Page 17 of Mitch

Chapter Seven

Hittingsend on the uploaded manuscript, Autumn leaned back with a relieved sigh. That was the last of the editing done for the one and only job she’d managed to get this week, but it paid well enough, and everyone had to start somewhere. Rubbing her aching neck from hours bent over a laptop, she stood and walked to the window. It was a beautiful sunny day in May, and she wanted to spend the afternoon in the garden with Maggie.

Like her, Maggie loved the fresh air, and she had some borders to plant thanks to Mitch allowing her to treat the garden as her own. Pouring a glass of water, she took a sip as she considered the last three weeks. He’d shocked her with his revelation, but after she’d gotten over the surprise and fear, it had been a relief.

Hiding was hard work, especially for someone like her who was open and expressed her feelings on her face. Autumn was reassured that she was safe with Mitch after putting in a call to her contact at the National Crime Agency. Having been in Hereford five weeks now she’d spoken with the person on the local force who’d be her new protection point of contact, and they were happy with her set up and entirely up to date on her case.

Her frustration though was with Mitch, and how slow he was taking things. He’d kissed her, but that was it, and she’d wondered if perhaps he was worried about her being a widow and still mourning her husband. He couldn’t be more wrong, her love for Terrell had died the night she’d found out about his illegal activities, although their problems had begun a long time before that.

A cry from the monitor had her setting her glass down with a smile and turning to get Maggie from her bed. The past was where it belonged, and now she had to concentrate on her and her daughter’s future.

A short time later with a blanket lying on the grass, Autumn was planting a shrubbery border along with the lawn that would offer colour almost year-round. Mitch has told her gardening wasn’t his thing and said she could do whatever she liked with it. He’d drawn the line at letting her pay for it though, and they’d argued about that until he’d kissed her, and she’d forgotten everything but the taste of him. The man could kiss like the very devil until her brain was mush and her body was screaming for more.

With the sun warm on her back, it was hard not to be happy, the smile pulling at her lips felt rusty as if it had been too long since she’d really smiled, but she was optimistic, cautiously so, but she felt hope for the first time in a long while. Where things might go with her sexy landlord she had no idea, but she was enjoying being with him and the easy friendship they’d developed to go with whatever else was happening between them. If it turned out to be just friendship then so be it, although she knew it would be mind-blowing to have sex with a man like Mitch. Something told her he’d know exactly how to find the places on her body that made her moan with pleasure.

Autumn glanced up as the man in question ambled towards her, his easy stride long and loose and at odds with the coiled power in him that never seemed to leave. Even when they were alone she sensed it.

“Hey, want some help?”

Autumn looked up at him from under her hand, as she shielded her eyes from the afternoon sun. “I thought you hated gardening.”

Mitch crouched so that she could see him without the sun at his back, his face inches from hers. “I do, but I like being around you.”

Autumn smiled, her heart warming at his words. “Were you always such a charmer?”

Mitch gave her a lopsided grin as he winked. “From the day I was born.”

“Arrogant.”

His face moved in closer, the look in his eye devilish, making her feel almost dizzy with desire for him.

“Is it arrogant if it’s true?”

She grasped his dark green tee with a muddy hand and pulled his lips closer. “Yes, but apparently I like it.”

He smiled against her lips before kissing, her softly. It was languorous and lazy, just like the early summer day stretching before her. A moan of pleasure slipped past her lips as he kissed his way towards the pulse at her neck.

“Fucking perfect.”

Mitch pulled back, and she swayed, dazed by the feeling he evoked in her.

Leaving her, Mitch fell to his knees beside her daughter, who was now having fun rolling onto her back. Her little hands came up, a smile on her face as she tried to grab for Mitch.

“Hello, gorgeous, how are you today?”

Autumn loved the way he included her baby in every interaction; he’d even changed a diaper, albeit reluctantly and with gagging noises.

“How come you call her gorgeous and me honey?”

Mitch glanced at her as he played bicycle with her daughter’s legs making her belly laugh. He cocked his head, squinting against the sun. “She’s gorgeous and you, well, you smell like honeysuckle. Every time I think of you, the scent comes to mind.”

Autumn loved that he thought of her enough to give her a nickname, knew she was growing more and more attached to this man.

“I like that,” she said simply.

“So, tell me what to do?”

He grabbed a trowel and held it aloft like a weapon as she showed him how to dig a trough for her to plant the small shrubs. Autumn could so easily imagine him as law enforcement. He’d told her he’d worked for SO19 as a sniper and now his job was as the weapons expert at the company where he worked. He hadn’t told her much else, just that they did a little of this and that for the government.