Scorpio Sons 1: Colton (5 page)

This time there was no hesitation in accepting his hand. This time she was overjoyed to take it. Overjoyed to see him again.

He pressed her into a crouch as she eased out of the open door. The gunfire had stopped, but that didn't mean the danger was over. The bad guys were probably waiting to see if they'd taken everyone out before they moved in.

With his body protectively wrapped around hers, they scuttled for the shelter of a nearby alley. Once there, her hero stood and pulled her up next to him, flattening her against the wall while he pressed his body over hers. Terrified, confused and shocked, she was still able to experience the relief of having him there and the excitement of feeling his hard form pressed against hers.

He was so much taller than she remembered. The top of her head barely reached his chin. Alyssa's face was plastered to his sweat-dampened, white tee-shirt, and she could smell the leather of his jacket blending with the unique scent of clean male sweat and that indefinable something that sent her arousal through the roof.

In the distance she could hear sirens. The cavalry was coming. That meant they were safe now, didn't it? But her hero didn't relax at the sound. If anything, he seemed to tense up even more.

"Are they gone now?" she asked into his shirt, feeling him shudder as she did so.

"Probably. But I'm not going to wait around to find out. I'll get you to your hotel. If the cops want to follow-up, they can do it with you somewhere secure." His voice was such a low baritone that even when he spoke normally he sounded as if he was growling deep in his chest.

"Okay. I'm staying at the Grand Regent. Do you know it?"

"Yeah. Come on, it's only a few blocks away on foot. "

They cut down the alley into the next street, and then joined the city pedestrians, to walk the few blocks to her hotel. As they entered the foyer her cell rang. Checking caller ID, she saw it was Alzhir and picked up.

"Alyssa, are you all right? Where are you? Are you hurt?" Alzhir demanded anxiously, at first not giving her a chance to answer.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine. I was saved by… by someone and brought to my hotel. Are the bodyguards alive? What about the driver?"

"Saved by who? Alyssa, how on earth did you escape when your bodyguards were down?" His tenor voice had gone up an octave from stress. Did he really care about her? It sounded that way.

"I'm fine. I'll explain when I see you. Right now I want to go to my room and chill. Can you let the police know where I am if they need to talk to me?"

"Of course. They currently think you were kidnapped. Are you sure you're not?"

She looked up at the face of her companion, who was more handsome in the light of day than by moonlight, and smiled. "No, I'm not kidnapped. We'll talk soon, Alzhir, okay?"

"Very well, little one, if you're sure. I'll be with you as soon as I can."

"Okay. Bye then." She rang off and put her phone in the shoulder bag she seemed to have clung to throughout the whole ordeal.

"Who was that?" he asked as they waited at the elevator.

"My boss, I suppose you'd say. He owns
Feronic,
the media conglomerate that offered me a recording contract."

"Just your boss?" His eyebrows rose to get lost in the wave of sandy hair that fell over his forehead. His hair was still untidy and overlong, the soft curls in it itching to be wrapped around her fingers.

"A sort of friend, too, I guess. He'd like there to be more, but after Jarrod, I'm a bit wary of men like him."

The elevator pinged and the doors opened to reveal an empty car. They stepped inside and Alyssa leaned in to press the
16
button. Moments later, the doors slid closed and the car began to rise.

"Thank you for what you did for me. Back there. And for coming back here with me. I feel safer with you around," she managed to say when the silence between them had become uncomfortable.

"It's fine. I was in the right place at the right time, that's all."

"Again."

He nodded. "Yeah, again. Who'd have thought it could happen twice? I couldn't believe my eyes when I opened that door and saw you."

"Maybe you're my Guardian Angel?"

"I thought I was as a superhero, vampire or werewolf?" His tone told her he was joking. It thrilled her to know he remembered her words from all those years ago.

"Unless I happen to be Lois Lane, it's unlikely I'd get saved twice by the same superhero. And I doubt vamps and shifters go around saving damsels-in-distress as a matter of habit. That leaves me with Guardian Angel."

"There's nothing angelic about me, Lyss. And it was nothing but coincidence that I was walking along that street when you were run off the road. But I doubt your boss will believe in coincidences, so it might be better not to tell him about that college incident."

She nodded, revelling in the pet-name he'd assigned her. No one had ever called her Lyss before, but it sounded just right on his lips. Like Kiss.

Refocusing on his decision, she realised how right he was. Alzhir might think it was more than a coincidence that he was there to save her the second time. Even she was having trouble accepting it, and she desperately wanted to believe that fate had brought them together again.

"Do you want a job?" The idea flashed into her mind before she had the chance to process it properly. It wasn't up to her to hire her own bodyguards. Alzhir hired and paid for them. But the ones he'd given her had failed. And her hero hadn't…

"Job?" His eyebrows came down to arrow over his hawk-like nose.

"As my body-guard. I'll be needing a new one if the other two guys are now in the hospital. Or worse."

He looked undecided so she argued her case with more confidence, now that the idea had fully settled in.

"You're an incredible fighter. I saw that first-hand that night four years ago. And you handle yourself in dangerous situations, like today. Do you even carry a gun?"

"I can use one, but I don't carry. I prefer to settle my disagreements up close and personal."

"Do you have a job? Are you Special Ops or something?"

He quirked his eyebrows at her and she shrugged. "Too much Jason Bourne, okay? You know what I mean."

He nodded silently as he led the way down the corridor. How he knew which direction to go made her curious but not cautious. This man meant her no harm. However he came to be back in her life, she knew he was there
for
her, not to hurt her.

They got to 1643 and she used her keycard to unlock the door. Moving ahead of her, he pushed the door open and searched the rooms, as if it was the normal thing to do. Only then when the door closed them in did he relax more fully.

"What's your name? I can't keep calling you My Hero in my head," she groused.

"Guardian Angels don't have names." He grinned, and suddenly she adjusted her opinion of his looks. She'd considered him not the best looking guy she'd ever seen. Now she decided he was exactly that. His smile, which wasn't a regular feature on his too-serious and intense face, lit him up like a Christmas tree. And the warmth of it had her toes curling in her ballet slippers.

"But you said you weren't angelic."

His smile became a grin and he shook his head as if amazed at her temerity. "You bust balls pretty good for such a sweet little thing."

She took a little bow as if he'd applauded her. "So, do I just call you John Smith?"

This time he laughed. "Okay, you win. My name is Colton Blake. Call me Colt."

"So you do have a name. You do exist."

"Yeah, it turns out I do. You want a drink to calm your nerves?" He headed for the mini bar.

"Sure. A mixer of some kind. Anything will do. I'm going to shower and change. I think some of the glass from the windshield got into my clothes."

As she grabbed fresh clothes and headed for the shower, her pulse continued to race. He was here. Colton Blake was here, talking to her like a real person. Maybe when she got out of the shower he'd
still
be here.

Worry that he might have gone when she came out had her freshening up faster than usual.

He had to still be there when she left the bathroom. He just had to be.

CHAPTER FOUR

Colt prowled the small hotel room like a caged beast, which pretty much described what he was. The plan had gone like clockwork and now he had Alyssa safely in his care. She'd even offered him a job, making it that much easier to get close to her, and to Alzhir Akabar. But Colt didn't like it when things went smoothly. In circumstances like that he felt as if the sky was about to fall.

And being this close to Alyssa after all this time? It was his version of heaven rolled up in hell. Because she was just as lovely as he remembered her, and just as sweet, even if she did have sass to prod at him to get what she wanted. Guardian Angel, for fuck sake! How did she get there when he'd left a pile of bodies in his wake?

When he'd had her pinned against the alley wall, the last thing he'd wanted to do was release her, even though he knew Connor was gone, the bodyguards merely winged, and there was no real threat to her.

She'd never been in danger. His brother was a crack-shot and had placed every bullet just where it was meant to go. But when those bullets were flying and the windshield shattered, his fear for Alyssa was visceral.

Now, imagining her naked in the shower was undermining his control. He wanted to charge in there and pull her against him again. He wanted to kiss that pouty mouth and claim each tear-shaped breast with his hands and mouth.

Had he ever had a naked woman against him? No. The hasty hook-ups he specialised in were done fully clothed, with significant items of clothing pulled aside for speed and efficiency. Naked required privacy and a level of vulnerability he'd never been comfortable with. But with Alyssa? That was a different situation all together.

Imagining a cheap-and-nasty hook-up with Alyssa was offensive. Would she even dress that trashy and go for a quickie in a bathroom or alley? He doubted it. She may not be a virgin any more, but he couldn't imagine she'd changed
that
much. He didn't
want
her to have changed that much.

He heard the water turn off and he breathed a sigh of relief. In a few minutes she'd be fully clothed again and he could get the image of her naked body on the other side of the wall out of his head.

Chase had been very clear about Alyssa. Colt wasn't allowed to make a play for her until they determined whether she was one of their women, and if she was, whether she could be for
any
of them. It was not a first-in-best-dressed kind of situation. Or
undressed,
in these circumstances.

But fuck, it was going to be hard to keep his distance when she smelled so damn good, and felt so right in his arms. When she'd spoken in the alley, her breath had touched his damp skin and his cock had jumped to attention. Only when that happened had he reluctantly decided they needed to move. He hadn’t wanted her to know what she did to him. Still didn't. It made him vulnerable and he couldn't afford to have weaknesses.

Just as he'd predicted, a few minutes later she re-entered the main room dressed in jeans and a skimpy apple-green top, looking fresher and more relaxed than when she went in. The smile of greeting she gave him had him hard again in an instant. If the other guys reacted the same way to her that he did, they were all in big trouble.

"Oh good, you're still here. Have you had time to think about my offer?" she asked prettily, brushing out her long, curly hair with a wide-toothed comb. Clearly she'd kept it dry while she was showering.

No one had the right to have hair that gorgeous, he decided desperately. How did she keep stray men from constantly running their fingers through it? The temptation to do just that had his palms itching.

Instead, he focused on her question. "You got the sort of money a bodyguard costs?"

She pulled a funny face and shrugged her shoulders. "I don't, but my boss does. And he seems to value me, so I think he'll be okay with me hiring you, now my other bodyguards are out of action. Why are you hedging? Do you like holding carrots out in front of me and watching me jump for them? First your name, now whether you're interested in a job. Most people don't make a federal case out of answering simple questions like those."

He couldn't help himself, he had to get up in her face so he could smell her amazing scent at close range again. The few steps it took to get him there passed in a flash, and then he was right where he wanted to be.

Oh, yeah, that's what he needed. Drawing in a deep breath through his nose, he leaned down close to her ear. This was exactly the position they'd been in that first night. But this time she wasn't wrapped up in winter coats in icy weather. Her skin, lots of it, was mere inches away. And he was hungry for it.

"I tell you what, Lyss. I'll take that job
if
your boss agrees and
if
my twin brother gets the second post. I either work alone or with him. I don't partner up with people I don't know and trust."

He watched the way her body began to tremble as his hot breath met her neck. The enticing scent of her arousal surrounded them. For a timeless moment they said nothing, each breathing faster than was normal, both primed for more. It was him who finally drew away, holding onto his control by a thread.

"Is he as…capable as you are?" Alyssa croaked, and then cleared her throat in embarrassment.

"Yeah. But where I learned my trade in the Canadian Forces, Connor learned his in the British Forces. Green Beret. We didn't know we were twins until we came face-to-face in Afghanistan in 2009. We thought it was a fluke, you know? That we were doppelgangers or something. But then we did some checking and found out our mother left our father in Ireland and took me with her back home to Canada. We were only six months old. Mom married again when I was two. I didn't even know my stepfather wasn't my real dad until I wrote to her and found out. Our dad kept the truth from Connor too. Neither of us has forgiven them."

Why he felt it necessary to embroider their fabricated background, he didn't know. But he just kept talking as long as she kept looking at him as if every word out of his mouth was a jewel.

"So now you work together?" she asked breathlessly, leaning towards him.

"When we can. He's here on a work visa and his job just fell through. So this might fill the gap."

"Don't you need a work visa too?"

"I've got work at the moment, so I've got one. But to get Connor work I'll sign up with you for as long as the gig lasts."

He was making it sound as if he was doing it for Connor, not her. That had been their cover story. But the disappointment on her face made him want to tell it again so that she could see it was her that enticed him away from his work. But it was too late now. And it was better if she didn't know the power she had over him.

When she met Connor they could test out the attraction thing. If she got aroused by his wingman in the same way as she did with him then they'd have one answer. If Connor got possessive and edgy like he was, then they've have their other answer. If neither happened then maybe she wasn't one of their mates or the obvious attraction between him and Alyssa was unique.

Colt knew which option he wanted it to be. Not having Alyssa, now he'd met her again, would be torture. He wasn't sure he could just stand back and let her choose one of the others, even if they'd be better for her than he was. Although he'd like to think he was a better man than that, the truth was, he was already walking a knife-edge where she was concerned. If he had to compete for her attentions, he'd likely kill to win her.

That thought unsettled him. So, to distract himself from his concerns, Colt led her over to one of the two chairs in the small room and handed her a mixer from the mini fridge. In no time they were both relaxed and chatting as if they were old friends.

When a knock came at the door, neither of them spoke. It was as if they'd become lost in their own little world and the sudden intrusion jarred them back to reality. The reason they'd found each other again returned in a dislocating rush: This was either the cops or Akabar. Show time!

Alyssa hurried to the door and opened it without checking who was on the other side. He'd have to train her to be more cautious. Just because there was no real threat to her life this time didn't mean she was safe. While ever she associated with Akabar, there would always be danger.

"Miss Alyssa Aimes? I'm Detective Kavanagh and this is Detective Rodrigues. Can we come in?" A plain-clothed detective stood in the open doorway. His female partner stood slightly behind him. They flashed their badges.

Alyssa nodded wordlessly and moved out of the way so they could enter the small room. They both looked surprised to see Colt sitting there, drink in hand. He nodded at them companionably. Over the time he'd worked with the Sons he'd become used to dealing with cops. It was no different to anyone else, he'd discovered: act like you were innocent or belonged and they'd believe it was true.

"This is Colton Blake, the man who rescued me today," Alyssa introduced him. She took a seat on the bed, and the female detective sat beside her while her partner took the chair next to Colt.

"It was good of you to step in, Mr Blake. But I'm curious. Why did you take Miss Aimes back here instead of giving your report to the uniform at the scene?" Kavanagh asked stiffly. He was a middle-aged cop with thinning ginger hair who clearly played it by the book.

"I didn't know whether the threat was still present. The shooter used a long-range sniper-rifle and could have been firing from any one of the windows around the ambush site. I decided it was safer to get Miss Aimes as far away from that sniper as possible, and inside where she could be better defended. Her hotel was only a few blocks away, so I brought her here."

"You're more than just a Good Samaritan aren't you? What are you, Special Forces?"

"Ex-Canadian Special Forces. Now I work for Gladiator Security here in Los Angeles."

"Miss Aimes was very lucky you were
just passing
. Someone with your training, just happening to be on the scene was very…
fortuitous
." Kavanagh met Colt's steady gaze with a look that probed deep.

Alyssa seemed to pick up the unspoken suspicion too and jumped in. "I
was
very lucky, and I'm very grateful to Mr Blake. In fact, I've asked him if he'd consider being my bodyguard. How are the two men who were protecting me? I hope they survived."

"Whoever was doing the shooting wasn't looking to kill your men. Both were only winged in the shoulder. The hospital reports they're doing well." This was the female detective who was Hispanic and in her early thirties. Her persona was a lot more informal.

"That's good. I'm glad. I'd hate for anyone to die while defending me. Did you catch the shooter?"

"No, he was long gone by the time the uniforms started searching the area. But we found bullet casings on a nearby rooftop, so we assume that's where he fired from."

For a few minutes more the detectives asked their routine questions and then the interview was concluded.

Colt barely had a moment to sigh his relief before Akabar arrived at Alyssa's door, complete with four mean-faced bodyguards.

While Akabar and two of his four men entered the room, the other two stood outside. Suddenly the small space felt even more confined and claustrophobic than it had when the police were present. And it didn't help that the media mogul was staring daggers at Colt.

Remaining calm took everything Colt had in him. It was one thing to be told his Lyss was dating a member of the Guild; it was another to see them together. His possessive instincts clawed to be released.

"Are you the
someone
who saved Alyssa and brought her here?" Akabar demanded, standing over Colt, guards on either side of him. He wasn't a tall man, or a muscular one. But standing between his two monstrous goons, no one could underestimate his power.

"I am. Colton Blake. I'm a consultant for Gladiator Security."

"And you merely happened to be in the same area?"

"Yes. I determined the situation and stepped in before the next wave came for Miss Aimes. It was a very professional ambush."

"Well, I'm grateful to you. Alyssa is very precious to me." The swarthy Guild-member smiled at Alyssa. She smiled back, but her discomfort was apparent. Was that her normal response to the man, or was it only because Colt was present that she seemed uneasy with the man's declarations of affection?

This was Colt's first opportunity to study the media mogul up close. Akabar looked to be in his late twenties, but from his records Colt knew he was actually thirty-five. His olive skin was smooth, as if he'd recently shaved, and his dark, wavy hair was weighed down with product, giving him the look of an old-world mafia boss. The suit that covered his slight frame was perfectly tailored. It was probably worth more than a new car, Colt guessed. Expensive aftershave saturated the air, clogging Colt's senses, and adding the finishing touch to the impression of intimidating power the mogul worked so hard to exude.

Lucky Colt wasn't intimidated.

"I feel very safe with Mr Blake. Alzhir, could you entice him away from his employer so he could become my bodyguard? He has a twin brother who could protect me too. "