The room was older and set up in an almost Victorian style, the bed being a massive hulking presence with its four ornate posters and thick purple drapes that could be untied to create an almost cave-like structure around where I was sleeping.
It had been two hours since the bus’s tires popped.
Soon after I’d gone inside two black SUVs had rolled up to take us into the nearest town which was tucked right at the base of the Ozarks.
Being a Tuesday during the busy season, I thought for sure there would be nowhere for us to stay that Maverick and the rest of his team would deem safe enough, but I’d been dead wrong when we pulled up to the old Victorian mansion painted an apt shade of purple.
It was run by a husband and wife who looked to be about a thousand years old, and according to Zeke, had been more than willing to rent the entire place out to us for two days.
So, with the older woman’s reminder to give the water heater fifteen minutes to heat up before taking a shower, I’d climbed the steps to the very top of the bed and breakfast to find my room and finally get a moment to myself.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been truly alone and the silence was almost deafening as I resisted the urge to fill it by talking to myself.
It wouldn’t suit my image or my mother’s for people to think that I was a lunatic who babbled into thin air.
Changing out of my sweatpants and into jeans, I pulled my hair up into a haphazard ponytail before turning to open the door.
“You don’t have to stand outside of my door, you know,” I told Brooks who was still dressed in his fussy Secret Service uniform despite the blazing temperatures outside.
While we were on the bus, my security team hadn’t felt the need to watch my every move (which made sense considering the bus was only forty-five feet long), but that seemed to have flown the coop now that we were staying at this bed and breakfast.
“Boss’s orders,” Brooks told me but softened the blow with a sheepish smile as he filed in behind me on the narrow staircase. “Where are you headed?”
I tossed a look over my shoulder at him. “To find food.”
“Where at?”
“Somewhere not here.”
Brooks frowned at me like I was speaking a different language. “I’m not sure Maverick’ll want you to leave the premises.”
“And do you do everything that Maverick tells you to?”
It was meant to be a dig, but the behemoth of a man just shrugged. “Yeah, generally. Mav doesn’t give orders just to be an ass. Your protection is his and our top priority.”
The line was so canned that I rolled my eyes and continued on my journey to what I hoped was the cute little diner around the corner that we’d driven by earlier.
Late afternoon had fallen outside by the time I stepped onto the porch and the Ozarks provided the entire area with a cool shade that clung to my skin as I traipsed down the gravel path toward the road.
“Lennon—” Brooks tried again but I ignored him, opening the white picket fence and stepping out into freedom.
Then a t-shirt clad chest blocked my vision, the scent of soap and a deep vanilla bourbon filling my nose and clinging to my tongue.
“What are you doing?” Maverick growled, standing before me in a pair of gray sweatpants and a t-shirt that were still damp. He looked like he’d been in the shower when his Spidey-senses to my bullshit had started to tingle and he had to make a quick exit to catch me acting up.
He was even wearing a pair of flip flops, which seemed more impossible than anything seeing as Maverick Onassis didnotlook like a man who would wear or even own a pair of flip flops.
Seeing the normally put together alpha so disheveled nearly made me laugh, but I held it in as I planted my hands on my hips and shot him what I hoped was a withering look.
“I’m going to go and eat,” I told him, adding an extra sliver of steel to my spine to keep from tilting my chin up like my instincts were screaming at me to do.
Smells so good,my normally quiet inner omega chirped as I took in another shallow drag of his malted liquor scent.
From behind me, the scent of bright fruity champagne wafted over to me, and I knew, before even looking, that we were quickly being joined by the rest of the security team.
I could smell all four of them now despite the fact that their scent blockers should still be very much in effect.
The oral scent blockers were supposed to be the strongest on the market and yet they seemed to be doing fuck all as I glanced between the four men encircling me like a pack of wolves.
