Love Unrehearsed (45 page)

I nodded, fondly remembering our small shopping spree in Barcelona. “You bought this for me.”

“Nice. I have good taste. Well hello there my little nipple friend. I’m glad to see you, too.” Ryan spun my raft around, placing his back to the rest of the party. That’s when he pulled me in closer, dipped his head, and grazed his teeth over the fabric.

So much for being discreet. The sensation made my belly clench. “Ryan.” It came out as a breathy moan.

“Shhh.” He stopped my weak disapproval with a passionate kiss while his finger and thumb slipped under my top, causing me to arch up into his touch. He moved the edge of my suit over far enough to swirl his tongue over the sliver of flesh he’d exposed, sucking so hard I felt it in several different places all at once.

I was losing the fight as to why he should stop. “Someone might see us.”

“He returned his mouth to mine. I don’t care. I want you so bad right now. Climb down on me. No one will see.”

I glanced over at everyone lounging around on the patio furniture, drinking and shooting the breeze. “They’re less than thirty feet away. I’m sure they’d figure it out.”

“I’ll tell them to leave.”

My eyes swept back to the patio. Janelle was rubbing sunblock on little Sarah. “Ryan . . .”

“Fine. We’ll come back out here tonight after I tell them all to leave.”

“Why, Mr. Christensen? You want to play water polo?”

His face was right in mine, speaking on my lips again, discreetly pinching my nipple hard enough to make me gasp. “No, I want to play hide the submarine. And motorboats.”

The sun was so bright that even though I was wearing sunglasses, the reflections off the water were almost blinding. I used my hand as a visor just so I could see Ryan’s face. That’s when I noticed something sparkle in the neighbor’s tree. I moved my swimming suit top up to cover what he’d exposed.

I looked back and saw the flash of brightness again. “What is that?”

Ryan looked over his shoulder to see where I pointed. “Where?”

“Up there, in the tree.” I saw movement, first thinking it was a raccoon or someone’s cat and then I saw a knee.

“What the hell?” He swam to the edge of the pool and pressed his body out of the water.

I saw the man crawl down from the tree as I hurried to get out of the pool. I made it to the driveway when I spotted the rogue photographer come out through the neighbor’s hedgerow, distracted and clutching his camera. He noticed Ryan just as Ryan made his way between the rows of cars in his parents’ long driveway.

The photographer started to run.

Ryan took off like a bullet out of a gun.

Mike pushed past me. “Oh, shit.”

Scott and Matt were tight on Mike’s heels. Scott tossed his plastic cup of beer to the ground just as Ryan’s body became airborne, tackling the paparazzo in the neighbor’s front lawn.

By the time I reached them, Ryan was straddling the guy, trying to wrestle the camera free. The guy tried to hit Ryan, but Ryan dodged his swing. He clipped Ryan’s shoulder instead.

“You son of a bitch.” Ryan hauled back and punched the photographer in the face, making that sick popping sound that could only come from fist hitting flesh and bone.

“Ryan, stop!” I screamed as he continued to swing.

Mike grabbed Ryan around his chest and pulled him off the photographer, tossing him like a 180-pound sack of potatoes onto the grass.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” the scrambling paparazzo asked, wiping his fingers over his bloodied lip.

“Ryan. Ryan. Easy, man.” Mike had to use his weight to hold Ryan down.

“Scott, get the fucking camera,” Ryan ordered, pointing. “Rip the card out.”

“No! Don’t touch it,” Mike yelled.

Ryan scrambled to his feet. “He’s got pictures of Tar and me, Mike. Those prints will never see the light of day.”

“Don’t touch my camera,” the photographer said vehemently.

“Give me the fucking memory card or I’m going to finish what he started,” Scott threatened.

“Go to hell. I don’t have to give you shit.”

Ignoring Mike’s commands to stop, Scott kicked the guy’s hand, knocking the camera free.

Just as the paparazzo tried to grab for the camera and Scott’s leg, Ryan lunged and tackled him again. The guy rolled and elbowed Ryan in the face. Blood instantly gushed from Ryan’s nose. Matt wrestled the guy until he had him pinned face-first in the grass.

I heard the police sirens in the distance. Mike was trying to break it up, but the second that Ryan got injured, Matt joined the rumble. The boys from Pittsburgh were giving this guy an ol’ fashioned ass-kicking.

Ryan staggered to his feet and spit a wad of blood out of his mouth. Then he picked up the camera from the grass, removing the memory card. He set the camera near the guy’s head.

The sirens were getting closer. Ryan’s hands were bloody from his nose bleeding all over the place. Now the entire neighborhood was alerted to the melee. The elderly couple that owned the yard we were in came out of their house.

Scott took off his shirt and handed it to Ryan, who proceeded to wipe his bloody face with it.

“Sit down,” Matt yelled at the paparazzo and gave him a shove when he tried to stand. Ryan balled up the bloody shirt, rolling his gaze from me to the shirt and back again, then handed it to me.

The cruiser’s engine gunned and then screeched to a halt at the curb. As soon as the police officer got out of the car, Ryan and the guys were ordered to lie facedown on the ground. Tears ran down my face watching Ryan get handcuffed and patted down like a criminal. Another police SUV came blaring down the street from the opposite direction.

Ryan’s father and Mike were trying to explain things to the cops while the photographer blabbered on about how he was assaulted and his camera destroyed.

Ryan looked worn and battled; his bare chest was bloodied and stretched from being handcuffed. Blood splatters were all over his swim trunks with a smear of it on the upper part of his knee. He motioned for me to come to him.

“Baby, are you okay?” I wiped the edge of his chin with the shirt.

“I need a towel. Wait . . .”

I knelt back down on one knee. His eyes instructed me to come closer.

“Careful with that. Make it disappear.”

I clutched the shirt to make sure nothing fell out, knowing what was wrapped up in it. “Are you under arrest?”

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “I don’t know. I’m gonna need you to call David,” he muttered quickly. “And my lawyer. Oh, and call Trish.” He spit out more blood, cursing to himself.

Now that the adrenaline was subsiding, I could see the magnitude of the last ten minutes crashing down on him.

While Ryan was being interviewed by the police, an ambulance came zipping down the street. I felt like my bones were going to rattle right out of my skin from shaking so hard.

“Are they taking him to the hospital?” Ellen asked in a panic as she ran back with a bath towel.

The ambulance crew attended to Ryan first, swabbing the blood off his face and nose. I knew exactly why he refused to be taken to the hospital. That would have set off a media feeding frenzy for sure. We had to keep this contained.

The elderly neighbor, whom I had met yesterday when he and his wife came to our party, ambled over to talk to Ryan. “How are you doing, son?”

“I’ve been better, Mr. Doughten. Sorry about all of this.”

The old man scowled at the paparazzo. “So that bastard was in my tree, was he? Spying on your family?”

Ryan nodded, staring mostly at the ground. “He was taking pictures of us, sir.” It was apparent that he was embarrassed to be standing there talking to a man he obviously respected while wearing handcuffs.

“Pictures, huh? Oh Jesus, Mary, Joseph.” He scrubbed his bristly gray whiskers. “You can’t catch a break, can ya kid?”

Mr. Doughten’s lower lip quivered as he eyed me up and down.

The police officer sidled up to Mr. Doughten. “Huh? Hell yes, I want to press charges.” He raised a crooked, arthritic finger. “That son of a bitch was in my tree, trespassing on my property. Damn right I’m going to press charges. This is ridiculous.”

“And Mr. Christensen?” the officer asked. Another police cruiser sped down the street, red and blue lights whirling.

“Hell no. That boy knows my front lawn better than I do. Been cutting my grass since he was old enough to run the tractor. He’s a good boy. And his two friends there. Been helping Lil and me for years. Planted every one of them arborvitaes over there for me. And Scotty put in my brick walkway. They’re all good boys from good families. Now do your job and get those damn handcuffs off of them. Let them go back to their party.”

The officer turned to Ryan. “Mr. Dooley claims that you stole the memory card from his camera.”

Ryan confessed to removing it. “But I don’t have it. I dropped it in the grass somewhere over there.”

After a few moments of scanning the yard with a flashlight, the officer gave up. Finding it was obviously not one of his top priorities. Just when I thought they were going to release him, the officer informed Ryan that he was under arrest for disorderly conduct.

Everything became brighter as I heard the whoosh of my blood pulsing in my ears. It felt as if the ground were about to give out under my feet. Ryan’s father grabbed his mother as she lunged toward the police car. She was crying and in just as much shock as I was.

Both Matt and Scott were under arrest as well. All three of them were getting crammed into the backseats of the cruisers. The officer guided Ryan into the car and closed the door. As I stood there, watching him from the grass, he wouldn’t look at me.

“I’ll get the car and follow them,” Ryan’s dad, Bill, said. Mike followed him.

I was surprised when they came back in a little over an hour. David was not pleased to hear my voice when I called him, but too freaking bad. I was still on the phone getting talked down from the rafters by Trish when I heard the car doors slam in the driveway.

Ryan barely looked at me, passing me in the kitchen with a sideways glance. I heard him jog up the steps and then the shower came on.

Bill tossed his keys on the counter, answering his wife. “They got processed and released. They’ll all have to go to court, then find out what the fine is.”

I wanted to go to Ryan but I could tell he wanted space. Mike sat in a chair outside with his head in his hands doing his own private browbeating.

I sat down opposite him, leaning my elbows on my knees. “You okay?”

Mike stared at me for a moment before silently shaking his head. “This should have never happened today. I screwed up.”

“No you didn’t.”

“Yes, I did. I’m too close.”

“Too close to what?”
Snapping? Join the club.

“You and Ryan. Been too lax. I’m not paying attention like I should be. I didn’t even do a basic perimeter check today.”

“Mike, you can’t see everything. The guy was way up in the tree.”

He sat up abruptly. “It’s my
job,
Taryn. You and Ryan are paying me to protect you from shit like that. I failed you both today. I’ve got to resign. He needs someone new, someone who can put distance between the threats and the clients.”

“Oh no. You are not resigning from our detail. That idiot was so far up the neighbor’s tree there is no way you would have seen him unless you were standing in the middle of the pool. I only saw him because the sun glared off his lens. There’s no way you would have spotted him from the ground, so quit beating yourself up about it.”

“My charge got arrested today,” he growled through his teeth.

“Your
charge
could have easily sent you after the photographer but he didn’t. You are not responsible for Ryan’s actions.”

“He shouldn’t have had to if I’d been doing my job.”

His dedication and conviction were admirable. He wouldn’t be so torn up if he didn’t love us. I wondered if Marie got to see this side of him. “Are you always this sensitive?”

His eyes popped wide open. “What?”

“One slip in an entire year and you’re ready to quit.”

“Not quitting. Just placing you in better hands. I’ve compromised my position by blurring the lines and that puts you both in danger.”

He was being overly emotional. “Well, you can’t quit.”

“Why not?”

“Because I won’t allow it,” I said firmly.

“Look, if this is about Marie, I won’t let—”

“It’s not about Marie. It’s about having someone
I trust
watching him. Mike, you are the only one within his immediate circle of management that I trust. I breathe easier knowing you are with him wherever he goes. Your presence alone gives him a level of comfort and peace that he’s not going to get from just anyone.”

“Comfort and peace do not keep him safe, Taryn.”

“Mike, you could surround him with armed guards and it would not have kept that idiot from climbing a tree and using a telephoto lens. Ryan has enough stress on him. He wants to feel normal. Who would have ever thought he couldn’t do that in his family’s backyard? And you need to have some downtime, too.”

“Yeah, but—”

“But nothing. You’re not quitting, so get that out of your head.”