Page 15 of Guarded By Them

He gave me that smirk. “What do you think they’re doing?”

The idea of Kodee and Ryan together always got me squirming in the best possible way. “Oh.”

Perhaps we could have gone into the other room and joined them, then come back here to sleep, but we’d spent all day cramped up in the car together, and I guessed they could probably do with some space. I was happy to get a little alone time with Dillon, anyway. He was fun to be with, and there was a small part of me that thought of what had happened every time I looked at Ryan, and felt as though he thought the same thing when he looked at me. Kodee knew how to handle Ryan, and I was sure it would do them both good to have some time together.

“We are safe here, aren’t we?” I asked.

Dillon nodded. “Aye. Try not to worry. No one followed us.”

I hoped he was right. I’d never managed to escape men like the Capellos, or Joe Nettie’s gang, before. Not that I’d ever really tried. There had been a couple of times, when I’d been much younger, where I’d tried to run, but someone had always fetched me back again, and I’d been beaten for attempting to leave. It wasn’t as though I’d ever had anywhere to go. Men like them were all I’d ever known. In a way, my position hadn’t changed that much, only this time I was in the company of men who actually seemed to care about me. They weren’t using me. I knew if I told Dillon I didn’t want to have sex with him, he would respect that choice. I guessed that was the main difference. They respected me, where no one ever had before.

Dillon must have recognized the worry on my face. “I’ll keep you safe, Rue. I’m not going to let anyone hurt you.”

“I want to believe you, I do, but I know those men better than you. They’ll shoot each of you without even blinking an eye.”

“Not if we shoot them first. Those men who took you off the street didn’t stand a chance against us.”

“You’re forgers, not gangsters.”

He touched the bottom of my chin, lifting my face to his. “We can be anything we want to be.” That teasing smirk was back, and I couldn’t help but smile in return. Somehow, being with Dillon made me think everything was going to be okay. “What about you, Rue? What did you want to be?”

“Free,” I replied, without even having to think about it. “I only ever wanted to be free.”

The smirk fell from his face. “Fucking hell.”

I pressed myself to him. “I feel free when I’m with you. With all of you.”

“You are,” he agreed. “You can leave us any time you want.”

My voice dropped to a whisper. “But what if I don’t want to?”

His forehead touched mine. “Then you stay with us, for as long as you want.”

I stood on tiptoes and pressed my lips to his, warm and soft, with just the slightest scrape of a five o’clock shadow. His arms wrapped around my waist and scooped me against him. My heart fluttered, a now familiar coil of arousal winding low and sensually in my belly. The hard ridge of his erection pressed against my stomach, and I ran my hands over the muscles of his back and shoulders. In my head, I pictured the array of tattoos across his skin, his body sinewy with lean muscle—a tough, hard man, and sexy as hell.

Unable to stand the clothing between us, I grabbed the hem of his t-shirt and broke the kiss long enough to drag it up and over his head.

He grinned down at me. “I like it when you get all forceful, Rue.”

“Is that right?” I gave him a little tap in the chest. “How forceful?”

His eyes glinted. “Just like that.”

I hit him again, harder. “Like this.”

He bit his lower lip and his gaze traveled down my body. “Now, how about you try that with a little less clothing on?”

“Only if you promise to do the same.”

We were playing, teasing each other. It was fun and sexy, and just like things tended to be with Dillon.

He didn’t hesitate in dropping his hands to his jeans and popping the button, exposing those V lines that ran down his hips. I caught my breath.

“Your turn,” he told me.

I pulled off my t-shirt and dropped it to the floor.

“And the bra. I’m bare-chested, so it’s only fair that you’re the same.”

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