by Lisa Childs
He had never put his heart on the line before.
As if he felt her melancholy, Blue emitted a soft sigh. And she felt a pang of guilt. She should be happy. She had so much.
Tears stung her eyes as she thought of Mrs. Montgomery. The couple was so wealthy, with fancy houses and cars and clothes and jewelry. But they had had so little. She could still see the woman clutching that doll, rocking it lovingly in her arms. Maybe it would give her some comfort. And the mental facility to which the authorities had brought her would get her some help.
Emilia blinked away her tears and smiled down at her son. Then she carried him to his crib and settled him into his bed. She could walk away and know that he would be fine. No one would take him away ever again.
As she stepped out of the nursery, she heard the creak of a door. Then footsteps on the stairs. She fumbled around in the hallway, looking for a weapon. Pulling the lamp from the hall table, she lifted it over her head, ready to swing.
But a strong hand wrapped around her wrist, lowering her weapon.
“You’ve turned into quite the fighter,” Dane remarked as he put the lamp back on the table. “No, I guess you always were—or you wouldn’t have survived what Myron Webber had put you through.”
She’d spent weeks in that warehouse, unable to escape. It had taken Dane only hours. She had no doubt who was the better fighter.
That was why she hadn’t gone to the hospital with him, why she hadn’t visited the past couple of days he’d spent there. She knew, even if he had feelings for her, that he would fight them. He didn’t want a relationship, a family. He’d made that clear from the beginning.
That their involvement was only a cover.
She was the one who’d stupidly fallen in love.
Pride had her tugging her wrist from his grasp. If he kept touching her, she might throw herself at him. She wanted so badly to step into his arms and lay her head on his chest. Wanted him so badly...
“I’m surprised you’re out of the hospital already,” she said.
“I checked myself out a little early,” he admitted.
She shook her head. “Just like Lars.” Her brother was a macho jerk, too. But he had vowed to never act that way with her again. From now on he would give her the respect she deserved, and she believed him.
If he didn’t, she and Nikki would kick his ass. Her future sister was going to teach her some self-defense moves and some ultimate fighting ones, too.
“I had to check myself out,” he said. “You wouldn’t come to me. So I had to come to you.”
She tensed. “What?”
“Don’t you want to know why I’m here?”
“To get your clothes,” she said. “Your things. It’s over. We don’t need to pretend anymore.”
He stepped closer and lifted his hand to her cheek. “I don’t think I was ever pretending,” he said, and as he stared down at her, his eyes darkened from caramel to dark chocolate. “I think I started falling for you before I ever met you.”
She shook her head, and his hand dropped away from her face. She must have fallen asleep in that rocking chair, like he had that night. She must be dreaming but for once the dream was sweet.
Bittersweet because she knew it wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real...
“No,” she murmured. She didn’t want to wake up.
His lips curved into a slight grin. “And I’ve been accused of being the one who doesn’t think he can be loved.”
“I love you,” she said. And because it was just a dream, she could say it freely. “I love you!”
He leaned down and pressed those smiling lips to hers. His mouth moved over hers, first tenderly and then with passion. And she knew she wasn’t dreaming.
Passion overwhelmed her. Her pulse pounded. Her skin tingled. She didn’t have to pinch herself. She knew this was real.
But then he murmured, “I love you...”
And she struggled to believe. “Dane?”
“I do,” he promised. “I love you.”
He swung her up in his arms. But she reached out and clasped his bandaged shoulder. “No! Put me down. You’re going to hurt yourself.”
He chuckled. “I’m already hurting,” he said. “I’m aching for you.” He ignored her concern and carried her down the hall to her bedroom.
To their bedroom...
Since that first night he’d spent with her that was how she had come to think of it. And she struggled to sleep in that bed without him, without his arm around her, without his shoulder beneath her cheek.
He laid her down and began to take off his clothes. Desperate to be with him—just skin to skin—she dragged off her dress and dropped it onto the floor along with her bra and panties.
He sucked in a breath.
And she rushed to him. “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“You’re killing me, Emilia,” he said. His erection pressed against her, pulsating with the need she felt for him.
She dropped to her knees before him and skimmed her lips down the length of him.
His breath shuddered out and his hands clutched her hair. “Emilia...”
She persisted, wanting to show him how much she loved and appreciated him. But he must have wanted to do the same because he lifted her again. This time he followed her down onto the mattress.
His hands and lips touched her everywhere. Stroking. Kissing.
He focused on her lips, which he thoroughly kissed—nibbling gently at them as he dipped his tongue inside her mouth. She suckled on it, holding on to it as she held on to him. He chuckled but broke the kiss. Then he skimmed his lips down her jaw and her throat and over her breasts. His lips closed over a nipple, pulling it into a tight bud.
She cried out as sensation raced through her. Her core throbbed with need. “Dane...”
But he denied her release, just continued to tease her to madness. She touched him back, caressing his skin and muscles. Reaching between them, she touched his cock. It jumped against her fingertip.
And he cursed. “Emilia...”
He might have wanted to take it slow. But she needed him too much. She closed her hand over him.
He pulled back. She heard the rip of a condom packet. Then he was between her legs, nudging against her. She arched and moved, taking him inside her, pulling him deep. He moved in and out. And she rose up to meet his thrusts.
One of his arms began to tremble where he’d braced it against the mattress, and sweat beaded on his brow. He was hurting. Really hurting from the gunshots wounds to his shoulder and his arm.
“Dane...”
She pushed him back. But careful to keep him inside her, she moved with him until he was lying down and she straddled him. Then she rode him, sliding up and down and back and forth. He clutched her hips, helping her move, helping her find the rhythm that had her body tensing before pleasure slammed through it.
She let out a soft cry as ecstasy claimed her. She had never had as powerful an orgasm. But he kept moving, thrusting up his hips. One of his hands moved from her hips to her breast. He teased the nipple. And the tension wound up inside her again.
He was close to coming himself, though. Sweat beaded on his lip and his brow. And a cord stood out in his neck as he struggled for control.
But he’d brought her close again.
He pulled her head down and kissed her deeply, sliding his tongue into her mouth as he slid inside her body. She shattered—pleasure rippling through her. He tensed and groaned as he joined her in ecstasy.
She left him lying there as she headed into the bathroom for a cloth. She cleaned them both before lying down beside him and resting her head on his good shoulder.
“Are you sure I’m not dreaming?” she murmured.
But before he could answer her, she was...dreami
ng of a future where she spent every night in Dane Sutton’s arms.
* * *
“Shh...” Dane said as he lifted the crying baby from the crib. For a moment he’d thought the sound was that damn recording. But then he’d awakened fully and realized it was Blue. He’d rushed to the nursery before Emilia could awaken. “Come on, buddy, let’s let your mama sleep.”
Blue immediately stopped crying and stared up at him from those pale blue Ecklund eyes. “Yeah, you’d do anything for her, too, wouldn’t you?”
Blue kicked his legs. And Dane realized the baby was wet. Ignoring the pain throbbing in his shoulder, he changed him. Putting him in a pair of clean pajamas was a struggle, though. As if he thought they were playing a game, Blue kept kicking.
“You’re gonna be as ornery as your uncle, aren’t you?” he asked. But he grinned. Lars’s orneriness had kept him alive. “You’re gonna give your mama some trouble if you’re as pigheaded as Lars is.” He swallowed hard. “And me...”
Blue gurgled out a laugh as if Dane had just told a funny joke. Or maybe it had just been gas.
“It is funny, though,” he admitted. “The thought of me trying to be a father. I’m not going to have a damn clue what I’m doing.”
Getting to know the Paynes had taught him the most important thing about families.
“But I’ll love you and your mama. And I’ll take care of you.” That was what the Paynes did. They loved each other. Sometimes a little too much.
As Dane stared down at the baby, he realized that wasn’t possible. You could not love enough. But you could never love too much.
“And I’ll try not to screw this up,” he promised.
A soft hand slid down his back, soothing him like he’d soothed the baby. “You won’t,” Emilia said. “As long as you keep loving us.”
“I’ll never stop,” he vowed. “I will love you and Blue forever.” He slid his arm around her while he cradled their son in his other one. “And all the other kids we’ll have.”
She smiled up at him even as her eyes glistened with tears. Happy tears. “More kids?”
He nodded. “But first you have to plan our wedding. Or have you quit the chapel to work as a bodyguard?”
She shuddered. “No. I will keep working with Penny. But we’ll have to wait for our wedding.”
“Why?” he asked. Then he remembered. “You have to plan Nikki and Lars’s wedding first.”
She sighed. “There’s that. But there’s another reason.”
He tensed. Had he already screwed up? Had he done something that would make her doubt him? “What?”
“You have to propose.”
“Oh, I will do that,” he said. But he wanted to do it with style and romance and a ring. “I’ll surprise you.”
Her smile widened and the tears slipped through her lashes. “You already have—in the best possible way. You love me.”
“And you love me...” He hadn’t thought it was possible. But he knew that it was true. Emilia Ecklund loved him. And someday soon she would be his bride.
* * *
“Why the hell did you bring me here?” Manny asked as he glanced nervously around the jewelry store. At least it wasn’t some stuffy upscale place. It was more like an artist’s studio because Stacy Kozminski-Payne was an artist with jewelry. But Manny had no interest in helping pick out an engagement ring.
“I need your opinion,” Dane said.
Manny stared at the guy as he leaned over a case admiring the rings inside it. “And I’ll give it to you,” he said. “My opinion is that you’ve lost your damn mind.”
Dane laughed.
“It’s not funny, man,” Manny insisted. “What did they do to you in that warehouse? Shock treatment? Waterboarding? What the hell changed you from the smart guy who wanted nothing to do with women and kids to...” He didn’t even know how to describe this new version of Dane.
Except that he was happy. Disgustingly so...
He shook his head. “Yeah, must have been shock treatment.”
Dane laughed again.
“I’m serious, man,” Manny said. “You should have quit back when you’d had the chance. You shouldn’t have let Cooper talk you out of it.” He wasn’t going to, not when he gave his resignation, which was going to be damn soon.
He wasn’t taking any chances like his idiot friends. Oh, he’d risk his life again, any time. He just wasn’t going to risk his heart.
“What do you think of this one?” Dane asked after Stacy handed him a ring.
She was beautiful with green eyes and hair that had strands of every color in it. But Manny forced himself to look away from her and focus on the ring. She posed no threat, though. She was married to the boss’s boss.
“Why are you asking me?” Manny asked. “Why didn’t you bring her brother with you to ring-shop?”
“Because he doesn’t know Emilia as well as he thinks he does,” Dane said.
Manny had no argument for that. The girl had proved herself way tougher than Lars had thought she was. “I barely know her at all,” Manny reminded him.
Dane nodded. “True. But I know you. I know you have terrible taste, so if you think the ring is pretty, I’ll know to pick another one.”
Manny focused on the ring. The delicate band was nearly white and wound around a big round diamond and two smaller pale blue stones. It was pretty perfect for Emilia Ecklund.
And Dane knew it because he knew her best.
So Manny shook his head. “It’s hideous.”
While Stacy gasped in indignation—like he’d called her baby ugly or something—Dane chuckled. “I knew it was the one. Just like I knew she was...before I ever met her.”
Manny ignored his brain-damaged friend and asked Stacy, “There aren’t any more single Payne women, right? The guys don’t have another sister?”
She shook her head.
“You’re the only female Kozminski?”
She narrowed her eyes and nodded.
He expelled a slight breath. “Good.” Dane didn’t have any sisters. He wasn’t sure about Cole. But since he didn’t have anything to do with his family, it wasn’t like Manny would meet any of them. He didn’t have to worry about staying away from friends’ sisters.
He just had to worry about damsels in distress. If Cooper didn’t want him to quit, he would have to promise to only assign him cases where he protected men. Maybe he’d ask for the job protecting Teddie Plummer. He’d heard Cooper mention that the guy needed a bodyguard. But it was an out-of-state assignment.
That was good, too.
Manny needed to get the hell away from his sappy, in-love friends and all their damn engagement and wedding stuff. Yeah, he’d take that job protecting Teddie Plummer. It didn’t matter how much danger the guy was in, Manny would be safer protecting Ted than sticking around here. Maybe.
* * * * *
Look for Manny and Teddie’s story,
the next thrilling installment in the
BACHELOR BODYGUARDS series,
coming in 2018!
Don’t forget the previous titles in the series:
NANNY BODYGUARD
BEAUTY AND THE BODYGUARD
BODYGUARD’S BABY SURPRISE
BODYGUARD DADDY
HIS CHRISTMAS ASSIGNMENT
Keep reading for an excerpt from RUNAWAY HEIRESS by Jennifer Morey.
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Runaway Heiress
by Jennifer Morey
Prologue
Sadie Moreno sat across from Steven Truscott at a downtown Jackson Hole twenty-four-hour diner. In his sleek black suit and tie with pristine white dress shirt and medium brown hair brushed back to hide signs of recession, he made a handsome picture. Once upon a time she might have attempted to break through his staunch wall of professionalism for a more personal relationship. Life had intervened.
“Do you have news for me?” He usually didn’t come to see her unless he did.
In the next instant, her spirits dimmed along with his grim mouth line.
“The last lead didn’t produce anything, Sadie. Bernie’s case has gone cold.”
He’d been keeping tabs on the progress of the investigation so she wouldn’t have to. So that was why he’d come all this way. He knew how this would devastate her. “But it was so promising.”
“I’m sorry. They’ve got nothing now. No evidence. No witnesses. Not a single shred of anything.”
