Page 10 of Protected By the Mountain Man

Billy coos back, eyes crinkling up at the corners in happiness.

I can’t help it.

I don’t evenwantto help it.

I let another huge grin charge across my face, so big that I feel my eyes creasing at their corners. It’s an unfamiliar sensation, but not an unwanted one.

Sweeping my gaze around the room, I see Graham shaking his head in bemusement and his sister peering at me with more curiosity than she’s yet shown, as if I’ve revealed something she didn’t expect.

I wonder what it is.

I wonder what she thinks of it.

I try not to hope too hard that she’s impressed with it.

Yeah, the kid’s adorable and she’s so damn beautiful, but I shouldn’t get attached. I’m not a stand-in for a husband or a father. I’m a bodyguard until I don’t need to be. And once we reach that point, there’s a good chance I’ll never see Mariah or Billy again.

“Let me show you the space I’ve set up for you,” I say gruffly, trying and failing to hold off the sudden sadness washing over me. “It’s a studio apartment, so there aren’t any separate rooms, but I’ve done the best I can to give you both the privacy you need.”

“I’m sure it’ll be wonderful,” Mariah says as if she’s surprised by her own words.

But I don’t have time to think about what that means, if anything. I’m too busy feeling sorry for myself because there’s no way in hell that a woman like her — young, beautiful, badass — could ever want a washed-up, backwater, aging man like me.

There’s no way in hell that I have a future with Mariah. I’ve been a fool to even let myself dream of such a possibility.

I just wish it didn’t hurt so much to stop myself from hoping that she might find something about my flaws to love.

Because I might be a fool, but I’m not stupid. I know there’s nothing here to love. Nothing for a bright young thing like her.

Mariah

Idisappear behind the crisp, clean sheet that Ace used to section off a private area in the studio apartment for me and Billy. Strangely breathless, I sink onto the mattress that’s stacked high with thick blankets and inviting pillows and try to calm my racing heart.

Why am I feeling…whateverthisis? I can’t even find words to describe it.

It’s not just my heart that’s galloping. My hands are shaking and my breath is coming too fast, hitching when I think of the big burly man somewhere on the other side of the curtain.

The man that Billy and I are alone with now that Graham’s left.

It’s not fear that I’m feeling, which would make sense. To find myself and my child dropped with a strange man, basically defenseless, should at least give me reason to worry, especially with my history.

But for some reason, I’m not worried. Not even a little. Maybe for the first time since I found myself pregnant with Ryan’s child.

Which is crazy.

I have every reason to distrust not just Ace, but every strange man I cross paths with. Ryan has given me more than enough of those reasons.

But I’m not scared of Ace.

I’m scared of how I’m feelingbecauseof Ace.

I think.

In an attempt to distract myself from my own confusion, I turn my attention to Billy, who’s wiggling in my arms. I check his diaper, verifying what I assumed to be true.

“You want a change, buddy?” I ask my son. He smiles wide and kicks his little feet all the harder.

I don’t miss that Ace’s rustling on the other side of the curtain stops when I speak, as if he’s as captivated by my sing-song voice as Billy is.

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