thebodyguardsprincess M47 annmayburn 2 (8 page)

Mr. Jerry rolled over to the cluttered desk and turned on a brass lamp while shaking out his glasses. After he put them on, he turned his wheelchair to them and sucked on his teeth. "So what brought you two out of retirement?"

Lalita looked at Asher, curious to hear an actual answer about their past. "The Sanjit needed someone safe to watch after his daughter," Asher said mildly.

Kent stretched his arm over the back of the couch as Mr. Jerry laughed. "Safe? You two? I know your dishonorable discharge made--"

Both men tensed next to her as she said, "What?" Dishonorable discharge? What did Mr. Jerry mean? Only criminals or the morally corrupt were kicked out of the military.

"We'll tell you later," Kent said and turned her to face him. "I promise."

"But you--"

"Girl, listen to your men. You're in a heaping pile of dead dog crap and sinking fast." Mr. Jerry shot Asher an apologetic look. "And I'm your life preserver, so start talking, boys."

The men explained all that had happened while Lalita sat between them and rubbed her fingers against the edges of her shorts. After a demonstration of her hypnotic state, Mr. Jerry had turned deadly serious and began asking pointed questions.

Her mind whirled between what they were telling Mr. Jerry and what Mr. Jerry had said about the men. Her father wouldn't hire criminals to guard her. What the hell had happened that would get them kicked out?

Mrs. Jerry came into the room at the end of the conversation and sat on a battered leather chair. An older woman with dyed bright red hair, she still had lovely faded blue eyes that matched her thick robe.

Holding up his hand to stop Asher, Mr. Jerry locked his eyes on his wife. "Willa, what did you do?"

She twitched on the chair and gave Lalita an agonized look. "Jerry, we have to get them out of here."

"Damnation!" Mr. Jerry began to swear up a storm. "I told you not to call the police!"

"What?" Kent and Asher hauled her off the couch.

"I'm so sorry!" Mrs. Jerry wailed. "I heard you ask them why they brought a terrorist to our home. I thought you were in trouble--that your past had finally caught up to us."

Lalita's heart pounded in her chest and she felt sick. It was happening just like she thought. There was no place left on earth where she would be safe. Even Asher's arm supporting her didn't bring her any comfort.

Swearing in several languages, Mr. Jerry rolled over to the far wall and lifted a picture of President Regan giving him a high-five. Pressing on the wood paneling, he popped a hidden latch and opened the electronic safe inside.

"Kent, Asher, please forgive me." Mrs. Jerry helped her husband sort through the safe.

"How long do we have?" Kent rumbled out and twitched aside the curtain, looking out into the yard.

"Fifteen minutes, tops. We're pretty far from the closest sheriff's office, but there might be a state officer cruising the freeway," Mr. Jerry said in a brisk voice. He tossed a map and a small notebook to Asher. "Directions and disarming instructions for our compound."

Ken barked out a laugh. "You finally built it?" He looked over Asher's shoulder at the map.

"You betcha. Look at that lot of hot-headed happy crappy assholes in power."

Mrs. Jerry placed a kiss on both men's cheeks. "I'll make this right, I promise."

"Head north out of here and follow the directions on the map. Whatever you do, don't fuck up on the disarming or it'll take forever to clean the splatter of your bodies off the ceiling." He turned to Lalita and patted her hand. "I'll find a way to get in touch with your daddy and let him know what's going on. In the meantime, try to find out what your trigger word is and break down those barriers. The hypnotic state one should be easy, but the suggestion is going to be a royal bastard to get rid of. You know something important, or they wouldn't be losing their cool trying to kill you in public."

With those words of comfort ringing in her ears, she found herself alone in the back of the SUV, barreling down the country road with their lights off. Spinning in her seat, she watched a series of headlights race down the hill in the distance and head toward Mr. Jerry's house. "Where are we going?"

The SUV lurched as the road turned from pavement to dirt. In the front seat, Kent cupped his hand over a penlight and read the map to Asher.

Kent clicked off the light and gripped the dash as they hit a huge hole. "Mr. Jerry has a thing about the end of the world. We're going to his survivalist bunker in the Appalachian Mountains."

"Great," she said in a faint voice and barely avoided amputating the tip of her tongue as the SUV rocked and rolled through the countryside.

Chapter Six

The bing from the car doors being opened mixed with birds singing as they piled out of the SUV. Lalita groaned and rubbed her lower back, taking a deep breath of the clean, cool air. The sun rose over the forest in the distance, tinting the sky pink and purple. After jouncing around in her seat for the last four hours with hardly any sleep, she was tired, sore, cranky and hungry.

"Home sweet home," Asher said in a cheerful voice as she and Kent glared at him. Asher was an unabashed morning person, and it drove them nuts.

"How can you be so damn perky with no sleep," she grumbled.

Asher's full, dark lips slid into an easy grin. As Kent studied the sheer rock face of the hillside in front of them, Asher pulled her into his arms. She examined him in soft pink light and leaned on tippy-toes, placing a gentle kiss on his lips. Joy warmed her heart and body as his hands stroked up and down her back and settled on the curve of her bottom. Deepening their kiss with easy skill, he pulled her tight against his chest, and she groaned as she felt his cock grow hard between them.

Another pair of hands joined Asher's on her bottom, and both men held her against Asher, moving her over him with their strength. In a million years, she could never get enough of this.

"All right, lovebirds, time to go inside." Kent chuckled as he pressed his hard cock against her bottom. Asher ignored him and growled low in his throat. Thick and hard, he filled her hands as she stroked him, running her fingertips over the outline of his shaft. Hot desire made her pussy grow wet and soft as she pressed back against Kent.

Grumbling, Kent snatched her from Asher and tossed her over his shoulder. "Hey!" she yelled as he walked back toward the cliff face as if she weighed nothing. Asher laughed behind them, and she took a moment to appreciated Kent's butt from her vantage point over his shoulder.

Setting her down, Kent said, "Watch this." He knelt before the cliff face and slid a portion of it over, revealing a keypad. Double-checking the notebook, he tapped in a long series of numbers. A groan echoed through the cliff side and a portion of the wall disappeared.

"Wow," she said in a whisper as the morning light filled the cavern. A large concrete bay with overhead fluorescent lights in cages gleamed out of the darkness. Rows of boxes were stacked against the far wall, and there was enough room for the SUV.

Tugging her by the hand, Kent pulled her forward while Asher carefully drove the SUV into the space. Pressing another series of numbers on the pad, the cliff wall rolled back into place.

Kent led them through a series of thick metal doors and deep into the hill itself. The walls turned from smooth white painted concrete to the natural rough granite and the floor continued to slant downward. Going through a final door, the lights flicked on as Asher scooped her up in his arms and carried her over the threshold.

They stood there in silence for a moment, taking it all in. The massive main room held a bank of flat screen displays over three computers. Further in the room, a small kitchen looked out over a comfortable lounge area with another giant flat screen TV. The click of an air purifier hummed to life and a slight warm breeze blew over the skin of her arms. The gray and brown stone had been polished down to a smooth surface for the floor and brightly colored rugs were scattered about.

"Kevin did a great job," Asher said and let her down. He wandered over to the display of flat screens and computers.

"Who's Kevin?" She removed her shoes and placed them near the entrance of the door, ignoring Kent's snicker. It never hurt to have good manners.

Asher ran a hand over the rough-hewed rock around the doorway. "Mr. Jerry's son. In the military he specialized in bunker architecture. You can bet this place could withstand just about anything you throw at it."

"I take back everything I said about Mr. Jerry getting paranoid in his old age." Kent ran the faucet and sniffed the water.

Running her hand through her short hair, Lalita examined the room and then began opening doors. She sighed in gratitude when she found the bathroom off a large bedroom.

"You hungry, Princess?" Kent called from the kitchen, his voice echoing oddly off the curved ceiling.

"Yeah, but I'm going to take a shower first."

Lalita took a moment to admire the bathroom. A stainless steel vent hung from the ceiling in the center of the small room. Redwood cabinets complimented the smooth stone walls and a large multi-head shower dominated most of the space. Quickly stripping out of her clothes, she adjusted the dial and waited for the hot water. A quick inspection under the sink revealed shampoo, conditioner and other personal hygiene items.

Steam began to billow into the room and she quickly stripped out of her old clothes. Hot water beat all over her body, and she tipped her head back with a sigh of delight. The warm water relaxed her shoulders and she rotated her neck under the spray. Squeezing some orange scented soap onto a washcloth, she scrubbed her skin and tried to keep her tired thoughts on the task of getting clean.

Unfortunately, her mind refused to let the question go of why Kent and Asher got kicked out of the military. It seemed so out of character for them. They followed every rule and were honest men. She couldn't imagine what they would have done that was bad enough to get a dishonorable discharge. Even more baffling, why would that discharge have made her father hire them.

They owed her some answers, and she was going to get them.

After applying some deodorant she found in the cupboard, she toweled off and slipped on an oversized T-shirt and some men's sweatpants tucked away in a cedar dresser drawer. Asher came in as she was pulling the drawstring around her waist.

"I'm going to jump in the shower. Food’s almost ready." Instead of moving toward the bathroom, he stood there staring at her with his eyes darkening.

Feeling self-conscious, she fiddled with the T-shirt. "Okay. When you get out, we need to talk."

His lips tightened. "Yeah, we do." With that, he went into the bathroom and closed the door with a soft click.

Kent came in a second later and gave her a warm smile. "I need to wash up. Can you strain the spaghetti for me in a minute?"

"Sure." As she made her way across the massive main room, she wondered how both men were going to shower at the same time. Maybe one would shave while the other showered. Heck, they shared her in bed. Obviously seeing each other naked was no big deal.

After searching the cabinets in the kitchen area, she found a strainer and turned off the noodles and drained them. Soft classical music played in the background from hidden speakers and she relaxed further. The smell of good food, the lingering heat of the shower, and the safety of the solid rock allowed her to relax and think. The expiration date on the jar of spaghetti sauce was still good, and she wondered how frequently Mr. and Mrs. Jerry came here. Seemed like an odd place to vacation, but you couldn't beat the privacy.

She found a bottle of red wine in one of the cupboards, and opened it. She took a deep swallow and poured the rest into some water glasses. After tossing the pasta and sauce together, she heaped it onto the dinner plates and added an extra helping for the men.

As she was putting out the napkins, the men came back into the room. She couldn't help the silly smile that curved her lips at the sight of them. Kent's wet hair was a deep brown color with a natural wave. Asher's freshly shaved skin gleamed in the lights and his white teeth flashed as he returned her smile. Neither man wore a shirt, and she totally appreciated that fact.

Taking a seat, she crossed her arms over her chest. Without a bra, her hard nipples stuck through the cotton, revealing her attraction. Asher picked up his water glass and sat across from her, taking a deep drink before loading his fork with noodles. Kent did the same, digging into the food with a happy sigh.

Her fork lay unused in her hand as she watched their muscles move and bunch beneath their skin as they ate. Who knew such a little movement as lifting a glass could do such amazing things to their bodies?

Kent broke the silence. "Princess, you need to eat."

Blushing, she dropped her gaze to her plate and swirled her fork into the mass of noodles. If she couldn't see either of them, she wouldn't be distracted.

"Mr. Jerry sent an email while you were in the shower. He thinks he managed to keep the police off our trail. As far as they know, his wife was drunk and imagined terrorists attacking the house."

"What?" She coughed and Kent thumped her on the back.

"Mrs. Jerry drank a good deal of brandy before the police arrived. She puked it up all over the floor when they questioned her." Kent snickered. "They left soon after."

She must have been hungrier

"Gotta admire her dedication to the cause. We owe her a new carpet though," Asher added as he sat back with a sigh and stretched. Lalita's mouth went dry and her pussy wet as she followed the hard curve of his pectorals down to his dark nipples.

Kent stood from the table, and she found her eyes drawn to the perfect ridge of his abdominal muscles beneath his light dusting of hair. Lifting a finger under her chin, he tilted her hungry gaze to his face. "Let's have our talk so we can relax and get some sleep."

Nerves tightened in her stomach at the serious expressions on both men's faces. She forced herself to eat the rest of her pasta. After draining the rest of her wine, she followed them into the lounge area. Flopping back into a deep blue chair, she examined the men as they sat across from her. Their cold poker faces were back and they watched her warily. Whatever they had to say, they were very afraid of how she would react.