The Long Way Home (Corps Security #6)(18)

“I don’t think I could do that, little bean.” Olivia laughs up at Riley. Again, I get another shock to the center of my chest.

“Sure, you can. You just have to grab on and get up.”

“Wise words.” Olivia chuckles.

“Hey,” Riley calls down, tapping me on the head with her fingertip harder than a five-year-old should be able to poke someone. Every damn time she wants my attention, I think she’s about to reach my brain with that little finger.

I keep her aunt’s gaze and grunt, letting the little fireball of energy know I got the message … and the sore spot. My grunt must have moved my body some. I love the hell out of the way Olivia’s eyes flash. I cock my brow, and she narrows her eyes.

“You’re still going to stay for movie night, right?”

I don’t even think. Not about the need to get the hell out of here before Olivia keeps asking questions I don’t know how to answer without knowing her better. Not about how much I would like to slide into this sexy body and fuck her until we’re both passed out from exhaustion. Not even about why I’m actually here right now.

I open my mouth, and for the first time in a lifetime, I don’t even think about anything but this feeling of being alive.

“Yeah.”





“Play it Cool” by Monsta X ft. Steve Aoki



The whole walk through my house, I keep thinking I’m in a dream or something. There is no reality that I could have dreamed up where this man would be inside my house right now, so it has to be a dream. I’ve clearly had an accident on the way home today, and I’m stuck in some coma or something and now in some coma-induced dreamscape.

I don’t date. Riley is used to being around other people but never men inside our house. Yet here she is, acting like this is the most normal thing to invite a man for movie night. A man who, in reality, I honestly don’t know well enough to be inviting into my house.

I know he’s safe. That’s all I truly know.

Ella found out a few years ago that he and his friends worked for the government. She saw their badges, so I know he’s at least as safe as that would make someone. He’s also been coming into Olde Mug for years. So what if today is the most he’s ever spoken to me?

Now here he is, walking with Riley high on his shoulders, into our movie theater room like it’s the most normal thing in the world. I look around the theater room—which is really just a big bonus area that I had renovated and blacked out with a wall-sized screen put in for the top-of-the-line projector—and try to see it through his eyes. The room is decent in size, but not one of our largest, so to save space and allow for the snack bar, fridge, and popcorn machine, we settled on two round cuddle couches in the center instead of rows of seats. They’re, hands down, the most comfortable things I have ever sat my butt on, and they fit like perfection in this room. It’s a cozy room, but it still screams money. Being used to that having a negative impact on new people, assuming I’m someone I’m not, I waited to see the look in his eyes. The one that tells me they think I’m a rich bitch, and they’ll put up with me for what my money can give them. Only that’s not what I see. Instead, I only see warmth.

“Down, giant,” Riley commands, and Drew breaks eye contact with me to do her bidding. He swings her away from his shoulders with his hands on her waist, twisting his hold and giving her a little toss in the air before effortlessly catching her. She lands face-to-face with him holding her away from his body. Her little legs dangle in the air, and she wears a huge smile on her face.

She laughs softer than the loud twill he had gotten from her seconds before and reaches out to lightly poke his nose ring. Only then does he softly place her feet to the cushion. Like that little boop was the down button on her new elevator ride. She moves around the round seat cushion before settling her little body into the thickly pillowed back of the couch.

I watch in horror as she pats the cushion right next to her and looks up at Drew.

“Come on, giant. You always have to cuddle when it’s movie night.”

He looks over his shoulder and down at me, that damn sexy brow of his up in a silent question.

Well, crap.

I didn’t think about this.

It’s always Riley and me when we have movie night. Sometimes Ella will join us, but she just curls up on her own seat and tells Riley she only cuddles for chocolate. On a rare occasion, when she can get time away, Grace joins us. There’s never been a man the likes of Drew—or any man for that matter—join us. I look from the couch, up to Drew, and back again to the couch. If he sits down where she wants, there’s no way I can avoid making this awkward. I glance to my left and eye the second cuddle couch. The one that never gets used by anyone but Ella and Grace.

I could just go sit there.

“No,” Drew’s deep voice rumbles, breaking my musing and I know he’s got to be watching me pretty closely.

“Riley, baby … there isn’t a whole lot of room on there. What if we have game night instead and save movie night for tomorrow? We could all sit at the table and be cozy.”

“I don’t want to play games. I want to watch a movie with my giant.”

“How about you sit with your giant, and I’ll just sit over there on the other couch?” I ask, pointing at the second sofa.