My eyes flicked open. The apartment was dark. Had I turned the lights out when Tanya and I came to bed? I must have. I listened, wondering what had pulled me from sleep, but I heard nothing. I yawned, still drowsy, but seeing Tanya’s sleeping form beside me, the edge of her breast, the sensuous curve of her ass, thrilled me. I reached under the sheet to adjust myself as I began to harden.

Earlier, I’d made the ultimate leap of faith and told her I was in love with her. Falling in love, more precisely, but that was just semantics. I’d bedded plenty of women, but I’d never been in love with any of them…until now. Having her tell me her own feelings had been like a sunrise.

After that…it was even better than our first time, when I’d thought it couldn’t be any better. I’d never been more wrong. She’d give me harder orgasms, but none had been as satisfying as the one last night when we’d reached the peak of our pleasure at the same time. We’d come close together a couple times, but that was the first time we’d managed to time it exactly right. It was the perfect finishing touch to what may be the best day of my life. And it was all because of Tanya.

She had quickly exposed Vanesa as a fraud. She had managed to tie Ed to Vanesa, and she hatched the plan that eventually brought him down. And best of all, she was in fucking love with me.

I smiled into the darkness. Tanya Jacobs, the most beautiful woman I’d ever met, and one of the best, brightest, and most determined private investigators in Los Angeles, was in love with me, the farm boy from Iowa. Now that I knew she loved me, I’d work every day to earn that love, and I’d gut the first asshole that tried to take her from me. She was mine, and I would protect her with my life.

I carefully slid out from under her so I could feather slow kisses lightly over her face. I didn’t know how long we’d slept, but I wanted her. She excited me like no one else, and I couldn’t get enough of her.

She took a deep breath as she rolled away from me, and her lips opened slightly in invitation. She was bewitching in bed, always eager to have me, something I would never take for granted. I took her lips in a more passionate kiss, and she responded, her arm going around my neck to draw me in.

Our kiss was lazy but deep. I had a head start, as I woke up first, but I could sense Tanya catching up. I left her lips and kissed my way to the hollow in her throat. I paused there, licking and kissing before moving lower. I’d just taken her nipple into my mouth with a heard a noise that shouldn’t be there. I paused, waiting, listening, but I could tell she heard it too as she stiffened before she sat up in bed.

“Did you hear that?” she whispered.

“Yeah. You too?”

My apartment was on the tenth floor, so the only way in was the front door. Suddenly the lights being off in the front of my apartment chilled me. Maybe I had turned them off. Did I lock the door? I didn’t remember doing that either, but it automatically locked.

I heard a soft footstep. I tumbled out of the bed. I didn’t have a gun, but I kept a bat by my bedroom door for this situation. I hurried to the door and picked up the bat. I was naked as the day I was born, so I quickly returned to the bed, threw the bat on it so it was within easy reach, and tugged on my pants. I picked up the bat and turned back toward the door, but Tanya grabbed my arm, holding it tight. I pulled the phone out of my pocket and handed it her. “Call the cops. Do you have your gun?” I hissed in her ear.

“In the living room.”

“Shit. Stay in here and lock the door,” I whispered as I stepped into the short hall.

My apartment was arranged so that the master bedroom and main living area shared a wall of windows, with my kitchen, the two baths, laundry room, and second bedroom tucked behind. I crept down the hall until I saw a man moving against the lights of LA streaming through the windows. I could also see the door. All the apartments in my building had a thin decorative glass panel along one side of the door. The glass was frosted, for privacy, and the opening was too thin for a person to squeeze though, but mine was broken at the same height as the doorknob. That was probably the noise that had pulled me from sleep. When I didn’t appear, the burglar had probably assumed nobody was home and had opened the door.

“Hey! I’ve called the cops! Get out of here before I cave your fucking skull in,” I snarled as I approached, the bat held high in threat. The burglar was a big man, about my height and heavier, but I had a Louisville Slugger to even the odds.

Rather than retreat, as I expected, he charged me with a roar, lifting something in his hand as if he was going to swing it at me. I swung my bat as he brought his weapon down. His crowbar rang against my bat with a crack that stung all the way to my elbows. He swung again, and I dodged back before I swung my bat again. I missed. Neither of us knew what the fuck we were doing, and we were keeping our distance so the other couldn’t get in a lucky shot. One blow from either of our makeshift weapons would be devastating.

“Get out of here!” I bellowed as I took another swing at the man.

He either blocked me or was swinging at the same time, but our weapons cracked together again. He dropped his crowbar with a bellow of pain. Despite the pain radiating up from my hands, I managed to hold onto the bat. I drew it back to swing again, but the man screamed as he charged me. I brought my bat down, but I hit him on the shoulder with my wrists just as he hit me.

Between the thug driving into me and the bat over-torqueing my wrists, I lost my weapon. We tumbled over the back of the couch with a crashing, spine-shattering thud. The fall broke us apart, but I think I got the worst of it as he landed on me. I was a fraction slower getting to my feet, and he tried to cave in my ribs with a vicious kick.

Air whooshed out of me, and I scrabbled away, trying to get to my feet before he could kick me again. I didn’t make it, but I did manage to get my arm down enough to block some of his follow-up kick.

“You took everything from me!” The thug was wearing a ski mask, but I recognized the voice. “You and that fucking cunt! I took care of her, and now I’m going to take care of you!”

I was red with rage. Ed kicked me again, and I bellowed in pain. I again tried to scramble back. As I tried to escape the punishment, I saw Tanya standing at the edge of the hall dressed in nothing but my shirt, her hands at her mouth, my phone in her hand. My rage changed from red to white. I had to protect Tanya.

He came after me and kicked again. I couldn’t take many more blows to the ribs, but I was ready for him. I twisted at the last moment to take the kick on my shoulder. It hurt like a bitch, but not nearly as much as taking it to the ribs. I exploded from my crouch, roaring in rage as I slammed into Ed.

I hit him hard, my legs pumping as I drove him back. We slammed into one of the large windows. It wasn’t the smartest move because if it broke, and we went through, it’d be a ten-story-drop to the ground, but I was beyond rational thought. I had to protect Tanya, and if I died doing it, that was a price I was willing to pay.

The window didn’t break, but it thrummed like a huge drum. I wasn’t a fighter, but neither was Ed. We had our hands on each other’s faces as we tried to tear each other’s heads off, grunting and straining as we stumbled around, locked in a deadly embrace. Ed might be a fat slob, but he was strong as shit. I bounced him off the window again, the glass rumbling with his impact. He shoved me off him, using the glass for leverage, and as I stumbled back, I ripped the mask from his head. Now that I had a little space, I drew back and threw the hardest right I could, hitting him straight in the face before he could recover and react. His nose exploded in blood, but I was enraged beyond caring.

Ed must have been equally enraged because he swung wildly at me. It connected, but hit me on the side of the head, and while it hurt, it did no damage.

“You fucking bastard!” I bellowed as I grabbed him, spun him around so he couldn’t see Tanya, and delivered a full power right cross to his shattered face.

He roared in pain and rage as he rushed me. I tried to drive him off with another punch, but he rushed right though my blow and drove me to the floor. We twisted and turned as we fought for advantage. I threw some punches, and so did Ed, but we couldn’t hurt each other enough to take our opponent out. I finally got my hands around his neck and squeezed with everything I had. He was on top of me, his hands around my neck as he bared down, his blood dripping all over me. I didn’t even notice. My entire world was now focused on killing this son-of-a-bitch for what he’d done to me, for what he’d done to Vanesa, but mostly for what I was afraid he would do to Tanya if I faltered.

“Die, you bastard!” I snarled, my arms burning as I held him up by the neck.

I could feel the fight flowing out of him, but I kept the pressure on, my face twisted into a sneer of hate. When I felt his grip around my neck begin to loosen, I threw him aside and staggered to my feet. I coughed a couple of times as I stumbled for my bat, but Ed was in far worse shape than me.

When I rounded the couch again, bat in hand, he was coughing, a hand at his throat as he tried to get to his feet. I twirled the bat slowly, rotating it with my wrist to wind up and harden my resolve before I brought it down on one of Ed’s legs in a whistling arc with as much force as I could. Ed shrieked in agony as he collapsed to the floor, but I didn’t care.

I stood over my shrieking opponent as he grabbed his leg, rocking in agony, to make sure he was down for the count, and then I looked around for Tanya. I found her on the other side of the room, standing in a shooter’s crouch, her weapon pointed at Ed, rock steady. Ed didn’t know how lucky he was that all he got was a busted knee. As Ed lay on the floor, whimpering and moaning in pain, I stumbled to her, being careful to not step between her and Ed, then slowly took the weapon from her hand.

“It’s over,” I said, surprised at the sound of my own voice. It sounded like I’d been screaming at the top of my lungs for hours.

She looked at me, and I could imagine what she saw. I was covered in Ed’s blood and walking with a limp. I hadn’t even noticed my aching ribs when I was fighting for my life, but I was starting to feel them now.

“The cops are on the way,” she said as she turned back to look at Ed.

I used Ed’s mask to wipe most of his blood off me while Tanya slipped on a pair of pants. While Tanya dressed, Ed decided he was going to make his escape and had tried to get to his feet, using the couch to compensate for his non-functional left leg.

“Going somewhere?” I asked as I tapped him gently on his ruined leg with the bat. He cried out and collapsed to floor.

“You broke my fucking knee!”

“I should beat you to a bloody pulp for what you did to Vanesa.”

“She deserved it! She deserved everything she got, just like you! I’m—”

“Shut the fuck up,” I cursed as I kicked him gently on the bottom of his left foot, making him cry out again.

The cops finally arrived ten minutes after Tanya had called them, paramedics in tow. While the paramedic worked on Ed, the two officers talked to Tanya and me separately. I told them straight up what had happened. They’d examined the bat, the two deep creases in the wood where the crowbar had connected clearly visible. The broken glass by the front door, the smashed lamp, my split knuckles, the out of place furniture, all corroborated our story. It was an open and shut case and I’d clearly acted in self-defense.

My door was open as the cops came and went, and I could see my neighbors milling about in the hall as they watched the goings on in my apartment. The rumors would be flying tomorrow, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was that Tanya was safe.

She stood to the side, watching with downturned lips as the paramedic looked me over. He’d cleaned my knuckles and was examining my ribs, causing me to hiss and twist in pain as he probed and pressed.

“I don’t think anything is broken, but you’re going to sore for a week or so. Take some acetaminophen or ibuprofen for the pain, and you need to take it easy for a while, but you’ll be okay.” He gave me a camaraderie slap on the knee as he rose.

For the first time, Tanya stepped in and I held her. She was considerate, and though she draped her arms around me, she didn’t squeeze. I held her as the paramedics wheeled Ed out. My place was a mess, but all I could think about was that Tanya was safe.

The cops were there another hour before they finished what they were doing. It was almost three when I closed the door behind the last of them, and in the two hours it had taken the police to finish their business, I had started hurting badly.

“I need a shower,” I muttered, thankful I didn’t have to pull a shirt over my head.

I retreated to the bathroom where Tanya started the water and helped me out of my pants. Normally having her kneeling in front of me as she pulled down my pants would make me steel hard in moments, but tonight wasn’t normal. I stepped into the shower. I was standing under the water, head down, waiting for the heat to leech the pain from my body, when I heard the shower open again.

She stepped in and pressed herself loosely against my back. She rested her head against me. “I was so scared.”

“I know. So was I. I was afraid something would happen to you.”

“When he was swinging that crowbar… if he’d hit you… and I was so afraid the glass would break.”

She whimpered once. I slowly turned. Everything I did would be slowly for the next few days. I pulled her close and held her, but not too tightly as my ribs were making their displeasure known, but after a moment the pain began to lessen. I needed this. I needed to feel her in my arms, and my aching ribs could go fuck themselves.

“You could have died,” she whispered, and I heard the tears in her voice.

“But I didn’t,” I said softly as I rested my cheek against her head. “I’m sore, but I’m okay.”

She nodded and my lip twitched. How could such a small movement hurt that much? We stood in the shower for a long time, until the water began to run cold. Using the last of the warm water, she carefully washed me clean, being extra delicate around my ribs, before we stepped out of the shower and she patted me dry with the lightest of touches.

I was exhausted, hurting, and the tablets I’d taken weren’t helping. Or maybe they were, but if they were, I didn’t want to know how badly I would be hurting without them. Getting into bed and lying down was sheer torture, and lying on my back was the only possible position.

“I may spend the next week in bed!” I gasped as the pain slowly receded.

She slowly crawled in beside me, careful to not shake the bed. “Normally I would say great, but…”

I chuckled and gasped. “Please don’t make me laugh.”

We tried to snuggle. I wanted her in my arms so badly I thought I would die if she weren’t there, but we simply couldn’t. She lay beside me, her hand on my chest as I slowly caressed her thigh. It was the best we could do.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you…more.”

I smiled, my hand slowly caressing her. It wasn’t possible for her to love me more than I loved her, but I said nothing as sleep slowly took me.