Unbroken (The Protectors 12)

He sighed – actually sighed – and then kissed the shell of my ear. But somehow just saying his name the one time wasn’t enough for me.

“I trust you, James.”

He let out a little gasp of air, then he was drawing me into his arms. His hand came up to cradle the back of my head. I loved how his arms were so big that they just completely enveloped me.

“I won’t let you down, Aleks. I swear it.”

And with that, he shifted us until we were both lying flat on the bed. He pulled me against his side and even though I’d never once slept with another soul in a bed besides my parents and Dante, I’d never felt more comfortable. Vaughn’s fingers played with my hair, putting me to sleep within minutes. When I woke up, the clock showed that it was just after eight in the morning and both Vaughn, his gun and his computer were gone and just the utility knife was on the nightstand. But I knew in my gut he hadn’t left me. I quickly got out of bed and made use of the bathroom. It took me a moment to figure out that I was actually on the second floor of a two-story house, but I had no trouble confirming Vaughn was still indeed there.

Because I could hear his raised voice and the anger in it was clear as day.

As was that of the anger in the voice of whoever he was arguing with.

Chapter 9

Vaughn

I heard the car coming up the driveway as I was leaving the bathroom. I’d ended up sleeping through the alarm I’d set, which was extremely unusual for me. Of course, I’d never had the pleasure of sleeping with Aleks before, so I couldn’t exactly be upset about it. But oversleeping meant I hadn’t been able to enjoy the sensation of just lying there with Aleks in my arms. I would have expected him to move away from me at some point during the night, but he’d been wrapped around me like a vine. Fortunately, my body hadn’t had too much time to react to that fact other than my normal morning erection. But as soon as I’d awoken to Aleks’s soft breath against my neck and his fingers pressed into my side, my dick had responded accordingly.

The night before had been both a near disaster and a nightmare. The nightmare had come first. Aleks hadn’t spoken to me most of the previous day as we’d made our way south and he’d refused to eat or drink anything. When we’d gotten to our destination, he’d been so exhausted he’d been on autopilot and he’d been out cold within seconds of his head hitting the pillow. I’d actually had to take his shoes off. It’d still been pretty early, so I’d gone to the kitchen to eat the sandwich I’d bought for myself from the gas station, though I hadn’t been particularly hungry. I’d also returned a couple of phone calls to some sick fucks who were in the market for “protection,” but I hadn’t done more than tell the assholes I wasn’t currently available. In a world like mine, that just made me more attractive and coveted. Even if I hadn’t been dealing with the situation with Aleks, my answer would have been the same. By being seemingly unavailable, my reputation actually strengthened because the assholes were making up their own reasons for what I was up to. As far as they were concerned, I was getting rid of witnesses or rivals for whatever degenerate I was working for. Little did they know it was all smoke and mirrors and it’d all been carefully constructed to catch a much bigger fish than any of them.

But all that was in jeopardy now because I needed to make sure Aleks was safe first.

I asked him to call me James…

What the fuck had I been thinking?

About any of it?

I hadn’t been thinking and fuck if that hadn’t been amazing. I’d just been feeling.

Just.

I almost laughed at that because that word made it seem like such a simple thing.

After the nightmare of Aleks once again hating me, I’d woken up to my dream come true because Aleks had been touching me and he hadn’t seemed scared. Then it had been a near disaster because I’d almost kissed him.

I’d only managed to come to my senses at the last second. Then I’d gotten all vulnerable and needy and asked him to call me by my first name.

No one ever called me James.

The last and only person had been my stepmother and that had been a lifetime ago.

I’d always been Vaughn… just Vaughn.

I sighed as I tucked my gun into the waistband of my pants. I needed to get this thing with Aleks under control. He wasn’t in any position to deal with any of this. I’d only ended up in the bed with him again because he’d had another nightmare. I’d managed to get him to drink some chocolate milk that I’d bought him from the gas station and then he’d fallen back asleep. I’d stayed in the bed to work on my computer for a bit until I was sure he was okay, but instead of going to sleep in one of the other rooms, I’d fallen asleep myself.