Chapter Twelve Lena
Chapter Twelve
Lena
“So where did you go to school?” I shift in the front seat of Gideon’s truck so I can look at him better. “Did you have to ride an hour each way every day?”
“No, we went to Paradise Valley schools.” He checks his mirror and then makes a lane change. “That’s a small town about fifteen minutes from the ranch. There were twenty-six kids in our graduating class.”
“Holy shit, that’s small.” I nod and glance out the windshield. When we arrived almost two weeks ago, it was dark, so I couldn’t see any of the scenery on the way out to the ranch.
And I’m sad I missed it, because this is gorgeous. Brown fields flank the highway, with lots of evergreen trees rising tall into the sky. There’s a little herd of deer in one of the fields, and little puffs of clouds that hang close to the ground, making it feel eerie.
The past week or so has been so . . . hard.
I was mortified when I realized that Gideon knew what I’d been doing in the shower. Honestly, I kind of hoped it would encourage him to actually really touch me.
It had the opposite effect.
He’s hardly even looked at me since, let alone talked to me. It took a horrible, giant spider to break the ice again.
And what does that say about my allure?
That it’s nonexistent.
We fall back into silence, and I let out a sigh.
“Are we allowed to make any other stops while we’re there?”
“No.” He doesn’t take his eyes off the road ahead.
His hand grips the wheel, his forearm flexes, with all those muscles and veins snaking down to his hands, and I have to squeeze my thighs together because holy shit.
His arms belong in a movie, and I’m sitting two feet away, and I want to lean over and lick him.
But also, I feel bad that he has a little wound where I bit him yesterday.
“Hear me out.”
“No.”
Actually, I want to bite him again.
“Gid—”
“You said I could trust you.”
“You can trust me. I’m not trying to pull a fast one on you here. I’m trying to have a conversation.”
He sighs and pulls his hand down his face, and I nibble my bottom lip for a second before filling the silence with a soft voice.
“I was only going to suggest that we maybe get some takeout from that Mexican place you got food from last time. Because the queso was a religious experience, and I’m not supposed to have cheese, but it’s totally worth it for that.”
“We can do that.”
Success shines in my chest, but I refrain from doing a happy dance.
“And maybe the bookstore.”
“Lena—”
“I want to read, and I don’t want to read the war books you have at your place. Which is very on brand for you, by the way.”
“Willow has tons of romance books at her place.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Right, because Willow loves me and would be perfectly fine with loaning me her paperbacks. Fine, no bookstore, but I’d like to install a reading app on the iPad so I can download books, but you’ll have to put your credit card in so I can buy them, and add it to the tab for when this is over. ”
“Fine.”
“Wow, we just compromised. I’m actually proud of us. Usually you just bark orders, and I argue, but you get your way anyway.”
He huffs out a laugh and glances my way, and I bat my eyelashes at him.
“I won’t leave your side,” I assure him, and his face sobers.
He doesn’t reply.
He goes back to staring out the windshield.
“Can I ask you questions?”
Gideon mumbles something under his breath about silence and then sighs. “You can ask. No guarantees that I’ll answer.”
“How did you come to be at the ranch when you were a teenager?”
His fist tightens around the wheel, his knuckles go white, and his jaw clenches.
“You don’t—”
“I’d been in foster care,” he says in a hard voice. “Actually, it was a home for boys in Bozeman, and it fucking sucked. I hated that place. One day, I was told to pack a bag because I’d be going to a ranch for the summer with Ryker.”
“Were you glad to have a friend with you?”
“I fucking hated him.”
My eyes widen in surprise, and he smiles.
Fuck, I love his smile.
“I wish I could bottle that.”
The smile fades, and I immediately want it back. “Bottle what?”
“Your smile. It’s freaking awesome. Sorry, go ahead. You hated Ryker? How come?”
“Because he was a pain in the ass, and he had a mouth on him, and we were forever punching the shit out of each other. I had one hell of a black eye when we arrived. Asshole.”
He smirks, and it makes me grin.
“But now you’re brothers.”
“It didn’t happen overnight. Willow was already at the ranch for the summer when we got there.
She spent every summer out there. And she decided on the spot that the three of us were going to be best friends.
Ryker and I both took to her right away.
She’s the sweetest, happiest person I’ve ever met. ”
“I haven’t met that Willow.”
“No. You haven’t.” He changes lanes to go around a big truck.
“The person you met doesn’t come out often.
She’s protective. We all are, especially of each other.
Anyway, it only took a few days before Ry and I started to soften toward each other.
By the end of that first month, we’d figured out our shit. ”
This might be the most he’s ever said to me in one sitting. I love the deep timbre of his voice, the gravel in it. I wish he was murmuring in my ear.
Just the thought makes me shiver.
“Are you cold?”
“No, just a random chill. Where are your biological parents?”
“Gone” is all he says, and I decide to leave it alone. It’s really none of my business.
“Did you always want to go into the Secret Service?”
That has his hand loosening and his shoulders lowering, and I’m glad I changed the subject. I want him to be comfortable talking with me. I’m going to be here for God knows how long, and I don’t want to do it in silence.
“No, I was recruited.”
Okay, now I’m extra intrigued, so I shift even more in the seat and rest the side of my head against the headrest. “Tell me more.”
“I’m not much of a talker.”
“You’re doing great.” Without thinking, I reach out and brush my knuckles down his arm, from his shoulder to his elbow. “You can do it. I know you were in the army. Did you go in right after school?”
“I enlisted, yeah.”
I glance down at his hoodie, which I’m still wearing. “How old is this?”
“Old as fuck. I think I got it during one of my first years of enlistment.”
I love the way it smells. I hope I never have to wash it.
“I’m not giving it back.”
“You can wear it while you’re here. I don’t mind.”
“No. You misunderstand. It’s mine now.”
He lifts an eyebrow, glances over at me, and then nods. “I figured. Women have a habit of stealing a man’s clothes. Anyway, I enlisted right out of high school. Went through all the fucking training for Ranger school, which is pretty much designed to make or break you. It didn’t break me.”
“I’m not surprised at all.”
“By the time I got out of the army, I was a second lieutenant.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“I was an officer. One day, I got a call from Bishop, and he asked me to apply. And here we are.”
He glossed over quite a bit there.
“You’re badass, big guy.”
Gideon takes a turn, and a few minutes later, we pull up to a big home improvement store, and he shuts off the engine.
“You’re with me,” he says. “But wait for me to come around.”
Doing as I’m told, I wait for him to walk around the vehicle and open my door, and then I slide out next to him, bumping into his chest.
His hard wall of a chest.
I seriously need to settle my hormones, because he’s made it clear that he’s not interested, and I’m in danger of making a complete fool of myself.
He takes my hand in his, leads me into the store, and grabs a cart from the corral, and then, to my shock, he places me behind it, then stands behind me, his hands bracketing mine on the handle, caging me in.
“Are you serious right now?” I tip my head back to look up at him.
“If someone wants you, they have to go through me.”
You’d think it would feel awkward to walk like this, but we find a rhythm and make our way through the store. Gideon only leaves me long enough to grab things off the shelf and throw them in the basket.
The rest of the time, his front is pressed to my back. His hands are mere inches from mine. I can feel his breath on the top of my head.
All that combined makes me shiver again.
“Are you getting sick or something, Rebel?”
“No, I have a sexy man pressed against me. It’s a physical response.”
He stills, and then mutters, “That fucking mouth.”
We’re silent as we check out, and when he pulls the vehicle around to have lumber put into the back of it.
Before he starts the engine to pull away, he slides his phone out of his pocket and taps the screen.
“What do you want to eat?” he asks me.
“The burrito, the quesadilla and chips, queso, and all the good stuff.”
“Basically what I got before.”
“Yes, please.”
“That’s a lot of cheese. Will you be okay?”
I kind of love that he’s asking. “Worth it.”
He nods and taps his screen some more, obviously placing an online order, and when he’s finished, he starts the truck and drives out of the parking lot.
“You know, I thought I’d miss my electronics.” I really need to fill this awkward silence. I basically just admitted that I think he’s the sexiest man ever and my body craves him, and all he could do was swear and ignore me.
My ego has never felt so good.
“You don’t?” he asks.
“No. I mean, yeah, I’d like to check in with Chelsea. I’m sure she’s freaking out.”
“She was told that you’re on a press tour in Europe.”
I stare at the side of his face. “Seriously?”
“Yes. You don’t have reliable cell coverage where you are, and you’ll be in touch when you get home. That part isn’t a lie.”
“But what if she needs me?”
“She’s an adult, Lena. She’s fine.”
You don’t know her like I do.
“Anyway, aside from texting Chels and speaking to my parents once in a blue moon, there’s not much I miss. I never did look at the news much, and I don’t have social media.”
“Good. It’s a fucking cesspool and a good way to get hurt.”
Blinking over at him, I huff out a laugh. “How do you really feel about it?”
Gideon parks in a space with a number and then taps his phone again. When the delivery kid comes out with the bags and makes his way to my side, Gideon pushes out of the vehicle and intercepts him, shaking his head.
The kid shrugs, passes Gideon the bags, and walks away.
“Wow, no human interaction for me.” I roll my eyes as he sets the bags in the back and then fastens his seat belt. “I don’t think that kid was a security risk, big guy.”
“You don’t know that.” Suddenly, his hand cups my chin, making me turn to him, and my skin ignites from the fire of his touch, which seeps all the way down to my bones. “Roll your pretty eyes at me again and see what happens.”
Holy Jesus in a rowboat.
That threat has my vagina doing the foxtrot, and I’m not mad about it.
“You’re in a mood.”
He lets go and starts the engine, and within seconds we’re back on the freeway, headed toward the ranch.
The food smells good, but I’ve lost my appetite.
I should have stayed at the ranch.