Guarding His Lover

It was a typical mid-October night in Chicago, Illinois, and Shannon Rivers was getting ready for her date. Her free-spirited extrovert roommate, Leah, lounged in the doorway, keeping her company as Shannon tried to figure out what to wear.“Ten dates already, huh?”“Yeah,” Shannon confirmed.“Think tonight’s the night to finally… you know…?” Leah teased.“Stop that,” Shannon admonished, even as she giggled and blushed.“And for the record, probably not.”“Seriously?” Leah’s tone turned incredulous as she came and sat on Shannon’s bed. “Still not yet?”Shannon shrugged.“I’m not ready.”“Robert’s tall, built, cute, and is steadily employed,” Leah reminded her. “Pretty good catch.”“I know,” Shannon sighed. “And he’s very attentive and sweet. I just don’t…,” and she trailed off.She’d met Robert at the coffee shop on campus two months earlier. She was almost done with her double Bachelor’s in Finance and Accounting. He’d just graduated with his Master’s in Business and was studying for

Yeah. About that, Leah wrote. We need to make a detour.Shannon grumbled as Fuller stepped out to give her some privacy, but she kept her questions in check while the nurse was removing her IV.“Detour? What detour? Why?” Shannon asked as soon as the nurse left.Leah wrote, He will explain it all, but we need to get going and showed her friend, then handed Shannon underwear, yoga pants, and a baggy t-shirt to put on.“What aren’t you telling me?” she asked Leah, as they worked together to pull the t-shirt down gently across her wounded back.Please don’t freak out, but our apartment was broken into tonight. Massive destruction, Leah scribbled then shared.“What?” Shannon’s mouth formed a small ‘o’ in surprise.Leah nodded, then wrote, Place was trashed.“Does Fuller think it’s all connected?”Leah wrote, He won’t say so, but yeah, I think that’s exactly what he thinks. He said he’d explain everything, but we need to get moving.Shannon fell silent as she pulled her yoga pants up over

The man in the expensive suit stood with his back to his visitor, gazing out across the downtown Chicago skyline as he willed his temper into submission.“Let me get this straight,” he stated, his voice hard as steel. “I asked you to handle it, and I trusted you to understand the need to keep it very low-key; a burglary gone wrong. Something that happens by the thousands in this city every year, so that it won’t stand out. But you? You opt for a car bomb. One of the most public ways possible to handle my private business. Do I have that right, Charlie?”Charlie’s reflection in the glass confirmed his visitor swallowed hard before answering.“Yes, sir. I just thought – ““And there’s our problem, Charlie. You thought,” he sneered, cutting the man off. “You thought, and the results made both last night’s and this morning’s news. Idiot.”He paused, rubbing his temples with his index fingers to try and calm himself.“Did you at least manage to find the copies he made?”A pause, then, “I g

In a flash, Pete was around the table and up the stairs, flinging her bedroom door open.Shannon was sitting upright in bed, eyes huge and glassy in a pale face, and was swinging her arms wildly to ward off whatever she was battling in her mind. Her right hand brushed against Pete’s right shoulder as he sat on the edge of the bed, and she shrieked, recoiling in horror.Pete gathered her carefully into his arms so he wouldn’t touch her burns, then began to rock her, gently stroking her hair and murmuring to her even though he knew she could not hear him speaking.Her screams turned to sobs as she clutched at him, taking comfort in his warmth.“Is she okay?” Leah’s worried tone carried from the doorway.“Nightmare,” Pete told her as he held Shannon close to him. “I wondered if she’d have any, with everything that’s happened. Not to mention the blow she took to the head.”“That blow to the head is the only reason I’m not giving her a strong drink to help her sleep and not dream,” Leah re

Dinner was over, the kitchen had been cleaned, and Shannon, having slept earlier, was wide awake.She sat in the living room, contented and full, watching the movie on television that Pete had so thoughtfully activated closed captioning for. Pete was stretched out in the recliner with eyes closed, and even Leah had turned in for the night, her seemingly boundless energy reserve finally depleted.As he slept, Shannon had the luxury of studying Pete more closely while she warred within herself about her attraction to him. Pete’s long, lean muscular frame was draped nicely in jeans and a button-down shirt. Thick, coal-black hair swept back from his face and trailed down just past his collar. A hint of five o’clock shadow lingered on his chiseled jawline. Long eyelashes framed what she already knew were the most beautiful blue eyes she’d ever come across.Suddenly a vision popped into her head of her and Pete tangled together in bed, her legs wrapped around him and his fingers interlaced