Chapter 18
“You love him?” Mellie asked from across the table.
“Totally and completely,” I returned.
“What about witness protection?”
“Eff them, they almost got me killed. I’m safer with Theo.”
Mellie beamed a big bright smile my way before she looked over at Layla.
Right.
I should back up.
Not even ten minutes after Theo had left me in bed snoozing, the phone on the nightstand had rung.
I’d answered thinking that maybe Theo was checking on me.
He’d been over-the-top apologetic when he’d woken up.
And tentative. Both were unnecessary. I hadn’t lied when I told him I could hack it.
I knew what I was getting into when I’d pushed to have the conversation.
I’d done it then in the dark on purpose when he wouldn’t be able to see me very well. I found it was easier to talk about heavy emotional things when you didn’t have to stare at the person you were talking to. I started the conversation, we hit a rough patch, but in the end it had smoothed out.
When I’d told Theo everything was fine he looked skeptical. When I kissed him before he left, he wrapped his arms around me like he was afraid I was going to disappear. I didn’t know how to reassure him that everything was fine, except to just be me.
So that was my plan.
But it wasn’t Theo calling, it was Layla inviting me to breakfast in the conference room with her, Garrett’s wife Mellie, and Zane’s wife Ivy.
I was tired, mentally exhausted, and in no way in any shape to be meeting new people but I couldn’t pass up the chance to meet Layla.
Mellie and Ivy were simply bonuses. She told me she’d come by the room in thirty minutes.
This was after she’d taken my breakfast order and assured me there was already coffee made and waiting for us.
I rushed through a shower, did the only thing I could with my hair, which was to pull it up into a ponytail, put on semi-clean but wrinkled clothes since that was all I had, and was ready by the time Layla knocked on the door.
And that was the only snag.
She’d stopped at three.
I needed five.
My heart hammered in my chest. My palms started to sweat and I was transported back to the man in one of those ghillie suits barging into the closet.
I hadn’t thought, I just pulled the trigger, over and over and over until the slide slammed open.
Each bullet had made his body jerk—not like in the movies; it was just a slight twitch—but I watched each one hit.
I didn’t see the blood until Theo came into the room. I actually didn’t remember much of the time between the man hitting the floor and Theo picking me up. And the ride to the hotel was a blur.
Two more knocks had come along with Layla calling my name. When I opened the door she took one look at me, saw I was freaked, and told me she was getting Theo. It took me a few minutes to convince her I was okay.
“It’s because I knocked,” she said. “I read the brief this morning. I’m sorry, Bridget.”
That was sweet but it wasn’t her fault.
I’d explained that, too.
After that we went up to the conference room and she introduced me to Mellie and Ivy.
I was not surprised to find that Ivy was gorgeous.
And Mellie looked like the quintessential girl next door, fresh-faced and beautiful.
Then there was Layla rounding out the beauty department in her nude pencil skirt, complicated lavender blouse, and sky-high heels that made her legs look like they should be in advertisements for pantyhose.
I felt dowdy and unkept.
Yet, none of the women commented on my red, puffy, swollen eyes or my wrinkled clothes. And within minutes I was completely at ease with all of them. Hence me telling the story about my attack, finding Theo, and ending with being in love with him.
Now was now and Layla had a small grin on her face and she was studying me closely.
The longer this went on, the more nervous I got.
Theo had known Layla a long time. He spoke of her and Kira like they were special to him.
I wanted her to like me.
“Do you think it’s too soon?” I asked her.
“Too soon to love Theo?” she asked in return.
I nodded.
“Why would you ask that?”
Oh, shit .
“Well… because…you’re close to him.”
It was her turn to nod and that made me more nervous. I should’ve waited to meet her until I had my wits about me. But no, I rushed the meet because I was so excited she’d called and now I was making a mess of things.
First impressions were important.
I couldn’t screw this up.
“Because I know how much he cares about you,” I blurted, then rushed out the rest, “and your opinion is important to him and I want you to like me.”
Layla did a slow blink before she smiled.
“What I think is you have excellent instincts.” She began with a nice compliment but it did nothing to assuage my worry. “Theo can and will keep you safe. But more than that, you did a good job getting yourself safe.”
“You’re freaking me out,” I admitted.
“You know what I like about you?” she asked.
Thank God, there was something she liked.
“If I tell you I’m thrilled beyond belief that you like something about me, will you think I’m weird?”
“No, see, that right there is what I like about you. Honesty. No overthinking. No agenda. Just honesty . I love that after everything Theo’s been through, this…
you…is what he gets. So no, Bridget, I don’t think it’s too soon for you to love him.
I think you’re exactly what he needs and if you let him he’ll be what you need. ”
“Why wouldn’t I let him?”
“I just mean with men like Theo sometimes they can be a lot.”
“That’s an understatement,” Ivy snickered.
“Tell me about it,” Mellie joined.
“A lot?”
“What she’s trying to say in a roundabout PC way is he’s bossy just like the rest of them,” Ivy said.
“Bossy’s not always bad,” Mellie put in. “Sometimes it can be very good.”
She was correct; bossy could be very good.
“There are times I don’t mind Theo being bossy,” I told the women.
Mellie giggled. Ivy winked. But Layla groaned.
“Please don’t go there.”
“As fun as it would be to torture you I’m saving it up for Easton. His new nickname for Theo is Long John Silver,” I said, then took a bite of my breakfast burrito.
It was nowhere near as good as Easton’s French toast but it was still delicious.
“Long John Silver?” Layla asked. “His callsign is Two.”
“Easton thinks Theo has a nine-inch penis.”
“Nine inches?” Mellie laughed. “Good Lord, woman, do you need an ice pack?”
“We’re not talking about this,” Layla sternly said with a smile.
I took pity on Layla and said, “Okay, fine, we can change the subject.”
“Oh, no, we’re nowhere near done,” Mellie protested. “I have questions.”
“Yeah, nine inches worth of questions,” Ivy snickered again.
“Come again?” Theo asked from the doorway.
Ivy burst into full-blown laughter at Theo’s remark. My heart leapt into my throat and I nearly dropped my half-eaten burrito.
“You scared me half to death.”
“Nine inches?”
“I was telling them about your new nickname.”
I watched him do a slow blink and look at Layla.
“Don’t look at me.” She shrugged.
His gaze came back to me. “You okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
His eyes slid through the room and then he finally made his way to me. He stopped by my chair, bent down, and kissed my temple. After that, he bent farther and took a bite out of my burrito.
“Hey!”
“Damn, that’s good,” he said around a mouthful of egg, cheese, sausage, and jalapenos wrapped in a nice soft tortilla. “When you’re done, come by my office.”
Before I could say anything Mellie mumbled, “Bossy.”
Theo smiled.
“You say that like I know where your office is.”
“Layla will show you.”
“Will she?” Layla asked with a raised brow.
“Seeing as I was just going to our room to ask her what I could get her for breakfast and you ruined that idea, I think you can do me the favor of bringing her by my office.”
Layla didn’t look the slightest bit repentant when she grinned at him and shrugged.
“See you soon, baby.”
He kissed the top of my head and was gone.
The rest of our breakfast consisted of the normal getting-to-know you conversation.
That was, if normal was swapping stories about kidnappings, sisters being murdered, and spy games.
After listening to the three women tell me a little bit about what had gone on in their lives, suddenly my attack seemed minuscule in comparison.
Not that they’d made me feel that way, but damn, Ivy Lewis was one strong woman and that went well beyond the strength she’d need to have to be married to Zane.
She was just a kickass resilient woman who had lived a shit life and clawed her way out.
* * *
“Slow,” Theo growled.
I didn’t slow.
I went faster.
“Slow down, baby.”
The sound of Theo’s palm smacking my ass echoed in the room.
I slammed down on his dick and groaned.
This was me punishing Theo and getting my reward at the same time.
Punishing him for torturing me. I’d thought orgasm denial meant a man couldn’t bring it home when he was giving you the business and you were denied the orgasm.
Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would mean being edged to the brink and then denied only to be worked up and denied again. Over and over on purpose .
Now I knew.
And I knew because Theo had spent a goodly amount of time between my legs eating me to the verge of explosion only to pull back and use his fingers to get me close, then take those away and give me back his mouth.
By the time he told me to straddle him I was ready to lose my mind.
He felt in the mood for slow.
I needed to come so badly I was mindless in my pursuit.
His fingertips dug into my ass cheek and heat bloomed.
“You want another one?”
“Yes,” I hissed.
“Fucking hell, you’re magnificent,” he grunted and smacked my ass hard.
Yes, bossy could be very good.
So could being bad.
I was there, so close, reaching for it with desperation, but unable to fall over the cliff into oblivion so I grunted in frustration.
“You wanna come, Bridget?”
“God, yes.”
“Come with me,” he commanded. “Now, baby, come with me.”
His last demand was coupled with his body going solid under me, his head tipped back against the pillow, and his hand on my sore ass cheek squeezing.
My body obeyed.
Pleasure shot through me. My back arched with it. My eyes closed and tiny starbursts of light flashed behind my lids.
It was glorious.
Spectacular.
Amazingly spectacular.
When the last of my climax left me, I fell forward and face-planted on Theo’s chest. His arms immediately came up and wrapped around me.
“You good?”
Oh, yeah, I was brilliant.
“No. You’ve ruined me. I can’t even orgasm on my own. Apparently I now need you to order me to do it.”
I felt him start to shake underneath me.
“I see you think that’s funny. But what happens if I’m home alone and I feel the need to take care of myself?”
Theo stopped laughing and growled, “There will never be a time when you’re home alone and you’ll need to take care of yourself.”
Whatever.
Moving on .
“Thank you for dinner.”
“You already thanked me and again it was just Subway.”
It wasn’t just Subway.
“You remembered to get extra mustard and extra bell peppers.”
He gave me a squeeze.
“And you remembered I like oil and vinegar.”
“I remember what you like to eat.”
It wasn’t that.
“It’s not only what I like to eat. It’s that you know I only drink from a straw so you always made sure there was a box in whatever safe house I was at.
It’s that you remembered that certain laundry detergents make me break out into a rash so you made sure I always had Tide.
You remembered all the things, but it’s not really about you remembering that makes me feel good.
It makes me feel loved and cared for and special. ”
Theo didn’t say anything. Not that I expected him to. It was late, we’d both had a crazy few days. Our bellies were full. We both had sweet orgasms and it was time to sleep.
At least it was for me.
“Need you to slide off so I can get rid of this condom.”
Right.
The condom.
We’d come back to the room after spending the afternoon in Theo’s office to a box of condoms on the nightstand with a note taped on top. It was the worst chicken scratch I’d ever seen.
The note said: You’re welcome .
That was it.
Theo said they were from Zane.
I thought it was strange Zane would leave condoms for his employee but I didn’t question it mainly because I was grateful to have them.
I rolled to the side. Theo pressed a hard, closed-mouth kiss on my mouth before he rolled again, this time off the bed.
A few minutes later, he was back and hauled me over so my head was on his chest.
“Do you know why I remember all of those things about you?”
“Why?”
“Because you are special, you are loved, and nothing makes me happier than taking care of you.”
“Do you know you’re special and loved, too?”
“Yeah, baby.”
“And are you going to let me take care of you while you’re taking care of me?”
There was a beat of silence before…
“I’m counting on that.”
“Good,” I whispered and started to drift off to sleep.