Bodyguard SEAL (SEALs of Coronado Book 8), Paige Tyler [best classic books txt] 📗

night you had, but I thought you’d want to know that we caught the other kidnapper from last night. Uniform officers are bringing him to the Central Division station as we speak.”

That was the one part of last night he’d happily forget if he could. Just thinking about those assholes dragging Peyton into that van made his heart thump like a racehorse. Which was kind of crazy, considering all the near-death experiences he’d been through.

“How’d you catch the guy so fast?” he asked.

There was a chuckle from the other end of the phone. “Turns out our kidnapping suspect isn’t the brightest bulb in the box. We found the van in a parking lot in Encanto. One of our K9 teams tracked the man right to his apartment complex less than four blocks away. We took him into custody without any problems as soon as he opened the door.”

Noah would have thought the men who’d tried to kidnap Peyton were smarter than that. Knowing about her book and how valuable it would be on the black market implied they weren’t the run-of-the-mill smash-and-grab types. Hell, having the connections to sell her manuscript once they’d gotten it should have put those guys in a different stratosphere.

“I thought you might want to be there when we talk to the guy, so you can reassure Peyton this thing is really over,” Dwayne said, interrupting Noah’s mental ramblings. “I got the feeling she’d believe it more coming from you than me and the SDPD.”

Noah almost asked if his relationship with Peyton was that obvious, but decided the question wasn’t necessary. He already knew what Dwayne would say.

“Actually, yeah, I would. Thanks.” He glanced at the time on the DVR clock below his TV. “With traffic at this time of the morning, it will probably take me thirty of forty minutes to get to your part of town. Will that still work?”

“No problem,” Dwayne said. “It will take at least that long to process him and get him into an interrogation room. Longer if he asks for a lawyer.”

Noah got the directions for where he needed to go once he got to the Central Division station and then hung up, heading back to the bedroom.

Peyton was awake, one hand resting on the pillow behind her head, the position doing all kinds of amazing things to her already amazing breasts, which, as it turns out, weren’t covered by the blanket. Like she’d been planning to seduce him or something.

“I’m guessing that was Detective Harrison?” she asked, casually stretching in the morning sun streaming through the window like a cat. If he thought her breasts had looked entrancing before, it was nothing compared to now. And yes, his cock certainly noticed. Which reminded him of the fact that he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing.

The slight smile that tilted up the corners of her lips made him think Peyton had noticed him looking.

“Yeah, that was Dwayne.”

He’d intended to head over to the dresser for his clothes, but instead found himself climbing into bed with her. Peyton shoved the sheets and blankets aside, making room for him and baring her entire body. Even after all the time he’d spent gazing at her last night, it was still impossible not to stare again.

“They caught the driver of the van from last night,” he added. “Dwayne offered to let me be a fly on the wall while they questioned him.”

“When do you need to leave?” she asked, trailing her hands across his chest, her nails lightly grazing the muscles of his pecs.

“Pretty much now,” he admitted, hating the disappointed look that crossed her face. “I want to be there when they start talking to this guy and traffic is gonna be painful.”

She sighed. “I’d go with you, but unfortunately, I still have a lot more writing to get done today.”

Noah cursed himself for not including her in the trip down to the police station, assuming she wouldn’t be interested. Something to check himself about in the future. Make no assumptions.

“I wouldn’t even think about leaving you here alone if I thought you were in any danger,” he said, not sure if he was trying to reassure himself or her. “For one thing, no one knows you’re staying here, and for another, the people who were trying to get the book from you are now locked up. You’ll be fine here until I get back.”

Peyton seemed to accept that, but Noah still found himself curling the ends of her hair around his index finger. He was about to say something profound about always keeping her safe when Peyton leaned over and kissed him hard. Noah pulled her close, his hand finding its way deeper into her hair as he dragged his mouth away.

“I should go,” he rasped out in between her kisses. “Dwayne is waiting for me.”

She playfully nipped his lower lip, slowly wiggling her body on top of his. He was already hard before she even fully straddled him. “You’ll only be a few minutes late. I promise it will be worth it.”

He groaned, rolling her onto her back and kissed her again. “Did I ever tell you I like the way you think?”

* * * * *

“Okay, it’s official,” Peyton said into her phone as she sat on Noah’s comfy couch. “I’m falling seriously hard for your brother. And no, you aren’t getting any details about last night.”

Laurissa laughed. “Trust me, I have no desire to hear them.”

But just because Laurissa didn’t want to discuss the private aspects of last night’s adventures, that didn’t mean she didn’t want to hear everything else. So, while Peyton probably should have kept writing, she instead spent the next fifteen minutes telling her best friend everything that happened at his place after they got there, followed by a word-for-word recap of how she convinced Noah that they could have something real between them.

Laurissa practically swooned. “Man, if there was ever any doubt that you write romance for a living, it’s gone now.