Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) (10 page)

Chapter Ten

Hannah Blue

Hannah slowly opened her eyes and stretched, a giant, amazing stretch that felt so damn good, she wanted to do it again and again. She hadn’t felt this good in days!
It’s remarkable what a good night’s sleep will do for a person.
She sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed, just narrowly missing Rush’s head as she put her feet down.

“Oh!!” she yelped.

“What?!” Rush said, jackknifing up into a sitting position, looking bleary-eyed around the room and then up at Hannah.

“Oh hi! Good morning,” he said, his voice rough with sleep. With tousled hair and sleepy eyes, he looked good enough to devour.

Not.

Getting.

Involved.

“Hi,” Hannah said, and couldn’t help but grin down at him down on the floor. “Were you going to protect me from
Chupas
from down there?” she asked teasingly.

“Well, you’re on the only bed in the house, and I didn’t figure you’d appreciate waking up next to me,” he replied.

Hannah ran her eyes down the length of him, from his chiseled chest down to his gym shorts that were…sporting morning wood.

Her eyes darted back up to his. It was safer up there.

“Yeah, ummm…I’m gonna go use the bathroom.” It was hard to be coherent around a sleepily sexy man like Rush. They’d never spent the night together during high school, and waking up with Rush even in the same room was a delicious treat.

After her morning ablutions, she walked into the kitchen to find Rush still wearing his low-slung gym shorts but this time, had a kitchen towel slung over his shoulder as he cooked. She gulped.

Not.

Getting.

Involved.

It seemed to be getting harder by the moment to keep that mantra in mind.

Harder…oh, there are parts of him that get harder and are oh so lovely to play with.

Her eyes snapped to his when she realized that she’d been openly ogling said parts,
and
that he’d caught her. Again.

“How does a veggie omelet sound?” he asked, smirking. Bastard wasn’t even trying to hide the fact that he’d caught her.

“Sure!” she said, overly cheerful at the prospect. Something,
any
thing to do with her hands and eyes that did not include Rush’s body.

“You still like sugar and creamer in your coffee?” Rush asked, rummaging around in the cupboards for the sugar bowl.

“No, I’ve slowly taught myself to drink it black, actually. Less carbs and a lot easier to find when you’re in a different country. Not every culture believes that you should dilute your coffee to the point of unidentifiability, so I found that if I couldn’t handle drinking it black, I just didn’t get to drink it.”

He handed her a steaming mug. “Well, it makes it easier, that’s for sure,” he said with a grin. “I was sure we were going to have to go for a grocery run this morning to buy some fancy froufrou shit for you.”

She laughed. “Only
you
would use the term ‘froufrou’ and ‘shit’ in the same sentence,” she commented drily.

“The benefits of being raised in a froufrou household and then ending up in a motorcycle club,” he said with a laugh, looking up from the chopping board.

She offered to help him prep something and he put her to work chopping up the mushrooms. After assembling all of the ingredients, Rush began to stir-fry them. “Take a seat and relax,” he said, gesturing to the swing-out seats on the other side of the island he was working at.

She sat down, sipping her coffee and enjoying watching him hard at work. It was a real treat to watch someone else cook a meal. At Santa Maria’s, she’d helped with the preparation of almost every meal as a part of her duties there. It’d been a small staff and everyone pitched in on all daily tasks. Just sitting there, watching, seemed luxurious.

Especially the part where she got her fill of simply drinking in Rush’s presence, seeing the small changes that’d happened since high school. His hair was much longer now that he wasn’t under the strict control of his father and it curled at the nape of his neck in blond waves that made her want to run her fingers through it.

And oh fuck, his
body
. He’d been tall, lanky, and damn cute in high school, but here was the body of a man, not a boy. His muscles rippled under his skin as he moved around the kitchen and she silently thanked God that he hadn’t bothered putting on a shirt yet. It would be a tragedy, really, to be denied this sight.

When he placed her omelet in front of her, stuffed to the brim with peppers, onion, garlic, and mushrooms, she decided that
this
was the tragedy of the day - to have been denied Rush’s cooking all of her life.

“Oh my God,” she exclaimed around a mouthful of food, ignoring manners for the moment that dictated that she actually swallow her food before talking, in favor of giving an enthusiastic review. “This is
wonderful
. Did you go to culinary school and forget to tell me?”

He sat down next to her in the other swinging chair and pulled up against the counter built into the island, digging into his own breakfast. The man always could eat.

“No, I just really like eggs for breakfast. I’ve experimented a lot over the years.” He shrugged. “Eggs are high protein and quick to cook, so they’re my go-to breakfast.”

They chatted as they ate and after the wonderful, filling breakfast and a whole lot of coffee, Hannah felt ready to take on the world.

Except, she really had no idea what to do. Her life usually included some kind of purpose - either she was at a school and thus preparing lessons or grading papers, or she was on vacation and out
doing
something every day. Hiking, kayaking, biking, swimming…it was hard to remember the last time that she literally had
nothing
to do. It was so…weird.

After they rinsed the dishes and put them into the dishwasher, Hannah turned and stared at Rush. “So, like, what are you thinking we do today?” No agenda, no to-do list…it was a strangely scary being that free.

“Well yesterday, I took all of those nails out of the boards from that old barn that I helped pull down, and was planning on using them in the guest bathroom upstairs. If you want to help me carry the boards from the garage and get them up the stairs, that alone would be huge.”

“Sure, that’d be fine,” Hannah said cheerfully. It really did sound like fun, in a DIY-home-improvement-TV-show kind of way.

They walked out of the kitchen door into the backyard and over to the detached garage. “Never try to remodel a house without a workshop to put shit into,” Rush said, off-handedly. “I’d love a garage
and
a workshop, but beggars can’t be choosers. At least for now, this is what I have to work with.”

He pulled up on the overhead door and just as it slid into place, his phone began vibrating in his back pocket. He pulled it out and checked caller ID. “Hold on,” he said to Hannah and then answered. “What’s up?”

“Hannah’s dad is pulling up to the house,” Hannah heard a tiny, tinny voice say. They both looked up towards the front of the property.

Dammit! Dad is gonna be pissed.

He hadn’t exactly been happy with the idea of her leaving the hospital with Rush; he’d be even less happy to find her sleeping in his bedroom.

Rush looked over at Hannah as he said, “Let him in; I’ll take it from there.”

He shoved the phone in his back pocket. “Ready to go see your dad?”

“Of course!” Hannah said, trying to act like she was excited at the prospect. And she was glad to see her father. It was the accompanying butt chewing that she could do without.

They walked through the house to the front door, Hannah anxiously trailing Rush. He opened the door just as her dad raised his hand to knock.

“There you are!” her dad exclaimed, looking past Rush to Hannah, hurrying over to hug her. He pulled back, inspecting her. “How are you healing up? Is everything going okay?

“I’ve been calling you for two days and you can’t answer the damned phone?”

Without giving Hannah a chance to respond, he rounded back on Rush.

“I lied my ass off on national television, so the least you can do is tell me how my daughter is doing and what the hell is going on around here!”

“Oh shit, Dad, I’m sorry, I forgot about my phone,” Hannah jumped in, trying to deflect attention away from Rush. “It’s been a crazy couple of days and I just forgot about checking it. I’m not even sure it’s charged anymore. I wasn’t ignoring you on purpose, I promise.” She reached out and grabbed her father’s hand, pulling it to her chest, looking up at him pleadingly. She was begging him with her eyes to leave the bigger issue alone - the fact that she was here with Rush.

The guy who broke her heart at high school graduation.

The guy who her father had nothing but biting comments to make about ever since. She knew he was protecting her in his own way, but right now, she didn’t want his protection.

If she ever wished for telepathy, now was the time for it.

He reached out his hand and stroked her hair away from her face. “I’m happy to see you doing better, Hannah B,” he said, and pulled her in for a kiss to the forehead. She closed her eyes, thankful that he’d “heard” her unspoken request.

“But you!” he shouted, pulling Hannah to his side as he turned on Rush. “What are your intentions with my daughter?”

Hannah turned red instantly, completely mortified. “Dad!” she cried. It was bad enough that he pulled these kinds of stunts on a teenager, but she was most definitely
not
a teenager any longer. “You cannot—”

“No, it’s okay,” Rush said, interrupting her, talking for the first time since her dad had arrived. “It’s a legitimate question. My intentions,” he said, turning towards her dad, “are to protect your daughter from the
Chupacabras,
until they are apprehended by the police.”

“Why does she have to wait here while that’s happening?” her dad volleyed back. “I can protect her at my house just as well.”
And then she won’t be here with you
, was the unspoken end to that sentence.

“Because it isn’t just me.” Rush walked over to the entryway and opened up both doors, allowing the heat and light to spill in. He let out a loud whistle, and within moments, three Blue Devils were walking up the sidewalk.

“You need us?” one of them asked Rush. Hannah didn’t recognize him but felt a rush of gratitude that these men were willing to put their lives on the line for her.

“There are
four
Blue Devils protecting her every moment of every day,” Rush said quietly, turning back to her dad. “Didn’t you wonder how I knew to open up the door when you’d arrived? I allowed you to come in here. I could’ve had you taken down at the front gate,
if
I’d wanted to.”

Turning back to the members, he said, “We’re good, thanks guys. Just discussing security measures.” They headed back to their posts and Rush closed the front doors.

“I take the security of your daughter very seriously, Mr. Wright,” he said intensely, staring at him without blinking. “I saved her life the night I went to the hospital. I’m the one who took down the
Chupa
and stuffed him into that supply closet.”

He walked out of the room and returned momentarily, a syringe in his hands.

“The
Chupa
had this in his hand the night he visited the hospital.” Hannah closed her eyes, fear washing over her again.
If Rush hadn’t been there…

“Now,” he said evenly, quietly, his anger replaced with a conciliatory tone, “I understand your frustration with our lack of communication with you. It was a pretty crazy day yesterday and I didn’t think to contact you after you held that press conference, nor did I think to contact you last night to tell you that Hannah was doing great. You and Hannah can set up a schedule for those kinds of phone calls, but I just wanted you to know that I
will not
let Hannah out of my sight.”

Her dad advanced on Rush then until they were toe-to-toe. “And after that?” he said just as evenly. Just as quietly. “What happens when the
Chupas
are caught and are sent to jail? Do I have to spend months listening to my daughter cry again?”

“DAD!” Hannah yelled at the top of her lungs, and both men turned towards her, surprised. Quite frankly, she was surprised she could get that loud. She wasn’t someone who yelled very often. “I am
not
a child!” she continued, stalking over to her dad, poking him in the chest with her finger. “I did not mean to ignore your phone calls, truly I didn’t. But whatever happens between Rush and me is between Rush and me, and is none of your concern. I will
not
stand for you talking to Rush like I am a simpleton who needs to be protected.”

She was breathing heavily when she was done, her fists on her hips, glaring at him. He stared back for a moment, gravely, and then said, “Okay. I can accept that. I know I wasn’t the most involved father when you were growing up - I just didn’t know what to do with a little girl. And since you’ve graduated from college and traveled all over the world, you’ve always been so self-sufficient, I didn’t think you needed a dad. You being kidnapped and then turning up at a clinic in Mexico in a coma, was the scariest thing I’ve ever lived through. I guess I was just trying to make up for lost time.”