To Love and Protect

by Stacey Joy Netzel

  To Love and Protect

  Must Love Diamonds Series, Book 4

  Stacey Joy Netzel

  Contents

  Introduction

  Newsletter

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Epilogue

  Thank you!

  Coming up Next

  Other Titles By Stacey Joy Netzel

  About the Author

  She needs a bodyguard, but not the one who refused her body nine years ago.

  Family friend and sexy former Special Forces soldier? Devante Torrez.

  High school crush who left her humiliated? Also Dev.

  Last person she wants as her bodyguard? Yep…you guessed it.

  * * *

  Veterinarian Shelby Diamond has a stalker, and her Senator father enlists former Special Forces soldier, Devante Torrez, to be her protector. She’d prefer anyone other than the man who left her humiliated and never looked back to be watching over her in close quarters - especially when she’s never been able to get the sexy, noble jerk out of her mind.

  After a career ending injury forces him out of the military, Dev doesn’t trust himself to keep her safe from the stalker, or himself, because he wants her as much now as he did eight years ago, when she offered her sixteen-year-old self to him on a silver platter—or a pink princess bed, as it were. When the stalker grows bolder and gets much too close for comfort, Dev is forced to take the job, and soon discovers saying no to Shelby in any shape or form is even harder than walking away from her all those years ago.

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  Dedication

  To Megan -

  Your kindness will never be forgotten.

  Chapter 1

  Knuckles white on the steering wheel, Shelby Diamond flicked her gaze to the rearview mirror as she turned into the hospital parking garage. The headlights behind her were gone, but instead of relief, a new rush of anxiety spiked her pulse.

  Where had the car gone? Where would it be waiting for her next?

  She circled the first couple floors, searching for a spot as close to the stairs as possible while checking the mirror every few seconds. When no other vehicles materialized, she forced her fingers open to get some blood flowing through them again. After one more time around, she found a space close enough on the fourth level.

  She shot a nervous glance toward the elevator and stairwell. She didn’t like having to descend two floors to reach the skywalk across to the hospital, but at least in the stairwell she could run if she had to.

  You’re being paranoid again. Everything is lit. It’ll be fine.

  These days, paranoia was becoming a constant, exhausting companion.

  She surveyed her surroundings after she parked and shut off the engine. There was an older couple down the row getting into a vehicle, and a woman with a kid just getting into the elevator.

  See? Nothing to worry about.

  Still…she debated calling Asher to see if anyone was in the room with him and Honor and ask someone to come meet her. Just as quickly, she discarded the idea. They’d want to know why. Because, although it was already dark at six p.m. in January, it wasn’t like she was visiting her brand new niece at one a.m. in the morning.

  If she even gave a hint as to why she wanted an escort, the whole damn family would go into over-protective mode, and next thing she knew, Dad would have her moved back home under lock and key.

  Well, maybe not quite that bad, but she’d had a hard enough time getting him and Mom to accept her moving to her own apartment last month, and she wasn’t about to lose her hard-fought independence. It was the one instance being the baby of the family really sucked—and twice as bad with her dad being a U.S. Senator who had to deal with death threats because of his political work.

  Because of that, she had compromised with her parents by letting them pick out an upscale, gated apartment complex halfway between their house and the veterinary hospital where she’d been working for the past three months. These days, she would admit to being grateful for the extra security when she went home at night—or sometimes at six-thirty in the morning if she worked a double shift. But only to herself.

  Gathering her purse and keys, she checked the garage again before getting out of her car. She manually pressed the lock button and shut the door, and an additional press of the key fob sounded the reassuring beep to confirm the vehicle was secure. A brisk power-walk carried her toward the stairwell door, her elevated breath visible in the winter air as she continuously scanned the open expanse of concrete around her.

  She gripped the handle and leaned in with her shoulder while taking one final look to be sure no one had snuck up from behind before she pushed through.

  The handle turned beneath her fingers and suddenly the door fell away from her shoulder. She stumbled inside, the top of her head colliding with something hard at the same time a pair of arms grabbed her. A shriek tore from her throat as momentum sent her and her attacker careening backward into the wall on the opposite side.

  Their jarring halt came with a masculine grunt that jump-started her fight and flight instincts. She kicked and twisted, pounding her fists against the body holding her captive.

  “Jesus Christ,” a rough voice cursed above her head.

  She jerked her knee up into his groin and the man choked out a hoarse cry. He shoved her away and doubled over. The moment she regained her balance, she spun for the stairs as more curse words erupted from the man’s mouth.

  Shelby froze on the top step as the voice penetrated her haze of panic.

  It had been years since she’d last heard it, but she recognized that voice.

  After risking a glance over her shoulder, she turned to stare in disbelief. “Dev?”

  He squinted up from his bent over position, his expression tight and furious until he recognized her. Well, even then, his expression didn’t change much beyond a flicker of something dark in those stunning blue-green eyes of his. Probably disdain. Or contempt. Last time she’d seen Devante Torrez, he’d had plenty of both for her.

  “What are you doing here?” The question came out all shocked and breathless seeing as her heart was still threatening to beat from her chest—though now it was for a completely different reason.

  “Same as you, I imagine,” he growled, bracing his palms on his knees.

  He’d come to see her brother’s baby? Before her?

  “What the fuck was that all about?” He gave a short gesture toward the door.

  “You scared me.”

  “Me? I opened the fucking door and you barreled into me. I was trying to keep us both from falling down the stairs.”

  “Well, I’m sorry,�
�� she retorted, the distain in his tone sparking her defenses. “How was I supposed to know?”

  He started to straighten, only to halt with a pained grimace. It added lines around his eyes and pulled the corners of his mouth down. “You always freak out when someone opens a door?”

  Nine years. She hadn’t seen the man in nine years, and in less than a minute he’d reawakened all those feelings of shame and humiliation he’d left her with when he walked out of her bedroom when she was sixteen. But she was no longer a shy, innocent little girl with hearts in her eyes—not entirely, at least. And she had nothing to be ashamed of right now.

  Shelby raised her chin, his still bent position allowing her to glare down at him despite the solid eight inches he had over her five and a half feet.

  “I thought someone was following me, and when you grabbed—” She broke off when he straightened to his full height, his gaze narrowing and sharpening.

  “Who was following you?”

  Without waiting for her to answer, he brushed past and yanked the door open. When he stepped through the doorway, her gaze was drawn down to the jerkiness of his movements, and she realized he was limping. Had she done that?

  No. His brother, Reyes, had said he’d had surgery before being flown home from Landstuhl, Germany two days after Thanksgiving. She hadn’t let herself think too much about how close he’d come to dying, but now she had the craziest notion of stepping forward to hug him and tell him she was sorry about what happened to him—even though she didn’t know exactly what had happened.

  “Shelby.”

  She jerked her gaze up to find his expression forged with a combination of anger and resentment. Heat flushed her body at having been caught staring at his legs.

  “Who was following you?” he repeated through gritted teeth.

  “No one. Forget it.”

  A muscle jerked in his clenched jaw. Clearly he didn’t believe her, and who could blame him after her reaction to the entire situation.

  She had to force herself not to fidget under his suspicious regard. Dev at twenty-one had been the epitome of the guy she’d wanted to lose her virginity to; she’d been in love with him for half her life. Dev at thirty was mature and war-hardened, and she found herself terrified and enthralled at the same time. He was still the most breathtakingly good-looking man she’d ever seen, but years in the Special Forces had sharpened his features and put ice chips in his eyes.

  “Do you want me to walk you inside?”

  It was an empty offer, made purely because his parents still worked for her parents, and he’d been raised to do the right thing. She knew, because he looked like he’d rather face a firing squad than spend another second in her presence.

  The feeling is entirely mutual, buddy.

  “I’ll be fine.” Then she grudgingly added, “I’m sorry if I hurt you before.”

  His lips stretched, though the result could hardly be called a smile. “I’ll be fine.”

  Instead of exiting to the garage, he moved toward her, his steps slow and deliberate. She swallowed hard, fighting with everything she had to not look down at his limp. Feeling like he was testing her somehow, she stood her ground until he stopped right in front of her. It was damn near impossible to breathe with his gaze locked on hers, but she lifted her chin to show him—and herself—he didn’t scare her.

  “Excuse me.”

  She blinked at the raspy demand in his voice. “What?”

  He gestured for her to move back as if she were an idiot. When she did, she nearly tripped on something at her feet and looked down to see a cane with dark lettering burned into the wood.

  “Oh. Sorry.” She started to bend down to pick it up for him—

  “I. Got. It.”

  Flinching at the anger in his voice, she jerked upright and took another step back. He bent for the cane, the efforts of his movements evident in his tight expression and the fine sheen of sweat glistening on his forehead as he straightened.

  Without another word, he pivoted and left her standing there, staring in shock…disbelief…mortification—until the door closed between them.

  Chapter 2

  Shelby backed up a few steps and sagged against the wall. Scrubbing her hands over her face, she leaned her head back. Holy shit. Never in a million years would she have expected to see Dev here.

  And, oh my, God, I kneed him in the balls!

  The metallic clang of a door closing somewhere in the stairwell down below jerked her head upright. It was all the reminder she needed of where she was and why he’d scared her so badly in the first place.

  Pushing off from the wall, she felt for her keys in her pocket and then pulled them out to fit them between her fingers as she skimmed down the steps. Her heart was thumping hard all over again by the time she reached the skywalk and rushed across to the busier hospital hallways. At the elevator bank, she stretched out her arm to punch the UP button when the doors slid open to reveal Merit, Mae, Ian, and Maverick.

  “Hi, Shelby!” Seven-year-old Ian hopped off the elevator and gave her a hug right away.

  “Hey.” She turned a smile to her brother and sister-in-law over his head.

  Merit frowned as he shifted the car carrier from his left hand to his right. “Everything okay, Bells?”

  “Of course,” she replied, though her pulse was still skipping like crazy. “Why?”

  “Your face is all red.”

  From facing Dev and practically running through the hospital. “It is cold out, you know. Speaking of which, are you guys on your way out?”

  “It’s past dinnertime for two of my cranky boys and coming up fast for the third,” Mae said.

  Shelby laughed at the way her brother rolled his eyes. She leaned over to peek into the car seat carrier at her nephew, Maverick. He’d been born seven weeks early, but he’d grown like a weed these past two months. Now he was right where he should be if he’d been born on his due date.

  The first time she’d seen her youngest brother holding his tiny little son, a pang of longing caught her by surprise, followed by a rush of pride for the man he’d become. And while she took care of animals smaller than her nephew at birth, it had taken her a month to work up the courage to hold the preemie infant.

  “Ava is as big as Mav, and she was just born,” Ian said. “Can you believe it?”

  “And how big is that?”

  He looked up at his mom.

  “Seven pounds, eight ounces,” Mae supplied. “But remember, Scoob, they were supposed to be born about the same time, so Mav is where he should be if he’d been born now, too.”

  Maverick let out a cry from his car seat carrier, and Merit grimaced. “We should go or we’ll hear that the whole ride home.”

  “See you guys at brunch tomorrow?” Shelby asked.

  “Yep,” her brother confirmed as they headed for the skywalk.

  She watched them go, wanting to ask if they’d seen Dev, but afraid to bring up his name when Merit had already noticed her flushed cheeks.

  Thankfully, by the time she knocked on the door to Asher and Honor’s room loud enough to be heard over the crying newborn, her pulse had settled back to normal.

  “Hello? Aunt Shelby is here.”

  “Come on in,” Honor called out. “Asher’s on diaper duty.”

  Shelby entered and saw her older brother standing at a rolling bassinet, his back to the door as he dealt with the baby. She moved over to give her sister-in-law a hug. “Congratulations, Momma. How are you doing today?”

  Honor had been in labor almost twelve hours yesterday before Ava had made her grand entrance into the world at six-fifty-seven p.m.

  “Tired.” And her smile showed it. “Though I did get to sleep some last night and again this afternoon.”

  “Well, I’m not going to stay long.” Shelby walked over to peek at her new niece. She rubbed her hand on her brother’s back as tears misted her eyes. “She’s beautiful.”

  “Isn’t she?” Asher gave her a proud papa grin
as he swaddled her in a sunflower yellow, hand-knit blanket. She quickly quieted down when he cuddled her close to his chest, and he glanced up a minute later. “You want to hold her?”

  “Definitely. I got all my practice in on Mav.”

  He turned to place his daughter in Shelby’s arms. “Ava, meet your Auntie Bells.”

  “Hello, Ava,” she whispered while gazing down at the tiny bundle. “So glad you finally decided to join us.”

  “Let’s hope that isn’t a sign of things to come with her,” Honor said from the hospital bed. “I was getting desperate when we hit the second day past my due date.”

  “Tell me about it,” Asher said as he went to lie next to his wife on the bed with a tired grunt. “She was begging me to have sex with her just to get the labor started.”

  Honor backhanded him on the chest. “I was not.”

  Shelby glanced up from the baby’s sweet little face with a soft laugh. “Not that I want to know anything about your sex life, but I have heard that works.”

  “Told you,” Asher said.

  “I didn’t doubt you.” Her sister-in-law rolled her eyes as she met Shelby’s gaze. “Now you know who was begging for sex. Like that was going to happen when I felt like a beached whale—looked like one, too.”

  Asher reached across to turn her face to him. “You were beautiful then, and you’re beautiful now.”

  “That’s sweet, Romeo, but it’s gonna be a least six weeks.”