Page 5 of The Protector’s Heart
Parking in front of the house, she got out and unhooked Jack from the car seat. Jack clutched a lock of her hair as she walked up the steps to the front door and unlocked it. Once inside, she pushed the door shut and flipped the security bar and two dead bolts. The familiar sound of the door locking made some of her anxiety leak away.
After divesting her and Jack of their winter things, she carried him into the kitchen and put him in his high chair. “Are you hungry, little man?”
He banged his fists on the tray and grinned. It took only a few minutes for her to put his dinner together, and then she turned to the fridge for her own meal. Pulling out a tub of beef stew she’d made over the weekend, she poured some into a bowl and put it in the microwave to heat up. As the bowl rotated, she watched Jack as he gripped his plastic spoon and shoveled applesauce into his mouth.
The hours passed so quickly. Dinner, then bath, then bedtime. She laid him down in the crib in the bedroom. The house was supposed to be a two-bedroom, but the second bedroom was where the laundry hookups were, so if she wanted clean clothes, she had to take up half the room with the washer and dryer. She didn’t want Jack in that room, so she’d given him the bigger bedroom and put a twin bed in the laundry room. Ever since Damien had attacked the teacher in an attempt to take Jack back several weeks ago, she’d been sleeping in the front room on the couch. She felt like she was being a better protector if she was sleeping closer to the bedroom, which was just off the front room.
When she first moved into the house, Damien had shown up and tried to get in. She’d called the police and he scattered quickly, and she’d called a locksmith the next morning and had him install the extra deadbolts. A few weeks had passed and she wondered if Damien had gotten the hint that things between them were done, but he had shown up the night of the full moon in his wolf form with some of his buddies and they stalked around the house the entire night, howling and snarling, randomly throwing themselves at the doors. She’d been terrified. It seemed to go that way with him. He’d leave her alone for a little while and then he’d start up again, sending her threatening emails and leaving nasty voice mails, always threatening to get her back someday, calling her his property, issuing thinly veiled threats toward Jack. She was in a vicious cycle with a dangerous male, and she didn’t know what to do.
Changing into pajamas, she settled onto the couch and listened to Jack settling down to sleep in his crib. The cul-de-sac was quiet at night. Her neighbors were older and there were no young kids on the street. Behind the house lay woods that separated her development from another one. She’d seen Damien in the woods before, him and his buddies. Watching. Waiting.
She forced herself to stop thinking of her ex and get to sleep, but she couldn’t settle her thoughts, until she started thinking of Malachi. She was actually jealous of Brynn. Her mate didn’t treat her like shit. He cared about her. Made sure she was well protected with personal guards when he wasn’t around.
Closing her eyes, she shoved those thoughts away, too. Thinking about the sexy blue-eyed wolf wasn’t helping her rest, it was amping her up. She wanted to call Brynn and ask for Malachi’s phone number. Then she wanted to call him and…well, she didn’t know what exactly, but the fantasy that streaked through her mind as she wiggled on the couch to get comfortable was of Malachi and her in the storeroom at work. But this time she wouldn’t freak out about him being a wolf; she’d settle into his arms and inhale that gorgeous spicy scent and give him the kissing of a lifetime.
Groaning, Nila threw her arm over her eyes and thought about bunnies, and rainbows, and paying the bills. She’d never get to sleep if she thought about Malachi. Like all wolves, he was a dead end, and she needed to remember that. He was nice now, but Damien had been that way in the beginning, too.
Bunnies. She was going to think about bunnies.
CHAPTER THREE
Malachi couldn’t stop his body from reacting to Nila as she sat in the second row of his SUV with Brynn on the way to lunch on Tuesday. He was glad that his coat was long enough to cover his waist when he stood up, or everyone in the restaurant was going to get an eyeful of the erection that was pressing painfully against the front of his jeans.
Brynn said something that made Nila laugh, and Malachi stifled a growl. He wanted to make her laugh and be on the receiving end of one of her killer smiles. Right now, Nila was treating him more like furniture than a person. The day before when he’d talked to her in the breakroom, it had been the first conversation they’d had since the day he found her in the storage room. She’d warmed up to him, and then just as quickly, she turned to ice and rebuffed him. He could admit to himself that it hurt his pride. He wanted her to want to be with him, to like being around him.
He pulled into the parking lot of Luna’s and turned off the engine. Jumping out, he opened Brynn’s door and held out his hand for her.
“You’re such a gentleman, Mal,” Brynn said with a chuckle.
“Are you kidding me? The parking lot is icy and Acksel would have my head if you slipped and got hurt.”
Nila stared at him from where she sat, fiddling with the seatbelt. He held out his hand for her. “I won’t bite, Nila.”
He bit back the mildly sarcastic comment floating around in his head, unless you ask me to, and waited, trying to make himself appear harmless. Well, he knew he looked anything but harmless. He was too tall and muscular for that. But he could look genial, maybe. Friendly, even.
She really seemed to be wrestling with herself, and then Brynn said, “Nila, I’m freezing my butt off. Would you let him help you out of the SUV so we can eat? I’m feeling like hamburgers.”
Nila seemed to startle slightly, and then she scooted toward him, giving him a wary look that reminded him of a doe about to bolt. Her gloved hand grasped his and he wished there wasn’t any fabric separating their skin. Lending her his strength, he made sure she didn’t fall as she slipped from the seat and her booted feet hit the pavement. For just a moment, she squeezed his hand tighter and looked up at him, brown eyes searching his…for what, he didn’t know. Just as quickly as they had connected, she released his hand and stepped away, a blast of icy wind separating them as easily as the distance she created herself.
Shutting the door, he growled at himself. He was supposed to be watching over Brynn, not ogling his sexy mate. Which made him wonder what the hell he’d do when he did manage to convince Nila to give him the time of day. How could he be Brynn’s personal guard and also take care of Nila and Jack?
Shit. He’d have to talk to Acksel. That was a conversation for later, though, since Nila seemed bound and determined to keep Malachi at arm’s length.
He took Nila and Brynn’s coats and hung them up on the hooks inside the front door of the restaurant, and then followed them to Brynn’s private table. A small placard sat on top of the small round table that read, ‘Reserved for the Alpha.’ Malachi took up his place against the nearest wall and scanned the restaurant. Luna’s was run by Quentin and Paula Smythe, who were pack members. Malachi considered it a safe place, but when Brynn and Acksel first got together, she was pestered by some of the female pack members who thought she wasn’t a good choice for alpha female. Acksel had made changes to pack law to protect the female mates of pack members if they were human, but Brynn had needed to stand up for herself and prove that she could be a leader. Which she’d done quite well.
His phone buzzed. He pulled it from his pocket and saw a text from his younger sister, Mia.
“Dinner tonight? I’m making pot roast.”
“Sure,” he typed back.
“I also need you to help me move the desk.”
He snorted. “Of course you do.” She never invited him over to dinner unless she had an ulterior motive, like needing him to move furniture.
“Don’t get snippy, I’m feeding you.”
“See you at six,” he answered and slipped the phone back into his pocket.