Chapter Five
Austin
What a fucking day today has been, I think, finally getting Bailey down for the night. I hope. Before I left her room for good, she asked for a glass of water, two other stuffed animals, and one more kiss good night. The last one especially wasn’t a hardship.
I head back downstairs to talk to Mia, one, because I want to see how she is feeling, and two, I feel that as my daughter’s caregiver, she needs to be read into what is going on with Bailey’s mother.
I join her in the family room, where she sits watching television, her injured hand resting in her lap, and settle into the cushion beside her.
“How’s the pain?” I ask.
“I’m okay. Ibuprofen is covering it for the most part.” She glances at me through lowered lids. “Thank you for taking me to the hospital today… and staying with me while they stitched me up. I’m not a big fan of hospitals. Bad memories and all that.” She treats me to a sad smile.
“Care to share?” I am curious about Mia, her past and what makes her tick.
She sighs. “My mom died of cancer. I was an only child and I spent a lot of time in hospitals until she passed away. Needles, IVs, the antiseptic smell…” She curls a leg beneath her on the sofa.
“I’m squeamish and I hate pain, but I was already worked up before the doctor took out the injection to numb me. ”
And after the awful hospital stays with her mom, she went to foster care, I think, a little girl left alone, without a relative in the world to love her. Pain fills me at the thought.
I manage a smile so she won’t think I am pitying her.
She is a proud, strong woman and won’t appreciate the sentiment.
“I think you handled the whole thing pretty well. Except for the part when you shook in my arms. But I liked being there for you, so it’s all good. ” I try to make light of the situation.
She laughs, which was my goal.
“I am sorry about your mom,” I say, not wanting to be callous and ignore what she confided in me.
“Thanks. It’s funny, the things I remember and those I don’t. I remember what my mom looked like, I think… but not what she smelled like. But I remember the scent and look of the hospital she died in.” Mia shrugs, obviously used to living with the past. “Who knows how memory works.”
“I wish I knew the answer to that,” I say, my tone so deadly serious she jerks her head up to meet my gaze.
“Why?”
I blow out a long breath, wanting to have this conversation, as much for myself as for my daughter.
I need to talk to someone, and both my gut and my heart tell me this woman will help me and understand.
“Bailey was four when her mother left and I don’t know what she remembers.
Does she recall her mom flinging her around by her arm?
Hurting her? Leaving bruises?” I wince at the thought, my protectiveness rising as it always does when it comes to my daughter.
“Oh, Austin.” Mia places a hand on my shoulder, her touch both arousing and soothing at the same time. “That has to be so hard for you to wonder.”
I nod. “It is. And Kayla showed up at my office earlier today.” Just the memory of seeing her, of her smug attitude and lack of caring about our daughter, has me seething all over again.
As if sensing my reaction, she begins to massage my shoulder where she touches me, working the muscles with her one good hand.
Her touch is electric, the desire to do more than talk filling me, but the situation needs to be explained.
“What did she want?” Mia asks.
“She handed me a notice of a custody hearing,” I say through clenched teeth. “It was her big shot. She wanted me to know she’s not above taking this all the way if I don’t pay her off beforehand.”
Mia shakes her head, her expression one of horror. I agree. I don’t know how any mother can bargain over a child.
“No wonder you’re upset. There has to be something you can do.” Mia looks at me with all the faith in the world.
Faith I desperately need to believe in. “I hired a private investigator to look into her life. Top to bottom, from her finances to her personal life, her contacts, friends, men she hangs around with. You name it. I don’t care how intrusive, I want everything he can dig up.”
Mia nods her approval. “Good. I’m sure if she’s willing to play dirty with you, she’s not squeaky-clean in her personal life.”
“That’s my hope. But all this just sucks.
Because it comes back to what Bailey remembers.
If she does recall what her mom did to her, my custody situation would be that much stronger…
assuming a court would rely on the memory of a small child.
” I pinch the bridge of my nose, a headache forming at my next thought.
“But what kind of shitty father… am I to even want her to recall that just because it’ll help me to keep her? ”
Mia leans onto her knees and scoots closer to me, the warmth of her body a much-needed balm to my senses. “You’re the best father I know. Seriously. Bailey is the luckiest little girl in the world. Don’t ever doubt it,” she says, reassuring me.
“You have no idea what it means to hear that.” I pause, thinking about what possible plans my ex could have in the future.
I don’t put it past her to act underhandedly.
“I want you to be careful when you’re out, especially with Bailey, and if you see Kayla or she tries to approach Bailey, I need to know about it immediately. ”
A flicker of uncertainty crosses Mia’s face. “Umm…” Her voice trails off, her tone concerned.
“Mia? What’s wrong?”
She swipes her tongue over lips in a definite nervous gesture.
“This afternoon, I was grocery shopping and a stranger approached me. He said something really odd and I couldn’t figure out what he meant, but now that you said Bailey’s mother is playing dirty, I can’t help but wonder if she had anything to do with it. ”
I stiffen. “What happened? And don’t leave anything out.”
“Okay.” She raises her gaze to meet mine. “So I was putting the bags into the car and someone slammed their cart against mine. I looked up and there was a man standing there.”
“You’ve never seen him before?”
She shakes her head. “He walked around the cart and got really close to me. He said…” She closes her eyes, as if trying to remember the words exactly.
She opens them again. “He said, ‘Mind your own damned business and you’ll be fine. Stick your nose where it doesn’t belong and you’ll have problems.’ Then he shoved me. I asked what he was talking about. And he just said I looked like a smart girl and to figure it out. And then he walked away.”
My hands curl into fists at the thought of anyone laying a hand on Mia, threatening her, scaring her in any way. I think back to this afternoon. She came home from the store and I heard a crash, ran downstairs, and found her on the floor surrounded by broken glass.
I shake my head, understanding now. “You were shaken up and you dropped the glass. That son of a bitch really frightened you.”
She glances up at me with wide eyes and nods. “It reminded me of when I had to testify against my old employer. He tried to threaten and bully me into keeping quiet.”
“But you didn’t,” I say, proud of her for standing her ground.
That is one of the reasons I hired her. Instead of her past scaring me off, I feel the opposite way.
In my job as a bodyguard, I know how hard it is for a person to show up in court and send someone else to jail.
I’ve seen people run instead of standing their ground.
I feel that if Mia was strong enough to testify against her wealthy former employer, she has good moral character and she is someone I want around my daughter.
“Do you think your ex-wife hired someone to scare me away?” Mia asks.
I doubt she realizes it, but her hand is still on my shoulder, stroking me through my shirt.
And though I want to answer her, her caress feels too good, making it difficult to concentrate.
My body is beginning to respond to her nearness and her fruity, sweet scent.
My cock is hard and it is all I can do not to draw her into my arms, devour her mouth, and work my way down her body, tasting every luscious inch of her.
“Come here,” I say instead of replying. Unable to help myself, I open my arms. I tell myself I am offering comfort from her earlier fright, that I need the same consolation from her.
I am lying. I just plain want her. But the choice whether to come to me is hers. It always will be.
* * *
Mia
I look at the handsome, sexy man beckoning me to him with open arms. I walked away once before, and I’m not sure I have the strength to do it again. I glance down at his hand before placing my smaller, uninjured palm against his.
Skin brushes skin. An electric pulse dances up my arm, travels through my body to my breasts, hardening my nipples and thudding through my swollen sex.
“Is this wrong?” I asked him, meeting his heavy-lidded gaze.
“Only if we think it is.” He reaches up and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear, his fingers gentle as they slide over my cheek, the featherlight touch arousing me even more.
I lean into him, his masculine scent going to my head. “It feels like a cliché to say this but how can it be wrong if it feels so good?” And it does. My entire body is buzzing with need.
His hand drifts to cup my jaw. Tipping my head, he brushes his lips over mine. At the first touch of his mouth, all my concerns flee in the wake of his potent masculine need. He holds my chin in his hand and kisses me, his tongue passing through my lips and tangling with mine.
Heat cascades through me, and I need more.
More of his hot mouth taking me, dominating my lips, and just more of him.
I climb into his lap, straddling him, settling my knees on either side of his thighs, and grinding my sex against his hard erection.
I can’t get close enough fast enough, the barrier of clothing between us driving me insane.