Read Online Hitman's Secret Baby: A Bad Boy Romance by McKenzie Lewis - Free Book Online Page A

a label on it.”
    “Let’s not,” she said thoughtfully, and a stab of disappointment pierced my chest so suddenly I took a step back. She corrected herself quickly. “I meant let’s not put a label on it. But sure, we can get out of here.”
    “Cool.” I nodded, stuffing my hands in my pockets.
    We’d almost had sex again, but I couldn’t go back there so soon after my attack of—whatever that was. My nightmares invading my waking hours or something, my subconscious cock-blocking me like the piece of shit it was.
    It felt good to get outside, into the warm evening air. I felt miles better with just one foot out the door.
    “We could just go for a stroll?” Taryn suggested. “I can leave my car here.”
    After my mom was murdered, I’d been paranoid for a long time about walking around town at night. Her murder chalked up to a robbery gone wrong, I’d seen criminals and thugs around every corner. In my eyes, everyone had a gun or a knife, everyone was out for blood.
    I’d met Jay and his group of shady friends and learned to protect myself, and all over an invisible enemy who turned out to be a man who I’d respected more than most others; the man who’d seen my love of horses and hard work and offered to let me help out on his ranch for a few dollars every weekend, who’d treated me like a son despite having a son of his own. No stranger lurking in an alleyway, but a man who I had trusted.
    “I still don’t like walking around here at night,” I admitted grudgingly, knowing Taryn deserved some insight into how I was feeling.
    “I’ve got your back,” she said, grinning up at me.
    It gave me a great idea all of a sudden, and I grabbed for her hand thoughtlessly. “Hey, come with me.”
    I started pulling her in the direction of the park. The smile stayed firmly on her face, and she squeezed my hand right back, like she was completely fine with it.
    We walked the short distance to the entrance of the local park. It was locked at this time of night, but a minute with a lockpick and I had the rusty iron gate screeching open.
    “That’s quite a trick,” Taryn quipped, giving me a bemused look.
    “What, you’re not gonna tell me off?”
    She shrugged. “Depends on what nefarious reason you brought me here for.”
    I led her to the wooded play area and onto the soft green flooring there, and then I stood, my legs parted in a fighting stance.
    Taryn raised an eyebrow. “You’re gonna… fight me?”
    “The lighting’s not great, but I figured I’d teach you a few self-defense techniques.”
    Without the glare from the main streets, the night sky here was clearer and the stars more visible. The distant park pathways were scattered with low-light streetlamps, giving the play area a very faint, almost ethereal glow.
    It was enough for the basics, though.
    “Okay,” Taryn said, breaking into a smile. “That sounds fun.”
    “Right.” I put my hands on her shoulders, turning her just off-side. “This is how you put more power in your punches.” I nudged her feet apart, guiding her to the right stance. “Make a fist for me.” She did, and I stepped behind her, gripping her wrist gently and drawing her arm back. “You wanna swing all the way through, putting all that momentum behind it.”
    I showed her how a couple times, pressing my chest against her back and moving with her, feeling the measured in and out of every breath and the joint stretch of our muscles.
    She did it just fine as I supervised, and I moved onto elbows and knees, where to angle a hit to put a guy on his knees.
    “What if I get grabbed?” she asked, breathing a little harder now.
    “I’ll show you.”
    Sweat prickled along my forehead in the heavy summer night air. I walked behind her, stepping forward and wrapping my arms tightly around her in a bear hug.
    “First thing,” I told her, muttering into her ear. I watched the flesh of her throat rise into goose pimples and I wanted to smile at the effect I had on her.