by Becca Van
“You didn’t eat enough to keep a bird alive, babe. If you don’t start eating more you’ll never grow up to be big and strong.” Noah smiled and winked then flexed his arm, making his bicep bulge and ripple beneath the short-sleeved shirt he had on.
Beth barely held in the moan which was forming in her chest and quickly looked away from his thick, muscular arm. “I’m sorry. Thank you for my dinner but I’m just not very hungry.”
“Why don’t you go and have a shower and relax, honey? You look beat,” Zach suggested.
“I’ll do the dishes first. It’s the least I can do after you two went to all the trouble of cooking.”
“No you won’t, hon, it’s my turn to do the dishes and you look dead on your feet. There’ll be plenty of other opportunities for you to cook or clean up later, but for tonight you get to relax.” Zach winked at her again.
God he is so fucking sexy. Every time he does that, I want to grab his hair and kiss him until neither of us can breathe. Shit, Beth, move your arse before you do something really stupid.
“Thank you. I think I will.” Beth rose from her seat and left the room.
* * * *
“If she was any more scared of us she’d probably lock herself in that bedroom and never come out.” Noah pushed his hand through his hair.
“Yeah I know. Every time I move toward her, she backs away. Do you think it’s because we’re cops and the situation she’s in, or because she’s scared of her attraction to us?” Zach began picking up the dishes from the table.
“I’d have to say both, Zach. How the hell are we going to get her to stay here and trust us? She has every right to be terrified of the law after what she’s been through. I just know she’s gonna try and run the first chance she gets. She kept looking at the door like it was a lifeline and couldn’t stop fidgeting. I think she only came home with me because she knew I was determined to get my way, but I could practically see the cogs turning in that smart brain of hers. It was as if she was planning out how to leave without getting caught.
“How are we going to stop her? We can’t be with her twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.”
“I’ve been thinking about that. How about I give my twin brother Tomas a call and ask him to come and stay for a while? He’s finally out of the Air Force and hasn’t decided what he wants to do yet. It won’t take him long to pack a bag, jump on his bike, and get here within a few hours,” Zach suggested.
“Do it. See if he can get here by tomorrow. Until then we’ll just have to keep her locked in the house or, if we have to, the cell, because my gut is telling me she’s going to make a run for it, and very soon.” Noah folded his arms across his broad chest.
Noah listened as Zach called his brother from his mobile phone. He filled Tomas in on the situation Beth found herself in and gave Noah a thumbs-up when he asked if Tomas would come and stay to be Beth’s bodyguard until the situation was cleared up. When Zach got off the phone to Tom, he filled Noah in on the details.
* * * *
Beth took a long, hot shower and got into one of her large sleeping shirts, crawled into bed, and stared at the ceiling. She was so tired and knew if she didn’t get a good night’s sleep soon she was going to collapse with exhaustion. Her busy mind wouldn’t allow for her to drift into sleep. She tossed and turned for a while then she gave up, got out of bed and pulled her clothes back on. Beth headed out to the kitchen to get a glass of water and nearly stumbled when she saw Zach sitting at the kitchen table with a deck of cards.
He looked up at her as she walked further into the room. “Can’t sleep, hon?”
“No.” Beth searched the cupboards for a glass and then filled one with water. She carried it to the table and sat down opposite Zach. “What are you playing?”
“Patience.” Zach scooped the cards back into a pile and began to shuffle them while he watched her. Beth looked away and hoped her cheeks weren’t as red and they felt. “Do you want to play a game?”
“Sure.”
“What do you want to play?”
“I don’t mind, you choose.”
“Do you know how to play Blackjack or maybe Poker?”
“Poker sounds good.”
“Okay, what are the stakes?”
“Um, I don’t have much money.”
“I wasn’t talking about cash, honey.” When she met Zach’s eyes she had to look away again. Her face felt even redder than before. Her nipples hardened and her pussy wept cream onto her panties. The look he gave her was lethal and she wondered if she should just go back to bed to escape his hunger-filled eyes.
“Okay, no stakes, but you can’t blame a guy for trying. You’re gorgeous Beth.”
Beth didn’t know what to say to that so she said nothing. She watched Zach’s long thick fingers and tanned hands as he dealt the cards and couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to have those hands on her skin, touching her naked body.
She picked up the cards he’d dealt her and watched as he revealed the river. All she had was a pair of twos and she decided it was best to fold.
They played for well over an hour and with each hand he dealt her she began to get more comfortable in his presence. He regaled her with stories from his childhood and his twin brother Tomas.
“We had a Boxer dog when we were little. He was so damn big and muscular all the other kids were scared of him, but he wouldn’t have hurt a fly. Anyway, Tom and I had been fighting and mum must have got sick of our bickering and she sent us out to the backyard to play. Tom thought that Prince, our dog, looked hungry and decided we needed to cook him something. So we dug up some dirt and put it in a bowl and after making sure there were lots of worms in it we added water and patted down the mud and then we tried to get the poor dog to eat it. Needless to say he wouldn’t have a bar of his pie.”
Beth burst out laughing. She could just imagine Zach and his brother looking at the dog in confusion because he wouldn’t eat their culinary masterpiece. Zach chuckled along with her and she felt lighthearted for the first time in years.
“Anyway, after that we decided to take it in turns riding Prince around the back yard. God, he was a good dog. He let us do just about anything to him.”
“I never had any pets.” Beth gave Zach a wistful smile and then covered her mouth when she yawned
“Why don’t you head back to bed, honey? Maybe you’ll be able to sleep now that you’re feeling better.”
Beth rose from her seat, walked around to Zach and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you.”
Zach smiled. “You’re welcome, Beth.”
Beth headed back to her room but she looked back at Zach just before turning the corner. She had to cover her mouth to stifle a giggle. He had been checking out her arse, again. Beth didn’t think she’d ever giggled before. She sighed as she removed her clothes and crawled back into bed. Even though she felt better she still couldn’t stay. There was no way she wanted anything to happen to Zach and Noah because of her.
Her mind began turning again and she planned what she was going to do and she knew once she eventually slept, the nightmares would come to disturb her rest. She gave a sigh and rolled onto her side. She would get what little sleep she could and then she planned to leave. She had her backpack already packed and hidden away underneath the sink in the bathroom cupboard. All she needed to do was dress and leave. That was her last thought as she finally drifted into an uneasy sleep.
* * * *
Noah felt better now that Beth was finally in his home. When he’d found out that she was in trouble every muscle in his body had gone on alert. The hardest thing he’d ever had to do was walk away from the art gallery the night Tasha had shown her work for the first time. When Jason Gallagher had told him about the danger Beth was in he had wanted to scoop her up into his arms and carry her away. He’d wanted to lock her up in his house or the jail cell where he knew she would be safe, but he hadn’t been able to do that.
He and Zach had left the gallery exhi
bit early and hurried back to the station, intent on learning everything they could about the jeopardy Beth was in. Knowledge was a weapon, too, and the more he knew, the easier it would be to protect her. It had been damn frustrating when all he had found was that she was a person of interest in a murder case. He’d cursed loudly and succinctly because he and Zach were still no closer to finding out who her enemy was. He hated being blind about a case, but when he’d finally calmed down, he realized that it didn’t really matter who was after her, just that he and Zach would do everything within their power to keep her safe.
Noah and his best friend and longtime cop partner had been trying to court Beth for weeks, but to their vexation, she wouldn’t have a bar of them. No matter how hard they tried or how much time they spent in her presence, she brushed them off. But what irked Noah and Zach the most was that they could see the desire for them in her eyes but there was also fear.
It cut him to the quick to see that fear as she looked at him and Zach, and he’d wondered if some arsehole had hurt her physically as well as emotionally. Each time that desire faded and turned to apprehensive terror, his chest ached and pain lodged in his heart. The longing she’d looked at them with had nearly broken his heart, but then her eyes would harden with resolution and she would cut them down with her tongue.
He and Zach had sat up into the wee hours of the morning trying to come up with a way to get her to come home with them where they could keep her safe, but because they were already too emotionally involved, the only concept was to go over to her house and tell her how things were going to be.
Noah still felt guilty for scaring her. He hadn’t planned to or meant to, but he was a very blunt man and went with his instincts in most situations. His instincts had been way off where Beth was concerned. She looked at him with utter terror in her eyes when he had called her by her real name and then stepped through her front door. He was just glad he had been able to get through her panic to calm her down. There was nothing he wouldn’t do to keep her safe, even if it meant giving his own life.
Beth was such a caring, loving person. He’d seen it in the way she interacted with others. She and Tasha had become fast friends and when Beth looked at Tasha, Noah could see the deep caring in her eyes. But what got to him the most was the way she was so gentle and loving to the kids she read to and helped in the library. He’d gone over to see her one day while she was working and he was on his lunch break but she’d been busy and since she hadn’t noticed him, he’d stood hidden behind an aisle of shelves and watched her interacting with the kids. She would smile softly at them and touch them often, as if she couldn’t help herself and he could see the yearning in her eyes when she looked at them. Elizabeth Lamb yearned for hearth, home, and family and Noah hoped that she would give them a chance to give them to her.
Noah had been with enough women in his life to know that Beth was the perfect woman for him and Zach. There was no guile in her and, unlike the other women they had dated, she never once flirted or used her femininity to gain anything for herself.
She was beautiful, loving, and caring, and the sexiest woman he had ever seen. He wanted her in his life permanently.
But keeping her safe was his first priority.
Chapter Two
Tom had made good time as he traveled from Melbourne to Passion in the late evening and early morning hours as he rode his bike. There was hardly any traffic on the roads besides the B-double trucks making their way to their destinations with their cargo. It was an amazing sight to see a truck hauling two or more long trailers behind the large cabs.
Tom hit the outskirts of Passion just after two in the morning and as he pulled onto the side of the road in front of the police station, he turned his bike engine off and coasted up the drive so he wouldn’t wake anyone sleeping in the house.
He got off and pushed his bike the rest of the way around the drive until it was hidden in the backyard behind the house. Locking his bike and grabbing his bag, he was just in time to see the back door open slowly. He moved into the shadows and watched to see who was skulking around the house.
A small figure wearing dark clothes crept out of the house closing the door cautiously, then quietly crept along the driveway and around to the front of the house. Tom quietly placed his bag on the ground and followed without making a sound.
* * * *
Beth followed the drive around to the front of the house, aware of every sound her sneakers made on the gravel. She was so scared she would be found before she made her way back home to her car and her ears were attuned to every little noise. She even felt her ears prick up on her head when she heard a dog bark in the distance. She made it to the pavement without a hitch and gave a sigh of relief as she began to walk home.
She’d only taken about five steps on the concrete pavement before a large hand was placed over her mouth and a muscular arm snaked around her waist. She gave a muffled scream as she was hauled back against a very large, hard body and lifted from her feet. She raised her arms and tried to claw her way free from the person holding her in a tight grip and used her feet to kick any place she could reach. She heard a few grunts of pain as the heels of her shoes connected with shins and she gave a squeak of alarm as the arm around her waist tightened its hold, as if trying to squeeze the breath from her lungs, but she was surprised that whoever had her wasn’t trying to hurt her.
Beth was so scared she couldn’t see past the hand on her mouth as she kicked, clawed, and fought as if her life depended on it. Her foot connected with something solid and made a noisy thumping sound which seemed to echo loudly. All of a sudden bright light blinded her as a light was switched on.
Two very large, very pissed-off men stood in the hallway clad only in a pair of jeans with their chests bare, guns in hand as they scowled at her, and whoever held her, kept her within his arms. She pleaded with her eyes for them to help her as tears began to spill over her cheeks.
“You’re safe, honey.” Zach smiled. She slumped in the man’s arms. “You can let her go now. I don’t think she’ll try to escape again tonight. Looks like you arrived just in time, Tom.” Zach looked at the person behind Beth.
Even though the fear dissipated, her heart was still racing and she still couldn’t seem to catch her breath. Adrenaline was still spiking through her and the beat of her heart was so fast, it felt like it was about to pound right out of her chest. She wouldn’t feel totally safe until she was once more locked in the bedroom.
Although she wasn’t really afraid that Noah and Zach would hurt her, she’d had to be cautious for so long it had become ingrained within her to automatically push other people away. The only adult she really trusted was Tasha, but now that she was aware someone was looking for her, she was going to have to stay away from her friend. The last thing she wanted was for Tasha to get hurt by being associated with her. But then doubt crept into her mind. If she really distrusted Noah and Zach, she wouldn’t have let Noah run roughshod over her in the first place. She would have fought him tooth and nail to escape him. But she hadn’t. Was she lying to herself when her mind continued to contradict her body? Her body reacted to these two men whenever they were close and yearned for their touch, but her mind took over, determined to push them away.
“Sure does,” Tom replied. He cautiously took his hand and arm from around her and released her. Beth turned to see who had prevented her from escaping and caught the smile Tom gave Zach and Noah. “She’s quite the little fighter. I’m gonna have some bruises and scratches for a few days.”
She gasped as she looked into the hungry brown eyes of another Zach. She backed away from him until she bumped into another hard, warm, male chest. She shrieked in fright as her heart pumped erratically until she could hardly breathe and she felt herself slowly falling into unconsciousness.
* * * *
Noah grabbed Beth around the waist and slid an arm beneath her knees as she passed out. That last thing he wanted was for her to end up with an injury. She already had
enough to contend with without getting hurt, too. He wanted to yell at Tom and punch his lights out for scaring her but he knew that if Beth had screamed then the neighbors would have come running to see what was going on. The last thing he wanted was for anyone to know that Beth was staying with him and Zach. The whole idea of getting her to come home with him was to keep her hidden and protected and not advertise to all and sundry she was here.
“Well, I can’t say I’ve ever had that effect on a female before.” Tom smiled at Zach. “Thank God you caught her before she hit the floor, Noah.”
“Yeah,” Noah frowned down at the woman in his arms.
“Do you have to be such an arse, Tom?” Zach glared at his twin brother. “Can’t you see that Beth is exhausted and scared out of her mind? She’s got dark smudges beneath her eyes. God knows when she’s had a decent night’s sleep and she has every right to be jumpy. I can’t believe she passed out.”
“I was only funning, Zach. You should know that.”
“I do.” Zach sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “Just don’t go pushing Beth’s buttons. I can see her giving you a tongue lashing if you push her too far.”
“Okay,” Tom said. “I’ll try to curb my wit.”
Tom and Zach gave each other a quick hug and a slap on the back then headed to the kitchen while Noah carried Beth to her bedroom. He placed her on the bed, stripped her clothes from her body, leaving her in her bra and panties, pulled the covers up over her, and after one last look at her, headed toward to the kitchen. He picked up Beth’s backpack from the hallway floor and wandered into the room. His two best friends were sitting at the kitchen table enjoying a cup of coffee as he sauntered in and he sat in the chair where another mug of coffee was waiting on the table for him.
“How is she?” Zach asked.
“Out cold. You scared the holy shit out of her, Tom. Couldn’t you have restrained her some other way?”