Witness Protection (Defenders of Love Book 1) (8 page)

Jack had a wife and kids...even better.
Logan grinned at her, and Lucy seemed to relax instantly. "As snug as a bug in a rug. Besides, you have your own personal bodyguard. I won't let anything happen to you on my watch."

"You're going to stay up all night?"

"If that's what I have to do to make you feel safe."

"I don't think you have to stay awake all night....maybe just until I fall asleep?"

Logan rose from the sofa pulling Lucy with him. He turned her toward the bedroom. "It's a deal. You go ahead and go to sleep. I'll be right here on the couch if you need me."

Halfway across the room she turned and smiled at him over her shoulder. "Thank you, Logan. For the first time in a long time I actually feel safe enough to go to sleep."

He gave a mock half bow in response. "Glad to be of service, my lady!"

The door closed softly behind her as Lucy walked in to the tiny bedroom. Logan warmed at the thought of what she was doing behind that closed door. Would she wear his ill-fitting pajamas to bed, or would she be more comfortable without them? Shaking his head to clear it of the naughty images, Logan made his way back to the sofa and took out his cell phone. It was time to check in and get the L.T. to call him out of work in the morning. He wouldn't be happy to hear from Logan this late but there was nothing to be done about that. This entire situation was completely out of his control.

The phone only rang twice.

"George." The sleepy yet irritated voice mumbled into Logan's ear. "This better be important!"

Logan kept his voice low so as not to disturb his house guest. "Hey, L.T., it's me, Logan James."

"James! What the hell? Do you
know
what time it is?"

"Sorry, L.T. Really, I am. Apologize to the Mrs. L.T. for me. I couldn't wait 'til morning to call. I need you to call me out of my job at the school for the next three days." That would bring them to the weekend. If he didn't put a stop to the hit on Lucy or get her holed up somewhere else safe through witness protection by then, he was losing his touch.

"Well, why the hell are you calling me in the middle of the night? You couldn't wait 'til morning?

You just started that job. There better be a damned good reason."

"There is, sir."

"Sir? You
never
call me sir. What are you up to?"

"I can't tell you over the phone but I'm working something."

"Something part of the case I assigned you to?"

"It could be. I don't know yet. All I know is I won't be able to return to the school until at least Monday."

"I don't what you are up to, James, but it better be on the up and up. You aren't the only one on the line with the chief here, you know."

"I know, L.T., and I will fill you in as soon as I can. Can you call me out for the rest of the week? Tell them I have the flu or the plague or something. Don't teachers get sick all the time? All those nasty germs in a school...?"

"I got it, James. Consider yourself deathly ill 'til Monday. By then I expect to know what's going on. Got it?"

"Got it. Thanks, Lieutenant."

"Just stay out of trouble, James. The department can't handle a scandal." The line went dead before Logan could respond. He clicked his phone shut and leaned back against the sofa cushions. His arms and upper back were beginning to ache a little from his rappelling expedition. How was it that less than twenty-four hours into his undercover job he fell into such a complicated mess?

Chapter Eight

A heavy yawn escaped his lips. Logan jumped up and paced the living room trying to shake of the overwhelming feeling of exhaustion that had just settled over him. He had promised Lucy he'd stay awake and watch over things. It wouldn't do for him to pass out barely thirty minutes after she went to bed.

"No! Salvatore, no!" Lucy's panicked voice screamed from the bedroom. A series of thumps followed by a loud crash echoed through the tiny cabin. Logan sprinted to the bedroom and threw door open, oblivious to what he might find on the other side. All he knew was Lucy was in trouble. Had the assassin found her? Was Salvatore Ricci exacting his revenge right under Logan's nose?

As the door slammed against the wall, Logan had his gun drawn, expecting the shadowy figure of a man to greet him. Instead he saw an empty bed, the lamp on the nightstand turned over, and a small figure curled up on the wood floor next to the bed whimpering.

He rushed to where she lay. "Lucy! Are you okay? What happened?"

When she didn't answer, he grew worried,

gently shaking the trembling figure to get her attention.

Eyes glazed, fear locked deep inside them, Lucy looked right through him as she slowly began to stop trembling.

She glanced around, noting her position on the floor and then looked up. "How did I end up on the floor?"

"I don't know for sure, although, I expect you were having some sort of dream."

A haunted look passed over her features. "Yeah, I guess I was actually." Lucy hugged herself against an involuntary shiver. "A nightmare, more likely. I remember that Salvatore was in it. Nothing dreamlike about that."

"Yeah, I imagine he was. You called out to him right before...before you landed here."

Logan offered her a wry smile as he leaned over and scooped her into his arms. No sense in letting Salvatore Ricci have all the excitement that evening. At least she wasn't yelling no at him. Her small, warm body felt way too good in his arms. He really needed to see about hooking up with someone soon. His bout with abstinence had gone on way too long.

"I wasn't calling out to him. I was begging him not to hurt me. There is a big difference, you know."

Logan smiled at the sharply defensive tone she used. It was obvious she didn't want him to think she still harbored feelings towards the man she had been supposed to take down, not fall in love with. He liked the idea of her being a little defensive because he found himself just a little bit jealous of the dirt bag mafia man that had once won Lucy's heart over.

And he had absolute no idea why.

Logan James was a lone wolf. He was

dedicated—married—to his job. There was no room for anything else.

Right?

He placed Lucy down on the bed and carefully arranged the patchwork quilt around her petite form. She had stopped shaking but he still felt the irrepressible need to protect her.

"There now. It was just a dream. No one is going to hurt you while I am here. Why don't you try and sleep again. We are going to have a long, busy day ahead of us."

She looked up at him with big, wide eyes. It took him a moment before he noticed the difference. "You took out your contacts out."

Lucy suddenly seemed shy. "Yeah. I can't sleep in them. They irritate my eyes. Different from the blue, huh?"

"Different meaning better? Then absolutely, hands down. Green is definitely your color."

She smiled slightly in the dim light. "Just like everything else from my former life, they are different. It's like looking at a stranger in the mirror every day. That and this ridiculous blonde hair."

She fingered one of her curls. The look was in stark contrast to the pin straight locks of earlier in the day.

"Well, I like your natural look. The tousled curls look kinda sexy." Logan grinned at her sheepishly, a little embarrassed that he had blurted out his true feelings. He
never
did that.

Lucy flushed a deep crimson as she tried to smooth her wild hair into a knot. "You would think that after a year the nightmares would finally stop but they just seem to get worse. I cannot remember the last

time I actually slept through the night."

"My guess is it was the last time you felt safe."

"That's a good guess."

"Well, you are safe tonight so you should take advantage of it." He smiled at her from the doorway of the bedroom. "I will be out here just a few feet away if you need anything. Try to get back to sleep for a few hours."

He turned to leave but stopped when she called softly. "Will you stay? Please?" She sounded so wistful it nearly broke his heart.

"I'm not going anywhere. I already told you I'll be right out here."

"I know. That's not what I meant." She patted the comforter beside her. "I want to know if you will stay here. With me. I don't want to be alone."

She wanted him to stay in the bed with her. Oh, man. Could he do that? It had been way too long since he had been close to any woman; especially one he was attracted to. Lucy peered up at him from her own green eyes, big and round and vulnerable, and there was absolutely no way he could say no.

"If it will help you sleep better then I'll stay."

"It will," she whispered.

Logan closed the distance to the bed as she shifted over to one side. Kicking off his boots, he settled down next to her stretched out on his back. His hand brushed her side briefly sending intense sparks of electricity up his arm that made him lightheaded.

Calm down, man. It's not like you never spent the night next to a woman before.

Truth be told, he hadn't spent quite as many nights as others might think. Despite his flirty bachelor persona, Logan avoided love and relationships. It

terrified him to think that he might one day be like his father. What if anger and abuse were genetic and he had inherited all the best that his father had to offer? No way was that ever going to happen. He prided himself on his lack of feeling toward any one female. It was best that way, and there wasn't anything a woman could do for him that he couldn't do for himself. So why was it that the quiet sound of Lucy breathing in the dark had his entire body aflame with something like desire?

"Thank you, Logan," Lucy whispered. "Thank you again for finding me tonight and thank you for staying with me now. This is the safest I have felt in over a year."

She rolled over to face him, big green eyes, so much prettier than the blue contacts she wore, glistening with unshed tears. He got the feeling that she didn't cry much despite how much she had to cry over.

Logan rolled to face her. Unable to resist even if he had wanted to, he reached up and pushed a curl away from her face, tucking it gently behind her ear. He was really starting to enjoy doing that.

"Lucy?"

"Hmmm?"

"I'd rather call you Angelina, if that is all right with you. It suits you much better than Lucy."

She was quiet for so long that Logan feared she had fallen asleep. Just when he was about to drift off himself, she spoke softly. "I would like that."

"Angelina it is then."

Lucy...Angelina...smiled at him sleepily. "It's been so long since I have heard someone else say my name. It's a little like music to my ears. The powers that be chose Lucy Taylor for me. So generic."

"Generic like Logan Smith?" He laughed. “At

least my blond is natural."

She laughed. "I know, right? It's hideous, isn't it? But they made me do it. The Ricci family is very powerful with contacts around the world. Witsec wanted to disguise me as much as possible. A loud New York Italian girl with wild curls would stand out like a sore thumb in a place like this. Of course," she sighed wistfully, "all the disguises in the world didn't work or we wouldn't be here now."

"I won't lie, Angelina, I am sort of glad we are here right now."

She peered up at him, suddenly not looking at all sleepy. It was a moment in time when he wished he could read minds because Angelina's expression was shuttered up tight, her eyes darkening with some sort of inner turmoil. He'd just about convinced himself that he should've kept his mouth shut when she finally spoke.

"I like it when you say my name. My
real
name, I mean. I...I am sort of glad we are here too. Aside from the almost dying part. I am not glad some hired gun courtesy of Salvatore Ricci is trying to take me out. But if I had to be stuck here with someone..." Her words trailed off as her cheeks flamed with embarrassment. Logan was starting to figure out that nerves drove her to run on sentences. It was adorable, especially the way her blush deepened as he lightly traced the outline of her lips with his fingertip.

"I think I might kiss you now. You okay with that, Angelina Ferrara?"

She nodded slightly never taking her eyes from his. Even in the dim light of the bedroom, illuminated only by the lamp in the next room he could see in her eyes that she was very okay with it.

The second their lips touched, Logan's body erupted in flames. Every nerve in his body fired simultaneously and he wanted more. Pulling her closer, desperate for as much contact as possible, he sought to deepen the kiss, his tongue probing her lips for permission. Angelina responded with a fire all her own stirring his passion to almost unbearable levels. He pulled back, breaking contact and instantly felt cold and empty.

"Wow," he whispered against her lips.

"What's wrong?" Angelina whispered back, confusion in her voice.

"Absolutely nothing. Why would you think something was wrong?" His heart was still racing in his chest.

"Because, well, because you stopped."

How could he ever explain to her what he had just felt?

Rolling her onto her back so that he was poised above her, his hands lightly pinning her wrists against the mattress Logan stared down at her but she refused to meet his eyes.

"Angelina. Angelina, look at me."

"It's okay, Logan. Really, it is. Salvatore always told me I was...I was terrible at that. I should have warned you."

"You loved a man who told you that you were a horrible kisser? What was wrong with that dimwitted Italian?"

Angelina looked confused. "You mean it wasn't awful for you? I mean, when you pulled away so fast..."

Her words were lost as Logan dropped his head and pressed his lips against hers once again. This time he ignored the flashes of light, the burning of his skin,

and the lightheaded feeling that threatened to render him unconscious. This time he moved his lips against hers nipping lightly, pressing his tongue against her lips requesting permission on the most primal level to deepen the kiss and show her just what she did to him.

Angelina struggled to free her wrists from his hold, and he obliged even as his tongue moved inside her mouth, engaged in a sensuous yet almost aggressive tango with hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his body down against hers. If she had any doubts about his attraction to her, he was fairly certain the hard pressure against the length of her thigh resolved them as she moaned huskily beneath him.

Wanting to touch her everywhere, feel her soft skin under his rough fingertips but not wanting to frighten her or move too quickly, Logan knew he had to cool the passion between them enough to pull back without making her think he was repulsed by her again. Rubbing his hands up her sides, his fingers made their way to the arms that held him around the neck. As he backed away ever so slowly, peppering her cheeks and neck with tiny kisses, he loosened the hold she had on him until he was able to drop down on one side of her. Refusing to cut contact completely, however, Logan held her against his chest and buried his face in her thick hair. Even that simple action turned up the heat deep in his gut.

They stayed like that until her breathing returned to normal and the pounding of her heart against his chest settled into an even rhythm. Finally, Angelina spoke.

"Wow." She breathed huskily against his neck. The single word accompanied by her warm breath set his body on fire again.

"That is why I pulled back before. I wasn't prepared for the...the intensity of my reaction. I was...sort of, afraid of my own response to you and what it might make me do."

She rubbed her hands against his chest, making tiny circles against the cotton fabric of the T-shirt he had thrown on while she was in the shower earlier. The simple movement turned his desire back up to full blast. He took several deep breaths, trying to get a hold of the foreign feelings before speaking again.

"I didn't have the...best...example of how men should treat women while I was growing up. The only time my parents were ever intimate was when my father forced himself on my mother. Even at the age of twelve, I knew what was happening when she screamed out in fear and pain from their bedroom. I don't want to be like him."

He dropped his head against her hair, breathing deeply as he fought to steady himself against the onslaught of emotion threatening to break free.