This time her orgasm was so violent, so exquisite, that she actually screamed. Colt roared in response, the sound reverberating clear through her as he unleashed all of his strength into her with a few more thrusts before everything went still. His fingers dug into her thighs, but the hold soon eased and she sank back onto the counter, too limp to move. She couldn’t even lift her head to see his face.
He held still inside of her for what felt like forever, and she almost cried out when he withdrew from her body. She didn’t want that connection to end. He threw the condom away and then cleaned them both with a towel before he helped her sit up. She blushed as he fixed his jeans and then cupped her face to press a slow, sweet kiss to her lips.
When they broke apart, she suddenly blurted out, “Please come over for dinner. I was planning to cook, and I want to cook for you.”
For a moment, his gaze was unreadable. Then he slowly smiled. “That sounds nice. What time?”
“Uh, give me two hours?” She needed to shower, then run to the store for a few things, dress up, and cook.
“Okay. Want me to bring anything?”
She beamed at him. “No, just you.” She felt ridiculously happy, and she knew she should be embarrassed, but right now that was impossible.
“All right.” He helped her off the counter, and she put her clothes back on.
“Great. See you in a few hours.” She kissed his cheek and rushed out of his house.
Ophelia showered, dressed, and rushed to the store to get ingredients for an instant pot barbecue beef recipe. When she got back to her car, rain was splashing in torrents down her windows. It was dark by the time she pulled into her garage.
She’d always loved storms and kept her garage door open as she unloaded the groceries from her trunk. The bags were in her arms, and she took a moment to watch the lightning illuminate the street as the rain moved in winding waves across the pavement.
She turned away, but the sight of a battered old car pulling into her driveway made her turn back. She didn’t know anyone who drove a car like that, and she wasn’t expecting anyone either. A chill raced down her spine, and she ran for the garage door leading into her house. She hit the button on the wall to close the garage door, but it bounced back up when the sensors were triggered by movement.
Ophelia screamed as two men rushed her in the dark. She threw the grocery bags at one man and got inside, but she couldn’t get the door closed. One of them had wedged his boot in the door, and then he hit her hard in the shoulder. Pain lanced up her body as she kept trying to get the door shut.
There was a shout on the other side of the door, and suddenly it was flung wide as one of them crashed into it, sending her sprawling on her back. Her head hit the floor, and she groaned as she tried to roll over onto her hands and knees.
One of the men grabbed her head and slammed it down on the floor. “Fucking bitch!” White dots flashed in the blackness behind her eyes.
“Grab what you can and load it in the car!” the man snapped. “I’ll take care of her.”
Pain flowed through her as she became aware of hands gripping her wrists and dragging her along the floor into the living room. She cried out as a boot sank hard into her side. The man was kicking her, though the realization came to her through a dark, frightening tunnel that left her stunned. Why was this happening?
“Pl-please stop!” she begged.
“Shut the fuck up!” A blow smacked her face to the side, and blood filled her mouth from her split lip.
“Stop fucking around, asshole!” the other man said. “I need you to help carry the TV. It’s too big.”
Ophelia tried to breathe. She was being robbed. The men were using the storm to cover it up. While they were busy with the TV, she had only a minute at most to move, to get to her phone or hide. Her fuzzy mind struggled to make a decision.
Phone. Get the phone.
She crawled around the back of her couch toward the kitchen. The sounds of crashing and cursing grew distant behind her. She was going to make it. She—
“Hey, where’s the bitch?”
“I don’t know.”
“Fucking find her!”
She heard footsteps, and suddenly strong hands grabbed her ankles.
She screamed just as a fist knocked her into terrifying nothingness.
Noah was sitting on the couch that backed up to Colt’s living room window. His tail wagged as he saw Ophelia’s car pull into the driveway. Colt scratched the dog behind the ears.
“She must have made a run to the store,” Colt explained to the German shepherd. The rain outside was coming down hard enough that visibility was poor. He had seen only Ophelia’s car lights, but it was enough to know it was her.
Lightning flashed a moment later as an old sedan with no lights on pulled into Ophelia’s driveway. Noah whined and shifted restlessly before he suddenly growled low at the back of his throat. Colt waited for the next flash of lightning, wondering who Ophelia had over. Then he saw two men run into her open garage. Every instinct warned him that Ophelia was in danger. He ran to the front door, opened it, and shouted a command at Noah.
“Protect!”
The dog shot out the door, and Colt was right behind him. Noah would protect Ophelia. He had been trained well with that command. God help whoever tried to hurt her now, because the dog would tear them apart.
Colt reached the garage and saw the open door into the house. Inside he heard a man scream and Noah snarling. The report of a gun made Colt flinch as he crept into the house. His breathing was fast out of fear for Ophelia, but his instincts were still good, and his fists were ready for anything. As he peered around the wall into the living room, he saw the shattered flat-screen on the floor and one man struggling with Noah. The dog had a hold on the man’s arm and was hanging on for dear life.
“Shoot him, Randy!” screamed the man Noah was biting. The other man held a gun and was trying to find a way to shoot the dog to free his friend from the dog’s bite, but Noah was jerking and tugging on the arm, making it hard for the second man to aim at him without shooting the first man.
“I can’t! I might shoot you!”
Colt charged the man with the gun from the side and took him down like he was sacking a quarterback. They hit the ground, and the gun was knocked from the man’s hand. Colt hit the man twice before the sound of Noah yelping pulled his attention away. Noah still hung on to the other man’s arm, but the man held a bloody knife.
Colt surged to his feet and jumped the second robber, grabbing his wrist in one hand and his neck with the other, crashing his head against the wall. The man’s eyes rolled back into his head, and he slumped to the ground.
“Release,” Colt ordered the dog. Noah let go of the man’s arm, and thankfully he didn’t seem to be gravely injured. “Find Ophelia, Noah.” The dog started sniffing, and Colt drew in a deep breath as he pulled his cell phone out and dialed 911.
“911, what’s your emergency?”
“My neighbor was attacked by two men. I brought my therapy dog, and we stopped them. I need the police and an ambulance.” He was breathing hard as he followed Noah into Ophelia’s bedroom. He saw her legs sticking out from the other side of the bed and nearly dropped his phone as terror swept through him.
“Do you see your neighbor? Is this person hurt?”