Protector Daddy by Taryn Quinn
FOUR
I hadno idea where I was when I woke.
Panic seized my chest as I struggled to sit up in the strangely light bedroom. It took me a while to realize moonlight filled the room from the many windows, including a large half moon one behind the bed that offered a view of the woods. So much darkness lurked out there. Wilderness.
So much for my wild dreams. I wasn’t lying on the ground beneath an alien spacecraft hovering above, about to take me away. I was tucked under the covers on a massive mattress, though I slept alone.
Well, except for the large dog that guarded the foot of the bed, his head on his paws as he watched me flail around as if I’d never been on an adult sleepover before.
I’d never been on one like this before, that was for damn sure.
Where was my purse? Probably where I’d left it on the couch in the living room. Hopefully the same place where my clothes were. Well, not my poor panties. Those were now neon confetti on his stone floor. I wished I’d tucked my phone in my pocket—but no pockets on skin.
I didn’t know my moves here. I wanted to ask Mickey. She was well used to the walk of shame, although I wasn’t feeling the least bit shameful. Closer toward a peacock, even if my orgasm glow was fading.
Probably partially because the orgasm dispenser was MIA. Not that I hadn’t done some dispensing of my own.
When had I gotten so bold? I barely knew this dude and I’d made myself come in front of him. I’d never done that in front of a guy before. But he made me feel so free.
So totally free to be myself.
I sat up and shoved a hand through my hair before giving Boomer a scratch. “Where did your Daddy go, boy? Did he leave you with me so you could protect me?”
A boom of thunder crashed through overhead and I shivered. Just a late fall storm, I reminded myself as lightning slashed through the sky outside the floor to ceiling windows.
I couldn’t see much in the room even with the flashes of light, just a few large indiscernible pieces of furniture. The bed was pretty damn huge too, understandably, since Christian was practically a giant.
A Masterson family trait. Even his little sister Maddie was tall and big-boned.
Thunder crashed again and I shuddered, prompting Boomer to clamber on top of me, lifting his big paws to my shoulders and stretching out on top of me as I fell back on the bed. I laughed and squealed—and yes, panicked just a bit—as he tried to get to third base again. He licked my face and my neck as he hugged me, protecting me from the house shaking thunder and eye-searing blasts of lightning.
Or maybe I was protecting him, since he tucked his snout in the space between my neck and shoulder and lightly trembled against me as the storm raged on.
“It’s okay, boy. Just a storm. Nothing scary. You’re safe. I’m safe,” I added as the urge to shake overtook me once again.
“Boomer. Off.” Christian’s voice snapped out from the doorway.
Boomer pressed himself against me as if we were long lost best friends, recently reunited.
I pressed a kiss to his soft ear and he sent me a look of such adoration I couldn’t help a little sigh. “Aww, you’re the sweetest boy, aren’t you?”
“He’s supposed to be an attack dog.” Christian sounded weary.
“You’re a good boy—” I broke off at the next clap of thunder and clutched Boomer to my chest as he buried his face into my cleavage.
Christian shook his head. “Already figured out the best seat in the house.”
I giggled and wiggled over on the bed, patting the spot beside me. “Why are you so far?”
“Someone needed a walk in the back to do his business. Then he ran back to you in here as if he’d been without you for a lifetime.”
“Aren’t you a charmer.” I dropped a kiss on Boomer’s head. “How long did I sleep?”
“A few hours.”
“How long did you sleep?”
“Almost a few hours.”
I winced. “Did I snore?”
“No.” His quick denial made me wince again.
“How bad?”
“It was barely more than the tinkle of wind chimes.”
I snorted at that one. “Guess Boomer isn’t the only charmer around here.”
He moved over to the bed and got in behind me, tugging me and my new best friend backward until we were in the circle of his arms. Well, Boomer tipped over a little but he was as happy as I was for the extra snuggles.
Until we were found out.
“You’re shaking.”
I tried to simmer the hell down even as the thunder and light show continued. “Nuh-uh.”
I didn’t have many phobias, but naturally my number one fear had to show itself the first time I slept with this dude.
First and last, hello?
“Honey, tell me why you’re shaking.”
Somehow I was incapable of not being honest with him. I tipped my head back against his shoulder. “I’m kind of freaked out by storms.”
He stroked a hand down my hair. “How come?”
“Holdover from childhood. I’d always start crying at the sound of thunder and cover my ears, but I couldn’t block it out. Mav would always come in my room and put on heavy metal music so I couldn’t hear the storm anymore—which might’ve been a solid plan if he hadn’t done it in the middle of the night more than once.”
“Why can I see him doing that?”
“Because he’s always been a ball of chaos. But his heart was in the right place. To this day, whenever there’s a storm, I feel the need to play ‘Enter Sandman’.”
“I can play it if it’ll make you feel better.” He held up his phone.
“Nah, I’m good.”
“You sure? Boomer could use some storm tips and tricks too.”
“Maybe try one of those thunder shirts? They help some dogs.”
“Yeah, I should. I usually just wrap him in a blanket and try to distract him with puppy TV.”
“Puppy TV? I’ve only heard of that for cats.”
“Mostly contains bunnies and other random vermin that make Boomer think he’s king of the jungle.”
“Aww. Does Daddy tease you?” I rubbed along his neck, smoothing his fur as his eyes rolled back in his head in doggy bliss. I grinned and tossed a glance over my shoulder, narrowing my eyes at the way Christian was studying me.
It wasn’t the look of a man who’d been thoroughly sexed. And the area between my thighs threw up a white flag preemptively.
“Nope. No way. I’m not going down that road again.”
He cocked his head and arched a brow innocently. “What road?”
“I’m out of practice.”
“Me too.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Yeah, but your practice involves treating my tender parts like a penis trampoline.”
His lips twitched but his expression stayed serious. “Did I hurt you?”
“Only in the very best ways. Be glad I didn’t ask for a bag of frozen peas.”
“You’re hungry?”
I laughed. “No. Just for, you know, soreness. Being a woman requires great sacrifice sometimes. But then we get multiple orgasms if we’re lucky and it all works out.”
“Did you?”
“Did I what?”
This man—this god of sex with Thor’s dick and dirty talk for days—actually ducked his head and asked sheepishly, “You know, multiple orgasms?”
“Oh, God, yes. You didn’t notice? I mean, I kind of get why you wouldn’t, because many years, though I really hope you at least jacked off. If not, no wonder Van’s flagrant parking disrespect really tweaked your bungee cord.”
He tipped his head against mine, and when he spoke, I was shocked to hear the laughter clogging his voice. “Despite your colorful description, I was just following the law.”
“And messing with her a little, right? C’mon.”
“I would never.”
“You so would. Did you like her?”
“You mean, like like?”
“Yeah.”
“No, but it didn’t really matter now, did it? Your brother swooped in.”
“He isn’t shy about making moves.”
“And you think I am?”
I bumped his shoulder. “You tell me.”
“Seems like I moved on you pretty good today.”
“Yeah, but that was more me. McNeills are forward sorts. We can’t help it. We see something we want and we go in for the kill before anyone else has a chance.”
And then we tuck tail and run when it doesn’t at all work out how we planned.
“So you went in for the kill for me?”
“Well, not exactly.”
“You…wanted me before today?”
“Um…”
This time, there was no mistaking his laughter. It was so shocking I just stared at him for a full minute. “I didn’t think so. You never paid any attention to me.”
“Like you paid attention to me?”
“I went into the bakery four different times when you were working just so you could serve me French crullers.”
I tapped my fingers against my lips. “That sounds pervy. Also, really? You came in just for me?”
“Not just for you. Your sister-in-law makes damn good crullers.”
“I can make them too now.”
“I have no doubt.” He kissed my jaw almost absently and a low rumble sounded between us. “Did you just growl at me, Boomer?” Lightly, he tugged on his dog’s ear. “She’s my woman. Get your own.”
Those warning bells were back clanging in my head. Except this time they came with airhorns and possibly torrential rain.
Oh, no, that part was actually outside the windows.
“Um, so I should go home?” Adding a question mark on the end didn’t exactly strengthen my case.
“Why?”
“I’m sure you didn’t intend to, uh, have a sleepover tonight. You must be tired.”
“I am. But I can sleep with you here.”
“Oh, okay, good. But I sleep better in my own bed so I should just go.”
“You were sleeping just fine before the storm started. Sure you don’t want me to turn on ‘Enter Sandman’?”
Boomer whimpered and burrowed his head into my lap as if he suspected I was talking about leaving.
“No, I’m good. Really. Storm is backing off.” I took a deep breath and forged ahead. “Look, we probably should have talked about parameters beforehand.”
Christian rubbed under Boomer’s chin. “Uh-huh.”
“I mean, with us. Considering the Cove is so small. And we have a lot of…ties in common. Did you know Maddie was in one of my Childhood Education classes?” Why hadn’t I thought of that before? Not that me vaguely knowing Christian’s baby sister had much to do with me sleeping with him.
Jesus, I’d slept with Christian Masterson. The dude who barely ever smiled. Who wasn’t one for small talk. The grumpiest, growliest man in town.
We’d had sex and it had been amazing. Like best of my life incredible and I still couldn’t believe I’d done it. Mickey would faint.
Maybe I shouldn’t tell her. It didn’t feel right to keep secrets from my best friend, but it also didn’t seem right to blab about something that was private and personal.
And oh, God, if I told her I was going to have to brag, and he was a cop and he’d be mortified if gossip spread somehow and then the people he had to ticket knew he was packing an anaconda in his regulation trousers.
Then again, maybe he’d enjoy having some street cred?
It was Christian. Most likely not.
“That’s nice.”
That’s nice? What the hell?
“We were even kind of friends.”
“Okay,” he said slowly. “You know Murphy too, right?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m tight with Vee. I even babysat the twins a couple of times when Maddie was working.”
“How about Penn? Or Travis? I imagine you’ve talked to them too here or there over the years.”
“Sure. Only a few times since they haven’t been local for a while, but yeah, definitely.”
“And you know I know your brothers.”
I couldn’t figure out where he was going with this. “Yeah, obviously.”
“Just saying when you live in a small town, you will have people in common. Neither of us live in a cave in the woods.”
“You almost do. Though pretty swanky cave.” I patted Boomer’s side as he shifted until he could drape his bulk over my legs.
Christian blew out a breath. “I even chatted with your mom at the grocery store last week. She helped me pick out a melon.”
I groaned and threw myself sideways across the bed.
“Problem?”
“My mom is former FBI.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have any idea how she interrogates people?”
“Just random people? She didn’t interrogate me at the Piggly Wiggly.”
“That was before you railed her only daughter into next Tuesday.”
He cocked a brow. “Hey Siri, what day is it?”
“Today is Tuesday November 1st, 2022.”
“See?”
“It’s not because I railed you into Tuesday. Tuesday always follows Monday.”
“Are you always like this?”
“Logical? Yes. Unfailingly.”
I groaned and covered my face. But I was grinning. He had a way of making everything seem…simple. Not hopelessly tangled or messed up.
Maybe we could just be cool about this. Have sex and hang out here or there and still talk to our friends and family. Why not? It didn’t have to be weird.
I didn’t have to write him a note before I escaped like a thief in the night that it was fun but now I was going to work in another county because if my family knew I was boning him and—dear God—asked me questions about it, I’d probably die of embarrassment.
And he’d definitely die of embarrassment because they had no idea when to stop. Subtlety was not a factor in the McNeill family.
I dropped my hands from my face and found Christian watching me patiently while Boomer crossed his gigantic paws over my belly and waited.
“I was going to sneak out and just…split,” I admitted to the ceiling, since I couldn’t stare at two pairs of earnest eyes and not crumble like a day old cookie.
“Don’t do that.”
Christian’s sharp tone had me bringing my gaze back to his warily.
“Do anything else, but don’t shut me out and take off. Anything but that.”
“Okay,” I said quietly. “Why?”
“Because it’s a shitty thing to do? Because I wouldn’t do that to you? Because why do I deserve that kind of treatment? How’s that?” He rose to prowl around the room like an huge, tense jungle cat.
“That’s more words than I’ve ever heard you use at one time.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t speak when it’s not necessary.”
I sighed and shifted to bury my face in Boomer’s bristly fur. It occurred to me I barely knew this dog and I was being very familiar with an unpredictable animal, but he merely shifted more on his side and let me have my way with him.
Kind of like his owner.
“I know it was a shitty thing to do. I’ve never done something like that before.”
“Then why would you start now?”
“Because I’ve only dated boys who were half out the door as soon as they put their pants back on. I don’t know what it’s like to date an actual…man.”
“Want to find out?”
“Do I have a choice?” I tossed back.
“Of course you do, Honey. I’m not trying to strong arm you into sticking around.”
“You just can’t help yourself.” I shut my eyes. “Why would you even want to date me? I mean, do you?”
“I wouldn’t have invited you here if I didn’t want to get to know you better. Obviously, I’m not a hookup kind of guy. And if I was? I wouldn’t do it with my fellow cops’ sister. That’s just asking for strife.”
“I’m not a child,” I snapped.
“I know that. Clearly. Since, uh, what we did proves it, right? I’m just saying there are easier conquests than you.”
“Really? Because I was naked how many hours after that non-interview?”
He stopped pacing and locked his hands behind his neck. “Are you always this difficult?”
“Absolutely. Sometimes I’m even worse. You should be grateful I’m not PMSing right now.”
“I am. Trust me.”
I picked up a pillow and tossed it at him, making Boomer leap off the bed to snatch the pillow and shake it as if it was prey he was duty bound to kill. Christian nimbly snatched it from his mouth and tossed it back on the bed, starting the game all over again. This time, Boomer trampled me in pursuit of his goose-feather prize.
I laughed and rolled with him, tugging at the pillow to play. Christian climbed on the bed to wrestle with us, tossing the covers over Boomer and then me. The dog scampered over us excitedly but somehow never played too rough.
Christian peeled the blanket off my head and framed my cheeks in his hands before he kissed me. Just before he swooped in, those intent gray-blue eyes narrowed on mine and I had a second to think oh, boy before we were tangling in a whole new way. Boomer tried once, twice, three times to nose his way between us, finally letting out a human-sounding sigh and flopping down beside us to rest his wet nose on my bare breast. Christian nudged him back and resumed kissing me without missing a beat.
“I’m not kissing you pre-sex.”
“Okay.”
“I heard you loud and clear before. About the peas. Though I do have some.”
“Well, there’s a relief.” I edged back and traced the curve of his mouth with my blood red fingernail. “They’re handy to have on hand.”
“I usually use the bag for migraines, but this is a more fun use.”
“You think so?” I gave a testing wiggle against him and soon realized the bull might be trying to be respectful, but it wouldn’t take much to make him break his lead. His boxer briefs were seriously thin and just one rub was enough to start my engine again.
I’d witnessed Christian exploding once already. I wouldn’t mind a second time. For science.
“Honey,” he warned.
“Hmm?” I batted my eyelashes. “Did you need something?”
A groan rumbled in his throat and he fisted his hands in my hair, holding me down in a way my nipples did not mind in the slightest. “There’s always other sexual things we can do that don’t involve penetration…there.”
“Is this Cove birth control efforts talking? You know, backdoor is the safest sex to prevent pregnancy—” I clamped my lips shut. “Not that I’m suggesting—nope, dear God, no. That’s best with a certain sized man and it is not you.”
I didn’t expect him to laugh or how it would transform his normally serious expression into one that was almost lively. Almost happy.
Had I done that for him? Had we done that?
I traced his mouth again and this time, he gave the tip of my finger a light nip. “I like seeing you smile. I never have before tonight.”
“Didn’t have much reason to.”
“Are you just constipated naturally or do you have capital letter male baggage that means if I don’t hightail it, I’ll be writing bad song lyrics about you in a month?”
He turned his head to give his woeful dog a kiss on the nose and my heart turned over in my chest.
“Old, old baggage,” he said distantly. “Almost as old as you are.”
“The kind that lives on a hall tree in the coat closet for easy access or in a dusty box in the back of the garage?”
He tilted his head, clearly thinking it over. “Some of it is garage. Some is very much in the coat closet and I keep trying to wedge the door shut.”
I drew my lower lip between my teeth. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“On our first night together? Absolutely not. Especially when you’re already a flight risk—and that’s after I pulled out my A, B, and C games to try to win you over.”
I made a show of peeking under the covers. “If that’s your A, B, and C game, consider me won.”
“I wish,” he said lightly, dropping his forehead to mine before rolling away to land on his back on the mattress.
Boomer decided that meant the game was on once again and climbed on top of Christian, standing at his full height on his owner’s chest and groin while Christian fumbled his phone, groaning and laughing in agony from his dog’s tap dance on his torso.
On cue, his phone went off. I dangled over the side of the bed to grab it from where it peeked out from under the bed. Not a dustball to be found either.
A tidy housekeeper and a sex god? I should go play slots or something.
I snatched the phone, an older model iPhone, and realized not only did I not know the code to unlock it—duh—I wasn’t allowed to. Not because Christian wouldn’t let me answer his phone. I had a weird feeling he wouldn’t mind. But the rest of the world would ask questions and judge us and maybe I wanted it to be just ours for a little while.
“Am I being naive?” I asked him as I passed him his phone. “Thinking we don’t have to make our business public knowledge just yet?”
Rather than answer me, he just answered the call. “Masterson.” A pause. “Hey Chief, what’s up?”
Quickly, I grabbed the sheets and pulled them over my bare breasts as if he could see them. Which he could not, obviously. But he’d almost been my boss.
Until you mauled his officer. Good one, McNeill.
Oh, God, was he calling about my interview? Okay, probably not in the middle of the night on Halloween. He had a family, for Pete’s sake. A little girl and a baby on the way—
“Gina!” I exclaimed then clapped my hand over my mouth and prayed to be beamed up someplace soundproof where I couldn’t blurt out something inappropriate.
Christian started coughing. “Oh, that’s—that was just a friend. I mean, my sister. You know my sister, right? Maddie. Yeah. She wanted to come over for Halloween. Right. Family time.” Christian was turning three different shades of red at one time, and I was torn between hiding my own flaming face and watching his reaction in fascination.
Christian gave Boomer a light shove until his dog sighed and rolled off his father to barrel into me, knocking me over like a bowling pin. I ended up with a face full of black fluff as I sputtered and tried to flail my way free.
“What’s up, Chief? Oh, yeah, you know I’m a light sleeper.”
I wrestled with Boomer and filed that information away for another time. Was light sleeper code for being a known insomniac?
Christian linked his fingers in Boomer’s collar, trying to restrain him while his tone went noticeably cooler. “The interview went fine. Better than fine. Is Gina okay? Oh, really? Contractions already? Yeah, I mean, I know some from Vee, but I’m hardly an expert. Do you want me to text my sister-in-law? She gets up to go into Brewed Awakening soon. Or…oh, Brady.”
My ears perked and I tried to calm the very excitable dog. Good luck there. But even with Boomer jumping on me, I heard Christian’s next words loud and clear.
“Are you serious? Mav and Van eloped tonight.”
