Page 2 of Gunner

Chapter 1

Lacey hated airports;she’d spent so much time in them throughout her career that she was over the whole experience. Looking up at the screens where the flights were listed, she groaned in frustration as the times all began to flick over to read delayed. That was just her luck, to be stranded in Düsseldorf International Airport overnight because of some damn storm.

Lacey sighed as she sank onto the hard-plastic seats made for torture and tried to decide what to do next. She was meant to be on her way to Gatwick where her friends Skye and Nate were picking her up. Lacey took out her phone and shot a text to Skye to let her know that the flight was delayed, and she would call when she knew more.

Putting her phone back in her Radley handbag, which was one of her favourite extravagances, she looked around the lounge as she figured out her next move. She should probably book herself a room overnight as the hotels would book up fast now with all flights off the table.

Rushing to the desk, she was glad she’d packed a few essentials in her hand luggage, the rest she could get at one of the shops in the terminal building. Seeing the pretty brunette woman at the desk, she smiled her best ‘please be nice smile’ and hoped she got lucky.

“Hi, can you help me? I need to book a room in the closest hotel.”

In heavily accented English the woman began to explain that a lot of the hotels were booked because there was some exhibition in town. Lacey felt her heart sink at the thought of a night in the airport on a chair.

“I don’t mind what it is, but can you try?”

With a huff, the woman began to type on her screen and then picked up the phone and called someone. She began speaking in rapid German, which sounded like she was telling someone off as she looked Lacey over as if she was an irritating fly she wanted to stamp on.

“Name?”

“Lacey Cannon.”

Lacey bit her lip and kept silent, hoping her compliance would win her brownie points. The woman eventually put the phone down and looked at her with a bored expression.

“You have a room booked at the Sheraton.”

Lacey’s legs almost gave way with relief; she was bone tired and just wanted a bed for the night.

“Thank you so much.”

As Lacey thanked her, the desk attended finally smiled, and it completely transformed her harsh features. It was one of the things Lacey knew from her modelling days, yet so many designers wanted them all to remain impassive and expressionless, like the mannequins they really were. It was something she wouldn’t allow in her children’s clothing line. All her kids had fun when they modelled, whether that was on the runway or behind a camera.

As she pulled her coat closer and stepped outside, the wind whipped her light blonde hair across her face. The storm was set to hit later tonight with gale-force winds and torrential rain for the next twenty-four hours.

Lifting a hand, she waved down a cab to the Sheraton. Once there, she tipped the driver and then checked in, noting the hotel had a spa pool and a cocktail bar. As she eyed the hotel shop, she realised she’d need to buy a swimsuit as hers was packed and on the plane.

The room was beautiful as Lacey had known it would be, but she’d stayed in hundred different rooms like it in her time, and as elegant as it was, she craved a home of her own. A place she could decorate and plant flowers and get a cat if she wanted. Roots. She wanted roots and a family, but for now, she’d settle for her own place.

Dumping her bags in the bedroom, she grabbed her purse and went down to the gift shop and picked out a red swimsuit with a cute little belt and added some personal items before paying. As she exited the shop, she realised her tiredness had disappeared, and she sighed knowing another night of insomnia was in her future unless she could tire herself out with swimming, and if not, there was always the hotel bar.

Quickly she changed and stowed her clothes and purse in the locker before wrapping her hair in a ponytail and walked into the almost empty pool area. Her breath left her in a sigh, and she wondered if she would ever get over her wariness of strangers. Yet, even as she thought it, she knew it wasn’t the strangers that had caused damage to her psyche but the man who was meant to have loved her.

Shaking off the heavyweight of melancholy that hit her, she replaced it with the kind eyes of the Viking warrior who’d saved her. She knew he wasn’t a Viking but with his long blond hair, blue eyes, and muscular build, he could’ve been. Especially with his sexy accent that hinted at a Swedish or Icelandic birth.

She knew from talking to Skye, Gunner was no longer working for Eidolon, but she didn’t know what the story was and had forced herself not to ask. Obsessing over a man she couldn’t have and shouldn’t be attracted to was utter stupidity. Gunner was too much man for her. She should’ve learned her lesson going for alpha males, it never worked out, and the last one had nearly killed her.

No, the only man in her future was her godson Noah, and maybe if she met a nice bookish professor, that could work. Placing her towel on a lounger, she walked to the edge and dove into the clear, cold water and began to swim laps. Her body and mind focused on each stroke as she swam lap after lap, not stopping to rest. Swimming was her relaxation, the way she kept her body toned and fit. Lacey hated to exercise, but she loved to swim, and if a modelling agency hadn’t picked her up, her coach said she could’ve gone to the Olympics. Lacey wasn’t sure about that, but she did love it, and it was a moot point now anyway.

After one hundred laps, she stopped to catch her breath and evaluate her muscles. They were aching, but she thought she could keep going, that was when she spotted a man watching her from the doorway. She couldn’t see his face, but she knew deep in her bones he was watching her, and it made the fine hairs on her neck stand on end in warning.

After what happened with her ex, when he’d kidnapped her at Nate and Skye’s wedding reception, she’d learned to listen to her gut, and it was telling her to leave this area and go someplace open.

Hauling herself from the pool, she grabbed her towel and quickly wrapped it around her body before walking into the ladies changing rooms. She smiled at two women who were chatting in German as they changed and slid into a private cubicle after retrieving her bag. In minutes she’d dressed and pulled her blonde hair into a ponytail high on her head to keep the wet strands off her neck.

Stepping from the beautifully decorated spa, she looked around the lobby of the hotel for anyone who might spark her fight or flight response and found nobody of interest. Shaking it off with a nervous laugh at her own paranoia, Lacey spotted the bar. That was what she needed—a drink to relax her and help her sleep.

With that decided she headed upstairs to drop off her bag, dismissing her earlier worries. As she took the elevator up, it stopped on the floor below her own and a man she didn’t know or recognise got in with a smile. He was handsome in a custom-fitted suit from one of her favourite designers. His eyes moved over her from head to toe in a silent invitation that made her body react but not in the way she’d expected. There was no desire, only the intrinsic need to run as she saw the cold in his eyes touch her.