Chapter 4
four
. . .
Gray
My mind won't shut down. Haven't slept more than an hour at a stretch since bringing Beck to the cabin last night.
Not with her soft body curled against mine in my bed, her scent filling my lungs with every breath.
I've spent the night alternating between watching her sleep and checking the security system I had installed when I first bought this place.
Motion sensors in the trees. Cameras at strategic points.
Some might call it paranoid. I call it necessary, especially now that I have something—someone—worth protecting.
I've spent the morning on my encrypted laptop, pulling strings with old contacts, verifying what I already knew.
The clerical error is real. Beck Maria Monroe is innocent.
And it'll take at least another two weeks to clear her name through official channels.
Two weeks I can keep her here. Safe. Mine.
I watch her now through the window, sitting on the porch steps with a mug of coffee between her palms. She's wearing my flannel shirt over her now-clean dress from the diner.
The shirt swallows her, the sleeves rolled up multiple times to free her delicate hands.
Something primal surges in my chest at the sight of her in my clothes.
She tried to leave this morning. Stood at the open door, freedom just steps away. But she turned back. Came back to me. To safety. To what her body already knows it needs.
I should tell her everything. That I've already started the process to clear her name. That I know exactly who filed the original paperwork with the mistake. That I've been monitoring the other bounty hunters who took the job.
But if I tell her, she might leave once it's fixed.
And I can't let that happen.
I step outside, and she tenses before looking up. Her cheeks flush pink when our eyes meet. Good. She's remembering the shower. Remembering how she begged. How she called me Daddy.
"You've been cooped up," I say, moving to sit beside her on the steps. "Thought you might like to get out. See the mountains properly."
Suspicion flashes across her face. "You'd let me off the property?"
"With me." I rest my hand on her knee, feeling her warmth through the thin fabric of her dress. "There's a trail that starts at the back of the clearing. Good views."
She considers this, lower lip caught between her teeth. That fucking lip. Makes me want to bite it myself.
"Okay," she says finally.
Twenty minutes later, we're on the trail, climbing through pine and hardwood forest. Beck moves cautiously ahead of me, giving me a perfect view of her ass swaying in that dress. My flannel shirt is tied around her waist now, the day warming as the sun climbs higher.
"It's beautiful up here," she says, pausing to look at the valley spreading out below us through a break in the trees. "So quiet."
"That's why I bought the place," I tell her, stepping closer until my chest nearly touches her back. "No neighbors. No prying eyes."
She shivers despite the warm day. "Just you and your surveillance equipment."
Smart girl. She noticed the cameras.
"Protection," I correct, my hand settling on her hip. "For both of us now."
She doesn't pull away from my touch. Progress.
We continue up the trail, climbing higher along the ridgeline. Beck's breathing grows heavier, and I slow my pace to match hers. Not used to the altitude. Something else I'll have to help her adjust to.
The trail widens into a small clearing with a view that stretches for miles—rolling blue mountains fading into mist on the horizon. Beck gasps, moving to the edge to take it all in.
"Worth the hike?" I ask, enjoying the wonder on her face.
"Definitely." She smiles—the first genuine smile I've seen from her—and something twists in my chest.
Mine to protect. Mine to keep smiling.
A sound on the trail behind us. Footsteps. My body tenses instantly, hand moving to the knife concealed at my belt.
A man rounds the bend—mid-thirties, athletic build, hiking gear. Harmless enough, but the way his eyes immediately lock onto Beck sets my teeth on edge.
"Beautiful day," he calls, approaching too fucking close.
Beck, sweet and polite, smiles back. "It is."
His eyes roam over her—her face, her curves barely concealed by the thin dress, her legs pale and exposed to mid-thigh. He's undressing her with his eyes. Imagining her. Wanting what's mine.
Red bleeds into the edges of my vision.
I step forward, placing myself between them. "Trail narrows ahead," I growl. "Barely room for one."
The warning in my voice is clear. The hiker's eyes flick to me, then back to Beck, then register my size, my stance, the threat in my eyes.
"Just passing through," he says, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. But his eyes drift to Beck once more over my shoulder. "Enjoy the view."
My hand twitches toward my knife. One quick movement. No one would find the body for days.
Beck's small hand touches my arm, and I freeze. "Thank you," she says to the hiker. "You too."
The man nods and continues past us, giving me a wide berth. Smart. I track his movement until he disappears around the bend, my body still humming with the urge to hunt him down for daring to look at what's mine.
"Gray?" Beck's voice, hesitant. "You're scaring me a little."
I turn to her, struggling to bank the feral rage. "He looked at you."
Her eyes widen. "He was just being friendly."
"He was imagining you naked." My voice is a low rumble, dangerous. "Thinking about touching you."
"You don't know that—"
"I know exactly what men think when they look at you." I step closer, backing her toward a large boulder at the edge of the clearing. "Because I think it too. Difference is, you're mine."
Her back hits the rock, and I cage her in with my arms. "Gray..."
"No one looks at my little girl," I growl, pressing my hardening cock against her stomach so she can feel what her innocence does to me. "No one but me."
I claim her mouth in a bruising kiss, swallowing her gasp. My hands find the hem of her dress, yanking it up around her waist. She whimpers against my lips but doesn't fight me, her body already responding to my dominance.
"Right here?" she whispers when I release her mouth to trail bites down her neck. "Someone could see—"
"Let them." I hook my fingers in her panties and tear them off in one motion. "Let them see you're claimed." Fuck, I want him to hear. Want him to know he has no chance in hell with my angel.
I spin her around, facing the rock, and kick her legs apart with my boot. She braces herself against the boulder, breathing hard. I free my cock, already aching and rigid, and run the head through her folds from behind.
"Already wet," I growl in approval. "Such a good girl for Daddy."
She moans at the name, her hips pushing back against me. I grip her hip with one hand, guiding my cock to her entrance with the other. I’m damn near crazed with lust and jealousy right now. My hands are shaking. With the need to claim, to fuck her.
"Now spread those thighs," I command, pressing into her inch by inch. "Daddy's breeding you deep, making sure you're mine forever."
"Oh God," she gasps as I fill her completely, her inner walls gripping me like a vise. "Gray—Daddy—someone could come by—"
"Then they'll see who you belong to." I start thrusting, hard and deep, one hand reaching around to find her clit. "See me filling this sweet pussy with my seed. See me breeding what's mine."
The dirty talk pushes her higher—I can feel it in the way she clenches around me, the way her breath hitches. She's learning what she likes. Learning how much she needs the filth I whisper in her ear.
"You like that, don't you?" I growl, fingers circling her clit as I pound into her from behind. "Like the idea of someone seeing you take Daddy's cock. Seeing you bred like a good little girl."
"Yes," she admits on a sob, shame and arousal mixing in her voice. "Yes, Daddy."
I lose what little control I have left, fucking into her with animal force, the slap of skin against skin echoing in the clearing. My free hand tangles in her hair, pulling her head back so I can growl directly into her ear.
"Mine," I snarl with each thrust. "No one else sees this body. No one else touches you. No one else breeds this perfect pussy."
Her orgasm catches her by surprise—I feel it ripple through her, her walls clamping down on my cock as she cries out.
The sound echoes across the valley, a primal claim of its own.
I follow her over the edge, emptying myself deep inside her with a roar, holding her hips flush against mine to ensure not a drop escapes.
As we catch our breath, I keep her pinned against the boulder, my cock still buried inside her. I run my hands possessively over her curves, savoring the way she trembles in the aftermath.
"Think that hiker heard you?" I murmur against her ear, enjoying the way she flushes with embarrassment.
Her cheeks flush. “You're awful," she whispers, but there's no heat in it.
I turn her in my arms, fixing her dress before tucking myself away. Her eyes are dazed, pupils blown wide with lingering pleasure. I brush hair from her flushed face, something dangerously close to tenderness unfurling in my chest.