Page 50 of Quiet Protector
With our shouted words gaining us the attention of a handful of gala attendees, I resort to signing. It’s my go-to when I’m stressed. “Then what do you want, BJ? Help getting off charges? A file—”
“I want you…”the stranglehold his three little signed words placed on my heart is quickly relieved when he finalizes his sentence, “…to stop running. To tell the truth. To come clean on the real reason you cheated on me. What did I ever do to deserve that, Melody? What made you hate me so much you had to hurt me like that?”
“I never hated you. I loved you.” Tears roll down my cheeks as I sign words I’ve never signed to another man. “I still love you. I will always love you.”
Using his shock to my advantage, I spin on my heels, prepared to make my dash.
“Mellowy.” Brandon stomps down my name as loudly as he shouts it, but before I can remind him he’s not my protector anymore, much less the fact I’m not a child who melts over a silly nickname, he seizes my wrist, yanks me back, then seals his lips over mine.
His kiss is barely a peck, however, the damage it causes to my heart is catastrophic. It breaks the wall I built around it in an instant and has me acting recklessly.
Instead of acknowledging his embrace as a taken woman would, I take it from friendly to flirty by dragging my tongue along the seam of his lips. His growl sends liquid ecstasy rolling through my veins. His moans were hot and panty-wetting when I could only feel their vibrations, so imagine how unbelievable they are to hear them as well. It has me deepening our kiss in an instant, needing the fireworks sparking from the roots of my hair to the tips of my toes to be felt all over.
For how angry our embrace started, it should be filled with painful bites and cruel lashes of our tongues. Our kiss isn’t anything close to that. It’s a scorching embrace full of teasing nips and lingering touches. It fades the world from my mind as quickly as it drains the pain from my heart.
I’m not the only one caught unaware by our embrace. Brandon tugs me in closer before piercing his tongue between my wet lips. His growl is felt by both my heart and my pussy when he drags his tongue along the roof of my mouth, then I feel how turned on he is from my moans when our groins meet. He’s thick and heavy against a part of my body that’s only ever thrummed this way for him. His size is impressive considering how well-fitting his tuxedo is. I thought the nasty bite of his zipper would impact the size of his erection. It has to be digging in as every morsel of space in the crotch of his pants is being hogged by his cock.
Our kiss isn’t a quick its-over-before-it-started embrace. It lasts for several long minutes, only weakened when a strange, yet somewhat familiar voice trickles through my ears. “He’s gone. You’re good now.”
Brandon continues kissing me, acting ignorant to the man with tangy aftershave tapping on his shoulder. I want to ignore him too, but the quickest scan of piercing blue eyes, snow-white hair, and cut chin covered with thick, wiry hair ensures that will never happen. The last time I stood across from these two men at the same time, my life had ended only minutes earlier.
“Hi,” Grayson signs, smiling to ward off the heat of my uneasy stare.
My eyes bounce between Grayson and Brandon like silver balls in a pinball machine when Brandon asks, “What’s Henry doing here? He wasn’t on the guest list.”
Grayson’s smile grows as he waits for Brandon to remove my spit from his lips. Once he has everything cleared away, he answers, “I don’t know. We got reports on his whereabouts partway here. I wanted to tell you, but I also didn’t want to ruin your mojo, so…” He locks his eyes with mine. They’re twinkling with cheekiness. “You good, Melody? You look good.”
Don’t let his words fool you. He’s not asking about my mental well-being. His focus is on nothing but the lust beaming from my eyes, and we’re not going to mention the scent leeching from my pores, or Grayson will have you convinced he walked in on us fucking, which isn’t the case, despite the silent pleas of my libido.
My eyes snap to Brandon’s as quickly as Grayson’s when Brandon asks, “Did Henry see her?” He doesn’t need to say my name to know who he’s referencing. His whole I-was-born-to-protect-Melody-Gregg persona is vibrating out of him. It used to feel suffocating when we were kids, and today isn’t any different.
A topsy-turvy feeling hits my stomach when Grayson halfheartedly shrugs. “I doubt it. Your big noggin had her face pretty well covered.”
Grayson stops playfully ribbing Brandon in the stomach when my lust-sluggish brain finally clues on to what’s happening. “You kissed me to hide me?”
My lunch threatens to spill when Brandon’s focus shifts to me. Even if he wanted to lie, it would do him no good. His eyes are too telling. They reveal his lie long before his mouth produces it.
“Why would you do that?”And why did I stupidly fall for your trick?“You were hard.” I thrust my hand at the crotch of his pants. “You still are.”
Grayson’s laughter is nipped in the bud when two suffocating auras steal the air from his lungs. I don’t know who the man in the crisp black tuxedo is, but even in a room full of wealthy aristocrats, a man with a presence like Henry Gottle stands out.
When Brandon steps in front of me, butting his shoulder with Grayson’s, I’m tempted to slap him out of my way before charging across the room. I’ve barely been at the gala for forty minutes, yet I already want to leave. Can you blame me? I returned the kiss of my first love because I thought he couldn’t hold himself back for another second.
How foolish am I?
And let’s not get me started on the guilt creeping through my veins. I only agreed to attend this stupid fundraiser because it was a great campaign starter for Julian’s push for office, and what do I do within the first hour of arriving? Kiss another man in front of witnesses.
God, I’m not cut out for this life.
When Henry and the unknown gray-eyed man disappear under the hotel’s awning, Grayson’s naturally ingrained investigative instincts kick in. He moves to the far corner of the room to survey them from a close yet innocuous distance.
Brandon appears just as desperate to snoop, but since the sexual chemistry that forever crackles between us is quickly switching to unease, he maintains his command as my bodyguard, breaking my heart further.
“Why would you do that? Why kiss me to hide me?” My words are barely whispers since I had to force them through the pain clutching my throat, but I’m praying they’ll reach Fetu’s ears. If he realizes Brandon’s kiss was a ploy to keep me safe, he may grant my plea for me to tell Julian about my stupidity before him. Julian should hear it from me since I’m the one who fucked up. “Despite his…title, Henry Gottle isn’t a threat to me.”
I’m not lying. Henry is a cruel, vindictive, cold-hearted murderer, but even those who want to take him down know his crimes are never undertaken on the innocent. Unlike the men who hope one day to be him, he’s never been charged with rape, child molestation, sex trafficking, or any of those other horrendous crimes you usually associate with members of the cartel. If you were only to judge him by the stacks of papers in his file, some may say he’s no different than my father. He protects the innocent by slaying the men hurting them. There are better ways he could go about it, but at the end of the day, not everyone can rely on the justice system.
My parents couldn’t.
