Hammered (Blue Bay Crew #3)- Cathryn Fox Page 0,11
coming up in Vegas and I don’t want to worry him.”
“He’d want to know. You’re everything to him.”
A small smile touches her mouth. “I know. He’s everything to me too. He’s the only guy…”
Her words fall off, but she doesn’t need to finish for me to understand, her brother is the only guy she’s ever been able to count on. Well, that changes right now.
“Okay, then it’s settled. From this second until the movie finishes up and you leave Blue Bay, you’re with me. I’ll be that boyfriend you were seeking at Winchester’s. Whoever gave you that letter will have to go through me to get to you, I won’t let anything happen to you,” I say.
I’m not doing this just because Rock is my friend—yeah, we put on a good show, but he’s the guy who stayed with me all night when I found out my dad died. I’m doing it because she has no one else to turn to and I don’t want anything to happen to her.
“What do you want in return?” she asks.
“Your safety. If I had a sister in trouble, I’d hope someone would do this for her.”
Her entire body tightens, and her eyes narrow in on me. That obviously wasn’t the answer she was expecting. Confused, she stares for a good solid minute, or at least it feels like that, and then she shakes her head, like she can’t seem to wrap her brain around anyone not wanting something from her. That totally pisses me off. What kind of world did she grow up in where she can’t count on people? Christ, I could call any one of my brothers right now, for anything, even a paper cut, and they’d be here in a second.
“What’s the problem, Haven?” I ask, since I’m a no bullshit kind of guy.
“I can’t ask you to do that and not do anything in return,” she says. I’m about to tell her it’s fine when a loud bang reverberates through the house. She just about jumps three feet in the air.
I put my hand on her shoulder, to calm her. “It’s probably just an animal in the trash. You stay here, I’ll go look.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’m sure.” I push from my chair, and open the door, which isn’t even locked. Hell, no one locks the doors in Blue Bay, but maybe we’ll have to change that for the time being. Outside, I find the garbage tipped over, and I pick it back up and secure the metal lid. Back inside, Haven is still sitting in her chair, her eyes wide.
“Breathe, Haven,” I say when I reach her, and she sucks in a breath. “It was likely just a racoon.” I stifle a yawn and she stands.
“Thank you, Tyler. I’ve definitely kept you up long enough.”
“Wasn’t sleeping anyway.”
She puts her glass in the sink, and gives me a weird little finger wave as she starts toward the stairs. I follow behind her, and try not to look at her sweet ass in those short pajama bottoms. A groan I have absolutely zero control over rises in my throat and I fake a cough to cover it. Haven momentarily stills on the steps, and I nearly crash into her.
“You okay?” she asks.
“Fine.”
She starts up again and I follow her to my bedroom. She enters and I step inside with her, shutting the door behind us. She turns to me, her eyes wide. “What are you doing?”
“I’m staying in here tonight.” I gesture to the chair in the corner. “I’ll sleep there.”
“Tyler—”
“I don’t want anything from you, Haven,” I say, although that’s a big fucking lie. I want her in my bed, beneath me, but that’s not going to happen. “First nights in strange beds aren’t easy.” I almost snort at that. How many women have I gone home with and jumped straight into bed with, no problems at all? Although I never stay the night and sleep wasn’t what we were after. The women who get involved with me know straight up I don’t stay. I leave before they have to explain I’m not ‘meet the parents’ material.
She looks at the chair. “No, they’re not, but I can’t ask—”
“You’re not. I’m offering.”
“What will your family think?”
“I’m a big boy, Haven. I don’t have to answer to anyone but myself.”
She nods in understanding. “How about you take the bed and I’ll take the chair?”
Okay, so she’s not opposed to me staying with her, she’s just opposed to me being uncomfortable, and I