19. Isla

19

ISLA

I balanced precariously on the step leading up to the house as I held onto the dresser, praying I didn’t drop it on Kavanaugh like I had dropped my armoire down the stairs at my old house.

“You got it?”

“Yeah, I got it!” I bit out, sucking in a deep breath as I took another step up.

“Cuz I can do this on my own.”

“I’m fine!”

I really wasn’t fine. My calves were killing me, but I was not a sucker. I could handle this. One more step and I was on the porch. My arms were burning and sweat was pouring from my pits. I definitely needed a shower before I let him anywhere near me.

He set his end down and leaned on the dresser, staring at me with a smirk on his face. “You know, I could have called the guys over to help.”

“I’m perfectly capable of helping you.”

“You were willing to let us move you in when you first got here. Why are you so adamant about this?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “Maybe because someone said it was too much work for me.”

He burst out laughing. “I was just teasing you.” He strode forward and pulled me into his sweaty arms, rubbing my face all over his wet shirt.

“Eww!”

“Come on, you know you love it!”

“I love you sweaty in bed. Not smelly sweaty!” I finally squirmed out of his arms and wiped his sweat from my face. “Gross.”

“There’s no difference. Sweat is sweat.”

“Uh, that’s not even remotely true.” My jaw dropped in disbelief. “You’re crazy. There is absolutely a difference. Sex sweat is sexy. Work sweat smells like ass.”

“I thought all you ladies liked to see a man sweat.”

“Yes, from a distance. A very far distance where we can admire the gleam, but not have to smell it.”

“If you had let me invite the guys over to help, you could have been watching all of us sweat from a distance,” he jeered. But his eyes quickly averted to the road where a kid rode his bike down the sidewalk, watching us intently. Suddenly, Kavanaugh was marching down the steps toward the kid, shouting at him. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Kavanaugh!” I shouted, racing after him.

“You can’t be here!”

“You suck, mister!”

“I suck?” Kavanaugh scoffed. “You suck.”

“I bet you still suck your momma’s titties,” the kid said mockingly.

Kavanaugh jabbed a finger at him, “Hey, don’t talk about my momma that way.”

“Momma’s boy! Momma’s boy?—”

Kavanaugh took off after him, and I chased Kavanaugh, begging him to stop taunting the kid.

“If I see you on this street again, I’ll make you wish you were never born!” Kavanaugh shouted as the kid pedaled down the street, sticking up his middle finger.

I finally caught up and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him back toward the house. “What are you doing?”

“That’s the third time I’ve seen that kid on this street.”

“Yeah, well, he lives at the end of the block.”

Kavanaugh’s eyes narrowed as he continued to watch the kid. “And that gives him a right to bike down here?”

“Well, yeah. It’s a free country.”

“I don’t trust him,” he grumbled.

My brows furrowed in confusion as I tried to figure out what the hell was going on here. “He’s just a kid.”

He snorted in derision. “I don’t like the way he watches the house.”

“He was watching us,” I pointed out.

His head whipped to meet my gaze. “All the more reason not to trust him.”

“What exactly do you think he’s going to do?”

“What won’t he do? He’s a kid. You can’t trust him.”

I took a step back, wondering who the hell this man was in front of me and how I was supposed to get Kavanaugh back. “Okay, I think you need to relax just a little. He’s a kid. He’s not doing anything but riding his bike. Then again, you just pissed him off, so we’ll probably end up with flaming dog poop on the steps.”

“When he comes back, I’ll be ready for him.”

“Alright, Kevin,” I muttered. “Can we finish moving your stuff inside? Or are there some puppies you want to run down first?”

“Maybe later,” he said, not joking at all. “I’m beginning to think I didn’t add enough security.”

“You did. There are triple locks on all the doors, and you installed cameras everywhere.”

“Right, but what about the perimeter? I don’t like the idea of you being here all alone.”

“I’m never alone,” I grumbled, trying not to be upset by the fact that I now had two houseguests who were probably never going to leave. I liked having them around most of the time, but Kavanaugh was getting a little crazy with the protection detail. “Can we just agree that if someone comes here to blow me up again, it won’t be the kid down the block?”

His eyes narrowed in the distance like he was considering it.

“Kavanaugh!”

“Fine, alright. The kid is most likely not a threat.”

“Thank you.”

“But that doesn’t mean I won’t be watching him,” he finished.

“I’m gonna need a twenty-pack of Jujyfruits by the time today is done.”

I was halfway up the steps when Kavanaugh scooped me up into his arms, eliciting a yelp from me that could be heard halfway around town. Then he tossed me over his shoulder and slapped my ass, carrying me inside and slamming the door behind him.

“The dresser!”

“Can wait,” he said, taking the stairs two at a time, jostling my stomach to an uncomfortable degree.

“Kavanaugh—” I screeched as he tossed me down on the bed, climbing over me the next instant. His lips latched onto my skin, sucking lightly and immediately turning me compliant.

“Fuck, you’re so sexy when you’re ordering me around.”

My pants were jerked down my hips and then his cock was nudging at my entrance from behind. I sucked in a breath as he entered me in one long thrust. All the anger of the day immediately washed away, replaced only by need and desire. Over and over, he took me, filling me with his thick cock until I was begging for him to make me come. There was nothing like him filling me up and fucking me hard.

Then his fingers were on my tits, tugging and pinching until I was screaming his name. I felt his shudder behind me, stilling inside me as I came hard, squeezing him tight.

Panting hard, I wasn’t sure I would be of any use to him the rest of the day. All I wanted was a long nap and maybe a drink. He brushed my red locks away from my face, grinning down at me as I laid there sleepily.

“Better?”

I nodded, unable to do anything else right now. He rolled me over, laying beside me on the bed, pressing a kiss to my lips.

“I can get a little overprotective sometimes.”

“You don’t say,” I grinned.

“And maybe I’m a little out of my element since I lost my job.”

“Just a little,” I repeated.

He stared at me with the deepest sincerity as he played with the ends of my hair. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For taking me in. For putting up with me.”

“As you yell at kids for riding bikes?”

“And for what I’m about to do.”

Unease filled me at his statement. “And what’s that?”

But instead of answering, he climbed off me and gave me a thwack on the ass. “I would get dressed if I were you.”

“Kavanaugh!” I shouted as he sauntered out of the room. “Son of a bitch.”

Twenty minutes later, I was downstairs and freshly showered. A hoard of men were in my house, and one woman who looked like she was having way too much fun.

“Rae, what is going on here?” I asked, walking over to where she was yelling at one of Kavanaugh’s old coworkers.

“Additional security.”

I looked up and frowned. ‘There’s a net above the door.”

“Right.”

“Why is there a net above my door?”

“To trap intruders. We put them at all the entrances.”

I shook my head. “It’s a net. Shouldn’t that be in…the forest?”

“It’s not just any net. It’s a…well, to put it plainly, it’s electrified.”

My eyes widened in horror as I slowly faced her. “You put electricity in that thing?”

“Yep!”

“But…what if I get caught in that?”

“Oh, you won’t. You’ll have a secondary code when you come in. Just enter it before five seconds is up and you’re good to go.”

“Five seconds?” That’s all I get?” I shrieked.

“It’s plenty of time. Besides, you don’t want the intruder to get past the net. Once he is, he’s gone.”

“No,” I said firmly. “Absolutely not!”

“But—”

Screams sounded from the back of the house and I rushed through the kitchen to the back door. I gasped in horror as I saw Riley on the ground, covered in a net, shaking uncontrollably. Rae rushed over and quickly disabled the safety feature, if that’s what you wanted to call it, then tore the net off Riley.

“Are you okay?”

She was still shaking, her eyes wide. “I think… I pissed myself.”

I winced at the puddle underneath her.

“I’m gonna need some Jujyfruits.”

“Anything you want,” I said, helping her to her feet.

When I turned, Kavanaugh was scratching the back of his head. “Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

I glared at him. “Too much. Definitely too much.”

“So, does that mean you won’t let me install the vacuum robot Knight was telling me about?”

“Does it do anything other than clean the house?”

“Maybe.”

“Then that’s a hard no.”

“But—”

I glared at him and he immediately snapped his mouth closed.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I’ll have it all taken out.”

I woke up, groggy and more than a little irritated for the third week in a row. Yes, there was a sexy man in my bed. However, his incessant snoring kept me up all night and I was on the verge of murdering him. He was taking up half the bed, sprawled out as if he was the only person sleeping here.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes as he let out another long snore. There was no way I was going back to sleep with my own personal noisemaker in bed. Flinging off the covers, I got up and headed for the bathroom, slamming my foot into the boxes stacked by the door.

“Ugh!” I groaned, sucking in a breath as pain shot through my pinky toe. “Mother fucker,” I hissed, then sidestepped the box and headed for the bathroom.

After locking myself inside, I stared in the mirror, vowing today would not be the day I committed murder. Kavanaugh was my boyfriend. My now live-in boyfriend with all his things in my house. I hadn’t planned on moving our relationship along this fast. Yes, I loved him, but we were barely functioning as a couple when his boss fired him.

And that was our biggest problem. I knew his decision not to work with the senator wasn’t completely about me, but he definitely took my feelings into consideration. I hadn’t realized how much the possibility of him working the job with the senator was affecting me until he made the decision not to take it. Slowly, the nightmares receded and I could function without jumping at every sound.

So, when Kavanaugh made the suggestion he move in with me, I allowed it. Of course, he had other reasons than not wanting to find someplace to live. He wanted to protect me. The security system was plenty, but over the last three weeks, I’d had to thwart several attempts he made to put in outrageous security measures that would no doubt get me killed.

Despite all that, Kavanaugh really was trying to make this transition as easy as possible. I just wasn’t ready to live with a man. Or him, really. I was trying not to let his lies get in the way of all he was trying to do for me, but it was going to take more than a few weeks of living together to solve our problems.

After cleaning up, I headed downstairs and checked my emails while the coffee brewed. There was one in particular that looked promising, but I couldn’t function without my coffee.

“Hey,” Riley grumbled, walking into the kitchen in her ratty robe and her hair flying all around her head.

“Rough night?”

She grabbed the carafe and poured herself a cup of coffee. “That depends. Would you consider getting hit in the shin over and over again with a cast a good night?”

I chuckled, taking a sip of my own. “Would you consider a man sprawled out next to you, snoring like a train the whole night, good?”

Groaning, she sprawled out on the counter as she rested her face on the tile. “When did our house get taken over by men?”

“I think that would be when we thought it was a good idea to sleep with them.”

“I don’t get it. Bowie is so…masculine and hot. Shouldn’t I want to be with him more?”

“I think it’s that the shine has worn off.”

“Kavanaugh?”

I nodded. “It’s not just in bed. I mean, the sex is great, but outside the bedroom…I caught him yesterday adding in a security fence.”

“Like a privacy fence?”

“Nope. This one electrocutes people when they touch it.”

“I’ve had enough of electrocution.” Her eyes widened as she shoved her hair out of her face. “Was he going to tell us?”

“Maybe when one of us ended up in the hospital. I made him take it down.”

She pursed her lips in thought.

“What?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking if it was still up, I could shove Bowie into it and he’d end up in the hospital. At least I’d get a good night of sleep.”

“You could always send him home,” I suggested.

“How? He literally got hit by a car for me.”

Unfortunately, she was right. “I’m just hoping Kavanaugh finds a job soon. He’s constantly working out or repairing something around the house.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

I gave her the stink eye. “Yesterday, I was in the middle of a meeting with a client and he interrupted to find out if I really liked the roses outside or if he could tear them out to add in security wire in front of the porch.”

“Then I guess there’s nothing left for it. We’ll toss his things out the front door and yell fire. He’ll run outside and we’ll lock the door.”

“Sounds like a solid plan,” I agreed, walking over to my computer. “What are you doing today?”

“Oh, you know. Taking care of client-type things, wrangling a man with one leg, and thinking about opening my own popsicle stand. You?”

“I was going to sit on the porch and drink until I can no longer stand.”

“We’re all out of alcohol,” she shrugged. “I drank it last night.”

“It doesn’t have to have alcohol.”

“Well, everyone should have goals.”

I nodded and opened the email I’d seen earlier. My eyes widened as I read the uplifting words. “Riley!” I hissed, waving her over. “Look at this.”

She read through it, then gaped me. “Are they for real?”

“I hope so. Do you know what this means?”

“That you’re going to take me and run away?” She turned to me, a pleading look on her face. “Please say you will.”

“And we’ll just leave the men here? Do you know what we’ll find when we come back?”

“Maybe they’ll leave,” she said excitedly.

“Are you kidding? The whole place will be like Fort Knox! It’s hard enough to get out the front door as it is!”

She got a gleam in her eye I knew all too well. “I’ll play you for it.”

“No, I always lose!”

“I’ll play fairly this time. I swear!” She pouted, her eyelashes batting in a way I couldn’t say no.

“You say that every time, and every time, I end up losing to some trickery! I’m going alone and that’s the end of it.”

“But it’s New York,” she whined. “The land of the free and idiotic.”

“And that makes you want to go?”

“Well, at least there I can escape to someplace other than a field.”

“You can’t go anyway. Remember, you’re supposed to go to that conference this weekend.”

Her shoulders slumped and she kicked the chair, pissed that I remembered that. “This sucks. I want to get away.”

“Maybe with me out of the way, you’ll get along better with Bowie.”

“Yeah, because too many people in the house is the reason he’s getting under my skin.”

I knew it was. There were things Bowie liked to do that he couldn’t because I was here with Kavanaugh. I made the mistake of walking in on them once before, and ever since then, things had been much more tame in the bedroom.

“You know, I really don’t like you right now,” she glared at me.

“Then you’ll be happy to see the back of me,” I smirked, heading out the front door with my cup of coffee. Finally, I would get some distance from my overbearing boyfriend and feel the breeze of freedom on my face.

“Oh, Kavanaugh!” I heard Riley call.

My eyes widened and I jumped to my feet, sloshing my coffee all over me, slipping in the liquid and falling on my ass. I stared up at the porch roof and groaned, knowing I had missed my chance to stop her. That stupid bitch went behind my back, and now I would be stuck with Kavanaugh for the duration of my trip.