“I can’t say …” She buried her face in her hands. “I don’t know why I can’t just say it.”
“Just say it, baby doll.” He resisted the urge to reach out and touch her. There would be time enough for that. “You can say it.” You’re my mate. You need me as much as I need you.
With a long sigh, she lowered her hands. “I need you …”
Yes! “Need me to what?”
“I need you so badly to—”
Mate you. Bond you. Be with you and only you from now on.
“Sign these papers.”
“I do too,” he sighed. “Wait, what?” He blinked as she dug into her purse and pulled out an envelope. “Papers?”
“Yeah, they’re annulment papers.”
“Annulment of what?”
Her nostrils flared as her cheeks flushed. “Of our marriage.”
“Excuse me?”
“Our marriage.”
He heard her the first time, of course, but the information wasn’t connecting in his brain. “We’re married?”
“Check out the last page.” She waved the envelope at him, and he snatched it from her hands. “That’s our … marriage certificate.”
Flipping through the other pages, he reached the last page and began to read aloud. “The Original Chapel of Hearts Las Vegas … this is to certify … Daniel Rogers of Colorado … Sarah Mendez of Nevada … lawful—”
“Wedlock,” she finished as she bit her lip. “That’s a certified copy by the way. And I checked with that chapel myself. They, uh, said they were waiting for us to come back and pick up the rings we had engraved. But anyway, I’m sure you want to be married as much as I do, so let’s just sign these papers and the judge will grant the annulment in a week.”
Married. He had gotten married to his mate. And now she wanted an annulment.
His grizzly did not like that. It growled and raked its claws down his insides in protest. Fuck! Well, he didn’t like it either, but it was obvious they had both been too intoxicated to consent to the marriage, and that just felt wrong. Pops would be terribly disappointed to hear he’d taken advantage of a woman that way.
But still, it would mean that once their marriage was annulled, she would walk away from him forever, and he couldn’t have that.
“Er, listen, can we talk about this?”
Her arms folded under her chest. “What is there to talk about? I have a pen right here, and you can sign it, then I can be on my way.”
No! Every instinct in his body protested.
“What do you mean no?” Her eyes narrowed at him.
Crap, he said that out loud. “I mean …” Shit, shit, shit. Think Rogers! “We can’t talk about it right now. I—” In an act of pure desperation, he dropped his jeans and the towel around his waist to the ground.
Her eyes went wide as they briefly lowered. “What the—” She covered her eyes with her hand and spun around. “What the hell are you doing?”
He couldn’t stop the smile on his face at her reaction. There was definitely interest there. “Oops. Slipped. That’s what happens in men’s locker rooms, you know.”
“Put some clothes on,” she ordered. “Now.”
“I will, but listen, baby doll, why don’t you wait for me outside?” he suggested. “I just need to get dressed. Unless you wanna keep talking here.”
Her spine tensed, and her fingers curled into a fist at her side. “I—fine.”
As she marched off, he couldn’t help watching her generous hips sway gently, making his cock twitch painfully. When the door closed behind her, he let out a groan and knocked his forehead on the locker next to his.
Signing those papers was the right thing to do. He’d been drugged, and she was drunk; neither of them had been in the right mind to consent. But the idea of his mate walking away from him forever didn’t seem right at all. The human, logical part of him said he could always try to win her later on, but she lived all the way in Las Vegas, and his life was here in Blackstone. He couldn’t imagine leaving everything here behind, but at the same time, Sarah was his mate.
Straightening his posture, he began to dress in his everyday clothes. Maybe he could talk her into having dinner and tell her about the mate stuff. Explain it to her, see how she reacts and consider her feelings on the matter. It was the right thing to do. If she didn’t want him—a thought that made his stomach clench—then he would have to respect that and move on. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be able to find someone else, someone who would love him and he could love back, have children with and grow old with.
Try as he might, however, he couldn’t picture it in his head. When he did, the only face that popped into his brain was that of the woman who wanted an annulment from him.
His grizzly snorted smugly.
“I can’t,” he said aloud to no one in particular. Sarah was her own woman, and she deserved respect. He finished getting ready, slammed his locker shut and walked outside, determined to right this wrong and sign those papers.
That was the plan, anyway, but when he stepped out of the locker room and Sarah turned to face him, his resolve disappeared, only to be replaced by the desire to make this woman truly his.
That damned animal inside him chortled tauntingly as if saying I told you so.
“Are you done?” she asked, her tone irritated.
One hand planted on her cocked hip, he couldn’t help but trace the curves of her body with his gaze, his mind crying out how unfair it was that she could disarm him so just by standing there.
“Um, yeah.” He rubbed the back of his head. “Listen, I just got off a long shift.” His throat went dry at the lie, but then he reminded himself that long was a relative term. “I’m famished. How about we go for a meal somewhere first?”
“You’re hungry at a time like this? It’ll take two seconds for you to sign.” She waved the papers in his face. “I’ve been driving almost twelve hours, and all I wanna do is crash in my crappy motel room so I can drive back in the morning. I’m already missing a day of work.”
He pushed the feelings of guilt aside and pressed on. “So what’s another hour or two then? You’re probably staying somewhere in town and you have to drive back down anyway. We can stop on Main Street or the nearest restaurant to your motel and sit down and have a chat.”
Her plump lips pulled back into a thin line. “Chat? What do we have to chat about?”
God, she was feisty. And he found he liked it. His mate wasn’t a pushover. “You don’t expect me to sign those papers without reading them, do you? And take the word of a stranger that they’re what she says they are? Would you just sign a contract without reading it?”
“Apparently we both did,” she snapped back, but then her shoulders sank. “I’m sorry. I’m just stressed out.”
The vulnerability that passed over her face made his heart ache. She looked like she bore the weight of the world on her shoulders. He longed to reach out and comfort her, but clenched and unclenched his fingers instead. “I’m sorry for making this difficult. But I just need a couple minutes to sit down and read the papers. I should make my own copies, right? Why don’t I take pictures and send them to my dad so he could look it over?”
“Your dad?”
“Yeah, he’s a lawyer,” he said. “Retired now, but he’ll at least give me some advice. I’ll call him on the drive over.”
“I guess that’s okay,” she said. “I’m staying at the Blackstone Pines Motel.”
“There’s a place called Full Moon Diner not far from there. If we take Seventy-Five from the turnoff, we’ll pass right by it. C’mon, the least I can do is buy you a meal after you drove all the way here.”
There was hesitation in her face before she nodded. “All right.” She handed him the envelope. “Send it to your father so he can read it while we’re driving. My car’s in the parking lot outside.”
“Okay, let’s go.” Instinctively, he put a hand on her lower back to lead her toward the exit. Though she froze for a
second, she didn’t shrug it off and allowed him to walk her toward the double doors. “We should—”
A bright flash blinded him, sending his instincts off. His grizzly didn’t like that, and it let its displeasure known with a deep roar rattling from its chest. Meanwhile, he tucked Sarah closer to him, his hand moving up to her shoulder.
“Daniel!” someone called. Various phones, recorders, and cameras were shoved in his face. “Daniel, are you going to put out a statement about how you saved Vice President Baker?”
“What’s going on?” Sarah asked as she steadied herself against him.
“Sorry, baby doll,” he said through gritted teeth. “I swear these sharks won’t leave me alone.”
“Daniel, is it true they’re inviting you to the White House?”
“Are you getting a medal, Daniel?”
“What can you say about the rumors that the assassination—”
“Daniel, who’s this lady with you?”
His protective instinct flared. “Guys, can you leave us alone, please? I told you, no comment.”
“She’s hot,” one of the male reporters said with a gleam in his eyes that Daniel did not care for. “Sister? Cousin?”
“Kissing cousins?” someone offered that made the crowd laugh.
“Miss, what’s your name?” The male reporter asked, inching closer to Sarah. “And what’s your relationship with America’s newest hero?”
“I—”
When Sarah didn’t continue her answer and snapped her mouth shut, the reporter shoved his camera closer to her face. “C’mon, sweetheart, give us a pretty smile and tell us—”
Daniel’s anger flared when he sensed Sarah’s discomfort. “Stay away from my wife!” he roared, pushing the nosy reporter away as pure possessive fury filled him.
Silence filled the air for a few seconds, but it took Daniel less time than that to realize he’d screwed up.
“What the hell?” Sarah hissed. “Why did you—”
“Wife?” another reported said. “You’re married?”
“That didn’t come up in my research.”
“When was the wedding?”
“Uh …” Daniel’s brain scrambled. “I—”
“What the hell is going on here?” a booming voice behind them shouted. “May I remind you this is private property? The Blackstone Rangers is not a government agency, and the mountains are private property. Leave Daniel alone, or I’ll call the cops.”
Relief poured through him as he turned and saw Damon standing in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest, and a menacing look on his face.
“Get us out of here,” Sarah ordered. “Now!”
After a quick, grateful nod to Damon, he gripped her shoulders tighter, bowed his head, and swam his way through the crowd around them, shoving people away as he led her to his truck.
“My car’s over there,” she said.
“Do you want them to know what car you drive and your plate number?” he asked. “Because they won’t leave you alone once they find out your name.”
“And whose fault is that?” she shot back.
“Look, I’ll drive around, and we can find somewhere to lay low for a bit. Damon’ll have them dispersed, and we can circle back to get your car.”
“I—fine.”
He opened the passenger side door for her, but she waved his hand away when he attempted to help her in.
“I can get in by myself.” Flipping her long, sleek ponytail back, she climbed in.
After the door shut, he walked around slowly, trying to figure out what to do now. He hadn’t meant to blurt out she was his wife, but seeing another male so close to her drove him and his grizzly crazy.
And now, he’d ruined things. How was he going to fix this mess?
Or, maybe, you don’t have to, a voice inside him seemed to say.
Most people thought Daniel was a “nice guy” and could never do wrong. Indeed, he took pride in that he had principles and took honesty and integrity seriously. A man wasn’t a man without his word and his honor, Pops used to say.
But sometimes, he thought about what it would be like to be selfish and think of himself first for once. If he just said fuck it, and took whatever he wanted.
And he wanted Sarah.
Maybe, just this time, he didn’t have to be the good guy. He could bend some of the rules, be more flexible with his principles knowing the outcome would favor him. He could keep Sarah, and all he had to do was stretch the truth a little bit.
Chapter Four
Sarah fumed as she sat inside Daniel’s truck, waiting for him to walk around and get into the driver’s side. The damned man took his time, slowly trudging around to make his way to the other side.
Man? Well that was one thing to call him, she guessed. When he let out that inhuman roar, she knew he was one of them. A shifter. It was obvious now, like a strange feeling that she always knew. Perhaps it was because she grew up with Darcey that she could tell. She knew of a couple regulars at The Griffin who were shifters, plus it was rumored that the owner of the casino himself was one of them, though no one really knew who or what he was. But the idea that Daniel was a shifter never even entered her mind.
Why hadn’t they reported that on the news websites she’d read? To be fair, she didn’t spend a lot of time reading those articles. She just looked up where Blackstone was and started planning her trip and getting the annulment papers ready, hoping to get this over with as soon as possible.
But, if she were honest with herself, she’d avoided reading the news articles because she didn’t want to keep staring at his picture. It seemed the longer she stared into that handsome, movie star face and silvery blue eyes, more bits and pieces from that night came back to her mind.
Do you think maybe we should get out of here? Have some fun of our own? a voice that sounded like her own said.
I’ll follow you to the end of the world if you ask me to, baby doll
“Are you all right, Sarah?”
Daniel’s voice—his real one—broke into her thoughts. “Yeah, I’m fine.” Leaning back into the leather seat, she stared out the window as the engine roared to life, and the truck zipped out of the parking lot. “Hey, where are we going?” They turned into the road in the opposite direction from where she had come from.
He looked up at his rearview mirror. “Somewhere those reporters won’t be able to follow.”
They drove up the road, going further into the mountains. Sure enough, a couple of news vans were on their tail. Daniel turned off onto a side road, and at the end was an imposing gate that said “Keep Out, Mining Operations in Progress.” A man in a khaki ranger uniform popped his head out from the booth on the side, waved to Daniel, and then disappeared. Moments later, the gate swung open, and they drove through. They closed again when they passed.
“That should hold them,” Daniel said with a relieved sigh.
“But we can’t stay in here forever,” she said. “And where is here, anyway?” Oh God, she was deep in the mountains with a stranger, and no one knew where she was. What if Daniel turned out to be some kind of homicidal maniac? Was that why he didn’t want to sign the papers right away? She glanced at him, watching his profile. Surely no one that hot could be a serial killer, right?
“We’re still in the Blackstone Mountains, but Lennox Corp. has this area closed off because they mine the blackstone in this area.” He turned down off another path. “But us rangers can come in as needed, and I go to this one place sometimes to think.” He drove them further down a road, then a few feet later, they emerged from the dense forest and into a clearing.
“Wow,” she gasped. They were right near the end of a cliff, where they had a spectacular view of the blue summer sky. “We’re so close to the edge.”
“Don’t worry,” he said, turning to her, his silver-blue eyes twinkling. “I would never let you fall.”
Her stomach did a flip-flop at his words. Don’t get distracted. She came here for one reason only.
“Why did you tell them I was your wife?”
“Uh, I just …” He rubbed the back of his head. “It just came out, okay? That guy was getting too close to you—us, and I just wanted him to back off before I did something I would regret.”
“You mean like shift into your animal.”
That seemed to catch him by surprise. “Y-yeah. How did you know?”
“I … read about it,” she said. “And then I heard you growl.”
“Oh. You’re not afraid of me, are you?” He sounded almost scared himself. “I would never hurt you. Nor would my grizzly.”
So that’s what he was. A grizzly bear. The thought of it should have scared her, but it didn’t. Though she had no experience with shifters except for Darcey and she was nowhere even near to what a bear was, somehow, she knew he was telling the truth. “I’m not afraid,” she said. “But about the annulment papers.”
“Yeah, about those. Listen,” he began. “The cat’s going to be pretty much out of the bag once those guys find out who you are. Believe me, it only took them a couple hours to get my info. But maybe we could help each other out?”
“Help each other out? What do you mean?”
“Yeah, see … this is embarrassing, but you know, I didn’t jump up on that stage intending to become some kind of celebrity. I was just trying to stop someone from getting hurt. But now my world’s turned upside down, and I keep getting, uh, propositions.”
“Propositions?”
“Yeah. From women. Lots of them. All of them wanting to date, marry, or f—I mean, go to bed with me.”
And unfamiliar feeling curled tight in her chest, going all hot and then cold all of a sudden. Just the thought of other women being near him was making her gut twist. “And so what do you want me to do about it?”
“Can’t you just … hold off on the annulment for now and pretend to be my wife? Just for a couple of days until this all blows over?”
Blackstone Ranger Hero Page 5