Sanctuary Found (Pelican Bay 2)

Which meant I’d have to find a few tricks…

Bile rose in my throat at even the thought. How the hell was I supposed to let any man touch me after Maddox? It just felt so wrong on every level.

God, he’d completely ruined me for other men, because I doubted I could even bear the idea of someone who wasn’t a client touching me the way Maddox had.

“Hey,” Maddox said.

Butterflies danced in my belly with the simple greeting. Hell, he could probably read me scores from the sports page and I’d still pop a boner.

“Hey,” I said.

Smooth, Isaac. Real smooth.

“Hey, Newt,” Maddox said.

“Hey, Mad,” Newt returned, though he didn’t look up from his coloring book.

Maddox approached the desk. Even with the piece of furniture separating us, I felt like I could feel him all around me.

It was the strangest thing. It was like there was this current between us that had a wire running to both my dick and my heart. Usually it didn’t matter what he said or did, both body parts responded accordingly.

“How’s your hand?” I asked.

He glanced at his bandaged hand and said, “It’s good.” There was an awkward silence between us before he leaned over the desk and said, “Listen, I wanted to talk to you about what I said in the small animal building the other day—”

My heart constricted painfully in my chest. “It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean it.”

I expected him to flash me a smile of relief, but instead, his eyes hardened just the tiniest bit, then he was leaning across the desk until he was practically in my face. “I meant every freaking word I said, Isaac,” he whispered. Then to my surprise, he brushed his mouth over mine. I was about to grab him and lay the mother of all kisses on him when he pulled back just a little because, come on, between that kiss, his words, and the fact that he’d deliberately chosen not to swear… a guy could only resist for so long.

But the sound of the office door opening had me keeping my hands to myself.

Maddox straightened as Loki got up from his spot and went to check out our guest. It wasn’t until Maddox moved out of the way that I recognized the man.

It was Jimmy Cornell’s brother.

I automatically stood up and began looking for Jimmy, but there was no one else with him. The man’s eyes landed on mine, but he didn’t seem particularly surprised to see me. I didn’t miss the fact that he had fresh bruises on his face.

“Hi,” he said to me.

Maddox looked between me and the man as I came around the desk. “Hello,” I returned. I liked it when Maddox automatically moved closer to me.

“My name’s Ford,” the man said. “Ford—”

“Cornell,” Maddox finished for him. “You’re Jimmy Cornell’s brother,” he said. His voice had gone cold and Ford automatically stepped back a bit.

“I am,” he murmured.

“You two know each other?” Maddox said to me.

“It’s nothing,” I said with a shake of my head. If it’d been Jimmy standing in front of us, I wouldn’t have hesitated to tell Maddox about the incident in town, but my gut was telling me Ford wasn’t like his brother.

Maddox eyed me, then Ford. To me he said, “Did he do that to your face?” as his fingers came up to skim the faded marks on my temple and cheek. “Your throat?” he said more softly. His voice was positively scary now. He was already stepping toward Ford when I grabbed his arm.

“He didn’t,” I said quickly. “It wasn’t him. He tried to stop it.”

Maddox hesitated, then eased up a bit. “It was Jimmy?”

I swallowed and nodded. “But I took care of it. Jimmy and his friends were hassling me after I left the thrift store.” My eyes flicked to Ford briefly. “But I knew Jimmy is nothing but a bully… his attack on Gentry proved that. So I pretty much told him and his friends they could go fu… fudge themselves.” I looked awkwardly at Newt and saw he’d gotten up and was holding Snotrod close to his chest while he listened in on our conversation. “Jimmy was going to take a s-w-i-n-g at me, but Ford stopped him.”

Newt had moved to my side while I’d been talking, but fortunately he hadn’t gotten the gist of the conversation. I had no interest in him knowing I’d nearly gotten attacked.

“Mad,” Newt said softly.

“Yeah, buddy,” Maddox said, his eyes on Ford.

“Someone hurt him,” Newt whispered as he looked at the other man, his eyes on the bruises on Ford’s face. Ford’s skin went bright with color, a sure sign he was embarrassed. “You should spit on it,” Newt added.

At that, Ford actually went wide-eyed and I couldn’t help but smile as I put my arm around Newt’s shoulders. “He means spit shake on it.”