Navy SEAL Romance: MC ROMANCE: Axel (Bad Boy Alpha Male Military Romance) (Military Suspense Protector Romance) (32 page)

I couldn't help it. He was emotionally unavailable, occasionally rude (as my cooking skill grew, so did his criticisms), and gave no indication that he saw me as anything other than his personal chef and occasional entertainment. He was both skilled and determined at avoiding personal questions, so all I knew was that he used to be the head of an investment firm and now he wasn’t.

Still, in those moments when he’d sit close to me on the couch and listen to me type or when he’d compliment something I’d made or even just when I caught his eye from across the room and he smiled at me, I had hope... stupid, idiotic, childish hope.

A man like Richard Turner — smart, handsome, wealthy, and successful — would never fall for a girl like me. Don't think I lacked in self-esteem. No, I was just a realist. I knew I was pretty, and I knew that I could be rather charming, and I'd stolen a few hearts in my day, but he seemed so otherworldly, and the thought of him ever loving me back? Way too good to be true. It was exactly the kind of thing I might write about.

In other words, it would never happen.

*****

Casper hadn't made an appearance in over a week. Well, I supposed he never really made an appearance in the traditional sense, did he? Anyway, he hadn't made his presence known in over a week. We had probably been nearing the two-week threshold.

That's why it surprised me so much that one night, around one A.M., I heard him while I was getting a glass of water downstairs. He was being much quieter than usual, and it almost sounded like he was on the same floor as me.

That was new. And, while I'd been happy to let Richard have his secrets while Casper was below my feet, my curiosity got the best of me. Casper, on the main floor? That was something I couldn't miss.

I crept along the hallway toward the dull thumping noises, not wanting to scare him. I felt a small sense of glee, thinking about how I would sneak up on my friendly ghost and finally see him up close…. or her... or it.

I hadn't talked to anyone outside of the mansion for a long time. Admittedly, I had probably gone a little crazy. Why else would I be creeping along a corridor toward what should have been alarming noises in the middle of the night, wearing a smile the size of Texas?

The thumping had stopped, but I was nearly at its source. Apparently, Casper was in the living room. I turned the corner quietly, wondering whether I should say hello or just wave when I stopped dead in my tracks.

It wasn't Casper.

Well, since I didn't know what Casper looked like, I couldn't say for certain that it wasn't, but if I'd had to place a wager on the identity of the man pointing a gun at me from the living room, I'd probably say he was an intruder of some sort. From the duffel bags at his feet, I would have also surmised that he was a burglar.

"Don't make a sound," he hissed.

His face was covered by a black ski mask; very cliché. Still, I was terrified… too terrified to move… too terrified to make a peep.

He stalked toward me, and my feet longed to propel me back, but they didn't. I felt like an idiot... like I lost all sense of everything when faced with danger. And only a moment ago, I'd been walking toward what I thought was a ghost, and actually excited.

I was a fool.

The burglar touched the cool barrel of the gun to my forehead. "Open the safe."

I looked over and saw that he'd moved one of the paintings on the wall to reveal a hidden safe; also, very cliché… still, too terrified to move.

"I — I," I stammered. "I don't know how."

He pushed the gun in harder. "Do you know what a silencer is?" he snarled.

I managed to nod my head. My heart pounded in my chest, and I could feel bile beginning to rise up my throat.

"Good. If you don't tell me how to get into the safe, I'm going to use this gun to blow your brains out. Nobody will hear, and you'll die alone."

That was overkill. If I was going to die, whether anybody heard it or not was really arbitrary.

Still, I didn't know. I told him that, and he instructed me to lie on the floor. I didn't like the sound of that one bit.

"Why?" I asked shakily.

"So I don't have to catch your body when it falls."

I knew better than to just do as he asked. If he was going to kill me anyway, then I might as well try to protect myself, right? This was something I tried to tell to my limbs. I screamed it internally. I painted it on the insides of my eyelids.

I lie down on the floor.

I hated myself for it; I really did. I felt useless. But, my fear-laden body wouldn't cooperate with my brain. I think I must have been in shock.

The burglar lined up the end of his gun with my forehead. I saw that indeed, there was a silencer attached to the end of it. At least he had come prepared.

A great roar ripped through the living room. At first, I thought the burglar had pulled the trigger, and that maybe I was just hearing the bullet going through my brain, but it turned out that he'd never had the chance.

A great, black blur slammed into my attacker from the side, knocking him clear out of my view. I sat up quickly, my limbs suddenly free to move of their own volition. Something more interesting than my forthcoming demise had appeared and it knocked all the fear straight out of my head.

The black blur that had tackled the burglar was bellowing as it squeezed the vile man in its gigantic hands. Hands? I narrowed my eyes to try to see my hands clearly.

If I wasn't mistaken, the thing that had just saved my life was a giant gorilla. Maybe it was a normal sized gorilla. I'd never seen a gorilla in my life, so I wasn't really sure what sizes they came in — but this thing was massive. It stood at least six feet tall. It even hunched over as it was crushing the life out of the burglar.

“Casper?” I asked breathlessly.

The beast did not turn my way.

The man might have tried to scream, but there was no air in his lungs to do so; I knew that much just by looking at him. Eventhough he'd been about to kill me, I turned away, not wanting to see the life leave his eyes.

A low snuffling and a dull thump caused me to turn back and look. The body of the burglar was nowhere in sight, which caused me to believe that it was most likely shoved behind the couch. The gorilla stood staring at me with deep, soulful eyes; almost human eyes.

“Hey Casper,” I said gently.

What else could have been making the sounds I’d heard in the basement? A giant gorilla certainly fit the bill.

He barred his teeth at me, long and sharp. It might have been a sign of aggression, but it looked more like a smile.

In an instant, he began to shrink away. Fur sank back into his skin, which in turn began to lighten. His limbs pulled in closer to his body, and his face slowly flattened. It was like the gorilla was being retracted into the skin of its human host. I could see that there was a human forming because his torso was the first to normalize; and what a torso. A broad, tanned, muscular chest stole my attention for the rest of the transformation. By the time I thought to look up at his face, he was fully human again.

And… fully my boss.

Richard

She didn’t move. The look on her face was one of both shock and awe, but thankfully, devoid of fear. I don’t know what I would have done if she had run from me then.

I walked toward her, ignoring the voice in my head that told me she would never accept me for who I was. It was my grandfather’s voice and I knew it was wrong. Mina would be the last person to turn from me.

Still, as I stood before her, I felt a lingering sense of shame. She had seen me now, as so few people ever had. She saw the secret behind the man, the beast behind the suit. She might not turn from me, but what might she think of me now?

“Thank you,” she said, making steady eye contact. She was obviously trying to avoid looking at my naked body, though I could tell she wanted to.

“Did he hurt you?” I asked.

She shook her head. “No. I just got here.”

An uncomfortable silence hung between us. I could tell she wanted to ask questions, but she knew how normally unresponsive I was to them.

I decided to give her a little peace. “It’s a recessive gene,” I explained. “It’s hard to control sometimes.”

“Was one of your parents, also…?” she asked. She was searching for words in her head. She didn’t know how to least offend me.

“They died when I was young,” I said. “I first shifted at puberty. Afterward, I sought out my grandparents to get answers. Luckily, my grandfather was still alive and was able to explain what was happening to me.”

She nodded her head in understanding. “Okay,” she said. “Cool.” She cocked her head to the side. “So, the noises from the basement?”

I grimaced. “It’s been harder to control over the years. On nights when I feel the change coming on, I get Gaston to chain me up down there.”

Her expression grew very sad. “I’m so sorry, Richard,” she said.

It was the first time she had called me anything other than Mr. Turner, and it threw me. Her concern, coupled with her apparent lack of fear, was not one of the reactions I had prepared for when I’d imagined what would happen if she found out.

I turned and stalked out of the room.

“Hey!” She called behind me. “Wait!”

I didn’t wait. I took the stairs two at a time. My intended destination was my bedroom. Once I was there, I’d put on some clothes and figure out what to do next.

“Richard!” She laid a hand on my shoulder. “Can we talk about this?”

I turned around at the top of the landing. She gazed up at me boldly.

I realized then why I was so determined to get away from her; I couldn’t stand the thought of seeing the rejection creep onto her face, as it inevitably would. She hadn’t signed up for this.

But, the rejection was not forthcoming. Instead, she said, “I’m not going anywhere, Richard.” Then, at my look of surprise, she said, “I can see it all over your face. You think I’m about to run out of here.”

I’d never been an easy man to read. I was impressed that she had been able to tell, but didn’t like having that secret revealed as well.

“You should run,” I said. “I’m an unpredictable beast.”

She smiled sadly and shook her head. “You’re not.”

I sneered in response, and a stern look crossed her face.

“You’ve gotten better recently, haven’t you?” she challenged. “You’re not out of control. You’re just misunderstood.”

I chuckled darkly. “Misunderstood?” I said. “Darling, to be misunderstood there must first be people around to form an incorrect opinion of you.”

“No,” she said. “Not when you’re misunderstood by yourself.”

That was an insight I hadn’t expected to come out of those perfect lips. It wasn’t that I hadn’t thought her capable of such reflections. She was clearly an intelligent girl. I just had never thought that anyone would be able to tell me anything about my condition that I hadn’t already decided for myself.

“You may be many things, Richard,” she continued. “Pretentious and a bit of an ass are two things that come to mind, but a monster? Absolutely not. You saved me.”

“He was going to kill you,” I said. “Obviously, I had to save you.”

She shook her head, smiling to herself. “You saved me from crashing and burning. You gave me a job when I clearly wasn’t a good fit for it, and you’ve been pushing me to follow the dream I’ve been avoiding for so long.” She reached out and grabbed my hand. “You’re a good man.”

Her words touched me, and the contact of her hand on mine touched me in another way. I’d never allowed my fantasies of her to go farther than just a passing fancy. It simply hadn’t been an option for me. I couldn’t let anyone get that close for fear of them discovering my true nature. The only one who had seen my beast form since the death of my grandfather was Gaston.

Now, with her standing in front of me, accepting me, and caring for me… I felt a stirring in my loins that I had been suppressing for months.

She noticed.

Before she could say anything, I spun and continued my trek to my room. I didn't know what to say to her.

"Richard!" she called after me again. I closed the door, but she barged in anyway.

"You have no idea what you do to me!" I cried, turning to face her.

"I think I have some idea," she said, in reference to my growing erection.

Mina

Apparently, he wasn't in a joking mood. His face grew cold, and he walked up to me, crowding me. I refused to take a step back, even as I felt him press against my thigh.

I mean, it wasn't exactly a nightmare for me. I'd only been dreaming about seeing him naked since the first day I met him. And, what a fine specimen he was — lean muscles that lined his broad frame, an impressive package, and the perfect amount of chest hair trailing across his pecs.

In short, I was going to see how this went.

"You're playing with fire, Mina," he growled. "Don't play games with me."

All I managed was a wide-eyed stare and a head shake. I was able to add to that gesture,

"I'm not playing."

His gaze softened slightly. It was still full of lust, but it had lost its irritated edge. "Mina," he breathed. "You should go."

I shook my head resolutely.

"Not until I ask you one more thing," I said.

"What's that?"

"This." I leaned up on my toes and pressed my lips into his. They were warm and salty and, at first, unresponsive. After a moment of presumably deliberating with himself, Richard responded with feeling. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled my body tight against his, his mouth ravaging my own.

Every ounce of the longing that I’d felt until that moment poured into that kiss. His lips against mine were demanding, full of the same passion and desire. He kissed away every sigh that had eased from my lips as I ached for him in silence. He kissed away every lost look over the dinner table. He kissed away everything.

Even as I thought he was already quite impressive, I could feel him growing against my stomach. A rumble of pleasure rolled through me, straight down to my core. I could already feel myself getting wet in anticipation, aching for his touch.