When you live in the same town for as long as I have, you know people. You make alliances and friends in all sorts of places. As soon as I started sniffing around, I discovered Carson Jennings wasn’t exactly as loved as he outwardly portrayed.
He ruined Dresser Holdings.
Singlehandedly.
But apparently, he also did some shady shit at his own father’s company. Old man Jennings fired his own son. It was kept hush-hush but some digging produced all kinds of fruitful information. Because I know people.
Sheriff and policemen. Attorneys. Businessmen.
All my friends.
All men who are loyal and have integrity.
All men who bend over backwards to help Judge Rowe.
I’m satisfied as I drink some coffee I managed to dig out of Dane’s cabinet. This morning, when the sun came up, I got to work. Dorian, the poor, exhausted woman, slept dead to the world. She looked as though she could sleep for days.
Sleeping in the same bed with her proved to be difficult. I haven’t had a woman in my bed since Evie passed. After over a decade of being alone, it felt nice to have the hot breath of a woman against my neck while she slept softly.
I lift my gaze from my mug to regard her sleeping form. Dorian is drop dead gorgeous in an understated kind of way. Her blonde hair is silky and this morning I selfishly ran my fingers through it before I slipped out of bed. She’s tiny but underneath her skittish nature, I can tell she’s fierce. That motherfucker took and took from her. I just want to help her get it back.
She moans in her sleep and rolls to her back. The oversized T-shirt has been pulled up her body so that the bottom swells of her breasts are revealed. They’re so smooth and perfect, I find myself mesmerized by them. Put under a damn spell just by looking at a small portion of her naked breasts. My cock hardens in my slacks. It’s pure fucking torture being cooped up in this cabin with her. Last night, when we kissed, I’d felt as though my chest was going to explode. She lit me up from the inside. I haven’t felt that way in so long that it took me by complete surprise.
But as much as I want the sexy young woman, she’s not in the right headspace and I’m in no position to start something with her. I can help her, sure. I certainly don’t need to fuck her though. I’m not the kind of guy who screws just to get my dick wet. I’d fall in way too deep and get too damned hurt when she had the sense to go find a man closer to her own age.
“Not a morning person?” she asks, her voice raspy with sleep. She hasn’t made any moves to cover her breasts. I drag my gaze to her half-lidded eyes.
“I was just thinking I’d be one helluva morning person if this was my view each day,” I say, a grin turning up one corner of my lips. Okay, so maybe a little flirting is fine.
She beams at me. “My view isn’t so bad either. Got any more of that coffee?”
While I make her some, she spends a few minutes in the bathroom. When she exits, her hair has been smoothed out and her face washed clean. Without her makeup, she seems younger. Maybe even Olivia’s age.
“How old are you?” I question.
“Just turned twenty-two last month.”
I hand her the coffee. She inhales the aroma before sipping it.
“Why does it taste so good this morning?” she asks, her eyes closed in pleasure.
“I’m kind of a freak about coffee,” I admit, a sheepish grin on my lips.
Her eyes fly to mine. “Me too. I wanted the Starbucks job but apparently, I’m overqualified.” She snorts as if she has trouble believing that.
“What are you qualified to do?” I’m genuinely curious to know the answer.
Her brows crinkle together as she rests the mug on her knee. “Business. Management. Finance. My degree was in business because I’d wanted to help my father run his company. But…” She bites on her bottom lip and I can tell it’s to keep from crying. “But it didn’t work out that way. It’s hard to keep a solid, good job when all you’re doing is running from your past.” A frustrated sigh escapes her.
“Dorian…” I scrub at my face. There are so many things I want to do to help her. I’ve never wanted to help anyone as much as I do right now. Maybe it makes me desperate or a freak. And normally, I’d keep my mouth shut because I have an image to uphold. But with this girl baring all her dark secrets to me, I feel compelled to tell her exactly what’s on my mind. “I think you should stay with me until we sort this out. I have the means to protect you and…”
Her blue eyes light up with such a hopeful expression that it has me blurting out my next words without hesitation.
“I could always use an intern.”
She blinks in surprise, her mouth opening and closing for a moment before she speaks again. “What exactly does an intern do for a judge?”
I rub at the back of my neck. “Honestly?”
She nods, a cute smile on her lips.
“I have no fucking idea.”
We both laugh but the hope has dimmed in her bright eyes. She thinks I’m fucking with her I guess.
“I don’t know,” I explain, “but we’ll figure it out. I’ve been asked a few times if I’d take an intern and I had never been interested. Usually, I pass the opportunities on to other employees and judges at the courthouse. Normally, I don’t have the time nor the patience.”
Her back straightens as she listens.
“But there are some things I do need help with. You’d have to pass a drug test and a background check. Sign a non-disclosure agreement. And of course, HR will want to confirm your education and degree.”
“Of course,” she says, excitement in her voice. “I can do this.” Then her features fall. “I’ll still need my night job though. Internships are unpaid usually.”
I shake my head. “You’ll get paid. I’ll see to it that you do. You can tell Miles you’re done. It didn’t look like you enjoyed that job too much anyway.”
Her lip curls up. “I hated it. How do you know Miles anyway?”
This is something I don’t want to talk about. He’s family now but it doesn’t mean I have to like him. “I see him around. What do you think?” I ask, changing the subject. “Start tomorrow?”
She beams at me and she’s positively beautiful. I don’t know why I’m so enraptured by this woman. I need to get a handle on myself though. Especially if she’s going to work with me. The kiss was fun but it can’t happen again. Neither can sleeping with her.
“You really want me to come stay with you? You don’t think he’ll find me there?” She’s already transforming from the battered and frightened woman. It’s beautiful to watch. The way her shoulders are no longer hunched. How her eyes shimmer with anticipation.
“I have multiple spare rooms. My daughter Sophia is kind of a bear but I don’t think it’ll be a problem,” I assure her. Sophia is going through so much lately and I don’t know how to help her. She claims she’s fine but ever since her softball accident, which left her hip all messed up, she hasn’t been the same. “We should probably swing by your place and grab some things.”
She sets her coffee down on the end table and climbs off the bed, before walking over to me. I’m taken by surprise when she leans forward and kisses my forehead. “Thank you.”
While she gathers her uniform and we tidy up the cabin, I can’t help but want to tell her the same. Thank you, Dorian. Fire burns in my chest and purpose thrums through me. It’s been years since I’ve felt this alive.
“Have you always lived here?” My shoulders are tense as we walk through the apartment complex. It’s on the crummy side of town and the people loitering about are questionable, even at this time of morning. The place is rundown and weeds overrun the cracks in the sidewalks. She’ll be much fucking safer at my house.
“For the past two months. They let me pay my rent in cash to keep me out of the system. Apparently, that isn’t unusual for them. Aside from the occasional creeper offering to give me a good time and the couple above me who have loud, strange sex, it’s been fine.” She walks up to a door and hesitates. I drag my attention from the apartment next door that has a dirty used diaper sitting on the welcome mat.
The moment I realize her door is ajar, I step in front of her. “Stay back,” I order, a low growl in my throat.
She nods rapidly at me, the terrified woman from before back in place.
I push through the door and my heart sinks. The place has been trashed. Holes punched in walls. Her couch sliced to shreds. Dishes broken all over the kitchen floor.
“Fuck,” I curse under my breath.
“What—” A whine in her throat lets me know she sees the destruction.
“Stay here. Let me make sure nobody is here.” I stalk through the place opening closet doors and looking under her bed, but nobody is here. In her bedroom, all of her clothes have been yanked from her closet and drawers. Everything has been shredded. Whoever did this was a fucking asshole. My bet is on her stalker abusive ex. “It’s safe,” I call out.
Moments later, she stands in the doorway of her bedroom, tears brimming in her eyes. “How could he?”
I storm over to her and pull her against my chest. I’d need a fucking hug too if someone destroyed my house. “The same way he could hurt you. He’s a bastard and won’t get off so easily. Pack a bag of what is salvageable, if anything, and I’ll make sure we get you whatever else you need later.”
Pulling out my phone while she picks through clothes on the floor, I dial my friend Rick.
“Sheriff McMahon,” he booms from the other line.
I scrub at my face, my eyes skimming to the broken picture frames on the floor and shake my head. “Hey, man.”
“Something else come up?” We just spoke this morning and I’m already calling again.
“Actually, her place has been destroyed. It was him, Rick. I know it was him,” I grit out, fury bubbling in my chest. I’m not a violent man but so help me I want to bash Carson’s skull in. The one satisfying punch to his pretty face wasn’t enough.
“Text me the address and I’m on my way. Filing a report is the first step in building a solid case against this guy,” he explains, his voice gruff. “See you soon.”
I send him the address and then set to helping her find anything that hasn’t been ruined. Not much remains. She disappears from the bedroom and when I hear her shriek, I rush into the other room.
“They were in the dryer!” she exclaims as she holds a pair of flannel pajama bottoms to her chest. “These are my favorite. He didn’t ruin them.”
It’s then that I decide I’m going to find the brand and buy her a pair in every color. Anything to see that sweet smile on her face again.
She sets to pulling the other clothes out of the dryer while I look up the apartment complex management. Taking my conversation into the other room, I tell them to get the place cleaned up and repaired. That I am paying for the damages and that she’s moving out. Since she was paying month to month in cash, they didn’t even question it. She has a sack full of things that weren’t destroyed when Sheriff finally shows up.
He pulls off his aviator sunglasses as he steps into the apartment, a scowl painted on his face. Rick and I go way back. He’d gone to school with my younger brother Mathias and was always at the house growing up. My brother moved out west for college and ended up settling eventually in San Francisco. Rick and I grew closer once my brother was no longer in the picture.
“I’m Sheriff McMahon,” he greets when he sees Dorian.
She shakes his hand and frowns. “Sorry about all this.”
“Nothing to be sorry about, sweetheart. There’s nothing I hate more than an abusive man dead set on destroying a woman’s life. You’re going to tell me everything you can about Carson Jennings.” He flashes me a dark look. “And then we’re going to take the evil bastard down.”
“Sophia!” I boom from the entryway of my house as I close the door behind us. After the sheriff worked the scene at her apartment and helped her file a restraining order against Carson, we headed to the mall. At first, she was resistant to letting me pay for clothes but when I agreed it could be a loan, she finally caved.
Sophia’s tell-tale shuffle can be heard and soon she rounds the corner relying way too heavily on the cane. I make a mental note to sit down with Drew, the owner of the physical therapy clinic she goes to three times a week, and get some real answers about her deterioration.
Her expression is bored as she surveys the many bags resting at my feet. But when her green eyes lift to find the pretty blonde standing behind me, she stiffens. All boredom has left as her brows furl together.
“Sweetheart,” I say in a tone one would use on a dog that looks seconds from biting. “This is a friend of mine. Dorian Dresser. She’s going to stay with us for a while.”
Sophia’s dark brow lifts at the mention of “friend” and the smirk on her face tells me she hardly believes the words coming out of my mouth. It’s not my place to tell Dorian’s story so this will have to do for now.
“She’ll be interning at the courthouse with me,” I continue. “Why don’t you pull out some steaks and we’ll grill out later?”
Sophia acknowledges Dorian with an icy smile before shuffling away toward the kitchen. Once she’s out of earshot, I turn to apologize. “I’m sorry. She’s been fairly unhappy since she had her softball injury last spring.”
Dorian waves me off. “It’s fine.”
“Let me show you to your room.” I gather the bags up and I lead her through my massive home giving her a brief tour along the way. Because I’m a selfish, lonely man, I show her to the guest room that’s right next to the master. Once inside, I set the bags on the queen-sized bed that is decorated with a quilt which was passed down through my late wife’s family. Often, I find Sophia curled up in here with the quilt wrapped around her.
“Help yourself to anything here at the house. There’s a bathroom attached. I’ll fire up the grill around five…” I trail off when she falls on her back onto the bed and her breasts bounce beneath the fabric of Dane’s borrowed T-shirt. I can see her nipples, erect and just begging for attention. Fuck me, maybe inviting her here was a bad idea. I clear my throat. “If you need me, I’ll be next door. I’m in desperate need of a shower.”
A cold one.