Protector #5 (A Navy SEAL Military Romance) (4 page)

“I’m just curious, that’s all,” he replied
with a small grin that irritated me to the core.

“Well, maybe you should MYOB and get back to
work figuring out how to get me home, hmm?” I replied in an annoyed tone.

“Yep, I’m on it, princess,” he said; his
voice full of sarcasm and mocking.

“You are such a jerk,” I muttered under my
breath.

“Oh, don’t I know it,” he muttered back
making me blush with shame. I didn’t want to be mean, but he was making me so
mad at every turn, and the longer I sat there, the angrier I became until I was
almost bouncing in my chair.

“Why are you doing this?” I shouted as I
turned and looked at him.

“Doing what?” he asked with an innocent
expression on his face that sent me over the edge.

“You are driving me crazy!” I yelled. “You
are all nice and sweet to me and then you turn on me and now you’re totally cut
off and cold. You don’t even notice I’m here because you’re so busy texting
your little girlfriend…” A look of horror crossed my face as I heard the words
slip out of my mouth. I’d had no intention of saying a single word about how I
felt, but there it was, like a toxic cloud hanging over us, and I had no way of
calling it back. I bit my lip and looked away as he burst out laughing.

“You have got to be kidding me?” he laughed
harder.

“No,” I said as I narrowed my eyes and
looked at him suspiciously. “I’m not.”

“My girlfriend?” he was laughing so hard
could barely spit out the words. “Ava, when in the hell do I have time in the
middle of this mess to find a girlfriend? Forget about trying to court her!” He
was roaring now and I was getting more and more pissed as he mocked me and my
confession.

“Well, you’re on that phone texting like a
maniac night and day,” I said. “What else could possibly be occupying so much
of your time but a woman?”

“Oh man, you are a piece of work!” he
declared. Then turning to face me, he looked at me for a long time before
speaking again. “Ava, I assure you that there is no woman aside from you.”

I waited for him to say something more, but
he simply stared at me in silence until I looked away.

“Okay then,” I said quietly. I had no idea
what to say next. He’d given nothing away, and I didn’t want to risk blurting
out how I felt about him only to have him start laughing again. So I asked,
“Then what are you doing on that phone?”

“It’s something, um, personal,” he said
quietly.

“Well, this whole mess is really personal
for me, and I let you into
that
,” I
said smartly. “It’s only fair that you let me into your stuff!”

“The difference is that I’ve been hired to
do a job that involves protecting you,” he said. “It has to be my business.”

“Oh, so that’s how it goes,” I shot back.
His remark stung and I was on the defensive now. “All the other personal stuff
you told me was just part of the job?”

“No, that was…different,” he muttered. “It’s
just that this is really personal, and I didn’t think it was right to involve
you in it. Plus, you didn’t seem all that…welcoming.”

“Just because you’re sleeping on the couch,
doesn’t mean I don’t care about what’s going on with you,” I chided.

“Well, it’s not like we’re spending a whole
lot of time sitting around talking,” he replied.

“Probably because you’re on your phone all
the time,” I grinned trying to lighten the mood. His face darkened briefly
before he looked over and saw me smiling.

“Touché,” he said as he returned my grin.
“Fine, let’s talk then.”

“I’ve already started the conversation,” I
pointed out. “I asked what you’re doing to get me home.”

“I’ve got a plan that I’m working on with a
couple of former SEAL buddies,” he admitted. “I’m not sure how it’s going to
play out, so I don’t want to say anything before we get the pieces in place,
but I should know more this evening, and if I do, I’ll tell you then.”

“Is that what all the texting is about?” I
asked.

“Um, no, not really,” he stammered as he
looked away.

“Then what is it?” I probed.

“Ava, I think there are some things better
left alone, okay?” he said. The look on his face begged me not to push, so I
let it go.

“Fine, whatever,” I said as I turned back
around and looked at my homework. Tears began to well up in my eyes as I
thought about how he was shutting me out when I had let him into the darkest
parts of my life, but I was determined not to let him see me break down.

“Ava,” Brian whispered in my ear making me
jump. He’d gotten up and silently moved across the room. “You can push me away
all you want, but at the end of the day I’m still going to be here.”

“But only because you’re being paid to be
here,” I whispered at the desk as I bowed my head and I fought back the tears.
I was not going to cry.
 

“Is that what you think?” he said softly as
he ran his fingers through my hair and pulled it away from my face. “Do you
think I’m only here because I’m being paid to be here?”

I nodded, unable to speak without giving
away my fragile emotional state. Brian bent down and scooped me up off of the
chair and carried me to the couch where he gently set me down and then sat
across from me. He took my hand and looked into my eyes for a long while.

“I’m not here just for the paycheck,” he
said. “Let’s get that cleared up. I’m here because your father hired me, that
for sure, but I stay because of you, Ava.” He stopped and let that sink in as I
looked back at him.

“You’re not going to leave as soon as this
is all over?” I asked. “You’ll stay with me?”

“Well, that’s a difficult one, you know?” he
replied. “My job requires me to travel, and you’re still in college. You’ve got
so much to do and see and experienced, and I’ve…well, I’ve lived a really
different life.”

“So you’ll just pack up and leave when this
is over?” I said defensively.

“I didn’t say that,” he smiled as he held my
hand tightly. “I just said that there were going to be a lot of challenges for
us to face. You sound like you want me to stay.”

I nodded and then the damn broke and I began
to cry. I cried not only because I wanted him to stay, but because I was tired
of living a life where everyone left. I was tired of being shuttled around from
place to place and having nowhere to call home. I was tired of feeling like an
outsider in my own life. Brian moved forward and pulled me into his arms. He
held me as I cried, sobbed really, just stroking my back and saying “It’ll be
okay” over and over.

When the tears finally subsided, I felt as
if I’d run a marathon. I was exhausted and hungry. Brian called down and
ordered a huge dinner for both of us and then went into the bathroom and ran a
tub full of hot bubbles before coming out and telling me to go take advantage
of it before the dinner arrived. I stood up and nearly stumbled. Brian swiftly
caught me and carried me to the bathroom where he gently removed my clothes
before depositing me in the hot scented water.

“Don’t drown,” he warned as he went out to
the living area to set up for dinner. I giggled a little and nodded indicating
that I’d do my best to obey his order. As I lay in the tub, I felt the stress
of the day sliding away and I closed my eyes as I tried to relax.

I had no idea how this was all going to work
out, but maybe for once in my life things would work out in a way that didn’t
leave me feeling alone.

*****

I
emerged from the bathroom feeling relaxed and drowsy
and found Brian setting up the dinner dishes that the room server had
delivered. It was a veritable feast, and my mouth watered as I looked at the
plates full of crisp field greens mixed with bright red tomatoes and pale green
cucumbers next to dinner plates containing perfectly grilled filets, baked
potatoes bursting out of their skins as they dripped butter and sour cream, and
pan-fried asparagus stalks coated in bread crumbs and parmesan cheese. I
wouldn’t have known all of this had Brian not handed me the menu that
accompanied the meal.

“Madame,” he said with a big grin as he
pulled out a chair for me and motioned me to sit down. I laughed and sat. The
smell of the food made my stomach growl as I remembered that I’d not eaten
anything since breakfast.

“This looks amazing,” I complimented him.
“Perhaps I should let you order all of my food from now on.”

“Nah, I’m a one trick pony,” he joked. “I
can pick out meat and potatoes, but the rest is beyond my skill level.”

“You’re hilarious,” I said dryly shooting
him a grin as I put my napkin on my lap and picked up my knife and fork. “But
seriously, this looks delicious.”

“I aim to please,” he said with a mouth full
of baked potato as he sawed at his filet. He ate like a man who had a limited
amount of time to ingest is food before it was taken away.

“Slow down, we’re not in a race, sailor,” I
laughed. He gave me a sheepish grin as he lowered his utensils and took a sip
from his glass of water. We were quiet as we ate, but Brian watched me with a
questioning look and I knew he was itching to ask something.

“So, I have to ask you,” he said on cue.
“We’ve been together for almost a week now and there have been some harrowing
moments that I’ve reported back to HQ, but something is puzzling me.”

“I know,” I said. I’d been prepared for this
question from the first day. “You want to know why my parents never call me,
right?
”

“Yeah, actually, that was my question,” he
said amazed that I’d somehow read his mind. It wasn’t so much that I’d read his
mind as it was that I’d been answering this same question for most of my life.

I explained to him that everyone at boarding
school and then at college talked about weekly obligatory phone calls or having
to check in with their parents or having to ask for money from their parents,
and so kids were always asking me why I never had to do anything of these
things. No check-ins and no calling to ask for money, instead once a month I
wrote a summary of my activities, printed it out and mailed it to my father.
The money was automatically deposited in my account on the first and fifteenth
day of the month, and I was given such a generous allowance that I usually
ended up depositing what was left over in a separate savings account I’d
started at the boarding school.

“I’m not sure if my father was being savvy
and teaching me business skills or if he simply didn’t want me to bother him
and my mother,” I admitted. I couldn’t condemn my father, after all, he’d never
been cruel to me, just indifferent. My mother was a whole other matter, and one
that I didn’t really feel like sharing over dinner.

“But how can they not check in and see how
you’re doing?” he asked.

“Easy, they just don’t,” I said
matter-of-factly. “It’s not a crisis, it’s just the way my family operates. I
think my grandfather raised my father the exact same way, so what do you
expect? We do what our parents teach us to do.”

“But if that’s the case, then how did you
get involved with Dominic?” he asked as he shoved another loaded fork into his
mouth and chewed thoughtfully as he waited for my answer.

“I already explained that,” I said. “I was
duped by his personality and the money.”

“That makes no sense to me,” he mused. “You
have money, and Dominic is a sociopath! He doesn’t care about anything except
his reputation and his stuff.”

“Like I said,” I replied as I stared at my
meat while I carefully carved a bite-sized piece from the juicy filet. “We do
what our parents teach us to do.”

Brian watched me closely as he continued to
chew. Suddenly the light bulb went on and he leaned across the table. “Are you
telling me—
”

“Just let it go, Brian,” I said pointedly.
“Just let it go.”

He looked at me thoughtfully for a few
moments and then cut another piece of meat and popped it into his mouth.
 

“But what about your grandmother? You said
she loved you,” he said.

“That was a whole other matter,” I said
quietly.

“Tell me about it,” he urged as he looked
into my eyes. “I want to know you — all of you.”

“
My
grandmother was the center of my universe,” I began. “I told you about our last
trip together and what happened afterwards.”

Brian nodded and continued picking at his
food. I picked up a piece of asparagus with my fingers, bit off the tip, and
chewed as I thought about how to explain my grandmother to him.

“My grandmother was the epitome of high
society,” I said as I thought about how she’d always dressed for dinner and
insisted that I do the same when I was visiting her. “She had impeccable taste
and valued courtesy and manners above all else. She used to say that without
manners we were no better than a tray of ice cubes.”

Brian laughed out loud as I giggled
remembering how every time she’d said this, I’d laughed because it was so
ridiculous. I told him about how she’d once spent my entire spring break
teaching me how to curtsey and pour the perfect cup of tea just in case I was
ever invited to meet the Queen of England. Then I told him about how she’d made
a habit of sending me books by Miss Manners and Leticia
Baldridge
in order to drive the lessons home. I was expected to read and memorize certain
portions of the books so that I could recite them to my grandmother on command.
It was nerve wracking because she was demanding and did not suffer fools, but
she always stepped in and helped me fill in the blanks when I couldn’t remember
the exact words I’d read. It was the spirt of the law that mattered to her, not
the letter of it.