Protected by a Hero

by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne

  Lexi rubbed her temples and gulped a breath before turning up her driveway. She could smile at her fiancé, be cordial to Parker, and not give Matt anything to be jealous or crazy over. But if he knew what was in her head… then she’d be dead.

  A couple yards away, the door opened, and she looked up. Parker. Oh… he wore a form-fitting Henley painted across his defined chest. It highlighted the thickness of his biceps and taper of his waist, and he wore jeans that, even from a distance, curved over his backside—and his front side—in a manner that was sinful. Every part of that man looked muscled. Even his strong neck and stout jaw shouted that he was utter male perfection.

  Her mouth watered and her breath froze, a spellbinding contradiction that only served to remind her that he might have been the sexiest man she’d ever seen.

  “Hey, Lex,” he said in that bottom-of-the-canyon voice that made her shiver. The door closed behind him, separating him from all that she hated inside that house.

  Her cheeks felt flushed, but that was okay since she’d been running in forty degree weather. As he casually downed the stairs, his powerful thighs stole the show, and her lungs boycotted normal breaths. Again, she could blame that on exercising in the cold. But what she could say and what was the truth… those were two very different things.

  “Hey.” She waved, averting her eyes in case Matt saw her.

  Parker walked toward her from the landing. “Didn’t know you were around.”

  Warily, she cast her gaze up. “Out running.”

  He stepped closer. If they both extended their arms, their fingertips might touch. A round of shivers ran down her back.

  His eyes narrowed almost immediately, as though he could sense her concern. “You doing okay, sweetheart?”

  Panic set in, and she took one enormous, probably obvious, step back. “Yeah. Of course.”

  He stepped forward, his blue eyes studying her in a way that made her want to cry for help. “Haven’t seen you in a while.”

  “I, um—”

  Matt pushed the door open behind Parker. “Hey, peaches, get inside. You’re going to freeze that sweet ass off.”

  She cringed and cast her eyes down, embarrassed that Matt had spoken like that in front of Parker. “Okay.”

  Matt jumbled down the stairs and smacked her butt harder than he needed to, not that he needed to at all, as he passed. “We’re headed out. Be back later.”

  He was leaving her alone? Now? She was getting out! But she didn’t react when she heard Matt open his truck and turn over the engine. When she finally glanced up, Parker still stood there, his jaw tight, the tendons in his neck prevalent.

  Oh, heaven help her. A woman could fall in love with that kind of intense focus. But instead, she fought the pull of his navy eyes and glanced over his shoulder at Matt, whose distrustful gaze was on her.

  Matt got out of his truck. “There are a couple dogs that hang down at GUNS. Think I’ll take your mutt with me.”

  “What?” She spun, terrified of what that meant.

  He smiled as if he knew her afternoon plans. “Think she’d get some exercise running around. It’ll be good for her.”

  Lexi watched Matt hustle inside and come back with a squirming, snapping Bacon. “Please be careful with her.”

  “’Course.” Then he tossed her in the second row of the dual cab.

  Her throat stung, worry alarming her.

  “You sure you’re good, Lex?” Parker pushed again, taking another step closer.

  Her eyes flicked from him to the window where Bacon pressed her snout, then went back to Parker.

  He tilted her head. “Dog’ll be fine at the range. Don’t worry about that.”

  “Okay,” she whispered.

  “I promise, sweetheart.”

  His trustworthy voice was like a hug. She liked that he called her sweetheart, that he called her Lex. But Parker had no idea. Or did he? He watched her for seconds too long, and without a doubt, Lexi knew Matt would be pissed even if she hadn’t done anything to warrant the reaction.

  Resigned to the fact that when she left, she might not see Parker again, she ignored the concern on his face and faked a smile that was sad-but-practiced. “Always.”

  Just another lie. Even as her heart reached out to Parker, Lexi walked into her house without so much as a good-bye so she could grab her laptop, wait for Bacon to return, and disappear.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Five hours with the same thing on his brain: Lexi Dare. Shit. Parker had spent hours at GUNS with Matt, hitting targets and checking on new spec ops weapons that were for retail sale. The dog that Matt insisted was called Fatso stuck close to Parker the whole time. Even now, the poor thing sawed logs in the backseat.

  None of his afternoon had cleared his mind, and as they pulled out of GUNS’s parking lot, Parker rubbed his jaw, unable to ignore the unspoken plea on Lexi’s face. His gut instinct screamed that something had been wrong this morning, and it wasn’t the first time his sixth sense had been on fire when it came to Lex. But earlier, without saying a word, she’d confirmed it.

  He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove Matt’s truck back. Matt getting loaded on beer he’d snuck in and running through rounds wasn’t on the approved activities list at GUNS, and Parker had ended things before Matt got them thrown out. It wasn’t news that Matt was an asshole, but he was an asshole that everyone got on with. More or less. His drinking thing was getting out of control, and if Parker wasn’t concerned before today, he was now, after Matt had turned a day at the range into a BYOB activity. Was that what had caused the look on Lexi’s face? The less-than-subtle changes Parker had noticed for months?

  The hollow look on her face, when she hadn’t always looked like that, ate at him. That, and there was the distance in her icy blue eyes, almost as if their shine had dulled. Except today when he’d walked up to her, shoving his hands into his pockets to keep them off her. At that moment, those icy blues shined.

  The girl was gorgeous. He’d thought about her more than he should, her delicate face always hanging in the periphery of his mind. Her blond hair always looked sexy-tousled, as if she’d been up to no good, and it framed her fair skin and pink lips like a not-so-innocent frame. She was sweet and sexy, quiet but funny. Everything about her was incredible—also off-limits.

  Parker clung to the wheel as though he were wringing her fiancé’s neck. She was too good for Matt. Really, too good for anyone Parker knew. But how would he know that? They just had an innate connection he couldn’t shake. He tried to concentrate on the road, on relaxing and blowing off steam after coming home from a Titan op that had almost gone bad.

  “Ha.” Matt threw his drunk head back. “Did you hear Sugar’s pregnant?”

  Parker didn’t like Matt’s condescending tone. “Yup.”

  “Jared Westin as a father. Fuck me.”

  Parker shrugged, wondering if he still felt needled because of Lexi or because of Matt questioning Sugar and Jared as parents. “The man already has a daughter. I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”

  “Adopted,” Matt scoffed.

  “Same thing.” But what he wanted to say was so the fuck what. Parker had wanted to be adopted when he was a kid. That lost feeling ate at him while growing up with guys like Matt, who had the same folks picking him up from school every day, same people to go home to every night. But nope, not Parker. He’d been stuck in the system, bouncing all over their damn county until he finally took control of his future—education and the Marines. He’d been smart, smarter than any single person he’d ever met. He’d made a plan, worked it, and it had paid off, though he couldn’t seem to let go of Matt. Old friends, like habits, died hard?

  “Jared with kids? Shit, I can’t see it.”

  “Jesus, man, you don’t even know the guy that well.” Bashing anyone in Titan should be an instant sayonara—except he wasn’t quite ready to lose the glimpses of Lexi. “What’s it to you if they have kids or not?”

&nbs
p; His irritation intensified. Maybe Parker needed to unload a few more magazines if for no other reason than to have something in his hands that wouldn’t get him in trouble. He ignored Matt’s jackass ramblings, thankful when they finally pulled into the driveway.

  Parker’s eyes tracked to the spot where Lexi had stood, looking so gone, then he twisted to see the sleeping dog named Fatso. “Everything all good with you and Lex?”

  Matt’s hands bunched. “Yeah. Of course.”

  Almost word for word what Lexi had said. Parker tapped his thigh. What the hell was his problem? Butting in when nothing needed saying. Addressing something he could sense but couldn’t see—that wasn’t his thing. Parker dealt with black-and-white facts, not this ache of the unknown ricocheting in his chest.

  Matt pushed open the passenger door, grabbing Fatso roughly, as Parker slid the truck into park.

  “You coming in?” Matt slurred, dropping the pug, who ran toward the door.

  “Yeah.” Because Parker still couldn’t get rid of the sense that something was off with Lexi. “I told Sugar I’d pass something along to Lex.”

  Matt’s eyes narrowed. “She’s out.”

  “Oh, right. Just tell her it’s something about a fundraiser.” For adopted kids, asshole. “Sugar said Lex might be interested.”

  He nodded. “I’ll tell her.”

  “Catch you and Lex at Winters’s tomorrow? Sugar can just tell her herself.” Parker grabbed his gear bag from the back of the truck.

  Matt stood, frozen and staring at the street. A car parked two driveways down pulled out onto the road.

  “Everything okay?” Parker’s eyes narrowed as he tried to ascertain what the problem was.

  Matt continued to stare down the road. “Did that guy look like some nerd boy to you?”

  “That car?”

  Matt nodded.

  “Didn’t see him. Looked like a neighbor driving off. Why?”

  “Thought I’d seen him before.” Matt bristled. “Never mind. Nothing.” He gave Parker a chin lift and hustled inside, letting the door slam shut.

  “Jesus, dude.” Paranoia much?

  All day long, all Parker had heard was excuses. Why Matt’s bosses were crappy, why the jobs he’d left were shitty. The whole world was up on his ass and concurrently trying to take him down. Listening to all of that bullshit was draining, though the day was still young. Parker needed to get a burger and make a quick run by Titan HQ to see what was going on. Work didn’t stop because he was off site. His hands slid over the back pockets of his jeans and came up empty. No keys. He’d left them and his wallet in Matt’s truck when he’d opted to take his buddy’s keys and drive them back.

  He dropped his head back then let go of his gear bag and made his way back to Matt’s truck. Locked. Great. This was getting better and better. Parker headed to the front door. He was too tired to deal with another round of Matt Pindon bullshit.

  Bounding up the stairs, he knocked and pushed the familiar door open as the dog yapped from inside. “Hey, man. Need your keys to open—”

  Lexi was against the wall with Matt’s hand wrapped around her throat. He was inches away from her face, and she was crying, shaking her head, and kicking as if she was treading water but losing the battle.

  “Matt! Fuck, man.” Parker ran in and grabbed his shoulder, dragging him back.

  Matt spun, sputtering with beer on his breath from earlier. “Not your business. Out.”

  She dropped to the floor, her hands covering her neck, and gasped as though she were a fish out of water, desperately trying to find stasis again.

  Matt stomped, swinging at the dog. The dog looked at Parker as if Fatso was turning over the keys to Lexi’s safety then scampered up the stairs.

  “Man, my keys are in your truck, asshole.” Parker lasered in on her. “Lex, you—”

  “Get out!” Matt pushed Parker with both hands.

  “Enough of this shit.” Parker wrapped an arm around Matt’s neck and pushed him into a chokehold. He counted down and gave Matt’s neck a hard squeeze before tossing him to the floor. “Lex, go outside.”

  Matt gasped on the ground. “The fuck”—cough—“you will.”

  Parker’s eyes popped in disbelief. “Are you fuckin’ kidding me?”

  Matt reared up and lunged, but Parker caught him by the shirt as if he was pulling off a K-9. Lexi didn’t move from her spot on the carpet.

  “Out of my house, man,” Matt snarled, acting like nothing Parker would leave alone with Lexi.

  Parker angled toward her, holding back her fiancé. “Lex—”

  “Don’t talk to that whore.” Matt’s hands clapped down on Parker’s biceps. “She’s mine to deal with.”

  “What are you even talking about? God,” she whispered hoarsely. Tears ran down her cheeks.

  He struggled toward her. “I saw that guy again. Slut!”

  Parker had a code, same as most men, and there was no way Matt, acting like a ’roided-up motherfucker, was getting out of his hold. “You’ve got three goddamn seconds to power your ass down.”

  Matt twisted toward Lexi. “Walk out the door, peaches, and I will kill you.”

  Parker narrowed his eyes at the sharpness of the words. He pushed Matt back, hard, then pushed him again and put himself between the couple. Matt rolled his shoulders and paced two feet either way, prowling and ready to attack. Lexi didn’t move. Clearly tonight wasn’t the first time she’d heard him like this.

  “Lex, sweetheart.” He kept Matt an arm’s length away. “Speak up. What do you need?”

  Silence.

  “You want me to go?” Parker tried again. But no matter her response, he wasn’t leaving. Not like this.

  “This is between me and her.” Matt stepped closer. The ice in his voice sent chills down Parker’s spine. “Stupid, smart-ass motherfucker, think you’re so goddamn clever. Think you know everything. Not everything is about computers and shit, Parker. Get out of my damn house.”

  It wasn’t the first time Parker had heard the smart-guy lines. When Matt was drunk, he got his shit in a tailspin and hated on everyone. That was Matt. A first-class asshole. But this, what Parker just saw, was past the line.

  “God, man, shut up. You move an inch toward her, we’re going to blows.” Parker had height and weight on Matt, and his senses were in hyper-overdrive, ready to protect her, to care for her… carefully, he crouched without turning his back on Matt. “Lexi…” He put two fingers under her chin and lifted her face to his. “Tell me what you want.”

  Her eyes locked on his, and he could’ve sworn her lips formed to say you. But she flinched as her gaze jumped. Parker spun up, countering the attack he saw coming in his peripheral, and he slammed Matt to the floor with a swift right hook. He enjoyed the impact that knocked out the guy.

  “Fuck,” Parker growled and jumped up. He turned to her. The woman before him, lips rolled together, eyes squeezed shut, broke his heart. “Lex?”

  Seconds ticked by until she gave him the most honest look he’d ever seen. The most scared one too.

  “There was no one here. I don’t know what he’s talking about. Please don’t leave me with him,” she whispered.

  Those last words were all Parker needed. He slipped his arms around her slender frame and carried her out the door. Right before they crossed the threshold, Parker snagged Matt’s keys to gain access to his own. Behind them, Matt rolled on the floor, waking and moaning. It took practiced restraint to keep from kicking Matt’s ass again.

  “Don’t”—Matt pushed up to hands and knees—“you dare leave.”

  Parker held her to his chest and glared with the open front door at his back. “I don’t know what’s been happening here, but fuck you.” Then he walked out the door with Lexi in his arms.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Parker held Lexi against his chest. The ease with which he lofted her against him and the moment when her tense body relaxed against his was trouble. Her hair tickled his neck, and there was some
thing too intimate about the hold. She smelled like sweet citrus. Like sugar and lemons. His mouth watered. Couple his visceral reactions with the plain fact that he did not want to let go, and the situation was complicated. That was problematic because he wasn’t familiar with complicated.

  Keeping her soft curves against him, Parker opened Matt’s truck, got his own keys, then opened his Range Rover.

  As soon as he set her down, he regretted the loss of her weight in his arms. Instead of backing away, he leaned across her body and shoved his keys into the ignition. She needed a warm place to sit, but mostly he wanted to feel her close again. As he pulled back, blocking the door to keep out the cold, he studied her red neck and sad eyes that wouldn’t look at him.

  Parker ground his molars, trying to contain the explosive energy that pooled in his fists. “Tell me not to go back in there and kill him.” Despite the growl in his words, he shook loose one fist and touched her chin, angling her face for a better look at her neck.

  But her hands batted him away. “It’s nothing.”

  “God, Lex.” He took his hand back, wanting to put it on her thigh but instead shoving it into his pocket. “We’ve got problems if you believe that.”

  One slender shoulder shrugged. “I’m fine.”

  The hell she was. She wouldn’t look up, wouldn’t say more than two hoarse words at a time, and his guess was her throat was bruised. Fuck that dude. “Don’t move. Lock the door. Just stay here.”

  She didn’t respond.

  “Lexi?”

  Her near-vacant stare jumped to his, and surrounding her icy blue irises were tiny exploded blood vessels in the whites of her eye.

  “Stay, sweetheart.” He locked then shut the door and charged back inside.

  Parker knocked the door open, ready to go to blows with the asshole he’d known for years in the house that he’d been to a number of times. Matt was leaned back on the couch, beer in one hand, remote in the other hand, surfing the television as though what had just happened hadn’t. He didn’t look up as Parker crossed the room.