Redeeming Justice (12 page)

There’s nothing a woman wanted to hear more than that the man she was panting after
didn’t think she was a chunk. She beamed at him but needled him just a teeny bit more
to see what happened.

“Alex, really. Have you
seen
my ass? I mean, c’mon.”

“Well, it drove me to finish off a bottle of Scotch last night so I suppose that’s
your answer.”

As she cleared her plate she tried not to grin at him like a lunatic.
Oh my friggin’ God
, was all she could think.

After a morning holed up in his tech cave doing absolutely nothing under the ever
watchful and slightly amused eyes of his assistant, Alex finally threw in the towel.

“Where ya’ off to, boss?” Tori asked as he shut down his computer and strode for the
door. She had a
butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth
innocence to her tone that he knew damn well was a put on. He felt everyone watching
him and Meghan like insects under a microscope.

Throwing her a bit of brotherly side shade, he stopped to answer her question with
a sigh of resignation.

“Well, Mrs. St. John. If you must know,
and clearly you do
, I am going down to the stables to see if Gus has managed to teach my guest how to
handle a horse without getting her kicked in the head. Or worse.”

Tori knew him well enough not to openly tease him so she adopted a businesslike expression
and asked him to, “Tell Meghan I said hello.”

Exasperated, he shook his head and left the room muttering under his breath about
women. Detouring his growing fascination for his houseguest with an infusion of alcohol
hadn’t worked. Try as he might, even with a constant mantra that he couldn’t cross
that line, all he could think about was how her lips tasted and how mouthwateringly
gorgeous her ass was. He was in such deep shit that he couldn’t think straight.

Alex knew they’d have to talk about what happened in the hot tub. With every day that
passed, the anniversary of the bombing that almost killed him, and did, in fact, take
the life of her fiancé, got closer. He hated talking about what happened, even with
Drae and Cam, but she had a right to know what went down. Maybe that was why she was
here. The universe was making him face, in a very blunt way, the cost of his actions.
Or non-actions as the case might be.

Being attracted to a woman who had suffered because of him seemed like the ultimate
fuck you,
and a punishment he hadn’t seen coming. Even though he’d already known that there
would be no happily ever after for him, it still stung like a bitch that he fell so
hard and so fast for the one female on the whole planet he absolutely could not pursue.
And fall he most certainly had.

While he absently tapped away on the computer all morning, what he was really doing
was thinking about Meghan. Actually, thinking was an understatement. He’d been flat-out
fantasizing about her. The gods had a fucked up sense of humor tempting him with her.
She was everything he’d ever dreamed of in a woman and then some.

The curves she kept referring to as making her fat were nothing short of jaw dropping.
Add to that the face of an angel, an Irish one at that, and a personality full of
wit and intelligence, and you had the ingredients for a made-to-order goddess. He
felt completely at ease around her even though she made him all hot and bothered.
He wondered if this was how it had been for Cam and Drae. The thought tore at his
heart. They deserved their happiness. He still had a lifetime of penance to serve
for the failings in his past.

The minute he walked through the house on his way to the stable, Zeus came trotting
to his side. He wondered if Meghan liked dogs then quickly squashed the thought. It
didn’t matter, she was only a guest. One who would eventually leave.

The big Lab must have sensed his troubled thoughts because she nosed his hand and
tried to jump in front of his legs to get his attention. This dog had been a balm
for his soul when he settled into the Villa and started building the Justice Agency.
She was treated like a princess, one of the canine variety, a distinction she’d earned
by her devotion to Alex.

When they arrived at the stable, Alex immediately spotted Meghan up on one of the
American Quarter Horses - perfect for a beginning rider. The handsome mount named
Sasha was trotting slowly around the riding ring with Gus standing in the middle talking
horse and rider through their paces.

Meghan looked fantastic in the saddle, her gorgeous auburn curls pulled back in a
sloppy ponytail, with the backside he’d been fantasizing about moving up and down,
her thighs gripping the sides of the horse, and her feet planted firmly in the stirrups.
She was a natural. It didn’t do any good to pretend he didn’t wonder what her thighs
would feel like wrapped around his hips as he pounded into her. Trying to ignore the
shit-kicking case of lust he was experiencing was a total waste of time.

Lost in his private musings starring a naked and delectable Irish goddess he didn’t
at first notice the rest of the scene before him until he heard someone shout out,
“You go girl!”

A dark frown and clenched jaw later, he saw a crowd had gathered along the split rail
fence to watch Meghan take her first ride. Alex knew he was being an idiot, but all
he could think of was that he wanted her all to himself. Seeing other people watch
her didn’t sit well with him. Especially when one of those people was Brody.

He liked the dog trainer. A lot. Jensen was one of the countless Veterans who the
Agency brought on board and like so many others, Alex included, he came with a shit
load of issues. In Brody’s case it was a crippling case of PTSD that almost derailed
his entire life until the work he did with the canines gave him a place to focus his
energies. He didn’t stay at the compound full-time; in fact he was only around from
late June until mid-December and then his other life called him away.

He was a good-looking guy. One of those laidback surfer dude types on the outside—he
was the complete opposite of Alex’s brawny presence. Although suddenly comparing himself
to the younger man seemed a bit weird, it didn’t take a genius to figure out why.
When he’d seen Brody trying to chat Meghan up at breakfast, he’d almost exploded.
Morphing in to the Incredible Hulk over some polite conversation between the two had
been a reaction that surprised Alex. Seeing him here though, watching her as she rode,
fired up a fierce sense of possessiveness that wasn’t going to help the situation.

Zeus let out an adorable
woof
when she saw the K9 guru. Brody was one of the people who spoiled the dog rotten and
while she didn’t leave Alex’s side, as any female would, she wanted all of her admirers
to see she was there. He scratched the Lab behind her ears earning him an adoring
gaze from her big brown eyes. “Not you too, girl,” he chuckled. Seemed he was doomed
to fight Brody for this female too.

Hearing the dog’s bark, Jensen looked over and saw them. He quickly ambled over and
gave Zeus an enthusiastic greeting, crouching down to rub the dog’s chest while lavishing
praise for how pretty she was. The damn dog sat there with her tail thumping in the
dirt as she stretched her neck up for more scratches. All Alex could do was sigh.

Trying not to be an unreasonable asshole but not able to stop the words that tumbled
out of his mouth, Alex gritted his teeth and told him, “You gotta steal all my women,
Jensen?” He’d never seen anyone move as fast as Brody did when he shot to his feet
and met Alex’s glare.

“Shit, Alex. I wasn’t trying to be a prick this morning.” He looked toward the riding
ring as Gus was leading Meghan and Sasha into the stable. “She’s a teacher, man. I
just thought…well, actually….
fuck
.” He seemed genuinely pained that Alex had called him out for an innocent conversation.

Jensen was one of those silent types who didn’t talk much about his other life but
he, Drae, and Cam were among a select few who knew that when he left Arizona, it was
to head back east where he taught a winter semester English course to second language
learners at a community college. Remembering that made Alex feel like a jerk.

Slapping Brody on the back he looked him dead in the eye and said, “Sorry man. I’m
the prick. Professional courtesy. Teacher talk, right?” It was the best he could do
without a full-blown apology. Jensen nodded and patted Zeus on the head one last time.

“I was just yanking your chain,” Alex added. Watching as the half-door on the stable
swung shut he asked him, “How’d she do?”

Brody seemed relieved that the tense moment had passed reminding Alex that he needed
to get his shit together before his attitude upset the teamwork he and his brothers
had worked so hard to maintain within the agency.

“I think Sasha scared the crap out of her at first but she’s a great horse. Sweet
temperament. Gentle.”

Alex threw back his head and laughed. “I was asking about Meghan, not the damn horse!”

Patting Zeus on the head he asked Brody to take her back to the house and get her
settled. “I’ve got something to take care of here.”

“Gus, that was fantastic!” Meghan cried as she swung her leg over the horse and eased
out of the saddle. “Can I ride her again?”

Gus smiled and laughed. “Of course you can. She likes you, I can tell.”

“Really?” Meghan asked. “I think she’s wonderful.” Rubbing her hand up and down the
beautiful sorrel-colored horse’s neck, she giggled softly when Sasha‘s muzzle pushed
against her face.

It was the affectionate moment between horse and rider, which Alex commented on when
he strode into the barn. “Made a friend have you?” he chuckled as he came upon them.

Meghan’s head shot up at the sound of Alex’s voice and greeted him with a broad smile
that wrapped neatly around his heart.

“Oh Alex! It was awesome. She’s such a sweetie. Thank you so much for letting me ride
her.”

“Don’t thank me. It was old Gus over there,” he said as the horse master quietly led
the quarter horse away for a good brushing and something to eat. “He knows better
than anyone how to match a rider and a horse, but I’m delighted you enjoyed yourself.”

As she walked toward him she made the cutest face. “Uh oh.”

“What?” he asked.

“My butt’s sore. Or maybe it’s my thighs. I can’t quite tell yet.”

She slapped her hands on both spots to brush off some dirt and in doing so did this
sexy shimmy of her hips that sucked all the oxygen out of his body. Alex struggled
to stay standing while his dick got so hard, so fast he almost dropped to his knees.
It didn’t help that he wanted to slowly slide her jeans down over her ass and get
her naked from the waist down so he could bend her over and fuck her hard and fast.
So hard that she really would be sore afterward.

Apparently, the oxygen deprivation also robbed him of coherent words. “Uh.
Yeah.
Um, uh - want to walk or sit down?” Jesus Christ, he sounded like a twelve-year-old
struggling to talk to a pretty girl.

She looked at him as though he had half a screw loose, then shook her head like she
was clearing her thoughts. “Believe it or not, I’d like to sit on something soft that
doesn’t move for a little bit.”

He wanted to offer his lap but had the smarts not to be such an ass. That didn’t mean
however that he didn’t have an equally great idea.

“C’mon Calamity Jane,” he said smiling as he held out his hand to her. “Let me introduce
you to the comfort to be found on a bale of hay.”

She grabbed onto his hand without hesitation, causing an explosion like fireworks
to fly into his shoulder when they touched. Maybe the hay bale wasn’t such a good
idea if they were going to create sparks every time they came in contact. He could
just imagine the whole place burning to the ground from the heat they created.

“Did you know horses don’t burp?”

“What?” he laughed good-naturedly. “Sounds like something Gus made up.”