Even the worst of actions can be born of good intentions. And vice versa too, I suppose. As I looked into the storm raging in his emerald eyes, I felt the hurt in my heart transform. I want to stay with you for as long as I’m good for you. Could he have written a better line if he’d tried?

“Good answer,” I said as a wave of emotion propelled me into his arms.

Surprise lit his face as I kissed him. His lips trembled against mine as he wrapped strong arms around me, pressing me against his thundering chest. The stress of the day, the horror of the kidnapping, Tyler’s epic rescue all raced through my consciousness, making my blood run hot. He tasted like heaven, and I swirled my tongue against his, basking in his flavor.

As his surprise faded, his hands engaged. Sweeping over my body, he caressed every bruised curve, igniting my body. I wanted him desperately, right there in front of God and everybody.

Flashing lights cut through my eyelids, paired with the whoop-whoop of a polite siren. Smiling, I pulled away from him. His face glowed like a kid on Christmas, and I couldn’t help but caress it.

“Excuse me. We got a call for… Oh, wow. Dispatch, we’re gonna need an ambulance out here.”

Bart had just emptied the contents of his stomach all over himself. I wrinkled my nose in disgust, then turned my attention to the officer.

“What happened here?” the officer asked, taking in all of our various lumps and bleeding cuts.

“That guy has been stalking me for months,” I said, pointing in Bart’s direction without actually looking at him. “He accosted me in a club about a week ago, but my bodyguard was there to run him off. We thought that would be the end of it. I, um…”

If I told the officer that I’d fired Tyler, there would be all sorts of other questions. I couldn’t risk that, not now. “I gave Tyler the night off tonight, in spite of his objections, and was attacked in my bed. He—Bart—hit me, gagged me, and tied me up, then put me in the back of his van.”

“Do you have any idea what his intentions were? Did he tell you?”

“Not…this time,” I said with a shudder. “But I’ve had to block him multiple times on social media. He was sending me messages telling me that he was going to find me, that he was going cut off some of my hair so that he would always have me with him…” I broke off, suddenly aware of how terrible it all sounded. A desperate sob choked me, and Tyler squeezed my shoulder.

“I came back to the house just in time. I watched the van back out of her driveway, and I saw her dress caught in the door.” Tyler’s throat tightened and a muscle jumped in his jaw. “I was pretty terrified. Wasn’t thinking straight, or I would have called you guys right then. I chased him down and stopped him.”

“Dramatically,” the officer said, nodding at the fused and twisted metal. “That your car?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You must be extremely dedicated.”

“I am, sir.”

“Good. Keep him on staff, Ms. Abbott. I’ve got guys on the force with less guts.”

I chuckled and looked up at my bodyguard, filled with pride. He was dedicated, wasn’t he?

The ambulance arrived then, and Bart was loaded up, handcuffed to the bed. We gave our written statements, filling them with as much information as we could remember. Bart would be going away for a very long time if I had anything to say about it.

“You folks need a ride?” The officer asked.

We were only about a mile from home, and I almost said that we would walk it. Remembering that I was barefoot, though, I agreed. We rode in silence in the back of the cop car, Tyler playing with my fingers gently, tentatively. The cop let us out at my front door, then wished us a better night as he drove away.

“Let’s sit outside,” I said, perching on the top step. “I don’t feel like being shut up right now.”

“Makes sense.” He sat beside me on the step, swallowing hard. Squinting up at the stars, he cleared his throat then took a deep breath. “I haven’t told you much about my life. The stuff that I told you is mostly true. I mean, the big guy I fought wasn’t a perp, he was another guy in the ring. Still went down the way I told you.” He took another deep breath and leaned forward, staring at the ground between his feet.

Butterflies exploded under my heart, quickening my pulse. I could feel the raw truth hovering on his tongue, and I was afraid if I even breathed I would spoil it.

“I’ll tell you all about it someday. For now…I just want you to know that I’ve faced a lot of terrifying shit in my life. Street fights. Fighting in the ring. My asshole dad. Lots of times when I thought my life was over. Lots of times when I wished it was. But I’ve never…” He looked at me, his eyes burning like stars. “I’ve never been more terrified than when I knew you were in the back of that damn van.”

The butterflies in my stomach popped like bubbles, and I sucked in a shuddering breath. Tears rolled down my cheeks, drawn from my heart. Scooting closer to him, I wound my arm around him and kissed his cheek, curling against his shoulder.

“I want you to stay,” I told him quietly, almost afraid that he would refuse.

He didn’t say anything, and as I looked up at him he quickly looked away, rubbing under his eyes. My heart swelled nearly to the point of breaking, and I laced my fingers between his.

“Good,” he said, sniffing. “You need a bodyguard.”

“I do,” I agreed softly. “And a boyfriend.”

He turned to me sharply, searching my face. I kept my expression open, letting him read me. Yes, Tyler. I want you. All of you. He touched my face tenderly, stroking my cheek with his thumb.

“You want me here as your boyfriend? You’d let me back in your bed, after everything I—”

“Yes.” I cut him off, wincing at the twinge of pain still attached to his betrayal. “I might need some time to heal. It’s going to take a lot of work. Lots of reassurance. Countering a lot of paranoia. Think you can handle that?”

“God, yes,” he said, pressing his forehead to mine. “Whatever it takes, darlin’. I’m there, I’ll do it.”

“Then come inside,” I told him, glowing with happiness. “I need a shower, and I don’t want to do it alone.”

His grin just about split his face, his eyes glittering like diamonds. I led him into the house, up the stairs, into my bedroom. The stage for so much drama over the last few weeks, it almost vibrated with tension. I pressed a finger to his lips, then flung the windows open. A cool evening breeze floated in, blowing the memories away. With a happy sigh, I moved to the stereo, tuning it to a station playing slow, romantic country music.

He was watching me with a look on his face that I remembered seeing a few times before. When my dad looked at my mom as she held my baby sister in her arms, still trembling from the exertion of bringing her into the world. When my grandfather looked at my grandmother as she kicked her orthopedic shoes off to dance a jig in the middle of the dance floor at their fiftieth anniversary party. When my sister’s first boyfriend looked at her as she did backflips on the trampoline.

Tyler might not know what he was feeling, but the look in his eyes was unmistakable, and it took my breath away. A different kind of feeling slid through my veins, delicious and awesome and completely terrifying. I moved to him, holding out my hand, my heart beating in time to the music. He slow-danced me to the bathroom, peeling my clothes off on the way. I dimmed the lights and turned the water on as he undressed.

I gasped when I saw him without his clothes. Purple splotches dotted his ribs and left hip, and the shiner on his eye glowed under the yellow lights. His face reflected my horror, and he moved to me, tracing his fingers over my side. I looked down at my tender skin, seeing that it was as bruised as his own. The pattern of the van’s floor glowed purple down my ribs, my hip, my thigh; I hadn’t even known that it had been that bad. The adrenaline of the night had numbed me to my own pain.

“Gently,” I whispered as I traced his bruises.

He kissed my forehead and led me into the shower. Getting clean had never felt more like foreplay, and foreplay had never felt more like love. The word frightened me and comforted me all at once, and I told myself to stop being so damn complicated. Falling into the moment, I relished the feeling of his hands sweeping bubbles over my body.

Pressing against my back, he ran the soft, textured cloth over me from neck to hips, paying special attention to my breasts. The soapy slide sent pleasure running to the tips of my nipples, and I arched against him, pressing my ass to his hips, feeling him grow hard against me. Turning to him, I washed his front as he slid the cloth over my back, sending electricity down my spine.

I kissed him, grinding against him as he cupped my ass. His tongue flicked inside my mouth, mimicking what he had done the night before between my legs, drawing a moan from my throat. Inhaling sharply, he pulled me tight against him, plunging his tongue into me. Rippling my body, I danced against him, greedy for his touch.

His hands crept up to my hair and he pulled my head back, exposing my throat. His lips worked from ear to collar bone as his hands worked through my hair, soaking every strand. Wanted and cared for; what an addicting combination. He washed my hair with the tenderness of a caretaker as he pleasured my skin with the fevered desire of a lover, and I was lost to him.

After returning the favor, I curled into him, tucking my head into his chest as we stood under the steaming stream. He rocked me back and forth to the music flowing through the door, stroking my back and kissing my hair. I thought the happiness would make my heart burst right out of my chest, and tears trickled from my eyes. I breathed a shuddering sigh, and he tilted my chin up to look at him.

“We don’t have to,” he told me, concern darkening his eyes. “I’ll hold you while you sleep, if you want. I don’t need…”

“I need it,” I interrupted, kissing his mouth firmly. “Make love to me, Tyler.”

With that, he took my mouth in his and I sighed, wrapping my arms around his neck, dancing my hips against his. Reaching behind me, he turned the water off then spun me out of the shower. Drying became a slow sultry dance, guided by what was now smooth, smoky jazz floating in the air. Leading the dance into the bedroom, he lifted me onto the bed.

Standing at the edge of the bed, gazing down at me, he touched my face with his fingertips. Tracing my contours, he swept his fingers down my throat, over my shoulders, around my breasts; spreading his hands, he grazed a line over my waist, hips, and thighs. His eyes drank me in, glowing with that same look. Gentle fingers touched the lazy heat swirling between my hips, answered by a trembling sigh.

Slowly and deliberately, he pushed all of my buttons, loving my body with his hands and mouth, sweeping that molten pleasure over me again and again until it built up in a bubble of wanton lust around his fingers. His mouth wrapped around my breast, his tongue flicking the hard tip, he pressed against my most sensitive places. Ecstasy rolled over me slowly, a thick, lazy storm flicking electricity to every nerve.

“Tyler,” I murmured as the pleasure reached my hips. “Oh God, Tyler!”

I quaked and pulsed around him, surprised by the strength and suddenness of it. Writhing beneath him, I came back to earth, already aching to have him inside of me.

He didn’t make me wait. Standing over me, gazing down at me with those incredible eyes, he slid his cock inside, his breath hitching in his throat. Our eyes locked as he moved inside of me, building the intensity between us, making my heart race with something more powerful than sheer lust.

His hands wandered over me, mesmerizing me, turning my body to electric jelly. Crossing my ankles behind his back I arched into him, drawing him deeper, grinding to the rhythm of the music.

Groaning, he bent over me, lifted me at my waist, and slid me back onto the bed. I whimpered as he slid out of me, my whole body aching for more. With a wicked little grin, he crawled onto the bed and kissed me.

I responded instantly, desperately, sucking his tongue into my mouth, biting his lip. He groaned, groping my breast, rolling his thumb over my hard nipple. A tiny scream ripped from my throat, filling his mouth as heat licked down my belly and swirled around my clit. His breath quickened, deepened, and with a savage growl, he broke the kiss, sliding down my body.

Burying his open mouth against my hot, wet heat, he lapped at my center as his lip vibrated against my clit. Clawing the bed, I rocked my hips against him as he fucked me with his talented tongue. Starbursts in my head blinded me, shocking my belly with a punch of ecstasy. Buzzing with it, I rocked faster, and he met my rhythm seamlessly.

Pressure built inside me, hardening my clit against his lips, swelling my sex around his tongue, and with a full-body shudder, I came again. Gasping for breath and moaning in the aftershocks, I reached for him.

Tyler dove onto me, into me, with desperate, powerful thrusts. Bracing my feet against the bed I met him with equal energy, drawing him into me. The velvet smoothness of him drew gasping screams from me, punctuating the music, and just like that I was on the brink again.

“I love the sounds you make,” he growled in my ear.

That was all it took. Hooking my toes under his ankles I arched into him, grinding my clit against his hard belly as I jerked my hips, sliding over his hard cock, panting as another orgasm exploded within me. Tyler groaned, pulsing inside me. The heat from his shaft mingled with mine, starting a firestorm between us that couldn’t be stopped. Digging my nails into his shoulders I screamed his name as he moaned mine, every pulse of our bliss synchronized.

Trembling and gasping for breath he curled onto me, cradling me in his arms. Gazing into my eyes he kissed me tenderly.

“Forever,” he whispered. “For as long as you want me, I’ll be here.”

“Forever sounds good to me,” I murmured, running my lips along his jaw.

He breathed a heavy sigh, almost a whimper. “I mean it, Paisley,” he said, still catching his breath. “However you want me. Standing guard, in your bed, making food…I’ll be whatever you need me to be, for as long as I’m good for you.”

“I know,” I said, holding his face and turning his eyes to me. “I accept your oath. I want you to stay for as long as I’m good for you.”

There was relief in his smile, and something more. He began to harden inside of me and I moaned, moving against him again. The stamina of a god, the loyalty of a puppy. How could I refuse him?