Montana D-Force (Brotherhood Protectors Book 3) (11 page)

Bear kept going until he filled her completely, and then stopped. He bent to kiss her forehead, her eyes, her nose and finally her mouth. “Are you okay?”

Mia dragged in a ragged breath and nodded. “I’ve never felt so…” She shook her head, too lost in the moment to come up with the right word.

“Complete?”

“Yes,” she said on a gasp. “You feel amazing.”

“I was about to say the same. You’re so tight. So wet.” He kissed her again, his tongue seeking hers, thrusting and twisting in a long, breath-stealing caress.

Then he pulled out of her, all the way to the tip.

Mia cried out, reached for his buttocks and dragged him back inside.

Bear moved in and out of her, again and again, the speed of his thrusts increasing with every stroke.

Soon, Mia’s fingers dug into the hard muscles of his ass as she rode the wave to her second climax of the day.

Bear thrust one last time, burying himself deep inside her, where he held still, his body tense, his eyes closed as his cock pulsed inside Mia’s channel.

Mia eventually drifted back to earth, her heartbeat slowing to normal, a warm flush spreading over her.

Bear rolled over to lie on his side, taking Mia with him, still retaining the connection. “Are you all right?”

She smiled, a hazy euphoria making her feel slightly drunk. “I don’t think I’ve ever been better.”

He chuckled and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. “You were amazing.”

Her smile slipped. “I never knew it could be like that.”

Bear’s brow wrinkled. “Good or bad?”

Mia cupped his cheek. “Neither. It was incredibly…” She shook her head, struggling to describe what had just taken place. “Like you said…amazing.” She kissed him and wound her arm behind his neck. “When can we do that again?”

Bear opened his mouth to reply.

Before he could, something hit the picture window. Glass shattered, the curtain flew upward and a projectile landed on the floor a few feet away from where they lay, splattering liquid all around. Flames spread everywhere the liquid landed.

Bear leaped to his feet, yanked Mia off the floor and pushed her behind him. He gripped the end of the rug they’d been lying on and tossed it over the fire, smothering the flames.

Mia snatched up her shirt and jeans and jammed her arms and legs into her clothes as fast as she could.

Within seconds, Bear had the fire out. The scent of gasoline and smoke lingered in the air.

“Stay inside, and make sure the fire doesn’t reignite.” Bear slipped into his jeans, grabbed his gun and ran for the door.

Mia hurried after him. “Where are you going?”

“To find the bastard who threw that Molotov cocktail through your window.”

B
ear ran
out the door and leaped off the front porch. The sound of an engine caught his attention. He raced toward it, but it was speeding away too fast to catch on foot. He stopped at the edge of the woods and searched for tire tracks in the dirt. He found a single set, probably belonging to a motorcycle.

Afraid to leave Mia for too long, Bear returned to the house.

Mia met him at the door, dressed but tousled. God, she was beautiful with her lips swollen from his kisses. But he didn’t have time to dwell on how much he wanted to kiss those lips. Once again, someone had attacked her home, and he was no closer to discovering who it was.

Pulling her into the circle of his arm, he led her toward the hall phone and dialed the number Sheriff Wilson had given him.

“Sheriff Wilson speaking.”

“This is Tate Parker at Mia Chastain’s house. How soon can you get here?”

“Ten minutes, tops. What’s going on?”

“Two, maybe three attacks today. We’ll explain when you get here.”

“Ambulance?”

“No. We’re okay.” Barely. If the fire bomb had been a few feet closer, an ambulance would have been in order.

Bear’s heart squeezed hard in his chest. They’d had too many close calls in the past couple of days. He wanted to go out and find the bastard, but he couldn’t leave Mia. Wouldn’t leave her. Not when she was the target of the madman.

The sheriff arrived in less than five minutes, lights flashing on his service vehicle. Another deputy pulled in shortly afterward.

Together, they processed the scene, gathered evidence and took notes.

“I’ll get my latent print expert working on whatever fingerprints we can lift from the glass shards. We’ll also look through the licenses of all motorcycle owners in the area and see if we can narrow down the owner to a list of reasonable suspects. But that won’t account for those who have motorcycles they only use on their ranches. Those might not be licensed.”

“Any clue, no matter how big or small, is better than nothing, at this point,” Mia said. “This guy can’t keep getting away with what he’s done.”

“Dr. Sanders might be our best bet at this point,” the sheriff said. “She’s possibly the only person who has seen her attacker’s face.”

“Hank’s pulling guard duty. He’ll make sure she stays safe.”

“Good.” Sheriff Wilson nodded. “I’ll put in a call to the Bozeman Police Department and see if they can provide a uniform as well.”

Sheriff Wilson touched Mia’s shoulder. “I’m sorry this is happening to you. I had ordered my men to circle past your house at night. It appears they need to be watching it on a 24-hour basis.”

“We were shot at on the road to Bozeman.” Mia’s lips thinned. “You can’t be everywhere.”

“I’m short-handed as it is. The county doesn’t have the money for a larger staff.”

Mia slipped her arm around Bear’s waist. “That’s why I have a bodyguard.”

“Lot of good that’s doing you.” He didn’t like that whoever was targeting her was getting past him to hurt her. Some bodyguard he was.

Her arm tightened around him. “If I hadn’t hired you, I might not be here at all.”

The sheriff left shortly after.

Bear helped Mia clean up the gasoline and the damaged carpet. He found a piece of plywood in the shed and nailed it over the window until they could order replacement glass.

Dusk settled in early around Mia’s house, with a bank of clouds blocking the setting sunlight.

“What do you want to do for dinner?” Mia asked. “My refrigerator is pretty empty. I could stir up some scrambled eggs.”

“I’m almost afraid to let you out of the house after all that happened today, but dinner at the diner might be the ticket.”

“At least we won’t be smelling gasoline and smoke while we eat,” Mia pointed out.

“The diner it is.”

“I need to shower and change before we go.” Mia stepped up to him and laid her hand on his chest. “You could use a shower, too. Care to join me?”

He caught her hand in his, tempted to take her up on the offer. Very tempted. “I’d better not. I need to stay vigilant. That last attack was close.”

Mia’s lips pressed into a thin line. “That jerk has to be stopped. He’s cutting into my pathetic attempt to seduce my bodyguard.”

“Babe, any other time and I wouldn’t hesitate. But your life is more important to me than incredibly satisfying sex against the shower wall.” He bent to claim her lips in a long, soul-defining kiss. “Can I get a rain check on that shower?”

“Count on it.” She turned and pulled her shirt over her head, dropping it on the floor behind her. A sassy glance over her shoulder made his blood hum and pool in his groin. “That’s just a little of what you’ll be missing.”

He picked up her shirt and popped her ass with it. “Go, before I forget why you hired me in the first place.”

Mia laughed and ran for the stairs.

A moment later, Bear heard the shower running, and he sighed. He’d much rather be upstairs with Mia than watching for an attacker. But he’d already let himself be distracted far too much.

M
ia hurried through the shower
, eager to rejoin Bear downstairs. She couldn’t believe she’d been brave enough to try to seduce her bodyguard. That was another first for her. She was glad it was Bear who’d been the first man she’d really flirted with, the first man to give her a full-blown, unforgettable orgasm, and the first man to make love to her since that horrible day when she’d been so brutally attacked.

Bear was kind, gentle, tough, strong and everything a woman would want in a man. And Mia couldn’t wait to get back down the stairs to be with him.

She wondered if he felt nearly as strongly about her as she did about him. Hell, she’d only known him for a couple of days. Was she having her first case of puppy love? Sure, she wasn’t a teenager, but she’d been robbed of her childhood infatuations because of the attack. She’d felt dirty, soiled, unworthy and just plain icky about the usual sexual explorations of a teen and young woman.

Perhaps she was reading too much into what she was feeling for Bear. Her footsteps slowed on the stairs leading down to the first floor.

Then Bear appeared at the bottom, with that quirky smile aimed in her direction.

Mia’s heart filled with an unequaled joy, and she practically flew the rest of the way down the staircase and into his arms.

He chuckled and held her close. “Hey, what’s this all about?”

“I don’t know.” Mia felt silly, giddy and shy. “I just felt like being in your arms.”

“Good. I kind of like it when you’re here.” He kissed the top of her damp hair and tipped her face upward, forcing her to look into his eyes. “Everything okay? No regrets?”

“None.” She smiled, her lips trembling. “What about you?”

“My only regret is that I couldn’t be in that shower with you.” He set her away from him. “I did a spit bath in the sink down here, but I still smell like smoke and gasoline. Can you put up with me for now?”

She leaned her face into his shirt and sniffed. Wrinkling her nose, she gave him an assessing glance. “I suppose I can put up with it. As long as I get that shower with you later.”

“As soon as we resolve this case.” He kissed her soundly. “You’re on.”

Mia liked the big, burly soldier when he was playful and teasing. She liked him even better when he had her completely naked on the floor. But that was for another time, not when they were headed out the door to visit the diner in Eagle Rock.

She’d have to keep it together a little longer. At this point, Mia was almost willing to set herself up as bait to lure her nemesis out of hiding. Ready to be done with this investigation, she’d do just about anything. Then maybe, she could get on with her life. Hopefully, Bear would be around a little longer to be a part of it.

It didn’t matter if she lived in L.A. or in Eagle Rock. She could write scripts from anywhere. Speaking of which, she needed to get a good start on the one due in less than a month.

The drive into Eagle Rock didn’t take long. Soon, they pulled up to the diner. At six-thirty in the evening, a line of cars clustered around the only restaurant in town. Men in cowboy hats and dusty jeans sat at the tables, eating a hearty dinner. Families gathered in the booths, with little ones popping up to stare at the occupants of the other booths.

As Mia walked through the door, she inhaled the scents of meatloaf, hamburgers, chicken pot pie and steak, and her stomach rumbled. “We didn’t eat lunch, did we?”

His hand pressed to the small of her back, Bear nodded. “We were otherwise occupied.”

Either being shot at or making love, they hadn’t gotten around to lunch. Mia didn’t mind missing a meal. Having experienced the best sex she could have imagined, she’d give up lunch any day to make love all over again.

“Find a seat.” Kylie rushed past them, carrying a tub full of dirty dishes. “I’ll be with you as soon as possible.”

Mia led the way to the booth Kylie had just cleared and slid across the seat.

Bear sat opposite, his gaze scanning the room, as if searching for anyone who looked even remotely suspicious.

Mia did the same, seeing only the people she’d known since she was a child. They were a little older, some had children of their own, but no one appeared to be ready to take a shot at her. She smiled and waved at an old rancher who’d been one of her father’s fishing buddies. “Until I came back to Eagle Rock, I didn’t realize how much I missed it here.”

“Seriously?” Bear stared at her as if she’d lost her marbles.

Mia laughed. “Seriously.”

Bear reached across the table to take her hands. “You’ve been threatened, shot at, almost had your house burned down, and you have nostalgic feelings for this town?”

She shrugged, trying to play it cool when electric tingles spread from where his hands held hers to the farthest reaches of her body. “It’s my home. I know most of the people who live here.”
And now, you’re here
. She didn’t say it out loud, but part of the reason she was glad she was back was that she wouldn’t have met him unless she’d come home when she did. God, she hoped she would have the opportunity to get to know him better. He was the kind of guy she could fall for. She just hoped she was the kind of girl he could get to like, given the chance to really know her.

Kylie hurried up to the table, breathing hard. “Sorry, I had to take the dirty dishes to the back, then they had me running the trash out.” She raised her hands. “Don’t worry. I washed my hands afterward.” She waited, pen poised over her pad. “What can I get you?”

Once again, Mia noticed the bruises on Kylie’s arms. There were three new ones next to the ones she’d seen before. Mia reached out to catch Kylie’s hand. She gently pulled her arm out straight, her lips pressing into a thin line. She glanced up at Kylie. “You don’t have to put up with this,” she said, her voice low enough others wouldn’t hear her.

Kylie snatched her hand out of Mia’s grip. “You don’t know anything about my life. Either order your food, or better yet, let me find someone else to take your order.”

Before Mia could say anything else, Kylie spun on her heel and hurried away.

“More bruises?” Bear shook his head. “No man should hurt a woman like that.”

Mia’s heart constricted. She wanted to take Kylie and hide her away from her husband. “How can anyone who has promised to love, honor and cherish someone, until death do they part, end up hurting that very person?”

“Does the sheriff know his deputy is an abusive ass?”

“I don’t know, but I mean to find out.” Her gaze followed Kylie to the hallway leading to the bathrooms and the back office area.

A moment later, a confused older waitress arrived at their table. “Hi, I’m Linda. I’m taking over this table for the evening. What can I get you?”

“I’ll take the chicken pot pie,” Mia said.

Bear ordered the homemade meatloaf the waitress recommended. When Linda left with their requests, Mia pushed to her feet. “I’m going to the restroom.”

“I’ll walk you there.”

Mia smiled. “We’ve been through this before. I made it to the bathroom and back without incident then. I can do it, again.”

Bear frowned. “I don’t like letting you out of my sight.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.” She rested a hand on his shoulder. “But for now, stay.”

She waited a moment to make sure he wouldn’t get up and follow her. When she was sure he would stay put, she headed for the bathroom, hoping to catch Kylie alone.

The hallway was dark, the overhead light burned out. Mia pushed her way through the bathroom door.

“Kylie,” she called out softly.

A toilet flushed, and a woman stepped out. “Sorry. I’m the only one in here.” She washed her hands, dried them on a paper towel and left the room.

Just to satisfy herself, Mia checked all three stalls, washed her hands and left the bathroom. She’d seen Kylie head down the hallway, assuming she’d gone to the ladies’ room. Perhaps she’d gone farther down the hallway to one of the other doors.

Mia turned away from the dining room, and walked along the hallway to the next door, determined to find her friend. Upon opening it, she discovered a closet with cleaning supplies and mops. The door across the hall led into an office with an old desk and a filing cabinet. It was empty.

When Mia backed out of the office, she heard another door open behind her. She turned to find Kylie standing at the rear exit, her face flushed, her eyes wide.

“Mia? Oh, thank God.” Kylie ran toward her and wrapped her arms around her. “You have to help me.”

Adrenaline rushed through Mia’s veins as she held Kylie close to her. “What’s wrong?”

“You have to get me out of here. Larry’s mad. Really mad. If he catches me, he’ll beat me all over again.”

“Why is he mad at you?”

“Does it matter? He gets mad at the stupidest things and, when he does, he hits me. The bruises on my arms are nothing compared to these.” Kylie lifted her shirt, exposing her torso and belly. Huge bruises colored her body in an ugly array of blue, purple and yellow.

“Oh, Kylie. You can’t go back to that monster.” Mia hugged her tightly. “Come home with me. Bear and I will make sure Larry never touches you again.”