Protecting the Princess

by Carla Cassidy

  He needed to take a moment, wanted to slow down and to enjoy the journey as much as the final destination. Anna stirred him as he could never remember any woman doing before her.

  Her hands sizzled against the skin on his chest and as she danced him toward the bed there was nothing he wanted more than to fall with her amid the tangled sheets and make fast, furious love to her. She seemed to want the same thing as her fingers moved to the first button of his fly and began to fumble to unfasten it. He grabbed her hands, recognizing that she was a woman accustomed to being in control and this time, with him, he intended to be in control.

  She looked up at him, her eyes hungry and her lips slightly swollen and partly open as if to invite him to another kiss. “Let me,” he said as he dropped her hands and instead reached for the button on her fly.

  He’d expected an argument, but she surprised him by standing perfectly still as he unfastened the top button of her jeans. One by one he unbuttoned until there was nothing more to unfasten.

  When he’d finished she shimmied her jeans to the floor and stepped out of them. Her body was still hidden from his view by the length of her shirt. He reached for the bottom of her top, but she stepped back from him.

  “The lamp,” she said in a faint whisper.

  “I want it on.” He reached out and dragged a finger down the side of her face. She closed her eyes for a moment as if finding his touch excruciatingly intense.

  “I don’t want to fumble around in the dark with you,” he said, his voice a husky rasp. “I want to look at your face while I’m touching you, I want to see your eyes when I make love to you.”

  She opened her eyes, inhaled a tremulous breath and pulled her T-shirt over her head. She dropped it to the floor and stood naked and proud in front of him.

  The sight of her stole his breath away. Her hips were curvy and her stomach was flat. Her smallish breasts begged to be touched. To him she was stunning…absolutely perfect.

  As he tore off his jeans, she crawled beneath the sheets of the bed and when he joined her there he pulled her into his arms for a full-contact body embrace.

  She felt just as she had in his dreams, soft and hot, eager and beyond tempting. Their mouths met once again as his hands found the fullness of her breasts and cupped them.

  As his thumbs stroked across her nipples she released a low, deep moan. He tore his mouth from hers and looked down at her, saw the darkened irises of her eyes, eyes filled with a hunger that torched through him.

  He could have taken her then, buried himself inside her and taken her in frantic need. But he didn’t. He had no idea how many lovers she’d had before, but he wanted to make love to her better than any other man ever had. He wanted her to remember her cowboy lover long after she left Cotter Creek and him behind.

  With this thought in mind, he began to explore her body inch by delectable inch. He stroked and kissed as she clutched at him and moaned her pleasure. Each moan shot through him like a jolt of electricity, moving him closer to his point of no return.

  He stoked her at her center, using his fingers to drive her mindless. She moaned his name, and he loved the sound of it on her lips. Her hips moved against him in frantic need and he increased the pressure of his touch.

  It took only moments for her to stiffen and cry out, a soft mewling cry as she shuddered her release.

  He could wait no longer. He leaned over and ripped open the drawer of his nightstand. His fingers trembled as he clasped one of the foil packets. Hurry, his brain screamed as he ripped it open and quickly rolled on the condom. Need drove him into her, and as he buried himself in her sweet, wet warmth he lost all sense of himself.

  Together their hips moved in unison as his mouth once again found hers. Faster and faster they moved, their mouths no longer capable of clinging to each other while their bodies moved in raging need.

  He felt her stiffening again, watched her eyelids flutter and her eyes roll back and then close and knew she had once again found her release.

  It was all he needed to let himself go.

  Moments later they remained in each other’s arms, and for the first time Tanner recognized how utterly foolish they had been giving in to the desire that had been pulsating between them for the past couple of days.

  “Anna.” He rose on one elbow and gazed at her.

  She reached up and laid a gentle hand on the side of his face. She looked at him as if she could see all that lay inside him. “You need to talk?”

  Her soft touch, her knowing eyes and the invitation to share scared the hell out of him. In a matter of days she’d be gone, back to her superficial life of leisure.

  No matter what they had just shared physically, he didn’t intend to share anything with her emotionally. There was no point to baring his soul.

  “No. What I really need is to sleep.”

  He hadn’t realized how gruff he’d sounded until she jerked her hand away from him as if he’d slapped her. With one graceful movement she slid from the bed and stood. “Then I guess I’d better let you get some sleep.”

  With the dignity of a queen, she grabbed her jeans and T-shirt, then slid out of his bedroom door and shut it behind her.

  Tanner leaned his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes even though he knew sleep would be a long time coming. He’d hurt her by sending her away so abruptly, but the last thing he wanted to do was to snuggle beneath warm, sex-scented sheets and share the secrets of his heart.

  Still her natural empathy got to him. If she really had been the spoiled young woman he believed she was, then she wouldn’t have noticed or cared that Zack’s words had bothered him. But apparently she had noticed and she did care.

  He found his thoughts drifting away from Anna and to his brother. Zack’s words had stung more deeply than he’d believed possible. He’d needed a brother, not a boss, that’s what Zack had said.

  Tanner had been trying to be a brother. He couldn’t help it that his concern had been not only for Zack but for how Zack’s actions might affect the company. The company was built for the benefit of his siblings. Tanner had worked hard to make the company successful enough that hopefully his siblings would never have to worry about money.

  Zack was a hell of a bodyguard, a huge asset to Wild West Protective Services. Tanner couldn’t imagine his brother not working for the agency. Zack belonged with the agency and Tanner knew that better than anyone. He’d just been trying to make Zack see that point.

  He turned to his side as his thoughts once again returned to Anna. Anna, the spoiled, jet-setting princess. Anna, with gold in her hair and challenge sparkling her eyes. Anna, with her satiny skin and throaty sighs.

  He hoped her father arrived tomorrow and would take her away from here, back to the life where she belonged.

  Yes, this night had been a mistake and would have never happened had he not been feeling vulnerable. It was a mistake that wouldn’t ever happen again.

  Tanner West was the most aggravating man she’d ever known in her entire life. He was driven, arrogant and far more complex than she’d realized.

  Last night he’d made exquisite love to her and there had been a moment when she’d felt him open to her not only with his body but with his heart and soul, as well. There had been a moment when he’d looked into her eyes and she’d seen the man beneath and he’d taken her breath away.

  Unfortunately he’d ruined everything by shutting down and turning off, by throwing her to the curb before her heartbeat had even returned to a normal rhythm.

  This morning had been no better. He’d been cranky and distant, pacing the floor in the great room and studiously ignoring her.

  She felt a bit cranky herself. There was only so many times she could thumb through a copy of Ranch Living, only so many times she could stare out the window and only so much silence she could handle.

  It was just before noon when desperation drove her into Smokey’s lair, the kitchen. “What do you want?” He looked about as inviting as the act of sh
oving a size-five shoe onto a size-seven foot.

  “I want to know what it is about living in the middle of nowhere that makes everyone so darned crabby.” She pulled out a stool and sat at the counter where Smokey was cutting up vegetables.

  “Who’s crabby?”

  She eyed him through narrowed eyes. “Oh, I forgot, you’re the epitome of cheerful,” she said dryly.

  A whisper of a twinkle lit Smokey’s eyes. “I am what I am, and I don’t pretend to put on airs.”

  “Is that what you think I do? Put on airs?” She propped her elbow on the counter and placed her chin in her hand.

  A full grin pulled Smokey’s worn features upward. “I think you were probably born with airs, but that’s not your fault. That’s just a circumstance of birth.”

  She frowned thoughtfully. “Then why do I get the feeling he blames me for my circumstance of birth?”

  Smokey shrugged. “If Tanner’s got a problem with you it’s not because of your birth, but maybe because of the choices you’ve made in your life.”

  He resumed cutting up cucumbers. “That man is hard on people, but not half as hard as he is on himself. He stopped being a kid, stopped having fun the day his mama died.”

  “But he was just a little boy,” she exclaimed.

  “That he was, but that day he shed boyhood and became a man.” Smokey set the cucumbers aside and reached for several large tomatoes. “He wasn’t just a ten-year-old boy, he was the eldest of six younguns who were all confused and scared and wanting their mama. Red wasn’t no good. He fell into a hole of booze and grief. I wasn’t much better. Them kids didn’t know me very well and it was Tanner who held them all together.”

  Anna watched for a moment as Smokey expertly sliced and diced the tomatoes, her thoughts embracing the little boy Tanner had been. Her heart cried for the boy who had become a man too soon, raised by life tragedy.

  “Tanner doesn’t know nothin’ but work.” Smokey continued speaking in the rough-hewn voice that was oddly appealing. “Since he was a teenager he’s been determined to build something secure for his family. That business is all he thinks about, all he cares about.”

  He turned from the counter and went to the refrigerator. He grabbed several green peppers from the bin then returned to the cutting board and cast her a sly look. “I think a woman like you might be good for him.”

  “A woman like me?”

  He sliced into one of the green peppers, the pungent scent filling the air. “You know, a woman who knows how to have fun…maybe a little too much fun.” Again he gazed at her with that sly glance.

  Anna had never in her life felt the need to apologize or to defend her lifestyle, but she did now. She had the strongest desire to not only apologize but to vow to herself that somehow, some way when this was all over she’d change her life.

  “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I’ve had a little too much fun in my life.” She thought of the traveling, the clubbing, the frantic kind of fun she’d had. It certainly hadn’t brought her anything close to happiness.

  The phone rang and Smokey ignored it. It rang only once then apparently was answered by either Tanner or his father. Smokey continued cutting the peppers. “Nothing wrong with fun, but everyone needs a little work in their life, too. Something that makes them feel good about themselves. A man like Tanner would be good for you, too.”

  She wanted to snort in derision, to protest long and loudly, but deep inside she couldn’t fool herself into thinking that Tanner meant nothing to her.

  She didn’t sleep with men who meant nothing. Men who meant nothing didn’t have the potential to hurt her and she thought Tanner possessed that potential.

  “It would take a better woman than me to bring a little fun to Tanner’s life,” she finally exclaimed.

  “I don’t know about that. I never thought I’d see the day that he’d be standing in front of my refrigerator sorting through things for a picnic.”

  “A picnic we never got to enjoy,” she said wistfully.

  “Maybe there will be another time for a picnic,” Smokey said.

  “Maybe,” she agreed, although she doubted it. She was aware that her days here were definitely limited. At any moment her father could arrive and take her away from this ranch where she hadn’t wanted to be and now almost hated to leave. She frowned thoughtfully. When had that happened? When had this place begun to feel like home?

  The phone rang again. It was not an unusual occurrence. Most mornings the phone rang often as Tanner’s agents checked in with him for the day.

  “Is there anything I can do to help with lunch?” she asked.

  Smokey’s gray eyebrows danced upward. “You show a lot of potential, young lady. If you want, you can get the dishes out to set the table.” He motioned toward one of the cabinets.

  Potential. Nobody had ever told her she had potential before. Smokey’s words warmed her as she took the plates out of the cabinet and carried them into the dining room.

  There had never been any expectations for her. She was the sum of her frivolity, encouraged to be carefree and superficial and utterly empty inside.

  She’d just returned to the kitchen to retrieve the silverware when Tanner came in, his features as grim as she’d ever seen them.

  “Something’s happened,” he said.

  “What?” The tension rolling off him forced her heart to beat faster. She was vaguely aware of Smokey setting down his knife, his grizzly brows pulled together.

  “Linda Wilcox was found unconscious in an alley this morning.” Tanner and Smokey exchanged a glance. “She’d been hit over the head with something and left there.”

  “That’s horrible,” she exclaimed. “Was she a friend of yours?”

  “Just an acquaintance,” Tanner said.

  “Why did he call you?” Smokey asked.

  “He thought I might be interested.”

  “He calling everyone in town or did he have a specific reason for thinking you might be especially interested?” Smokey asked.

  Tanner’s gaze held Anna’s and she felt as if the pit of her stomach hit the floor. “He thought we’d be especially interested.”

  “Why?” The single word crawled from Anna’s throat.

  “Linda has blond hair, kind of loose around her shoulders like yours. Sheriff Ramsey thought it was interesting that she was wearing your clothes, Anna. The clothes you left at Betty’s Boutique.”

  Chapter 10

  Tanner paced in front of the window, waiting for Jim Ramsey to arrive. Anna sat on the sofa, her face blanched of color as she watched him walk back and forth.

  Over the years Tanner had worked on hundreds of assignments. He’d headed up protection for a rock star on a six-week tour, had guarded a priceless painting on display at a museum in Phoenix. He’d worked for politicians and businessmen, starlets and athletes, but he’d never had an assignment that worried him more than this one.

  He couldn’t get a handle on the bad guys, didn’t understand them. Always before Tanner had relied on his instincts, but his instincts had been ominously silent on this particular assignment.

  “It could just be some awful coincidence,” Anna said tentatively, breaking in to his thoughts.

  He stopped his pacing and turned to look at her once again. “Yeah, could be,” he replied. But he didn’t think so. There was a twist in his gut that made him fear it was something much worse than coincidence.

  “Why is the sheriff coming to speak to us?” she asked, worry evident in her voice.

  “I asked him to come out.” Tanner tamped down his restless energy enough to sit next to her on the sofa. “I asked him to bring us the clothes Linda was wearing when she was attacked. I want to make sure they really are the ones you left at Betty’s. Maybe she was wearing something similar and Betty got it wrong. If they are the clothes that belonged to you, then I want to go over them.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean, go over them? It was just a blouse and a long skirt. What’s to go over?”


  “I don’t know. I just want to look at them.” He needed to know if that skirt and blouse had somehow led to Linda’s attack. He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but he wanted to see those articles of clothing.

  Anna leaned into him, her warmth welcome despite his morning of regrets. “I hope Linda Wilcox was the victim of a random mugger. I hope she had a boyfriend who went crazy with jealousy. I hope anything explains what happened to her other than me being the cause of her pain.”

  He hadn’t thought it possible that she would take some sort of personal responsibility for Linda’s attack. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and looked down into her troubled blue eyes. “Anna, you aren’t responsible for what’s happened. Whoever knocked Linda over the head is solely responsible for this.”

  “Yes, but if I hadn’t come here…if I hadn’t left those clothes at Betty’s…”

  He placed a finger against her soft, sweet lips. “If Betty hadn’t resold them, if Linda hadn’t bought them…if…if…if.”

  She grabbed his hand with both of hers and squeezed, her gaze vulnerable and unsure as it held his. Suddenly he felt like the biggest jerk on earth. He’d made love to her then had unceremoniously tossed her out of bed and had spent the morning subtly punishing her with his silence.

  “Anna…about last night,” he began, unsure what he intended to say but feeling as though he needed to say something.

  “I wasn’t exactly a gentleman and I apologize for being so brusque with you.”

  “Apology accepted,” she said easily. She gazed at him with her clear, beautiful blue eyes and again he was surprised by the fact that she held no grudge.

  “I just didn’t want you to think that what happened…”

  “Meant anything?” She raised one pale eyebrow. She offered him a faint smile. “The way I look at it we’re both adults. There’s been some kind of chemistry between us and last night we acted upon it. For as long as it lasted it was beautiful, but I wasn’t expecting any hearts or flowers afterward, certainly not from a man like you. I’m just glad about one thing.”