Carter

Carter stretched out in the darkness and felt warmth beside him. He looked over to see Mia still sleeping peacefully beside him. Her hair was spread out across the pillow just like he'd imagined so many times. Heat twisted in his belly, a desire to feel her touch yet again, but he didn't want to wake her. She looked so beautiful and peaceful that he almost didn't dare to breathe for fear he might disturb her.

For the first time in his life, he had everything he ever wanted.

His phone chirped with a message, and he quickly scrambled to silence it. He read it his blood ran cold.

Carter glanced once more at the sleeping beauty next to him and sighed before getting out of bed. Brian wouldn't message him unless it was very important. He sighed once more, rolled out of bed, and slipped into one of the pre-heated robes from the closet.

He texted Brian to come into their suite as he closed the door to the bedroom behind him and went to the kitchen. A full breakfast was already laid out, complete with french toast, pancakes, waffles, fruit, eggs, and other breakfast delights all on heated trays and ready whenever they wanted. Carter went for the coffee first.

He had just sat down at the table with his cup of caffeine when Brian walked in. The big man's face was dark and dangerous.

“What happened?” Carter asked, taking a sip of coffee.

“The ranch garage was set on fire,” Brian said, sitting across from him. Carter nearly spit out his coffee.

“What?!” Not only did Carter have some of his favorite cars in there, but he also had several of his projects including the newest car he showed to Mia. It was all backed up on cloud storage, but the loss of the garage would be a blow to his creativity.

The fact that it was fire made his stomach turn to stone.

“The fire system caught it before it did any damage,” Brian quickly added seeing Carter's panic. “But there was a message burned into the side of the wall.”

Brian set his tablet on the table and pushed it toward Carter. A picture of the garage was on the screen. The words “YOUR FAULT” were burned into the side of the building, along with some blackened edges and scorched wood along the beams.

Carter was glad he was sitting down. His blood wasn't pumping right, and he was having difficulty staying calm. If he had been home and not on this trip, he would have been in that garage. It was where he spent all his time, and he often slept in there when he wasn't working with the horses. He would have seen the flames again.

He carefully took another sip of coffee, using the motion to buy him some time to think. His mind was lost to the flames for a moment before calming himself. It wasn't the same as before. Still, the fear gripped him. He'd never been so happy to be in Vegas.

“Are there any leads?” he asked after a moment.

“We have a possibility, sir.” Brian reached for the tablet and swiped to another screen. “It's been a lot of leg work. The messages seem to indicate they blame you, and we've been exhausting all legal issues related to the cars. We've got a couple of possible suspects, and the police are working closely with us. We're cross-referencing it with everything we had from the office bombing. With any luck, we'll have answers soon.”

“Thank you, Brian,” he said. There wasn't much evidence to the office bombing to compare anything to, unfortunately. Every part of the bomb was available at a regular gas station, and they had no video footage. The cameras were blocked, so nothing usable was recorded. Carter sighed and took another sip of coffee. At this rate, he was going to need another cup soon. “Is everything still good for today? I want to show Mia the high roller experience.”

“Yes, sir,” Brian said with a nod. “The hotel security has been a pleasure to work with, yet again. I hope we managed to stay unobtrusive last night?”

Carter nodded. “I don't think she even realized you were here. Good job.”

“My pleasure, sir.” Brian stood from the table. “Is there anything else you need, sir?”

“No, thank you.”

With a curt nod, Brian turned and left the room. Carter stared into his empty coffee cup and tried not to think about his garage. He tried not to think of the flames. It wasn't so much the things that were in it, but rather the fact that it was where he thought himself the safest. He hated the feeling of vulnerability.

“Everything okay?” Mia asked, opening the door from the bedroom and peering out. “I thought I heard your security guy.”

Her hair was still messy with sleep, but she'd found the heated robes and had wrapped it around her small frame. She looked so beautiful, Carter had a hard time not staring.

“You did hear him,” Carter replied. He stood up and came over to kiss her cheek. She smiled at his touch, and it made his heart less heavy.

“What's he doing in Vegas?” Mia asked, heading toward the coffee pot with enthusiasm. Carter followed behind her to get his second cup.

“Watching out for us,” Carter explained. “We've had security the whole trip.”

Mia finished pouring her cup and looked thoughtful before nodding. “That explains the bathroom.”

“The bathroom?”

“When I went to the bathroom at the restaurant last night, I could have sworn I saw Brian duck into the kitchen. At the time, I thought I just needed to slow down on the wine, but it must have actually been him,” she replied. She took a sip of her coffee and sighed with pleasure. She took another before continuing. “Why do you need so much security? I mean, I know you're a billionaire, but it seems like a lot.”

Carter carefully finished pouring his cup before answering.

“Do you remember when I told you I was hiding out on the ranch? The reason is that there have been some serious threats on my life.” He tried to keep his voice light, like it wasn't a big deal. Still, he hated the way her face paled, and her eyes grew big with concern.

“Oh my god,” she whispered, setting down her cup. “Why would anyone want to hurt you?”

He liked that she thought him innocent and undeserving of threats.

“People blame me when something happens with their cars,” he explained. “I get quite a few death threats.”

She nodded slowly. “I understand the security then,” she said. She frowned and picked up her cup again. “Why would they blame you? You didn’t cause the accident.”

Carter shrugged. “I'm an easy face for them to blame. And they need someone to be responsible for their pain,” he replied. “Most of the time, it's not even the fault of my cars. I can't keep passengers safe when they don't wear seat belts or run into telephone poles.”

“Most of the time?” She took a small sip of coffee, her dark eyes watching him. He sighed.

“Remember that case I told you about? The one where the woman died due to a faulty airbag?” He played with the cup in his hand, staring into the dark liquid. “Her family is pressing more charges, filing more lawsuits. I would too, in their situation.”

“That's not your fault,” she assured him. “You said they put an airbag in her car that was faulty. You didn't do that.”

“It was my brand of car and my brand of airbag. It was supposed to be safe,” he said, turning away.

Carter heard the clink of her mug sitting on the granite bar. She moved to be directly in front of him, placing her hand on his cheek. He leaned into her touch.

“Carter, that's not your fault.” Her dark eyes were serious. For a moment, he almost believed he was completely blameless.

“Let's talk about something else,” he said, kissing her fingertips. “It's a beautiful morning, and I don't want to talk business today. We're vacationing.”

Mia grinned and snuggled into his chest as he wrapped his arms around her. He tipped his head and kissed the top of her hair, smelling her sweet shampoo. How did she manage always to smell so good? It had to be some sort of magic. He kissed her head again, and she hummed with pleasure.

“You like that?” he said, his voice getting a husky quality. That noise had his thoughts going south.

“Mmm hmm,” she murmured, pressing against him. She fit into him like she was his missing piece.

“I think I know another way to make you hum,” he told her. She looked up at him with a naughty twinkle in her eye.

“I like you so much, I'll even wait on breakfast for that,” she said. “And breakfast smells good.”

He chuckled. “You must like me a lot.”

Mia grinned and stepped away from him. She winked once and then sauntered toward the bedroom. He didn't know how she managed to make a fluffy robe look sexy as hell, but somehow she did. Her hips had a magic power over him when she moved like that.

With a grin of his own, he set down his coffee cup and ran after her. Breakfast could wait.