Bryce (Steele Protectors 3)

by Carole Mortimer

  Tonight, Bella had realized the brother she had known all her life had been replaced with a man who delivered pain and death rather than warmth and caring. That he was no longer the big brother who had watched over her and somehow ensured none of the Zalotti “business” ever touched her or her life.

  Bryce had asked her if she thought Matteo was telling the truth… “As far as it goes, yes,” she answered slowly. “He isn’t responsible for the gifts, the paint on my car, or having me followed.”

  “But…?”

  “But he is hiding something,” she acknowledged.

  Bryce was inclined to agree. The meeting with Bella’s brother had only added to the mystery.

  The fact the man had agreed to see them, when he later claimed not to have a sister, was the start of that puzzle. If Bella no longer existed for Matteo, then why had he allowed her into his home at all?

  The man had unwittingly revealed he also knew far more about his dead sister’s life than he should if he didn’t still care for her. Bryce certainly didn’t buy that “keeping his enemies closer” comment of Zalotti’s.

  “He looked so much older. And very alone.” Bella shook her head as she gave a shiver. “I can’t believe Antonio and Luca no longer work for him. They were like uncles to me and Matteo—no, not in the same way as Franco Ricci,” she drawled as Bryce snorted. “Antonio and Luca would often accompany us places when we were younger, and they were my bodyguards for the year after my parents died. I had assumed once I went to university and didn’t see them anymore that they had returned to being part of Matteo’s security.” She frowned. “I can’t believe they both decided to retire instead.”

  Bryce was inclined to question exactly what that retirement consisted of, because as far as he was aware, members of the Mafia did not “retire,” unless it was on a permanent basis. Bryce intended having another, more in-depth conversation on the subject with Nikolai Volkov in the near future. “Maybe they weren’t too happy with the changes in your brother either?”

  “Maybe,” she accepted heavily. “The house used to be so warm and welcoming when my mother was alive. Now there’s only coldness and sterility, with Matteo in his ivory tower.”

  “If so, it’s an ivory tower of his own making,” Bryce pointed out practically as he unlocked his SUV and opened the door for Bella to climb inside. “Since taking over from your father, he’s made himself into the feared head of the Italian Mafia.”

  Bella knew Bryce was right, but that didn’t stop her heart from aching a little for the loss of the teasing and lighthearted man her brother used to be.

  When their parents were alive, Matteo was always being called into their father’s study—now Matteo’s study—and chastised by their father for one misdemeanor or another. It had usually involved a girl or woman Matteo shouldn’t be seeing.

  If there was a woman in Matteo’s life now, then she hadn’t managed to pierce the protective and icy shell Matteo now kept about his heart.

  Bryce turned to look at Bella once he had climbed in behind the wheel of the vehicle and turned the key in the ignition. “Do you want to eat dinner out or pick something up on the way home?” He maneuvered the SUV into the traffic.

  She grimaced. “I’m not hungry, and I’ve taken up enough of your time for one evening.”

  Bryce raised his brows. “Did I not make myself clear earlier?” he prompted mildly. “Someone appears to be following you as well as sending you unwanted presents. Which means,” he continued firmly as she would have spoken, “I’m going to be your twenty-four-seven bodyguard until we know exactly who that someone is and put a stop to it.”

  Talking of being followed…

  A glance in the driving mirror had shown Bryce another SUV with black-tinted windows pulling out into the traffic two cars behind them when they left Zalotti’s estate. To test whether or not the vehicle was following them, Bryce watched to see if that vehicle turned left or right when they did. It did, every time.

  Was it the same man from the coffee shop this morning, or was Matteo Zalotti having them followed?

  Why would the Italian bother to do that when, despite having disowned Bella in front of Franco Ricci, Zalotti obviously knew exactly where his sister lived and worked?

  To protect her?

  Bryce couldn’t quite get his head round that theory after Zalotti’s coldness earlier. Which meant he had to go on the idea it was probably the same man, or some of his associates, from the coffee shop this morning.

  What the hell was going on here?

  And had they just made the situation ten times worse by visiting Zalotti’s well-guarded estate?

  Chapter Five

  Bella eyed Bryce uncertainly. “When you say twenty-four-seven, do you mean as in sleeping at my house and coming in to work with me in the morning?”

  “As in.” He gave her the same reply she had given him earlier in regard to who her family was.

  She gave a scoffing laugh. “I don’t think so.” She could just imagine the reaction she would get from work colleagues if she turned up tomorrow with a bodyguard.

  As for Bryce sleeping at her house tonight…

  That wasn’t going to work either. Bella had found it difficult to sleep after those things were posted through her letter box, and then the spray-painting of her car last night. But, rather than comforting and reassuring her, as Bella knew it was supposed to, she knew there was no way she would be able to sleep at all knowing Bryce was in the house with her.

  “I didn’t ask for your permission, Bella,” Bryce dismissed.

  “You can’t stay in my home without that permission.”

  “No?”

  She glared her exasperation. “Have you forgotten I’m a policewoman and could have you arrested as an intruder?”

  “Let’s see how that works out, hm?”

  He looked far too self-confident for her liking. “Bryce—”

  “Bella,” he returned mildly.

  “You—”

  “Chinese okay with you?” He parked the car outside a take-out restaurant. “They make the best satay chicken here.” He climbed out from behind the wheel and closed the door behind him before coming round to her side of the vehicle.

  Bella frowned as he opened the door beside her. “Bryce—”

  “You might as well come inside and choose what you want to eat.” He unfastened her seat belt when she made no move to do so.

  “You’re another alpha arsehole like my brother and Sean, aren’t you.” Bella scowled when she found herself not only having a helping hand out of the vehicle but shortly thereafter inside the Chinese restaurant.

  Bryce was suddenly standing far too close. “Call me that again and you’ll get another spanking.”

  Bella had to tilt her head back in order to look at him. The glitter in his eyes told her he would carry out exactly what he said he would if pushed. Besides, he was offering to help her. “I apologize.” She sighed.

  “Apology accepted.” Bryce nodded. “And if you had wanted sweet and fluffy, you wouldn’t have come to me.”

  He was right, of course.

  Twenty minutes later, when they sat down at her breakfast bar to eat the Chinese food, she discovered Bryce was also right about the deliciousness of the satay chicken. The tantalizing smell and taste of the food also made her realize she hadn’t eaten anything since her bowl of cereal for breakfast that morning.

  Nevertheless, Bryce scowled his disapproval half an hour later when she began to clear away the half-full cartons. “Is that all you’re going to eat?”

  “I’ve had enough,” she assured him as she dumped the cartons of food in the bin. “Besides, I don’t think cutting down on a meal or two will do me any harm.” She gave a pointed glance down at her less than slender curves. “Bryce!” she squeaked as she suddenly found herself with her back pressed against one of the kitchen units and Bryce’s hips plastered so tightly against hers, there wasn’t a centimeter of space between them.

  Her hand
s pushed ineffectually against his muscular chest covered only by a fitted T-shirt, Bryce having removed his jacket when they got back to the house. A T-shirt that left nothing to the imagination in regard to the perfection of the six—eight?—pack beneath.

  “What are you doing?” she demanded when she didn’t manage to free herself.

  He glared at her. “Contrary to popular belief, a lot of men, myself included, prefer their woman to have curves and softness, not stick figures and bones that dig into us when we attempt to get close.”

  Bella’s hands stilled, palms flat against his chest. “Oh.”

  “To me, this…” He placed a hand on the work surface either side of her before giving a sensuous roll of his hips against her curvaceous ones. A roll that allowed her to feel the hot and hard length of his arousal pressing against her softness. “Is perfection.”

  She swallowed before answering. “It is?”

  “Absolutely,” Bryce insisted. “What?” he questioned at her skeptical expression. “Didn’t Detective Inspector Wilton drool over your curves?”

  Was that Bryce’s way of admitting he was drooling over her curves?

  If he was, it wasn’t apparent in his expression.

  What did surprise her was that Bryce had remembered the other man’s name. “Not so you’d notice, no.” Sean had actually called Bella plump one evening when they were out having dinner at an Italian restaurant. Something guaranteed to cause Bella to lose her appetite. But maybe that was the idea? The two of them had decided from the onset that they would go Dutch on any restaurant bills, and with Bella not eating much, she had ended up paying for most of Sean’s meal rather than her own.

  He really had been a first-class arsehole, hadn’t he?

  Bryce scowled. “Why the fuck did he invite you out in the first place if he didn’t like the way you look?”

  “I think he saw me as a bit of a challenge.” Bella grimaced. “Most of his colleagues had invited me out at one time or another, and I had always turned them down.”

  Bryce frowned. “But you accepted when Wilton asked?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  She shrugged. “To be honest, I was tired of the constant harassment, and then the renewed innuendos of me being a lesbian when I turned down yet another invitation. Not that there’s anything wrong with being a lesbian.”

  “You just aren’t one.”

  Bella was pretty sure that was obvious to Bryce by the heat of her aroused pussy against the length of his shaft. “No.” She shrugged. “I accepted Sean’s initial invitation because I thought he seemed nice. Less…foul-mouthed and inclined to gossip than the rest of them.”

  “And was he?”

  “No.”

  She recalled several conversations around the water cooler both before and after she and Sean broke up, always with him at their center. Those conversations hadn’t included her but had always involved sideways glances in her direction followed by lots of laughter or sudden silence if she walked too near to the group of men.

  She grimaced. “I’m pretty sure he told our other work colleagues I slept with him, and how lousy I am in bed, when in actual fact, it never happened.”

  “Bastard,” Bryce dismissed disgustedly. “Were the two of you together for very long?”

  She grimaced. “A couple of weeks. And I wouldn’t exactly say we were ‘together.’ I told you, we only went out to dinner a couple of times.” Bella shrugged. “I liked him to begin with, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone out with him at all, but after a couple of dates I realized there was no zero attraction there on my part.”

  “None?”

  A couple of evenings spent in Sean’s company had shown Bella they had little in common, and those laughing conversations by the water cooler with their male colleagues had added to her discomfort, so that she’d had no trouble at all in refusing another invitation from him.

  “None,” she stated firmly.

  Bryce gave a shake of his head. “The man was an idiot,” he repeated disgustedly.

  Bella gave him a sideways glance. “At least he called me when he said he would.”

  Bryce nodded acknowledgment of the admonishment. “I had to go to New Orleans for a few weeks. Work related. By the time I got back, it seemed rude and too late to— Fuck it, that isn’t what happened at all.” He scowled darkly as he ran a hand through his hair. “I volunteered to go to New Orleans, and I did it to ensure I was as far away from the temptation of you as possible.”

  Bella blinked at both his statement and his vehemence. “I don’t understand…”

  “Neither do I,” he snapped his impatience. “But something about you draws me in a way it never has with any other woman.”

  It was obvious Bryce wasn’t happy about it either. “Okay.” Bella didn’t know what she should say or think about that.

  “Is it?” he attacked. “Feels bloody uncomfortable to me. But I certainly don’t want to hear any more of that crap about you needing to lose weight coming out of your mouth again in my presence. You’re perfect as you are. Understood?”

  Bella was finding it difficult to think straight with Bryce standing so close to her, let alone be expected to come up with an answer.

  “Understood?” He not only expected an answer but also pressed his cock more firmly against her.

  “I— Yes,” she finally managed to articulate.

  Bryce’s gaze was searching. “You didn’t sound very convinced.”

  Bella frowned her frustration. Admittedly, she was the one who had initially gone to Bryce to ask for his help, but she had also then changed her mind, and she had told him so. But Bryce was like the proverbial steamroller, ploughing through or over any of her objections, and sticking to her like glue whether she wanted him there or not. Not that she had any complaints about him having accompanied her when she went to see Matteo earlier. But now it just seemed weird that Bryce was still here and insisting he was staying at her house for the night.

  The things he had said about the “temptation” of her and how much he liked her curves made her heart flutter and the desire coil inside her and then course through the whole of her body.

  She looked at Bryce from beneath lowered lashes but got no higher than his strong jaw and sensual lips. Parted lips that seemed to be getting closer and closer until they took possession of hers…

  Everything else faded and disappeared, until there was only Bryce’s lips against hers, soft and yet commanding at the same time, and his arms about her waist like steel bands holding her firmly against him.

  This was such a bad idea, not just for her, but for Bryce too.

  Bella hadn’t asked him to do so, but the fact of the matter was that Bryce had announced his intention of shadowing her every minute of the day and night until they knew what was going on with the inappropriate gifts and the defacing of her car. She now knew Bryce well enough to believe he would do what he said he would.

  But none of that mattered as Bryce placed his hands beneath her bottom and easily lifted her so she was sitting on the breakfast bar, before nudging her legs apart and stepping between her parted thighs. His cock pressed intimately against her aroused clit, and his hips slowly began to thrust against and into hers as his lips and tongue continued to explore hers with a thoroughness that took Bella’s breath away.

  All she could do was place her arms about his neck and cling on when he lifted her once again. Bella managed to turn off all the main lights as Bryce carried her down the hallway and up the stairs, his arms bulging with muscles.

  “I’m too heavy for you to carry me—” She broke off with an undignified squeak when one of Bryce’s hands landed painfully against bottom cheeks that still stung from earlier.

  “What did I tell you about making derogatory comments about yourself?” he all but growled at her. “Don’t do it again in my presence.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He looked at her with gray eyes that had gone dark with lust. “I think I could get u
sed to hearing you call me that.”

  She snorted. “I really wouldn’t. I usually only call superior officers that.”

  “Wilton?”

  Her cheeks burned. “Only in the office.”

  Bryce came to a halt in the gallery at the top of the stairs. “Which is your bedroom?”

  “First door on the left.”

  Bryce kept one arm about Bella’s waist after entering the bedroom and switching on the lamp beside the bed before lowering her onto the duvet. He moved to the window, noting the SUV parked farther down the street, between two streetlights, and saw no lights on inside or outside the vehicle. He pulled the curtains and turned back to Bella. Whoever was sitting in the SUV didn’t look as if they were going anywhere soon.

  Bella’s hair had come loose and was now a dark cloud about her shoulders, those deep blue eyes watching his every move as he walked back to the bed.

  Bryce leaned over her, a hand on the pillow either side of her head. “I can stay or I’ll go, it’s your choice.” His voice was low and husky.

  Bella frowned. “Why couldn’t you have just carried on kissing me and let things take their natural course?”

  “And if I had…?”

  “I would probably have confirmation by now that you really are commando!”

  She looked so disgruntled that Bryce couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “I can give you that confirmation without my having to stay afterwards.”

  There was a slight pout on her lower lip. “My way was more fun.”

  “Really?” Bryce rose to his feet and stepped back before unfastening and then unzipping his jeans to push them far enough down his hips to reveal the top of the neatly trimmed pubic hair surrounding his cock. “This feels like a lot of fun to me.” He released his bare cock completely before taking it in hand and slowly stroking the heated length from base to tip.

  Bella licked her tongue over her lips and watched as the soft pad of Bryce’s thumb gathered up the pre-cum leaking from the slit at the top of his cock before spreading that glistening fluid across the whole of the bulbous top.