Montana D-Force (Brotherhood Protectors Book 3) (10 page)

“Then we don’t stop now. At the same time, we don’t have to paint a target on your back.” Bear bent and kissed her lips. “Please get in the back seat and stay down until we get to your place.”

Mia’s lips tingled at the brief brush of his lips. “This situation is getting too dangerous. I know you signed on to protect me, but you can back out any time you want. I would completely understand.”

Bear’s lips thinned into a straight line. “I’d hoped you’d figured out what kind of man I am by now. I don’t run from a fight, and I don’t leave a defenseless woman to take care of herself. Even if you weren’t my client and I wasn’t your bodyguard, I’m in this for the long haul. Mia Chastain, you’re stuck with me until this is over.” He yanked open the back door and pointed. “Get in. I’m taking you home.”

Mia’s heart fluttered at the harshness of Bear’s tone. The fierceness of his expression set butterflies loose in her belly and made her body tingle in anticipation of being alone with him in her house.

This man was a warrior, fearless and undaunted by a man with a gun, firing at them like an enemy sniper. Mia was thankful the deadly gleam in his eyes was aimed at the bastard who’d tried on more than one occasion to scare her away from Eagle Rock.

If anyone should be afraid, it should be the man who had attacked Mia, Dr. Sanders and possibly Allyson. His days of hurting others were numbered. Mia wasn’t running anymore.

O
N THE WAY
BACK to Eagle Rock, Bear drove as fast as he could through the narrow valley where Mia had been shot. He held his breath across the straight stretch and kept a close watch around each curve in the road for movement or anything out of the ordinary.

They made it all the way to Mia’s house without incident. By the time he pulled into the yard, his nerves were stretched tight. “Stay here while I check the house. And stay out of sight.”

He waited until she bent over, out of line of sight, before he dropped down from the truck. With his weapon drawn, Bear made a complete circle around the house. He quickly entered the structure and went from room to room. When he was satisfied the house was clear, he hurried out to the locked truck and opened the back door.

Mia lay across the back seat, her eyes closed, her uninjured arm tucked beneath her head.

“Mia, sweetheart?” he whispered. “The house is all clear.”

When she didn’t respond, he looked closer, his breath lodging in his throat until he saw the reassuring sight of her chest rising and falling. Bear gathered her in his arms and carried her into the house and up the stairs. The added weight caused his sore leg a twinge of protest, but he ignored the pain and continued to her room. He laid her across her bed, pulled off her boots and covered her with a blanket.

For a long moment, he watched her sleep, wanting to crawl onto the bed and hold her in his arms.

The gunfire that day had scared him more than he cared to admit. He’d been trained to operate under live fire. His experience in combat had prepared him for battle and casualties among the people he cared about. But nothing had prepared him to lose his heart to a stranger he’d only met a couple of days before.

Maybe he wasn’t cut out for this line of work. It couldn’t be normal to be so incredibly attracted to a client. It inhibited his ability to think straight. Complete focus was what he needed more than anything right now.

Someone was willing to kill Mia and Dr. Sanders to keep his victims from comparing notes. Perhaps they were getting too close to unveiling his secret, and he was running scared.

Reluctantly, Bear left Mia’s room, descended the stairs and found a telephone in the hallway. His cell phone had spotty reception this far out of town, if any at all. He dialed Hank and waited for him to pick up.

“Patterson speaking,” Hank answered.

“Did you hear about Dr. Sanders?” Bear asked.

“What about her?”

Bear filled him in on the information Sheriff Wilson had given them regarding the Sanders woman’s rape, what had happened on their way to Bozeman and Mia’s short stay in the hospital.

“Where is Mia now?” Hank asked.

“She fell asleep on our mad dash home.”

“You should have called me. I would have covered for you on your way through that valley.”

Bear had thought of calling Hank, but Mia had been in a hurry to get home, and he figured it would be okay, as long as she stayed low and out of sight. He now realized how wrong he could have been, and how much he had risked her getting hurt all over again. He had to start thinking through all the possibilities if he was going to be any good at being a bodyguard. Thus, the reason for his call to Hank.

“I’m concerned about Sanders,” Bear said. “If someone thought she might have information that would implicate him in the rape cases, he might go after her again.”

“I could go to Bozeman and provide her protection, or I could come to Mia’s house and be your backup.”

“I’ll take care of Mia. I don’t think she’ll sleep the rest of the day away. When she’s up, we’ll contact the sheriff and let him know about what else happened.”

“Okay, then. I’ve got Sanders. Let me know if anything changes.”

“Same to you. If the doctor comes to, get a description of her attacker and the vehicle he was driving.”

“Will do.”

Bear returned the phone to the base.

“Who was that?”

He spun to find Mia standing behind him in her socks, her hair rumpled and her face soft from sleep. Without thinking, he opened his arms.

Mia walked into them and rested her face against his chest.

“That was Hank,” he murmured against her hair. “He’s going to keep an eye on Dr. Sanders in case whoever hit her comes back.”

Mia’s gaze shot up to his. “You think her attacker will try to finish the job?”

Bear didn’t want to worry Mia, but he couldn’t sugarcoat what was going through his thoughts. “If the hit-and-run was deliberate, the man who did it might come back to pull the plug on her.”

Mia gasped and buried her face in his shirt. “I should have come forward back when I was a teen.”

“You can’t blame yourself for someone else’s brand of crazy.”

“But none of this would have happened if I’d done it then. Allyson would still be alive, Dr. Sanders wouldn’t have been raped and now run over. That sick bastard would have been in jail.”

Bear gripped her arms and leaned back to stare hard into her eyes. “You did not do these horrible things. You were a victim, just like the others. A child victim. The bastard who is terrorizing the woman of Eagle Rock needs to be caught and put out of everyone’s misery.” He pulled her back into his embrace and held her for a long time.

Eventually, she relaxed against him, her hand splaying across his chest. “What next?” she whispered.

“We contact the sheriff and tell him about the gunfire in the valley and the attack on Sanders in Bozeman.”

Mia nodded. “I’ll get my boots.”

“No. I’ll have him come here.” He smoothed the hair back from her face and pressed his lips to hers in a brief kiss. “You’ve been through enough.”

Mia touched her fingers to her lips and gazed into his eyes. “I haven’t been through what Dr. Sanders has.”

“Thank goodness.” Bear kissed her again. He knew it was wrong, but he couldn’t resist, and she didn’t push him away. Reason warred with desire, finally winning. Bear started to raise his head. The next step was to put distance between him and his client.

Mia raised her arms, entwined her hands behind Bear’s neck and dragged him down to her mouth.

He couldn’t hold back any longer. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed her body to his, the hard ridge of his cock nudging her belly.

In the middle of the day, with sunlight streaming through the glass of the front door, Bear held his client in his arms and claimed her lips as if there wouldn’t be future kisses for them.

He traced the seam of her lips with his tongue.

Mia opened to him and met him halfway, her tongue twisting around his, thrusting and tempting him to tighten his hold on her.

He slipped his hands lower, cupping the backs of her thighs and lifted. “Tell me to stop, and I will,” he whispered into her mouth.

“Don’t stop,” she replied and wrapped her legs around his waist, her sex riding the ridge of his jeans.

Bear moaned and turned, pushing her back to the wall. “I’m on fire.”

“Me too.” She pulled her head back. “What are we going to do about it?” She kissed his chin, his neck and nibbled on his earlobe, before returning her gaze to his.

Bear glanced toward the staircase. “The bedroom’s too far.”

Mia tipped her head toward the living room. “There’s a nice soft rug in the living room.” Her lips curled upward in a sexy smile.

Holding her tightly against him, he carried her into the living room and let her body slide down his.

She didn’t stop when her feet touched the floor. Instead, she sank to her knees and tugged his hand, urging him to do the same.

Bear pulled his gun out of his shoulder holster, set it on the coffee table, and then unbuckled and shrugged out of the holster straps.

He knelt on the floor in front of Mia, knowing this wasn’t what Hank had had in mind when he’d asked him to protect Mia. “This is wrong in so many ways. We shouldn’t be doing this.”

She raised his hand and slid it beneath her shirt to cup her breast. He could feel the rapid beat of her heart. “Yes. We. Should.”

Mia pressed her hand to the back of his, and then slid it down her torso to the waistband of her jeans. “I’m ready. Please don’t make we wait.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. “I don’t know if I can be as gentle as you need me to be.”

“I won’t break.” She cupped his face, her gaze capturing his. “Show me that this can be…good. Teach me.”

His pulse racing, Bear laid his hand over hers. “I don’t want to scare you.”

She flicked the button loose on her jeans and ran the zipper downward. “I’ve never felt this way before, and I’m not afraid, anymore. Now I want this more than I’ve wanted anything else in my life. I trust you.”

Her words sealed the deal for him. Once he unleashed his desire, he knew there was no going back.

M
ia had shied away
from making love with a man since she’d been raped. Not one of her dates had ever broken through the barrier of her fear to awaken desire strong enough to push her past the memories.

Here, on the floor of her parents’ living room, she couldn’t think of anything else but wanting to lie naked with Bear. Her core ached with the need to have him inside her, filling that empty space she had thought would be forever untouchable. He was the only one she could imagine herself with…this broken warrior, sent to protect her from a frightening adversary she couldn’t name.

Mia reached out to flick open the buttons of his shirt, making quick work of them.

Bear shrugged out of the garment, letting it fall to the floor. Then he curled his hands around the hem of her shirt and dragged it over her head, tossing it to the coffee table beside him.

A shiver rippled through her that had nothing to do with the cool air caressing her heated skin. Every nerve stood at attention, anticipating his touch.

Mia reached behind her back and unhooked her bra.

Bear slipped the straps off her shoulders and palmed her breasts, as if weighing them, before he bent to take one into his mouth.

Her breath catching in her throat, Mia arched her back, urging him to take more.

He feathered his tongue across her nipple, moistening the tip, and then rolled the bud between his teeth, gently biting down.

Mia threaded her hands through his thick hair and pressed him closer, eager to speed this along. Every fiber of her being ached to feel his thick shaft inside her channel. This would be the day she pushed the memory of her rapist out of her mind. She’d have a better memory to fill the dark nights. Memories of Bear, his gentle hands, his thick muscles and his rugged body sliding across hers.

She slipped out of Bear’s embrace and lay on the rug. “Don’t take it too slowly. I don’t know if I can wait much longer.”

Bear drew in a shaky breath. “
You
can’t wait?” He chuckled. “I thought that was my line.”

She guided his hand to the open fly of her jeans.

He helped her push them over her hips and down the length of her legs. When she was free of them, she slipped her fingers into the elastic of her panties and tugged them downward.

Bear took over, easing them over her hips, bending to press kisses along her bared skin, following the panties down to her ankles.

Blood surged through Mia’s veins, spreading the heat to all of her extremities and inward to the aching center of her being. This was going to be it. Her virginity taken by force, Mia was now eager to give herself to a man for the first time. She might as well be a virgin, and suddenly she was very conscious of her lack of experience.

Was she being too forward?

Bear touched the inside of her thigh with a kiss.

Mia arched her back off the floor, the rush of sensations washing over her like a tidal wave. “You aren’t doing this because I’m the client, are you?”

His breath warmed a path to the apex of her thighs where he parted her folds with his fingers. “I’m doing this
in spite
of the fact you’re my client.” He flicked the nubbin of tightly packed nerves, setting off an explosion of tingles, shooting from her center outward.

“Oh, thank God!” she cried. “There. Oh, sweet Jesus. There!”

He flicked, teased and sucked her clit until all logical thought scattered to the wind. He pressed his two fingers into her entrance, swirled his tongue along that highly sensitized strip of flesh until her body tensed, pushing her to the very edge. Then she rocketed into the stratosphere, her hips undulating to his strokes, her breath catching in her lungs.

She laced her hands in his hair and tugged him upward. “Now. I have to have you inside me. Now!”

He climbed up her body and settled between her legs. With a quick flick of his fingers, he loosened the button and zipper, and released his cock from the confines of his jeans.

Mia pushed the denim downward, too caught up in the rush of desire to care if he stripped all the way. She had to have him. Wanted him inside her. Couldn’t breathe until he consummated their lovemaking.

With the tip of his shaft pressed to her slick opening, Bear paused, his face tense, his muscles straining. “Say the word, and it stops here.”

“Oh, sweet Jesus. Don’t stop now.” Mia wrapped her legs around his buttocks and tightened, urging him to enter her.

“Not yet.” He leaned onto one hand, fished in his back pocket and tossed his wallet onto the rug beside her. “Protection.”

“Oh.” Too lost in the moment, Mia hadn’t even thought of protection. Thank God, one of them was thinking. Her hands shaking, Mia grabbed his wallet and flipped it open.

“In the center pocket,” he bit out between clenched teeth.

She found the square foil packet, tore it open and rolled the condom over Bear’s pulsing shaft. “Does that feel all right?”

He let go of the breath he’d been holding. “You can’t even imagine how right that feels.”

“Show me,” she said.

“Don’t you want to be on top?” he asked.

She shook her head. “No. This feels natural. The way it should be.”

He eased his thickness into her channel, moving ever so slowly, his gaze locking with hers.

Her juices lubricated the path, making it easier for her tight channel to accept his girth.