Keeping You: KJ Elite Inc. (18 page)

It was hard to tell what was going on being blind to this encounter but my best guess is that Noah opened his mouth before Mister-grit-in-his-throat cut him off.

“No. You’re going to listen. I might be in your house, but you will respect me. That girl is fragile. Despite being dealt the worst most shit hand in life, she is a survivor and a fighter. She might not know it yet, but the day is coming. Take your giant head out of your tiny ass and protect her.”

Whoever he is may not have said the words, “Don’t touch her” but the warning was there.

“I am and I will. With my life.” Noah whisper-barked. “Is that all?”

“One more thing.”

Footsteps muffled on the plush tan rug moved away from the bed where I found myself magically transported from the head of the bed to the foot. My nose was practically touching the gauze of the canopy.

One minute there was nothing and I debated on leaving my safe cocoon, then the very distinct sound of flesh on flesh resonated in the space of the bedroom followed by a grunt. I knew that sound like I knew my own name. Someone was just hit.

Noah.

What do I do? I couldn’t make it to the closet without raising alarm and probably getting caught first.

Farther away now, the voices spoke slightly louder by the doorway.

“You can hit me all day and night; it won’t change the fact that Jamie is
mine
and I will not let anyone hurt her. I put my life on it.”

“You’re the one I worry about hurting her most.” The voice was resigned and laced with heartbreaking tenderness.

I didn’t even have a chance to ponder over Noah’s statement. There was such conviction in his tone.

Jamie is mine
.

Chills racked my body before the chill moved from my skin to my veins, effectively signaling how incredibly turned on I was.

As Noah approached the bed again, I tried my darnedest to climb back up to my spot and cuddle in. Of course, Noah would choose the moment I had my butt in the air trying to pull the robe out from under my knee, bare chest hanging all out, to pull a portion of the canopy back.

He stood there with a naughty grin brightening the small space, an eyebrow hitched in query.

“Uh…robe.” I stuttered.

I think it’s obvious why Taylor’s the author and I am the model – all I have to do is stand there and look pretty.

His bare, tight tummy pulled with laughter while his face clearly stated his amusement.

By the good grace of God I managed to free the robe and then landed nearly on my face as my weak wrist collapsed under my weight.

I quit. I’m going back to bed; wake me when it’s tomorrow.

Noah leaned in with a knee on the mattress and set me right. From my vantage point I couldn’t tell if he was naked from the waist up only, or all over. I’d personally prefer the latter.

“Thanks.” I mumbled.

“Try to go back to sleep. It’s still very early.”

He released the canopy and shut off the lights behind us.

Sleeping next to him was like sleeping on cloud nine. The dark dreams stayed away and I actually felt rested when we woke.

“Are you staying?”

I couldn’t read his expression since he had shut off the lights at the headboard and the dark canopy cover acted as black out curtains. Wondering if I should ask about the argument I overheard, I subconsciously raked my teeth over my lips.

He groaned and settled beside me, reaching over to delicately run his thumb across my lip freeing it.

“You couldn’t get rid of me if you tried, sugar.”

Swoon.

“I… I’m sorry about last night. Or, this morning – falling asleep I mean.”

“It’s only been about 3 hours. Don’t apologize. I’ll take any chance I can get to sleep wrapped around you.”

Noah saying he didn’t mind sleeping instead of …other stuff, well that was just odd and yet, sweet. I don’t know if I’m ready for the other stuff yet. Jumping head first, no pun intended, into what we had already done was quite a leap for me and my brain has yet to catch up. It would probably put a damper on things if we were in the middle of something more when it finally did catch up and I freaked out on him.

Because that wouldn’t be embarrassing at all.

Noah situated himself behind me, spooning my rear, snaking an arm around my waist and up to cup my breast. The feeling was familiar and sensual without crossing any lines. It was like we’d fallen asleep in this position a thousand times before.

When I tumbled into sleep, my surroundings were dark but I kept hearing voices from my past, mostly of the day I escaped. Before I woke one face penetrated the darkness, leaving me feeling relaxed and peaceful while I silently wept. My guardian; he never leaves me. Nolan brushed the hair from my face and stroked my cheek delicately, wiping away my tears.

“You’re safe, now; he
will
protect you. Rest easy, babygirl.”

I jackknifed off the pillows, grabbing my pounding head. My dream visitor may have left me feeling at ease but dried tears pulled at the delicate skin around my eyes and a migraine threatened to keep me in bed all day. The smell of bacon, eggs and perfect french-toast tickled my nose before a bout of nausea from the migraine had me sprinting for the bathroom.

Once I’d finished and washed up I walked back to the bed and found a beautiful yellow daisy on the pillow his head rested on last night with a small note telling me to come down when I was ready. Then a p.s. to “for the love of God, wear some real clothes so I don’t have to kill my brothers today”.

So I make a trip into the closet to find my shortest white shorts and smallest crop top, that rub the barrier between cute and hooker, before I grab an American flag scarf to tightly wrap around my head; the tighter the better for this horrendous migraine. I will not take pain medication if given the choice.

It’s Saturday, July 4
th
and Taylor mentioned that we were going to the lake today. And by we, she meant all of us; Kane’s, Jameson’s, KJ Elite employees, their families and me.

With a pleasant smirk on my face, I headed down the stairs moving slowly to gauge who was here and what the mood was. Just from the closet to the middle of the staircase, my headache was improving exponentially – so much so that the peals of laughter and booming voices did not make me feel like taking an ice pick to my head. It oddly enough reminded me that I wanted to ask Noah’s mother if I might be allowed to accompany them to church tomorrow. Church was something I never skipped no matter where I was or what I was doing; my faith brought me solace and having not been in attendance for over 7 months was really impairing my healing; that, I believe.

Just before turning the corner on the stairs that would put me in everyone’s eyesight, I pause and think to turn around. Noah asked me to dress modestly and while I want to play with him, there are a lot of folks in there by the sounds of it. Thankfully, Diesel saves me the need to decide as he comes loping down the stairs and whimpers at me. He stops at the turn on the small landing, where everyone can see him, watching me behind the safety of the wall.

“Thanks a lot, red coat!” I whisper to him.

The voices die down and Noah’s scent reaches my nose before he skips the two bottom stairs, steps over Diesel on the landing and pulls me into his arms.

“You okay, sugar?”

I nod, swallowing.

He pulls me with him down the rest of the stairs and I’m greeted warmly by the whole gang minus Noah’s father, Candace and Peyton.

“Good morning, baby.” Mrs. Vic calls from across the kitchen.

Noah walks over to a stool, pulling it out for me and turns to eye me. Immediately the storm rolls into his eyes and he shakes his head. A tick in his jaw beats wildly before he orders through clenched teeth, “Christ, Jamie. Go back to our room and put some fucking clothes on.”

I smirk when his mother hurls an oven mitt at his head and Mrs. Victoria harrumphs. His use of “Christ” makes me wince but knowing I have put the ball back in his court makes me bite my cheek to keep from laughing.

Just beside the place he set for me is Matt. He winks at me before shooting me a wolf whistle accompanied by Luke’s cat call.

Noah snarled at them before coming to stand in front of me.

“Didn’t you get my note?”

“What note?” I asked innocently. He wasn’t buying it.

Noah turned his back on the others after slipping both Matt and Luke an inconspicuous flip of his middle finger; he grabbed my butt pulling me up his body causing me to wrap my legs around his waist out of self-preservation – yeah, self-preservation, let’s go with that. I squeaked and threw my arms around his neck to the point I’m pretty sure was beginning to choke him.

Diesel made to follow us but Noah softly commanded, “Free dog.”

Taylor giggled and Tommy grunted his lack of amusement at Noah’s display just as Noah moved to the stairs, heading back for the bedroom.

“Put that girl down, Noah Kane!” His mother hollered in a stern tone.

“Can’t ma, my woman forgot which drawer held the burka.” He called back.

Everyone lost it, their laughter chased us up the staircase.

Once he crossed the threshold of the master suite, he slammed the door with his house shoe clad foot.

“Noah-” I began.

“You’re trying to kill me.” He groaned, dropping me gently on the bed.

I watched enthralled as he kicked off the house shoes and shed his tight black t-shirt. The sight of his chest covered in tattoos had me going from 0 to 90 in 0.nothing.

Oh yum.

He chuckled and replied, “I concur, sugar,” eyeing me wolfishly.

Oh gosh, did I say that out loud?

With every ounce of willpower I still possessed, I forced my eyes up to his face which led to me gasping loudly.

“Noah, your face!” I shrieked, raising to my knees and reaching out.

I just remembered what I thought was a dream from the early hours this morning.

“It’s just a little black eye. Do you want me to keep my face turned to the side so you can’t see it?”

“Of course not!” I scolded him.

He sauntered over to me, gripping my hips tightly. With Noah’s large hands and my tiny shorts, his fingers surpassed the fabric and dug into my flesh.

A soft moan escaped my lips at his possessive touch.

“What happened, No?”

To my surprise, he leaned back minutely to eye me with a mixture of shock and pleasure.

“What?” I asked feeling self-conscious.

“You’ve never called me ‘No’ before.” He answered.

“Oh. I’m sorry if that’s a nickname just for your family or something.” I blushed feeling stupid.

“Sugar, you are a part of my family. Call me whatever you want, just please call me.”

I gave a small laugh as some relief flushed through my body.

“Okay. Now quit avoiding the question, please.”

“I got punched.” That was obviously all he was going to tell me.

“Noah!” His mother shouted from the end of the hall.

“Damnit.” He groaned, resting his forehead against mine.

“You better answer her.” I whispered against his lips.

“Be right out, ma!” He hollered after pulling back from my face.

We heard her mumble something near the door before going back downstairs.

“It seems my parents are concerned for your wellbeing in my presence.”

“I don’t see why. I’ve never felt safer in my entire life.”

Noah’s face crunched semi-painfully but transformed into a brilliant smile in the blink of an eye. Hmm.

He leaned forward wrapping a strong arm around my back to pull me into him before pressing his lips delicately to my neck. Even a month and some change later the injury was tender and sometimes painful. It may still scar unfortunately which probably means the end of my career; who knows?

I tilt my head ever so slightly to give him room. The sweet, soft flutter of kisses he rains upon my attempted Colombian neck tie make me feel so cherished. It ran about 4 inches long and in truth probably wasn’t an attempted Colombian neck tie but I don’t really know what else they call slitting your throat without saying slitting your throat. So far I wasn’t having much of a problem hiding it with makeup but it was just a pain to keep up with applying, making sure it stayed, making sure it didn’t rub off on my clothes; on top of all that it still hurt to apply and I was going to get wet today so I didn’t see any point in trying. For the most part I was wearing it in the mama bears’ presence since I didn’t want to worry them. Eventually they would see it though so why not sooner than later?

“God, I hate seeing this on your perfect skin, Jamie.”

I flinch back at that but he just takes my face in his hands and brings me back to him.

“I don’t hate that it’s here because it’s ugly. I hate it because when I see it I want to kiss it and take all your pain away which makes me angry because I want to fucking kill him all over again which would take me away from loving you. It’s a dilemma mixed in a conundrum stuffed with a bunch of fucking bullshit. But I don’t think it makes you look anything less perfect, sugar.”