Page 29 of Lahaina Noon

Bridget met his gaze squarely, “Bring it, Cover Boy.”

Sometime after ripping each other’s clothes off and biting or licking every square inch of each other’s skin, they ended up gasping face down on the covers. Her head near the foot of the bed, him diagonally, his legs draped over hers.

He propped his head up and, grinning, slapped her lightly on her beautiful bare behind.

She shrieked and turned to glare at him. “You’ll pay for that,” she declared, “After I get the ability to use my legs again.” She flopped back down on the bed.

“I do have to say, dear sweet little Bridget,” he practically purred near her shoulder, “I love this little tattoo on your back. Very apropos.”

She groaned. “Shit, I forgot about that. I don’t see it every day. A little souvenir of that trip to Cabo.” she explained.

“A dragon,” he said quietly, tracing the outline of the small tattoo in the middle of her back. He gently lifted her wrist and placed a kiss on the three black pawprints on the inside of it. “And these?” he inquired.

“My cats,” she explained. “I have three black cats, Dante, Poe, and Lovecraft. Next to my son, they’re my heart. They’ve been there forme through thick and thin and although they can be assholes, they are still my other babies.”

“Very literary of you,” he said. “So, a horror fan?”

“Mmm, more of anything odd or a little unusual. Horror, sci-fi, thriller. I was a hard-core goth for most of high school. You would have laughed at my black jeans and combat boots.” She rolled over and stared up at him.

He smiled. “Oh, I need to see pictures of that.”

She shook her head. “Nope. Not gonna happen. That part of my life is long gone. Thank goodness there were no cell phones or social media sites then. I would never live that down.”

He leaned in close. “Challenge accepted,” and kissed her gently.

Just then, they heard the front door open and close. “Mom?” She heard Gabriel call out to her in a panicked voice.

Chapter 18

“Gabe!” She gasped andleaped from the bed with a strength she didn’t know she possessed. She was almost to the door when strong arms wrapped around her waist, and she was yanked back against Vaughn’s hard body. “Let me go!” she growled at him, slapping at his arm, which was locked like an iron band. Damn the man and his muscles, that’s her baby!

“Clothes,” he hissed in her ear.

She stopped struggling and remembered that, yes, she was stark naked. She nodded, and he carefully released her. She turned and ran for the pile on the floor and sifted through it, getting dressed in record time.

Somehow Vaughn beat her to it and was out the door before she could fasten her bra.Stupid thing, absolutely invented by a man as some sort of evil torture device, she grumbled. She quickly threw her hair in a ponytail and ran out after Vaughn to find her son. She found them in the living room, Gabe sitting on one of the sofas, Vaughn next to him, with a hand on his shoulder.

Gabe looked up and saw her before jumping to his feet. “Mom!” he said again and ran to her arms.

“Baby!” she soothed as she wrapped him in her arms and held him tight. “Shh,” she cooed, “I’ve got you.” She looked over at Liam and glared at him as he stood awkwardly behind the couch, her son’s backpack in hand. “You,” she ground out between clenched teeth. “Talk. Now.”

Gabe leaned back, waving his hands. “No, Mom, no, it’s not Liam’s fault! He got there just in time.”

She turned her gaze to her frightened son and smoothed his hair back. “What happened, Gabe?” she asked softly.

He trembled and hugged her again. “They almost got me.”

She looked helplessly at Vaughn and then Liam, pleading for them to tell her what was happening.

Liam walked around the couch and led them both to sit down. He sat close by on the chaise, sitting on the edge like he might need to jump up at any minute.

“Well,” he started haltingly, searching Vaughn’s face and receiving a go-ahead nod, launched into his tale. “I got a call from Vaughn earlier about the, uh, visit you experienced at lunch today and he was concerned for your safety. So, knowing you were going to go over to get some things, I went ahead to pick Gabe up from school, you know make sure he got home quickly so we could move fast. I got there and he was hanging out back with his friends. Everything seemed normal, so I pulled the Rolls up to the curb and walked over. You guys had the Lambo so I figured he’d seen the Rolls before and would be comfortable with it. The guys all wanted to checkit out, so I was showing them some of the special features of the car and maybe I was a little distracted, but I looked up and saw Gabriel walking away with a shad… uh, shady-looking person.

“I ran over and was able to wrestle him away. I didn’t want to take him to your house in case they were watching, so I brought him straight here. I didn’t explain too much, just that someone was looking for you and may have been trying to take him to get to you.” Liam lapsed into silence, hanging his head in shame.

Bridget patted Gabe and smiled at him, kissing his forehead, before she stood and went to Liam.

He sighed, and his shoulders tensed.

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