Renegade Guardian
With two infants already missing, single mum Maya Ellison is worried her son could be next.So when US Marshal Slade Becker guarantees their protection, Maya and her son are sequestered on his ranch.Close quarters fuels the attraction between Maya and Slade, but with a kidnapper still on the loose Maya can’t risk anything, not even her heart, until her son is safe.
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âI donât want you to think Iâm trying to get close to you,â she clarified.
But no clarification was needed. That wasnât the grip of a woman planning to seduce a man to get him to back off. Or even to soften him up. Her touch was tentative, but the tentativeness didnât make it to her eyes.
She inched even closer. âAnd this has nothing to do with you being a bad boy.â
âGood thing. Because I lost my bad-boy status years ago.â Yeah, it was a poor attempt to lighten things up, but since she looked ready to shatter into a thousand little pieces, he thought she could use the levity.
It worked.
The corner of her mouth lifted just a fraction. âI donât think itâs a status you can lose. It comes with the looks and the attitude.â
He was in trouble here. Yeah, she might not be trying to seduce him, but she was doing it anyway.
Maybe she was right. Once bad, always bad. That was the only explanation Slade could come up with as to why he lowered his head and brushed his mouth over hers.
Imagine a family tree that includes Texas cowboys, Choctaw and Cherokee Indians, a Louisiana pirate and a Scottish rebel who battled side by side with William Wallace. With ancestors like that, itâs easy to understand why USA TODAY bestselling author and former air force captain DELORES FOSSEN feels as if she were genetically predisposed to writing romances. Along the way to fulfilling her DNA destiny, Delores married an air force top gun who just happens to be of Viking descent. With all those romantic bases covered, she doesnât have to look too far for inspiration.
Contents
Chapter One
Maya Ellison spotted the man the moment she stepped out of the grocery store.
He would have been darn hard to miss, especially since he was leaning against her car. Except he wasnât just leaning. It was more as if he was lounging while he took in the scenery. Arms folded over his chest. Jeans-clad legs, outstretched and crossed at the ankles.
Waiting.
Maya had no idea who he was. Or what he wanted. But he appeared to be waiting for her.
She walked closer, her steps slow and cautious while she kept her attention nailed to him. Even with the lounging pose, she could tell he was well over six feet tall. Solid build. Dark brown hair that fell slightly long against his neck. Even though he was wearing a black Stetson, the cool October breeze had rifled through what she could see of his hair and had left it rumpled.
He reminded her of an Old West outlaw. And that was the reason she tightened her grip on the infant carrier that held her son, Evan.
The man lifted his head, snagging her gaze, but he said nothing as he pushed himself away from her car. The simple gesture nearly caused her to turn and run back into the store, but Maya reminded herself she was on Main Street, in broad daylight, no less. Plus, this was Spring Hill, a sleepy Texas town that was as close to crime-free as a town could get.
Bad things donât happen in Spring Hill.
It was the reason sheâd moved here. A safe haven to raise her child. She hoped she hadnât been wrong about that.
âMay I help you?â Maya asked, and silently cursed the polite tone. She added a glare for his leaning on her car.
âIâm Slade Becker,â he said, not answering her question. He reached into the pocket of his black jacket and pulled something out. Before Maya could react to the possibility that it might be a gun, he produced a wallet and held it up for her to see.
Not a wallet.
A badge.
She eased a few steps closer so she could get a better look at him and that star shield. It wasnât a copâs badge, but now that she had a better look at him, his steel-blue eyes seemed as if they did indeed belong to a cop. He didnât just look at her. He studied her from the top of her head to her sensible leather walking shoes. Then that gaze went to the carrier.
To Evan.
Because of the way she was holding the carrier and the single plastic bag of groceries, the man could likely only see the top of Evanâs head, which was covered by a blue knit cap. Still, even that seemed intrusive, so she turned, hoping that would shift his gaze off Evan and back to her.
It didnât.
Maya decided to do something about that. She gave the carrier another adjustment so that it was as far behind her as she could position it. The shift caused her arm to ache, and she wouldnât be able to stand there long. Not that she intended to do that anyway.
âYouâre a U.S. marshal,â she said, making sure she sounded impatient, which she was. Even though it was a beautiful autumn day, she suddenly wanted nothing more than to get home.
And away from this lawman with the haunting blue eyes.
There was something downright unsettling about him, and it didnât have anything to do with the car-leaning or memorable eye color. Maybe it was his looks. Edgy, along with being drop-dead gorgeous. He was the kind of man she usually avoided but found herself attracted to anyway.
