Chapter 19
Tanner
Present day
This is simultaneously my best and worst idea of all time.
Hopefully it’s about to curb Aisling’s understandable fear of armed weaponry, but then again it could end up just freaking her out further.
I keep my breathing steady as I lead us both toward the entrance.
She’s actually letting me nestle her under one of my biceps as I stroll us casually to the front door – maybe because she’s trying to use me like armour, but still, I’ll take it.
I pull open the front door and give her waist a squeeze, encouraging her inside.
It’s a rustic ranch-style building, with a couple of cushy seats by the front door, and large wooden cupboards behind the long back-wall counter. The guy standing behind it has got to be at least seventy-five and he looks content as hell watching the sports channel on his iPhone.
“Wanna wait in one of those chairs and I’ll grab us the forms?” I ask quietly.
Aisling purses her lips and frowns at the cupboards behind the counter. I’m guessing she knows what’s behind there and is feeling a little freaked out.
She shakes her head and, to my immense guilt, clutches at my forearm, dragging it over her collarbones as if she needs the extra protection.
I clutch her as tight as possible, wishing that there was an easier way to help her face her fear. But I think that ripping the Band-Aid is better than mulling over it for months on end, so I lean down to her ear as I walk us to the counter and say, “It’s just you and me here this morning, okay? I called ahead and made sure the range would be empty. You’re safe, I’ve got you.”
She doesn’t say anything, just eyes the form in front of the ranger.
“ID?” he asks, and I slip my ID onto the counter, squeezing Aisling so that she’ll do the same.
She releases one of her hands from around my forearm and pulls her phone from the front pocket of her denim shorts.
My head cocks to one side as she pulls the case off the back of her phone, placing her ID carefully on top of mine.
As she clicks the case back into place – a clear Perspex-type thing with little love hearts all over it, holding some cheer photos and vinyl stickers in place – she senses me watching her and glances up at me over her shoulder.
“What?” she asks, lifting an eyebrow as I stare at her phone.
It’s a sleek baby pink iPhone, and I’m pretty sure it only came out around a year ago.
I narrow my eyes on it for a moment and then blink myself out of the thought, my eyes flicking down to hers and shaking my head to silently tell her that it doesn’t matter.
For now.
She gives me an equally suspicious look as she slides the phone back into her pocket and then swishes her hair dramatically, slapping her ponytail across my jaw. She turns to watch the guy behind the counter input our details into his computer.
I breathe out a laugh and rub my hand over my stubble, savouring the sting of the whip as she tries not to smile at her own naughtiness.
“You been to a range before?”
I collect our IDs as he slides them back across the counter. “Yes, sir,” I tell him.
He nods and gestures to the board near the door to his left, which then leads out to the range behind him.
“Instructions and policies are on the board anyway. You have to read ’em all or I can’t let you through.” He takes a pen and two forms from the pile on the wooden counter and pushes them in our direction. “Fill out the forms, I’ll brief you, and then you have one hour on the green. Targets are set up from section three to seven.”
I nod. “Thanks.”
As I steer Aisling over to the two armchairs, she whispers to me, “‘Yes sir ’? Lord, you really are a country boy.”
I give her a little smirk as she looks up at me with curious eyes, squeezing her tighter against my side before depositing her in the comfiest looking chair of the two. I kneel down in front of her, setting the forms on her perfect golden knees.
I hold the pen out to her and she deliberates for a beat before quickly snatching it.
“Is this okay?” I ask her quietly as she glances nervously between me and the document. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to, but if you do I’ll show you everything that you need to know.”
She stares at me with those big unblinking eyes for a long deliberating beat and then she gives me a little nod, tucking a loose curl behind her ear as she begins filling in the paperwork.
When she finishes with her form, she places it carefully on the armrest. Then she begins to slowly fill out mine.
I watch in mildly amused silence as she frowns down at the boxes asking for personal information, and she hesitantly begins writing in the boxes that she knows the answers to. She slowly fills in the word ‘Tanner’ in the prettiest, loopiest handwriting that I’ve ever seen.
Warmth fills my chest and I give her another squeeze, loving everything about this moment.
She poises the pen over the next box, pretty eyes flicking up to meet mine.
“Surname?” she asks, blinking at me innocently.
I shake my head at her and smirk. “You’re real funny.”
Her brow quirks in curiosity, beautiful eyes still blinking at me expectantly.
I suddenly drop the smirk, glancing down at the form.
And then my eyes fly back up to hers.
“Aisling.” I stare at her, and her pen-hand twitches expectantly.
Oh my God.
No way.
There is no fucking way that she doesn’t know this.
I drag one of my palms down my face because, yeah – she doesn’t fucking know.
“Aisling,” I grind out. “Tanner is my surname.”
We stare at each other in pin-drop silence, her eyes searching mine to see if I’m kidding.
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
“Aisling.” I shove a hand through my hair, tugging at it roughly as I stare at her in fucking horror. “Tell me that you’re joking.”
She blinks at me quickly, her cheeks getting pinker by the second.
I shove my tongue in my cheek, chest suddenly heaving.
“You didn’t know that Tanner is my surname?” I rasp, mortified.
Another thought occurs to me and I grip hard at the back of my neck.
“Oh my God. You actually don’t know my name, do you?”
Aisling bites nervously into her lower lip and whispers, “Tanner is your surname?”
I press my palms into my eyes, drop my forehead against her knees, and groan.
“Oh my God , Aisling. You don’t know my fucking name ?”
I have been head over heels for this girl for four fucking years… and she doesn’t even know my name ?!
“How was I supposed to know!” she whispers frantically, eyes wide as I lift my head from her warm lap. “The first time that we met you introduced yourself as Tanner, and it’s the only name that people call you!”
“It’s also the name on the back of my jersey . In other words Aisling, it’s my surname .”
She throws her hands up in the air and I drop my head back down to her thighs.
Which is actually really fucking nice. Like, it kind of sucks that the girl I spent my college career pining for doesn’t know, as aforementioned, my fucking name , but the fact that she’s allowing me to suffocate my face between her legs is pretty much balancing out the scales here.
I try not to groan in pleasure as she wiggles her little ass on the seat.
She places the paper form over my left shoulder and I feel the press of the pen nib as she positions it onto the page.
She swallows quietly. “So, uh… what is your name?”
I tip my head up an inch so that I can look up at her from under my lashes while I keep my prime place right here between her thighs.
I clear my throat and feel my cheeks grow hot, suddenly self-conscious.
“Mason.”
We look into each other’s eyes for a good five seconds, before she finally mouths the word Mason and begins writing it onto the form. I drop my chin onto her thighs, my stubble making her squirm a little as she uses my shoulder like a writing table.
Knowing that she’s going to need a hell of a lot more details that she doesn’t know I slip my cell out of my jeans, type out the general details and turn the screen for her to look at.
“Thanks,” she says quietly, eyes flicking between my phone and the paperwork. Then after a beat she looks me in the eyes and says, “Mason.”
My quads clench tight and I quickly look away from her, pupils dilating.
“Don’t mention it,” I rumble, my voice gruff as hell, but I swear that there’s a tiny smile playing around her lips as she drops her eyes and gets back to writing.