9. Ambrose
AMbrOSE
E ric had been confused, then flustered, but now his eyes narrowed and there was a tick in his jaw. Did he really think he could overpower me? Maybe I should let him try.
“You’re going where I say. You’re mine now.”
“What the fuck, Ambrose?”
“If I can’t trust you on your own, then you’ll have to stay with me.”
His face was flushed with anger. “I’m the fucking sheriff of this parish.”
Ambrose shook his head. “We’re not in your parish anymore.”
“How do you know that?”
“I always know where I am. We’ll have to work on that with you.”
“Take me back.”
“No. They may be waiting for you. I won’t risk you like that.”
“Ambrose, I have a job to do. I can’t just disappear.”
I shrugged and enjoyed seeing his scowl deepen. “You can say you were taken.”
“No.” Eric lunged toward the motorcycle. The keys were in the ignition. He reached for them, but I grabbed him around the waist and shoved him away from the bike before he touched it.
He stumbled and almost went down, but he kept himself upright and turned to face me.
“You would never make it back on your own.” Eric scowled at me but didn’t argue because he knew I was right. “You have no idea where we are and no signal to use your GPS. Don’t make me fight you. I’ve had a long day, and I want to get home.
“We could have gone to my house.”
“And led them right there?” I couldn’t believe he’d think I would take that risk.
“Did you see someone else watching us?”
“No, but my gut told me someone was there. Someone damn good at hiding. It wasn’t worth the risk.”
“There must be somewhere closer we could go.”
“Not where I can be sure of our safety.” I knew Eric was plotting how he could get away, but that wasn’t happening, at least not until I could be certain he was safe.
We’d come up with a story explaining his disappearance, but for now, he was staying with me because I wasn’t going to let anyone hurt him, and he clearly wasn’t going to listen when I told him to stay out of this.
I forced Eric back onto the bike and kicked it into gear.
How are you going to keep him at your cabin? Are you going to tie him up?
The last thing I needed was the image that popped into my head of Eric tied to my bed frame. I nearly ran off the road.
Jesus, he would be hot like that.
I would restrain him if I needed to for his safety, but that fantasy wasn’t happening.
I wasn’t going to play out any of my Eric fantasies because, no matter how much I felt toward him, I couldn’t be with him.
I couldn’t be with anyone. This wasn’t about me never having been with a man before.
I could handle a sudden change in my sexuality a hell of a lot more easily than I could handle a person in my space, a person thinking I was going to be there all the time, that I was going to talk to them or go out with them.
After this war with Carlotti ended, I was going to stay at my cabin alone for a long, long time.
Dax would miss you.
He could come visit.
Do you really want to go back to how things were?
No. Yes. I don’t fucking know, but I can’t…
I swung around a tight curve, and Eric’s grip on me tightened.
I wanted to grab his hands and pull them together so he fully encircled me.
I loved feeling the warm, reassuring heat of him against my back, and I wanted him to press fully against me.
He knew how to talk to people and how to make them feel at ease.
He even made me feel more relaxed—except when he was risking his life like a fucking fool.
I drove as fast as I could, needing to get home where I could put some distance between me and Eric, not that we’d be very distant in my tiny cabin.
It had always seemed plenty big. Why would I need more than I had?
But now, I wished I had a house as large as the Theriot family estate in Metairie because there was no way in hell I was going to sleep tonight with Eric right there.
I would be able to hear every sound he made, every rustle of the sheets, every…
I could take him to… No, I wasn’t ready for anyone to know that secret yet.
Another sharp turn had Eric sliding into me and gripping tighter. We almost crashed because when he moved closer to me, I felt the hard ridge of his cock press against my ass.
Jesus, he actually did want me. It wasn’t my imagination. I focused on the road, fighting the urge to press back into him. I needed all my concentration to negotiate the terrain. Eric squirmed, trying to move away, but that only made it worse. My own cock started to swell.
I’d never gotten hard for another man before.
I’d seen plenty of guys’ dicks. I could have had my share back in my army days or at any of the clubs Corbin and Lance begged to take me to, but the hot men’s bodies I’d seen had been like works of art to me, not something I needed to possess, to touch, to feel against me.
They were beautiful, not sexual, but Eric…
Jesus, I wanted him. I wanted to know what it would feel like to fuck him, to have his mouth around my dick, and to… fuck, to do the same to him.
I pushed those thoughts away as I turned down the path to my cabin.
When I parked, Eric jumped off so fast I worried he was going to run. “There are gators and nutria all around here. I can track you, but I really don’t feel like wrestling a gator today.”
Eric always had something to say, but at that moment, he didn’t speak. All he did was stare at me. Had I actually scared him? He pulled his helmet off, and I saw the color in his face. I knew it wasn’t just from the heat.
“Eric?”
“I’m sorry. That was… I didn’t mean…”
God, his embarrassment made him adorable. I’d never seen him flustered like this. Shocked. Annoyed. But never unable to form sentences.
“I didn’t mind.” The words came out flirtatious, and Eric’s eyes widened. I cleared my throat. “We need to get inside. The mosquitoes will eat you alive out here.”
“You can’t just…”
“I can. Now get in the house.”
“Why do you live out here with mosquitoes and alligators?”
“It’s quiet, and it’s what I know best. Now get inside.”
“Do you know how crazy this is?”
“If you did your research, then you’d know I’m crazy. What did you expect?”
“I did not expect to be kidnapped.”
“I saved your life.”
“Thank you.”
That wasn’t what I’d expected him to say, and it threw me. I opened my mouth to respond, then closed it.
Eric slapped at mosquitoes as I unlocked the cabin and gestured for him to step inside.
He didn’t argue this time, but he glanced around, taking in his surroundings, likely looking for an escape route.
“You do not want to wander off here. You won’t find your way out, and you might not survive until I locate you. Also, I hardly sleep. I’ll always be listening.”
“I’m not staying here indefinitely.”
“No. By tomorrow I will have arranged a safe house for you. I’m supposed to be watching Hope after all.”
Eric stared at me open-mouthed.
“I didn’t want you to think I don’t take my dog-sitting duties seriously.”
“You think that’s the most disturbing thing about what you just said?”
I laughed. “It’s not? Don’t you care about Hope?”
“I’m sure Corbin can take care of her.”
Ambrose snorted. “Maybe. But Dax didn’t choose him. He chose me.”
“How are you planning to take down Carlotti while hanging out with a puppy?”
“I’ve done far harder things than that.”
“Could I at least get something to drink? It’s hot as hell in here.”
I turned on my window unit. “Do you have any idea how much fuel it takes to run that damn thing?”
“Do you seriously live here with no AC?”
I shrugged. “I’m used to it.”
I opened my mini fridge and pulled out two bottles of water. I needed to find us something to eat too. I was looking through the cabinet that served as my pantry when I heard Eric speak. I quickly realized he wasn’t talking to me.
I turned to face him as he said. “He’s fine. He just appeared out of nowhere near the shed.”
I lunged toward Eric, grabbing for his phone.
He evaded me. “Gotta go. At his house. Not by choice.”
I got the phone then and cut the call, but not before I saw who he was talking to. Lance. How had he gotten Lance’s number?
Eric reached around me for his phone. I turned and used my back against his chest to push him into the wall.
His hand was around my wrist, and he had a firm grip.
“Give me my fucking phone. Your family needed to know you’re not lying dead in the bayou or a prisoner of Carlotti.”
“Lance is going to fucking come here now.”
Eric struggled against me, but I kept pressure on him with my body as I tried to free my arm. The feel of his hard chest against my back was making it hard to focus. I wanted to feel his erection against me again. He was making me fucking lose what was left of my mind.
He managed to free his other arm, which I’d pinned against the wall, and his next move shocked the hell out of me.
He tickled my side in the one place guaranteed to make me squirm.
He shook my arm as I fought to get away, and his phone hit the floor.
Instead of going after it, he took hold of my waist and spun me to face him.
“Lance called me. He was worried when you didn’t show up to the meeting with Remington. ”
“Don’t tell me the son of a bitch asked you to look for me.”
“No, he told me to stay put just like you did.”
At least I didn’t have to kill my cousin. “And you didn’t listen?”
“I was worried.”
I started to argue with him, but then his words hit me. “Why?”
“Because for all I knew, Carlotti had gotten to you.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
“You’re not bulletproof, are you? You’re damn good at”—Eric waved his hand around—“all you do. But that doesn’t mean you can always evade trouble.”
It sure as hell didn’t, because right then I was in a hell of a lot of trouble. I’d kidnapped a sheriff, and all I wanted to do was rub against him until I felt his cock harden, then make him show me what it’s like to be with a man. “Why are you like this?”
“Like what?” Eric asked.
“Stubborn and caring and… goddamn gorgeous.”