Malachi glanced down the hallway to where Lara’s bedroom door was closed, and she was hopefully fast asleep in her bed.
He’d heard her turn on the shower for several long minutes after she left him—as if just talking about what Taylor had done made her feel dirty—followed by twenty minutes of silence.
He’d sent out emergency texts to his five brothers and cousin during that time, asking for a family meeting later on today. In turn, he’d received confirmation from all of them that they’d received his message and would see him at the designated time. Casper had also acknowledged he’d received the special instructions Malachi had tagged onto his text.
If Malachi had his way, and he would, having the whole of the Kingston family against Taylor was going make the other man regret the day he was born, let alone tried to hurt someone Lara cared about.
He’d encouraged Lara to go to bed after she told him about the attack and recording. He could see she was emotionally as well as physically exhausted.
Much as Malachi wanted to confront Taylor right now, the other man wasn’t expecting him back on duty until tomorrow. The last thing Malachi wanted to do was make Taylor suspicious by appearing before he was supposed to. Which didn’t mean he didn’t intend getting his hands on that recording. Or recordings. Because Malachi was convinced the ease with which Taylor had carried out this crime and his sudden need for a bodyguard was proof he’d done this before and was now being threatened himself by one of his previous victims.
Lara had baulked a little after Malachi told her it was his intention to remain in her apartment until she woke. But after looking at him searchingly for several minutes and being reassured by whatever she’d read in his expression, she’d finally nodded and gone to her bedroom. He was pretty sure she was sleeping right now.
Malachi, on the other hand, was too angry, too hyped up, to even be able to relax enough to sit down. Instead, he paced restlessly up and down Lara’s sitting room, hands clenched at his sides, when what he really wanted to do was beat the crap out of Taylor. But that would mean leaving Lara. Having only just discovered how he felt about her, Malachi wasn’t willing to do that.
It wasn’t only that he needed to stay with her, he also knew there was something about this situation with Taylor she was still holding back.
He had seen it in her eyes when she studied him earlier and tried to decide if she could tell him the whole story.
It had hurt like hell when she had finally decided that she couldn’t.
He could have made her tell him the whole story, of course. But if he had, he knew Lara would definitely have asked him to leave, with the likelihood she would never trust him with anything personal ever again.
Patience didn’t sit well with him where Lara was concerned, but for her, he was willing to continue watching and waiting until she was ready to tell him everything.
Watching…
Would Lara think he was being creepy if he pulled up a chair and sat beside her bed and waited for her to wake up?
Creepier, he inwardly mocked himself.
If she really thought that about me, then she wouldn’t have allowed me to stay in her apartment while she slept.
Decision made, Malachi strode purposefully down the hallway to Lara’s bedroom.
* * *
Lara woke refreshed from what she knew instinctively had been a long sleep. Her eyes were still closed as she rolled onto her back and stretched her body in preparation for waking fully.
She hadn’t been sleeping well since learning of the attack and the recording Taylor had made of it. She had assumed today would be the same. But knowing Malachi was in the apartment with her she had somehow felt reassured, protected, as if nothing bad could happen while he was close by.
If it did, then she knew she could rely on him to deal with it, quietly and efficiently
Lara didn’t doubt for a single moment that if this situation with Gerard Taylor had only involved her, she wouldn’t have hesitated to tell Malachi everything. Unfortunately, she wasn’t at liberty to do that.
“Good sleep?”
Lara’s eyelids flew open, and she half sat up in the bed as she turned in the direction of Malachi’s voice.
She had left him pacing the sitting room when she came to her bedroom earlier. But sometime while she slept, he had obviously entered her bedroom and carried the chair from near the window over to place it beside the bed, before making himself comfortable in it.
A quick glance at the bedside clock showed her it was a little after two o’clock in the afternoon. “How long have you been sitting there?”
Malachi shrugged. “Long enough for me to realize I miscounted the freckles on your cheeks. There are eleven more on the left cheek than the right, not ten.”
There was no book in his hand for him to read, no cell phone for him to scroll through and entertain himself with, just Malachi, sitting there staring at her with that unnatural stillness.
Apparently counting my freckles!
He also looked gorgeous as hell, whereas she knew she’d have bedhead and probably creases on her cheeks from where her face had been pushed into the pillow.
“How long?” she repeated.
He shrugged. “Since about thirty minutes after you went to bed.”
Five hours, then. “What did you do during those thirty minutes before coming in here and counting my freckles?” She fell back against the pillows before pulling the duvet up to cover the top of one of the overlong T-shirts she wore to sleep in. This one had smiling hedgehogs on it, for goodness’ sake! Soo not sexy.
What the hell…?
Malachi had come into her bedroom uninvited. She shouldn’t want to look sexy for him.
“I tidied up the kitchen,” he answered her. “Then texted my brothers and cousin.”
Her eyes widened in alarm. “About me?”
“Not directly.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve called a family meeting to discuss the problem.”
“My problem?”
“Kingston Security has been protecting Taylor for the past two weeks, after he claimed he has a stalker, when it sounds as if his victims are the ones who need protecting from him,” Malachi stated grimly.
Lara felt her cheeks pale. “You really think there are others?”
“I’m sure of it.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have any money to hire your company to act on my behalf.”
“Don’t be insulting, Lara.”
The fact that he’d spoken so abruptly and actually called her by name, told her that she had insulted him. “Sorry.” She grimaced.
“No, I’m the one who’s sorry.” He sighed. “I’ve obviously upset you by invading your personal space again.” He stood abruptly before picking up the chair and placing it back near the window. “I’ll go.”
“Malachi.” She stopped him as he would have opened the bedroom door and left. She held out her hand to him. “Come back here.”
He looked uncertain for several seconds before nodding and striding back to clasp her hand in one of his much larger ones. “You look beautiful when you’re asleep.”
She blinked. “I do?”
“Hm. The worry lines disappear from your forehead. All the tiny veins in your eyelids are visible. There’s a slight blush in your cheeks. Your lips are parted slightly. Invitingly,” he admitted gruffly. “Your throat is so long and slender. Vulnerable too. Your breasts—”
“Do I snore?” Lara cut in, having felt the blush in her cheeks deepening as she listened to Malachi praise her individual attributes.
“No.”
“Drool?”
His expression sharpened. “Has someone told you that you do those things when you’re asleep?”
She almost chuckled at the look of displeasure on his face at the mere thought of some other man being close enough to her to know if she snored or drooled. “No,” she assured with a smile. “There hasn’t been anyone else who could say that,” she soothed when he continued to look displeased.
His brows rose. “No one else has seen you when you’re asleep?”
“Possibly if I’ve fallen asleep on trains or planes, but that doesn’t count.”
“No, it doesn’t.” He looked at her searchingly. “Are you a virgin?”
“Yes,” she answered him with the same honesty as he’d asked the question.
“Oh.”
She’d had several boyfriends when she was at university, and since, but none of them had been serious enough for her to fall in love with them.
Just as something had held her back from physical intimacy with any of them. A feeling she had deep inside her that she was waiting for something more.
Having now met Malachi, she had a feeling that it had been someone, not something, holding her back. That this strange and yet compelling man was the “something more” she had been waiting for all her life.
Did that mean she was falling in love with him?
Lara knew that if she wasn’t already, then she was well on her way to being so.
“Are you disappointed?” she prompted when he added nothing else.
“Hell, no,” he burst out. “If anything, I’m stunned. And I don’t mean that in an insulting way.”
“But twenty-four-year-old virgins are rare, huh?”
“Very,” he answered with his usual honesty.
An honesty she now found herself echoing. Why else would she have told him something so personal? Something more personal. Because she hadn’t thought she would ever tell anyone about Gerard Taylor’s actions either. “I’ve been waiting for the right man,” she admitted huskily.
His face brightened. “Me?”
“I think so, yes.” She smiled. “You’re a very comforting man to have around, you know,” she complimented.
“Comforting?” Malachi looked disgusted.
Lara did chuckle this time. “Knowing you were close by allowed me to sleep better today than I have for the two weeks since this started. You’re sexy too,” she teased at he continued to look disgruntled.
A blush entered Lara’s cheeks as she inwardly acknowledged she was only speaking the truth.
Malachi was incredibly, powerfully, sexy. The tightfitting T-shirt showcased his broad shoulders, muscular chest, and narrow waist, jeans fitted to his lean hips and long legs. The growth of scruff on his chin added to the edge of danger that constantly surrounded him.
Lara would be lying if she didn’t admit that Malachi’s obvious lack of time or liking for anyone who wasn’t his family made it doubly exciting that he wanted to be with her. That he had already claimed her as being his woman to one of his brothers.
Yes, it was caveman-ish thing for him to say and feel, and she hadn’t been at all pleased at the time. But she would be lying if she didn’t also admit it was as arousing as having him claim he would willingly be her househusband and asking her if she wanted children.
“I like that description much better.” He grinned his approval. “Can I sit on the side of the bed?”
Lara appreciated that he was trying not to invade her personal space again without her permission. But her mouth felt like sandpaper, and she was in need of visiting the loo too after being asleep for so many hours. “Could I just go to the bathroom for a few minutes first to…to freshen up?”
“First?” he echoed hopefully. “Does that mean I get to kiss you when you come back?”
Did he?
Hell, yes!
Lara might have warned herself to be cautious, but she wasn’t an idiot.
Malachi was sexy and desirable, but in his own unique way, he was also very much a gentleman. Maybe he didn’t pick up all the social cues other people did regarding nuances and emotions, but he one hundred percent cared about her and her comfort, not just physically, but emotionally too. Because, he had made it clear, she wasn’t just “other people” to him.
Lara threw back the bedclothes to swing her legs to the side of the bed before standing. She was very conscious of her unconfined and riotous red curls, makeup-less face, and the fact that she wore absolutely nothing beneath the thigh-length hedgehog-decorated nightshirt.
Malachi hadn’t stepped back when she stood, which once again placed him well within her personal space.
She reached up to cup her hand against his stubble-roughened jaw. “When I come back, we can kiss each other,” she promised softly.
Fire blazed in the darkness of his eyes. “In that case, hurry back,” he encouraged gruffly.
“I will. But first…” She rose up on the balls of her feet as she placed her lips softly against his. “I very much appreciate all that you are, Malachi,” she assured softly before turning and hurrying into the adjoining bathroom.
She was as eager to be back in Malachi’s arms as he made it clear he would be to have her there.