Chapter 6
SIX
Chloe was embarrassed that she couldn’t walk fast. Mike’s heart painfully turned over in his chest at that.
Chloe had survived something few people would have. She’d been brutalized as a little girl, had spent nearly a decade in a hospital, been operated on fourteen fucking times, was alive by a miracle and…she was embarrassed?
Harry had killed the motherfucker who’d whipped Chloe against a wall as if she’d been a rag doll, otherwise Mike would definitely go look the guy up himself. Have a word or two with him.
See how he liked pushing around an ex Force Recon Marine, ex SWAT. See whether the fuckhead might find it a little harder to smash a 220 pound man who was an expert in close quarter combat against the wall than a twenty pound little girl.
Yeah, Mike would look forward to that.
The underground garage of the Morrison Building was huge. Harry’s allotted parking slot was way the hell over the other side of the building.
Harry and Ellen were halfway there, Harry checking every minute or so if Chloe was following. She was.
Harry didn’t have to worry because Mike was on it, and just as soon as humanly possibly he was going to be on her.
Mike would have sworn that last night had put him off sex for a while. A long while.
But nope. Sex came roaring back. It was in his head, buzzing in his veins, pooling blood between his legs.
He fought off an erection—if the past twenty years of industrial-level fucking had taught him anything, it was the ability to control his dick—but he could feel the heaviness between his thighs, a concentration of sensation and heat.
It was different from the usual, though. If he weren’t so goddamned distracted by Chloe, he could try to figure out what it was about her that was so different. Right now, though, he only had enough blood in his head to know to stick close.
Harry and Ellen were in Harry’s Tahoe by the time they made it to the vehicle. Harry started the engine. “Hop in, honey!” he called and Mike saw Chloe suppress a wince.
Mike loved Harry. There was an old saying—to love like a brother. Mike loved Harry more than like a brother but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to kick his ass right now.
While Chloe had been trying to explain how she didn’t remember him because she’d been so badly injured a good chunk of her life had gone, lost in years in hospitals, Harry had barely been listening.
He’d been frozen, a big message buzzing in his head he hadn’t known how to process.
And once Chloe dropped her bomb, Harry’s senses had been completely blitzed by joy.
Chloe’s problems had completely flown under Harry’s radar.
Not Mike’s. He’d seen from the start that it was hard for her to move fast. Chloe hid it well, was probably used to hiding it all her life, but it was there and she was ashamed and Mike vowed right then and there that she would never be ashamed again.
Chloe looked dismayed when she registered the enormous step up into the Tahoe. Without a word, Mike easily lifted her onto the seat. When he got into the other side, she smiled at him. “Thanks,” she said softly, leaning over, the word only for him.
Oh man. Her smile. How could she turn even more golden when she smiled? Mike suspected she didn’t smile much. Well, life hadn’t given her that much to smile about. He knew all about that.
Ellen turned around in her seat. “Chloe, I can’t wait for you to meet Grace, though she might be a little fussy. We think she’s teething.”
“How old is she?”
“Three months.”
“Great kid,” Mike offered.
“Yes, she is,” Ellen smiled. “She looks just like Harry, and—" Ellen tilted her head, red hair shifting on her shoulder. “Now that I’m looking more closely, she looks a lot like you, too.”
“Oh!” Chloe held up her hand. “I don’t want to cry again.”
“Turn on the waterworks all you want,” Harry said, glancing in his rear view mirror.
Ellen pulled out a Kleenex, dabbed her eyes and handed the packet back over the seat to Chloe. “I’m really glad I didn’t put mascara on this morning, otherwise I’d look like Raccoon-Mom.”
Chloe laughed. “And I’d look like Raccoon-Aunt.” She shook her head. “I’m an aunt. I can’t believe it.”
“You’ll believe it in—" Ellen checked her watch. “About half an hour, forty minutes. Depending on how long it takes you to pack.”
“Not long. I didn’t pack much. I didn’t think I’d stay much more than a couple of nights.”
Silence.
Harry met her eyes again in the mirror. “You’re staying for more than a couple of nights, count on it.”
She would definitely stay more than a night or two, Mike thought. If he had anything to say about it, she’d stay permanently. There was a small apartment a couple of doors down from Harry’s place. He’d have a word with the building manager. Harry’d be good for the rent.
“Here we are,” Ellen said and they swerved into the Del’s huge parking space. The enormous, rambling white circular building rose all around them, red turrets gleaming in the sun. “Chloe, do you want me to come up with you and help you pack?”
“No, thanks,” Chloe said.
“I’ll go up with her.” No way was Mike going to let her carry a suitcase down. “No problem.”
Chloe turned to him, surprised. “That isn’t necessary—" but she was talking to the wind. He was already at the back seat door on her side. He slid it open and watched as she put a very pretty foot out.
Damn, these SUVs were high. Not meant for chicks in skirts, no sir. As he had before, he put his hands on her waist and lifted her down. She was feather-light and soft between his hands. Touching her was pure pleasure. Man, it took effort to open his hands and let her go.
Maybe it was that light, flowery perfume she wore. Messed with his head. Paralyzed his hands.
Mike reached to slide the door behind her closed, catching Harry’s gaze in the rearview mirror.
He and Harry knew each other very, very well. To the point that words weren’t necessary.
That’s my sister, the look said. Take care.
Mike’s own look was eloquent. I know. I will.
The Del was huge and extremely busy in the holiday season. Considering she had left a dark, chilly, snow-bound Boston, Chloe truly understood the attraction of San Diego. It was almost summer-like here, with buttery sunshine and the promise of warmth in the air.
Tourists were everywhere—sun-burned, happy and reckless. It was a family hotel and kids scampered under foot.
Uh oh. A gaggle of businessmen, of the big variety. Happy and relaxed in garish golf clothes, laughing and bantering and paying no attention to anyone else as they moved in a pack, right in her path.
Chloe tensed. She was about half the size of many of the men and experience told her they wouldn’t notice her until one of the men jostled her. Given the size of some of them, like refrigerators, any jostling would hurt.
They were coming toward her like a big, multi-part freight train.
Chloe prepared to scramble to get out of their way when she felt Mike at her side move slightly behind her.
He had one huge hand on the small of her back, the other gripped her elbow lightly and they breezed through the businessmen without a scratch.
In fact, the group parted like the Red Sea as Chloe and Mike sailed their way through. Mike kept hold of her and they made it to the front desk without incident even though they’d moved through more hordes of happy, oblivious, sun-tanned tourists.
Amazing. He’d steered them unerringly through what to her was a terrible obstacle course. Of course, to someone like him, it wasn’t an obstacle course at all. People naturally noticed him and made way for him, the alpha male.
It was so incredible, that feeling of sailing through people. Even through that pink-hued rubbery wall of businessmen, which for a moment had frightened her and at any other time would have had her scrambling to veer course.
But she hadn’t needed to. Chloe had felt utterly encased in a bubble of protection, the feeling so rare that she cherished it.
In a moment, they were in the vast, cool, wood-paneled atrium lobby of the Del, gorgeous and a little dark after the bright sunshine outdoors. Chloe stood for a moment, blinking as her eyes adjusted.
Mike steered her to the front desk, where Chloe told the elegant man at the front desk she was checking out. Originally, she’d booked for three nights, thinking that even if things went badly with Harry Bolt, she might take a day or two to visit San Diego. Depending.
Never would she have imagined this—her delighted brother waiting for her outside with his equally welcoming wife, and an insanely attractive man standing so closely she could feel his body heat, completely focused on her.
“Yes, ma’am,” the man at the desk said to her request to check out early. His name tag read Ronald. “I hope everything is okay?”
Chloe blushed with happiness. “Everything is fine, Ronald. I’ve just decided to stay with…with my brother for the next few days.”
Oh God, how good those words felt. She was staying with her brother!
“Must feel good to say that out loud,” Mike mused and she looked at him, startled, surprised all over again at how perceptive he was, this uber alpha male.
Everything about him screamed macho, from the outsized shoulders and arms to the hard face with bright blue, piercing eyes. Above all, he simply had this incredible macho aura, a being that oozed male pheromones.
It was usually a perfect recipe for cluelessness, at least in Chloe’s small experience of macho men. They rarely noticed anything outside themselves, which was why Mike was such a surprise. He’d seemed to be tuned into her from the first moment he’d set eyes on her.
“Yes,” she said softly. “It does feel good. And not something I’d ever thought I’d say.” She turned to look at him, full on, and fell right into those bright blue eyes.
She couldn’t have moved if a bomb had gone off a foot away.
“I’m glad,” he said softly. He had a deep voice with bass tones that reverberated in her belly. “Really glad you’re here.”
What could she possibly say to that?