Long, Lonely Nights

The Protectors 1

MARLA MONROE

Copyright © 2011

Chapter One

Tina Antonelli watched her neighbor strip off his shirt from where she sat on her balcony. She licked her lips at the sight of all that hard tanned flesh only yards away from her. Lust, pure and simple burned through her. She watched him pick up the shovel and start digging a hole for the tree he was planting. Muscles strained and sweat glistened of his skin. She could sit and watch him all day. Even better, she liked to watch him at night.

Logan Henderson moved next door to Tina less than six months ago, and all she could think about, now, was his luscious body. One night she couldn’t sleep and got up to sit outside on her balcony. It didn’t take her long to notice her neighbor walking around in his boxers with his blinds and curtains open. He obviously didn’t think anyone would see him from the back yard.

Now Tina took in the show every night before going to bed. Mostly he paced around his bedroom, but occasionally he would walk to the kitchen and fix a drink.

She wished she could see him better. So far, she hadn’t met him or seen him up close to know what his face looked like. She could only imagine. Her imagination had him doing all sorts of naughty things to her in her dreams.

The dreams were far better than her usual nightmares. Since having Logan as a neighbor, she’d only had four or five of them in the last six months. Much better than the usual weekly horror fest.

Tina had been having nightmares ever since she had been attacked and nearly raped a year ago. They had never caught the man who had brutalized her. She lived in fear he would one day come back to finish the job.

Stop thinking about it. You’ll only bring on a nightmare tonight.
Instead of allowing herself to dwell on the past, Tina focused instead on the hunk below her as he settled the tree into the newly dug hole.

He stood up and wiped the back of one arm across his forehead to remove the sweat running into his eyes. Then, he shoveled dirt back into the hole. Every move he made defined a different set of muscles in his back and arms.

If she let herself do it, she would never go back inside. However, work beckoned from the other room. She worked as an insurance coding consultant and often brought work home. It said something for her lack of a personal life, but she hadn’t been able to go out much since the attack.

Most of her friends had given up on getting her out again and visited less and less frequently these days.

She sighed and after giving one last lust-laden look, turned away from the sight of her neighbor’s hot bod and locked the balcony doors. She double-checked the locks, and then set her alarm. There was no way she would ever forget to do either again. The soft
beep beep
let her know it was armed.

She returned to her office and sat down to work. As often was the case, her thoughts drifted back to her neighbor. What color would his eyes be? He had a crew cut, but his hair was definitely black. She already knew he had a nice sprinkling of chest hair. She just didn’t know what he looked like up close. If only she had the nerve to go introduce herself.

“Face it you’re terminally shy and a coward to boot.”

The doorbell rang, causing her to jump. She huffed out a breath, padding downstairs to see who was at the door. She looked through the peep hole, but didn’t see anyone. She frowned and walked to the living room window to look out behind the drapes. The UPS truck backed out of her driveway and drove off.

“Great. I wonder if he left the package or not?” Funny, she couldn’t think of anything she had ordered.

She disengaged the alarm system then unlocked the door. When she opened it, a box about ten inches square sat on the door step. It looked innocent enough. She picked it up and groaned.

It wasn’t hers it belonged to her next door neighbor, Logan Henderson. Now she knew his full name. Well, now she had to go introduce herself.
I could just leave it on his doorstep ring the bell and run.
Naw, that would really be a cowardly thing to do she decided.

She looked down at what she had on. Her usual Saturday at home outfit of cut off shorts and a tank top. Should she put on jeans? Why did it matter? All she was going to do was hand him his package and leave. At least she would be able to find out what he looked like up close. That thought cheered her up. She ran back inside and grabbed her key to lock the door behind her. She secured the door and carried the package next door.

His house was a nice, older home with a wraparound front porch. She had seen him sitting on it a couple of times, but not often. It was made for rocking chairs and a porch swing, but there wasn’t a swing. The front door was a huge wooden structure that sported etched glass windows. She admired the door for a few seconds then admonished herself for dragging her feet. She debated on knocking or ringing the bell and decided the door bell would be better in case he was still outside. Maybe he would hear it.

She rang the bell and stood waiting for several seconds before she heard the locks click, then the door swung open. It took everything inside her not to let her jaw drop at the sight of him standing in the doorway.

The first words that came to mind were big and tall. He stood well over six feet four or five inches, and he was built like a mountain. Funny how he didn’t seem nearly this big from her balcony, she realized. The next thing that came to mind was that he wasn’t really handsome so much as rugged looking. Gray jogging pants hugged his thighs and waist. A tan T-shirt stretched tight across his massive chest. He had a square jaw, a slightly bent nose, and small scar at the corner of his strong mouth. His eyes though... They were as dark as the blackest night and just as cold.

“What do you want?”

Tina jumped at his deep voice. “Um, the UPS guy left this at my house by accident. I was just bringing it over.” She held the box out towards him.

He took the box from her hands and their fingers touched. Something like a spark crackled between them. She jerked her hand back and rubbed at the spot with her other hand.

“Thanks,” he grunted and pulled away holding the box.

He backed up and started to shut the door, but Tina was determined to introduce herself. She wasn’t going to give in to her shy side this time.

“Um, my name is Christina Antonelli. My friends call me Tina. I live next door.” She held out her hand. “It’s nice to meet you.”

He grunted, but didn’t hold out his hand to shake.

“Name’s Logan. Bye.” He shut the door on her.

“Well, damn!” Tina knew she was a bit of a recluse, but she wasn’t rude. No wonder he never had company. No one would want to be around him if he were always like that.

She sighed and returned to her house. Maybe he was just tired after working in the yard all morning. Or maybe she had caught him at a bad time. Or maybe he was the antisocial asshole he appeared to be, she told herself. Whatever the reason, she wouldn’t bother him again. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t still watch him.

* * * *

“Damn UPS truck.”

They couldn’t get something as simple as an address right. He had freaking numbers on his house as plain as day. Logan ran one hand over his crew cut and set the box on the kitchen counter. He hoped it was his coffee. The label didn’t give a hint, though.

His gourmet coffee was one of the few luxuries he allowed himself. He ordered it from a company out of San Francisco. Normally, the return label had their name on it.

He didn’t open the box right away. Instead, he thought about the woman who had brought it over. She said she was his next door neighbor. He knew that. He saw her come and go every day. He also knew she watched him from her balcony. He didn’t have a clue why, but figured everyone had to have a hobby. Hers seemed to be spying.

This was the first time he had seen her up close. She had pretty deep blue eyes and thick auburn hair. There was a sprinkling of freckles across her nose and on her shoulders. She was a tiny thing, maybe five foot two or three inches and all of a hundred ten or fifteen pounds. He wondered about the spark that arced between them. She’d felt it too by the way her eyes had widened for a few seconds.

Didn’t matter. He wasn’t looking for a woman, or at least not her kind of woman. She wasn’t a fuck-em and forget-em type girl. Logan wasn’t fit for the likes of her. She was more along the lines of a lawyer or businessman’s woman. No, he needed to get her out of his head. But it wasn’t that easy now that he had seen her up close. His imagination had played havoc with his libido ever since he had moved in next door to her.

The first time he caught her watching him had been when he was working outside on the lawnmower. She had been sitting on her balcony in shorts and a tank top like what she wore today. He figured she didn’t think he could see her with all the trees between their yards, but he was trained to notice things.

The next night he looked up and found her watching him again, only this time it was nearly one in the morning, and he wasn’t wearing anything but his boxers. She had on a silky looking black robe. After that, he noticed her watching him a lot. It was aggravating at first, then frustrating when his imagination began working overtime on what she could do while he watched. The vegetation growing up the trellis to her balcony obscured a good bit of his view and probably kept her from being able to see him watching her.

No, his mind could play with her all it wanted to, but she was off limits in every sense of the word. He was too rough, too old, and too screwed up for any woman, and especially someone as delicate as she looked to be.

No, he wasn’t fit for someone like her. Logan retired from the army nearly a year ago. His last assignment in Kuwait had nearly sent him stateside in a body bag. He had the scars to show for it, too. No, he wasn’t fit for someone like her.

That didn’t stop his imagination from stripping her naked. He imagined her when he lay awake at night unable to sleep. She would wear something silky like her black robe, maybe a teddy or a negligee. Tight nipples would poke through the material begging to be sucked. He would run his hands up and down her arms. They were silky smooth in his mind. He would run a finger around the edge of the lacy garment to tease her breasts. Then he would slip first one strap, then the other one off her shoulder to give his mouth free reign to nibble his way around and up her neck.

She would moan for him when his mouth touched the pulse at her throat. He would continue up and nip at her jaw and around to her mouth. His tongue would lick at her mouth until she opened, then he would devour it. All the while, his hands would caress and squeeze her breasts. His fingers would flick and pinch her nipples until she groaned into his mouth. He could imagine her body swaying towards his. He would break the kiss long enough to finish pulling the lacey teddy down to pool around her feet.

Her body would be perfect. Her pretty pussy would be bare and already glistening with her juices. Those pointed nipples called to him. He would answer, licking then sucking them into his mouth. The harder he sucked, the more she would moan and groan. He would go to his knees and gaze up at her lust laden lids as his tongue lapped at her abdomen heading down towards her luscious feminine lips.

Once his tongue found her sweet honey, he wouldn’t be able to stop until she screamed in ecstasy. He would lap at her and suck her clit into his mouth to tease with his tongue. He would have to hold her hips still, or she would buck away from him.

“Fuck!” Logan slapped his hands on the cabinet on either side of the package.

He could fantasize about her all he wanted, but she was off limits. He was a crazy ex-Special Forces sniper who’d killed too many times and dreamed about his kills when he
could
sleep. No, she wasn’t someone he should be thinking about.

He had to be twice her age. She couldn’t be more than twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. He was pushing forty for God’s sakes. He needed to go out and get laid. Maybe he would do that next weekend. Get his rocks off, and he could keep control over his libido. Yeah, that was the plan anyway, only it hadn’t worked every other time he’d gone out and found a woman to have sex with. He still came back thinking of her and bedding her in his dreams.