“So the senator has known exactly where you were all these years?” The situation sucked, was much bigger than I ever imagined, and the risks to Brynne could be enormous.
“I never knew that part until last week,” she whispered, “I thought I got in on my own merits.”
“I can understand how that might bother you, but your graduate study was earned on your merits as exemplary in your field. I’ve seen you at work, and I know you’re brilliant at what you do,” I teased with my tone and kissed the side of her jaw, “My adorable anorak, Professor Bennett.”
“Anorak?” she laughed. “What kind of crazy Brit slang word is that?”
“Yeah, I think you Yanks call them nerds or geeks. That’s you. An artsy anorak that I adore.” I turned her head to mine and met her lips for another kiss. I knew we were both remembering our ridiculous chat in the car that morning about the professor detaining the misbehaving student. Which would be her, the professor, and me, the misbehaving student.
“You’re crazy,” she said against my lips.
“Crazy for you,” I said, squeezing her a little. “But really, Senator Oakley owed you a hell of a lot more than what he gave, although it doesn’t make me happy to know that he is very aware of exactly where you are in the world and what you’re doing every day.”
“I know. And it scares me a little. Daddy said that Eric Montrose died in a weird bar fight when Lance was home on leave from the Army. He—he was one of them…on the video, but I never saw any of them again after that night. Not even Lance Oakley.”
The sound of her voice bothered me, and so did the thought of her remembering what she’d gone through at the hands of those degenerates. I was really happy one of them was dead. That part didn’t bother me at all. I just prayed his death had nothing to do with that video and Senator Oakley’s vetting.
I set the water to drain and helped her out of the tub. “I won’t let anything happen to you and you don’t have to be scared. I got it covered.” I smiled and started drying her legs with a towel. “I’m going to speak to your dad tomorrow and find out everything I can on Senator Oakley.” I dried her arms and back and breasts, thinking I could get really used to doing this. “You just let me worry about the senator. I’ll send some feelers out and see what I get back in the way of information. Nobody’s going to get near my girl unless they come through me first.”
She smiled and gave me a very nice nibbling kiss on my bottom lip. I had trouble restraining myself from spreading her up on the sink counter and having her again.
Brynne’s skin had a natural golden glow, but right now was pinked from the hot water, and so beautiful it was hard to look and stay neutral. Don’t think about it. I ignored the urge and worked at drying her luscious curves which had definitely lost some of their curviness but still lovely and all mine. She stood gracefully for me as if not at all affected by our nakedness in such proximity. I wondered how in the hell she managed to do it. Well, I had an idea of how. She was a model who posed in the nude and she was used to it. Don’t think about that either.
I couldn’t remember ever being driven by my cock in the way I was driven with her. Maybe when I was just starting out, but nothing with this level of intensity had ever consumed me like it did now. Fucking Brynne was right up there with food, and shelter these days.
Everyone needs the basics, Brynne. Food, water…a bed.
She provoked emotions in me I didn’t know existed until the night she strolled into the Andersen Gallery talking bollocks about me and my trusty hand.
She tugged the towel away from me with a sexy smirk and used it to wrap up all that glorious nakedness in fluffy cream cotton. A damn shame. She walked into the bedroom and I could hear drawers opening and closing. I loved the sounds of her in there, moving around and preparing for bed. I pulled a towel down for myself and started drying off, immensely grateful I would sleep with her in my arms tonight.
6
I opened my eyes in the dark to the scent of Brynne up my nose and smiled when I figured out where we were. She’s in your bed with you. I was careful to be still so as not to disturb her sleeping. She faced me, but her head was turned down and curled around her arm. I just watched her breathe for a few minutes, entranced and content for the first time in days. I wanted to touch my girl but I let her sleep. By God she needed it.
Need. So much need inside me now. Needs only Brynne could satisfy, and that scared me. I couldn’t imagine feeling this way about any woman just a month ago, and now I couldn’t imagine not having her in my life. The time apart had changed me forever I feared.
I inhaled deeply and held it. The faint smell of sex was in the sheets from earlier but mostly it was just her clean, flowery scent that intoxicated me. It intoxicated me now just as it had intoxicated me on the very first night we met. She smelled so good I hated to leave her alone in the bed but I got up carefully and threw on some joggers and a t-shirt.
I headed across the great room and down the hall to my office, leaving the bedroom door open a crack in case Brynne woke with a bad dream. I really needed a smoke and I really needed to talk to her dad.
“Tom Bennett.” His clipped American accent on the other end of my mobile reminded me of how far away Brynne was from her family, although I must admit I loved that she considered London her home now.
“It’s Ethan.” I dragged in a deep inhale off my cig.
A beat of silence and then rushed questions. “Is Brynne safe? What’s happened? Where is she?”
“Nothing’s happened, Tom. She’s sleeping right now and perfectly safe.” I inhaled again.
“You’re with her? Wait. Is she at your place right now?” The silence grew very thick and ominous as Tom Bennett contemplated exactly what I’d been doing with his daughter. “So you two have worked it out. Look, I’m sorry about that call I made—”
“You’re sorry?” I interrupted him. “And yes, Brynne is with me at the moment and I plan to keep her very close, Tom.” I stubbed out my Djarum and decided against lighting up a new one until after this conversation was done. “Just so you know, I’m not going to apologize for being with her either. You set this whole thing up. I’m just the simple bloke who fell for a beautiful, lovely girl. Can’t help that now, can we?”
Tom made a noise that sounded like frustration to me. I had to give him credit for not exploding but maybe he still had it in him. “Look, Ethan…I only want her safe. Brynne makes her own decisions in regards to who she wants to date. I just want those bastards to keep away from her. From reminding her of all the bad shit. You have no idea how she’s suffered. It nearly destroyed her.”
“I know. She told me everything tonight. I have a few things to say to you as well.”
“Go ahead,” Tom said impatiently.
“First, I want to thank you for acting on your ominous vibe and coming home for lunch to check on her that day. And second, I want to ask you something.” I paused for effect. “What in the mother-fuck were you thinking by not telling me what really happened to your daughter? Knowledge is power, Tom. How in the hell can I keep her protected when I don’t know what they did to her? What Brynne described to me was not some indiscreet sex tape as you alluded to; it was a criminal act of assault and abuse upon a seventeen year old girl by three legally adult men.”
“I know that,” he said in a defeated voice. “I didn’t want to break her trust and disclose the details to you or anyone. That story is hers and hers alone to tell.”
Fuck this. I lit a second Djarum. “You left out the part about the senator getting her the scholarship to University of London. He knows exactly where she is, and has for years.”
“I realize that, and again, only wanted to get her as far away from those people as possible!” he gritted back. “I know this situation is potentially a disaster and leaves my daughter in the worst sort of position! Now do you see why I need you? This whole thing would have slipped away into oblivion if not for that plane crash. Who would have imagined Oakley being
vetted as the next vice president!”
I sighed loudly. “I’m working on him and so far I’m not finding any dirtiness popping up about the senator. I know his boy is trouble, but Senator Oakley’s black book is neat and tidy.”
“Well, I don’t trust him. And now one of those fucking degenerates is out of the picture! This story is everything the senator wishes dead and buried, and right now, my daughter is in the middle of that shit pile! This is unacceptable!”
“You’re right, and I’m watching them all, believe me. I have some contacts in the SF that are looking into the son’s military record. If there’s anything there I’ll find it. Question for you. Brynne said the only person identifiable on the video was herself. She told me the others were mostly off camera and their voices dubbed over with a song—”
“I—I saw it. I saw what they did to my baby girl…” The man sounded broken now.
I closed my eyes and willed the images to just fade away. I couldn’t imagine being in his shoes, having seen that vileness and not tried to kill who hurt her. Tom Bennett got praise for not becoming a murderer in my book.
I cleared my throat so I could speak. “There’s something else you need to know about me.”
“What’s that?”
“She’s my responsibility now. I call the shots, and I make the contact with Oakley’s people when and if the time comes. Brynne is an adult and we are together. And if you’re worried about my motives for telling you this, don’t be. I love her, Tom. I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep her safe and happy.” I took a final drag on the smoke and let my words sink in.
He sighed before he answered. “I have two things to say to that. From a client who needs you, I wholeheartedly agree. I know you’re the man for the job. If anyone can see Brynne through this mess it will be you.”
He paused and I could guess what was coming next.
“But as a father who loves his daughter—and you really cannot understand until it happens to you—if you hurt her in this, and break her heart, I am coming after you, Blackstone, and I’ll have forgotten we were ever friends.”
I grinned in my chair, glad that this conversation was out of the way. “Fair enough, Tom Bennett. I can live with those terms.”
We spoke a bit more and I got the full backstory on the Oakleys of San Francisco. I arranged for us to talk again soon, to keep him abreast of any new developments, and ended the call.
I stayed at my desk for a bit, wrote up some notes, and sent some emails before shutting down my laptop. As I turned out the light, Simba fluttered madly from the aquarium glowing behind my desk. I went back and tossed him a treat before heading out to the balcony to sit for a while.
I passed the bedroom and heard nothing but silence. I wanted Brynne to sleep well. No more nightmares for my girl. She’d been through enough for a lifetime already.
The night sky held millions of stars tonight. It wasn’t often they were so sparkly and I realized it’d been a long time since I had sat out here. I lit up another cig. This one was a throwaway though. If I smoked outside then nobody had to know about it. I shouldn’t smoke inside with Brynne here anyway.
I crossed my feet up on the ottoman and leaned back into the lounger. I let my mind wander into thoughts of today and all that had happened. I thought about Brynne’s tragic story and just how things had altered now. For both of us. Yeah…our times of darkness had been like a parallel universe. She’d been seventeen and I’d been twenty-five. Both of us in a very bad place. I felt more connected to her than ever, sitting out here alone, dragging spiced tobacco into my lungs.
I used to smoke Dunhills. It was my brand of choice and top of the line. I like fine things so they were no surprise. But that all changed after Afghanistan. Lots of things changed after that place. I absorbed the nicotine my body craved and looked up at the myriad of stars shining overhead.
…Every guard smoked clove tobacco. Every last motherfucking rebel had one of those lovely, imperfect handrolleds hanging off his lips as they went about their tasks of beatings and mind fucks. And the smell? Like pure ambrosia. I dreamed in smokes in the first days of my capture. I dreamed about the sweet scent of clove mixed with tobacco until I was sure I would die before I ever tasted one. The beatings and interrogations started later. I don’t think they knew what they had captured at the first. All in good time though, and they did figure it out eventually. The Afghans wanted to use me to negotiate the release of their own. I got that much from their nearly insensible ranting. Was totally out of my hands though. Government policy is no negotiation with terrorists so I knew they would be disappointed. And I knew they would take out their frustrations on me. Which they did. I often wondered if they knew how close I’d come to breaking in the beginning. I had terrible guilt for knowing the truth, and felt great relief I’d never had to choose, but there were some interrogations (if you could call them such) where I would have sung like a canary in a coal mine if they’d offered me one of those beautiful, sweet, clove handrolleds to smoke. It was the very first thing I asked for when I walked out of that rubble pile. The US Marine who got to me first, said I was in shock. I was…and I wasn’t, I suppose. I think he was in shock that anyone alive came out of what was left of my prison after they bombed it to shit (which I thanked him nicely for). But really I was in shock because I knew in that instant that the fates had changed for me. I had finally found some luck. Or luck had finally found me. Ethan Blackstone was a lucky, lucky man—
A shadow moved the faint light behind me and caught my attention. I turned my head. My heart lurched inside my chest to see Brynne standing just on the other side of the sliding glass watching me. We stared at each other for a beat or two until she slid open the door and stepped out.
“You’re up,” I said.
“You’re out here smoking,” she said.
I set the ciggie in the ashtray and held my arms open to her. “You caught me.”
She came right over, looking decadently tousled from sleep in a light blue t-shirt and a pair of my silk boxers. And nothing underneath them. I tugged her down to me and she smiled a little, folding her long legs on either side of mine, straddling my lap and holding my face in her two hands.
“You are so busted, Blackstone.” Her eyes moved infinitesimally, trying to read me. I knew that’s what she was doing and I so wished I could know what she was really thinking. Just the fact that she had crawled up on my lap and held my face thrilled me, but seeing her relaxed and happy after waking in the night, pleased me more.
“Mmmmm, I know how you can punish me if you want,” I told her.
She snuggled against me and I drew my arms around her. “What were you thinking about? You looked very far away, sneaking your cigarette out here in the dark.”
I spoke into her hair and moved my hand up and down her back. “I was thinking about…luck. Being lucky. Having some.” It was the truth and the reason I still breathed even if I couldn’t share that part with her yet. I wanted to, but didn’t know how to even begin that journey with Brynne. She didn’t need more painful shit piled on top of what she already had to carry around.
“And are you? Lucky?”
“I didn’t used to be. But then my luck changed for the better one day. I took the gift handed me and started playing cards.”
She traced over my chest with her fingers very softly, probably unaware of how much she got to me.
“You won a lot of tournaments. My dad told me that’s how he met you.”
I nodded against her head, my lips still on her hair. “I liked your dad very much when we first met. I still do. I talked to him tonight.”
Her hand on my chest stilled for a moment but then resumed the soft rubbing. “And how did that go?”
“It went just about like I imagined it would. We both said what we needed to say and got down to brass tacks. He knows about us. I told him. He wants the same as me—to keep you safe and happy.”
“I do feel safe with you…I always have. And I know my da
d respects you very much. He told me how he had to push you to take me on.” She made a sound against me, her mouth right over my pectoral. A nice sound; soft and pretty, and one that got me very hard. “I just wish he had told me what was happening with you.” She paused and then whispered longingly, “I have to know what’s going on, Ethan. I can’t ever go back to being the unaware victim. Secrets will destroy me—I just can’t handle them now. I’ll always have to know everything. Waking up like that and finding myself on that table, not knowing who or what—I can’t—”
“Shhhhh…I know.” I stopped her before she could get too worked up. “I realize that now.”
I reached for her face. I wanted to see her eyes when I told her the next part. She was absolutely beautiful looking up at me in the starry nighttime light from where she rested on my chest. Her lips needed kissing and I wanted to be inside her again, but I forced myself to speak instead. “I am so sorry for keeping secrets. I understand why you need transparency. I get it, and I promise to tell you everything from now on, even if I think you won’t like to hear it. And I know that was hard for you to tell me your story tonight, but I want you to know I am so damn proud of you. You are so strong…and lovely…and brilliant, Brynne Bennett. My beautiful American girl.” I rubbed over her lips with my thumb.
She smiled with half of her mouth up at me. “Thank you,” she mouthed.
“And you know what the best part is?” I asked.
“Tell me.”
“You’re here with me. Right here, where I can do this.” I dipped my hand up under her shirt and cupped a breast, so soft, filling my hand with its gentle weight. I smiled at her. The kind of smile I can feel on my face, and pretty much only give to her and a very short list of others.
“I am,” she said. “And I’m glad I’m here with you, Ethan. You’re the first person to make me…forget.” Her voice grew softer but strangely, more clear. “I don’t know why it works with you, but it does. I—I couldn’t do—intimacy for a long time. And then it was still…difficult…those times I tried—”