Defiance (The Protectors #9)(13)

Nathan didn’t respond, so I finished up the stitches and then dug around in my bag for the stuff I’d need to treat the small puncture wounds on his fingers.

“You said we were going to your place,” Nathan said after several minutes of silence. “Where is that?”

“West Virginia…near the George Washington and Jefferson National Forest.”

“West Virginia? I can’t go that far away from home. I have meetings, interviews…I need to be near Charleston.”

I held onto Nathan’s hand when he tried to pull it free. I could sense a major blowup in the making, but I wasn’t in the mood. Between the close call tonight and the fact that I hadn’t gotten much sleep in the past three days, I was wiped.

“You’re going to have to make other arrangements,” I said simply.

“No, I-”

“Listen,” I bit out. “I’m not going to keep having this argument with you. Until we figure out who wants you dead – and make no mistake about it, because that guy with the knife sure as shit meant business – you and I are joined at the hip, only my hip’s in charge, got it? You do what I say, when I say. You don’t like it, there’s the door,” I said as I jerked my head over my shoulder.

Nathan hardened his jaw. Before he could respond I said, “Believe me, you’re the last guy I want to be spending the foreseeable future with, so I’m more than motivated to figure out who the fucker is that tried to skewer you tonight like a shish kabob…but if you think you can do better on your own, by all means.”

I forced myself to calm down, which wasn’t something I had to do often. The fact that this man brought out such strong emotions in me wasn’t a good thing.

Not by a long shot.

I quickly wrapped Nathan’s hand with a bandage to keep the smaller wounds clean, and then I slapped a bottle of ibuprofen on the table. I stood up and grabbed the revolver from my ankle holster and placed it on the table. “I’m going to take a shower. Someone comes through that door, pull the trigger…or don’t,” I snapped. “I don’t give a fuck.”

I pushed back my chair and stepped past him and went to the bathroom, stopping only long enough to grab my overnight kit from my bag. Not only were my emotions raging, my dick was, too.

Another oddity for me. Not because my sexual appetites had waned as I’d gotten older, but because I usually had more control over myself when I was working.

I hurriedly stripped off my clothes and climbed into the shower. I’d purposefully left the water on cool in the hopes it would drive down my libido, but even as a chill swept through my body, my dick bounced against my abdomen, demanding attention.

“Fuck,” I muttered as I reached for the knob and turned it up so that hot water began to sluice down my back. I slapped one hand against the tile wall and went for my dick with the other. I pulled up the image of the final time David and I had made love. He’d been in rare form that night, considering how much he’d been struggling in the previous months. I’d thought that moment had been about renewing our relationship after all the strain losing our careers had put on us and our commitment to one another.

I hadn’t realized it had been goodbye.

David had ridden me for the better part of an hour that night. It’d been like he’d never wanted that moment to end.

Because he hadn’t.

Our demons hadn’t found us when we’d been lost in one another’s bodies.

I closed my eyes as David’s hands settled on my chest to brace himself.

So perfect, Vincent. Love this…you.

I’d let him roll his hips above mine over and over again as he’d brought us both to the edge countless times, but when my impeding orgasm had become too much to ignore, I’d sat upright and wrapped my arm around his waist. David had shifted enough so he could curl his legs behind me, forcing my dick even deeper into his body. His arms had locked around my neck as he’d held on to me and we’d moved as one.

I’d told him to promise me it would always be like that.

He hadn’t answered me.

Two days later I’d realized why he hadn’t when I’d found him dead in our bathroom.

My dick started to deflate as an image of David’s body jumped into my head. I let out a string of curses and released my cock. Well, I’d wanted the inconvenient erection to go away.

Mission accomplished.

I turned so that I was facing the water and began washing myself with the small, heart-shaped soap that I had to pry free of the plastic film protecting it. I let my thoughts wander to what I knew about Nathan and how I’d find the guy who was out to silence him.

While I’d read all of the emails his would-be stalker had sent him, I hadn’t found any clues as to the man’s motive or identity. But he wasn’t your run-of-the-mill fanatic. If I hadn’t seen the hardware he’d been carrying tonight, I would have known that just from the steps he’d taken to cover his tracks with the emails. He’d used dozens of ISPs all over the world to mask his true IP address, which meant it would be next to impossible to figure out his location. The emails themselves had spewed a lot of filth about Nathan’s change in political positions, so in theory, it could be a disgruntled former constituent who’d expected him to follow through with the conservative values he’d grown up with. While Nathan hadn’t actually run as a Republican, there’d been a lot of money spent by his father’s political backers to get the ball rolling.