Chapter 25
Chapter Twenty-Five
TEMPERANCE
Rolling to my back, I opened my eyes on a heavy sigh and spent the next minute counting the ceiling fan’s rotations before finally forcing myself from the bed and padding into the bathroom.
It was day three of my house arrest, and already I was going out of my mind. I went about my routine before getting dressed and finally heading downstairs.
Hayes was standing at the kitchen island, a steaming mug of coffee in his hand, with a guy I’d never seen before sitting on one of my barstools across from him.
“Mornin’, angel. This is Bryce. He’s one of Linc’s guys.”
Of course he was. In three days, I’d met three different men who worked at Lincoln’s security company. I wasn’t sure what their hiring process was, but as far as I could tell, one of the requirements to work at Alpha Omega Investigations was that you had to be smokin’ hot.
I looked to the man now known as Bryce, and gave him a little nod. “So you’re the one stuck on Tempie detail today,” I mumbled as I headed for the coffeepot. “I’ll just go ahead and apologize in advance for the long, boring day you’re about face.”
His laugh was warm and full of humor. “Didn’t get stuck, sweetheart.
I volunteered. We all did.” That took me by surprise, and I spun around to get my first real look at him.
He had eyes a unique shade of jade green that were incredibly attractive.
In fact, there wasn’t much about him that wasn’t attractive.
If I didn’t already have the hottest man in all of Virginia, I probably would have gone for that.
Lucky for me, I already had the most amazing, most handsome man in the world as my own.
“Really?”
“Not real big fans of women bein’ stalked and harassed. We’re all hopin’ this Perry fucker shows his face durin’ our shift so we can have a chance at him.”
“Wow. That’s, uh… kinda flattering, I guess. You know, in a weird macho alpha male kind of way that I don’t totally understand and am a little freaked about.”
He and Hayes both burst into laughter as I finished doctoring up my coffee and leaned back against the counter to take a sip and watch the show.
Hayes slugged the rest of his back, dropped the mug in the sink behind him, and headed in my direction, caging me against the counter with a hand on either side of my hips.
He was dressed in his typical daily uniform of jeans, button-down, boots, and blazer—a look that he rocked the hell out of—and his hair was still damp from a recent shower.
“You good?”
I gave him my best pouty face and asked, “If I said no, would you let me leave my prison cell for a little yard time, Warden?”
He grinned and gave me a playful little shake. “Sorry, babe. You already know the answer to that.”
I dropped my head back, let out a dramatic groan, and cried to the heavens, “Why me!”
That earned another laugh from Hayes, and there wasn’t an ounce of sympathy in it. “It’s only been a few days.”
“What can I say,” I deadpanned. “I’m an active person by nature.”
That seemed to soften him up, at least a little. “Look, I know you’re goin’ crazy. If it helps, call your girls and invite them over. At least some company’ll break up the monotony.”
“All right,” I sighed, dropping my forehead to his chest. I knew I was being a whiny bitch.
Hayes and these guys were just trying to keep me safe, and he didn’t need to worry about keeping me happy while spending his days trying to catch a crazy killer.
I needed to do a better job at sucking it up to make things easier for my man.
“Now you good?”
“Yeah, honey,” I said softly. “I’m good.”
“Good. Now gimme a kiss. I gotta get to the station.”
I did as he commanded in that macho, alpha way of his.
He pulled back and started to turn, then stopped. “Oh, and I already took care of Stargazer.”
“What about Cat?” His eyebrows dipped into a frown, and my stomach twisted. “You didn’t see Cat when you went out there?”
“No. Actually I haven’t seen her in a couple days.”
I pulled my bottom lip between my teeth and bit down in worry. “She’s been gone for four days. That’s not normal.”
“I thought you hated that cat?”
“Well.” I shrugged. “I do. But that doesn’t mean I want something bad to happen to her. I’ve kinda gotten used to her grumpy ass.”
He came back to me, putting his hands on either side of my neck. “I’m sure she’s fine. Probably hunkered down somewhere with a boatload of mice, waitin’ out the cold.”
I hoped he was right, but I had a bad feeling.
“If it makes you feel better, I’ll go out when I get home and look for her.”
God, I had the best man in the world. “Thank you, baby. Love you.”
“Love you back, angel.”
And with one last kiss, he was gone. Hopefully he’d get lucky and catch the bad guy before lunch.
Looking up at Bryce, I gave him my wickedest smile and replied, “Go fish.”
“Fuckin’ hell,” he grunted, throwing his cards down on the couch cushion between us. “This is a stupid fuckin’ game. Tell me again why were playin’ it?”
“’Cause I don’t know anything about poker, and you didn’t know how to play gin rummy.”
The card game had come after an hour and a half of a Downton Abbey binge that ended with Bryce threatening to shoot my TV if I didn’t ‘turn that shit off right goddamn now’.
I quickly switched it to Supernatural, but five minutes into an episode, I started to worry his head was about to explode.
So now we were playing cards and, needless to say, I was pretty sure Bryce was regretting his decision to volunteer for this gig.
A knock came on the front door just then, and Bryce shot from the couch with a muffled, ‘Thank Christ,” before going to answer it.
I’d taken Hayes’s advice and made some calls. Gypsy was working at the local grocery store, and Rory was at The Tap Room, but Eden and Nona were free to hang, so I’d all but begged them to come for a visit.
Eden stepped inside first, reaching up to give Bryce a warm hug and friendly hello that left me rather curious.
“I brought bridal magazines,” she chirped once they broke apart and she turned to me.
I dropped my cards onto the coffee table and looked to the massive stack of magazines in her arms.
“And I brought wine.” Nona held up a bottle of red and gave it a little wave, making me instantly perk up.
“Wine first, magazines later.” Standing from the couch, I headed for the kitchen with my girls on my heels. Bryce wasn’t too far behind, pulling up a stool at the island and fiddling with his phone—from the noises it sounded like he was playing a game—while I grabbed wineglasses from my cabinet.
“Bryce, I’d offer you a glass, but I’m pretty sure it’s not allowed while you’re on babysitting duty.”
“No worries, sweetheart. If it’s not beer or bourbon, I don’t drink it.”
Eden grabbed her glass and took a sip the second I slid it her way. “You know, I think it’s awesome that you have a security detail. We should form a club.”
“You had babysitters too?” I asked, taking a healthy glug from my own glass.
“Oh yeah.” She waved it off like it was nothing. “When I had my little thing a while back, Linc put his guys on me.”
“Was Bryce one of them? You two seem to know each other pretty well.”
“Oh, no,” Eden let out a strangled laugh. “He wasn’t part of that particular thing.”
My brows pulled down at the same time my head cocked to the side. “Why not?”
“’Cause Linc thought I’d take advantage of the situation and try to make a move on his girl if I was in charge of protecting her.”
I jerked my chin back in surprise at Bryce’s reply. “Why would he think that?”
“’Cause I’d already told him that if he didn’t pull his head outta his ass, the second I got a chance I was makin’ a move on his girl.”
Nona snorted in laughter and choked on the sip of wine she’d just taken.
Eden’s entire face began to burn red.
And Bryce shrugged like it was nothing at all.
“I’m sorry... What?”
“Things between me and Lincoln started out a little... rocky,” Eden offered delicately.
Bryce, on the other hand, took a different approach. “Like I said, he had his head up his ass and hadn’t locked her down. I’m a guy with a functioning dick. I saw those legs and all that hair and knew I wanted in there. So I told Linc the score. Either claim her or I’d move in.”
Oh my god.
“Hope Valley,” Nona muttered. “Better than any soap opera on TV.”
She had that right. It was taking everything I had not to bust out laughing. “Well, I take it now that things are good?”
“Yeah?” Eden said with a small giggle.
“Linc pulled his head out so I stepped back. No harm, no foul.”
“Just like that?” I questioned, totally intrigued by the entire story.
“Yep,” Bryce confirmed. “Just like that. A man’s any kind of man at all, he sees he’s got himself a good woman and doesn’t hesitate on making her his. That’s why you’ve got that rock on your finger right now. And everybody’s livin’ happily ever after.”
At the mention of my ring, my eyes darted down to my left hand, and that warmth hit my belly just like it did every time I looked at it.
“Anyway,” Eden sallied on. “Have you met West yet?”
“West.” I thought back to the other two men who’d invaded my home and privacy as of late. “Tall, light hair, criminally good-looking?”
“Yep, that’s the one.”
“He was the guy for day one.”
“He’s sweet. They all are, but watch out for that. The guy may be hot as sin, but he’s a total slob.”
“Think I’ll just go hang in the living room for a while,” Bryce muttered, standing from the stool and exiting the room like he was worried his balls were about to draw back up inside of him if he spent one more second with us.
“They’re good guys,” Eden said gently. “All of them. I know it’s inconvenient, and I know you probably just want to get back to your life, but if you let them, they’ll make this whole thing a lot more bearable.”
I smiled at my friend. “You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”
“I wasn’t happy with my situation either, but I got to know them, and I’m really glad I did.”
This was part of the whole needing to suck it up business. These guys volunteered for this detail for no other reason than they wanted to help protect me, and I’d been bitter and miserable the whole time. It was time to pull on my big girl panties and get the hell over it.
“You’re right,” I stated firmly. “You’re absolutely right. And besides, this situation isn’t gonna last forever.”
“Exactly,” Nona said, lifting her wineglass. “Here’s to this shit getting taken care of soon so we can celebrate with margaritas at El Toro.” We clinked our glasses together and drank. “Now let’s look at pretty wedding dresses!”
“Fuck yeah,” Hayes grunted, slamming back inside me as his fingers squeezed my hips so hard I knew they’d leave marks. “Fuckin’ love your pussy, Tempie.”
I arched my back, tilting my ass up and taking him even deeper as I looked back over my shoulder with hooded eyes. I’d already had mine, and it had been epic, but I wanted to watch Hayes as he came.
“Give it to me,” I breathed, bracing my hands and knees in the mattress so I could drive back against him. “I wanna feel you come inside me, baby.”
Hayes pulled out and powered back in on a loud groan, burying himself deep as he dropped his head back and came. The muscles in his neck tensed and bulged as it worked its way through him, and my pussy quivered at the erotic sight.
A second later he took me down to my side, keeping our connection as he spooned me and worked to regulate his breathing.
“You have fun with your girls today?” he finally asked a minute later.
The intense orgasm I’d just had, coupled with the soothing circles he was drawing on my hip, was enough to make me want to pass out, but I powered through the need to snooze.
He’d had a long, hard day, and he still took the time to ask me about mine.
I’d lost count of my blessings a long time ago when it came to this man.
“Yeah, I did.” Taking his hand from my hip, I laced our fingers together and rested them on my lower stomach. “Eden brought over about a gazillion bridal magazines and made us go through them page by page.”
His body shook mine as he chuckled. “Can’t say I’m not glad I missed that.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “Can’t say it was my idea of fun, and I worried Bryce was going to expire due to all the estrogen, but it did give me some ideas.”
His nose brushed through my hair, and his lips hit that spot on my neck right beneath my ear, making me shiver. “Yeah?”
“Mmmhmm. What do you think of getting married here?” I found myself holding my breath after asking that question. I didn’t realize until just then how badly I wanted to get married in the pasture behind the house, and now that I did, I really hoped he liked the idea.
“You wanna get married at the farmhouse?”
“I do,” I whispered. “This place has been in my family for generations. Even though my parents didn’t live here, it was still important to them. We came out here all the time. I have so many great memories of this place, and I just thought….” A lump clogged my throat.
“You thought what, sweetheart?” Hayes asked gently.
“I just thought that, since I don’t have any family, getting married here would be the closest I could get to being surrounded by them. Does that… does that sound stupid?”
His arm tightened so much that I struggled to breathe. He buried his face in my hair and sucked in a huge lungful of air before finally responding. “Doesn’t sound stupid at all. I think it actually sounds pretty perfect.”
A giddy smile stretched across my face as I rolled over. It broke our connection, but I wanted to see his face as I asked, “Yeah?”
“Absolutely.”
“Awesome.”
He gave me a quick kiss and climbed from the bed, coming back a second later with a warm, damp cloth. He took care to clean between my thighs before crawling back into the bed and wrapping himself around me.
And as I fell asleep, I did it knowing that as long as I had Hayes in my life, there wasn’t any storm I couldn’t weather.