Her Vigilant Seal (8 page)

“Ah honey, I’m sorry.” He stepped forward and put his arms carefully around her. He rested his cheek against her silky gold hair. “You do know since they were married at the time of Billy’s birth he’s still liable for support, right?”

“I do. But he said he’d tell Billy his mother was a whore and he wasn’t his father. Mason, he said vile and disgusting things. He called Billy names too. He said he was happy he was in foster care.” She shuddered against him. It seemed like the world conspired against this woman, and all she ever did was stand up and try again.

“I don’t want to put Billy through that. Because he would do it, Mason. He would.” He rocked her back and forth. Finally she lifted her head.

“I’m going to talk to him tonight. Enough is enough. This can’t happen again. His safety is paramount. I’ll handle it.” Mason’s first instinct was to say he could join the conversation, but he knew it was something best left between the siblings.

“What are you going to say?”

“I’m at least going to tell him our father has a new family and has moved on. Hopefully that will suffice.” She squared her shoulders and he admired her for it.

“I hope you’re right.”

“Let’s go inside, I have some chicken breasts marinating for dinner.”

“I didn’t bring you to my house so you could cook for me.”

“I’m not going to cook, Billy is. The sense of normalcy will do him good. It was one of the things we all used to do together before Mom got sick. It makes us happy. I hope you like chicken.” She smiled shyly at him. Hell, he’d like a marinated truck tire if she was serving it to him.

“I love chicken.” He opened the door to let them both back into the sweet smelling kitchen.

****

She’d tried to sleep the night before but she kept waking every few minutes with the feel of the men’s hands on her. More than her shoulder and ribs hurt—her breasts hurt. When she’d looked in the mirror she could actually see fingerprints from where she’d been mauled. Since then, she kept herself covered at all times, even putting on and taking off her bra underneath a towel so she didn’t have to see herself.

Tonight she had to get some sleep because she’d almost set fire to one of the dishtowels when she hadn’t turned off the gas burners. So she shook out two of the pain pills and huddled under the comforter in the guest bedroom. She waited and waited, checking her phone every fifteen minutes to see if time had gone by and she slept, but she hadn’t. She kept yawning. How could she be this tired and unable to sleep? Luckily, she snuck a couple of Mason’s books into her room. He had a huge library. She pulled the first two in a series taking place during World War II.

She was still reading when she fell asleep thinking she was driving a jeep for General Eisenhower.

“Sophia, honey, it’s okay wake up.” A gentle hand. A soothing voice.

“Get away from me.” She tried to hit the man but her shoulder hurt, and when she tried to scream he clamped his hand over her mouth.

“It’s me, Mason. Please Sophia, honey, it’s me. You’re safe.” It was the smell of him that finally got through to her. Her face was tucked against his chest. Now his hand wasn’t covering her mouth she took in deep shuddering gasps of air and it smelled of Mason. She was safe. She was safe.

It was like a dam broke. She started to cry for how scared she had been. She was crying for how dizzy and hurt she was and for the poor young girl who was living her life as a prostitute. She cried for Billy whose mother had died and whose dad was disowning him. And lastly she cried for herself and for the two years she spent taking care of a shell of a woman who often didn’t recognize her.

And all the time she sobbed he held her. Not once did he tell her to stop.

“Just let it out. I’ve got you honey. You’re such a good girl. You just let it out.” She cried harder because he was saying exactly what she needed to hear. But it wasn’t really true, he couldn’t be for real, and that made her even sadder.

“Not real…not real…not real,” she said over and over as he continued his litany of comforting words.

“What’s not real, honey?”

She tried to push away, but his hold was unmovable. Why did she want to push away when nothing ever felt better than being held in Mason Gault’s arms?

“What’s not real?”

“This. Being here with you.” This time when she pushed away he let her. She tried to get up but he stopped her.

“What do you need? Do you want a glass of water?”

“Yes please. And some toilet paper.”

“I think we might be able to upgrade to Kleenex.” He kissed her forehead and slipped off the bed. Oh God, he was wearing boxer briefs. He looked amazing. This was better than anything she ever imagined when she’d seen him surfing. She was still staring at the doorway when he came back in. He looked behind himself.

“Is there something in the hallway? A spider?” She kept staring, drinking him in. After a moment she saw when he caught onto what she was staring at. He gave her a slow sexy smile. God, it felt like her face went up in a cloud of smoke.

“You are adorable when you blush.” He sat back down beside her on the bed, and she looked at his lap. She couldn’t help it. For God’s sake, what woman could help herself?
They were boxer briefs!
Yep, the man was packing. And then, as she continued to stare, his body had a reaction that made her gaze shoot up to his face.

He was grinning at her.
Grinning.

“Ms. Anderson, I believe I told you I would like to go out on a date with you. You thought I was kidding. Now we have irrefutable proof. I
definitely
want to go out on a date with you.” He handed her some Kleenex.

She didn’t know whether to be horrified, embarrassed, or turned on.

“I hope you’re as turned on as I am,” he said as he took the used tissues and placed them on the nightstand.

“Are you out of your mind? I just blew my nose. You can’t be turned on.” She hit him on the chest.

“Care to take another look?” She kept her eyes squarely on his face. He handed her the glass of water, and she drank half of it while keeping her eyes on his face. He continued to grin.

“Your brother sleeps like the dead.” She handed him the glass and giggled.

“Yeah, I know. I remember Mom would sometimes take the lids off of pot pans and crash them like cymbals to wake him up. Some mornings she would let me do it.” Sophia smiled at the memory.

He got up and closed the bedroom door and put the water glass on the nightstand.

“That will stain.”

“It’s not my focus at the moment. I want to kiss you. Nothing more, just a kiss or two. Then we’re going to crawl under the covers and you’re going to go to sleep in my arms. If you have a nightmare I’m going to fight the bad guys for you.” She couldn’t help it, she looked downwards again, and this time there was no mistaking his level of arousal.

“Eyes on mine, honey. He does what I tell him to do. I’m telling him I’m just kissing the pretty girl tonight and then she is falling asleep in my arms.” He used one finger to push her chin upwards.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” she protested.

“Well hell, if I do the kissing right, it won’t be fair to you either.” She giggled again. God, he was sexy. His eyes, his smile, and that body.

“Shouldn’t you be wearing your sling?”

“It’s uncomfortable. Anyway, they said I would just need it for a few days, and that the stitches and bandage would be enough.”

“It hasn’t been even two days yet.” He picked it up from the chair with her clothes, and he helped her put it back on. “Humor me.” He fanned her hair around her shoulders after he settled the strap around her neck. “You have beautiful hair.”

“It’s just yellow.” She stared at his chest. God, they must do a lot of training. He actually had washboard abs.

“Honey, it’s honey, with shots of gold and in the sun I can even see red. Your hair is gorgeous. With as many different facets as you have, don’t even get me started on your eyes.” She smiled and batted her eyelashes. He laughed out loud.

“You minx, so you know about your eyes? Let me talk about your lips.”

“How about I talk about your shoulders?” Sophia touched the top of his big shoulder. He felt warm and his muscles jerked under her touch. She stroked downward so she could drift into his chest hair. It felt so good she couldn’t help herself. She leaned forward and pushed her nose close and inhaled the scent of Mason.

“Honey, you need to stop it otherwise we’re not going to keep this limited to just a few kisses.” His voice was shaky. She smiled and inhaled again. One big hand cupped the back of her head and the other slid down to the small of her back. He pushed downwards with his chest, until she was lying on her pillow looking into the glittering blue depths of Mason’s eyes.

She realized this was so much more intimate than the diner. There was just the soft glow of the bedside lamp, and they were in a bed, and he was in a pair of boxer briefs.

In a heartbeat he caught on to her hesitation.

“Sophia, are you okay? Let me go put on my sweatpants. I’ll be right back.” He started to get up.

“No!” She clutched him. “Don’t leave me.”

“I’m an ass. I should have thought this through more. You’ve just been through a horrific event. I shouldn’t be in bed with you.” He stroked back her hair.

“I can’t explain it. I was so turned on but then for a second I panicked. It doesn’t make any sense.” She stroked her hand down his chest. Touching his skin anchored her.

“It makes sense to me. You had an emotional flashback. It’s going to happen.” He brushed a kiss against her forehead.

“But you’re the one who saved me. I trust you. I want you. Your boxer briefs are killing me. How can I even compare you to what happened in the alley?” Her nails dug into his chest.

“It’s going to take time. Your mind and emotions still need to heal.”

Sophia licked her lips and considered what he said. His eyes darkened as he watched her.

“Do that again,” Mason begged huskily.

“What?” Do what again?” Sophia asked confused.

“Lick your lips.”

Sophia slowly moistened her lips with her tongue. He bent closer, and she could almost taste the mint of his toothpaste.

“Again.”

She did it again, and he moved even closer.

“One more time.”

Sophia pushed out her tongue and started to swipe her lower lip, and he caught it between his teeth. She whimpered. He stroked her captured flesh with his tongue, back and forth causing a frenzy of sensation. She tried to push forward, but he held her captive. She tried to pull back but she was his to do with as he willed. He wanted to play, he wanted to torture. Then he pulled her tongue into the moist cavern of his mouth and sucked. Her nipples peaked and her core flooded. She pushed up, and gasped. He somehow knew the difference, and pulled back.

“You need to do things my way Sophia. I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“I’m not hurting myself,” she rushed to assure him.

He looked down at her.

“No lies, not even the little ones, okay? You just hurt yourself when you pushed against me, right?”

She thought about it, she hated making a big deal out of small things, so that’s why she said she wasn’t hurting herself.

“Mason, I just want to be strong for you. I don’t want to sound weak and needy.” She looked at the bedspread and avoided his gaze.

He was silent for a long time.

“How in the hell could you ever sound weak? Jesus, Sophia, you’re so brave you scare the hell out of me. But here’s the deal. I need to know I’m not hurting you. I have to be able to trust you’ll be honest with me.”

She didn’t answer.

“Sophia,” his voice commanded a response.

“Okay.”

“Now lie back.”

She lied down on the pillow and stared at him. He stroked her neck at her pulse point and then placed a kiss on it, sucking gently. As he scraped her with his teeth it took everything she had to stay still. He rained kisses up her jaw and soft kisses on her bruise, until once again he was sipping at her lips and their tongues were tangling. This time she couldn’t help when her hips pushed up and met the solid warmth of his cock. When he broke off the kiss she rushed to assure him.

“Nothing hurt this time I promise. It all felt so good.”

“That’s what I want for you. I want you to have joy and pleasure.” Staring into his blue eyes, with his sandy hair falling onto his forehead, she could see his sincerity.

“But you don’t know me,” she protested.

“Don’t I? Think about it. I really want you to think about it.” He swooped back in, licking and nipping until she opened, not wanting to miss a bit of taste or flavor of Mason. He retreated, and she grabbed his head.

“No,” she tried to pull him back.

“Yes, otherwise I won’t be able to stop.”

“I don’t care, I want this. I want you,” her voice breathy.

“It’s too soon, honey. We still haven’t gone on our date.” He smiled, smoothing the hair back from her temples.

“This is a date,” she protested.

“This is a gift.” He stood and pulled back the comforter. Once again she admired his body and found herself squeezing her thighs together…tightly. Maybe after he fell asleep she could find relief on her own.

“I swear to God I know what you’re thinking and you need to stop.” He slid in beside her and pulled her into his arms. She blushed, he couldn’t possibly know. But then she felt his hand pulling up her sleep shirt and sliding under her panties.

“I think you were thinking about this.” His hot breath was warm against her temple.

Oh God, oh God, oh God. Two of his fingers captured the bud of her clitoris, and another circled it. She was so wet he was able to slide and glide. His hand moved her hair as he pinched her bud of nerves. He bit her neck, and she let out a soft shriek as rapture coursed through every cell of her body.