Page 8 of Savage Protector

The clock was ticking against me.

With that increasing desperation driving me to do something, movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I turned and that's when I saw him. A stranger sitting alone on a bench with a lit cigarette dangling from his lips.

I moved to avert my eyes when his gaze caught mine and held it. Well, I froze, he didn’t move. I couldn’t look away from eyes so blue they almost glowed. In the darkened grey day on a quiet Seattle pier, those eyes stood out like beacons calling my damn name. The rest of him wasn’t half bad either. Short brown hair cropped close to his head, and enough stubble on his face to indicate more than a few days had passed since he shaved. And he wasn’t so much sitting on the bench as he was sprawled on it with his legs kicked out in front of him. Worn denim hugged long, thick legs, making it impossible not to notice the muscle that lay underneath.

The rest of him looked pretty big too from what I could tell. Despite the black leather jacket covering his torso, I still saw the dark T-shirt he wore conformed to a broad chest and likely tight abs underneath. Heavy combat boots completed the look and made me groan. He might as well have hung a blinking neon sign around his neck that said, ‘Bad boy. Come and get it.’

Getting it would normally be a bad idea. But in this case… That new plan I’d been looking for crystallized in my brain. He was the perfect solution in every way.

A place to hide.

A way to take my mind off my craptastic life.

And the easy way out I needed.

Except he was still staring at me and the longer he did the more it unnerved me. His facial expression didn’t change and if not for the end of the cigarette lighting up when he took a drag, I might have believed he was a figment of my imagination.

It was then I realized what I was probably staring at. He wasn’t just some guy. He was the real deal. Some kind of powerful badass clear to the bone. Guys who wanted to be like him came by the dozen with no hope of ever actually being him. None of them would still be holding my gaze hostage.

Something inside me jumped. A feeling I hardly remembered. Something darkly sexual weaving its way through my blood.

Of course, standing here dressed in a wedding gown I couldn’t be further from his type if I tried. He didn’t know that I’d been forced to wear this dress. Or that the man I’d been about to wed would be more than happy to hurt me if I dared to defy him. That had been my cross to bear because of the family I was born to and today I refused my duty and ran.

He definitely wouldn’t want me if he knew the truth. No one my father didn’t preapprove did. Not unless they had a death wish.

My new mystery man pulled the cigarette from his mouth and held it in my direction. “You look like you could use one of these.” The low vibration of his voice shook my insides and headed straight between my thighs. I even swayed a little.

Finally able to break his gaze, I looked down before returning to meet his eyes. “That and a fifth of tequila and everything would be right with the world once again.”

I took the offered cigarette and took a slow shallow drag. It had been a long time since I’d tried one of these and erupting into a coughing fit in front of Mr. Sex on a Stick wasn’t about to lead me down the forbidden path.

A slow smile crossed his face, transforming him. A badass with a lethal grin. Oh shit.

I took a few steps back.

“I might be able to help with that.”

My breathing hitched. “Oh yeah?”

“First you gotta tell me something.”

My heart sunk. If he asked for anything remotely personal I’d be forced to walk away and find a new way to escape. Did everything have to be so freaking hard?

He motioned his hand at my dress. “Did you go through with it?”

I shook my head, too choked up to respond. Relief swept through me, as did the sadness of my situation.

As the interesting stranger stood and walked toward me, I almost swallowed my tongue. He looked good slouched on the bench, but now, faced with the full force of his height and the intensity of his gaze, my legs actually wobbled a little.

When he stopped in front of me I was forced to tilt my head back to look at him. My five-foot height was dwarfed by his six-foot plus frame and it felt good—damn good.

“Hotel right there has a decent bar. How bout I buy you a drink?” He was pointing to an older hotel next to the nearby market, but all I could focus on was the faint scent of warm man and musky cologne, filling my head as he talked.

I think we both knew he was asking for more than a drink.

“Okay.” To my surprise, my voice softened when I answered. I’m pretty sure I had no business reacting to him the way I did, but there it was. My body had a mind of its own and it was standing at attention. I was also desperate.

But I’d never hooked up with a stranger before.

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