Protector

by Diana Palmer

  It was like starting a brush fire. He caught his breath, slammed her body against the length of his and his mouth became insistent and demanding all at once.

  Minette couldn’t even protest the very intimate hold. She slid her arms under his and around him, her hands flattening on his long, muscular back. She moved even closer, shivering a little as she felt him become immediately capable.

  He whispered something under his breath, but she didn’t hear him. She was blind, deaf, dumb, desperate to keep his warm, hungry mouth on her lips. She moaned helplessly and stood on her tiptoes to get even closer to the source of all that incredible pleasure.

  His hands slid down her back and caught her upper thighs, grinding her against the hunger that was almost bending him double with need.

  “Oh, God, this was a mistake,” he ground out against her mouth. “Minette, we have...to stop. Right now!”

  “Okay.” She kissed him harder.

  “Listen...!”

  Her mouth opened.

  “Oh, damn it...” He lifted her higher against him, groaning because it really hurt his shoulder, but something else was hurting even more. He caught the back of her head and his tongue went into her mouth, thrusting hard and deep.

  She thought she might pass out, the pleasure was so deep and throbbing and wild. She shivered against the powerful length of him. There was nothing in the world. Nothing except Hayes and the silence in the room and the intense, unbearable tension that was growing and growing and growing...

  The sudden sound of glass hitting the floor broke them apart.

  Hayes looked up. Andy was standing on the desk with his dewlap down. He’d just used his long tail to knock a glass onto the floor. Now he whipped it again and knocked over a cup full of pencils.

  “Are you sure he’s a he?” Minette asked breathlessly as she stared at the giant reptile. She was still plastered against Hayes, her body throbbing in time with her heartbeat.

  “Well, no...” he had to admit. It was hard to breathe and talk when his body was urging him to drag her to the nearest bed. “The guy who sold him to me swore he’d been checked and neutered, and he was a male. That’s why I named him Andy.”

  She looked up at Hayes. “Well, I think the guy who sold him to you lied.”

  Hayes looked at the big lizard. “Andy?” he asked aloud.

  Andy knocked over a photo of Hayes’s father with his tail.

  Slowly, very slowly, Hayes let Minette go. Andy’s dewlap retreated and his posture changed. He stood there, unchallenging, just staring at Hayes.

  Hayes looked down at Minette. “I see problems ahead.”

  “You do?”

  He nodded. He was looking at her mouth. “I don’t intend to stop kissing you.”

  She smiled dreamily. “I’m so glad you said that. Because I like it very much.”

  He nodded again. He smiled. “It does seem to be addictive.”

  She laughed. “I’ll have to learn to make salad. Maybe Andy can get used to me.”

  “As a last alternative I’ll have him checked again by a vet and if he’s a female, I’ll get him a boyfriend.”

  She chuckled. “What an alternative.”

  He bent to her mouth. “Let’s tempt fate one more time.”

  She opened her lips and kissed him back with unbridled hunger. He was absolutely delicious to kiss. His mouth was firm and soft and very expert. She didn’t even want to know how he learned how to kiss that way. It was enough to know that he wanted her. She wanted him very much. Her body was telling him so.

  Crash! They looked over toward the desk. The telephone in its cradle had gone over the side. Andy’s dewlap was down again.

  “Either we move to another room and lock the door or we give it up for now,” Hayes said with a long sigh. “I think it’s probably a good idea to give it up. I’m not really in any condition for what’s supposed to come next.”

  She laughed again. She didn’t want to say that she wasn’t about to go that far with him unless they were in a committed relationship, but she didn’t quite know how to put it. He should know by now that she had old-fashioned hang-ups. But she knew men could be devious after a long dry spell. And from what she knew of Hayes, he hadn’t had a special woman in his life for years. Being the sheriff of the county, it would be hard to hide a relationship from all the prying eyes.

  He released her slowly. She moved away and turned her attention back to Andy. He was calm again, his dewlap relaxed, his eyes steady, his head cocked as he watched his human interact with that odd-looking thing with so much hair.

  “Andy,” Hayes said, drawing in a deep breath, “bad lizard. Bad!”

  Andy just stared at him.

  “You can’t reason with reptiles,” Hayes muttered.

  “It’s his house and you’re his human,” Minette explained. “Or her house. Maybe.”

  “A jealous iguana.” He shook his head and grinned. “Now I’ve seen everything.”

  Minette looked up at him with pure adoration. “I like your big dangerous lizard, all the same. He, or she, really is beautiful.”

  “Thanks.” He went to the desk and stroked Andy behind his ears, along the narrow band of raised scales that ran all the way down his back. The ones along the end of his tail were as sharp as razor blades. “Okay, pal, you get your way, temporarily. Now, Andy, I want you to clean up this mess you made and stop knocking stuff off my desk. Bad iguana!”

  Andy cocked his head.

  “Fat chance, huh?” He leaned over, picked up the landline phone and started to put it down when he noticed something. There was a scratch along the case of the phone. He looked at Minette and put his finger to his lips. He pulled out an odd little tool from his desk drawer and opened the phone. There, embedded in the wiring, was a foreign object. He pursed his lips, unhooked the foreign object and put the phone back together. With a laugh, he put the little device on the floor and stomped on it, violently.

  “I hope your eardrums burst with that,” he muttered as he picked up the tiny pieces. “Damn. I probably should have saved it and given it to my investigator.”

  “Temper, temper,” Minette said, wagging her finger. “Curses, too? You’re losing it, Hayes.”

  He glanced at her and made a face. “Seems like it, yes.”

  She moved closer. “Do you think it was El Ladrón who put it there?”

  “I don’t know. We’d better go.” He stroked Andy again. “You behave. And eat anybody who comes in here who wasn’t invited. Got it?”

  Andy’s eyes blinked.

  “An attack iguana?” Minette mused.

  “Why not? He looks terrifying.”

  Minette stared at the big lizard and smiled. “I think he’s pretty.”

  Suddenly Andy dropped his dewlap and started shaking his head and blazing his eyes.

  “Well!” Hayes exclaimed.

  “That doesn’t look threatening at all. Do you think he’d let me pet him?” Minette asked.

  “I don’t know....”

  “Can I try?” She really wanted to make friends.

  “Just be careful. His tail is like a whip. It can cut.”

  “Okay.” She moved a little closer. “Sweet boy,” she purred to the iguana. “What a pretty baby you are!”

  Andy was still blazing his eyes.

  Very, very slowly, she moved her hand toward his head. He watched her. Then, just as her hand reached toward his back, he arched and brought his tail up and stared at her.

  “Move back,” Hayes said.

  She did, at once. She knew a threatening posture when she saw it.

  “It’s early days yet,” Hayes said, waiting until the iguana dropped the threatening posture before he picked him up, gently, and set him on his hot rock on the shelf. Andy spread out at once.

  Minette laughed. “Would you look at that? Mr. Leisure!”

  Hayes grinned. “He has moods. But you made a good start with him.”

  “I’ll keep trying,” she promised.

/>   He caught her hand in his and linked their fingers together. “He’ll get used to you.”

  “I know.”

  They walked back out the door and locked it. Minette was worried by the listening device Hayes had found.

  “You should call somebody about that bug,” she said when they were in the truck, driving away from the ranch.

  “I think you’re right. I’ll do that, when we get home.”

  It made her feel warm all over, the way he said that, as if he thought of her house that way. She smiled to herself.

  She glanced at him, and a worrying thought nagged at the back of her mind. “Hayes...you don’t mind, that my father turned out to be a notorious drug lord?”

  She drove with her left hand. The right lay on the seat between them. He picked it up, and linked his fingers with hers.

  “You can’t choose your relatives,” Hayes said. “Your father supplied the drugs that killed my brother. But he didn’t intend to kill Bobby. Intent is everything, in law. I don’t approve of the way he makes his living. He feeds on the addiction of people. It’s not a good thing. But it isn’t as if he held a gun to my brother’s head and forced him into an overdose.” He drew in a long breath. “I’ve thought a lot about what you said, about guilt. And I think you’re right. It’s like a sole survivor of a plane crash or train derailment, feeling guilty that he lived when so many others died. But God does have a hand in what happens to us, and I think there’s a purpose behind every single bad thing that occurs.”

  “I must be contagious,” she mused.

  He chuckled. “Not so much. My father was religious. He took me to church every Sunday when I was a boy. When I got into my teens I didn’t want to go, and he didn’t force me. But I’ve got that foundation, you see. When things go wrong in my life, when bad things happen, I have that bedrock of faith to hold on to. It gets me through the daily disasters.”

  She nodded, and he glanced at her. “Actually we’re both in businesses that see the very worst of humanity. But even in that darkness, there’s the occasional soft light burning.”

  “I guess.” She drew in a breath. “I just hate the coldness in our society, the meanness, the lack of respect.”

  “It’s not taught anymore,” Hayes said. “Maybe information overload is the problem. You know, you can’t even watch a television program now. They flash ads for upcoming shows right on the screen during the show, so you can’t concentrate on what you’re trying to watch. The whole world is going to have some form of attention deficit disorder and everyone will wonder why!”

  “Too true. I guess I’m guilty of the texting thing. Not when I drive,” she pointed out firmly. “That’s insane, to try to type while driving. But it’s easy to send Aunt Sarah a text if I’m going to be late, or I have to make a stop—she’s not always near her phone, but she checks her messages constantly.”

  “Hey, there’s this thing called voice mail,” he said humorously.

  She made a face. “I can’t figure out how to set it up, so I just text.”

  “I can teach you.”

  She smiled. “Okay.”

  He laughed and squeezed her fingers.

  * * *

  Thanksgiving was a riotous affair. The kids were out of school and Sarah and Minette spent the whole televised Christmas parade cooking.

  “You know, I’ve never seen this parade,” Minette commented, standing in the doorway in an apron with a spoon in her hand. “I’m always cooking. Have the Rockettes performed yet?”

  “Ten minutes ago, sorry,” Hayes said. He grinned. He was sitting in the big armchair with a lap full of children. He had Shane on one side and Julie on the other. He looked like he’d won the lottery.

  Minette smiled at them warmly. Her family. Her brother and sister, and her...she wasn’t sure what Hayes was. But he belonged here. She knew that.

  “What are you cooking?”

  “Everything,” she chuckled. “And I’d better get back to it before I burn up the sweet potato casserole that’s in the oven.”

  “All of us here appreciate your efforts,” Hayes said. “Furthermore, before you say that I’m not contributing to the workload, they also serve who only stand and wait. Or some such thing. Sit and wait, maybe.” He smiled, showing snow-white teeth.

  Minette loved the way he looked, in jeans and boots and a red plaid flannel shirt. He looked elegant, even so.

  She was wearing jeans, too, with a bright red pullover shirt that had reindeer trying to push an overweight Santa onto a roof. It was hidden under the holly and mistletoe apron she was wearing.

  “Okay. I agree that you’re contributing. But let me know when Santa Claus comes, I never miss that!”

  “We’ll come get you, Minette,” Julie promised. “Cross my heart.” And she did cross it and grin.

  Minette laughed on her way back to the kitchen.

  A short time later, the summons came.

  “Santa Claus!” Julie called from the doorway. “Santa’s on TV!”

  “On my way,” Minette said.

  She put down the knife she’d been using to slice turkey, covered the turkey in aluminum foil and rushed into the living room.

  “Oh, it’s Santa!” Shane exclaimed. He got out of the chair and joined Julie on the floor, as close to the television screen as they could get, which wasn’t very close because it was on a raised black entertainment center.

  Minette laughed, wiping her hands on a wet paper towel. “The star of the parade,” she mused.

  “You’ve been on your feet all morning,” Hayes said with a wicked grin. “Time to sit down, honey.”

  While she was digesting that, he reached out and tugged her gently down onto his lap. He grimaced. His shoulder was still sore. He shifted her, so that she was lying against the good one.

  She almost melted into him. She felt safe and secure with all that warm strength so close to her. She leaned her head against his chin and watched television, feeling warm and tingly all over.

  Hayes contracted his good arm and took a deep breath. “You smell like turkey and cranberry sauce. Careful that I don’t take a bite out of you. I’m hungry.”

  The others thought he was talking about food, and they laughed. But Minette looked up into his eyes and knew that he wasn’t. His hand slid up and down along her side, just barely brushing the outside of her breast. It was very stimulating. Involuntarily she leaned toward him, just a little, tempting that exploring hand closer...

  “Minette, do you want me to put the turkey on a platter?” Aunt Sarah called from the kitchen.

  Minette gasped and sat up on Hayes’s lap. She looked toward the kitchen, but her aunt was nowhere in sight. “No, I’ll...I’ll do that. Be right there.”

  Aunt Sarah looked out the door, caught her breath and died laughing. “Sorry, sorry,” she chuckled and vanished back into the kitchen.

  “Caught,” Hayes whispered at Minette’s ear, and kissed it.

  She laughed self-consciously. “Sort of, yes.” She sighed as she looked down into his handsome face. “I have to go.”

  He shook his head. “I’m devastated.”

  “Are you, really?”

  “Really.”

  She sighed again and her smile widened.

  “I have to go,” she repeated.

  “You said that.” He cocked his head. “Well, have a nice trip.”

  She burst out laughing as she got to her feet. Hayes was grinning.

  “Gosh, Minette, you’re all red! Are you sick?” Julie asked suddenly.

  Minette cleared her throat. “The kitchen, it’s hot in there,” she explained.

  “Oh. Okay. Look at Santa’s reindeers!” she exclaimed. “Minette, does Santa have real live reindeer where he lives?”

  “Of course he does, sweetness,” Minette replied gently.

  “And can they fly?” he persisted.

  “That’s what we’re told,” she replied.

  “This boy at kindergarten says that there isn’t a Santa
Claus. He says it’s all phony,” Julie muttered.

  Minette got down on one knee. “Well, you tell him that in this house, there is a Santa Claus and he’s bringing you all sorts of presents on Christmas morning!”

  Julie beamed. “Okay!”

  Minette got to her feet and glanced at Hayes with a frown. “I get so tired of people who think they need to force their opinions on the rest of the populace.”

  “Tell me about it,” Hayes said.

  “I’m going to finish carving the turkey,” she said darkly.

  “Now, listen, you be careful with the knife,” he cautioned.

  She made a face. “I’m only going to vent my frustrations. Remember, the turkey is deceased,” she reminded him.

  “I remember.” He gave her an amused look. “Just watch where you cut, okay?” His expression softened. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself.”

  She almost melted onto the floor. “You don’t?”

  “Of course I don’t. What a question!”

  She smiled slowly. “I’ll be careful.”

  “You do that.”

  She went back into the kitchen, warm all over.

  Chapter 10

  The meal was delicious. Minette was proud of the way it turned out. Cooking for the holidays was special, and she’d tried very hard to produce the sort of dishes that had been in her family for several generations. She had her great-grandmother’s cookbook with its recipes, and even a few that had been handed down from her great-great-grandmother.

  Great-Aunt Sarah remembered some by heart and had taught Minette how to make them. All in all, the food was some of the best Minette had ever cooked. She loved watching the kids and Hayes wolf it down.

  “This dressing is unique,” Hayes said. “I usually just get a box of it and follow the directions.” He shook his head. “As for giblet gravy, forget it. I don’t think you can even buy a can in the grocery stores.”

  “Not that I’m aware of,” Minette laughed. “You have to have the giblets to do it with. A lot of people throw them away and never even cook them.”

  “And the rolls,” he exclaimed, studying one. “Homemade rolls with real butter! The only place I ever even see these is at Barbara’s Café. I usually get extras to take home and put in the freezer.”