Duty To Protect

Chapter 3

“Mom, I’ll be fine. Stop worrying!” Riley heard Ginny say just as he reached her hospital room the next morning.

He stopped at the door, surveyed the scene and was immediately reminded of the role she had asked him to play today. Buffer.

Ginny sat in a wheelchair, dressed in street clothes, ready to go home, while her mother literally hovered over her. Hannah draped a thin blanket around Ginny’s shoulders, which Ginny quickly shrugged off.

“Mom, it’s seventy-five degrees outside. I don’t need to be swaddled up like a newborn.” Ginny had recovered most of her voice, but it still held a faint rasp.

Hannah sighed. “It’s a mother’s job to worry. And I’d just feel better if you had another layer of protection from this guy. Can’t the police station a guard at your door or something?”

Ginny groaned. “I don’t need a guard. I—”

Riley rapped lightly on the door.

When Ginny spotted him standing at the door, a smile lit her face. Then, as if inspiration had just struck, she turned to her mother and waved a hand toward him. “I…have Riley just down the hall. If there’s trouble, I can call him. Right, Riley?”

Was it wrong that he found the smoke-induced huskiness of her voice sexy as hell? Probably. But when he got around 3C, she scrambled his thoughts and turned everything topsy-turvy for him.

Riley shoved his hands in the back pockets of his jeans and sucked in a deep breath to tamp down his runaway libido. He’d learned yesterday how easily Ginny could pick up on his moods and read his thoughts. He had to do a better job of staying in control of his reactions when he was around her.

“Riley?” Ginny prompted when he didn’t answer her after several seconds.

“Um…sure. Whatever you need.” He wasn’t certain what sort of conversation he’d interrupted, but he could answer Ginny’s question easily enough. He’d do anything humanly possible to make sure she was safe.

His answer put a smug, case-closed grin on Ginny’s face. Mrs. West seemed somewhat mollified, if not entirely convinced. “I just don’t think you should be alone until that man is caught. If you won’t let me stay with you, what about Megan?”

“I don’t need a babysitter, Mom.”

“I know that. But after what happened last night…” Hannah’s hand fluttered to her lips as she paused, inhaling sharply. “I’m just scared he might try to hurt you again.”

Riley jerked his eyebrows together, frowning. “Whoa. Back up. What happened last night?”

Hannah and Ginny spoke at the same time.

“Nothing.”

“That man—”

Ginny cut a sharp silencing glance at her mother, but Hannah persisted. “The man who drove his car into Ginny’s office…the husband of her client…he showed up here last night. He tried to kill Ginny!”

Riley tensed, a punch of horror slamming into his gut. Icy chills prickled his skin. “He came here?” After he’d left. He’d left Ginny alone and—

“Mom…”

“Yes,” Hannah declared. “And if the night duty nurse hadn’t come in when she did—”

“Mom! I’m fine. The police are looking for him. The officer said they’ve got an APB out for him, and they promised to keep a watch on my apartment complex. A private guard is overkill.”

Riley wiped his suddenly sweaty palms on his jeans. “Who is this guy, and why is he trying to hurt you?”

God, he hoped Ginny didn’t hear the anxiety he heard in his own voice.

“His name is Walt Compton. His wife came to our office because he’d been abusing her and had threatened to kill her.”

Riley clenched his teeth. A domestic dispute. He’d been called to the scene of enough domestic disputes to know how volatile those situations could be.

“We’ve given his wife and kids refuge at the women’s shelter. She’d told him I was her counselor, so Walt came after me to find out where she was. He blames me for convincing her to leave the brutality of their marriage.”

Riley balled his hands into fists, wishing he could ram his knuckles down Walt Compton’s throat. The guy was scum. Being a wife beater was bad enough. But this guy had threatened Ginny, and that made it feel personal to Riley. He didn’t stop to analyze why he felt so protective of his neighbor. Not while her sky-blue eyes were watching him as closely as they were now.

“I have to say…” He paused and cleared his throat. “I’m with your mom on this. The cops should post someone in the lobby of our apartment building. And until he’s found, you should have someone stay with you.”

Ginny’s eyes widened, betrayal and disbelief flashing across her face. “Not you, too!”

Riley sighed. “If this guy is half as unstable as I think—and the fact that he drove his car through the wall of your office suggests he is—you shouldn’t be alone. He’s dangerous.”

Ginny pressed her hands together in her lap and schooled her features. In a calm, let’s-be-reasonable voice, she said, “This is a work issue. It’s my job to handle it. I’ve alerted the authorities, and they are doing everything they can to find him. They offered to post a guard outside our building, and I turned them down.”

Ginny’s mother huffed in disbelief. “Why?”

“I’d much rather they use their resources protecting Annie and the other ladies at the women’s shel—” Ginny gasped, winced, then shook her head. “Whoops. Well, now you know her name. Not that you couldn’t figure it out if you’d wanted to, thanks to the paper reporting her husband’s name.” She rubbed her forehead. “Anyway…the police can monitor the apartments well enough from the parking lot or street. I’m sure the police will have Walt in custody shortly.”

“And if they don’t?” Hannah asked, tipping her head.

Ginny sighed and sent Riley a you-were-supposed-to-be-on-my-side scowl.

“Mom, I—”

Buffer.

“What if,” he interrupted, “I volunteered to stay with you.”

Hannah arched an eyebrow in disapproval.

“On the couch,” he added quickly, to appease her.

Again Ginny and her mother spoke over each other.

“You don’t have to—”

“On the couch,” Hannah reiterated, then turned from Riley to address her daughter. “I like that idea. It’s a good compromise.”

“That’s no compromise. I’m being railroaded! I never agreed to having anyone—”

Hannah headed for the door and touched Riley’s arm as she left. “Talk to her. I’ll go see what’s keeping the doctor with those discharge papers.”

Ginny waved a hand toward the door where her mother had breezed out. “Do you see why I need a buffer? She’d run my life completely if I let her.”

Riley gave her a lopsided grin. “She means well.”

“And you!” Ginny aimed a finger at him, her expression in what-were-you-thinking mode. “You were supposed to be helping me, not taking her side!”

He raised both hands in surrender. “In my defense, I did manage to get her to back off the idea of camping out at your place. That would kinda have put a damper on my plans for a quiet dinner for two tonight.”

Ginny cocked her head and curled her lips in the sultry smile that always made his blood flash hot. “Dinner for two? Intriguing. Do tell.”

He ran a hand over his short-cropped hair. “Well, Ming Wa delivers, if you like Chinese. I could bring wine, and we could finally get a chance to get to know each other. You know, talk or watch a movie…whatever.”

“And then you would camp out on my couch.” Ginny lifted one eyebrow in a way that mirrored her mother.

He stepped over to the wheelchair and crouched, putting himself at eye level with her. Close enough to smell the hint of baby powder he’d come to recognize as her scent. Only 3C could make baby powder a turn-on for him.

“Yeah. I kinda promised your mother. And I do think you need someone staying with you. At least for a while.”

At least until he was sure she was safe. He refused to repeat his mistakes with Erin. His gut cramped, remembering.

Ginny rolled her eyes.

“But…I don’t have to stay on the couch alone.” He gave her a devilish grin and waggled his eyebrow. “I didn’t promise your mom anything in that regard.”

Ginny chuckled. “A master of semantics. That skill can come in handy with my family.” Heat darkened her eyes. “And this whole camping out thing is sounding better all the time. I’m not so much against you staying over as I am opposed to having my life dictated to me.”

Riley put on an innocent face. “I would never presume to dictate.”

Hannah bustled back into the room with a nurse on her heels. “Here we go.”

“Just sign these release forms, and you are free to go.” The nurse handed Ginny a clipboard with several papers attached.

After she awkwardly scratched her name on the forms with her left hand and handed them back to the nurse, Ginny gave the wheelchair a one-handed slap. “All righty then. Let’s bust this joint.”

Riley fell in behind her and steered the wheelchair toward the elevator. As he reached past her to mash the down button, he leaned into the sweet, baby powder scent at her neck and murmured, “As a bonus, while I’m at your place tonight, I could work on fixing your plumbing problems if you want.”

Ginny tilted her head to glance at him, putting her tempting mouth a breath away from his. “Would this be babysitting cleverly disguised as maintenance assistance?”

He smiled. “Not at all. I’m totally clear on your feelings regarding babysitting. This is seduction disguised as maintenance assistance, pure and simple.”

Her face lit with a humored grin for a moment, but then her eyebrows tugged together, and her smile faltered. “I hope you don’t think I’m the kind of girl who’ll sleep with a guy just because he fixed my dishwasher. I’m not that easy.”

He grunted, twisting his lips in a wry grin. “Believe me, with you, easy never crossed my mind.”

Ginny’s eyes twinkled. “Then by all means, grab your tools and come on over.”

* * *

Before Riley could make it around to the passenger side of his truck, Ginny had popped the door open and was struggling to climb out. She slid down from the high seat to the asphalt of the apartment’s parking lot, and her knees buckled weakly.

“Hey, take it easy.” He was there in a flash, his arm around her, supporting her. He narrowed his gray eyes on her, an adorable wrinkle of worry creasing the bridge of his nose. “There’s a reason the hospital discharges patients in a wheelchair, Ginny. Your body’s still healing. Go slow. Lean on me.”

As she opened her mouth to protest, he hooked her left arm around his neck, pulled her up against his taut, muscled frame and anchored his arm at her waist. All thoughts of arguing fled.

Riley, under normal circumstances, could make Ginny’s breath catch, her body hum. Riley, up close and personal, sent her body into overdrive. Her heart thrummed. Her head swam. Her skin tingled.

Being cautious about moving the relationship too fast didn’t mean she was immune to Riley’s…er, charms. Even if she could have walked in by herself, she would have faked an injury at that moment just to be held so close to his solid strength. She inhaled the spice of his aftershave, and a heady thrill swirled from her nape to her toes.

But even as she savored the sweet sensations Riley inspired, her head told her to go slow with him. His heroism on her behalf could easily be clouding her painkiller-muddled perception.

And, Lord knew, her history of misjudging men spoke for itself. Painfully so. Her own dating track record aside, she could never forget the heartache her poor judgment with men had caused her college roommate, Donna. A deep ache sliced through Ginny, lessening the headiness she felt from Riley’s proximity.

Thoughts of Donna nagging her, Ginny studied Riley’s rough-hewn features again. Sure, he was handsome as sin, thoughtful, brave….

But other men she’d dated had been handsome, polite, and had seemed charming—until she discovered there was a wife waiting at home or that the charm was an act to get her into bed.

Not that in bed wasn’t where she hoped to end up with Riley…eventually. But first, she had to be sure he was as good as his first impression purported. She had a heck of a lot still to learn about this man before she’d let herself believe he was all he seemed.

The expression “too good to be true” rang in her head. What was the real Riley like?

“Ginny? You okay?”

She realized she was staring at him like a schoolgirl and shook herself. “Yeah. Thanks. Thought I could do it alone, but my knees thought otherwise.”

“Listen, soon enough things will be back to the status quo. For now, you need to listen to your body. Don’t tax yourself, okay?”

As Riley guided her, taking baby steps toward the door, she itched to move at a faster pace, take the lead and steer him along a different course. Perhaps a route that afforded her a few extra minutes of snuggling close to his sturdy body?

Instead she gave him an apologetic grin. “Sorry, I don’t do pampering well. My mom says my favorite phrase from the time I could talk was ‘Do it myself!’ That’s never changed. I need my independence.”

“Nothing wrong with that…as long as it’s practical. Besides, every now and then everyone deserves a little TLC.” Riley slowed further as they reached a short flight of steps leading to the apartment entrance. “Consider this your turn.”

“I really don’t need help. Dealing with this—” She held up her casted right arm. “—will be tricky at first, but I’m up to the challenge.”

To prove her point, she pulled away from his grasp and trudged up the steps at a quicker pace. The show of defiance left her a tad winded and more than a little dizzy. Apparently yesterday’s brief oxygen deprivation had taken a bigger toll on her than she’d thought.

When she hesitated at the top of the steps, Riley stepped back into place beside her. She covered her effort to regain her equilibrium with a bright smile and by sliding an arm around his waist as if giving him a flirtatious hug.

The lift of his blond eyebrow said he wasn’t fooled.

He braced a hand under her left elbow and drew her up against him again. “Need a minute to catch your breath?”

She tilted her head back to meet his gaze. “Maybe. But your holding me like this is not going to help. Being this close to you seems to leave me breathless.”

He hitched up the corner of his mouth in a provocative grin. “The feeling is mutual, gorgeous.”

Ginny shook herself from her starry-eyed daze and leaned more weight against the railing.

Slow down!

“You know, as a counselor, I spend a lot of time talking with clients, helping them decide a plan of action, ways to change their life. But all our talk is no good if they don’t suit words to action, if they don’t follow through.”

“The whole ‘actions speak louder than words’ thing?”

She shrugged. “Something like that. So it’s a matter of professional pride that I do things for myself. I have an example to set, you know?”

With a steadying breath, she pulled away from him again to head for the door.

“An example. Right.” But he sounded unconvinced as he drew her back up against him. “Speaking of actions, I’ve been bummed about something since yesterday, when I visited you in the hospital.”

Her brow knitted in confusion. “Bummed?”

“Yeah, bummed! When I revived you, you missed the whole your-lips-on-mine thing. I figure all this flirting is really just going over points we’ve already established. We know there’s a definite sizzle between us.”

She gave him a suspicious nod. “Yeah?”

“And rather than keep wondering what a real kiss would be like…”

Ginny saw his intent in his smoky gaze, and her breath caught. “Riley, maybe we should wait until—”

She never got the chance to finish her thought.

He swooped in and captured her lips. With gentle pressure, he molded her mouth to his, then swept his tongue inside to tangle with hers. He tasted like cinnamon, hot and sweet, and when her head swam dizzily this time, she knew it had nothing to do with the lingering effects of oxygen deprivation.

Riley cradled the back of her head with one large hand and pulled her hips closer to his with his other. The intimate contact of their bodies made her womb tighten and weep with longing.

Ginny savored the ebb and flow of his kiss, giving back every bit of the passion and heat he showed her, even as her brain screamed for her to take it slow. She had a lot to learn about Riley before she could risk getting more involved with him.

With a soft brush of his thumb along her cheek, he pulled away and grinned unrepentantly. “That is called follow through.”

Ginny sighed contentedly. “I do love a man of action.”

As Riley swept a flyaway wisp of her hair back from her eyes, a flash of color and movement snagged Ginny’s attention.

She cut her gaze toward the distraction. A police car cruised slowly through the parking lot. The cop’s presence reminded her why Riley was with her, why the extra patrols were needed.

She’d been attacked last night. She could have died.

A shudder shimmied through her, and she backed away from Riley’s arms.

“Ginny?” He narrowed a concerned gaze on her.

She nodded toward the parking lot. “We have company.”

“What?” Riley turned and looked out over the cars. When he spotted the cruiser, he gave the officer a little wave. “Why don’t we get you inside now, where we can have a little privacy?”

“Privacy? You forget…my mom is on her way. She has to see for herself that I’ve gotten home safely and have locked my door.”

“You’re lucky to have a mother who cares so much.” A spark lit Riley’s gray eyes as he tucked her into his embrace.

“I guess. So does your mom make a big fuss over you, too, worrying and nagging?”

The light in Riley’s eyes faded as he helped her up the steps to her third floor apartment. Though he forced a grin, Ginny noticed the change in his demeanor, felt his muscles tense.

“Yeah, my mom worries…but I…don’t see her much.”

“Why not?”

He hesitated. “She lives out by Lagniappe Lake.”

“The lake is only about thirty minutes outside town.” At her door, Ginny fumbled in her purse with her left hand, searching for her keys.

He shrugged and shifted his weight. “We, uh…just get busy. Time passes. I’ll see her at Thanksgiving.” He extended a hand toward Ginny’s purse. “Need help?”

She sent him a pointed look and smiled. “No, thank you. I’ve got it.” She dangled the keys from her left hand to prove her point, then jabbed at the keyhole.

And missed. But her poor aim was more a factor of the scrapes and small gouges beside her doorknob than left-handed awkwardness. The damage to her door was new. And distinctive.

Someone had been trying to break into her apartment. And she’d bet a week’s pay that someone had red hair and a history of spousal abuse. Walt Compton had been here. Could still be here.

Which begged the question, what if Riley hadn’t been with her?

Ginny shuddered. Maybe having him stay in her apartment was a good idea after all….

Chapter 4

While Riley returned to the parking lot to report her damaged door to the policeman on guard duty, Ginny started putting away the few toiletries she’d brought home from the hospital. Having her right arm in a cast was going to be a royal pain, especially if she wanted to prove to others she didn’t need a babysitter. She’d managed alone for too long to start depending on anyone else now.

Her orange and white, diabetic tabby, Zachary, hopped up on the bathroom counter and rubbed against her arm in greeting. “Hey, fella. How’s my boy? Did anyone remember to feed you and give you a shot this morning?”

Zach meowed and pawed at the faucet. When Ginny turned on the cool water, the cat ducked his head and started lapping at the trickle.

“Spoiled.” Smiling, Ginny stroked her cat’s back, but despite the familiar routine, her heart still raced from the shock of finding someone had tampered with her door. She took a few deep breaths and mentally reviewed the advice she gave her clients.

Fear is a tool used to control you. Take back control of your situation. Stay calm so you can think clearly.

Ginny blew her bangs out of her eyes. She had a new appreciation for the stress her clients dealt with.

Time to practice what she preached.

Your strength and healing will come from within yourself, not by looking to others.

A sharp rap sounded on her front door, and Ginny’s adrenaline spiked. Clapping a hand over her scampering heart, she hurried to the living room. “Riley?”

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Ginny unhooked the chain guard and dead bolt, then looked through the peephole, just in case, before she opened her door.

“So what did the officer say?” she asked him as he strode into her living room, his rough-hewn masculinity in stark contrast to the feminine decor of her apartment.

“He’s calling it in, getting a crime scene team to come out. He’s checking the grounds now, but he’ll be here in a minute to take your statement.”

“Another statement.” She sighed and dropped onto her gingham-covered couch. “I don’t know what else I could possibly tell them. My shoe size, maybe?”