The Right to Bear Arms: BBW Military Paranormal Romance (Wild Operatives, #1)

by Vivienne Savage

  “Yeah well... he sort of snuck his way in there.”

  “Those are usually the best sort, dear.” Laura had recognized the signs of an abused woman before my family even realized what was wrong. She’d tried two years earlier to convince me to move out, even offering me a place to stay. I didn’t know who celebrated my divorce the most, her or my family. “So tell me about him.”

  “He’s great,” I offered without the satisfying details she wanted.

  Laura plucked a peppermint from my candy dish and hurled it at me. “That tells me nothing.”

  “Army vet, owns his own home, has a sweet dog he brought back from Afghanistan.”

  The divulgence of a few details satisfied her. “You can’t go wrong with a man who loves animals,” Laura replied, nodding.

  Michael had hated pets. That should have been my first sign not to trust him.

  “Russell took me dancing for our first night out on the town. He taught me a few line dances.”

  “Would he be that handsome fella looking around the lobby?”

  A peek outside my office door revealed my handsome boyfriend stood just a few yards beyond the lobby doors. Jeans, tees, and western boots were a staple of his wardrobe that I’d come to expect from him. A black cap announcing he was a veteran of the U.S. Army covered his wavy black hair. Russell drew admiring glances from the tellers and a few waiting customers in the queue. Not that he seemed to notice, or if he did, he didn’t acknowledge them. His muscles bulged as he crossed his arms against his chest and spoke with one of my coworkers. Beth pointed toward my office. When Russ turned to peer through the glass, a big grin split his face.

  “Yeah, that’s him. Crap, he’s super early. I told him five.”

  “Well go on then, don’t keep him waiting. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “But it’s only noon!”

  “And we will manage without you as we did over the weekend. Go on. Shoo.”

  “Thanks for understanding, Laura. I didn’t mean to put you guys out while I was gone.”

  Her warm smile assured me that my worries were unfounded. “You never call in. Don’t think anything of it.”

  I hugged her, grabbed my purse, and dashed out to meet up with Russ just as someone was thanking him for his service. In the most unprofessional act I’ve ever committed since landing my job, I threw myself into his arms and hugged him in front of everyone. I had to lay my claim, like an animal marking her territory. Mine. All mine, I conveyed in one fierce embrace.

  “Well hello to you too, darlin’.” Russell caught me up easily against him and snuck a chaste kiss in against my brow. His scruffy face tickled my skin, making me giggle.

  “I didn’t expect to see you this early.”

  “I was in the area to check up with my friend about your vehicle. Thought I’d come by and see if you had an hour free for lunch.”

  “Well, I do, but I ate... and my boss just assumed you were coming to take me home. So I’m afraid you’re stuck with me for more than an hour.”

  “In that case, would you like to come meet Taylor?”

  “Sure.”

  I found Trigger waiting outside of the bank on the cement walkway, harnessed but without a leash. Passing bank customers complimented us on our dog’s exceptional behavior like I’d had some kind of hand in his training.

  “Oh, he’s not my dog,” I blurted out while Russ grinned alongside me.

  “He loves her more than me,” Russ drawled.

  Trigger placed his head beneath my hand and bumped my fingers for a pet. I stroked him and realized how much I had to look like a liar.

  “He certainly seems to love you,” the grinning stranger said.

  I hopped into the passenger seat while Russ buckled Trigger into the rear cab. The extra step taken to guarantee his fur baby’s safety endeared me to him more.

  It took us fifteen minutes to reach Wild Side Auto Body & Lube. A sleek, feline silhouette, too muscular to be a house kitty, made up the logo.

  Russ’ friend was a baby-faced man, but probably in his early-to-middle thirties. When I first met Russ, I estimated the same thing about him. He claimed to be forty-three, but I didn’t see the age on him either. Taylor wore his hair and goatee closely trimmed, his appearance fastidiously groomed. Like Russ, he didn’t have an ounce of body fat on him. He was all lean muscle in a more compact, slimmer build.

  When Taylor took his shades off, my breath caught in my chest. His eyes were glacier blue, a vivid contrast against his brown sugar-hued skin. His rich voice sounded the way velvet should feel, smooth and sensual.

  Knowing what my landlord looked like, I tried to imagine Russ, Ian, and Taylor side by side until I feared my ovaries were going to explode.

  “Uh... I’m...” What was my name? The guys glanced at me and patiently waited while I fumbled through an introduction. Taylor probably thought his friend was dating an idiot. “I’m... Daniela,” I tried again.

  He shook my hand politely and grinned. “Taylor. Glad to finally meet you. How long has this guy been keeping you a closely guarded secret?”

  “Oh, uh...” The amusement on Russell’s face when I glanced over at him was enough to snap me out of my temporary stupidity. “A few weeks now, maybe. Thanks for taking my car on short notice.”

  “No problem. What happened to you was a damn shame. We’re working on getting your ride back to you good as new.”

  Good as new... My ancient 2003 Chevy Malibu would never be good as new. I chuckled a little and nodded. “I’d be glad to just have the scratches off and a couple new headlamps.”

  “And tires. The asshole kinda popped those too,” Taylor added. As my expression fell — a byproduct of my concern for the rising costs — he held out both hands toward me and quickly said, “Your insurance should be enough to cover most of it, trust me.”

  I relaxed and nodded again. “Still, I appreciate this. When I saw the water damage, I was sure I’d have to suck it up and get a new vehicle.”

  “No, ma’am. I got a guy on staff who’s a good electrician. As long as the insurance checks out and they’re cool with our plan, we ought to have it back to you within a week.”

  “That fast?”

  “If I can, it’ll be done.”

  I liked Taylor as much I liked Ian. His open, friendly attitude eased my anxiety and brought a smile to my face.

  We hung around the auto body shop with him for a while. They told me stories of their time together as a squad, in which they were both sergeants, one a weapons specialist, the other an engineer.

  “Oh yeah. This guy was real serious about his weapons training. And God help the idiot who touched his guns. You so much as got a fingerprint on his babies and he’d throw the biggest hissy-fit you ever saw.”

  “I wasn’t that bad,” Russ protested.

  One look at Russ’ red-cheeked face made me think otherwise. I knew how much he loved his guns, and he’d had me breaking them down and learning to clean them with him days after our lessons began.

  We hung around with Taylor for an hour longer before I thanked him again and Russ drove me home. We had dinner together and snuggled up to a movie, growing closer with each passing day.

  In the morning, I woke first and tiptoed to the kitchen door to search for my bear. While the bacon fried in the pan, I snuck outside to walk through the yard, only to return to the kitchen when my furry friend didn’t greet me at the tree line.

  It set the beginning of a new pattern for the remainder of the week. Russell and Trigger slept over each night, but my bear stayed away no matter how much bacon I left outside for him.

  I had one, but I missed the other.

  Chapter Seven

  ~ Daniela ~

  A late Friday night with Russ meant I overslept Saturday morning. Long after he went home to handle his household chores and business, I lounged in bed and dreamed of the bright days ahead of me, contrasted by the hardships left behind. I also dreamed of all the things Russ had done to me over the cours
e of the night. My thighs still ached, but I wouldn’t take any of it back or utter a single complaint. The man was insatiable and he’d awakened a similar hunger in me. I couldn’t get enough of him.

  I would have slept deep into the afternoon if a determined caller didn’t ring me over and over. I nearly swatted the cell phone off my nightstand to peer at the caller ID. Ian MacArthur, my landlord, would be about the only person who didn’t catch the hint.

  “Hello?” I answered.

  “Good afternoon, Ms. Reyes. I’m on my way out to see about some security upgrades to the property. Is this a poor time?”

  What made him think that? Was it the two missed calls or my exhausted voice? “Huh? Oh, no!” Then his words sank in and cleared my befuddled brain. “No, it’s not a bad time. What security upgrades?”

  “Glad to hear it. I’ll be round in about, oh, fifteen minutes or so to explain it all to you. I’m going to grab Russ on my way and utilize him for my manual labor.” I could picture his wide grin and playful wink with his words.

  “See you then.”

  After hanging up the phone, I flew into the shower then brushed my teeth in an effort to look less like a zombie. My hair was a total loss, so I twisted it into a quick bun and bounced to the front door just as Ian’s SUV pulled into the drive.

  My landlord was a fox. When I first answered the ad on Craigslist advertising this place, I expected some ancient old man in his seventies with too much space to care for the land anymore. I didn’t count on a smoking hot guy with a chiseled body and bright hazel eyes.

  Stand him next to my hunky boyfriend and it was enough to make a girl spontaneously orgasm. The only way things could be hotter would be if Taylor were here too, and I seriously didn’t know if I could handle that much sexy all at once.

  “Morning, boys. Or afternoon I guess.”

  Russell greeted me with a kiss, which was better than any caffeine jolt I’d get from the coffee brewing inside. I forgot all about Ian until the man cleared his throat.

  “Sorry. Hi, Mr. MacArthur.” Ian was of ambiguous age and race, his dark brown hair worn too closely trimmed to identify the texture, and his features too youthful to be beyond his forties. His eyes were his best feature, the pale golden color of champagne, and absolutely gorgeous within his bronze tanned face.

  Ian gave us both a skeptical look. “I think since you’re boning each other, we can all be on a first name basis now, right?”

  “Christ, Ian,” Russ muttered. Seconds later when the grin seeped into his expression, I could tell this sort of joking was normal for them. The friendly banter helped to offset my embarrassment.

  “Well, I know I’m not wrong,” Ian teased.

  “Since he’s in the mood to be an ass, you can always call him Colonel,” Russ suggested in a playful tone, nudging my arm. “He loves that.”

  “I’ll stick with Ian out of those options, thanks,” I replied.

  “We’re going to install a home burglary system here. I know Russ gave you a boomstick,” he began, referring to my shotgun, “but it doesn’t hurt to have another measure of defense, right?”

  I flushed. Between Russ and all of the firepower in my bedroom right now, my house should have been the safest on the block. “I prefer the house alarm to be honest. I don’t know if I could shoot someone.” Even if that man was my abusive ex.

  “Let’s hope you’re never in the position where you have to,” Ian said.

  While they worked around my house, I baked a peach cobbler to accompany the plate of roast beef sandwiches and sweet tea for their lunch. They placed alarm sensors in each ground floor window and doorway entrance, which would alert me and the police of shattering glass. The last of the work involved two hidden cameras. Ian angled one onto my patio and directed the other to my driveway. Motion sensing lights would warn about anything larger than a squirrel wandering through my yard, and since I had no immediate neighbors on either side of me, the bulbs were as bright as the sun.

  “Thanks for the lunch, Daniela. It seems like we’re all good here, so I’ll get out of your hair and check in with you next month. Let me know if you need anything.”

  “Hold on a second. Let me write you a check for next month’s rent while you’re here.”

  Ian waved it off and headed for the door. “Nah. Don’t worry about the rent. I feel bad about what happened here. I didn’t take security into account when I rented this house out to you—”

  “You had no way to know my ex was an asshole,” I argued with him.

  “Be that as it may, I won’t take a dime from you next month.”

  Russell’s vanilla ice cream and peach cobbler distracted him. I’d thrown together a good meal for the two hardworking men, and, of course, his belly seemed to take precedence. “Russ,” I hissed at him. “Make him take my rent.”

  “Are you kidding? He’s rich. He won’t even miss whatever you’re paying him,” Russ assured me. “Go on and get, Ian.”

  “Much obliged,” he called before he dipped out the door. I stared in frustration at the empty doorway then shot a dirty look at Russ. He was no help.

  “Look, when the colonel makes up his mind about something, there’s no changing it. He was the same way in the field, and I expect he’ll be the same way till we bury his stubborn ass.”

  “Fine.” I didn’t like it, but I didn’t see a way around it.

  “C’mere.” Russell tugged me close and gave me something else to think about.

  Chapter Eight

  ~Russ~

  Once Ian was gone, I distracted Daniela with a foot massage in front of a romantic comedy marathon. I let her choose the flicks and pretended to care about the couples on the television. Their scripted angst and relationship troubles didn’t hold a candle to the dilemma I was facing.

  How could I possibly tell the woman I had grown to care about that I wasn’t technically human? How could I tell her the bear she missed so badly hadn’t left her, and I’d been here all along watching out for her? Sooner or later, something would have to give before the guilt consumed me.

  “Will Trigger be okay? Do you need to go let him out?”

  Her words pulled me out of my inner musings. “Oh, he’s fine. I ran over to let him out when Ian was finishing up the wiring on the last camera. He’s better with that sort of stuff.”

  “Mm... you think so? Good.”

  “Good that Trigger’s not gonna make a mess or good that Ian’s better at wiring?” I teased.

  “Both.” She tapped the power button on the remote while half of the movie remained.

  “Huh?”

  “There’s something else I want to show you,” Daniela explained. With one hand in mine, she coaxed me from the couch and guided me upstairs toward her bedroom.

  “Ready for bed already, darlin’?”

  “No. I actually had something else in mind.”

  “Yeah?” I drew her in close and bent down to claim a kiss. “What’s that?”

  “You’ll see.”

  Sleeping over a couple times that week made me familiar with the ultra-feminine space. Purple lace curtains over blackout shades matched a satin comforter over the queen-size bed. She left me in the center of the bedroom and struck a match to light the candles at the bedside. The aroma of ginger and citrus permeated the room, exotic and bold like my spicy Latina.

  Her fingers slid beneath my t-shirt hem and over my abs. Creeping the cotton higher, she dipped her head to kiss each inch of skin she revealed. Something had gotten her into the mood, and hell if I knew what it was. Her fingers glided over me, tracing my muscles at first before a breathy order issued from her lips. God, she sounded like a sex kitten when she brought out the sensual whispers and her heavier accent.

  “Lay down.”

  “You in the mood to be a cowgirl today?” I pictured her on top of me, bouncing up and down on my length with all of her energy. My stiffening cock reacted to the visual with a twitch.

  “I said lay down.”

  I
underestimated Daniela’s strength. With one shove, she knocked me back onto her bed and advanced on me to unfasten my belt. She didn’t waste movements with flirtation or teasing. She jerked my pants down again for the second time in our relationship to reveal the bulge in my dark green boxer briefs.

  Taking the lead this way was a new side to her, and it was the sexiest thing any woman had ever done for me; foreign but far from unwanted. As she drew my stiffening cock from my boxers and tugged them down, a single stroke of her hands brought me to complete arousal. My dick jutted up, hard and pulsing with need, seeming too big for her small hands. When she curled her fingers around me, I realized my perception was right. It was too large, the base so wide when completely aroused that her fingers and thumb didn’t touch.

  While she stepped back from me to undress, I maintained a one-fisted grip of my cock and jerked off while she stripped. She’d been shy around me once. Too wounded by years of verbal abuse to trust me with her body. I drank her in without shame and visually devoured the sight of her bare breasts.

  “You’re so beautiful, Daniela. I could watch you all day.” The short time since our last lovemaking seemed like years. My balls were heavy and full beneath her fingertips as she replaced my hand with hers on my dick. I groaned and tilted my head back against the pillows, exposed and completely naked for her enjoyment. I loved it when she rode me, moving above my body like a goddess, her full breasts offered to my hands and mouth. The newfound confidence she displayed aroused the hell out of me, and I couldn’t wait for her to climb on.

  “Oh, yeah?” she asked, a hint of flirtatious humor in her voice. “What’s your favorite part of me?” She dipped her head to flit her tongue against my sensitive crown. I moaned and tried to cling to my intelligence.

  “Your... your... fuck,” I breathed out as her mouth descended next. Daniela had never tried sucking me off before, and as much as I enjoyed a good blow job, I had never pushed her to try. She took in a quarter of my length and withdrew until only the tip remained. I wanted to thrust my hips upward to claim every inch of her throat.