Lights to My Siren (8 page)

My phone vibrated on my leg.

Jack-
Baylee can drive. Or Shiloh. We’ll come for the extra car tomorrow. Business tonight. New bird to pick up.

New bird was code for a woman that was escaping an abusive relationship.

On the side, Free did under cover charity work that removed women from dangerous situations. They used their knowledge and know how to make those women feel safe again. They accomplished it, too. They got them new names, places to live, and erased their old selves.

The Dixie Wardens had even helped a time or two in the past year.

That meant that option was out. They had other things they needed to concentrate on besides their drunk wives.

“I can’t drive her car; it’s too big and new.” Baylee apologized.

I looked down at her to see her staring at the message on his phone, studiously avoiding eye contact.

Confused, I raised my brows at her. “You drive an ambulance for work.” Sebastian stated.

She was shaking her head before I even finished the sentence. “I don’t.” She looked around nervously.

Something told me that there was more to this conversation than what was on the surface; I decided to wait until we weren’t at a party before I brought up the real reason.

“I’ll drive everyone home. This’ll be my last.” I declared before upending the bottle that was still sitting on the back of the bench.

“I can call my brother....” She offered.

I shook my head. I didn’t want her brother knowing where I lived; nor did I want him to know that his sister had been to my place. I didn’t want that big bastard interfering. I knew it wouldn’t last, but I needed to get my foot in the door before I took on Luke.

“It’s not a big deal. She’s my sister. I’ll take you home.” I stated, booking no room for an argument.

She scrunched up her nose at my statement, but surprisingly didn’t argue. “Want to go for a swim?” I asked.

She turned and surveyed the water. “Believe it or not, I don’t know how to swim. But I’ll go up to my chest or so, if you want.”

I stared at her, dumfounded. I didn’t know one single person that didn’t know how to swim. Hell, even my three year old knew how to swim. “You have a pool!”

Yes, that was the one intelligent thing I’d managed to get out.

My exclamation stopped the conversation going on around me, making it to where everyone was now listening to our conversation. Baylee’s face flamed in embarrassment, and I felt like a pile of shit for saying that loud.

Coming to a decision, I stood, pulling Baylee right along with me. “Let’s go get changed. I’ll help you.”

She came with all the enthusiasm of a four-year-old being sent to her room.

I caught the bag Winter threw at me as we passed, wondering what the hell she had in it to make it weigh fifty fucking pounds.

It was when we were in the house and making our way down the hall that I turned and flattened her to the wall with my body. “What’s wrong?”

She turned her face away, letting her hair fall down and cover her eyes. “Nothing.”

“When a girl says ‘nothing’ it means something. I know. I have a sister. Now, tell me what’s up.” I said as I ran my hand down her arm in soothing strokes.

“You’ve just touched on
every single one
of my sore spots in about an hour’s time. It’s not really that big of a deal, it’s just...sad.” She grudgingly replied.

I watched her face, watched the emotions play over it. “Will you tell me?” I rasped.

Instead of answering, she lifted her hands and placed them on my ribs, right underneath my armpits, and my brain short-circuited. The questions that were on the tip of my tongue were now gone, replaced by a burning need to feel this woman’s skin. Feel her hands running along my skin. My eyes connected with hers, and they stared.

I didn’t know how long we stood like that. Seconds. Minutes. All I knew was that I would absolutely fuck her against the wall if I didn’t get myself under control.

Leaning back reluctantly, I raised the hand that still had a death grip on her bag and placed it against her stomach. Her hands clutched at it desperately, still in the same spell I’d been in moments earlier while looking into her eyes.

I cleared my throat, and took another agonizing step back. I felt like my body was attached to her somehow, and stepping back from her was something that neither my mind, nor my body, wanted to do.

“You can change in that room right there.” I said, indicating with my finger to the room just beside my own.

That wasn’t a room I allowed anyone, except my sister, into. It was my own private room, and it meant a lot to me. So, by me allowing her to change in that room, I was welcoming her into my world.

She turned, opened the door, and closed it softly behind herself. The soft click of the door latch made my feet reluctantly start moving towards my own room.

I made quick work of my clothes, stripping off my boots, jeans, and then underwear, kicking them all into the corner of the room. I walked, naked, to my bathroom where I had my trunks hanging on a peg to dry out from my morning swim.

Still slightly damp, I yanked them up my legs, and tied the string into a knot just below my hips.

I went barefoot, padding back into the hallway and knocking on the door to my office. “You almost done?”

“Yes, I’m done.” She hesitated, and then added, “Can you tie me up?”

My grip on the handle tightened momentarily before I opened it and walked through the door.

I didn’t see her at first, but as soon as I made it all the way inside, I found her nearly behind the door, staring at a picture of me that was taken during my time in the Marines.

I’d been on my second deployment when that certain one had been taken. It was of me and three of my best friends the day before they were killed in a fire that had overtaken seven villages before it’d been contained.

“You all look cute in your bunker gear.” She smiled, looking over her shoulder at me.

Her smile froze on her face as her eyes traveled from my face, to my chest, and down to my lower half. She froze, taking in my swim trunks that hung low on my hips. I had to will my dick to behave, especially when the tiny little strings she was holding slipped loose from her hold, and loosened the tiny triangles that were the only thing covering her breasts.

Clearing my throat, I startled her, causing her to spin around, presenting me with her back. Not before I saw the dark outline of her pretty nipple, though. They weren’t huge, but they weren’t small, either. I wanted to suck them with my mouth and devour them.

Instead, I walked up behind her, lifted my hands, and followed the strings around her neck until it met the triangle of fabric covering her breasts. From there, I ran my fingers along the outside of the fabric, making Baylee shiver in anticipation.

Once my fingers met the strings that were hanging limply in front of her, I pulled until they were wrapped around her back. From there, I tied them in a knot.

“You were supposed to do it in a bow.” She instructed, voice heavy with something I couldn’t identify.

“I don’t do bows. I’ll do a knot though. Sorry.” I rasped before letting my fingers trail from the knot I tied down her back, until it came to a stop just above the curve of her ass. “Let’s go swim.”

Reluctantly, I took two steps away from her, tugged open the door, and stood to the side as she followed me out.

“I really don’t know how to swim. If you’re serious about me going out there, you’ve got to understand that.” She shivered, only this time it was because of fear, not need.

“I can do that. I won’t let you go. Promise.” I said soberly.

She stopped and turned just as we reached the back door.

“Pinky promise?” She asked, holding up her tiny little pinky.

I looked from her uplifted pinky to her face, seeing the seriousness in her eyes, and did what any man would do.

I fucking pinky promised.

Chapter 6

Never do anything you’d be too embarrassed to tell the paramedics

-Life Lesson

Baylee

Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

I shivered as the cold water went from my knees, to my thighs, to my crotch, and then to my stomach before Sebastian came to a standstill, turning to survey me before going in any further.

His eyes glanced down, and then right back up again.

“Cold?” He smirked.

My body chose that moment to shiver again. “What gave that away?” I asked dryly. “Was it the shivering or the chattering teeth?”

He looked at her closely, weighing something in his mind before he finally said, “Neither.”

My head turned slightly to the side, wondering what else would’ve given it away when he laughed. “Oh, Baylee. Please tell me you’re not as naïve as you seem.”

That, of course, only served to straighten my spine and narrow my eyes at him. Then what he was saying dawned, and my face flamed. Sebastian was laughing and hauling me closer to him before sinking deeper and deeper into the dark murky depths. The further out he got, the more my heart raced.

I also found that my arms were no longer crossed in indignation, but were wound so tight around Sebastian’s neck that I was pretty sure he couldn’t breathe. That didn’t make me let go, however. Instead, I wound my legs around his thick waist, and held on for dear life.

“I won’t let you go, I promise.” He insisted, wrapping an arm around my back tightly, pulling me impossibly closer than I’d been only moments before.

His arm felt like a metal band across my back, ensuring in its strength. My heart rate slowed, and it was only then that I realized how perilous this position could be.

My crotch felt like it was on fire where it was touching him. Could he feel it? The longer it sat against his warm, hard belly, the more and more heat it seemed to emit. Then my heart was pounding for a different reason.

“Have you ever tried to learn to swim?” He asked when he came to a stop with the water up to his collarbone.

“Uhh,” I said intelligently. “Yes. I took swimming lessons, but each time I got into the water about waist high, some sort of survival mode seemed to kick in, and I’d start freaking out. Up here,” I said, pointing towards my head. “I knew it wasn’t going to hurt me. Not with all those lifeguards, or my father around. But down here,” I indicated towards my heart. “I just couldn’t do it. I was scared shitless. My father tried, as did my mother, but after my last freak out, they didn’t try anymore.”

I hoped he wouldn’t ask more questions on the matter, but with the quizzical set to his mouth, I knew I wouldn’t be that lucky. I’d have to tell him my most embarrassing secret.

“Did you have an accident when you were younger to make you not want to be near water?” He asked, with his eyes still on my own.

I thought long and hard for a moment, contemplating the merits of just getting the inevitable over with early. He’d have to know eventually that I had ADHD. He’d wonder about the way I acted, and I’d have to tell him. Then he’d leave. Wouldn’t it be better to just go ahead and do it before I became attached? Sebastian, a man I’d only known for a little over two weeks, had the power to break me. Not wound me, but literally break me.

Finally, I was able to look away. Laying my head onto his shoulder, I looked out over the calm lake, and started to explain.

“I was around seven or eight when my parents decided that I had a problem. I was in gymnastics, karate, softball, soccer, and girl scouts, all within about a six-month period. I’d be interested in it for about a week or two, but never much beyond that. There were other signs, too. I was hyperactive, regardless of my sugar intake. I had hellacious temper tantrums. At first they thought I might be bi-polar, but then I went to the doctor, and they diagnosed me with ADHD.” I explained.

When he didn’t interrupt or say anything, I continued.

“They pretty much explained my symptoms to my parents, and knew exactly what I had before they even got to the actual tests. They prescribed me a medicine, and they saw a different kid. They decided to try out the swimming lessons again with me on the medication, however, that particular medicine mellowed me out so much that it made me overwhelmingly scared to try anything, and I guess that just kind of stuck.”

He waited to see if I’d say anything else, and when I didn’t, he spoke. “Are you on those meds now?”

“No, they changed a few times in my growing years. Now I’m on what they consider adult ADHD medication.” I told him.

I felt like I was holding my breath, waiting for him to just haul me to shore and drop me like the proverbial hot potato. But he didn’t. He surprised me.

“You wanna try to swim now?” He asked, surprising the ever-loving shit out of me.

I clung tighter.

He chuckled. “Alright, we won’t do that today. We’ll just get used to the water. So why the big secret? ADHD isn’t that much of a surprise, now that I think about it. It doesn’t make you any different than half of the United States.”

My snort escaped before I could contain it.

“What?” He asked, momentarily tightening the arm that was still clamped tightly across my back.

I lifted her head from his shoulder, and looked into his eyes. They reminded me of beer. A light beer, with the golden brown color. “That’s a bunch of bull. It’s affected my whole life.”

“You’ve let it affect your whole life. You’ve got it in your mind that you can’t change it, and you’ve sat in the same rut. You’re a very smart woman, I’ve learned that in the time I’ve been allowed to spend with you over the past couple of weeks.”

My temper flared. “My last boyfriend left me because I kept zoning out during sex. He said that I didn’t pay enough attention. That it was causing him to be sexually unsatisfied. That was his answer anyway, when I caught him wining and dining some blonde.”

Sebastian’s arm went from around my back to cup my ass, tilting it so my core grinded against his hard abs. “Honey, if he lost your attention during sex, he wasn’t doing it right.”

His arrogance astounded me. That and the hot pulsing need that was now coursing through my veins, and settling in my overheated core. Good thing we were in the water, otherwise he’d be able to tell I was soaking wet by his high handedness.