Guarding His Sunshine (Men of Valor Springs #9)

Chapter Two

Howard

In the five years I’ve been a patrol officer, I thought I’d met all manner personalities. The chaos of the road brings out all kinds of madness, but I wouldn’t say there’s been one truly unique experience. Every driver is unique, but nothing is ever surprising enough to get much of a reaction from me.

This is different.

One second, the girl is staring at me with dazed eyes, almost as if she’s had one too many glasses of wine, and the next, she looks stone sober. Her previously flushed cheeks have gone completely pale, and if I hadn’t watched it happen with my own eyes, I never would have believed such a fast change in demeanor to be genuine.

“Ma’am?” I call out, but she doesn’t respond to me. It’s only when I tap her shoulder that her gaze shifts from the screen of her phone back to me, and I am immediately taken aback by the tears in those beautiful eyes. I’ve stopped women before, perhaps more women than men, and there have been some who looked at me with raw fear, occasionally some with desire in their eyes, but none have triggered my protective instincts quite like this one.

And that’s what makes this stop different.

She’s beautiful, stunning even. This girl has the most electric blue eyes I have ever seen, and as I watch them fill up with tears and her cupid bow lips begin to tremble, something in my chest tightens.

It makes no sense!

I don’t let myself be moved by sob stories or tears. I am known as the station grump because of the cool, detached way I approach my job. Everyone calls me cold, but one needs to have balls of steel to deal with half the shit I do on a daily basis. I don’t ever let my emotions get the better of me, so why the fuck do I want to reach in and swipe a finger over the girl’s wet cheeks and wipe away her tears?

For fuck’s sake!

“Ma’am, have you had anything to drink today?” I ask again.

“I don’t drink,” she sniffs, reaching up and swiping the back of her hand over her wet cheeks.

“You just ran a red light, and you’re clearly distressed. Are you sure you aren’t under the influence of anything?”

She nods. “I didn’t even drink coffee this morning,” she says, muttering something about being in a hurry to leave. “I didn’t mean to run the red light. I…I was a little distracted.”

“You could have been hurt, or hurt someone else.”

“I know, and I’m sorry,” she sniffs, and the tears are back.

Fuck, I’m not good at this—dealing with overly emotional people. No, that’s my partner, who is conveniently on sick leave, down with the flu he caught from his wife. Normally Danny deals with the teary law breakers, and I strong arm the big guys who cause trouble. That’s more my style. This—the tears and the red nose—is out of my comfort zone.

Fuck, what would Danny do?

Maybe comfort the woman, ask her why she’s crying before offering his unsolicited advice then ticketing her. The latter is easier for me, the first two involve me chatting her up, and I am not exactly known for being a talkative guy.

I need to get this over with and get back to my cruiser. Pushing back the unbidden thoughts calling me to take care of the girl, I decide to do my job. “Ma’am, I need to see your license and registration.”

“Of course, just a second,” she replies, reaching for her purse and digging through it before finally handing the documents over. I glance at them, taking in the somewhat familiar name, but I can’t place it. Melissa Sullivan? I could have sworn I’ve heard that name before. “Thank you, Ms. Sullivan,” I say, passing them back to her. Technically, I should take her information back to the cruiser and run it, but something about this girl makes it impossible for me to walk away for even a moment.

“Are you going to arrest me?”

Arrest her? Fuck, why is the thought of this girl in handcuffs, lying on the backseat of my cruiser with her legs spread for me the first thing that comes to mind? I can already imagine burying my fat cock into her warm pussy. Fucking her raw and hard in the back of my cruiser.

“No.” I don’t know whether I am responding to her question or my own deluded fantasies. I lean back and assess the girl, taking in her wet cheeks and teary blue eyes, feeling myself be swayed by a beautiful woman like I never have before. “You are lucky no one was hurt. I’ll let you off with a warning this time, but you need to be more careful, ma’am, it’s not just your life at stake on these roads.”

“So, you are not going to arrest me?”

“No, but I need you to keep your eyes off that phone when you are driving. Whatever it is you are looking at can wait.”

“What if it can’t?” she mumbles, but I hear her. Even so, I don’t push her to explain what she’s talking about. “I’ll turn it off, Officer,” she says to me, and I watch as she tosses the phone to the passenger seat. “I’m sorry for causing trouble, I’ll be careful from now on.”

I believe her.

Fuck, I don’t know what it is about this girl, but I believe her.

With a nod, I push back from the car. “Okay, then. Be careful and have a great day.”

I turn around and walk to my cruiser, my heart tugging achingly at the move, and I question what the fuck this girl has done to me. I have never let anyone off with just a warning, but the second she looked up at me with those beautiful teary blue eyes, I forgot for a moment that I was a cop. That my responsibility is to more people than just her.

Goddamnit!

I yank the car door open with perhaps a little too much force, but before I can climb inside, a voice calls out to me. “Wait!”

I look up and spot the girl getting out of her car. She leans back in to grab something, giving me a perfect view of her ass in those snug jeans, and my semi-erect cock hardens to full mast. Fuck, she’s a fine little thing, and those jeans look sinful on her. She straightens, and my eyes drop to the rest of her. Her front looks just as enticing as her back. A white top accentuates her cleavage and the shape of her tits in a way that has my cock aching. I only notice the purse in her hand when she starts walking toward me, and I imagine that’s what she was grabbing.

“Ma’am, is there a problem?” I ask. When she stops in front of me, I have to force myself to focus on her face, not her body.

“I want to go with you.”

Of all the things I expected her to say, that was not one of them. “What?”

“Please let me come with you,” she says again. “Or you can arrest me, I don’t care. Just take me with you.”

This is not the first time I’ve had a woman suggest I “arrest” her, but it’s the first time it’s surprised me. Usually when women ask to be arrested, it’s because they want sex. They have a cop kink or something, want to be handcuffed and fucked, but it’s never occurred to me to entertain their fantasies. If I am reading her correctly, that doesn’t seem the case with this girl.

“I can’t arrest you for no reason.”

“I just ran a red light,” she says, motioning for me to cuff her hands. I simply shrug my hands into my pockets and stare at her, confused as to what the hell is going on here.

“Ma’am—”

“Missy,” she cuts in.

“What?”

“Please, call me Missy. My name is Melissa, but you can call me Missy.”

I sigh, unsure why I am entertaining her in the first place. Her eyes are dry now, and it seems she has gotten past whatever was bothering her. I can now go on with my life without worrying about her. “Alright then, Missy, tell me the truth. Are you chasing some kind of thrill? First the red light, and now this?”

“No.” She shakes her head. “I just… This will sound crazy, but I’ve just realized that I came to Valor Springs without much of a plan. The person I was coming to see hasn’t called me back, and I don’t know what to do now.”

“There is a hotel in town that can accommodate—”

“No,” she cries out, stepping forward and into my space. So close that I catch the soft lavender scent that clings to her hair. “You don’t understand. If he can get into my apartment, he’ll find me in a hotel. I don’t want to be alone. Please take me with you. You’re a cop! Protect and serve, right? I’ll be safe with you.”

It takes me a second to clear my head of her scent and my lust-filled thoughts to actually make sense of what she’s talking about. “Are you running from someone?”

“Yes!”

“Who is he?” I ask through clenched teeth, the thought of this girl fleeing from someone sends a fire burning through my gut, and before I can stop myself, I instinctively step closer to her. Not sure what the fuck that is supposed to do, but everything in me calls to protect this girl. My eyes are already scanning the area to look for anything that stands out, maybe a car parked in the distance watching her. “Is it an ex?”

“No,” she says, and something in her voice forces my gaze back to her, and there it is again, the dazed look in her eyes. She’s staring up at me strangely, and I can’t make sense of what’s going through that pretty head of hers.

“Missy?”

“Huh?” She blinks up at me, her magnetic blues sucking all the air from my lungs. God, she’s so fucking beautiful.

“I asked who you are running from.”

“I don’t know,” she responds before quickly adding, “I mean, I don’t know who he is, but…sometimes, I feel eyes watching me. My manager says that I’m crazy and thinks that I wrote all the notes I found slipped under my door, but I am not crazy!”

“Threatening letters?”

“Not quite,” she says, her eyes dropping to my chest, and I notice her attention waver for a moment. Against my better judgment, I grab her chin and tip it so her eyes are back on mine.

“What did the notes say?”

“Most of them talk about my looks, compliment my body, but not in a lewd manner or anything. I guess that’s why no one takes them seriously. Maybe if my stalker wrote something mean and degrading, then they would believe me.”

“Have you filed a police report?”

“My manager convinced the cops that I was making the whole thing up for attention, but I wasn’t lying. I have more proof now that someone is stalking me.”

“Show me.”

Missy digs into her purse and takes out her phone before shoving the screen in my face with a triumphant expression even as fat tears trickle down her cheeks. Does she even realize she’s crying? I push down the need to reach out and swipe my finger over her beautiful lashes, choosing instead to shift my gaze from her gorgeous eyes to the screen.

“See? I told them I was not crazy, but no one would believe me.”

I stare at the image on display. It’s a picture of Missy taken outside what looks like an apartment building. She’s smiling at something on her phone. It doesn’t seem like she knows someone is taking a picture of her.

“When was this taken?”

“Yesterday,” she says, pushing up and nearly bumping my head with hers as she leans in to point at the screen. The shift has her pressing her tits against my arm and exposing more of her cleavage, and fuck if it doesn’t make my cock throb hard behind my pants. “The picture was taken right outside my apartment. You see how creepy it is, right?”

“Is this the only one?”

“I wish,” she sniffs, scrolling, and this time it’s a different image. The picture was taken at a gas station, and from her clothes I can tell it was taken today. Less than an hour ago, judging from the location. This gas station is only a few miles outside of Valor Springs. “He followed me out of the city, took my picture, and then sent it to me along with a message saying he can find me no matter where I go. I don’t even know how he got my number!”

My eyes harden as I scroll through all the pictures sent to her phone from the first one to the very last. They are all taken at different locations, but from her clothing, I count eight different days. Whoever is taking these pictures is clearly obsessed with this girl, and I am surprised it’s gone on this long without the man making a move…or has he?

My eyes shoot from the screen to the girl staring up at me with a hopeful look in her gaze. “You believe me, don’t you? My manager thinks I’m crazy, but that’s proof, right?”

Manager ? Is she some kind of a celebrity? “Someone has been following you alright,” I tell her; they probably have her car bugged, and that’s how they always seem to know where to find her. “Are you sure no one from your…company hired this man to follow you around?”

She shakes her head. “I don’t know. I don’t think so…”

“And you are saying you haven’t filed a complaint?

“My manager wouldn’t let me file one.” She shoves the phone against my chest and looks up at me, her innocent eyes tugging the strings in my heart like no one has ever managed to. “Do you see now? You see why I can’t stay alone? I won’t be able to get a moment of rest if I stay at a hotel.”

“And the friend you were coming to see—”

“He can no longer help me. I was going to meet up with him for advice, but I can’t do that now. I risk exposing him and his girlfriend to the stalker too. I didn’t think he’d follow me out of the city!”

“Alright. This is what we’re going to do. I’ll accompany you to file a police report, and then later to the local hotel. We’ll have someone guard your door all night—”

“Can I just go home with you?”

I didn’t think the girl could surprise me any further, and yet, here we are. “You don’t know me.” That I don’t immediately turn her down surprises me.

“You are right, I don’t know you,” she says, chewing on her bottom lip before releasing it. “But I feel safe around you, and it’s not just because you are a cop. You are the only one who hasn’t dismissed my concerns or made me feel helpless. I know I’ll be safe with you, so please let me stay with you. Just for a little while. Please, Officer...”

It’s insane, but I realize in that moment that saying no to this girl is not an option. When I noticed the traffic violation, a part of me thought it would be a routine stop. The driver would either be apologetic or an entitled jerk, but I thought it would end with a ticket before going about my day. My shift is almost over anyway, and it’s not like I have any real plans for this evening. I figured I would grab a pack of beer and drink one or two on my couch while some inane show played in the background.

Taking my little offender home with me was never in the cards, and yet, that is exactly what is going to happen. I’m taking this girl home with me, and I will protect her. It’s what I am good at. It’s what I have trained for. Nine years in the military, five years of dealing with the worst of the population, and all of it for this moment.

“Get in the car. And it’s Howard. You can call me Howard.”

She lights up like a damn Christmas tree, blinking up at me hopefully. “Are you serious? I can go with you?”

“Yes.”

“What about my car and the stuff in the back?”

“Right. You can follow me back to the station and park it there.” And leave it parked at the station in case it’s bugged.

“And you won’t leave me at the station or under the care of someone else once I’ve filed the police report?”

“No.”

She’s my problem now. I made her my problem when I stopped her earlier. If her stalker is watching and sees her leave with me, it’s bound to infuriate him. He’ll make a move, and next time he does, it’s me he will have to deal with.