“It’s okay. You’re okay.”
She shook her head. “At least I didn’t open the door this time. I told him to just leave it outside.”
“That was smart,” Eagle told her.
Taylor looked up at him. “How’d he know your name?”
“I don’t know.”
That didn’t comfort her in the least. They stood together for another minute or two before Eagle pulled back. He turned from her and opened the oven door. The sight of the pizza, which had smelled so good earlier, made her stomach turn.
Eagle put on an oven mitt and pulled out the box. He placed it on the counter and looked at the information on the receipt at the edge of the box . . . and frowned.
“What?” Taylor asked. “What does it say?”
“It’s addressed to Thanatos,” Eagle said grimly.
The hair on Taylor’s arms stood up. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“That was the name of the guy who rear-ended me,” Taylor said unnecessarily. It was obvious Eagle recognized the name.
“It’s got your address on it, too, not mine,” he informed her. Then he flipped open the box—and swore again.
Taylor walked up to his side and stared down at the pizza. It looked cheesy and gooey, covered in pepperoni, sausage, and chopped olives . . . but the olives were arranged in such a way that they spelled out a word.
Soon.
Taylor shuddered violently.
“I’m calling the cops,” Eagle declared and reached for his phone.
Taylor grabbed his arm. “To tell them what? That I let someone into my apartment and he changed my air filter, then left? That a man ran into my car, promised to take care of the damage, and didn’t? To tell them we got a pizza we didn’t order? They aren’t going to take this seriously, especially when I can’t describe the guy. Yeah, I can tell them what he was wearing—overalls, a pizza-place uniform—but that’s it. We have no evidence of anything!”
By the time she finished speaking, she was almost hysterical.
“I’m going to keep you safe,” he told her.
Taylor shook her head. “You can’t! He’s just fucking with me now. He could’ve hurt me in my apartment the other day, easily, because I stupidly opened the door to him! Now he’s letting me know he can get to me at any time. Even here! But for some reason, he’s waiting for something. Toying with me!”
“Listen to me,” Eagle pleaded, but she couldn’t. Everything seemed to be crashing down on her.
“He knows your name! What’s next? He’ll go after you? We don’t even know who this guy is or why he’s messing with me!”
“I hope he does,” Eagle said.
“No! I don’t want anyone coming after you! Or me! It doesn’t make sense. What’d I do to deserve this? I just want it all to stop!”
“It will.”
“When, Eagle? When is it gonna stop?”
“I don’t know, but—”
“No one knows! It might never stop! I could be eighty-seven, and this guy could still be messing with my head!”
“He won’t. He’ll make a mistake and—”
Taylor was too far gone to listen to his efforts to placate her. “I need to leave. To move. Go someplace where no one knows who I am or where I’m from, maybe then I can—”
It was Eagle who didn’t let her finish a sentence this time. He pulled her into him, one hand behind her head and the other arm banded around her waist.
Taylor struggled to get out of his grip, but he wasn’t letting go.
“I love you!” Eagle blurted almost angrily.
Taylor froze.
“I love you,” he repeated a little softer. “I’m not going to let anyone get their hands on you. I’ve never felt for someone the way I feel about you, Taylor, and I’m not going to let anyone fuck up what we have.”
Taylor lifted her head, Eagle’s hand shifting so his fingers were in her hair. “You love me?” she repeated meekly.
“Yes,” he said, simply and without prevarication.
Taylor was literally at a loss for words. No one in her entire life had ever told her that they loved her. Not that she could remember.
“Tay? Say something,” Eagle pleaded.
And for the first time, she saw the uneasiness in his gaze. He may not have meant to blurt out his feelings, but she didn’t want him to regret them. Not for one second.
“I love you too,” she told him, voice breaking. “You’ve made my life better in so many ways, I can’t even list them all.” Then she admitted her deep shame. “No one has ever loved me before.”
“Their loss,” Eagle said immediately. “You’re the most loveable person I’ve ever met,” he told her.
They stared at each other for a moment before Taylor asked, “What are we going to do about this guy, Eagle?”
“We aren’t going to do anything. I am. Silverstone and I. We’re going to find this asshole, and you’re going to keep on living your life as best you can in the meantime. It does mean you probably won’t get much alone time in the near future, until we nail his ass.”
“I have no problem with that,” Taylor agreed without hesitation.
“You’re going to have to get used to me being around you every second of every day,” Eagle warned.
“Okay,” she said. Then asked, “Is that supposed to be a hardship? Because it’s really not.”
She couldn’t believe she was teasing him seconds after a mini breakdown. In the past, when she’d been bullied, her foster families hadn’t cared. No one had done a damn thing about it. And now here she was, with a former Delta Force soldier completely pissed off and determined to find whoever was stalking her to make him stop. She’d honestly never felt safer in her life.
“Eagle?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“Remember when you told me last night that you’d teach me how to give a blow job?”
Eagle’s eyes widened, and Taylor could see his pupils dilate. “Yes . . .”
“I thought about that all afternoon. I’m ready. I want to please you like you do me. Help me forget about all of this, especially that asshole . . . just for a little while. Please?”
He moved quickly, turning and shutting the lid of the pizza box. He grabbed the Chinese food and put it in the fridge. Then he took hold of her hand and practically dragged her down the hall toward the bedroom.
“We’ll eat afterward, and I’ll call Bull and the others later to let them know about the fucking pizza.”
Taylor couldn’t help but smile as she stared at the back of Eagle’s head. She should probably still be losing her shit over whoever it was who seemed to delight in scaring the hell out of her, but at this moment, all she could think about was getting her hands—and mouth—on Eagle’s cock. He hadn’t let her play much up until now, claiming that he’d lose it too fast if she did. But for tonight, all bets were off. She was his, and he was hers. “Sounds good. I love you, Eagle.”
“I love you too, Flower.”
Brett couldn’t stop fantasizing about how freaked out his Taylor must’ve been when she’d opened the pizza box to find the message he’d left for her. He had no idea if she’d read the name he’d put on the label, but it didn’t matter. He was ready to claim what was his.