Run Darling: Toy Runners, #3

By Adriana Herrera

She knows exactly how to jingle his bells…

 

All Arabella Gaspar wanted was to buy some fun sexy grown-up toys for her first time leading her house's run, but after one or two—okay, a dozen—threats from Magi who don't think a girl should be a Toy Runner (eye-roll) her overprotective brothers have stuck her with none other than Rhyne Carrasco to be her bodyguard. So what if she had a crush on him once? He's made his feelings about her abundantly clear. And she has moved on. But she isn't above showing the man exactly what he's missing.

 

Rhyne Carrasco has one regret in his life, and her name is Arabella Gaspar. His best friend's younger sister, the darling of the House of Gaspar, and the bane of his existence. Rhyne has kept his distance for years, running from her tempting smart mouth and delectable body. But the girl he left seven years ago is very different from the woman he's now tasked to protect.

 

This Arabella is grown…and sexy as hell. Self-assurance and sensuality radiate from her, and Rhyne cannot stay away. When an accident in the toy factory keeps them in the North Pole and the same bed for the night Rhyne sees his chance to make her his. It is high time he claimed what is his, and he intends to make sure it's forever.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Adriana Herrera Publishing, LLC
• Release date: Dec 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215640494

Adriana Herrera

Adriana Herrera was born and raised in the Caribbean, but for the last 15 years has let her job (and her spouse) take her all over the world. She loves writing stories about people who look and sound like her people, getting unapologetic happy endings. 

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

Arabella

Have you ever used one of these? It’s got twinkle lights inside!

My unamused companion directed an icy glare at the wine-bottle-sized Christmas-green dildo I held up for his viewing.

We’ve been here too long, Arabella. This message was delivered as he glared at everything in his general vicinity. To be fair this place was…a trip. The showroom for one of the most exclusive toymakers—sex toys, that is—in the North Pole. We were in a winter wonderland decked out with all kinds of Christmas trees, garland, and lights despite it only being October. But when you were a Toy Runner, the fall was late in the procurement season, and this trip was the final effort to secure the adult toys our house would be distributing for the first time as part of our run.

And honestly, the place was adorable. The ornaments and décor were all either miniatures of the toys the company made or live-sized ones, like the lovely ten-foot fir, only inches from my moody escort, which was cheekily decorated with a surprisingly creative array of gnome-shaped butt plugs.

So grumpy, Captain Rhyne. How can anyone not get into the holiday spirit surrounded by such horny merriment? I didn’t expect him to react to my taunting and was not disappointed. Other than the dirty look he sent the sparkly dildo.

Rhyne Carrasco had no sense of humor and even less patience when it came to my antics. My toxic trait was finding ways to annoy him. Not to mention, his presence had me on edge. At twenty-five, the last thing I needed was a fucking babysitter when I was trying to do my job. Especially one who had made an art of pretending I didn’t exist for the last seven years.

Visits to new toymakers take the time they take, Rhyne. I lifted a shoulder in a don’t blame me pal gesture and proceeded to a vicious-looking set of nipple clamps shaped like jingle bells—this place was the best—from one of the display tables. I could’ve come alone, you know?

He scoffed from the portion of the wall he’d commandeered. Even now when it was just the two of us in this room, he was looking right through me. It took everything I had not to chuck the damn plastic dick at his neck. I was always out of sorts around him. After so many years, Rhyne acting like we barely knew each other, his dismissal, still hurt my stupid feelings.

I am here for your protection. You are one of the three head runners of the House of Gaspar. I bit the inside of my lip too keep from cursing him out. I hated it when he got all condescending. Magis don’t leave the realm without a guard, especially after the threats you received. I am here to keep you out of trouble, and so I am.

Yes, please mansplain my own damn ancestry for me, Rhyne. He blinked at that which was probably as much of an apology as I was going to get. One threat, only one, I protested for the millionth time.

We take every threat seriously, Miss Gaspar. Annoyance flared hot inside me at his formality. I hated when he talked to me like this, like we were strangers. Like I hadn’t known him my whole life. Like I hadn’t been in love with him for a third of it. The animosity that took hold of me whenever he acted like I was a silly girl he needed to babysit, always pushed me to act in ways that just validated his shitty opinion.

But I was not letting my emotions govern me today. I had enough to worry about with this purchase. My two brothers, the two other leaders of our house’s run, had not been very receptive to the idea of adding adult toys to our run. Our house, one of the six charged with distributing toys for children in the southern hemisphere, was the oldest and most traditional in the Magi realm. Our father, before he passed, struggled to innovate. While all the other houses had made strides to modernize, we were stuck in a rut. Since I came on to the toy run, I’d managed to cajole my brothers into trying new things. I knew that this trip would be my only chance to shake things up.

This toymaker, these products, had to be perfect or they’d use any excuse to nix the other ideas I’d been proposing to drag us out of the Middle Ages. It was also very true that there had been a scary threat made after my brothers had announced to the heads of all the houses in the Magi realm that I would officially be one of the team leaders of our family’s run.

You would think they were intending to blow up the whole thing, with the way these Magi whined about having a girl in their midst. And even though I would never admit it to Rhyne, it had been pretty terrifying when my brothers had played the message the person left. I also didn’t need to get into an argument with him, my brother’s best friend, who would probably report back that I was a spoiled brat who didn’t take threats on my life seriously.

I did take them very seriously, I just hated being handled.

First by my overbearing brothers and now by him. I wish he would at least consult me on his plan to keep me safe, but every time I’d tried asking him, he’d shut me out. It was irritating as fuck. Which was why I was acting out. And I had to admit, my revenge plan of torturing him by making him watch me fondle dildos and butt plugs, so far, was not very satisfying. Not that one could tell from looking at him. The only telltale sign he wasn’t as unbothered to be alone with me in a room that screamed cheerful depravity, was the frown line right between his eyes, and the barely there flush on his cheeks. But I had other ways of pushing his buttons.

It’s funny how you have a whole squad of run guardians but decided to personally come to this sex toy purchase with me. I made a point of wearing a bedazzled cock ring on my ring finger. It’s almost like you want to be my keeper, Captain Carrasco. With the naughty ring still on my hand, I turned my attention to some nipple clamps, opening and closing them just an inch over my breasts. Every time I did it, his throat moved like he was out of saliva.

I don’t trust any of them to know how to handle you.

I was delusional enough to get turned on by the edge in his voice. Because despite the fact that Rhyne had no qualms about letting me know he would never reciprocate my feelings, my body never learned the lesson.

Rhyne Carrasco had never been a man to toy with. He was a hard-ass in every sense of the word and absolutely did not suffer fools, but in the past—before I ruined everything—he’d always indulged me. I was feeling needy enough to test whether he still would.

For someone who can’t stand me, seems like you are really doing a lot to be around me. I winked at him before moving on to a row of glittery paddles and crops. He just stared back with an irritatingly neutral expression on his face. His eyes never left me though, he tracked my every move. I knew it was his job to do, but having his attention like this had me on fire. He was so fucking intense. His big body taut. A human-sized weapon of war, ready to be deployed for my safety. The thought of him protecting me, shielding me with his body, did things to mine. I could feel the wetness between my thighs. My nipples tight and tingly as I moved around the room.

I wasn’t delusional enough to think he was affected in the same way I was. His focus on me was purely professional. Because God forbid he ever deviated from the mission. Rhyne Carrasco, retired Captain of the Toy Runner Guard, head of the security detail for the House of Gaspar, and the bane of my existence. Six feet and four inches of broody, panty-dropping sexiness, and the sole reason I had a sex toy collection that required its own closet and a color-coded system.

Despite the bit of color on his cheeks and now prominent eye twitch, it was little comfort to know I wasn’t the only one hot and bothered. It wasn’t like he’d ever make a move. He never had. Hell, he had never even acknowledged the wildly humiliating declaration of love I’d made to him on my eighteenth birthday. Just remembering that mortifying look he gave me, and the pat on the head before he sent me on my way made a hole open in my stomach. He’d been sweet, and crushingly respectful, and we never spoke of it again. Looking back, I know he was being protective, that he was being a gentleman, but the dismissal had devastated me. You would think that after that, I’d have gotten over it. Moved on to someone my age who wouldn’t look at me like I was a kid.

Well, I tried that. It didn’t take. My foolish ass had imprinted on Rhyne Carrasco; if anything, he got hotter by the day.

At forty, Rhyne was entering his silver-fox era, and all of it worked for me. His skin was a reddish brown that reminded