Page 29 of Her Surprise Protector
“But how are you going to do that?” I asked, my voice filled with a conflicting chorus of belief and doubt. “How will you know when Oscar is planning to show up at my house?”
Riker stepped into the light, gestured toward a lounge chair and sat in the one next to me. “Oscar probably thinks your house doesn’t have security anymore since you’re not home. I’m going to make things nice and simple; pick up your car from my house, take it to yours, park it out front, then turn on the lights inside. Oscar will think you’re back, except you won’t be.” Riker’s chuckle was devious. “I’ll be waiting for him, and I’ll arrest him for trespassing or breaking and entering.” Riker’s large, calloused palms pressed to mine. “See? Simple and easy. I’m going to set the trap this weekend. If he doesn’t show, I’ll do it again next weekend.”
“It sounds so simple and easy,” I agreed, although something sat very wrong in my stomach with this entire plan. The feeling was the one I got when I forgot my phone charger on a trip. I knew better than to discount it. So, I sat silently, trying to figure out what bothered me so much.
The creeping worry in my gut coalesced into something I understood. “Aren’t your security agents still on my house?” I couldn’t muster up a smile to send Riker’s way in response to his own.
“Yes. But they’ll back off when I get there to monitor things from inside and wait farther away than usual, just in case.”
“Why can’t they handle Oscar?”
“Because I want to. I told you I would handle this personally, and I will.”
“B-but…” My words ran dry, knowing Riker would dismiss my concerns. “Can’t you leave it to them and stay here? I know you want to make sure things go right, but you said yourself that Oscar might not even show up this weekend.”
“Elena, it doesn’t matter how many weekends it takes. I want you to be able to go home.” His eyes softened. “I know you’ve given the city a good try, but I can tell you’re done with this place, and I can’t blame you.”
“No,” I said, half laughing, half miserable. “No. That’s not what I mean. I know what you promised, and I know that you’ll keep it. I just… I want you to stay here with me. With us.” He couldn’t miss my glance toward Bree’s window. “I don’t…I don’t want to lose you. Especially I don’t want to lose you in the process of catching Oscar.”
Finally, I confessed what was truly worrying me. Riker got up and sat on an ottoman, moving it to the end of my lounge chair. He gripped my ankles and pulled me to him. His thumbs caressed my legs, trapping them between his sides and arms. “Elena. I’m very skilled in Krav Maga, Taekwondo, Muay Thai-”
“Okay, okay, you can stop. I get it. You’re my warrior… my secret protector.” I briefly tried to extricate my legs from his grip, but his iron arms refused to give at all. “I know. And I know you’re well trained. But Oscar’s dangerous.” A little shiver raised goosebumps on my arms when I remembered the sheer hatred I had seen in Oscar’s eyes the day Riker had come to my rescue.
“If he weren’t dangerous, the security would never have been necessary, and you would have gone on thinking I was a selfish, asinine jerk forever,” Riker pointed out. “Security exists to deal with dangerous people so that innocent ones don’t have to. Has Oscar been trained in martial arts?”
“No, not as far as I know.” I shook my head.
“Exactly. I’ve dealt with a lot more dangerous people, I promise. Oscar will be a walk in the park. I’ll get one or two good punches in that will make me feel better, and then I’ll put him away… and we will both feel better.”
My toes tried to shrink into my body like a turtle’s head when he gently wiggled a finger up and down on the sole of my foot. “Stop it!” I shrieked, trying fruitlessly to snatch my foot away. “Riker, stop! I’m going to- I’m going to kick you,” I threatened, a sudden bout of giggles breaking my threat in half.
I had no chance of freeing the beleaguered foot on my own, but Riker stopped as I had asked and leaned forward, placing the mischievous hand on my thigh instead. I breathed a sigh of relief that turned into a slightly gusty gasp when his hand began to move upward.
“Riker,” I admonished him, wanting nothing more than to throw myself in his arms, but also fully aware that he was trying to worm his way out of the issue and into my comfortable yoga pants. “At least promise you’ll be careful? Promise,” I ordered a little more sternly, grabbing his hand to stop its progress. “I’m serious, Riker. I…”
Suddenly, thewhyhit me. I knew why I was so serious, what Riker meant to me, and how to tell him all in one rush of euphoric nervousness. “I love you. And I can’t lose you.”
Riker’s thick fingers closed over my smaller ones. “Elena.” My eyes darted between each of his, trying to decide which one would tell me he understood. “I love you too. I’ve loved you for weeks. But don’t you dare do that. Don’t say goodbye because you’re afraid something is going to happen to me. I’ve been trained for this, and I know what I’m doing. I will come back to you and Bree. Okay?”
I playfully grabbed a fistful of his hair when he tried to lay his lips on my leg, ignoring the intense fluttering of my ecstatic heart. “That’s great. Promise.”
“I promise, Elena… I promise.”
My body immediately became putty in Riker’s hands. I had gotten the promise I wanted, and now Riker was going to make me pay for doubting his skills in currency I was more than willing to pay.
Riker and I had sex many times by now. But we still could talk about anything and everything without needing to have sex all the time. We had gotten to know each other and built a system of dynamics between us before giving intimacy a shot. So our night on the beach hadn’t changed a single thing in how we interacted. Riker was still my best friend, and I was his.
Our relationship was just like the one I had always fantasized about but never managed to find. The physical side of a relationship always seemed to infringe on the mental, making changes so subtly I hardly noticed them until I was over my head involved. But not with Riker. With Riker, everything was different in the best way possible - and it was real, not a fantasy.
So, when he decided I didn’t need my yoga pants, I agreed with him wholeheartedly because I was getting warm in a certain place that responded to Riker’s experienced touch. A little cool air would be nice, and that meant that the loss of my panties didn’t really bother me either.
However, that cool air lasted for about two seconds before something hot and wet replaced it, setting pleasurable fire to the most sensitive spot on my body. All I could do was squeak in surprise because Riker’s strong fingers held my thighs in place. The veins on his arms were standing out as he denied my efforts to wiggle away…or wiggle closer? I couldn’t tell what I was doing because this sudden rush of pleasure was driving me crazy.
Now I was a pool of heat that begged for another form of attention, something to lessen the emptiness and speed along the process Riker had begun. That wasn’t to be, though, not yet. Riker raised his head, kissing his way up my stomach and chest as he fluidly lifted my comfy T-shirt at the same time.
Overcome with the desire to see his shoulders ripple every time he moved his arms, I closed my arms over my shirt and pulled at his instead. He resisted for a moment but gave in when I refused to budge. A joke aboutladies firstwould have been appropriate here, but a hand slipped under my T-shirt, finding me braless and using two fingers and one nipple to stop the words in their tracks. The pulse between my legs became a mind of its own, and I finished what Riker had started, tossing away my own shirt.
Nothing kept our bodies apart. Riker knelt between my knees where I sat, pressing his chest against mine and going in for a sweet kiss. My excited brown nubs caught on the grooves of Riker’s muscles, adding to the pleasure of our deep, undulating kisses. Somehow, my ass had scooted to the edge of the lounge chair, and I might have even fallen off if Riker’s immovable, brawny chest hadn’t been there to stop me.
