Possessive Protector: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 61) Read online

  “The only regrets are had by those that get in my way,” I say and pivot on the ball on my foot and walk right out of there hearing him gasp in the background.

  Now that the power dynamic is understood I shouldn’t be having any more problems with him.

  Now to make sure Quincy doesn’t have any more problems ever again either. That’s why I’m here anyways, not to argue with some old man in a uniform who’s more interested in collecting his pension in a few years than actually looking out for the flock he’s supposed to be protecting.

  But that’s okay. I’ll be happy to do that for him…especially when it comes to her.

  CHAPTER 4

  Quincy

  “How was class, honey?” my mom asks.

  I mumble and bound up the stairs to my room and lock the door behind me.

  I lie on my back on the bed and the last time I saw him comes flooding back, crystal clear in my mind playing like a movie…

  “Don’t you fucking touch her, Blair!” Knight yells.

  “Fuck off, Knight. Take your sorry ass to the sidelines. You’re out, loser.”

  I hate that kid. Blair Bortles. He’s the biggest kid at school but he only picks on children who are smaller than he is.

  It’s recess and dodgeball has narrowed down to nine versus two. Ah, the joys of small town life. Sixth graders and first graders playing dodgeball together. That’s fair, right? Hardly.

  But the two are me and Knight and Knight counts for a lot more than just one.

  “Please move to the side, Knight,” Ms. Cartwright calls.

  I watch as Knight stare down Blair and slowly moves toward the side, but I can see he’s not really going to move completely from the basketball court where we’re playing dodgeball.

  Suddenly Blair, the baseball pitcher prodigy, cocks back his arm and let’s lose the dodgeball.

  All I can see is a white blur headed right toward my glasses.

  I raise my hands, close my eyes, and bend my body away preparing for the impact that will leave me black and blue, at best, and out a pair of glasses and needing a trip to the doctor’s office, at worst.

  I hear an “uh,” and open my eyes just in time to see Knight laid out completely horizontal in front of me knocking the dodgeball off course and protecting me from the embarrassment and pain that was just a few feet from becoming my reality.

  Almost as soon as Knight’s making contact with the floor he’s up and barreling down at Blair.

  “Two strikes!” Ms. Cartwright yells, reminding Knight about our school’s three strikes and you’re out policy.

  Knight either never heard her or never cared.

  All because of me.

  He tore into Blair like a starved pit bull into fresh meat.

  That was the last I ever saw of him. I never even had a chance to thank him or say I was sorry for what happened to him.

  He was expelled immediately, and Blair spent the rest of the school year eating soup out of a straw.

  I didn’t have any friends at school at that point, but here was this boy who I didn’t even know and had never even talked to risking everything to protect me.

  I didn’t even know what friendship, loyalty, or trust really meant until that moment. They were just words in books I’d read until him. Until I felt what those words really meant.

  Saw them in action from my twelve-year-old white knight in shining armor sticking up for some uncoordinated, awkward, and geeky six-year-old girl.

  And I’ve used his actions as my guideline ever since which is why I still don’t really have any friends and never even came close to having a boyfriend let alone a first kiss, prom date, or even an interest in a boy.

  He was everything I wanted in the opposite sex even when I was too young to want the opposite sex. He was immediately my best friend even though we’d never even spoke one word to each other. My silent protector.

  But I knew he was there. I saw him watching me every day at recess up to that point. He’d just watch me and whenever someone got to close I’d turn and he’d just be there, but saying nothing…because he didn’t have to.

  He wasn’t the biggest kid back then, but there was just something about him that anyone with any sense in their head knew not to mess with him.

  Some people thought he was completely off his rocker…crazy.

  But the truth was I was crazy for him.

  And still very much am.

  And now he’s protected me again. Different guy, similar result.

  CHAPTER 5

  Knight

  My biological dad abandoned my mom and I when I was two. I never saw him or spoke to him in my life. It didn’t matter to me much anyways. My mom was more of a man than most quote unquote men I’d ever met. She worked two jobs just to keep a roof over our heads and a warm meal on the table. I never heard her complain once.

  She was working the day shift as a nurse at the county hospital and as a cashier at the corner store when those bank robbers decided to pass through our town and refuel their getaway car.

  She never had a chance, and according to my social worker neither did I.

  Getting into a fight at school and smashing in a boy’s face was all the ammo the school needed to send me packing.

  Getting kicked out of school didn’t upset me at all. I was never cut out for it. I figured I’d just hang around before and after and keep an eye out on that girl I was so fascinated by.

  Quincy.

  But apparently just expelling me from school wasn’t enough.

  They wanted me out of town, the county, and even the state.

  Six years and a lot more trouble later I joined the military to appease a judge. I fit in really well at first until I realized it was just a job to most of them after a couple of years. One night when everyone else was out getting plastered at the bar I went to a tattoo parlor for the first time amazed by the commitment someone would take to put something on their skin that was everlasting.

  And the only thing in my life that had stayed with me all those years was the thought of her.

  So I sat down in that chair and had The Lord’s Prayer tattooed right across my chest in Latin.

  But the meaning meant something else to me entirely.

  It was an apology in advance. A request for forgiveness. I’m not a religious man, but I understand, “Forgive me my trespasses.”

  And I was going to need a lot of forgiveness in the future because I was going to keep on “trespassing” in her life until she was mine.

  I wasn’t taking no for an answer, and I wouldn’t have to.

  And I wasn’t about to force myself on her or try and intimidate her into liking me. Nothing like that.

  I was going to show her that she was mine. Show her that I was the only choice. Win her hand.

  Even though I had something looming over my head that she might not even know anything about.

  Something her parents did to me that same day I got kicked out of school.

  Seems her dad had seen me around their property before. He had. I used to stay out front and silently and stealthily stand guard at night sometimes. Call me crazy. I don’t care.

  So when they were stacking the charges against me after that damn dodgeball incident her dad jumped in and smacked a restraining order on me.

  A restraining order on a twelve-year-old? Are you kidding me?

  Is that even possible? Legal?

  And all I wanted was to be there by her side. Be a friend to that girl who didn’t seem to have any. Just like me.

  We were two outcasts. Peas in a pod. Her and I.

  But I knew one day it would be so much more. She was so damn pretty and I knew one day she’d grow up to be even more beautiful.

  And today proved me right.

  I know my juvenile record is expunged, but I don’t really believe that. I have to be careful. Judges, lawyers, juries…they’re human. They remember.

  Especially in small towns.

  That’s why I looked at her out
of the corner of my eye, making sure not to dig up wounds with her old man.

  Not yet.

  But damn, even a half-glimpse of her confirmed what I knew would be true.

  She’s a knockout. Stunning. Perfect.

  Everything I could ever want.

  But she’s only twenty-one…still a student.

  And I’m twenty-seven…already a man.

  But what difference does six years matter?

  None in my book.

  And now that I worked my way back, doing an exemplary job in the military and at the police academy, and I’m a cop here in this small town I’m going to check my records and see what they’re still holding against me.

  So I can hold her body against mine forever.

  CHAPTER 6

  Quincy

  Since when is Google not all-knowing?

  I step outside of the public library about half a mile from my house and realize I was inside longer than I thought. It’s now dark out and a bit creepy. Unfortunately in my town hanging out at the library at closing time seems about as safe as a bus station in a bad part of town in a big city.

  I know it’s nowhere as close, and ninety-nine percent of the people in town are really nice, but it’s always that one percent you have to keep in the back of your mind.

  Like earlier today.

  How I wish Knight was here right now.

  I pull out my phone and prepare to request an Uber but the minute I fire up the app my phone shuts down saying I’ve used up all my battery.

  I dig in my backpack for my portable charger and thirty seconds later realize it’s at home…charging, of course.

  I step down the front steps and begin the trek home.

  The sounds of the locusts in the trees is eerie. A slight breeze brushes across my face and I see some leaves blow in front of the sidewalk into the street.

  And I hear a noise.

  I stop.

  Nothing.

  Did that guy not get the hint earlier today? There’s no way he’s that stupid. No way he’d risk anything knowing Knight would come for him.

  No way.

  I take another step forward and hear a slight hum in the background. It sounds like a fan in the other room at home, or the aircon running on a summer day.

  But this is a dark summer night and I’m still a long ways from home.

  I walk a bit faster but the sound keeps pace with me.

  I stop abruptly and swing my head around in all directions.

  Nothing.

  Dammit I don’t like this one bit.

  I know someone’s out there watching me. Stalking me. I’m scared.

  How I wish Knight was here now.

  I take a deep breath in and try and steady myself but it doesn’t work. There are no mental or physical tricks I can use right now to reduce my fear.

  I’ve got to get home on my own.

  I put one foot in front of the other and the buzz begins again.

  Now I’m really scared…losing my mind.

  I have no idea why but I yell, “Knight!”

  Suddenly I hear the roar of an engine and a black motorcycle pulls up right next to me.

  The driver doesn’t even turn to look at me. His helmet is faced forward. His body and head perfectly still and his tinted visor down even in the dark of night.

  There are no distinguishing characteristics and that in and of itself is the single characteristic that defines him.

  No talking. No exceeds or nervous body movements.

  Complete stillness. Complete calm. A beacon in the night.

  His head nods slightly to the side motioning for me to get on the back of the bike.

  I feel my hand shaking, but I have to be near him right now. Have to know I’m safe and the only person in the world I trust with my safety is him.

  I approach the bike and put my foot on the peg. I step up and swing my leg over the other side and settle in behind him.

  I feel the engine idle underneath me and my first thought is to ask him if this is an electric motorcycle. Do those even exist?

  And why would I ask him? He’d never answer. He wouldn’t even look at me today.

  I wrap my arms around his black leather jacket and try and connect them in front of him, but he’s too big…too thick…too much everything.

  His hand comes off the throttle and he brings it around behind him.

  He’s got a helmet for me? Where did he even have that thing?

  I take the helmet from him and put it on over my head. It smells new and fits me like a glove. It’s surely a women’s helmet. Did he buy this just for me?

  His hand taps me twice on the outside of the thigh before he brings it back to the handlebar and we take off…slowly putting pavement behind us.

  I appreciate that he’s going super slow even though I have a helmet on. I can imagine how this motorcycle must feel out on the open road or in the curves of some steep hill when he’s riding it by himself, but not tonight. This ride is all about getting me home safely and just a couple minutes later that’s exactly where I find myself.

  He idles a few houses down from mine and I step off the bike.

  I pull the helmet from my head and extend my hand offering to give it back.

  He shakes his head slightly from side to side without moving it much from its straightforward position.

  I guess he wants me to keep it. Who know what he has planned next.

  “Thanks Knight,” I say.

  He says nothing.

  I just stand there looking at him. The thickness of his back even through the black leather. The girth of his thighs as they press against that sleek black sports bike.

  The way the jacket hugs his biceps and the thickness of his neck.

  Still no response from him.

  I begin walking toward my house and he doesn’t move but I know his eyes are on me.

  I slide my key in the door and turn and light shoots out from the inside and illuminates my front steps.

  Immediately I hear the roar of his engine and I turn just in time to see him peel out before he tips the bike back and does a wheelie, white smoke trailing him.

  But the smoke is past my house so I don’t have to smell it.

  “What’s that sound?” my dad yells. “And why in the world are you holding a motorcycle helmet?”

  CHAPTER 7

  Knight

  The way her hands hugged my sides.

  The feeling of her breasts pressed up against my back.

  And the sound of her breathing in my ear. Yeah, I could hear it through the helmet. I could feel her pulse in her fingertips for Pete’s sake.

  And it energized the hell out of me.

  I peeled out down her street and popped a wheelie and I really don’t give a damn what the neighbors think.

  Let ‘em all know this hometown boy’s back to make good.

  And I’m not a boy anymore. I’m a man. Her man.

  And she knows it.

  Three minutes later I’m across town and pulling into my garage.

  I step inside my house and flip open my laptop.

  Time to access the police station’s records and see what they’ve got on me.

  I search by name and sure enough…

  File locked. See supervisor.

  This is complete bullshit.

  I get right back on my bike and fly down to the station, pushing open the doors when I get there.

  “Knight?” the desk sergeant says.

  “You have supervisory access to the database?”

  “What do you need, Knight?”

  “A record search.”

  “For who?”

  “Me.”

  “You need to put in a request for that,” Sergeant Kaltreider says.

  “I’m asking you now…politely. I need to see my record,” I pause. “Please.”