What He Shields (What He Wants Book Seventeen)

WHAT HE SHIELDS
 
(What He Wants, Book Seventeen)

by
Hannah Ford

Copyright 2015, Hannah Ford, all rights
reserved.
 
This book is a work of
fiction, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

PLEASE NOTE:
 
THIS BOOK CONTAINS THE FIRST THREE BOOKS
OF THE OBSESSED WITH HIM SERIES AS BONUS BOOKS.
 
WHAT HE SHIELDS IS THE LENGTH OF A
NORMAL WHAT HE WANTS BOOK.

***

CHARLOTTE

As soon as I rolled the car window down, the
expression on the man’s face changed from panic to gratitude.

“Thank you,” he said.
 
“Thank you so much, Charlotte.”

I didn’t like hearing my name on his lips
– something about it felt too intimate, too close.
 
He was a stranger, and yet he knew something
about me and what had happened to me
.
 
I imagined him sitting somewhere, some
apartment or coffee shop in the city, his computer open in front of him, reading
an article about me while he sipped his coffee, shaking his head at the
horrible details of how I’d been held for auction at some BDSM club, almost
raped and murdered.

It was extremely unsettling, knowing that this
man knew the details not just of my life, but the
intimate
details of
the most
upsetting night
of my life.

“What is it?” I asked.
 
“What do you want?”

“Miss?” Jared asked from the front seat.

“It’s okay, Jared,” I said.
 
“I’m okay.”

“I need you to help me,” the man said.
 
“Mikayla, she… she was taken from the
club.”
 
His hand went to his face,
his fingers pressing his temples for a moment before smoothing his hair back
from his forehead.

“Everyone was taken from the club,” I
said.
 
“Force has been closed down.”

“I know, but the girls…” His tongue snaked
against his bottom lip nervously.
 
“They were being taken away before that.”

“And you know where they are?”

“No.”
 
He leaned in toward the window, and I instantly recoiled.
 
Not because I was afraid of him –
I wasn’t – but out of instinct.
 
“I don’t know exactly, but I have an idea.
  
They’re taking them away, they’re…
“
 
He trailed off and glanced
around, like he was afraid of saying more.

“But you don’t know where they’ve been taken?”
 
I pressed.

“No.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, and went to roll up the
window.
 
“But I can’t help
you.”
 
It was true.
 
I couldn’t help him.
 
He didn’t have any information, and even
if he did, I wasn’t sure what, exactly, I was supposed to do with it.

“Wait.”
 
He put a meaty hand on top of the glass, stopping the window from
rolling up.
 
“Please,” he said.
 
“I’ll tell you everything I know.”

“Okay,” I said.
 
“Five seconds.”

“I know they’re being taken,” he said.
 
“To different places.
 
It’s a conspiracy.
 
It goes deep.
 
Very deep, Charlotte.
 
There are important people involved.”

My skin suddenly felt icy hot and every one of
the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.
 
I wasn’t sure why – he was talking complete nonsense.
 
A conspiracy with important people
involved?
 
At a
sex club?
 
It didn’t make
sense.
 
And yet for some reason,
maybe because of the things I ‘d seen at Force, the things I’d experienced, I
believed him.

“How do you know this?”
 
I demanded.

“I worked there,” he said.
 
“I was a dungeon master at Force.”

“Then why are you doing this?
 
How can I be expected to believe you’d want
to blow the whistle on something you might have been a part of?”

“Mikayla,” he said.
 
“Mikayla and I… ” He trailed off, and I
saw the pain on his face.
 
He
reached up and pressed his fingers to his temples again as if he had a
headache.
 
When he looked at me, I
saw the fear and regret reflected in his eyes.
 
“I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

He’d fallen in love with her.

I sighed.
 
“What people?” I pressed.
 
“What important people are involved?”

He looked around again, his eyes darting
suspiciously up to the front of the car where Jared had turned around in his
seat and was watching us intently.
 
Jared had given me more time and room than I could have expected –
if Noah knew that Jared was letting me talk to this man, Jared would probably
be fired immediately.

“Can you get out of the car?” the man asked.

“No.”
 
I shook my head.
 

“I can’t – ” he started.
 
“I don’t want to say anything here.”

I started to turn away, but he grabbed the
bottom of my window again.
 
“Please,” he said.
 
“Can we
meet up later?
 
Please.
 
Anywhere.
 
Anytime.
 
I’ll tell you everything I know.
 
The police, they won’t…” He trailed off
again, and his voice caught in his throat.
 
“You’re the only one who can help me.”
“Charlotte,” Jared said warningly.
 

“Yeah, okay,” I said.
 
I reached into my bag and scribbled my
number down on a piece of paper, cursing myself for having a bleeding
heart.
 
If this man turned out to be
a class-A crazy, I was going to have to get my number changed.
 
Not to mention what Noah was going to do
to me when he found out.

“Text me later,” I said.
 
“We’ll meet up.”

“Seven o’clock?” he asked.

“Sure.”
 
I began to roll up the window, and the man began to return to his car.

“Hey,” I called after him.
 
“Hey, what’s your name?”

“John,” he said.
 
“My name’s John.”

And then was gone.

I met Jared’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
 
“Thank you, Jared,” I said.
 

He nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t
happy.
 
His hands tightened around the
steering wheel, and he didn’t say a word to me the rest of the way to the
hotel.

***

When I got to Loft 37, Noah was standing in the
lobby, arguing with the manager.

“You were told she was a very important client
of mine,” he was saying to a tiny man wearing bifocals, a maroon suit, and a
gold-plated nametag that said
William
in swirly script.

“I understand, Mr. Cutler,” William said.
 
“We tried our best, but as you know,
we’re a hotel, not a prison.
 
If
your client was that important, perhaps she should have been in a higher
security situation.”

Noah’s eyes widened, his angular jaw twitching
in anger.
 
“Maybe your two bit hotel
should get – ” he started, but I rushed over to him, sliding my arm
quickly through his.

“I’m Charlotte Holloway,” I said to William
smoothly.
 
“I’m so sorry, but I need
to steal Mr. Cutler for a moment.”

“By all means,” William said, holding his hands
up, obviously relieved I was saving him from Noah’s wrath.

I dragged Noah over to the block of elevators
that were on the other side of the lobby.

He was furious.
 
I could feel the rage radiating off of
him like a dry heat.

“This place,” he said as he punched the button
for the elevator, “is completely incompetent.
 
As soon as we find Lilah, I’m moving
her.”

The elevator opened and two men in business
suits came out, chattering excitedly about something having to do with a
merger.

Noah pushed by them and into the elevator,
punching the button for the 56
^th
floor.
 
The elevator began its ascent.

“How was your meeting with the psychiatrist?”
he asked.

I glanced at him out of the corner of my
eye.
 
He wanted to talk about my
meeting?
 
It was surprising, what
with everything that was going on with Lilah.
 
But maybe he was looking for a
distraction.
 

 
“Well, I thought it had gone okay,” I said, unable to keep the
grumpiness out of my voice.
 
“He told
me it was just a formality, but then –”

“He?”
 
Noah glanced over at me
sharply,
his tone even
angrier than it had been before.

“Yes,” I said.
 
“Dr. Jason Cartwright.”

Noah’s jaw twitched.
 

“He told me it was formality, but then he sent
me an email saying I need ten counseling sessions in order to be allowed back
to school.”

Noah stayed silent for a moment and a skittering
of anxiety and anticipation moved through my stomach.

When he finally spoke, it was only one word.

“No.”

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“I mean no, you will not be having private
counseling sessions with a male therapist.”

“I don’t have a choice.
 
I have to.”

Noah’s breathing deepened, his eyes trained on
the display inside the elevator that showed what floor we were on.
 
Twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six…

“It’s mandated by the school,” I tried, hoping
he would see that if it were up to me, I wouldn’t have anything to do with ridiculous
Dr. Jason Cartwright and his ridiculous counseling sessions.
 
But I needed to get back to my classes.
 
I was already going to have to work my
ass off to catch up, and if my return were delayed any longer, then I was going
to fall even further behind and have that much
more
work to do.

But it was the wrong thing to say.

Noah reached out and pushed the button on the
elevator, and the car jerked to a stop between the 36
^th
and 37
^th
floors.

“What are you doing?” I asked, panic blooming
in my chest.
 
“You can’t stop an
elevator in between floors, Noah.”
 
Thoughts of the car plunging to the basement, the two of us trapped
inside as we fell to a fiery death, flashed through my mind.

I moved toward the buttons, but Noah grabbed my
arms, stopping me.

“You will not be having counseling sessions
with this man, Charlotte.
 
Do you
understand?”

“But the school – ”

His grip around my wrists tightened and he
pushed me back up against the side of the elevator, his hands roaming down the
sides of my body.
  

“I don’t care what the school says.
 
I care what I say.
 
Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I said breathlessly, my knees weakening.

“Do.
 
You.
 
Understand?”
 
he
asked again,
and now he was pulling my shirt up over my tits, exposing my bra.

“Yes.”
 
I wanted to submit to him, knew I had to listen to him.
 
But there was a part of me that wondered
how I was going to get out of this, how I was going to be able to keep a
promise to him that I wasn’t capable of keeping.
 
“But, Noah, you have to understand that
I need to get back to school.”

His mouth was on me now, his lips moving over
the sensitive spot behind my ear, and his hands reached up and gripped the back
of my neck, pulling me toward him gently.

“I don’t give a fuck about school,” he murmured.
 
“I do give a fuck about some asshole
prying into our personal business.”

“I won’t talk to him about anything personal,”
I tried.

Noah raised his chin in the air, and then his
gaze slid down my body, taking in my exposed bra, the skirt that hit just below
my knees, and the color that I was sure was high on my cheeks, betraying my
excitement.