Vengeance (The Protectors 5)

As exhausted as I’d been, I’d absolutely refused to break my rule of never sleeping with a guy. It wasn’t usually a problem since I never took a guy back to my place and while the hotel wasn’t actually my place, the fact was that I’d invited Brennan to my room instead of meeting him on neutral ground.

After leaving the bed, I’d taken a shower to get cleaned up, but I hadn’t lingered since all being in there had done was remind me of showering with Brennan after I’d fucked him in the living room. We hadn’t actually fucked in the shower or even gotten each other off, but it probably would have been better if we had.

No, it had been worse than that.

Much worse.

Because before I could even consider what it meant, Brennan had started washing me. And not even with a fucking washcloth. Nope, just his hands and some body wash and I’d been completely fucked. I hadn’t even thought to return the favor because the second he’d started to wash himself, I’d been lost and I’d just watched the soap and water skirt over every part of his perfect body. When he’d finished, he’d leaned up to kiss me and then he’d pressed himself against my chest and I’d just held him.

I fucking held him.

By the time we’d gotten out of the shower and dried off, I’d needed him again and I’d ended up fucking him right there on the bathroom floor. My only saving grace had been that I’d had extra condoms and lube in my shaving kit because I’d been so far gone I wasn’t sure I would have had the patience to actually go to the other room and get them from my overnight bag.

I’d gotten us both cleaned off with a washcloth after that and had led him to the bed and put him under the covers. I’d stalled on trying to explain to him why I wouldn’t be sleeping next to him by going to the kitchen to get some water, but I’d been saved from having to voice the awkward statement because Brennan had fallen asleep. I’d been too restless to sleep so I’d gone to the living room to work on my laptop for a while, but I’d gotten agitated as my inner voice had demanded to know what the hell I was doing and I’d ended up going back to the bedroom just to sit and watch Brennan sleep in the hopes that I could find some of the answers I was missing.

When he’d woken up a mere fifteen minutes later and his sleepy eyes had settled on me where I was sitting in an oversized armchair in the corner near the bed, he’d smiled sheepishly and then pulled back the comforter invitingly, giving me a perfect view of his long, tight body. That third time was as close to making love as I’d ever come with anyone, because it was slow and languid and hadn’t just been about rushing to get the climax we both knew would be waiting for us. No, we’d explored each other. Tasted, teased…hell, I’d even fucking laughed when he’d found a particularly sensitive spot on my stomach and he had smiled like a kid in a candy store when he’d realized what he’d discovered.

By the time I’d slid into him, we’d both become so in tune with each other that there was no awkwardness, no desperate run to the finish line. No, we’d just enjoyed pulling every ounce of pleasure from each other that we could and when Brennan had shattered, he’d whispered my name against my mouth and the emotion behind his broken cries had sent me over. He’d fallen asleep and I stayed in bed with him, though I hadn’t slept. An hour later I’d taken him again and even though I hadn’t penetrated his body, the orgasm hadn’t been any less intense than all the others.

And after all of that, instead of leaving like I’d planned after Brennan had fallen back asleep, I had settled into the same armchair and waited. I’d lost track of how much time had passed, but as I watched Brennan begin to stir, I wondered how this one man had managed to fuck up my entire existence within ten days of losing myself inside of his body the first time.

After leaving Brennan in the motel ten days ago, I’d had no intention of seeing him again. I’d gone home to pour through some of the case notes Daisy, the IT girl Ronan had hired a few months earlier, had sent me. I’d assigned the cases to the different operatives all over the country based on who was geographically closest and was the best fit for the case, but when I’d seen that a potential mark had been located in Salt Lake City, I’d dropped everything to take the case myself. I’d trailed my mark for more than a week and had finally pulled the trigger yesterday afternoon after I’d spotted the kiddie rapist scoping out his next target at a playground. He’d been in the process of following the young mother and her three kids - all of them under the age of four - home, presumably so he could abduct the oldest child, a little boy who fit his “type”. I’d come up behind him and put my gun against his back and forced him into the alley where’d I’d left the car I’d stolen for the job. He’d begged and pleaded with me of course. Even after I looked through his phone and found not only pictures of the kids he’d abducted, raped and then killed, but videos as well, he’d insisted he was just sick and needed help. I’d helped him by putting a bullet in his brain.