Page 14 of Shadow’s Protection (Hurricane Heat MC #1)

She climbs off my lap and turns away from me.

She shoves her ass between my legs, and I stretch them out along the length of the couch, letting her rest her back against my chest. I lower my chin so I can smell her hair, which, despite the cigarette and weed smoke in the main room, and the cooking and cleaning she did today, still smells like her .

“I never really dated much,” she explains, slurring her words a little.

“I’m thirty-two, but I never had a serious boyfriend until after college.

My second one was in grad school, a fellow librarian.

But neither one of them lasted. It wasn’t any big thing.

I just…” She draws in a huge breath and sighs.

“I never felt like I was enough for the guys I dated. I was too thick, too smart, made too much money, and that made them insecure.” She laughs.

“Don’t get me wrong. I don’t make a ton as a school librarian, but back in grad school, I had a great job when most of the other students were unemployed or doing part-time work-study jobs.

I had money and a car. The car I still have, by the way. ”

She swallows and is quiet for a minute. “Clive was different, right from the start.” She sighs.

“It all happened so fast. We met about a year ago, and within six weeks, he told me he wanted to marry me. He was so intense. I think it’s called love-bombing.

He fell so fast and was so, I don’t know, into me.

Half the time, I didn’t even know what I felt about him because I was too busy thinking about how devoted he was to me.

We took weekends away, spent all our time together. ”

I stroke her head absently while she talks.

“He surprised me with a ring when we’d only been dating for four months.

” She doesn’t look up at me, but I notice her stroking her left ring finger with her right hand, as if feeling for something that was once there but isn’t anymore.

“I had never been proposed to, and my first instinct was to say no.” She turns slightly to face me.

“I should have listened to my gut. It was too much, too fast, but Clive was good to me. I had no excuse to say no.”

The blood freezes in my veins. “What you deserve is a reason to say yes, not an excuse to say no.”

She gives me a half smile and then runs her fingertips along the tops of my thighs. “Thank you,” she says quietly. “I guess I know that now.”

She goes on to explain how fast everything changed. “Once I took that ring, he moved in to my townhouse. We hadn’t lived together before, and I found out later he’d been evicted. Had been crashing with friends the entire time we had dated.” She shakes her head sadly.

“He never told me how much trouble he was in. Financially, that is. He has a good job, but I don’t know, Shadow.

He had no place to live. In four months, I’d only been to his place a couple times early on.

After that, we’d always go to my place. I never thought it was strange.

I liked my place, and it seemed easier to have him pack a small bag than for me to live out of a huge bag with toiletries and clothes and stuff.

” She laughs, but it’s a dry, brittle sound.

“Things fell apart fast once he was under my roof.”

She tells me the basics—the control over her schedule, time with her friends. Normal douchebag shit that guys like that do to feel powerful. Big.

“Did he hurt you?” It’s a question, but this is no game. I can’t help my hands clenching as I imagine taking a fist to this Clive asshole’s face.

She nods, a slow, slight movement. “In his way. He hurt me in ways that wouldn’t show.

Holding on to my neck a little too hard and too long during sex.

Not letting me keep anything private. He believed our relationship meant he had an all-access pass to everything about me.

That’s why I don’t have a passcode on my phone.

He never trusted me, but I never had anything to hide.

I keep telling myself to put one on my phone now, but I don’t know.

Maybe I’m afraid he’ll catch up to me one day and break my phone instead of just looking through it to see who I’m talking to. ”

I start to feel sick with rage, fury simmering in my gut. “What else?”

She yawns sleepily and laces her fingers through mine. She holds my hands over her soft belly and squeezes my fingers. “I ended it,” she says. “That was the biggest insult of all.”

I feel her shoulders rise and fall, and I’m pretty damn sure she’s asleep.

The storm is still raging outside, and the candles flicker, casting a dim yellow light over her sleeping body.

We sit there, Violet snoozing and me just holding her, until that damn ringtone I recognize from earlier jerks me awake.

I must have dozed off, but Violet is out cold.

She doesn’t flinch as I reach over her to the opposite corner of the couch, where her phone blares incessantly against the leather.

I climb out from under her and settle her back against the cushions, and then I swipe the touchscreen to answer the call. I say nothing.

“Violet? Do you think this is a game I’m playing? You want to play with me, I play to win, Violet. You know this about me, you know?—”

I can’t stand the sound of the douchebag’s voice. I cut him off. “The only thing I hear is a whiny prick of a loser. Now, shut the fuck up and listen.”

There’s a split second of silence in which I swear I hear him gasp. But then, he takes off. “Who the fuck is this? Where the fuck is Violet? Put her on the phone. Put that stupid bitch on the phone, asshole.”

I smile. So, it’s gonna be like this. “The only stupid bitch I hear is the one talking to me right now. So why don’t you stop your crying and listen carefully.

” I pace my dark room, wishing like hell I could meet this cocksucker face-to-face.

For now, this will have to be enough. “I know who you are, and I know what you did to Violet.”

“Wait, wait, wait. What did that bitch say? Who the fuck is this?” He tries to talk over me, but I ignore every question.

“You’re gonna wanna listen and listen good, Clive .

” I stress his shitty name so he knows that I know exactly who he is.

“You’re going to forget you ever knew Violet James.

You’re not going to call her. You’re not going to see her.

You’re not going to bother anybody who even knows that you know her.

Are we clear? I really need you to tell me you’re with me on this. ”

I hear Clive cursing up a blue streak, calling me a bitch-ass pussy and dropping f-bombs like they have some kind of power over me.

I laugh in his ear. “I can see you’re too stupid for subtlety, so I’m gonna make this fucking easy. Stay away from Violet. No more calls, no more nothing. Forget she ever existed. Or I’ll find you and make sure you stop breathing. Permanently. We clear, shit-for-brains?”

The line is silent for a second before I hear Clive, his voice shaking like this is his first big-boy fight. “I’ll kill you!” he screams, his voice cracking on the threat. “You’re fucking threatening me? I’ll kill you.”

“That’s right,” I say, trying to sound like I’m soothing a spoiled toddler. “We see each other, and only one of us walks away with a heartbeat. I’m betting on me, little man. So just stay the fuck away from Violet.”

I end the call before he can get in another word and toss the device down on the couch. Violet’s slept through the whole thing, but I’m wound up tight.

The woman passed out cold on my couch is sweet, smart. She’s strong enough to weather a storm with a stranger, but trusting enough to open herself to me, a man who, for all she knew, could have been as shitty and useless as her ex.

It sickens me to think that asshole ever touched Violet—that he pretended to love her, slept beside her, gave her a goddamn ring.

I’m pacing furious circles in my room when Violet moans and rolls over onto her side.

The couch did a number on my back last night. I’m not going to sleep in my bed while she jacks up her body because she passed out on me this time.

I kneel beside her on the couch and think about picking her up.

But then I realize she’s wearing yoga pants, and I don’t know a woman alive who can sleep in those.

I skim a hand over her belly and hook my fingers under the waistband.

It takes some effort, but she seems to lift her ass a little to help me while I push the snug fabric down to her ankles.

Once the yoga pants are off, I slide my hands under her knees and scoop her into my arms.

I set her down on the bed, and she rolls to her side.

I reach beneath her shirt, unclasp her bra, and pull both the loose top and the bra off her.

Then I tuck her in and unzip my jeans. By the time I’m stripped down to my birthday suit, I realize that I’ve fucked this woman senseless on the hood of a car.

There ain’t no way she’s gonna mind sharing a bed.

I blow out the candles and climb in beside her.

I stick to one side of the bed so she’s got room, and I tuck a pillow under my head.

I close my eyes, but then I feel her soft body roll beside me.

She plants her cheek against my chest and snakes her bare legs through mine.

I’m naked, but she’s still wearing panties.

My cock is not happy about the situation.

He’s like a five-year-old who refuses to go to sleep.

But I close my eyes and hold her close against my chest.

I breathe in the soft scent of her hair, and my breathing slows to match the steady pace of hers. Before I know it, my body wins out, and even my cock gives in to the sweetness and softness that is Violet James.