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  He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her knuckles. The smallest of bites caused her to jump, and he smiled slowly. “For now, let’s get you signed out of here. You’ll need to do that part yourself. I can’t be seen lugging around a bag I didn’t have before, so I’ll find myself another way out. When you leave the building, head for the parking lot to your left. I’ll meet you under the lamp there with my friend.”

  “You won’t leave me, right?”

  In a quick move he let her hand go only to wrap his arm around her waist and drag her into his body. Lowering his head, he brushed his nose to hers. “I’m not going anywhere without you, Riley. If I have to, I’ll tear this place apart, brick by brick.” He stared into her eyes for a long moment before he pressed the barest of kisses over her lips. “No more than fifteen minutes, or I’ll be coming back inside, and I won’t be a very happy or pleasant man.”

  Riley shivered at the kiss he’d given her. The promise of what might come next had her eyes searching his, then a smile forming. “I’ll hold you to that.” She touched her fingertips to his lips. “But you have to let me go first,” she teased. “Although, truth be told, I kind of like being here in your arms.”

  In the end, though, Riley watched Hector as he left the facility. She had to get her stuff in order so that she could follow quickly.

  Chapter Three

  Sixteen minutes later, Riley was walking out of the facility with her bag on her shoulder and head held high. She saw Hector standing beside a vehicle and shook her head. “This one doesn’t fit you. Is this your friend’s car?” she asked and reached out so she could touch him again.

  “No, our vehicle is a little farther out. I wanted to be where you could see me.” He took her bag and drew her in close. “You’re late. Don’t think I didn’t notice.” He gave her a squeeze before loosening his hold enough for her to breathe again.

  Hector drew back to look down at her for a moment before turning and guiding her through the parking lot. He was headed toward a darkened area where a large, hulking vehicle sat, with a massive man leaning on the bumper. When they got close, he slowed down. “Riley, this is Gaius Julius Alexander. Gaius, this is Riley, and she’ll be coming along with us.”

  Riley cocked her head to the side. “Your parents had some kind of sense of humor, didn’t they? Naming you after a Roman leader.” She couldn’t help but step closer to Hector. This man was dangerous. Exceptionally so. He had the look of a man that would kill you without hesitation if he thought that the world would be better off. Or if you just plain pissed him off. “Hector made me an offer of truth I simply can’t deny.”

  The other man shot Hector a look and shook his head. “This should be interesting,” he muttered in a deep, gravelly voice.

  “Gaius,” Hector chided softly.

  She watched them have some sort of wordless exchange that ended in Gaius shrugging. Then, pushing off the vehicle, he moved around to the door of the SUV and slid into the back. Hector urged her to move only after the door shut. He helped her into the passenger seat, setting her bag down at her feet before closing her into the vehicle with his friend.

  Riley closed her eyes and leaned her head back. She was missing something. Something very, very important. She didn’t know what it was, so she reached out and placed her hand on top of Hector’s, which was resting between them on the gearshift. Without saying a word or opening her eyes, she told him that she was there with him. Because she wanted to be.

  She felt the brush of his thumb over her skin before the hand under hers tensed as he changed gears and got them moving. But that thumb returned soon enough in a slow, even slide back and forth over her skin. Soft music from the radio filled the space, but there was no chatter, no idle comments … just a comfortable silence—even with Gaius in the backseat, directly behind her own.

  They traveled for the remainder of the day. When they pulled up to a house, Riley frowned. “Do the two of you live here? Somehow, I don’t see this house fitting either of your personalities.” The home was charming, quaint, and quite small. “But the lawn is beautiful,” she said. It seemed to be kept incredibly well, but she saw spaces—odd depressions that made her frown again. “I think something might be digging under it, though.”

  Gaius snickered as he left the vehicle to stretch.

  Hector looked to her with amusement. “No, this is one of our safe houses. We’ll stop, sleep, and talk. Stay off the grass. The depressions you see are explosives to guarantee that no one can sneak up on us. Bad guys don’t tend to remain on the path right to the front door.” He slid out of the SUV and came around to let her out. Gaius was already inside.

  Riley waited until Hector was at her side before she began to move along with him. “Is this where we’ll watch the videos?” She looked over the lawn and cocked her head to the side with a thoughtful expression. “Wouldn’t explosives damage the house and us too?” She looked down at her feet and stepped in just a bit closer to Hector, not fully trusting herself to stay off something that would make her explode.

  “They’re laid out in a way so that the explosion projects away from the house. The depressions are only there because each explosive sits within a bowl of sorts with a light covering of soil and grass. We’re working on a better way to hide them, but too much weight sets them off, and the soil tends to settle.

  “One of our guardians is looking into a webbing to lay under the grass so that it remains flat. Unfortunately, he’s at a point where the webbing creates an issue with the explosion. It’s not pretty, but he’ll figure it out in time.” He led her into the house, shutting and locking the door behind them. “We’ll stay here long enough to eat, rest, and talk. We won’t watch any of the videos until we reach the Mountain.”

  Guardian? Mountain? She was sure these were two very important words, but she also knew he would explain in due course. He had promised, and she knew that he would keep it. “I could go with a bit of all of the above. Eating, talking, and resting in some sort of order that makes sense.”

  Once they found a bedroom, he stowed her bag on the king-sized bed.

  She looked up at him. “Are you going to nap with me?” There was a hint of hope in her tone.

  “If you want me to,” he said quietly. “I don’t want you to think I’m pushing for anything, but I’m finding that it’s hard to leave your side. At the sanitarium, it was a battle for me to stay outside waiting on you. Had you taken even a few seconds longer, I would have stormed inside.”

  She turned a shocked expression to him. “Really?”

  Hector sent her a clearly annoyed look and rolled his eyes. Walking right up to her, he cupped her face in his hands. “Yes.” Leaning in, he pressed a quick kiss to her lips before stepping back again. “Come, we should collect you something to eat. You’re much too thin,” he commented.

  She looked down at herself and shrugged. “There’s only so much mashed potatoes and Jell-O that a person can eat before they just stop trying. I was safe, though. That’s something you should know. I checked myself in there because while I was in there I was safe from the monsters that wear the human façades.” Now, we’ll see if he thinks I’m as crazy as I feel at times. He apparently chose not to comment on the last bit at the moment. “Well, tonight you’ll be eating something much more filling and definitely more appetizing.” Taking her hand in his, he led her through the small house to the open, and surprisingly large, kitchen. Going to the freezer, he dug inside and lifted out a pan. “Lasagna?” he asked, shooting her a look.

  “Oh God. I could totally kiss you right now.” Her stomach rumbled. “Lasagna is one of my favorite foods. Actually, anything with pasta in it is one of my favorites,” she admitted, heat creeping across the bridge of her nose and cheeks. “Where can I use the bathroom and get a little more cleaned up?”

  He set the pan aside and led her into the hall. Stepping through a door, he turned on a light. “It’s the only bathroom in the house, but there’s lots of hot water. I’
ll get the pan in the oven, but it’ll take some time to heat through. I’ll make a snack to tide us over until it’s ready. We should be able to talk a bit and even catch a nap before it’s done.”

  He stepped back out of the bathroom to allow her access. “Towels are in the cupboard above the toilet. If you need a toothbrush or anything, dig through the vanity drawers. We keep travel-sized items in all the locations, so there are always new, sealed items for us to use should it be required.”

  “You are truly a prince among men,” Riley told him with a grin, leaning up on her toes and kissing the base of his throat before all but pushing him out of the room. She needed to go. Now!

  * * * *

  Half an hour later, Riley stepped out of the bathroom, wrapped in one of the nightgowns and robe that her nurse had bought her one year for Christmas. She was clean, and she felt much better now. Stepping into the kitchen, she moved immediately to Hector’s side and slipped her hand into his as if she had been doing it her whole life. “So, how long for our food?”

  “Two hours or so. I made you something to tide you over.” He led her to the table and pulled out a chair. “Sit, eat, and then we’ll go relax in the room so we can talk and you can rest.”

  Riley eyed the sandwich, fresh strawberries, and glass of milk with interest. “You’re too good to me.” She gazed up at him with a silly smile on her face. She couldn’t help herself. This man was larger than life, and the sweetest person ever imagined, and he was treating her as if she were someone that he wanted to stay with for longer than just a day or two. It was utterly humbling. “That sounds good. Has your friend already went to bed? Did you make yourself something to eat too?”

  “He is in speaking with his girlfriend,” Hector told her as he sat down with her at the table. “But he will likely sleep soon enough. He’s been up as many hours as I have, most of it straight travel time to reach the sanitarium. And I made something to eat while I waited on you, so I wouldn’t pace the hall outside the bathroom.”

  She’d never had anyone to care for her like this. Reaching out, she placed her hand into his once more, giving his a squeeze. “I’ll finish, and then we’ll go have our chat. And he has a girlfriend? He seems a little uptight.” The poor man looked like he was wound so tightly that if there were a stiff breeze, he would spring and crack.

  Hector smiled. “Emily is a very sweet and gentle soul. She’s good for Gaius. She was injured during an attack when he was attempting to get her to the safety of the Mountain. She’s fine. Just healing from a broken arm. He doesn’t like being away from her, though. Something I’m starting to understand well.”

  That had her frowning. He didn’t have a significant other—everything about him screamed that he was single—so she didn’t understand his last comment. Right before she took a bite of her sandwich, she asked, “What do you mean it’s something you understand?”

  “Just what I said, Riley. Since meeting you, I’m realizing his need to remain close to the one that is his. They are bonded, tied together for all time. I didn’t truly understand why he was so against going out on a mission at the time. Now I have a much greater understanding for why he’s been checking on her every hour.”

  Riley found herself leaning into him and biting her lower lip. She sighed, and when she opened her eyes, she looked up at him with a smile. “Yeah? And why is that?” She had to know if it was because of her.

  “Because when you care for someone, as he does for Emily, you can’t be away from them without worrying. Especially in a world as fucked up as ours.” He slid a finger down her cheek. “The bond is strong, especially when the woman you care for carries something so amazing and precious within. When she is your other, better half, you need to be close to her in the hope that some of that goodness will rub off on you and help to lighten the load we all carry.”

  “And you’ve found her?” Damn him for making me ask. She leaned into his touch, all but purring when he stroked his finger down her cheek again. She was as close to him as she could possibly get, her hand resting lightly on his chest as she looked up at him. “Tell me,” she whispered. She had to know that she wasn’t alone in this feeling, that he was as attracted to her as she was to him.

  “I did,” he answered. “She is an amazing beauty, a pure and kind soul, elegant, poised, and much too good for a warrior like me. She could have any man falling at her feet, yet she seems to have taken an interest in only one. For which I am grateful.”

  “I have a feeling that she would move heaven and earth for you,” Riley admitted quietly, her face turned up to him as she spoke. Licking her lips, she all but shivered at the need that was in his eyes. “I really think you should kiss me again.”

  “I think you may be right.” His arms came around her, pulling her up close to his chest, and his head lowered. But he didn’t kiss her immediately. Instead he brushed his nose over hers, then over her cheek. As the anticipation began to build to a nearly explosive point, he finally pressed his lips to hers in a hard, demanding kiss.

  Riley gave in completely to his passion. She wrapped her arms around his neck. Her hands fisted into his hair. She shuddered and opened to him, his tongue brushing over hers before he took full control. He was dominating her in that moment, and she was fully willing to allow it to happen.

  Hector’s arms tightened around her as he bent her back over an arm. One hand was soon up in her hair, holding it tight. His mouth devoured hers, and he let out a low growl that shot through her entire body.

  Then his lips were gone, but his heavy and hard breathing was still a hot brush over her skin. “We should talk first,” he said, his voice not entirely steady.

  Riley nodded and moved so that she could hug him. Her feet were off the ground, and he was keeping her up, but she was fine with that. She pulled back and smiled teasingly. “You running from this?”

  He huffed out a breath. “It’s called a strategic retreat, for your information. It’s either that or I have you naked, on the table, with my cock buried inside of you, without a care for the fact that there’s someone else in the house with us. We need to talk before we do anything like that. You need to know what’s going on, and I made you a promise.” Stepping back, he grabbed one of her hands and tugged her up the stairs and down the hall to the room they would be sharing.

  She moved along with him. Once they were in the bedroom with the door closed, Riley slipped her hand from his and settled onto the bed. “Just so you know—if you wanted to do that, I wouldn’t have stopped you. At all,” she admitted bluntly, really putting herself out there.

  His nostrils flared. He toed off his boots and shed his shirt, revealing an undershirt that he left on as he settled down at her side. “I swear to you now—everything I’m about to say to you is the complete truth.”

  She felt the certainty of his words wrapping around her and nodded. She was facing him. When he moved to wrap his arm around her middle, she scooted closer, putting her leg between his and her hands on his chest. “Okay. I trust you, Hector.” She didn’t trust easily, but she had trusted him from the first moment she’d met him. Because he had never lied to her.

  He took a breath as if he needed courage. “A little history first. Centuries ago, a goddess had a man working with her, trying to stem the tide of evil, the monsters. They were fighting a losing battle. As long as there is free will, evil—in addition to good—has a way to sway humans.

  “Unfortunately, evil was on the brink of winning. They had to come up with something more, so the goddess tasked the man, our first guardian, with finding warriors strong enough to battle the growing threat. He began to hand pick those that represented strength without being overbearing. Those that had a core goodness, so evil wouldn’t win them over easily.

  “He also had to choose those who had just died, because that was part of the deal. Each warrior chosen had to die to come back to a near immortality. Like me.” He paused, staring into her eyes with worry.

  “I was born over two thousand
years ago in a city called Troy. My parents were King Priam and Queen Hecuba. I had a brother by the name of Paris, and a couple others not as well known. I’m sure you know a little of how all that ended up going down, given there was a movie made about it. Do have to say—at least they chose someone to play me that wasn’t that hard on the eyes. The Achilles character was a little off, but a very good portrayal, all in all.”

  He paused again and lifted a brow, likely waiting to see if she was still with him or about to run for the hills.

  Holy hell. That was all she could think. “I don’t watch movies,” she whispered, then swallowed hard. “It’s too hard to watch movies when I see the truth of things. I see the actors as they are, I see the green screen instead of the set that there should be. I know how odd this sounds but the simple fact is that I see the truth in everything. I hear the truth in words, I see the truth in actions. All of it. I do know history because of my love of books, however, and oh God.” She licked her lips and reached out to touch his chest, just over his heart. “You were run through with a sword?” She bit her lower lip. “I shouldn’t be so calm, I really shouldn’t, but I feel the truth you are telling me. Good God, this is surreal.” It was more than surreal. It was almost impossible to believe. “Weren’t you married, though? You had children, too, right?” She wanted to know, had to know.

  “I was married at the time, yes. You know your history, I see,” Hector muttered. He made a face and sighed. “We had a son. Named him Scamandrius, though everyone called him Astyanax, meaning overlord of the city. His fate was sealed for merely being my son,” he said softly.

  After a moment, he shook his head. “That is off track, and I’d rather not dwell on a past I can’t change. The first guardian, Mercury, found me prior to the ritual bonfire that would have turned me to ash. He planted the medallion in my chest.