Her Defender (MacLachlan Security Group Book 2) Read online

  HER DEFENDER

  Rianna Campbell

  To my husband, always.

  And to my biggest cheerleaders. You know who you are.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  EPILOGUE

  About The Author

  Books In This Series

  CHAPTER ONE

  Someone please just shoot me now.

  Janie hadn’t thought her day could get any worse, but boy was she wrong.

  This morning she’d spilled coffee on her shirt as she was leaving the house and she’d had to run back upstairs and change. Traffic had been a nightmare and the barista at her usual coffee shop must have been new because he’d managed to get her entire order wrong. All. Four. Drinks.

  She would have asked him to remake them, but she was already running late and well… he looked like he might have been on some sort of work release program for the criminally insane, so she decided to skip it.

  Janie was thankful that her boss also happened to be one of her best friends, and that she was rarely ever late, which meant she only got a raised eyebrow and a meaningful glance at the clock when she hustled into work at nine fifteen.

  Already she’d had a stack of files, five voicemails, and a dozen e-mails waiting for her when she sat down.

  I love Mondays… said nobody ever.

  She had worked her tail off all morning to catch up and prepare for Alexandra’s schedule for the week, and by lunchtime she was finally feeling settled enough to take a deep breath.

  And that’s when he showed up and ruined her hard earned coffee break. All six foot three inches of tanned, muscled, dark-eyed sex appeal. And just like every other time their paths had crossed, her heart raced, her mouth went dry and she had to fight the urge to drag him into the nearest room with a locking door.

  Last time, she’d failed pretty miserably, but she couldn’t think about that now. She needed to find a way to slip away and hide until he was gone. She immediately stuck her head into Alexandra’s office.

  “Lex, Jackson’s here to see you. I have to run and help Charles with something, so maybe you should come out here and meet him.”

  She heard Alexandra’s surprised ‘okay’ as she closed the door behind her and hustled away without looking back. Safely ensconced in a corner of the break room with a fresh cup of coffee-- if she could even call it that-- she took a deep breath and tried really, really hard not to relive the last time she’d seen Jackson in all his god-like yumminess.

  No matter how hard she tried, she kept seeing flashes of that night. The engagement party that Connor and Alexandra had hosted in February had of course been overrun with all his crazy hot employees and friends. The hottest of all being Jackson Hunter.

  She hadn’t seen him since that horrible night last October when Connor had almost died and Alexandra had almost been kidnapped. Janie had begun to think she’d exaggerated his good looks and killer smile when she’d occasionally use him as… motivation when she was alone and feeling a bit squishy.

  She was wrong. So, so wrong. If anything he’d been better looking than she remembered. And larger. Was it possible he’d gotten taller?

  He’d come over and said hello and she’d asked how he’d been. After some awkward chit chat, things had turned flirty. She just hadn’t been able to resist.

  If she hadn’t had quite so much to drink, she might have been able to reign it in better, but she’d had a bit of a dry spell since last autumn and dear Lord was he gorgeous. She knew it was stupid. She knew that with one of his best friends engaged to one of her best friends, it would just get weird. But she’d always been weak when it came to men, particularly out of this world, smoking hot men like him.

  They’d danced, they’d laughed, they’d had a few drinks and before she knew it, he was leading her down a hallway to Connor’s guest bedroom. As soon as he closed the door behind them she’d found herself pressed against it, his hands on her hips, his mouth on hers. And man, did he know how to use his mouth.

  That kiss had melted her completely. He’d teased and coaxed until she parted her lips for him and then he’d explored and plundered with such hunger and intensity that she’d swear she had a mini-O just from kissing him.

  His hands were so warm as he’d moved them all over her, as if he was trying to touch everywhere at once. He’d finally settled both hands on the backs of her thighs and lifted her up like she was no more than a sack of flour. She’d been positively giddy over his easy display of all that potent masculine strength. She wasn’t an Amazon, but she wasn’t some skinny little thing either, and yet he’d hoisted her up easily, putting her at the perfect height for certain parts to line up.

  She remembered a little too well the fit of his hips against hers and the hard press of his erection trapped between them. From what she could tell he was definitely as well equipped as she’d imagined. If only she’d at least gotten to put that to good use, it might have made the inevitable weirdness worth it, but instead they’d been interrupted and she’d gone home embarrassed and more than a little frustrated.

  Maybe if she just… got him out of her system, they could be friends and it wouldn’t be so awkward. Janie dismissed that idea quickly and decided that avoiding him until she could keep her raging hormones in check was the better option. She’d known it was a bad idea at the time, and it would be an even worse idea now that Connor and Alexandra were getting married in a couple months.

  No, as long as she was friends with Alexandra, and as long as Connor was friends with Jackson, involvement of any kind between Jackson and herself was just a ticking time bomb that would eventually explode right in Janie’s face. She just needed to remind herself that he was off limits until her ovaries got the message.

  “Janie?” a masculine voice asked. Janie almost jumped out of her seat.

  “Charles, you scared me. When did you become so sneaky?”

  “When I passed the Bar,” Charles answered with a wry smile. He sat down across from her with his coffee and took a sip. “Are you hiding from anything in particular?”

  “I’m not hiding.”

  “Yes you are. You never use the break room unless you’re hiding. You usually drink your coffee at your desk like the rest of us workaholics.”

  “I just needed a couple minutes to decompress. It’s been a rough morning.”

  “So it’s got nothing to do with the tall, dark Adonis who just went into Alexandra’s office?”

  “No.”

  “Liar.” Charles smirked. He had an uncanny ability to tell when people weren’t being honest. She didn’t know if it was something he’d honed in his years as a lawyer, or if it was just a natural talent, but either way she hated it.

  “Fine. It does,” she sighed. “He is so scrumptious, but it would be
a colossally bad idea. And since I can’t seem to keep it in my pants around him-” Charles snorted and sputtered into his coffee cup. “I’m avoiding him.”

  “Ah, I see.”

  “Do you?” she asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

  “Sure,” he shrugged. “You and Alexandra are close friends. She’s engaged to Connor. Connor and Jackson are close friends and co-workers, ergo, if you and Jackson sleep together, it could potentially make things awkward at future social gatherings, such as their wedding.”

  “Okay, so you do get it. And not only that, but Lex has basically adopted all the guys that work for him. She has them over for dinner and holidays.”

  “So like her,” Charles chuckled.

  “What do you mean?”

  “She could never turn away a stray.” Charles shrugged. “Just look at me.”

  Janie raised a skeptical eyebrow and cocked her head to the side, giving his tailored shirt, silk tie and perfectly styled hair a once over.

  “I could call you a lot of things, Charles, but I don’t think ‘stray’ would be one of them.”

  Charles waved away her doubt with a flick of his Rolex clad wrist.

  “Not now, maybe, but you should have met me in law school. I was a twenty-two year old closeted gay man from a rural area of northern New York who was attending a prestigious law school by the grace of scholarships, grants and hefty student loans. I was in way over my head until Alexandra threw me a life preserver.”

  “I had no idea.”

  Charles shrugged. “It’s not something that comes up a whole lot in conversation. But she pulled me along until I found my footing. Invited me to study groups and parties and made sure I showed up, even if she had to drag me.”

  Janie laughed. That was exactly something Alexandra would do.

  “And then there’s me,” she said.

  “Then there’s you.” Charles smiled.

  “Twenty-two and fresh off the bus from bumblefuck Mississippi with nothing but twenty bucks and an Associates degree from a Community College to my name. I never understood why she hired me, but gift horses and all that.”

  “Same reason she picked me out of the crowd freshman year. She saw you were struggling with something, but weren’t going to give up without a fight. Just like me.” Charles paused and sipped his coffee. “And just like her,” he added.

  Janie thought back to the day of her interview and remembered all too vividly what a dark place she’d been in at that time. She was desperate to be away from home, to find a way to stay away and finally be able to live her own life. Desperate and scared, but very determined.

  “You know…”

  “What?”

  “What you were saying about Jackson, it doesn’t necessarily have to be weird. You’re both adults. As long as you’re on the same page about… whatever it is you want, it doesn’t have to make things weird.”

  “Sure, because nobody’s feelings and expectations ever change about things like dating and sex?” Janie rolled her eyes. That was precisely why Janie never dated seriously. At some point one person would expect more than the other was willing to give and someone always got hurt. That someone would most likely be her.

  “Tell me something,” Charles said, looking into his coffee cup. Janie studied him as he thought over what he was going to say. Golden blonde hair, dazzling blue eyes, perfect white smile and dimples to boot. He was so handsome in that wholesome, boy-next-door kind of way that would make him every mother’s dream for their daughter.

  She wondered vaguely if Nancy would finally be satisfied for once if she brought a man like Charles home. Would she maybe get a little bit of slack if she brought home Mr. Perfect? More importantly, why the hell did she care?

  Unfortunately for Janie, and Nancy, Charles wasn’t interested in anyone’s daughter. He looked up at her under those long lashes and Janie shook herself out of her brooding.

  “You’ve never wanted anything more permanent?” Charles finally asked. She would have laughed, but there was something… sad about him. She got the feeling he wasn’t asking just to needle her. Maybe he was going through some things himself. Maybe he was hiding, too.

  “I’ve thought about it.” She shrugged, looking away. “I mean, what Lex and Connor have looks really nice. They’ve been good for each other and it seems like they’re really happy. I know Lex is way happier now than she’s been in a long time.”

  “Yeah, I’ve noticed that too.”

  “What about you? You ever think of settling down?” Janie asked.

  “Someday.” He shrugged. “I want to be more settled in my career first.”

  Janie could hear what he didn’t say. It wasn’t necessarily a secret that Charles was gay, but he didn’t talk about it at the office if he could help it. He wasn’t hiding, but he was aware of how being too open about it might affect his career. Having a committed partner meant introducing them to your friends and your colleagues, inviting them to Christmas parties and company picnics and all that shit. Charles wanted to make sure he had a stellar record professionally before he put a target on his back.

  “I see,” she said, and he grinned at her use of his own words.

  “Sometimes it’s all about the timing.”

  “True.” Janie nodded. “And I’m pretty sure there are some people who just never get it right. Speaking of timing, I better get back to my desk since the coast seems to be clear.”

  ✽✽✽

  “Jackson?” Alexandra asked, stepping out of her office.

  “Hey, sugar.” Jackson smiled and gave her a kiss on the cheek and a little squeeze, all the while wondering where her sexier-than-sin assistant had disappeared to. He’d seen her when he started down the hallway, but she’d run away like she always did. He didn’t know why she kept avoiding him like the plague, especially after the intensely intimate moment they’d shared a couple of months ago.

  “Hey, yourself.” Alexandra smiled at him and he followed her into her office. “Thanks for coming by.”

  “No problem. What did you want to talk about?”

  “You know Connor’s birthday is coming up next month, and I want to throw him a surprise party,” Alexandra said quietly, half excited and half anxious like he might somehow hear her. Jackson couldn’t help but laugh.

  Alexandra was so over the moon for his buddy, and always so sweet and thoughtful. The way she had tried so hard to include all of Connor’s co-workers and friends in their lives, and the amount of time she’d spent actually trying to get to know them all since they’d worked on her protective detail months ago, gave Jackson a warm fuzzy feeling inside. She was just so damn adorable that it made him jealous of what Connor shared with her.

  “How can I help?”

  “He doesn’t hate surprise parties does he? I mean I was trying to plan this all out and I realized that I’m not even sure he’d want a surprise party. Some people don’t. And I know we’re engaged and getting married, but at the same time there’s still a lot I don’t know about him and I just thought you could help me.”

  “Easy, sugar,” Jackson said with a chuckle. Alexandra was a worrier, mostly out of concern for the people she cared about, but he knew he needed to nip this in the bud before she spiraled out of control.

  “I’ve never asked him, but generally Connor does pretty well with surprises, at least the good kind. And I know that if you’re doing it for him, he’s going to appreciate the hell out of it.”

  “You think so?” she asked, biting her lip.

  “I know so.”

  “Good,” she sighed, relieved. “Now, I need names from you. I mean, obviously I have you guys on the guest list, and Angel, but I don’t know of any other friends, do you?”

  “Yeah, there are a couple of guys from his service days that he still keeps in touch with. I’ll get you their info.”

  “Great! Now, the most important part.”

  “Hit me.”

  “I need you to keep him out of the apartment after
work that night and then get him back at seven. Think you can do that?”

  Jackson raised an eyebrow at her.

  “That’s right, you’re a Marine. You can do anything,” Alexandra said with a grin and a wink.

  “Oo-Ra,” Jackson replied with a wink of his own. “Don’t worry, I got you, Lex. We’ll make it happen.”

  “You really are the best,” she said, hopping up and giving him a hug. Then she pulled back and added, “Except for Connor of course.”

  “You wound me, darlin’.” Jackson feigned injury, placing a hand over his chest.

  “You’ll live,” she said with a smirk.

  Jackson left with a long searching look around the office. Still no sign of Janie.

  Well, hell…

  He hadn’t come intentionally to see her, Alexandra had asked him to stop by, but he’d been excited at the thought of seeing Janie again. He’d figured there was no way she could avoid him here. Apparently, he’d been wrong.

  Parker was stretched out on the couch in the living room when Jackson got back to their apartment. He was wearing what he always wore on his days off, athletic shorts and nothing else. His right arm was a full sleeve of colorful tattoos that spread over his shoulder and half of his chest.

  When they met as seniors in high school, he’d only had one on his shoulder. Parker had added carefully chosen pieces over the years and Jackson had watched the tattoo grow and change over time, just as Parker did. Jackson even decided to get a few of his own, though not so many. He put his in places that were fairly easy to hide under a t-shirt. His mom didn’t know and he wasn’t sure how upset she’d be if she saw them. She’d get over it if- when- she found out, but he didn’t want to upset her unnecessarily.

  “How’d it go?” Parker smirked. He and Jackson had a bet going about why Alexandra wanted to see him. Parker thought Jackson must have done something wrong and this was the equivalent of being called to the principal’s office. Jackson knew better.

  “Great.” Jackson grinned. “She told me I was her favorite, after Connor of course.”

  “Not cool.” Parker scowled and Jackson laughed.