Page 11

CHAPTER 11

Victor

Had my best-laid plans come to fruition, we would already be sound asleep after an endless afternoon of making love, followed by a room-service dinner, while the gentle Pacific Ocean breeze caressed our naked bodies in a luxurious and guaranteed comfortable bed with a sheet thread count that apparently meant something to snooty people who weren’t me.

Instead, we took a long shower and didn’t bother putting on clothes before we climbed under the covers.

I didn’t care about the thread count here, either. The bed was comfortable, the sheets clean and softly crisp in a way that meant they weren’t garbage, the pillows acceptable, and the room was supposedly soundproofed so we wouldn’t be serenaded by someone getting railed on the other side of the wall or feel self-conscious if noisy railing happened in our room.

To be honest, I was hoping noisy railing would soon happen in our bed, but my luck thus far on this “vacation” was batting .000.

I thought surely sleep would hit me fast and hard but, even as Kayley’s breathing slowed and evened out next to me, I lay wide awake while unsuccessfully trying to shut down my brain. I’d contacted Maxwell with an update when I went out to get our dinner, but Leo had already spoken with him. Meaning we were all good, and he’d deal with logistics on his end in case an emergency exfil was warranted.

Mentally I traced back every potential source of danger, of whether someone might have followed us first to Cedro’s house and then to Rawhide Ranch, and finally convinced myself we had arrived completely incognito.

What I hadn’t told Kayley was there were agents pre-positioned at the other resort, posing as fellow vacationers, in addition to the resort’s already stringent security. Hell, they regularly shot down drones when paparazzi tried to sneak pics. I don’t know how they finagled that permission with the FAA and law enforcement, but I guess enough money really will buy you anything in today’s world.

I finally couldn’t stand it and carefully untangled myself from Kayley to retrieve my phone where it sat charging on the nightstand. Knowing I’d regret this, I started scrolling through news sites while a sickening mixture of relief and rage rolled through me.

Relief because there were no more attacks. Several were thwarted before they could be fully executed.

Rage because the death toll steadily rose with search and rescue efforts now underway. Not to mention that the negative impacts to our economy and the hardships this would place on countless people were incalculable.

No group had yet claimed responsibility for the attacks, either, which was… disconcertingly weird.

Because something of this scope, this magnitude, should have had someone proudly crowing about being behind it.

Meaning there were plenty of people at a wide variety of alphabet-soup government intelligence agencies on edge that there might be more attacks forthcoming.

Had Kayley been any other protectee I likely would have immediately headed to the nearest military base or FBI office, whatever was closest, and arranged for her to be spirited to an undisclosed location.

Fortunately, even with her teaching career, she usually flew under the public’s radar. It seemed the only times she made it onto the gossip sites were when she met up with Leo, or she happened to be at a location where paparazzi swarmed a celebrity and they recognized Kayley, or the occasionally staged moments when Jordan flew out to spend time with her and pretended to date her.

This was exactly why we’d needed our vacation. Once we publicly announced our relationship, if that’s the path we took, I would have to retire from the Secret Service if I wasn’t already retired. If I didn’t willingly retire, it would likely mean Leo ordering Elliot to put pressure on the Secret Service director to “persuade” me to retire.

Me being in a high-visibility relationship, especially with a protectee, ran counter to me being an effective protective agent. If I refused to retire, I’d likely be assigned to ride a desk until I finally got bored or frustrated enough to retire. I damned sure would hit a wall in terms of advancing up the food chain.

The best-laid plans and all that bullshit, right?

Normally I would never allow a hotel stay in a ground floor room but this was a safe and isolated resort, not a fleabag hotel in the middle of a city’s tourist district. I wanted the private hot tub and patio.

Something else we never got to enjoy.

Something… normal , for a change.

I also wanted the secondary escape route, just in case.

I finally set my phone aside, closed my eyes, and eventually drifted to sleep with Kayley tightly snuggled in my arms.

Then the sound of bombs awakened me. I looked around to find myself in a long, dark hallway with no sign of Kayley anywhere. I ran, the hallway stretching ahead of me into an impossibly endless distance as I screamed for her. About that time, the floor turned into glue that started encasing my feet in its sticky grasp. Then I heard Kayley’s firm voice close by in the darkness?—

“ Vic . Wake up .”

My eyes popped open to find our room cast in gray, dim early-dawn light and Kayley sitting up, her hands on my shoulders, shaking me.

It took me a moment, between my thundering pulse and confusion as I shed the vestiges of sleep, to process it’d been nothing but a nightmare.

“Shit,” I muttered.

She sighed, one hand coming to rest in the middle of my chest. “You been having nightmares again and didn’t tell me? I thought we had a deal?”

I rubbed my eyes, shaking my head. “No. That’s the first one in a couple of months.” I forced my shallow, ragged breaths into a slow, deliberate pattern.

Kayley laid down again, snuggling in the crook of my shoulder, one arm draped over my chest. “Probably triggered because of yesterday. It’s barely 5:00 local time. Let’s try to grab some more sleep, okay?”

“Okay,” I hoarsely agreed, tilting my head to the side to deeply inhale the sweet scent of her hair.

She quickly fell asleep again as I laid there with the hazy vestiges of the nightmare slowly dissolving in my brain.

My nightmares had improved over the years but had cranked up with a vengeance once Kayley and I started dating. Usually, the first night we spent together after time apart, I had some version of a nightmare revolving around not being able to protect her. Then, in the weeks following us being together, I’d have several nightmares a week.

My little psychologist was as astute as her older brother. Once she’d identified the pattern, she’d worked with me using EMDR therapy and meditation techniques that greatly helped.

Not to mention it kept it out of my official jacket, so my superiors had no knowledge of the issue. And no, I hadn’t experienced a nightmare in a while.

I’ve never lost a protectee but during my second year as an agent in PPD, I’d been involved in a serious wreck when one of the motorcycle officers escorting our motorcade had a tire blow out, throwing him into the path of the SUV I was riding shotgun in with the protectee, a Senator in their fourth term who’d been receiving death threats.

The sound of the officer’s body landing on the hood and smashing into the windshield will never leave my mind. Me, the driver, and our protectee in the backseat all screamed as the driver managed to stop the vehicle without wrecking or running over the officer.

Fortunately, the officer survived despite his gruesome life-threatening and career-ending injuries. The last time I’d seen him, at an unofficial gathering of agents past and present, he was using a power wheelchair. While he wasn’t completely paralyzed, it caused him too much pain to stand or walk for any length of time.

I’d undergone mandated counseling because of the incident and I’d downplayed the nightmares I’d had in the weeks immediately following the accident. With time they’d eased, maybe only one or two a month, usually when I was exhausted and stressed and barely hanging on by a thread due to work.

I drifted off at some point and later awakened alone in bed to the smell of coffee and the soft strains of Vince Guaraldi playing over Kayley’s Bluetooth speaker.

“There he is.” The bed dipped on my other side and Kayley leaned in for a good-morning kiss, wearing nothing but one of my T-shirts.

I pulled her in for a second kiss, rolling on top of her, my lips slanted over hers and lingering, savoring, exploring.

This . Mornings like this I lived for, and if I thought too hard about them, it’d be easy to say fuck-it and file for retirement.

My erection brushed against her thigh as she spread her legs, wrapping them around my waist. She reached down and notched me against her pussy and I easily slid inside to find her wet and ready.

We both softly moaned and I paused once I bottomed out, never breaking our kiss.

Yes, moments like this I absolutely savored. With no other factors to consider, I could easily throw away everything just for the chance to be with her.

I lifted my lips just enough. “I love you, baby,” I whispered.

Her fingers played with the hair on the back of my head while her other arm hooked under and around mine. Her lips quirked in a beautiful, playful smile. “Love you, too, mister. Glad you finally woke up. I was thinking I might have to start sucking your cock to get your attention.”

I kissed her again, Kayley eagerly kissing me back as I slowly thrust. No way in hell would I rush this perfect moment.

Especially not after the clusterfuck of the past twenty-four hours.

The first night in Yellowstone when we’d hooked up, something in my soul had told me this connection between us was different in a way that had nothing to do with how we were brought together.

What we had together felt different from any relationship I’d ever experienced before, eclipsing my memories of past lovers until they withered to nothing more than transparent, sepia-tinged thoughts barely worth revisiting.

I’d been emotionally tuned in enough to never get married, because my spouse was the Secret Service as I’d worked my way up through the ranks. I’d never lied to any of my romantic partners about that, either, and none of the breakups I’d experienced were anything but amicable.

During my past relationships, from the beginning I was honest about my career’s claims on my time. I always left the door open for them to leave if they felt they needed more than I was able to give, with no hard feelings for their departure.

A couple of them were kind enough to add, “It’s not you, it’s me,” to their good-bye, but no. Those were unintentional lies.

It was always me and I’d gone into every relationship I’d ever had knowing it was only a matter of when, not if, it would end.

Then again, witnessing first-hand as countless coworkers endured messy break-ups and divorces because their job came before their personal life went a long way toward inoculating me against letting my feels and my cock make life-altering decisions for me.

Then I’d met Kayley and she challenged everything I’d thought I knew about myself. Whether it was her or the timing, I don’t know. It didn’t even matter that she was the president’s sister-in-law. For the first time in my life, I knew I’d met someone I was willing to make difficult choices for if it meant we could make this work forever.

That had to mean something, right?

It felt like our bodies fit together perfectly. We’d quickly outgrown our new-partner awkwardness and every time I made love to her, it felt better than before.

Heaven had to be here, this .

Her .

I held back, relishing every sensation, slowly thrusting while the heat of her body fisted my cock and made me want to blow.

If I retired and moved to California, this could be my daily reality.

That is, if I didn’t let my brain eat me alive from the inside out and sour our relationship because I’d walked away from my career before achieving all of my professional goals.

I rolled onto my back, bringing her with me without dislodging my cock. She let out an adorable squeal, and I loved that I was the only one lucky enough to ever hear it.

She smiled down at me. “Make me do the work, huh?” But she slowly rolled her hips and that nearly rolled my eyes back in my head.

“Not all the work.” I reached up, pulled the T-shirt up and off over her head, and tossed it aside. “I’ll help.” I cupped her breasts in my hands and gently rubbed the pads of my thumbs over her nipples.

“You will, huh?”

“Of course, baby. Can’t let you have all the fun.”

“How chivalrous.” She braced her hands on my chest and leaned in for another kiss, her eyelids sweetly fluttering closed.

Even this between us felt… right . Our mutual snarky natures played well together. I didn’t find myself constantly apologizing for my sarcasm because she understood it was just that and slung her own just as easily. Meaning she didn’t constantly have to hold back and weigh every word out of fear my ego might get bruised.

I know, we’re a pair, all right.

A pair of what , I’m not sure.

Not that it matters, I suppose.

As she rode me, I lightly raked my nails up and down her sides before I cupped her breasts again to play with her nipples. I lightly pinched them, rolling them between my thumb and fingers. Every touch made her pussy flutter around me and drew little gasps from her.

“Like that?” I asked.

She slowly nodded, her lower lip now caught under her teeth and her breath quickening.

“We could try nipple clamps,” I said, increasing the pinch. “Find an adjusting pair and start off slow. Imagine how it’d feel with a set of those swinging from your nipples, me fucking you doggy style, smacking that gorgeous ass of yours?—”

“Oh!” Her eyes fell closed as she picked up speed riding me, her hand dipping between her legs.

“I think my girl likes that idea,” I teased, adding a little bit of tugging to the rolling pinch I was giving her. It was taking every bit of self-control I had not to explode because she’s sexy as fuck when she does that while riding me.

Seconds later, she braced her left hand on my chest while her right sped up and a soft cry erupted from her. I felt her muscles contracting around me and started thrusting my hips, trying to help her out. When she threw her head back and let out another cry, I knew it was safe to release her nipples, grab her hips, and start bouncing her on top of me to get my own joy. It boiled out of me, a sweet thermonuclear eruption, and I fell still with her tightly pressed against me, my cock going soft inside her.

Kayley melted on top of me, her head on my shoulder.

“That… was… fantastic ,” she muttered.

I was still trying to catch my own breath. “Backatcha, baby.” I squeezed her sweet ass and gently raked my nails up and down her back, loving the gentle shivers I earned in response.

I thought maybe she’d fallen back asleep when she finally lifted her head and looked at the clock, then met my gaze.

“This vacation is already going by way too fast,” she said.

I rubbed my nose against hers. “You can say that again.”