Montana D-Force (Brotherhood Protectors Book 3) (7 page)

“No need. I can do that. I’m not a guest. I’m the hired hand.”

“Still, you shouldn’t have to clean your own room.” Mia moved toward the staircase.

Bear caught her wrist and pulled her back. “I’m quite capable of taking care of myself. Aren’t you supposed to be writing or something?”

Mia stared at his hand on her wrist as electrical impulses ran up her arm and spread throughout her body. Her core tingled and heated in response to the signals zinging from nerve to nerve. The longer he held her wrist, the faster her heart hammered against her ribcage. “Um, I…” Hell, she couldn’t think when he held any part of her. His touch had the effect of scrambling her wits. “I can’t think… I mean, I can’t concentrate when you…when I—” She shut her mouth to keep from saying even more inane comments. “I’m tired. I think I’ll go to bed.”

Bear glanced down at his hand, and then dropped her wrist and stepped back. “Sorry. I’ll have another look around the house, then call it a night as well.”

“Okay.” Mia dragged her gaze away from his, spun toward the stairs, and ran. Her heart raced with each step taking her father away from the man who made her insides tremble with a need she’d never felt, until him.

Once in her room, she shut the door and leaned against it, dragging in breath after ragged breath until her pulse returned to normal. She gathered fresh underwear from a drawer, put them back and selected the lace thong she’d bought on impulse one day in the lingerie section of her favorite store. Feeling a little foolish, she selected her usual oversized, faded T-shirt to counter the frilly panties.

Armed with her nightclothes, she opened the door, peeked out and ran for the bathroom door farther down the hallway. Safely inside, she locked the door and turned toward the shower. On impulse, she turned back and untwisted the button on the doorknob.

The lust-driven woman inside hoped Bear would find the door unlocked and enter before he realized she was there. The idea was senseless. Bear wasn’t the kind of man who would barge into a room with a closed door. He’d knock before entering. Mia would feel obligated to answer, and nothing would come of her insane attempt to have an “accidental” naked encounter with the hired help. Still, the thought tantalized.

She stripped out of her jeans and shirt, unhooked her bra and glanced toward the door as she shrugged out of it. Breasts hanging free, she had only to slip out of her panties, and she’d be naked. Who was she trying to kid? The man wasn’t interested, nor was he coming through the door any time soon.

With a sigh, Mia shed her panties and stepped into the tub. A long cold shower would clear her thoughts, chill her desire and pull her together.

And it did, no matter how disappointing.

The shower also gave her time to think about the discussion she’d had with Kylie in the bathroom. Her old friend swore her bruises were from working at the diner. Mia suspected her husband was the one who’d inflicted them on her skin.

Mia had told her she had choices. She didn’t have to stay in an abusive relationship. “When you’re ready to get out of it, call me,” she’d offered.

Kylie had stared straight at her and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Then she’d run out of the bathroom, her eyes filled with tears.

The woman needed help.

With her wet hair brushed straight, and dressed in her thong and the T-shirt that hung down past mid-thigh, Mia abandoned the bathroom. Any fantasies about showering with her bodyguard remained unrealized as she padded barefoot down the hall to her bedroom.

Inside, with the door closed behind her, Mia took stock of the room she’d grown up in. It appeared to have been arrested in time, bearing the same decorations and paint from when she’d been a teen.

If she kept the house, she’d update the furniture and bedding to something that would appeal to her guests, if she ever had any. The entire house needed a facelift.

Slipping her feet between the clean sheets, she pulled the blanket up to her chin and closed her eyes. In an attempt to keep her mind off the handsome bodyguard, Mia tried to picture the room and how it would look updated.

No matter how hard she focused, an image of Bear kept popping into her mind. He stood in her room, his broad shoulders filling the small space with an overabundance of male pheromones eating away at the walls Mia had constructed around her heart.

She glanced away from the door, but her mind couldn’t erase the image. Mia punched her pillow and visualized sheep, counting them one at a time.

The phone Bear had moved from the living room and installed earlier on her nightstand jangled, abruptly.

Mia’s eyes flew open, and she clapped a hand over her mouth to keep from crying out in the darkness. Having lived with cell phones in L.A., the harsh, tinny jangle of the vintage phone made her start and sit up. Next on her list of things to buy was a more updated version with caller ID.

She grabbed the receiver and lifted it to her ear, wondering who would be calling at that hour. More importantly, who knew she was home? “Hello.”

Nothing. No static. No voice. Nothing.

Then a hint of a sound, like someone releasing a breath, made her strain to listen.

Mia swallowed hard, her pulse racing. “Who is this?”

Light clicking sounded above her head. Mia screamed, dropped the phone and rolled out of bed onto her knees.

Footsteps pounded down the hallway and Mia’s door crashed open.

Bear, wearing jeans and nothing else, rushed in. “Mia? What’s wrong?”

Mia leaped to her feet and threw herself into his arms. “I answered the phone. No one spoke, but I heard someone breathing. Then there was a clicking sound.”

With Mia tucked against his side, Bear scooped up the phone, listened and shook his head. “Whoever it was hung up. We’ll see if the phone company can trace the call. Maybe the sheriff can help us with that.”

Mia burrowed her face against Bear’s naked chest. “I’m not normally spooked, but the breathing and the clicking…”

Both of Bear’s arms circled her and held her close. He smoothed her hair with one hand as he spoke soft, soothing words. “It’s okay. It was only a phone call.”

“I just had the phone company turn it on yesterday. How could anyone know the number already?”

“Probably a wrong number,” he murmured.

“What about the clicking? What does that mean?”

“Nothing.” He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear and tipped her face up to his. “I’m here to protect you. I won’t let anything hurt you.”

Mia’s heart skipped several beats as she stared up into his incredibly blue eyes. She believed he wouldn’t let anyone harm her. But she had the feeling she would be hurt anyway.

This was the kind of man she could fall for, and what would that get her? Even if he wasn’t her bodyguard, and they were just a man and a woman, he wouldn’t want her. When he learned she was hesitant when it came to intimacy, he’d grow frustrated when she shied away from his touch.

Well, she wasn’t shying away yet, and his arms were firmly around her. At this point with anyone else, she’d fight to be free, panic taking over and ruining her chances of making love.

Mia stared up into Bear’s eyes and waited for the familiar anxiety to take control. But it didn’t.

Clicking sounded again. This time, Mia realized it wasn’t on the telephone. She looked up at the same time as Bear.

More like a scratchy tapping sound, it moved from one end of her room to the other and faded away. Then it started again.

For a moment, Mia considered the idea that the house was truly haunted.

“Have you been in the attic since you’ve been home?” Bear whispered.

“No,” Mia said, perfectly happy to remain in Bear’s arms until the horrible scratchy sound went away.

“Do you know what’s up there?”

“Christmas decorations, old keepsakes, boxes of my grandmother’s things that my parents couldn’t bring themselves to throw away. I don’t know.” She’d only been up in the attic on a few occasions when her mother had her help get the Christmas decorations down for the holiday.

Bear loosened his hold on her. “I’m going up to check.”

Mia curled her fingers around his biceps. She didn’t want him to leave her and opened her mouth to tell him so. Before she could, the clicking sounded again. A shiver shook her body, and she released him. She couldn’t sleep knowing something was up there.

“Show me to the attic door,” Bear said.

Mia led him out of her room and into her parents’ bedroom at the end of the hall. The trap door to the attic was in her parents’ closet. She pulled the cord hanging from the ceiling and the door came down. “There’s a light at the top of the stairs. Just pull the string.”

Bear unfolded the stairs and climbed into the attic. A light blinked on up above, shining down into the closet. Bear disappeared.

Alone at the closet door, Mia wrapped her arms around her body. She stared up at the gaping hole in the closet ceiling, counting the seconds that passed. The sound of footsteps crossing the plywood flooring of the attic only slightly reassured Mia.

She strained to hear.

Something hissed, Bear cursed, and the clicking, tapping sounded, coming fast toward Mia.

“Look out!” Bear called out.

Something gray and furry skittered past the open trap door.

Mia jumped back and pressed a hand to her mouth to keep from screaming again. “What was that?” she cried out.

“You have a squatter up here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Just a minute, and I’ll show you.” Bear’s footsteps sounded again as if he were moving quickly around the space above. Then he appeared at the top of the stairs with a sheet bundled in his arms. He backed down the steps until his feet touched the floor.

Mia’s eyes narrowed as the sheet in his arms moved. “What is it?”

“Not it. Them.”

“Them?”

“Come with me. I don’t want to open the sheet until we’re outside.”

Mia followed Bear out of the bedroom and down the stairs. Once outside, he dropped to his haunches and unfolded the sheet. Tucked inside were four tiny little balls of gray and black fluff.

When he laid them on the ground, the four babies scurried toward the brush.

“Raccoons in the attic?” Mia laughed. “So much for ghosts.”

His mouth quirked upward at one corner. “Thought you’d get a kick out of them.”

She frowned. “Will they be all right?”

“Their mama will find them pretty quickly. She hustled out of the attic through a hole in the siding. I’ll get up there and patch it temporarily until we can get new siding to do a better job.”

“You don’t have to do that. I’m almost certain all this carpentry is not part of your job description.”

“It is if we want it to look like I’m your handyman, not your bodyguard.”

A cool breeze swept across her skin, making Mia shiver.

“It’s too cold to be standing around outside. Let’s get you inside.” He hooked his arm around her waist and walked her back into the house.

“You go get some sleep. I can handle plugging the hole.”

“I won’t rest until I know the hole is covered.” She didn’t add that she wouldn’t be happy until Bear was down from the attic, away from the raccoon that could attack him. “I have a hammer and nails in the drawer in the kitchen.” Mia hurried into the kitchen and found the hammer and nails her mother had kept for hanging pictures on the walls. “The nails aren’t very big, but they should work for a temporary fix.”

Bear smiled. “Looks like we’ll be making another trip to the hardware store.”

“My father might have left some plywood in his shed,” Mia offered.

“I saw a small sheet upstairs in the corner. I’ll use it.” Bear waved toward the hallway. “Ladies first.”

Not until they stood at the base of the staircase did Mia remember she only wore the thong panties beneath the T-shirt.

With Bear following close behind her, Mia was even more aware of her bare bottom beneath her shirt. She climbed the stairs, tugging at the hem, in an attempt to cover her backside, while her insides heated and her core throbbed with desire.

At the top of the stairs, Bear cleared his throat.

When Mia glanced back at him, he averted his gaze, his cheeks turning a ruddy red.

He’d seen her thong. Or rather, he’d seen her bottom beneath the T-shirt. And he wasn’t going to say anything to embarrass her.

Not only was the man kind to animals, as evidenced by his rescue of the baby raccoons, he was concerned about her, enough not to cause her discomfort. Those two qualities only made her want him more.

Damn.

Too bad she would only freeze. They might get as far as a kiss and a touch, but then she’d push away and run. He’d be left frustrated, and then their situation would be even more awkward.

Her cheeks burning, Mia ducked into her room, letting Bear pass her and go on to the closet in her parents’ bedroom. When he’d disappeared, she followed more slowly, ending up at the bottom of the attic stairs, wishing she had the courage to follow her desires.

She climbed the steps as the sound of a hammer hitting nails echoed through the attic. At the top, she looked around, spotting Bear holding a hammer and placing a nail against a small sheet of plywood. He slammed it home and set another. With each nail, the muscles in his back flexed.

God, he was gorgeous, strong and sensitive. Everything a woman would want in a man.

Soon, he had the board secured, and he turned toward the stairs.

Caught staring, Mia backed down the steps too fast, missed the bottom rung and fell backward, landing hard on her bottom.

Bear was down the stairs and lifting her into his arms before she could figure out where she’d gone wrong on her descent.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, her words strangled in her throat as her body pressed against his. “The only casualty is my pride.”

“Can’t help you there, but I can help get you to bed.” Holding her close to his chest, he carried her into her bedroom where he laid her gently on the mattress.

“You didn’t have to carry me,” she said.

“Consider it one of the perks of my job.” He winked.