NAM.
The words were written as plain as day. Sam glanced toward the living room for some unknown reason and immediately noticed the broken window. Those damned bastards.
Sam forgot all about his reason for being here, the reason he’d walked around throwing tantrums and being generally disagreeable for the past three days, and pulled Gwenyth back into his arms. He hugged her tightly against him and placed kisses on top of her head. “It’s okay, baby. You’re okay.”
“Yes.”
But was he? The fear that had gone through Sam when he’d realized what the scene around him meant told him he’d emotionally gone beyond the point of no return with one Gwenyth Marie Jones. Hell, he’d probably been at that point years ago unknowingly and just needed a nudge in the direction of the obvious. Well he knew now, damn it. And as soon as this nasty business with NAM was taken care of, Sam would make certain Ms. Jones had no viable alternative but to accept him wholeheartedly into her life.
But first, there was this to deal with. Sam balled his hands into fists behind Gwenyth’s back as he struggled to calm down. He would find out who had done this terrible thing if it was the last act he ever accomplished on planet earth. Nobody but nobody threatened his woman and got away with it.
And she was his. Whether or not Gwenyth Marie Jones realized it, her fate had just been sealed.
Chapter 7
“It ain’t happenin’. Nuh uh. No way. Ferget it.” Granddad Willy slashed his hand tersely through the air then planted his fists on either bony hip. He waggled his eyebrows at Gwenyth in a manner that suggested she could broach no argument.
Sam glanced at Willy’s newest t-shirt, a neon pink cotton with a slogan that read:Straight But Not Narrow. Verlene stood beside her husband, elegantly decked out as usual in a corn blue silk shirt and shorts set. In this argument, an argument that had been raging in the Jones’ Hyde Park home for over two hours, the family matriarch was unequivocally taking Willy’s side. “I agree with the men this time, sugar. It’s best if you stay here with us. You’ll be going to California in two days anyway, so I fail to see why you’re making such an issue of this.”
Sam threw Gwenyth a smug look, all but daring her to tell her grandparents why she was avoiding staying under the same roof as him at all costs. After the police had left and the furor and shock of the window smashing had died down, she had gone right back from throwing herself into his arms to hightailing it in the other direction.
Gwenyth ground her teeth together and shot a desperate glance toward Harry. “You heard what the police said. They think it was just a silly prank perpetrated by a bored neighborhood kid!”
Harry sighed as he ran his fingers through his short, tawny hair. “Sis, I know you dislike feeling as though you’re being held prisoner here, but it’s only for a couple of nights.” His gaze was innocent and fairly pleading. “Can you please put your safety first and let my contacts in the police department look into the situation while you’re in LA? That way we’ll all feel better about letting you go back to your apartment when you return.”
Gwenyth chewed on her lower lip anxiously. She knew her brother was right. Although she wasn’t worried over the possibility that a bunch of whining NAMers might possibly try to do her in, everyone else was. It wouldn’t be fair of her to allow the others to worry—especially her seventy-year-old grandparents—when she could just as easily stay here and put all their fears for her safety to rest.
Gwenyth glanced at Sam, noting that he harbored the look of a man who knew he was about to get his way. She could only pray she had the fortitude to not give him his way in one very important respect. Two nights. She only had to last two more nights. Then she could spend her time in LA sorting out her rather complex feelings concerning one overly virile baseball player. “Okay. You win.” She splayed her hands at her sides and sighed. “I’ll stay here.”
Granddad Willy harrumphed. “’Bout time you used the brain the good lord gave you, Gwenyth Marie.” He motioned for Sam, indicating that he was supposed to carry Gwenyth’s suitcases upstairs. “Now, unless there are any other family crises I need to straighten out, your Grandmama and I have a date with a bucket of popcorn and that new docu-drama on TV,Alien Playboys.”
Sam raised a brow. His amused Southern lilt was questioning. “Isn’t that the show where women tell stories of how they were abducted by aliens, forced into sexual servitude, then brought back to earth after they were impregnated by them?”
“Yes sir, it is.” Willy nodded regally…or as regally as a man could nod while sporting a hot pink t-shirt. “I believe Jackie Stallone will be on tonight.” He leaned in closer to Sam and whispered in a conspiratorial manner. “Apparently ole Sylvester is the love child of a little gray guy on Planet Drago.”
“That certainly explains a lot.”
Harry rolled his eyes to the ceiling and groaned. “Please never let on to any reporters that you actually watch such ridiculous programs, let alone believe what you see on them.” He visibly shuddered. “I can see my gained percentage points flushing down the toilet if that ever got out.”
Verlene laughed gracefully. “Sugar, don’t be silly. You know Granddad and I would never do anything to embarrass you publicly.”
Willy harrumphed. “That’s right. I’m even wearin’ a genuine tux for your little dinner at the University of Tampa tomorrow night.”
Harry crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at his grandfather. “If it looks anything like that fashion monstrosity you wore to my college graduation, I’ll save my thanks until later.”
“Now see here Mr. High and Mighty, there wasn’t a blessed thing wrong with that tux!”
“It. Was. Polyester.” Harry bit each word out through clenched teeth.
“And damned fine polyester it was too, son.”
Chuckling, Sam clapped Harry on the back. “Not to worry, buddy. Willy and I went shoppin’ together two days ago. He’ll look like Dapper Don at your dinner.”
Harry released a worried breath. “Thank God for that,” he muttered.
Sam hoisted up Gwenyth’s suitcases into either hand, then waited for her to make eye contact. When she did, his possessive gaze inspected her thoroughly. “Your room here is the one next to mine, right Gwen?”
Gwenyth swallowed somewhat roughly, but managed to keep a serene look about her. His question couldn’t have been more loaded. “Yes, I believe it is.”
