Chapter Twelve
My Girl Deserves Gentle
After Sam had a shower and got on the phone, I hopped into the shower and did what I did since I started things with Sam which meant the whole shebang of shaved legs, shaved pits, all over lotion, half-squirts of perfume in strategic areas and a cute outfit of white short-shorts and tight-fitting, coral pink, eyelet camisole that kicked ass with my tan.
Seeing as we were on the Med and I was confined to quarters due to the possibility that my life would imminently be snuffed out, I forewent makeup and the big blow out of my hair as such effort was clearly unnecessary. But I did blow out the long fall of bangs that fell past my eyes because, really, if I didn’t, it could get scary. The rest of my hair I was going to let dry curly, wavy and untamed and if Sam thought it made me look like a wild woman raised by apes, so be it.
I had bigger things to worry about.
Seriously.
And anyway, he’d seen me at the beach and he hadn’t escaped in the middle of the night so I figured I was good.
Then I went to the bed, laid on my back, cocked my knees, stared at the ceiling, tried and failed to eavesdrop on Sam’s various conversations in the lounge, gave up on that and was far more successful in plotting Cooter’s grisly death and imagining it to its culmination.
Unfortunately, Cooter was already dead.
Still, a girl could dream.
I also counted down the minutes to when I could start calling my family and friends. I wasn’t sure I was going to get into the fact that my life was in danger, that might be too much after the, “Sampson Cooper is doing me” news.
I had an hour left to wait and Cooter had died in twelve bloody, painful, macabre ways in my murderous fantasies that were even more bloody and macabre than having half his head blown off when I felt Sam’s presence enter the room.
I kept my eyes to the ceiling even as I felt Sam’s presence enter the bed.
He stretched out beside me and I felt his hand come to rest on my belly.
“What are you thinking?” he asked quietly.
“I’m plotting Cooter’s murder,” I answered.
This brought silence and then, “Baby, he’s dead.”
“Good, I can’t go to prison for plotting the murder of a dead man.”
“Kia –”
I turned my head and caught his eyes. “Sam, he put a hit on me.”
Sam pressed his lips together, his eyes went hard and scary and I made a mental note not to remind him my dead husband hired a hit man to murder me.
It was clearly time to change the subject.
“In an hour, I’m starting the round of calls to my friends and Mom and Dad telling them about us.”
“All right.”
“I’m not informing them of the, uh… other stuff.”
“Probably a good idea.”
I drew in breath.
Sam spoke.
“Do you want some good news?”
“Yeah, Sam, that would work,” I replied and he grinned.
“Clinic in Heraklion called. Your tests came back clean.”
Well, thank God for that.
Sam had located a private, clean, exclusive (by the looks of it, though I wouldn’t know since he’d insisted on paying, something he insisted on doing all the time, I hadn’t so much as bought a drink) clinic in Heraklion and I’d gone for my tests the afternoon of the day we arrived on Crete.
So there you go. Cooter didn’t give me herpes; he just put a hit on me.
At least that was one way Cooter didn’t screw me from the grave.
“Excellent,” I muttered and my head turned back, my eyes going to the ceiling.
Sam’s hand pressed into my belly and he asked, “What’re you tellin’ your folks about us?”
I stopped breathing.
Oh God.
What was I going to tell my Mom, Dad and friends about us?
I forced air into my lungs and my eyes slid to Sam.
“Uh…” I mumbled and he grinned again.
Then his hand slid around me and he pulled me to my side, facing him, my legs fell into his, his immediately shifted to tangle with mine and he pulled me into his solid heat.
“How’s this?” he whispered, I stared into his warm, intense eyes and stopped breathing again and he kept talking. “We met, we clicked, this is somethin’ we both wanna explore so that’s what we’re gonna do. Right now, things are up in the air so when we go home, you might be comin’ with me to my place in North Carolina or I might be goin’ with you to Indiana. You’ll let them know when we know.”
I consciously made myself breathe again and asked, “North Carolina?”
“If I think you’re safer there, that’s where you’re goin’.”
This made sense.
But I totally could not do this.
“Sam, I can’t go to North Carolina with you.”
His brows drew together and he asked, “Why not?”
“Well, Memphis, one. My house just sold and I have tons of stuff to do, two. I haven’t seen my family or friends in five weeks, three. I’ve never been gone this long before in my life and they miss me, four. And I’m going to be homeless if I don’t get my shit sorted and find a house, five.”
To this, Sam countered with, “You got a man who knows you live in Heartmeadow who’s got you in his crosshairs.”
If we were writing lists, this would go in big, block letters at the top of the con list for returning to Indiana.
Shit.
I closed my eyes and tipped my chin down.
Sam kissed the top of my head.
God, he was sweet.
“Tell me about the unit,” he murmured.
“They upped their offer another ten K.”
“Back out.”
I opened my eyes and tipped my head back, shocked by this instantaneous and decisive reply.
“Really?”
“Baby, it’s a condo in Heartmeadow, Indiana, not a co-op on Central Park. You’re lookin’ at least at putting thirty large over asking price into it in a market that is far from stable. The market could nosedive and you’ll be sittin’ on a condo that’s worth less than you paid for it and in this market that could conceivably happen in a day. No shit. This is a bad investment. Back out.”
Right.
Well, that was easy.
Except…
“But I want it,” I told him.
“I see that but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s a bad investment and when I say that I mean a really fuckin’ bad investment.”
Hmm.
“My buyers have gone fast-track and Paula says I could close on my house in three to five weeks. One of those is already gone. If I don’t find something, where do I live?”
“This shit gets sorted, move in with your folks for awhile.”
“Do you like my ass?”
His head jerked slightly on the pillow then he answered, “Uh… yeah.”
“Would you like it if it was five times the size?”
He grinned and his arms gathered me closer.
Then he muttered, “I’m not gonna answer that.”
This was a good choice.
“Mom doesn’t drain the grease off hamburger meat when making chili, spaghetti, anything and she might say you can help in the kitchen but what she means is, you can stand there, drink a beer and chat with her while she concocts meals that are at least five thousand calories a plate and even the vegetables are fried. So, no. I am not moving in with my parents.”
“Honey, you’re twenty-eight, buy and eat your own food.”
At his statement, I even felt my eyes get big.
If I tried to bring carrot sticks and yogurt into my mother’s house and inform her she could not find some way to fry the former or use the latter in a cake, she’d lose her mind.
“Are you nuts?” I cried, the last word rising three octaves.
Sam burst out laughing.
I watched because I liked it but I didn’t participate partly because there was a good possibility he thought I was overreacting when I… was… not.
When he stopped laughing, he smiled down at me and muttered, “Strike that. Your Mom obviously is serious about her command of the fridge and, we’re with your parents, I fuck you, you can’t moan the way I like to make you moan.”
That was when I felt my mouth drop open as well as my eyes get wide again.
“We’re not having sex in my parents’ house.”
He started chuckling and through his chuckles he said, “Baby, again, you’re twenty-eight.”
“And honey, you grew up in LA where things are fast and loose. This is Indiana. This is in the Bible belt. LA and all the rest of the world may have hit the new millennium a good while ago but Indiana is firmly stuck in the 50’s and they… are… never… coming… out. And my parents are happy as clams right there until… they… die. You do not sleep with your boyfriend in the same bed in your parents’ house and even if we were married for twenty years we would not stay at my parents’ house and have sex. If we did, the house would explode and then everyone in Heartmeadow would know we tried to have sex at my parents’ house!”
Sam burst out laughing again but this time he rolled into me while he did it.
When he was done, his torso on mine, smiling down at me, he murmured, “Right, so, I find a way to make you safe and get you home to your Mom, your dog and your friend who has a cutout of me in her bedroom, you close on your house, we’re staying in a hotel.”
“We can’t stay in a hotel. The only hotel in town is a motel and that was where Cooter was murdered so that’s out. I like the people who own it, they go to my church. Still, it’s the principle of the thing. It wouldn’t do for me to stay at the motel my husband used to cheat on me then got half his head blown off in. I’d have to ask Celeste about how appropriate amongst the jet-set that is but I’m thinking her answer will be a big, fat no.”
Sam was grinning when he murmured, “Probably.”
“Definitely.”
“Then it’s North Carolina.”
My body tensed and I whispered, “Sam –”
I stopped talking when his face got to within an inch of mine and all humor fled from it.
“Right, I like you, baby, I’m hopin’ you’re gettin’ that I like you a lot. A big part of being able to keep doin’ that is you need to be breathing,” he stated, I bit my lip at the scary veracity of his words and he kept talking. “And I like fuckin’ you and I’m hopin’ you’re gettin’ that I like that a lot too so I wanna keep doin’ it and if you’re in the bedroom you grew up in and I’m on the couch and your Dad feels like wrestlin’ me out the door if he hears a floorboard creak, that is not gonna make me happy. The motel that piece of shit bought it in is out. So, what we gotta do is, we gotta get you home, connect you with your people for a few days, get your fuckin’ dog and get your ass to my place in North Carolina which is big, it’s got a security system, I have guns and I feel more positive about the fact I can keep you safe there. Is this a plan?”
“You’d take Memphis?” I whispered.
“Does the dog come with you?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Then yeah.”
My body relaxed and I said softly, “Then yeah, we have a plan.”
He closed his eyes and I saw relief in his face for the briefest moment but I saw it, I definitely did and it rocked me because I knew he liked me but it wasn’t until I saw that that I had an indication of just how much.
And it was then I understood his earlier anger.
It wasn’t so much he was mad at me.
He was angry because he had feelings for me, he’d found out I was in danger and he was hot guy, ex-commando worried.
“Sam,” I whispered, his eyes opened and his mouth came to mine.
“We got an hour before you call home and at least that until I get some callbacks. Your tests came back clean; I don’t have to wear a condom so all I get to feel is you so I know what we’re gonna do with that hour.”
“Sa –” I started his name but didn’t finish.
His head slanted and he kissed me, hard, wet and long.
And then we did what Sam knew we were going to do.
And it was over an hour before I was again clothed, sitting cross-legged on the bed certain my hair was beyond wild and raised by apes, Sam was murmuring on the phone in the lounge and I had my cell in my hand.
Mom first.
I hadn’t spoken to her since Florence and, obviously, a lot had happened and, further, Mom was not big on not being in the know with what was up with her kids. She’d had seven years of me keeping secrets, living in denial and thus shutting her out and, from that, I’d bought nearly five months of Mom being more up in my business then Luci was in Sam’s.
This could go in a variety of ways, not all of them good.
Shit.
I sucked it up, scrolled to her contact and hit go.
It rang twice then, “Sweetie! You’re home in three days!”
I smiled. “Hey, Mom.”
“Oh Kia, honey, are you having a good time?”
“Yeah, Mom, it’s been great.”
“Good, I’m so happy. And you’ve lit a fire; I’ve been talking to your Dad for ages about taking me to Europe and just the other day I saw him on the internet looking at tourist sites for London. I think I’m going to have a good Christmas present this year!” she declared gleefully.
I kept smiling. “That’s cool, Mom, listen –”
She cut me off. “I’m calling Paula, Missy, Teri. We’ll have a get-together. Margaritas, your Dad’s brats on the grill and you can show us all your pictures. I cannot wait to see your pictures.”
“Mom, I’ve met somebody,” I blurted.
Silence.
No.
Loaded silence.
And it was listening to her loaded silence that I knew more than I already knew that my Mom had been through hell. The first and only boy I dated, I married, it was a supremely bad decision and the weight of her silence meant she wasn’t feeling confident in my ability to choose another one. Especially on vacation in Europe where I could get played by a whole new field of losers. Probably also especially due to the fact that Cooter had been dead for just shy of five months and she might suspect this was a rebound.
“You know him,” I told her.
“I… know him?” she asked hesitantly.
“Or, I mean, you know of him.”
“Kia –”
“It’s Sampson Cooper,” I said quickly then finished, “Sam.”
More silence then a shrieked, “What?”
I pulled the phone away from my ear on a wince then put it back and told her, “I, uh… met him at breakfast about a week and a half ago. In Lake Como. We, um… hit it off. He came to Crete with me.”
“You met Sampson Cooper, hit it off and he’s in Crete with you,” Mom stated.
“Yeah.”
“You met Sampson Cooper, hit it off and he’s in Crete with you,” Mom repeated and I grinned.
“Uh… yeah.”
“I don’t… I can’t… this is…” Mom stammered and through her stammer I heard Sam call from the other room, “Baby?” and I knew Mom heard it too because she instantly stopped stammering.
Sam didn’t stop speaking.
“It’s lunchtime. I’m starved. I’ll order. Have a… fuck, sorry.”
He’d been walking in looking down at an open binder but then he looked at me and saw I was on the phone.
“Mom,” I told him then bugged my eyes out at him.
He smiled and muttered, “Right.”
Then he threw the binder at the foot of the bed, skirted it, came to me, wrapped his hand around the back of my head, leaned in to touch his lips to mine and then said right there so I knew Mom would hear and I also knew that was exactly his intention, “Tell her I look forward to meetin’ her.”
“Ohmigod,” Mom breathed in my ear as Sam grinned again, let me go and straightened.
“I’ll let you get back to it. Have a look,” he tipped his head to the binder. “Or you want me to order for you?”
“If you’re hungry, just order for me,” I answered.
“All right, baby,” he replied then strode out of the room.
I watched his ass in his jeans while he did it, somewhat mesmerized.
“He calls you baby?” Mom whispered to me and I jerked my attention back to her.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“Coop calls my baby, baby?” her voice was rising both in octave and in volume.
“Mom –”
“Ford!” she screeched and I took the phone from my ear but had no problem hearing her because she was still shrieking, “Ford, get in here! Get in here right this instant!”
I put the phone back to my ear, “Mom –” I started but it was Mom’s turn to have a conversation with her man that I was not a part of except hers was about me.
“Woman, Jesus, what the hell?” I heard Dad ask.
“I’m talking to Kia,” I heard Mom answer.
“Oh shit,” I heard Dad mutter and my heart flipped.
Damn. He’d lived through hell too.
Mom didn’t delay. “She’s met someone.”
“Oh shit,” Dad repeated and my heart flipped again.
“Sampson Cooper!” Mom screamed and I had to take the phone away then put it back when I heard her going on. “I just heard him, right on the phone, he calls her baby!”
Silence from Dad.
Not from Mom.
“And he said he’s looking forward to meeting me!”
Suddenly I heard the phone jostle then Dad’s, “Kia?”
“Hey, Dad,” I said softly.
“You doin’ okay?” he asked.
“Great, Dad,” I answered, deciding to focus on the fact that I was, indeed, doing great outside of being scared silly that there was a hit on me.
“Havin’ a good time?” Dad asked.
“Fantastic.”
“This shit your mother’s sayin’, it true?”
I paused then, quietly, “Yeah, Dad.”
Silence then a quietly returned, “No shit?”
I drew in breath.
Then I whispered, “No shit.”
Silence again.
I knew my father liked Sampson Cooper. He said over and over again he was a good ballplayer even when Sam was playing for the UCLA Bruins. Dad was super pleased the Colts got him in the draft. And I remembered him having a conversation with a bunch of his buddies (and Cooter, who was not a buddy, he just happened to be there) where Cooter was dissing Sam for his choice to leave football for the Army and Dad had said firmly, “Man’s got mettle. One thing to play at warrior wearin’ pads on a field. Another thing all together to be one.” Cooter had no reply to that but his face got hard and his eyes got scary though, luckily, he got over this before we got home and he could take it out on me.
Dad broke the silence. “How’d this happen?”
“Well, we, uh… were in the same hotel in Lake Como, we were seated at tables next to each other at breakfast. Then the maitre d’ moved me to his table, we started talking, hit it off, he asked me out, I went and we’ve kinda spent nearly every minute together since.”
And, it occurred to me just then, this was true. Except when Sam worked out or ran, when he went to his room to get clothes and when he left me at Luci’s to go back to the hotel, we had not been apart, like, at all.
Whoa.
More silence then, gently, “He know about your recent business?”
Boy did he ever.
“Everything,” I whispered. “He’s, uh… I’ve, well…” I pulled in breath. “He’s not had a very good time of it, Dad. Being away from home, having time to think, stuff has come up for me and Sam’s borne the brunt of that. I’ve tried to, well, push him away and we’ve had some dramas. He’s helping me work through stuff.”
“He’s helping you work through stuff,” Dad whispered back.
“Yeah,” I kept whispering.
More silence.
I broke the silence.
“Dad, all the things you might think he is, he is but he’s more. He’s very wise and he’s very protective and he can be gentle –”
“Gentle,” Dad whispered and I felt my throat close. “My girl deserves gentle.”
Oh man.
“Dad,” I choked out.
But it was Dad who cleared his throat then he asked, “So, where’s this goin’?”
I drew in a calming breath and answered, “He’s coming back to Indiana with me and I’m going to deal with some stuff I have to deal with there then Memphis and I are going to his house in North Carolina for awhile.”
“Inseparable,” Dad muttered.
“Sorry?”
“Nuthin’, honey. I look forward to meetin’ him, you tell him that.”
I nodded even though he couldn’t see me but said stupidly, “Uh… he’s not Sampson Cooper.”
“Say again?”
“He’s not Sampson Cooper,” I repeated then explained, “It’s just that, well, when you first meet him, that’s all you’ll see but he’s not Sampson Cooper, he’s not Coop. He’s Sam.”
“He’s Sam,” Dad repeated after me.
“Yeah,” I whispered.
“Right,” Dad whispered back, my phone binged and my brows drew together. “What’s that?” Dad asked.
“I think I have another call,” I told him.
It was probably Celeste, she could leave a message and I’d call her back.
“I’ll let you go,” Dad said.
“No, that’s –”
“You go, take your call and we’ll see you in a few days. Can’t wait to have you back home, honey.”
“Right, Dad.”
“Love you, Kiakee.”
Man, I loved it when Dad called me “Kiakee” and, lucky for me, he did it all the time.
“Love you too, Dad.”
“Love you, sweetie!” Mom shouted in the background.
“Love to Mom too,” I told Dad and my phone binged again.
“‘Bye, honey,” Dad said.
“‘Bye, Dad,” I replied.
Then he disconnected, I took the phone from my ear and grabbed the next call, putting it back to my ear before seeing the name come up on the display.
“Hel –”
“What the fuck?” I heard Paula screech and I took the phone from my ear with a wince again then put it back.
“Paula, sweetie, I’m so sorry I didn’t text. I’ve decided I’m backing –”
“What the fuck, fuck, fuckity, fucking, fuck, fuck, FUCK?” she shrieked.
Again, I did the phone and ear business and when she stopped squealing, I hesitantly put it back and started, “I’m not sure that unit is a good invest –”
I didn’t finish.
This was because Paula announced, “I am, right now, sitting at my computer looking at you wearing a kickass tank with some serious kickass lace at the back but it is not the awesome tank I see but freaking, freakity, freak, freak, freaking Sampson Cooper wrapped around you and you’re kissing!”
Ohmigod!
“Uh…” I mumbled, thinking fast.
“Uh! Uh!” Paula shouted. “What the fuck?”
“Paula, swear, I was just going to call and tell you that I, um… well, I met Sam in Lake Como and we kinda hooked up.”
“You kinda hooked up?” she screamed.
I did the wince, phone, ear thing again then put it back and whispered, “Paula, honey, you’re going to shatter my eardrum if you keep shrieking at me.”
“Oh, so sorry, babe, I mean, you hooked up with Sam who would be Sampson Cooper in freaking Lake Como, Italy and there are pictures of you on the internet making out with him so, you know, considering he’s a major freaking hot guy, he’s been the love of your life for years and you’re in Lake Como, Italy making out with him, I was a little out of sorts. I’ll keep a freaking lock on it.”
“We weren’t making out,” I told her and tried to hark back to if we were.
“You’re standin’ on a sidewalk goin’ at it, girl,” she returned and I blinked.
Oh God.
Oh shit!
Tilda had followed us and taken pictures!
What a stalker bitch!
Shit! Sam was going to be pissed!
“Uh…”
“And then there are others, you two sittin’ at a table, all cozy, him way up in your space,” I heard the mouse button clicking in the background, “you got your elbow on the table and you are way up in his space right back. Holy crap. Holy shit. I cannot believe my eyes.” More clicks. “Ohmigod!” she shouted. “He’s smiling at you in this one! Ohmigod! I’m going to have an orgasm just looking at it.”
“Paula –”
“Holy crap.”
“Paula –”
“Holy freaking shit.”
“Paula!” I shouted.
“What?” she shouted back.
“How many pictures are there?” I asked.
“Like, about, two dozen.”
Oh my God.
She went on, “Most of them are you and him sitting at a table talking or drinking wine but others are of you at the same table, snuggled close talking and not drinking wine then there are three of you going at it on the sidewalk.”
Apparently, Tilda had been taking pictures of us not only after her husband came to chat but before then after Sam had given her her picture with him.
What a greedy cow. Sam had taken his time to be cool and she’d followed us.
“That greedy cow,” I griped, totally pissed and also totally forgetting Paula was just learning this mind-boggling news. “Sam was so cool with her, taking a photo with her and her husband for their son and then she followed us, took our picture while we were necking and posted them for all the world to see.”
“Uh… babe,” Paula put in, “you wanna tell me how in the hell you’re necking at all with Sampson Cooper?”
“I told you, we met and hooked up. He’s here now with me, in Crete. And he’s not Sampson Cooper, he’s Sam.”
Silence (finally).
Then, softly, “He’s there with you now?”
“Yeah.”
Then, sounding hurt, “Why didn’t you tell me?”
Oh man.
“Paula –”
“I find out on a gossip site. What’s that about?”
“I… well, honey,” I sucked in breath then I let it out and explained, “Things, in Lake Como, I… I met him and he likes me, sweetie, like, a lot and just when we met, things started to hit me, things I couldn’t push to the back of my mind anymore and, well, they started to come out and he was there and he’s…” my voice dipped, “he’s amazing, Paula, everything you can imagine Sampson Cooper to be, Sam is better. He’s been wonderful to me.”
Another moment of silence then, “Have you slept with him?”
Oh man.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“Ohmigod,” she breathed.
“Paula –”
“Is he good?” she asked.
“I… you know, I’d rather not talk about that. For Sam. He’s… women in his past… well, that’s between Sam and me, okay?”
“He’s good,” she whispered her correct guess.
I changed the subject.
“He’s coming home with me, we’re going to deal with stuff, get Memphis then I’m going to North Carolina with him.”
“Ohmigod.”
I made no response.
Then Paula said, “He’s into you.”
“Yeah,” I confirmed.
“Like, a lot.”
My belly started to get warm and I whispered, “Yeah.”
“Ohmigod, this is so… cool.”
I grinned. “Oh yeah.”
“Wow. I cannot wait to meet him. This is so cool. Rudy is already stinking flipping. I’m still at home, I showed him the pictures. He loves Coop. You know that. And Teri is gonna fah-REEK!”
“Yeah, I know and Paula, I’m going to call her and Missy just now but, just to say, I’ll be home soon, with Sam, and you guys all have to be cool about that. He is who he is to the world but he’s something else in real life and this is real life, not TV, not the internet and you all have to be cool.”
“I can be cool,” she assured me.
“No freaking out. No asking for autographs. No asking for photos. This is just Sam.”
“I can do just Sam. So can Rudy.”
We would see.
“Okay,” I said.
A pause then, “You’re happy.”
Outside the hit called on me, absolutely.
I didn’t say this; I just said a soft, “Yeah.”
“Oh honey, babe, oh God,” I heard tears in her voice, “oh my God, I love this for you. I love it. I told you your luck had changed.”
She was right and wrong about that, both in big ways.
She let out a sobbing hiccough.
“Paula, sweetie,” I whispered.
“I love this for you. I love this for you,” she said through her tears.
“And I just love you,” I replied.
Another sobbing hiccough.
I let her do her thing for awhile then I called softly, “Paula, honey, I have to go. I need to call Missy and Teri.”
I heard her pull in a steadying breath then she murmured, “Right.”
“See you soon.”
“Can’t wait.”
“Me either, sweetie,” I said quietly.
“I love you, Kia and I’m so happy for you it isn’t funny.”
“I love you too. Oh, and, let the unit go. Sam says it’s a bad investment in this market. We’ll do some viewings. I know you’ll find me something else.”
“You bet your bippy,” she told me. “And Sam’s right. This market is volatile. Now that it’s not five o’clock in the morning and I’m thinking clearly, ish, after this whole thing with you and Sam, I’m seeing that’s crazy. We’ll get you sorted. Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“All right, later, babe.”
“Later, sweetie.”
We disconnected, I drew in breath, staring at my phone then I jumped when I heard Sam say quietly, “Thank you, baby.”
My eyes flew to the door where he was leaned against the jamb, arms crossed on his chest, one foot crossed at the ankle.
Seriously, he was hot and I suspected he was so hot, I’d never get used to how hot he was.
Which was cool.
“Thank me what?” I asked.
“Your girl asked what I was like in bed, you didn’t tell her. Thank you.”
I blinked. Then I asked, “You were listening?”
“Fuck yeah.”
I felt my brows draw together.
Then I asked, “Why?”
“Mainly because I’ve had women play me in the past, I got burned, they were good, you could be the master and I gotta say I’m pretty fuckin’ pleased to find out you’re not. You’re what I thought you were. You’re just Kia.”
Okay, it kind of sucked he’d eavesdropped but then again I’d been trying to do that to his conversations all morning.
And, he had a point. Once bitten, twice shy. A gazillion times bitten, two gazillion times shy.
“Yes, Sam,” I said quietly, “I’m just Kia.”
He held my eyes, his entire face warm, his eyes both warm and intense and I really liked when he looked at me like that.
Then he said, “Lunch is comin’. More good news, got a buddy who’s got a buddy who’s got a place here. He’s also got skills and hardware. He’s retired so he’s also got time. This means he’s okay with bein’ another pair of eyes, you and I do our thing here, he’ll kit me out and have our back.”
I stared at him.
Then I sought clarification.
“Are you saying he’s going to be our bodyguard?”
Sam nodded once. “That’s what I’m saying.”
“And are you saying that he’s giving you a weapon?”
Sam nodded again, his eyes never leaving me and he repeated, “That’s what I’m saying.”
I went back to staring at him mutely.
Sam, being Sam, felt like being communicative.
“He’s good, he knows what he’s doin’ and between him and me, no one will get at you. We can enjoy the rest of our time here and get you home. In the meantime, I got boys doin’ their thing to see about coverage in Indiana. By the time we touch down in Indianapolis, you’ll be golden.”
Wow. Seriously. He was not wasting any time looking out for me.
I didn’t know what to do with that. The only thing I knew was that it felt really, freaking good.
“Okay,” I whispered.
“I’ll be talking to Barney Oswald too, baby, just so you know.”
“Okay.”
He studied me in a way that it occurred to me that maybe I didn’t quite understand his simple statement.
Sam confirmed my assumption.
“When I say that, I mean, I’ll be talkin’ to him to find out what’s up with his search for this guy and I’ll be talkin’ to him to find out why the fuck he didn’t give you a head’s up.”
“He’s a really good Sheriff, Sam, has been for years because he’s a good guy and he’s protective of his citizens. But he’s known me since I was a little girl, he hunts with my father and I know he figured out what went down with Cooter and me.”
“That might be so but it was a jacked decision.”
“Sam –”
“It was jacked, Kia. I know this because you went off to fuckin’ Europe unprotected. The least he could have done is informed your Dad or your brother so one of them could have talked to you, talked you out of goin’ and assessed where your head was at about whether you should know it all or not. Not to mention, you should have had a security system installed in your house even if you’re sellin’ it.”
“Kyle lives in Tennessee, Sam, I told you that. He’s too far away to do anything.”
“What you tell me of your brother, Kia, Kyle lives in Tennessee or fuckin’ St. Petersburg, Kyle will wanna know his sister is in danger then he’ll wanna see to it that his sister is protected and safe. The men in your life should have been briefed. Barney Oswald screwed the pooch. That is not gonna happen again.”
He held my eyes and I thought it prudent to nod seeing as he was a commando, I was not so he probably knew what he was talking about.
Not to mention, he was totally right about Kyle. Dad and Ozzie were buddies; Dad would probably be talked into not being pissed. Kyle was going to freak.
So I nodded.
There was a knock on the door at the same time there was a chime on my phone in my hand.
“Lunch,” Sam muttered.
I looked at the display and muttered back, “Teri.”
Sam looked at my phone, looked at me and grinned.
Then he turned and disappeared on his way to the door.
I flipped my phone open and, learning, I didn’t put it to my ear when I started, “Hel –”
“Oh my fucking God!” Teri shrieked.
I grinned.
“Room service,” I heard in a Greek accented voice.
I wondered briefly what Sam ordered for me.
Then I put the phone to my ear.