Neil (The Uncompromising Series Book 2) (3 page)

He inclined his head at Layna and Blaze. “Say your good-byes.”

If the drive this afternoon had taught me nothing else, it’d taught me that Viking was unyielding. He may be stoic and reserved but every molecule of his being was controlled, even the air bent around him when he moved. He drove with determined precision. He spoke to Conner with quiet command. He’d dictated our stops, our food, the conversation when he decided to speak to me, and if the seventeen calls he took on the ride down were any indication, every aspect of his business dealings.

“Don’t tell me what to do.” I only turned and made my way over to Layna because I was dead on my feet.

My best friend frowned. “Where’s Conner?”

I couldn’t help it, I smiled. No one worried about my kid more than me but Layna was a close second. I glanced across the patio. The second my eyes landed on Viking, he tipped his chin at me. My heart jumped and a stupid sigh escaped my lips. I turned back to Layna. “Congrats, girl. Can’t say I’m not jealous.”

Layna smiled like she knew something I didn’t. “You’ll find yours.” She glanced at Viking. “Maybe sooner rather than later.”

I smirked. “That one’s out of my league.” Not that he’d given me any indication that he was interested, but I wasn’t about to take something like that on. “Besides, he just felt sorry for my tired arms.” Conner wasn’t a big kid but holding him for an hour wasn’t a walk in the park.

Blaze stepped up behind Layna and wrapped a possessive arm around her waist. “Good night, Ariel.”

“Good night, Gunnery Sergeant,” I teased.

His voice almost as deep as Viking’s, he didn’t smile. “I’m not a gunny anymore.”

I grinned because he was full of shit. He and Viking and my boss were all exactly the same. They may not be in the military anymore but the military would always be in them. “Oh, you’ll always be a sergeant. Bossy and badass is in your blood, nothing’s gonna take that away.”

With barely a nod, his penetrating gaze landed on Layna and even I blushed. As if he couldn’t wait another second to have her alone, he took her hand and led her toward the hotel.

Watching the way he only had eyes for her and the joy in her smile, jealous was an understatement but I wasn’t stupid. Happily ever after didn’t happen for girls like me.

“Time to go.”

I jumped at the sound of Viking’s voice and my hand flew to my chest. “It’s rude to sneak up on people.” How the hell did someone his size move without being heard?

“I was not sneaking. You were staring.”

I craned my neck up and took in Viking’s cut features and striking eyes. “Can you blame me? Lots of eye candy around here.”

“You want to be married,” he stated.

Since it wasn’t a question, I didn’t think it deserved an answer but I threw it back on him anyway. “Who doesn’t want a happily ever after?”

“Fairy tales are not reality.”

I glanced around the hotel’s oceanfront lanai that was strung up with twinkling lights. The sound of the soft waves, the stars bright in the night sky, the breeze perfectly gentle—I couldn’t remember a better evening. But I wasn’t delusional and this kind of life was never going to be my reality. “No kidding.” I turned toward the parking lot.

His hand landed on my shoulder.

I fought the threads of awareness that feathered across my skin and spread south.

Viking angled his body to my right and didn’t let go of my shoulder until he was in front of me. I understood his silent gesture because it was the fifth time it’d happened today. Every time we stopped on the drive down, he’d done the same thing. He’d put me on his left and walked a step ahead, his eyes always scanning.

Working for André and all the former military jarheads he hired as bodyguards, I knew the drill. Viking was protecting me. It was probably so ingrained in his personality that it wasn’t even a conscious choice, but it’d bugged the shit out of me all day. I’d kept my mouth shut to keep the peace but I was done walking behind him like a dog. “Should I pant too? Maybe roll on my back and beg for tummy rubs?”

Expression impenetrable, Viking glanced over his shoulder. “I would not presume that I compare you to a dog.” He unlocked the truck and started to lift Conner into the car seat.

“Right, whatever you say. Hold up.” I reached for my bag on Viking’s shoulder. “He needs to be changed.”

Viking stood perfectly still as I unzipped the bag and pulled out pajamas and a diaper. Before I could tell him to lay Conner on the seat, he’d already put him down.

Big chocolate-brown eyes blinked open in confusion and Conner’s little face scrunched up. He’d been so good all night, not a single tear or fussy complaint, but it was late and he hated being woken up. “Shh, sweet boy.” I smiled and nuzzled his nose but it was no use. His sad wail filled the night and tears started streaming down his cheeks.

Quickly stripping his clothes, I rained kisses down on him. “Oh, my baby boy, are you fussy for Mama now? You were such a good boy tonight. Mama’s proud of you. I’m just putting you in jammies then you can snuggle with your blanket.” I put a new diaper on him and Viking handed me the pajamas. I dressed him then scooped him up. “There you go, baby. All comfy.” I held him close and bounced him as Viking put my bag in the truck. Not gonna lie, the simple gesture of handing me the clothes and taking care of the bag threw me.

I loved Conner beyond words. I wouldn’t change one second of my past because I wouldn’t have him if I did, but being a single mom was hard work. So Viking helping me like it was natural as hell, like he didn’t mind, when I’d never had a man do that for me? Yeah, it threw me.

I cleared my throat. “If you start the truck, I’ll put him in his car seat. He’ll settle in once we’re moving.” Conner let loose with a fresh wave of tears.

Viking didn’t hesitate. He took Conner right out of my arms and started speaking quietly in Danish. My son’s tears soaking into his expensive suit jacket, he paused only long enough to spare me a glance. “Get in, Ariella.”

Momentarily stunned, I stood there. Not only was it the first time Viking had spoken my name, he’d used my real name. “How do you know my full name?” I went by Ariel. Always. No one called me Ariella.

He opened the passenger door and looked at me like I was the errant child. “You are wasting time.”

Conner quieted and looked between us.

If my son weren’t watching me, if I weren’t completely thrown, I probably could’ve come up with a biting retort. Instead, I silently got in the truck. Viking shut my door and a second later he was securing my son in his car seat the same way he did everything else, like a pro. Then he took off his suit jacket, tossed it in back and calmly rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt before getting behind the wheel.

I couldn’t decide which was sexier, the thick ropey veins covering the defined muscles of his forearms or the fact that he was completely unfazed by a crying two-year-old who’d soaked his jacket in tears.

I shook my head, silently cursing myself for even thinking about it.

Viking spared me a glance as he pulled onto the Overseas Highway. “What is wrong?”

“You do realize you’re like superhuman, right?” I glanced back at Conner, who was already asleep. “The whole baby-whisperer, soldier-warrior thing you’ve got going on, not to mention the muscles.” I was so damn tired, my filter had run out hours ago, leaving me alone with this—this
Viking
.

He checked the rearview mirrors. “All the world’s a stage.”

I frowned. “Is that some kind of quote or something?” I was beginning to think half of what he said was shit he regurgitated so he didn’t have to engage in conversation.

“Shakespeare.”

I turned and stared. “You just recited Shakespeare?”

“I stated a phrase.”

He wasn’t getting off that easy. “But you know Shakespeare.”

“I’ve read him.”

“Enough to quote him.”

“It is not an uncommon phrase.”

It was to me. But it felt like something was missing. “What’s the rest of it?”

Two heartbeats passed and I wasn’t sure he was going to answer, then he started quietly speaking. “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts.”

I soaked in the sound of his deep cadence, reciting Shakespeare in English as smoothly as he’d spoken Danish to my fussy son. I could listen to him talk for hours. But I couldn’t ignore the innuendo that he was only pretending to be who he was. “You’re saying you’re only playing a part?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t buy that for a second.” I’d spent all day with him. None of it was playing a part. He was all man, all alpha, all the time.

He didn’t respond.

“You don’t have anything to say to that?”

“No.”

“Why?” I’d never attached the word intriguing to anyone, but that was exactly what Viking was—infuriatingly, impossibly
intriguing
.

“Why are you not with your son’s father?”

Wow. Just…
wow
. I glanced at the clock on the dash. “Seven hours,” I said sarcastically.

“What?”

I reached down and undid the ankle straps on my heels. “It took you seven hours to ask me a personal question. That must be a new dating record.”

“This is not a date.” He practically snapped the words at me but since his tone didn’t change, it was hard to tell how he did it.

I kicked off my shoes and tried to ignore the sting about the stupid date thing. “No shit, Sherlock. Or should I say Shakespeare?”

“Where is he?”

“Who?” I knew who he was asking about.

“Do not play games with me.”

“Says the man who won’t even say my son’s name.” If he wanted answers from me after seven fucking hours, he could work for it.

Viking sped up and passed two cars before he spoke. “I never indicated this was anything more than what it is.”

“You didn’t indicate shit. You showed up at my apartment and told me you were driving. You didn’t even ask.”

“I explained why you should not drive alone. I will not repeat myself.”

“So that’s all this was? You chalking up good karma points by chauffeuring a single mom around?”

His jawbone shifted but he didn’t say shit.

“Uh-huh.” I smirked, feeling ridiculously happy that I’d pissed him off. “Who’s irritated now?”

“I am not irritated. Answer my question, Ariella.”

Pinpricks of awareness raced up my spine at the sound of my name on his lips and I had to force sarcasm into my retort. “Why? You suddenly interested in me?”

“No.”

“Whatever.” What an ass. I wasn’t going to tell him shit. I turned to the window and closed my eyes.

His tone softened. “I want to know where the boy’s father is.”

Exhaling, I curled my legs up under me. “Siberia.” May as well be. I hadn’t seen or heard a word from him in months.

“You are lying.”

“Of course I’m lying. Who the hell goes to Siberia?”

Viking didn’t answer.

But it wasn’t his usual non-answer silence. I turned and saw his face in the passing street lights go carefully blank.

No way. “You’ve been to Siberia?”

He remained silent.

“Damn.” Impressive. “Was that by choice? Do you trek glaciers for sport or some shit like that? Wait.” I held my hand up. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I don’t think I wanna know what you do for fun.”

He turned to me and even in the dark, his colorless gaze was striking. “Siberia was not for fun. I trained there.” He held the stare just long enough for me to get the message, then he raised an eyebrow.

He was sharing and he expected reciprocation. “Fine. I don’t know where Conner’s father is.” Not technically. I didn’t know which street his slut du jour lived on. “And for the record, I don’t know where Siberia is either.” North. Somewhere. If it wasn’t in Florida, I sucked at geography.

“North of Kazakhstan and Mongolia.”

Score one for me. I had the north part right. “Well, that clears things up.” Not. “Why were you there?”

“The military sent me. Is it by choice that you do not know where he is?”

I couldn’t help it, I laughed.

Viking’s brow ticked. “Why is that funny?”

“Women don’t choose to raise a kid by themselves, not where I come from.” You worked hard and you saved harder. If you were lucky, you lived with three generations of relatives in a small concrete block square outside a flood zone where everyone shared a bathroom and a TV. I wasn’t lucky. My mom split two months ago and I was waiting to be evicted because I couldn’t afford the rent on a two-bedroom apartment.

Viking didn’t comment.

I waited a few minutes for more questions but when they didn’t come, I leaned my head back. The interior of the car smelling like spicy musk and man, the hum of the big diesel engine as it roared down the highway, the comfort of not being alone at night for the first time in forever… it was intoxicating. Exhaustion swooped in and I fell asleep.

S
OMETHING SCRATCHY TICKLED THE SIDE
of my face. My limbs heavy, my body perfectly warm, I ignored it until hard muscles swept under me and I was airborne. My eyes flew open just as Viking lifted me out of the truck.