Because he’s out of town. I don’t say that part, though. It’s too much of the truth. There’s a very low chance grizzly man will ever spy me across the canyon. After all, my bedroom windows are tiny and tinted. But what if he does? He could confront my father and he’d die for those efforts. Who knows what would become of me for defying the notorious Ivan Stepanov tonight?
My subject looks like he’s actually going to rip down the walls, whether I have a husband or not. “Look at me and listen carefully. I’m Mick. You’re safe with Mick. You understand?” He drops his mouth to mine, the brush of our lips giving off sparks in my stomach. “I’m not the type of man that believes in fate, but hell if both of us escaping to this place tonight is a coincidence. You’re mine now to take care of. And I won’t let a fucking thing happen to you. Ever. That’s a vow.”
I grow a little dizzy in the chair at the conviction in his voice, the touch of his mouth. I know Mick believes what he’s saying. But he doesn’t know my father.
Ivan Stepanov is known in two countries as a ruthless butcher. Once he sets his sights on you, there’s nowhere to run or hide. I’m going back to my tower whether I like it or not. If Stepanov’s daughter ran away, he wouldn’t be able to let the slight pass. I wouldn’t last a day, even with this grizzly man guarding me.
He tilts my chin up. “What’s your name?”
“Hailey,” I say, forgetting I shouldn’t. How can I lie when he’s so close?
“Hailey.” His gaze falls to my mouth and he shakes his head. “Now I need to know how old you are.” Determination radiates from his big frame. “I’m keeping you protected no matter what, all right? I’ve got you.”
“Then why does it matter?”
I feel something hard against my inner thigh, before he moves it away, coughing into his fist. “Like whether I need to keep you protected from me, too.”
My pulse ripples. I’m not sure I know the baseline of this conversation, but I know Mick likes touching me. And I sense he wants to touch more. All of me. It’s crazy, but…I want to let him, too. There’s an air of safety and honesty I’m drawn toward. All my life I’ve been made to feel small and insignificant. His giant presence makes me feel small in a good way. Like I’m still worth cherishing. He thinks this meeting was fate, though. Am I being deceptive by not telling him I stowed away in the back of his car?
None of that matters, Hailey. You’re going home. Anything else is impossible.
“Who are you talking to in the head?”
“Myself.” Unable to quell the impulse, I lay my cheek against Mick’s chest and hear his powerful heartbeat. “Usually I’m the only one I have to talk to. I guess it’s become a habit.”
His hand smooths down the back of my hair. “You come home with me,” he says, gruffly. “And I’ll let you study my nose in the light.”
I gasp, smiling up at him. “You will?”
Mick swallows. Loud enough for me to hear. “Need that age, Goldie.”
“Twenty-four.”
“Lie.”
“Twenty—”
“Lie.”
I feel my pout and there’s nothing I can do about it. “How do I know how young is too young?”
“Let me determine that.” Seeming agonized, he pulls my chair closer, like he can’t help it. I’m pressed up against his huge body. Close enough to feel the throb of that hard part of him against my high inner thigh. “Not allowed to touch you unless you’re eighteen. God help us both if you’re not.”
Relief filters into my stomach. “I’m eighteen and a half.”
“That might have been good news if you didn’t say ‘and a half.’” He drops his head forward. “Goddamn, baby. I’m in trouble here.”
“Doesn’t my age mean you can kiss me?”
“Technically, yeah.” On an agonized groan, he yanks my chair forward another inch closer. “These bloodstained hands have no place on an angel…but Jesus Christ, I don’t think I can keep them off you.”
CHAPTER TWO
Mick
I’m well and truly screwed.
In addition to the Bureau and the endless stream of cases they send me on, I’ve been focused on starting my horse breeding business these last few years. Not exactly a typical path for a guy from South Boston, which is what drove me to Montana looking for a new enterprise in the first place. Open spaces. Nature. Quiet. There’s something about walking out into a haze of morning mist and hearing nothing but wind. I can’t keep chasing down criminals forever, and I found my next act. Now if I only had time to cultivate it.