Chapter Eight

Callan

I thought the military tamed me. That it disciplined me to become a man who approaches situations calmly.

I was wrong.

This morning when I dropped Emily off at her work, I noticed the black car parked on the curb of the next building, but it was the man leaning against the lamp post smoking that caught my attention. His eyes weren’t even on us, but I could tell his attention was. He was really trying not to make it obvious that he was not watching us and no, he was no ordinary man.

Perhaps it takes the devil to spot a demon. A man with a heart as dark as mine, stalking my precious angel but no, I am not going to let him steal her from me, so I figured this is the time to bring out my gun. I rarely hunt despite living in the mountains, as the gunshot can set off memories I would rather stay buried but today, I put all that aside.

Today, I put an end to all the running and hiding.

The man doesn’t notice me watching him watch my angel all morning. His dark eyes are zeroed in on the diner, and when he notices her leave through the side door to the alley between the diner and the exit building, he follows her.

Walking to them and threatening the man away would be enough to make him leave, but he’d be back. I need to do it in a way that every time he thinks of Emily and the fucking beast protecting her, he experiences bone-chilling fear.

And I can’t do this in the open.

So, I wait.

It takes everything in me to stay in my car and watch as the man forcefully grabs my angel’s arm – he’ll fucking pay for that – and drags her to his car. She wants to run, I can see her looking for an opportunity to escape, but his gun stops her from doing anything too reckless. He starts his car and peels out of the parking lot.

I expect him to take the mountain road out of town, so he’s easy to track. I follow far enough behind him to not draw suspicion, but when he turns down an old, abandoned dirt road all bets are off as I figure we are far enough away from any accidental witnesses.

The engine of my old truck roars to life as I step on the gas, closing the distance between us quickly. He notices me rather fast, after all my old truck is kicking up a storm behind me. He starts to speed up, but he doesn’t know the winds in this road like I do, so despite my truck being older I’m at his rear bumper in no time at all.

It takes all my effort to calm my anger and adrenaline. I need to be calm and collected so that I don’t hurt Emily in the process. We are already going faster than I wanted, but if I time this exactly right, it will be okay. After all, I had to do it a few times when I was deployed in the warzone. The military might not have tamed me, but it did teach me quite a few tricks.

I ease the truck slightly to the side, inching closer to his rear wheel. As I expected, he slows down when he approaches the upcoming turn and this is my chance - I grip the wheel tightly and slam on the brakes, jerking the steering hard to the right. The front end of my truck strikes the back of his car with a solid hit, performing a textbook PIT maneuver. His car spins out of control, veering into the turn. He struggles to regain control, slamming on his brakes and bringing the car to a rough, but otherwise safe, stop.

As the dust settles, I can see him trying to restart his car, but I’m already at the driver’s side window, and I bring the butt of my shotgun down, shattering the glass before pointing the barrel at his head.

The man is breathing hard, eyes wide and he raises his hands in the air, too shocked to speak. I take the gun from his lap quickly before finally looking to check on my angel who looks scared out of her wits. I motion for the man to get out and I can read the anger in his eyes. A lanky, blue-eyed man with long black hair stares back at me with a vengeance in his gaze. Not what I would consider a threat, but he attempted to steal something from me, so now he is my enemy.

“Come out,” I roar, loud enough for him to hear. “I will not say this again.”

The man laughs, oblivious to the threat I pose, and thumb flicks the safety off with a sharp metallic click. The sound cuts through the air a second before I stand back to shoot the front tires of his car, deflating them with a sharp hiss. He yells, his eyes widening in alarm when I point the gun back at him.

“The next bullet will be to your head. Do not test me.”

The man gets out of his car slowly, hands still in the air as he steps to the side. I keep my gaze locked on him with deadly precision.

“Emily?” I ask softly, “Are you okay? Did he hurt you baby?” I want to look at her, to assess every inch of her myself until I was sure she wasn’t hurt, but I can’t look away from this threat right now.

“I’m okay,” she says, but the tremble in her voice makes my grip tighten on the gun. There’s a sob caught in her throat, and it cuts through me like a blade.

“Stay back,” I warn her, my voice low and firm. I can feel her eyes on me, but she listens as I hear her footsteps move towards my truck. I can feel her fear hanging in the air, and I hope to end all of that today. The man shifts his weight slightly, trying to inch back towards his car. ‘Don’t even think about it,’’ I growl, stepping closer to him.

The man is anxious, I can tell by the way he’s shifting around and looking for a way out of this situation. I expect him to give up, to surrender and I must have grown soft because he lunges at me instead, landing a decent punch at my wrist. The shotgun drops to the floor, and he kicks it away from me as he leans in for another punch, this one clipping the edge of my jaw. All it does is make me angry.

Adrenaline surges through me and I can’t help but let out a dark laugh. “If you were smart, you would have gone for the gun,” I charge at him, throwing my weight at his body and tackling us to the ground. We hit hard, and dirt plumes around us as I hit him hard, a sickening crunch to his nose. I grab his collar and slam him back down. He tries to push me off, lands a hit to my side but I barely register it. Blood pours from his face, and I land another hit to his ribs, leaving him gasping for air.

“You dare to come for what’s mine?” I whisper in his ear, my manic taking over. Another hit. “If you ever so much as think about her again,” another hit. He groans, barely conscious and I force myself to take a breath and stop. I drop my fist, letting go of him and standing up to dust off my jeans. As much as I want to keep hitting him, Emily deserves better than a man like that. I would be better for her.

I turn to Emily and she’s standing near the truck. I expect her to be scared, after finally seeing this darkness in me, but when our eyes meet, she cracks a breathtaking smile and runs at me full speed. I catch her in my arms, holding her close to me.

“Are you okay?” I whisper, bringing my hand to her cheek, brushing off the tearstains from her cheeks. “Did he hurt you? I will fucking kill him if he–”

“How are you the same person?” she whispers. “One minute you are gentle and sweet and the next you’re… scary.”

“Do I scare you?”

“Not me,” she whispers, shaking her head. “You scare everyone else but me. Heck, you scared Bobby, and he belongs to a notorious gang in Bakersfield. I was working at this coffee shop when he started stalking me, sometimes even showing up at the building I lived in. He and his gang scared me, I was afraid they would break in and… do something terrible, so I grabbed my things and left. I don’t know how he found me.”

She probably ran into an acquaintance who reported to him. This is a town of tourists, with everyone from all over the country filling in for their vacations. It’s not totally crazy that he would find her. All she needs to know is that it will never happen again. I don’t care how many men from her past try to get to her, I’ll send them all back running if they prove to be a threat to my girl.

“It’s okay, you’re safe now,” I tell her, brushing a thumb soothingly over her cheek, but Emily doesn’t lean into my comforting caress. Instead, she brushes my hand off her face and instead, pushes up to straddle my lap. I have to push back the car seat to accommodate us both, and her waitressing uniform rides up her thighs as she presses her soft body to mine, sending my cock hardening in mere seconds. There is a heat, unlike anything I have seen before gleaming in her eyes when they lock on mine.

“Do you know what I was thinking when Bobby grabbed me from the alleyway?” she whispers, locking her fingers behind my neck as she circles her taut ass against my raging erection. “You. I was thinking of you, Cal. In the car with him, and I was thinking about was you. Wishing for you. Hoping you would find me.”

My heart clenches painfully at her words. “I’m here now.”

“You are,” she whispers, rocking her pussy over my erection. “I don’t know how it happened, but I think I’m in love with you, Cal. The thought of leaving you behind hurt more than anything I would have expected. I want to stay.”

I have no words. All I can do is take her lips in mine in response and let her feel just how hard and fast my heart beats for her. It will only ever beat this hard for her. “Mine,” I rasp as I lick into her mouth, twining her tongue hotly with mine as I remind her that she is it for me.

“Want to feel you again,” she whimpers, pushing her body up against mine, her perky tits pressing hard against my chest and I long to take them into my mouth, suck at the juicy nipples until she’s sobbing for me to fuck her.

“I’m going to fuck you right here, princess. So, fucking hard it’s going to haunt your little stalker for the rest of his life. When he remembers that someone else claimed this tight pussy, it’s going to eat at his insides and drive him insane.”

“Oh God, yes,” she whispers brokenly against my lips, grabbing my hand and bringing them to her tits. She cries out when I fondle the globes into my palm and squeeze her pebbling nipples between my fingers. “Need you, Cal. Now,” she moans, grinding her ass madly on her my lap. “Please take me!”

There is something feral about her, and she must feel I’m not moving fast enough for her because her hands drop between us and I groan when she slips her fingers into my pants, pulling out my shaft that’s hard and leaking of precum.

“So, fucking horny,” I say with a rough grunt when she starts stroking my cock. “What’s brought this change?”

“Freedom,” she whispers, her breath catching in her throat when I slide my fingers between her thighs and into her panties. I groan deeply when I find her wet, her sex is slicker with arousal than anything I have felt before. “I… Oh God,” she moans loudly when I drive my middle finger into her. Her head falls back, and her body starts to shake when I add my index finger, thrusting in and out of her at a feverish tempo. Her body writhes on top of me as she rides my fingers, desperately clawing at my shoulders for leverage.

“Do you like that, riding my fingers with your stalker listening in?”

“Uh?” Her breath wheezes in and out as my fingers stroke her faster and harder until she’s practically begging for my cock. “Cal, please,” she sobs.

“Fuck baby,” I breathe, our position doesn’t allow her to strip out of her panties, so I grab the flimsy material and tear it off her body, tossing it to the back seat where it drops on top of the handgun.

She’s practically trembling when I guide my cock into her hole. Her wanting cries carry through the space as she seats herself on top of me in a fluid motion, burying herself to the hilt in one thrust. It seems that whatever chains were holding her back have snapped and released this gorgeous beast that can’t get enough, and I don’t think I could fall any deeper in love with her.

Christ, she’s perfect.

Watching her transform from my shy girl with awkward kisses, to a little temptress who can’t get enough of my cock is a thing of beauty.

I wrap an arm around her waist as she rocks her hips hard over mine with her head thrown back and eyes closed. I lean in and lick a path over her flushed neck to her earlobe, before nipping at the sensitive skin. She cries out in pleasure, the noise no doubt making it outside the truck as she rocks hard above me, bouncing over my cock before she starts rolling her hips in circles and I notice her eyes quickly grow glassy.

“So close, Cal, Oh God!” she sobs, picking up her tempo, and her sex pulsing hotly around my cock, driving me to the point of madness. I dig my fingers into her waist as my muscles strain with the need to come.

“Fuck baby, let me do it,” I growl, tightening my arms around her and upthrust into her sex, driving brutally into her until she’s trembling and sobbing with the need for release. Her orgasm explodes with little warning as she bucks against me. Her lips part with a scream and her body starts shaking, her sex clenching hotly around me and drawing out my climax. I come with a bellow, burying my face into her neck as I pump an endless string of my seed into until she’s milked me to the last drop. “Goddamnit, baby,” I pant, going boneless as I drop my head against her shoulder.

She trails a hand down my shoulder and when she turns her head to kiss the scarred part of my face, it sends my heart clenching painfully in my chest. “Do you remember when I mentioned that I thought I was falling in love with you?”

“Rings a bell,” I say, nuzzling her neck.

“Well, I’m sure of it now. I love you, Callan. I’ve never felt anything remotely close to this with anyone in my life.”

I kiss her shoulder, my heart swelling with affection for the girl. “I love you, Emily. Always.”

“I believe that.”

We sit in silence as we wait for our breathing to return to normal and that’s when she moves back to her seat and straightens her clothes. We both look out over the dash to the man still lying face down in the gravel, hands over his head, still visibly shaking. A satisfied smirk graces Emily’s face, and a sense of pride fills my chest. I wait until her seatbelt is on before pulling out. I keep my eye on the man lying on the ground through the review mirror as we drive away, and I figure it’s the last time we will ever see him again. For his own good, it better be.

Emily reaches out to take my hand and brings it to her lap and just like that, the world feels right again.