Chapter 19 #2
Yes, I realize we went from friends to besties in the span of half a conversation. I’d also gone from needing a dating app to get a ride to sitting in Kieran’s lap in my underwear within about thirty-six hours.
This is my life.
Welcome.
Well, it wasn’t my life. But it is now.
I knew what I wanted, and I was tired of never going for it.
“Thing is, I already am,” I told Rett.
Stunned, he said, “You’re dating hot, scary guy?”
Oh God, did his eavesdropping highness hear that? We’d never discussed dating. I mean, what exactly did you’re mine entail? I’d just ignore the dating part altogether. “His name is Kieran,” I supplied. “He’s more anal than scary.”
Ghost burst out laughing. I’d forgotten he was even there.
Kieran stared down his nose at me as though I’d told some heinous lie and not the truth. I ignored that too.
“Anyway, I’m really calling to see how you are.”
“Me?” Rett seemed surprised. “Why?”
“Because friends check up on each other.”
“F-friends?”
“I-is that okay?” I asked.
“Can you put the line on speaker?” Ghost asked. “Pretty rude that I can only hear half.” He was eating a bag of nuts. I wasn’t sure where he’d even gotten them.
“If you get crumbs on the floor, you’re paying for a cleaning service,” Kieran complained.
“I’m gonna get a drink,” Ghost said, taking his snack and heading toward the kitchen.
“I’ve always thought of you as my friend.” Rett seemed a little shy.
I smiled. “Me too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, and now that I know you do too, we should hang out more.”
“Okay.”
“So, ah, how are you? Kieran said you’d been sleeping and in pain.”
“Oh. Ah, yeah. I, ah, must have come down with something. But I’m feeling a little better now after getting some sleep. I’m so sorry I didn’t hear what was going on at your place. I feel terrible.”
“I’m glad you didn’t. Those men are dangerous.”
“I saw your apartment. The entire place was destroyed. What did they want?” Rett asked.
“They tried to kill me.”
“What!” he hollered.
“Yeah. I’m not really sure why. I’ve never seen them before in my life. They took all my IDs too.”
The body holding me went rigid, and I glanced up to see his smoldering blue stare watching me so hard I swear my skin started to burn.
I cleared my throat and turned back to my conversation. “You haven’t heard of anything going on in our neighborhood, have you? Maybe seen anyone new lurking around?”
“No,” he replied. “But I can ask around. Tommy down the block—”
“No, don’t talk to Tommy,” I said, alarmed.
Kieran made a sound.
“He always knows what’s going on,” Rett said.
“Yeah, because he’s a drug dealer and bad news. Stay away from him.” I couldn’t believe he even suggested it.
“But I want to help.”
Is this what it’s like to have a friend? Someone to care. “You can help by keeping my only friend safe.”
“Time’s up,” Kieran announced.
I made a face. “I’m sorry, is this prison? Are you my warden?”
Kieran snatched the phone from my hand. Gasping, I shot up to grab it back, but the sudden movement caused pain to ricochet through my body.
I am sore everywhere. Whimpering, I pressed a hand to my side and fell back into Kieran’s embrace. A moment later, the phone touched my ear.
“Tell your friend bye, baby doll,” Kieran said softly.
Surprised, I glanced up.
“Go on.”
“I have to go, but I’ll call you later. You can save this number. It’s Kieran’s. My phone is out of minutes.” I peeked up to see what Kieran thought about me giving his number out, expecting him to get irritated, but he just nodded and brushed the hair out of my face.
“Okay,” Rett replied.
“And don’t open your door for anyone you don’t know. If you need anything, call right away. I’ll be by soon to get some of my clothes.”
“Oooh, he getting a drawer?” Ghost said, strolling back into the room with beer in his hand.
“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” Kieran snapped.
“Five o’clock somewhere,” Ghost quipped.
“Bye,” I told Rett.
He echoed it, and then Kieran ended the call, tossing the phone on the bed.
“Do you feel better now that you know he’s okay?” he asked, eyes searching mine.
Leaning up, I wrapped one arm around his neck to pull myself close and hug him.
A ripple of surprise moved through him, his body tensing at first. But when I pressed my cheek against his ear and whispered, “Thank you.” He wrapped both arms around me and bent his head so his face was pressed into the top of my shoulder.
His heavy breathing was warm against the fabric of the shirt, and it sent tingles of awareness dancing down the length of my spine.
“So why’s there two plants in your sink?” Ghost wondered, voice intruding on the moment I was content to get lost in.
I pulled back, instantly feeling guilty I hadn’t found them a new spot to sit like I promised yesterday. “I need to water Cliff and Atlas.”
Kieran’s hands closed around my waist, keeping me close. “I already did.”
Surprised, I jerked my stare to his face. He was looking at everything but me. “You watered my plants?”
“They’re my plants,” he argued.
“No, I adopted them because you’re a terrible plant daddy.”
“Plant daddy?” Ghost erupted. His laughter filled the room. “Did you hear that on that clock app? ‘Cause that sounds ludicrous.”
My nose wrinkled. “What’s the clock app?”
“Social media,” Kieran mumbled.
“Oh, I don’t have social media. It uses up my minutes too fast.”
“What now?” Ghost asked.
Kieran glanced over my shoulder. “He has a prepaid phone.”
“Those are still a thing?” he wondered.
Kieran’s discerning attention returned, and I was swallowed whole.
There was something so powerful about him.
The man truly had his own gravity, and it anchored me right there at his side.
And the way his large hands fit against my back, easily supporting most of my weight, only exacerbated the feeling of being safe and secure.
“We’re getting you a new phone, baby doll. One with unlimited minutes and internet that never runs out.”
“The phone I have is fine,” I said, trying not to get completely lost in his orbit. It was hard, though, because he was so close, big but gentle, and his voice a mere velvety purr.
“Fine isn’t good enough for you. It’s not even the bare minimum of what you deserve.”
“Thank you for watering my plants, Kieran,” I whispered, heart fluttering like it had its own set of wings. “For keeping them in the sink even though you don’t like them there.”
Gradually, we’d been moving closer, inch by precious inch, until our words were just mingling exhales and I couldn’t tell if it was my heart thundering or his. Maybe it was both.
Anticipation parted my lips, and his settled like they belonged there all along.
A humming sound filled the air around us.
Him or me, I wasn’t sure. But my fingers curled in the strands of his hair at the back of his head, and everything faded into the background, nothing but a blurred backdrop to the passion dripping from our lips.
My brain was nothing but vacant buzzing as I sank deeper into the kiss, into the man giving it, until I felt him deep in my bones. My fingers glided over his chest to fumble with the buttons on his shirt. The only thought I could form was the need to touch his skin.
A throat cleared.
A cough tried to intrude.
The scrape of his beard against my skin erased them both.
A high-pitched whistle cut through the room, and I winced, our lips disconnecting as Kieran brought his arm up to shield my head.
“Doc is here,” Ghost said, his voice a boom over the quiet of static of my brain. “He came to check the patient, not get a show.”
I pressed into Kieran, slightly out of breath. My face felt hot, and I didn’t want anyone else right now but him.
“Give us just a minute, Doc,” Kieran said, sounding much more coherent than I felt.
The bedroom door creaked and then snapped shut, and Kieran stood to place me against the fancy sheets.
Grabbing a handful of his shirt, I kept him from pulling away.
“Kieran,” I whimpered.
“I know, baby doll,” he murmured, leaning in. “Later.”
“Now.”
He smiled, and honestly, the way it transformed his face might be the eighth wonder of the world. “You and me, we’re gonna have lots of time soon. I promise. But there are some things we need to deal with first.”
“Like the someones who want me dead?”
His face darkened, and all the warmth he sheltered me with went cool. “Why didn’t you tell me they took your IDs?”
“I was getting to it,” I hedged. “You interrupted me.”
A baleful look crossed his face. “This is important information, Hazard.”
“I know,” I said, agitation building inside me. “They took the one thing I thought no one could. The only thing I really have.”
Kieran sat on the side of the bed, so close our bodies touched. “Tell me, baby doll.”
“My name,” I said, hoarse, and started picking at the skin around my nails.
Kieran tugged them into his lap. “Your name?”
“My birth certificate. My social security card. The papers the state gave me when they turned me out at eighteen. My life. My identity. It’s all I have.” I looked up at him, hoping he could see the despair I felt.
The muscles in my body protested when he pulled me into his arms.
“Why would they even care about that stuff?” My voice was muffled against his shirt. “It’s not like I have any money they can steal.”
“I’m not sure, baby doll. But I’m going to find out.”
“How?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. I’ll take care of it.”
“But—”
He pulled back and took my face between his hands. “You said you trust me?”
I nodded. I did. I trusted him more than anyone.
“Then let me deal with this.”
“But what if you get hurt?”
“I have very good motivation to keep myself safe,” he murmured, rubbing his thumbs across my cheeks.
Tears flooded my eyes, and I blinked them back. “You even look handsome when you’re blurry.”
He laughed low. “Hazard?”
“Hmm?”
“Your name is not all you have. You are so many things that it both amazes and scares the shit out of me.”
“What things?” I asked.
“One day, I’m going to make you a list. A long list that I will never stop adding to. Until then, you will just have to believe me when I say you are everything I thought went extinct in this world. You are more than most people will ever be.”
“Wow.”
He made a soft sound. “Yeah. Wow.”
“Trust me, okay?”
I nodded.
He leaned in, lips like the brush of butterfly wings—playful and brief but unforgettable. “You have me now too, little hazard,” he vowed, a hard edge glinting in his eyes. “And I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”