Read Online The Protector of Ambra (Mercenaries of Fortune, #5) by Lyn Brittan - Free Book Online Page B

but he’d just added a knife to a holster around his ankle. He had a gun on either side of his waist now, with a third on a rock between them. “Is that for me?” she asked. “Because I froze last time.”
    His fist pounded a spot on the log next to him while he scooted over. “Sit. Your pacing is driving me nuts.” He laughed as she plopped down with all the petulance of a pouting child. “C’mon, Melody. I’m not looking for you to be James Bond when the guns come out. You kept us safe – me safe – and got us out of that. I trust you.”
    She twisted her finger around tendrils of overgrown weeds. “Didn’t really have a choice.”
    “That’s what I like about you. You act when the situation requires it. I don’t like the angry bits that come after it, but you’re there when it matters. Look, you could have easily stayed at home and licked your wounds. But you didn’t. You’re here.”
    “I didn’t have a choice there either. Without that money, I lose three months’ payment on—”
    He nudged his shoulder against hers. “That’s what I’m saying. You answer the call. I don’t expect you to stop doing that now. There’s a reason I’m not pushing you to stay in the car. You won’t. You can’t. My boss is all about putting people where they fit best...” Pierce grimaced, running his fingers through his hair before relaxing into a soft smile. “For instance, I’m a great doctor. Maybe without my knee injury, who knows where he would have put me. But this is my lot in life.”
    “It’s not a bad life from what I see.”
    “I’m starting to realize that. Maybe I needed this detour as much as you did.”
    “How did you know you wanted to be you? The type of man you are today, I mean. I’m me because of my mother.”
    Pierce’s nostrils flared and he let loose a chest emptying breath. “Same here, in a backwards sort of way. My parents are wealthy. They loved me – love me – but in their way, you know? What you have with your mom, I had with a couple of nannies. It’s not the same. When I was a kid, I was afraid of the dark. Terrified. Father wouldn’t let any of the staff come to help me. He wanted me to be a real man. I cried and screamed night after night.”
    “That’s why you became a doctor. It’s why you’re here with me now. You saw that I needed help and you couldn’t leave me alone.” She shook her head and smiled. “Along the way, you’ve given me whole new definitions of truth and justice.”
    “So I’m not a creepy, picture-taking thief anymore?”
    “Meh.” She waved a flat hand from side to side. Despite the lift to his lips, Pierce’s jaw clenched and his eyes narrowed. He looked like she felt, sandwiched somewhere between resignation and acceptance. She dipped her knee against his. “Between you and me, I’m glad you’re a thieving agent, slash, doctor hero man. Plus, you’re still hot.”
    His laugh was more of a huff of air, but it was so endearing that she leaned in, pressing her lips against his cheek. Pierce twisted until his mouth met hers.
    The old her would have been casting judgments. But the old her hadn’t met a man like him before. Pierce was a walking contradiction, wrapped in the sweetest mix of masculine nerdiness.
    “You’re beautiful, you know.”
    She didn’t feel it, covered in dirt and sweat, and yet, the second he’d said it, she knew it to be true. He thumbed her cheek like a piece of fine porcelain...as if he treasured her every bit as much as his precious antiques.
    Cobalt blue eyes stared back at her so intensely that she almost turned away. His presence transformed her by the second. Her skin prickled as his fingertips ran up her arms. Her nipples hardened when his lips dipped down to her neck.
    Then the mortification set in. With her boulders, the lamest, brownest over-the-head bra was a necessity outside of special occasions. She hadn’t anticipated any such event when she’d hopped on the plane. What was happening