by Sybil Bartel
Relief coursed through me.
I turned to go downstairs, and movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.
Glancing back at the window, I gasped.
A wolf, a really big wolf, slinked toward the cabin.
“Oh no, no, no.” Where the hell was Shade? Why hadn’t he come back inside yet?
The wolf took another few steps toward the cabin.
Dumping the blanket, I ran downstairs.
Unable to see where Shade was from upstairs, I looked left, then right out the downstairs windows. Barely visible, but exactly where the wolf was heading, Shade was standing over the large rectangular generator with his back turned.
I didn’t think.
I grabbed my Uggs from his bag that was still by the door and shoved my feet into them. Then I snatched his leather jacket that was now hanging on a peg by the front door and pushed my arms through.
I was out the door in seconds.
“SHADE! BEHIND YOU!”
My hand went to my back, my fingers curled around my Glock and I spun.
A red wolf in front of me, Summer behind me, I hadn’t heard either of them approach over the noise of the generator. If this had been one of Vincenzo’s hired guns, we’d both be dead right now.
“Shade,” Summer whisper cried.
Letting go of my piece, I held one hand out behind me. “Stop. I see him.” The fox was harmless. “He’s not a threat, he’s hungry. Don’t scare him.” There was a damn rabbit den under the generator. I should’ve been coming up here more often and checking on the place myself instead of leaving it all on the caretaker.
“But it’s a giant wolf,” she whispered dramatically.
“Red wolf,” I corrected. “And he isn’t giant, but they are an endangered species. He’s probably hungry as shit to come this close to us. Slowly head back inside.” I’d gotten the generator working for now. I could check the rest of the spark plugs later. “Let’s give him some space to catch his dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“Rabbit. Under the generator.” Pissed off she’d come out here to warn me about the damn wolf, I turned toward her.
Horror crossed her face as she sucked in a sharp breath. “He’s going to eat a bunny?”
Snow falling on her still wet hair, she was going to get fucking hypothermia. “Back inside the cabin. Now.” This was the second time she’d risked her safety to come after me.
“Oh my God.” Her hands, buried in the sleeves of my leather, went to her chest. “You can’t let that happen.”
“It’s gonna happen whether we want it to or not.” I glanced around, hoping like fuck the wolf was the only thing out here besides us. “Let’s go, woman. I don’t want you out here.”
She turned but then stumbled in the almost knee-deep snow.
Grabbing her before she face planted, I lifted her into my arms.
“Oh my God.” Her breath puffed. “Sorry.”
A grunt my only response, I carried her to the house. The natural scent of her, the weight of her in my arms, I was reliving that fucking kiss, and my cock wanted a taste of her. Pissed at my body’s reaction to her, like I was a goddamn teenager with no control, I dumped her before the front door and barked out a command. “Stomp the snow off.”
“Okay.” She didn’t stomp. She tapped her feet in rapid succession like she was running in place.
I fucking stared.
Inspecting her boots, she bent and brushed her shit off with her bare hands, then stood back up, and heat colored her cheeks. “What?”
No attitude, looking innocent as hell, she threw me. “Nothing.” Using the code, I unlocked the front door and pushed it open.
She looked at my arm holding the door, then at me, then she dropped her gaze. Sucking in a sharp breath, she moved to walk past me, but at the last minute she stopped and put her arms around me. Her head against my chest, she squeezed me tight for two seconds, then let go and walked inside.
“What the fuck was that?” I demanded, still holding the door.
“A hug.” She shrugged.
What the fuck? “Why?”
She turned around and nodded at the door. “Who’s letting all the heat out now?”
Stepping inside, I kicked the door shut. “I asked you a question.”
Defiance bled into her tone. “And I asked you one back.”
We stared at each other in silent standoff.
Keep it up, little girl. You won’t win this game.
Exactly three seconds in, she caved.
Rolling her eyes, she sighed dramatically. “Fine. Would you have let me hug you if I’d asked?”
“No.” Fuck, no. Did I look like a goddamn hugger?
“Exactly.” She threw her arms up, and the too long sleeves flapped.
“Jesus Christ.” I nodded brusquely at the stairs. “Go get some sleep.” I hung my parka up and pulled my Glock out.
Staring at me, she stood there.
I checked the magazine, then slammed it back home. “What?” That fucking hug.
“Do you seriously not know how many bullets you have left?” she challenged.
Shoving the gun in my back waistband, wondering if her rack was real, I let my gaze drop to her chest. Even with a jacket on, her tits stood out. “Your point?” I knew exactly how many bullets I had. I’d reloaded after I’d turned on the security cameras.
Looking ridiculous in my leather, she crossed her arms. “I’m beginning to understand why you’re single.”
“Who says I’m single?” I turned and headed toward my security room because if I stood there another minute sparring with her, I’d do something she’d regret.
On my heels, oblivious to her own damn self-preservation, she kept talking. “Unless you miraculously obtained a new girlfriend since dumping yours a few hours ago, I’m going with single.”
Intending to put her and her smart mouth in place, I pivoted, but when my gaze landed on her teasing smile, I knew I’d been played.
My dick pissed off it wasn’t getting any action, my hardware pressing into me, out of patience, I slammed my hand on the doorframe above her head.
She flinched.
“Hug me again,” I demanded.
Her eyes widened and she crossed her arms. “What?”
“You heard me.” I’d fucking destroy her young cunt if that’s what she wanted.
Her gaze darted nervously from my arm to my face. “What are you doing?”
I didn’t mince words. “Giving you an invitation to touch me.”
She boldly held my gaze for a beat, but then her age came out. “Why?”
I smirked, but I wanted to punch the fucking wall. “That’s what I thought.” I dropped my arm. “Go upstairs.”
She quickly darted away, reaffirming exactly why I shouldn’t touch her, but after two paces she turned. “You know, it didn’t have to be like that.”
I raised an eyebrow.
Her voice dropped. “I meant, me touching you.” Heat colored her cheeks more than the cold outside had tipped her nose red, and she got even quieter. “You could’ve touched me.”
No, I fucking couldn’t.
More life experience than any nineteen-year-old I’d ever met, a body like a woman, a mouth that was smart one minute, vulnerable the next, she was skittish as fuck and she’d gotten under my skin. I wanted to own her cunt, but she was too damn young. So young, she’d come sliding down a mountain after me when she thought I was in trouble, and barreling out of the cabin when she saw a wolf on my six.
Women didn’t do that shit around me.
They either wanted to fuck me or cross the street to avoid me.
But this one wanted to goddamn hug me.
Christ.
“Go to bed, princess.” I walked into my security room.
HER FEET HIT THE WOOD floor in the bedroom above me.
For the past hour, she’d been tossing and turning, and I’d heard every single shift of the bed, but now she was up and movi
ng.
I glanced at the stairs.
You didn’t serve five tours downrange and not get attuned to hearing every goddamn pin drop. Your life depended on it. But unlike downrange, my finger wasn’t on the trigger giving me a peace of mind you could only get from having the weight of a M4A1 in your hands. My arms were crossed, my feet were up and my guns were on the coffee table in front of me.
I may as well have been naked.
Summer hit the bottom step and shuffled into the room with a blanket wrapped around herself. Her gaze locked on her feet, her aim purposeful, she headed in my direction.
It didn’t matter that our eyes didn’t meet, she saw me like I saw her.
Dropping onto the couch, she curled up and pulled the blanket around her.
Except she didn’t park her ass at the other end.
Bold as fuck, she leaned into me.
The unmistakable scent of woman hit my nostrils, and she put her head on my chest like I was her fucking boyfriend.
I shifted, but she didn’t move away. “What are you doing?”
“What the hell does it look like I’m doing?” All bark and no bite, she tossed the words out like she was tough as shit.
I only smiled because she couldn’t see me. “Barking up the wrong goddamn tree.” I reminded myself I was almost twice her age.
She pushed into me closer. “Take it like a man.”
Not holding back, I chuckled. “What exactly am I taking? A forced cuddle with a blanket-wrapped smart-mouthed teenager?”
“Shut the fuck up. I’m not a teenager.”
I snorted. “You’re nineteen. Check those last four letters, smart ass.”
She snorted back. “I’ve been living on my own for almost three years in a multimillion-dollar penthouse. I lost my virginity at thirteen to a washed-up thirty-year-old rocker who thought he could get to my father by getting to me. And that was only the first half of that evening’s house party that my father threw on the daily. I was never a teenager. I grew up on my twelfth birthday when the crack whore who birthed me showed up at my party and did her best to overdose in the bathroom while Mr. Sparkles was giving pony rides to famous rock stars’ kids. I held her hair, then shoved my fingers down her throat so no one would have to call 911 before the unicorn cake was served.”
“If you’re looking for sympathy, sweetheart, like I said, wrong tree.” I had no empathy for her poor little rich girl bullshit, but I filed the statement about the piece-of-shit rock star away for later so I could find him and beat the fuck out of him.
Her voice took on an edge. “I’m not looking for a damn thing, especially not from you. I have more money than I can spend in the next hundred years because I’m Leo Amherst’s daughter. There’s no room for teenager in that fact. You check your letters, smart ass.”
“A woman would know better than to pull the stunt you’re pulling right now.” Teenager or not, she had tits and an ass, and my cock had come to life the second her almost naked body pressed into mine, because I was fucking human.
“I’m not pulling anything.” Still curled into me, she didn’t make a single move to retreat. “Be grateful that you have someone willing to get this close to your dickish self.”
I smirked. “Keep calling me names, and I might think you have a thing for me.”
She was quiet a beat, then the edge to her voice disappeared. “You know, I’m not that bad.”
“Don’t fish for compliments, woman,” I warned.
She looked up and gave me a taunting smile. “Now I’m a woman?”
Fuck my life. Young or not, she was pretty as hell with no makeup on. “Get the fuck up and go back to bed.”
“No.” She smiled, then settled her head on my chest again. “Besides, you know you secretly love it.”
Ignoring her last statement, I leaned my head back. “Not a pillow.” Fuck, she smelled good.
“No kidding.” She pushed at me like she was checking fucking tire pressure. “You’re chest is uncomfortable as hell.”
I flexed my pecs. Because I could. “Then go back upstairs.” Where I wouldn’t have to think about her full tits under that blanket.
“Again, no.”
Sighing, I scrubbed a hand over my face. Then I said what was on my mind, because I was too old and too tired for this bullshit. “You don’t want to fuck, you don’t need me to shoot anyone at the moment, and you’ve got a blanket that’ll keep you warm in this damn blizzard. So why the fuck are you down here?”
It was quick and almost imperceptible through the blanket she had swathed around her, but I caught it. She shivered. Then her voice turned too damn quiet. “Because I don’t want to be there.”
Instinct kicked in, and my head was up before I could blink. Scanning the stairs, the living area and kitchen all in one sweep, I eyed my gun before glancing out the windows. “Where? Upstairs?” There weren’t any threats up there.
The front door and the glass sliders were the weak points. Which was why I was sitting on the couch between the two access points in the first place instead of holed up in the security room where I could see all the cameras. Seconds meant life or death in reaction times, and I wasn’t going to give any fuck out there Vincenzo hired the advantage of even one goddamn second.
So here I sat. In case. Because that was my job.
She shifted against me, dropping her head lower. “Yeah.”
Fighting the instinct to grab her chin and demand her eyes so I could see what the hell was going on with her, I barked out a question. “What’s wrong with upstairs?”
She was quiet a beat too long, and my senses went into overdrive.
Adrenaline kicking at my pulse, I scanned the entryway, the living room, my guns and the stairs again. Calculating reaction times, sight lines, and objects sturdy enough to stop a bullet, I was mission focused—until she opened her mouth.
“You’re not upstairs,” she quietly admitted.
Stock fucking still, I didn’t react. But I did call her on it. “So?”
She shrugged. “So I don’t like to be alone.”
“You’re not alone. I’m in the same damn cabin.” Shit, was I in it, practically over my head as a matter of fact. But my mind should’ve been out of it, worrying about what was coming up the mountain.
“You weren’t upstairs,” she reiterated.
“Fuck, woman. Say what you need to say or shut up and go to sleep. I don’t have time for bullshit games.”
“I’m not playing games. I just don’t want to be alone, alone. As in, by myself in a room.” She shifted again, bringing her head even closer to my lap.
My dick, not getting the memo to stay the fuck down, pulsed. “Christ, don’t tell me you’re afraid of the dark.” She was nineteen, and I needed to get my shit under control.
“You’re a real asshole, you know that?”
“Yep.” I made no apologies for it. “Now go upstairs before you get in trouble.” The kind of trouble I’d relish burying her in.
“Oh my God. Fine. If you want me to say it, I’ll say it.” She pushed up to look at me. “I’ve haven’t been alone for months, okay? Two back-to-back stints in rehab makes a person get used to having other people around all the time. Upstairs was so ridiculously quiet, I couldn’t even hear another person breathing, and it freaked me out. So there you go, make fun of me all you want. I just didn’t want to be alone.” She slammed her head back against my chest and settled in.
Goddamn, Luna was gonna owe me for this shit. “I’m not a babysitter.”
“You’re my bodyguard,” she threw out, exasperated.
“Personal protection,” I corrected, emphasizing the latter—for me, for her, who fucking knew. “You need someone to hold your hand through the night, call Amherst.” Let her father deal with this.
She snorted. “Yeah, because he’s been such a great part of my life so far. Having me dye my hair blonde since I was ten and by twelve telling me not to get fat so my ass looked good in a bikini.”
My jaw ticked at her last comment, and I sat up. Pushing her head away from the vicinity of my cock, I shifted out of her reach and stood. “Amherst is a fucking dick.” Grabbing my gun, I dropped the magazine, checked for bullets I already knew were there, then shoved it back home. “You hungry?” I jammed the Glock in my back waistband, but what I really wanted to do was get my hands on her piece-of-shit father until he felt the pressure. Then I wanted to fuck her and show her exactly how goddamn perfect her ass was now that she’d put some weight on it.
Sighing, she stood. “Tell me something I don’t know.” The blanket fell from her shoulders, and moonlight hit her face. “I could eat.”
For a second, I forgot I was thirty-fucking-six.
I was staring at dark hair, ice eyes, lush curves, and damn, the woman in front of me wasn’t nineteen. She was a perfect storm. And Christ, those tits.
Fuck, her tits.
Nipples hard, perfect enough to be fake, they’d fill more than my hand. I could practically feel the weight of them in my palm.
My mouth watered, and I shook my head. “Damn.”
“What?” she asked innocently.
I tipped my chin at her rack. “Those real?”
“Jesus, you’re such a fucking asshole.” She shoved me, and her tits jiggled. “Get out of my way.” She stomped past me, but not before I saw all I needed to see.
“Real,” I stated, following her to the kitchen.
MY BREATH WAS SHORT, MY core was tingling and my skin was suddenly on fire. He stared at me like he wanted to devour me, but then he opened his mouth and the overbearing alphahole dick came out. I shoved him out of my way, but it was too late. My nipples were so hard they hurt, and all I was thinking about was the bulge I’d seen in his pants.
Did cocks seriously come that big?
That shit was like the size of my forearm.
Fuck, Summer, pull it together, pull it together.
Shaking my head, shoving down thoughts of how he smelled like danger and security all rolled into one giant laundry soap, musk and gun oil mess, I aimed for the kitchen.