Page 12 of Mine to Keep

Chapter Seven

He slepton his back with an arm flung over his eyes as though trying to stop the light from streaming in the window. She always kept her blinds open, feeling more secure when her room was filled with light. She’d noticed that he always kept the curtains firmly closed in the spare room and that he liked sleeping in. Definitely a trait they didn’t share. Veronica was unapologetically a morning person. It used to drive Allie nuts when Veronica was in her room at the crack of dawn on the weekends, demanding she wake up and accompany her down to the beach or someplace else.

She wondered how Robert, a former soldier of fortune or mercenary or whatever he used to be, slept so deeply. Weren’t these guys supposed to sleep with one eye open and a giant serrated knife under their pillows, ready to cut the throat of the bad guy sneaking up on them? Not that she was complaining. The knife she envisioned didn’t go with the frilly purple pillow he was resting against. But seriously, how was this guy still alive? Anyone could sneak up on him. She’d managed to leave the room, eat breakfast and shower already without waking him up.

She leaned closer to examine a puckered hole in the flesh of his muscular bicep. Was that a gunshot wound? Her eyes widened and her breath caught as she imagined how much it must’ve hurt. Maybe someone shot him while he was sleeping. She wiggled a little closer until she was almost touching him and reached out to lightly touch the old scar. Then her eyes dropped down his chest, now clear in the morning light streaming through her window. She couldn’t help the gasp that escaped her lips. Now that she was seeing him clearly without a brain clouded by lust she realized his body was a battlefield.

She was so intent on his naked torso that she didn’t see his body tense just before he grabbed her and flipped her onto her back. She screamed in surprise as he slammed down on top of her, crushing her under his weight. Her wide eyes flew to his grinning face and she realized from the clear cast to his eyes that he’d probably been awake for a while.

So, she wasn’t the queen of stealthy after all. She smiled up at him. “Hey,” she said brightly.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” he said in a sexy, sleep roughened voice. She shivered underneath him and leaned up to peck him shyly on the lips. He held her head in his large hands and leaned down to smash his lips against hers, taking her mouth in a long, drugging kiss. God, she would never get enough of this man’s kisses!

Finally, he lifted his head and wiggled his body against hers. She could feel his erection between her thighs. She’d put on a pair of comfortable cotton pants and a sleeveless shirt after her shower. She was beginning to feel overdressed.

“I know you were checking me out when you thought I was sleeping,” he said wickedly. “You like what you see, Ms. Klassen?”

She rolled her eyes at him and slapped his side lightly. She admitted, “I was thinking you were pretty easy to sneak up on for a bodyguard. I’d have been able to kill you if I was a bad guy.”

He arched a thick eyebrow at her and smirked. He sat up, straddling her hips and reached under the pillow. He pulled out a gun that fit easily into the palm of his large hand. “You think so?” he asked huskily.

She swallowed, unsure how she felt about sleeping an entire night with a gun next to her head. She met his gaze. His eyes still held humour, but also a hint of steel. He wouldn’t sleep without protection. And he didn’t intend to sleep without her. Somehow, she knew these two things were irrefutable in his world. In their world, where death and destruction might be around the corner.

Okay, she could live with that. She was beginning to realize that this man was quickly finding a place in her heart. If his gun needed to sleep in her bed, then so be it. As long as it had its safety on, then she would treat it like a pet.

“And where is your giant serrated knife?” she asked archly. “No self-respecting gun for hire should ever sleep without one.”

He looked alarmed for a moment, began patting his massive chest and then the bed around them before slumping his shoulders. “Damn it, I must’ve left it in my other bed. I’m going to get kicked out of the Merc Union for this. After the last stunt I pulled, they’ll have my badge for sure.”

“Last stunt?” she asked, giggling as he continued to search her for the fake knife, tickling her sides and pulling her shirt over her head. His smile turned into a huge grin when he discovered she wasn’t wearing a bra.

“Yeah,” he mumbled, burying his face in her cleavage and licking her skin. She noticed he seemed to enjoy doing that. He used the hand that wasn’t holding the gun to envelop one of her breasts. He squeezed gently until she was arching under him and moaning. “They’re going to be pissed about me falling for the sexy femme fatale client, carrying her off into the night and then growing old with her. They’ll hate seeing us in our eighties together, sitting on a porch somewhere in the mountains drinking some of that crap herbal tea you’re always making, grey hair, slippers and newspapers. Us mercs are supposed to go out in a blaze of glory. In fact, I think I’m already past my expiration date.”

“That sounds amazing!” Veronica panted and then cried out as his tongue found one of her nipples and lashed until it was standing to attention.

“What?” he mumbled against the small mound of her breast. “Blaze of glory?”

“No!” she yelped when he gently bit the tender flesh. “Place in the mountains, you beast!”

He chuckled and glanced up at her, hazel eyes glowing. “You don’t think it’s too soon to start looking?”

Her breath hitched for just a second as she stared up at him. She knew they were wearing matching expressions of adoration and awe. She knew she should probably smack herself upside the head and go see her counsellor. She didn’t care. She just grinned like a fool, shook her head and whispered, “Not too soon.”

He nodded and lowered his head to drop a kiss on her belly. “Good, I thought I should at least wait four days before asking you to move in with me. Hey, have you eaten? Because I’m starving?”

She blinked at both the change in topic and the reminder that they’d really only known each other for a week and been living together for four days. She was about to confirm that she had indeed eaten when he yanked off her pants and underwear, tossed his gun to the floor and proceeded to show her exactly what he meant by starving. He insisted on licking her through two orgasms and in the process, proving to her that she was extremely vocal in the bedroom, not something she’d previously known about herself.

Afterwards, she begged him to make love to her again, but he refused, insisting that she was too sore to take him again until later. When she tried to reciprocate with her mouth, he wouldn’t let her, saying he was saving himself for later. He flung her over his shoulder and strode with her to the shower. Such a confusing, frustrating and completely wonderful man!

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