazing fire. Dark heat. Violent passion.
She whimpered, wanting more, and he softened the kiss. No longer breathless, the oxygen in her brain fired enough neurons she remembered his friends were in the other room and she was supposed to get a shower so they could leave.
She slid her leg down him, and he pulled back.
“Fuck, Blueberry. Was going to try to take things slow.”
“I’m not fifteen anymore.”
“Trust me, I’m fully aware.” He pushed a strand of hair out of her face and caressed her cheek. “Whatever you’ve done between then and now is okay. No secrets between us. No lies. No shame.”
He could only say that because he didn’t know everyone she’d done. She wasn’t prepared to have that conversation, so she changed the subject.
“Why will Aaron’s wife want to stick up for me, in particular?”
“Her father kept her in his castle-slash-mansion her entire life. She was home-schooled by the best teachers money could buy, but she never left home. Ever. She had no access to the internet, and he had a library of movies from the forties and fifties she could watch, but she didn’t watch much of anything from the modern day. Same goes with the books provided — all classics. Her father arranged a husband for her, and her escape plan nearly killed her, but she didn’t care because she was going to either leave or die trying.” He kissed her forehead. “Bethany’s right. Once Sophia hears your story and gives her husband an earful, he isn’t going to take you against your will. He knows me. He knows I’m not a threat. It’s going to be okay.”
“I still need to shower?”
He considered the question and lifted a shoulder. “Debatable, but let’s give Aaron plausible deniability. It was our original plan, and I think it makes sense to stick with it. I had to kiss you before you left, though.” He put his forehead to hers. “Want you in my life, Blueberry, but I’m not big on the secret thing. I’ll do whatever I can to help keep it until the trust fund comes through in June, but you have to promise me the secrets will stop once it’s all worked out.”
She put a hand on each of his cheeks and held him, to make sure he didn’t pull away until she’d said what she needed to. “I don’t know what we’re doing, or what this is, but I need to see it through. I loved you once, and those feelings are still there, but I need to get to know you again, and you need to get to know me. I can’t make any promises right now, except to tell you no matter what, I’ll be your friend. Also, I think we kind of have to fuck at some point, or I’ll always regret it. Not today, but soon.” Before he found out how many other men she’d fucked, because he may not want her anymore.
He took a breath to speak, but she wasn’t finished. “I love your house. I didn’t see your bedroom before, and now I’m kind of speechless. It’s like you live in the forest.” An artist had painted two walls to look like he was in the woods. The other walls were the same deep green accent used in the great room and kitchen. His bedspread and curtains were a lighter shade of greens and tans and rich mahogany browns. The hardwood floor was different than anything she’d seen — wider planks, and likely an exotic, expensive kind of wood because the markings on it were gorgeous.
“My daddy has told me all my life I have to marry to my station, because otherwise, whoever I marry is just in it for my money and not for me, but he’s wrong. I mean, sure, when it comes to every other man I’ve known in my life, he’s right, but you don’t give a shit about my money. You didn’t build a huge-fucking-house just to show you could, but you probably sank ten times more into this house than most do for this square footage — granite, marble, and expensive damned wood. I don’t think you spared any expenses in your home. Even if we can’t work, I’m so damned happy to have been able to see the man you’ve grown into.”
“But you still don’t think I can stand up to your Daddy, do you?”
“No one in my entire life has managed it.” Not even a disgustingly rich prince with the backing of his father, the king of a small but wealthy country. “I’ll shower, and I’ll let your friends take me home, and I’ll face the music. Today was probably a monumentally stupid thing to do, when I’m so close. If
he pulls me out, I won’t be able to sign up at another college until next semester. His choices on my twenty-fifth birthday are to give the trust fund to charity, give it to me, or parcel it out so I don’t get it all at once. He made it clear several years ago that if I don’t have a college degree, it’s going to charity.”
But even scarier, was what her father would do to Danny if he caught his daughter’s true love back in her life. She’d survive losing her trust fund, but she wouldn’t survive watching her father destroy Danny.
“If you ever need a place to go, you’re welcome here. In an emergency, you can run to the compound. We’re kind of like an embassy — no one comes in without an invitation. Even the cops stay out unless they have a warrant and a couple of SWAT teams at their backs. I have an extra bedroom here, and you’re welcome to it if you need it. No strings attached unless we both decide we want them.” He kissed her forehead. “Controls for the shower are on the wall just past the sink. A handheld sprayer is camouflaged towards the right side. Towels are on the sink, but if you need more, they’re in the closet.”
He kissed her forehead again, and he was gone. She wrapped her arms around herself, missing his heat. Fuck.
She stepped into the bathroom and took a few seconds to understand. The far wall looked like the face of a cliff, and the room sloped down to a drain just in front of the cliff. She looked up, and realized the shower was going to look like a waterfall.
Nothing in this room was white. The sink was the same greys as the cliff. The toilet wasn’t quite black, but wasn’t far from it. A deep charcoal. The floor was some kind of slate, and it was possible the cliff and sink and vanity surface were slate as well.
She shook her head, found the controls, set the temperature for a hot shower, and then smiled when the water flowed and looked exactly like the base of a waterfall.
Chapter 7
In another surprise development, the woman named Gen drove them to Iris’s dorm complex in an Audi A8. How did the wife of a biker afford a car worth well over a hundred grand?
Iris sat back and realized that without her trust fund, she wasn’t anywhere near Danny’s station. He owned a home, a motorcycle, and probably other cars in the big fucking garage Harmony had told her about.
Iris didn’t own a damned thing. She lived in her daddy’s house, drove a car in her daddy’s name. Nothing was hers.
She was an utter failure as a human being. She’d had every opportunity, and she’d blown them off.
No more. She’d decided to buckle down already, but during her ride from Danny’s home back to her dorm, she made some more decisions. Bethany was right. She was a grown-assed woman and it was time she started acting like one.
Gen came to a stop on a side street beside the dorm, and Iris looked at the three men standing on the sidewalk. “Is there a photo shoot happening here, because those men are beautiful.”
Angelica laughed, and Bethany said, “Two of them are mine, and I totally agree.”
Gen rolled her window down and looked at the men.
“She’s safe,” one of the men told her. “I just need to talk to her.”
The black-haired man with super-intense eyes opened Bethany’s door and helped her out. The man with the red hair opened Iris’s door and told her, “My name is Jonathan. I work for Sophia, and she asked me to be your advocate while you speak with her husband. Will you allow me to do so?”
Iris let him help her out of the car, but then she squared her shoulders and stepped to the side, so she was clearly standing on her own. She turned to the man she assumed was Aaron Drake. “My father buys people. His money gives him a lot of power. I long ago stopped fighting him, because I couldn’t win. I gave up. I think it’s time I found something in between fighting and giving up. What are your intentions?”
“Your father is paying me to keep you safe. As far as I can tell, you’re safe right now, so whoever you were with today doesn’t pose a danger to your physical safety.” He sighed. “Here are the facts. Your car, phone, purse, and shoes drove onto the RTMC compound earlier this week, then drove an erratic pattern downtown, pulled into a parking lot, and finally drove to Outback Steakhouse. Your passenger averted his face at every traffic camera, and also knew where the cameras at Outback were, so we couldn’t get a good image there, either. Then this morning, someone on a motorcycle picked you up from the library, with his license tag obfuscated. We lost the bike, despite the fact we rarely lose anyone we intend to follow.
“Your father’s people gave us several names when he hired us — people believed to be a danger to you. One of them happens to be a member of the RTMC.” Aaron looked to Harmony and back to Iris. “We have an image of him arriving home — alone — an hour and fifteen minutes after the bike picked you up at the library.
“You’ve recently showered,” he continued, “so I have no proof, and in fact, my electronic sensors tell me you’ve been with Harmony’s horses, but we all know this is about McGyver.”
He shook his head. “None of that matters, though, because I can’t protect someone who sees me as the enemy. If you’re running from me, I can’t keep you safe. If you’re going out without your phone, and in brand new clothes and shoes, I can’t track you. If the bad guys get you, we’re screwed. You’re an adult, not a minor, and I know McGyver won’t hurt you physically. I can’t be responsible for matters of the heart. You’re on your own there, but I need you to promise me you won’t take off without your phone or other trackers again.”
Iris shook her head. “I’m sure something in your contract says you have to notify my father if I have contact with Danny.”
“It does, but I have no proof you’ve had contact, and your guards will be reporting to my business partner in the future, instead of me, should an issue arise. I don’t believe he’s aware of that particular clause, and he isn’t one to follow contracts to the letter if they don’t suit him, anyway.” He nodded to the man with dark hair, standing beside Bethany. “Ranger will brief your team that they’re to report to Nathan and not your father. If I find out any of them are speaking with your father other than to report your safety, their next assignment will be in a drought-ridden hellishly hot climate in a country with an economy that doesn’t support air conditioning.”
Harmony leaned in and pulled Iris into a semi-hug so she could speak into her ear. “Aaron’s a stand-up guy. If he makes a promise, you can take it to the bank.”
Iris shook her head and told Aaron, “If he suspects you aren’t shooting straight with him, he’ll hire someone else. Harmony says you’re trustworthy and I believe her, but I don’t trust my dad. He always wins. He always finds out.”
She turned to Harmony. “Thank you so much for being a friend. Please tell our mutual friend I need a few weeks to figure some things out. I’ll contact him when I do.”
The red-headed man stepped forward, and she dug back in her memory for his name. Jonathan.
“I don’t work for Aaron, I work for his wife. Will you walk with me? There’s a bar a few blocks over — can I buy you a drink?”
She shook her head. “I’m going up to my apartment now. I need to think.”
“If I don’t get a promise from you, I’ll resign,” Aaron told her. “I can’t protect someone with the means to successfully run and hide from me. There’s a very real threat of you being kidnapped for ransom. I need to be able to get you back if that happens.”
Iris stared at the concrete under her feet and tried to hold it together. Too much had happened in too short of a time, and she needed to fucking think.
She met his gaze. “I’ll give you the promise for five days. I need time to think before I make it for longer.”
He sighed, and it sounded like relief. “Thank you. My wife was held against her will by her exceptionally rich father until she was a few weeks from her twenty-fifth birthday. If you call Drake Security, tell them who you are, and ask for her, they’ll put you through to her cellphone. She has enough money on her own to make even
your father take note, and the two of us combined have more than your father. She’s prepared to do whatever it takes to help you. Also, if I’m not mistaken, she’ll probably show up and introduce herself to you in the coming days. Odds are, Jonathan will be with her, so you’ll know for sure it’s her, and not someone your father sent to trick you.”
He turned and left, and Iris looked to Jonathan and Ranger, who were flanking Bethany. Iris had learned in the car that Bethany lived with three men. As in, they were all her boyfriends. She talked about it as if it were totally normal, and Iris had a zillion questions, but she figured it was rude to ask. Still, did they all four sleep together, or did Bethany take turns sleeping in their beds? Was there a schedule? She shook her head and got back on track. She’d had sex with more than one man at a time plenty, but she was more than happy to kick them out when she was finished with them. Three men in a house all the damned time would drive her crazy.
“I’m overwhelmed. I know ya’ll are trying to help, and I appreciate it, but I really just want to go up to my room and think.”
“Then that’s what you should do,” said Harmony. “I’m free Tuesday all day — can you fit lunch into your schedule, or will dinner be easier?”
“Dinner works better. I have a long class and a lab on Tuesday, and not much time between.”
“The Smoke House at six? My treat.”
Jonathan rode up with her and saw her into her apartment, and then she was finally, blissfully, alone. Kelsey had left a note on the fridge saying she’d be spending the night at the clubhouse, and not to worry about her.
Danny had helped her finish her math homework, and she’d need to study on Sunday evening for an economics test, but no other assignments were pressing, so Iris sat down to do her own research.
First, she looked up how much it cost to rent a nice apartment, then she looked through some help wanted sites to get an idea of how much various jobs paid. She found some online budgets, and was surprised at how much electricity and car insurance cost, not to mention groceries and eating out.
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