BLISS SMILED AND SQUEEZED Travis' hand.Man of few words.He made her heart beat too fast, her head want things she hadn't realized she wanted, and her body, well, she'd never had a man set her insides on fire like Travis did. She loved him. And he'd told her he loved her. It was a curious place to be, confident and nervous all at once. Things between them were still new, and yet the more time she was around him, the more it felt as though he'd always been there. A silent, ever-present shadow watching over her.They spent the rest of the drive to her apartment in silence. It was nice to be free of the expectation to smile and say thank you to all the well wishes for living through the holiday nightmare. She could just-be. Travis didn't need her to put on an act. He'd see through that anyway."We're here." Travis killed the engine.She stretched and pushed her door open."Is it safe?" She stood and blinked at her apartment."Yeah. Cops went over it twice."Bliss followed
TRAVIS SWIPED THE FANCY handkerchief over his brow. Shit, this was almost as bad as being in the sandbox. The tux was a little tight across the shoulders and every time he took a breath he was sure the thing was trying to suffocate him, but Bliss had assured him he didn't look like an ass before disappearing with her sister to go do...bridal things. Whatever the hell that meant.His phone vibrated against his thigh. He dug it out of the impossibly deep pockets.Ethan."Hey, man." Travis glanced over his shoulder into the foyer. People were starting to arrive, most of them with a slightly befuddled expression on their faces.He didn't blame them. It was pretty damn surreal to him, too."You're doing this?""Yeah." Unless Ethan had a good reason why he shouldn't. Nah. Even then, Bliss was worth it. But maybe he should have taken her up on her midnight wedding idea instead of waiting until ten the next morning."Well shit. They're about to roll me into the common room. I gue
Six months later.TRAVIS JOGGED UP THE porch stairs, keeping on the balls of his feet and avoiding the squeaky board. Bliss wasn't expecting him home until tomorrow morning. These moments, coming back to the little two-bedroom house they shared, were the best. Second only to the hours of lovemaking that followed. Things weren't perfect, but they were making the best out of what they had. And it was a hell of a lot more than he'd ever expected.He disabled the security through his phone app and let himself in the front door. For a second, he stood on the little rug and listened. Music played softly from the spare-room-turned-office, and over that he could hear her humming.There wasn't an aspect of his life Bliss hadn't touched. From redecorating the boring house to his taste in food and music, she'd changed him. For the better. His life wasn't just work anymore. And though the long hours, days, and sometimes weeks apart sucked, he always got to come home to this.His home. With
Volume 2: Dangerous in TrainingMason Clark hefted his workout bag from the back seat of his pickup truck and headed into the land of temptation. He blinked and rubbed a bit of the grit from his eye. After a two-week gig playing bodyguard with the Aegis Group team to the sandbox and back, he was ready to slip back into his Central Standard Time habits. Which always started the same.Up early to the gym, where he would spend an hour thinking of ways to keep to himself and not talk to her.Hannah Stevens. His former physical therapist. The woman with the magical laughter. And the one woman he had to stay away from per his commanding officer's orders, who also happened to be Hannah's over-protective father.Mason checked in at the front desk, stashed his stuff in the locker room, and hit the elliptical for a short warm-up. The morning news played a reel of hopped-up bullshit that didn't matter to a handful of people who didn't care.His joints were stiff after back-to-back fl
Hannah wrapped Mason's hoodie around her, soaking up his smell, the warmth still clinging to the soft cotton. She could still remember the first day she met him, grumpy and ready to bite someone's head off. Despite his grumbling he worked hard to get the mobility back after his ACL surgery. They'd been friends-or something like it. Granted, she'd never wanted to be friends with Mason.There was something about him...Why did it have to be Mason?Why couldn't she have developed a thing for someone else?Hannah had considered the very real possibility that she was broken. That maybe she just wasn't equipped for romantic relationships. And then she met him, and her body had woken up with a vengeance."What have you been up to lately?" he said, as though he knew she was thinking about him."Not a lot. Working mostly. You?" She twisted to face him, taking sick pleasure in the opportunity to just look at him. Mason Clark was a bear of a man, big and muscular. Yeah, he could be gr
Mason slung two garbage bags of what he suspected were clothes over his shoulder and pushed the truck's door shut.This was the last of it.Six hours, four vehicles loaded to bursting, and buckets of sweat later-Hannah was safe.He trudged up the stairs to her new rental, a two-story condo in the better part of town, and let himself in through the front door. Zain, Travis and Ethan had taken off, leaving Mason on his own to finish unloading. From their long, hard looks, he knew he was in for it. Once Mr. Stevens got back, Mason would be lucky to come out of this with just a new asshole. There wasn't a single one of the guys willing to cover for him, not that he expected them to. No, he'd pay for this little stunt all on his own, because it was better for Mason to get chewed out than for Mr. Stevens to put another brick in the wall he was building between himself and Hannah.He could still smell the sweet mint gum Stevens had chewed that first day Mason was going through his int
Mason stood there, caught between what he wanted and what he knew he should do.Hannah turned, her forehead wrinkled, and her eyes narrowed. Distrust, anger, hurt, and more sadness. Because of him. Because she couldn't trust him to be there when he'd led her on, because for the better part of a year they'd danced around this spark, this pull between them.Mason took a step toward her, and then another. He needed to touch her, hold her, tell her he'd figure it out. That there was a solution out there. Anything to make her smile. He wrapped an arm around her waist and she moved, lifting up on the balls of her feet. In that moment he knew he was about to take a critical hit, the likes of which would ruin him forever-and he didn't even try to dodge it.Hannah's lips were soft and the hands she wrapped around the back of his head were unyielding. She kissed his mouth, suckling his lower lip, teasing him. Mason wasn't strong enough to resist her. He'd held onto his resolve for months,
Hannah flopped on the sofa, cradling her plate of pizza to her chest. The butterflies had finally settled enough she could eat."Okay, spill." Her roommate, Melissa, settled on the other end of the couch.Deciding where to put the furniture had taken way too much time, and Hannah was starving. They'd known each other for years, thanks to a forum for pastors' kids Hannah had frequented in high school."You've been moony and breathy and weird since I got home. You got your stuff, I see. How'd that go down?" Melissa bit off a bite of pizza, watching Hannah closely."Bad-good-weird. I asked Mason for help." She nibbled on a slice while Melissa sputtered into a napkin."What? Mason? The Mason?""Yes.""What the hell? Spill!""I just-I knew Dylan was not going to cave, so I figured I needed someone big, bad, and scary. I was at the gym, I'd finished with my client and...Mason was there. So I asked. I mean, I didn't have another plan.""And he helped, and then what? Is this