Protecting Pippa Read online

  What was his style? Pippa wondered. Whatever it is, I’m sure I’d like it. His voice was doing funny things to her insides. Listening to him is so nice I’d enjoy hearing him read the side of a cereal box.

  She moved back away when a large man nearly stepped on her foot, and then the gladiator was gone, heading to the dance floor with one of the women to dance.

  I’m just not having good luck, Pippa thought. She headed to the bar for a third hurricane. I have to get better at this. Courage. I can do this. I will just go up to him and say… Her thoughts froze. The bar tender handed her a refreshed drink and she took a sip. I know what I will do. I will ask him to dance. Since he’s dancing now, he obviously dances. I just have to get back over there before he dances with someone else all-night. How do men do this? The asking. It is much harder than I thought it is.

  She made her way back over to where he was dancing and hovered by a potted palm. The moment he had finished and the two moved apart, she went up to him and said, “Hello. Would you like to dance with me?”

  Chapter Two

  Now that’s what I like, Diesel thought as he looked down at the brown haired woman in the woodland fairy costume, the glitter in her hair and across her shoulders and down her cleavage along with her question made him want smile. A woman who knows what she wants and asks for it. Direct and to the point. “I would be honored to dance with so fair a woodland fae,” he said and held his hand out, noting that if she moved closer and they danced he would see much more of the glitter spilling down inside her dress. Diesel was six foot two and this delightful creature couldn’t have been more than five foot five. Yes. He had a very good view as she moved closer to him and placed her soft hand in his.

  He pulled her close and they moved to the music. “May I have your name?” he asked.

  “I am the fairy of the green wood,” she said. “I am a woodland fairy and I love nothing better than wood.”

  There were so many things I might say in response. Did she know the direction this conversation might take? She said wood, not the woods. Testing her, he said, “Tell me more. About how you love… wood.”

  “I love wood so much I can’t help but touch it,” she said. “It’s hard to keep my hands off of it.”

  Instantly he was hard and wishing she would touch him. He was harder than he’d been in a long time. The little minx. How far would she take this?

  “Interesting,” he said. “What do you do, when you touch it?”

  “Well, I run my hand up and down it,” she said. “I like to feel how hard it is, how strong and durable.”

  He pulled her close enough she could feel how hard he was beneath his gladiator costume.

  “Mm,” she said. “I think you are hiding some wood from me that wants to be touched.”

  “Not hiding this wood,” he bent and whispered in her ear. “Something needs to be done. If I step away, I won’t be hiding it from anyone.”

  “Then, do not step away,” she smiled. “Dance me out of this room and into another.”

  “As you command, fae enchantress.”

  He moved them through the main room and into the hallway. Then, away from the others, he tipped her chin up and said, in a low voice. “Tell me what you want.”

  “I want your wood,” she said. “I want to wrap my hand around it and then guide it inside of me.”

  Her words were the sexiest he had ever heard in his life. Truly she was an enchantress and he was about to have great sex here tonight.

  “You have but to ask,” he said. “My wood is yours to command.”

  Giggling, a sound, which made her seem more adorable than seductress, made him laugh out loud. Then taking him by the hand, she led him down the hall. “I do not know this house or where to go,” she said, and for the first time her voice sounded less than confident.

  “Allow me,” he said, and he pushed on one door, which was locked. “Come,” he said. “We will find a place.” The third door he tried was unlocked and the room was empty. He pulled her inside and then quickly closed and locked the door.

  She looked up at him with wide hazel eyes beneath the mask and he thought for the first time that perhaps she was over her head. The uncertainty was there. And he did not do uncertainty when it came to women and sex. “Let’s establish something here, before we return to the fantasy and play time,” he said. “You want to have sex, yes?”

  “Yes,” she breathed the word out as if she were relieved.

  Okay, so she is playing her fantasy right now, but she’s appearing as if she’s never done this before.

  “I have protection,” she said and reached for her bag. He watched as she pulled a condom out. Not his brand, but he would use hers and let her take control. It seemed important to her.

  “Would you like to put it on?” he asked.

  “Yes.” She nodded.

  This is the most adorable creature I have ever encountered, he thought. The mix of assertive seductress and shy and uncertain woman is fascinating. He watched her eyes and the myriad emotions he’d seen in them since she had said hello enchanted him more than any woman he had ever seen.

  He reached for his costume and pulled it aside, so that his manhood sprang out at attention. If she weren’t clear how much he wanted her before, she would be now.

  Her eyes widened.

  “See what you have done to me?” he asked, watching her eyes.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Do you want this?” He knew the answer, could see it in her eyes, but he would ask anyway.

  “Very much,” she nodded and licked her lips as if she wanted to taste him. If those pick lips closed around him now, he wasn’t sure how long he would last.

  She tore the package open with her teeth and then took the condom out. At once he knew she didn’t know how to put it on him. She’d bit her lip and hesitated before dropping to her knees. She reached out to touch him and he nearly groaned.

  When she looked up at him, he asked, “Do you want me to put it on?”

  “Yes,” she said quietly and handed it to him. He had the condom rolled onto him in seconds, with practiced moves. He took her by the hand and pulled her to standing again and then he pulled her fairy costume down until her breasts sprung free, glitter spilling out everywhere.

  He laughed. “Magic fairy dust.” His fingers reached for her nipples, touching the taught tips on the rosy peaks. Playing with them, but also rubbing the glitter off so he could kiss them, he watched her eyes and her breathing as it changed. “I believe you might come just with me playing with your nipples,” he said.

  “I believe so too.”

  Her breath was changing as were her eyes, the hazel changing to more of a green as the color deepened.

  He played until she was gasping and then he backed her toward the bed, still playing with her nipples. Stopping with her legs against the back of the bed, he bent down taking one nipple into his mouth and then the other. Then he let her go and reached up under her fairy dress, finding nothing but a thong beneath it. Quickly he found her folds and how wet she was. “Lay down,” he said.

  She lay back on the bed and he moved the thong down over her hips and then down he legs and off onto the floor. She spread her legs and he bent down and licked her once. She moaned and he licked her again. She started to wiggle and he held he hips down and licked and laved her harder until she was wetter and then the pulsing of her orgasm came and she soaked his fingers and his lips. He continued to stroke her with his fingers as he asked, “More?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I want you inside of me. Deep inside.”

  He entered her and stroked in and out slow.

  Dancing close, touching his warm bare skin and inhaling his scent had nearly done her in. When he spoke and his voice reached something deep inside of her, she was a goner. That combined with the gentle but intense passion of his lovemaking was beyond anything she could have imagined. If there were magic in the world, this was it. He was taking her beyond anywhere she had gone bef
ore and she gave herself up to it. One orgasm after another hit her. First when he had played with her nipples, then when he had gone down on her and finally now that he was stroking her past the point of her being able to think of words or make sentences. Her gaze went off into that magic place and her eyes rolled back in her head and then they both crashed together, the meeting of both of them hitting their peak.

  She hadn’t known that was even possible. She knew how rare that must be.

  Then they were spent.

  She didn’t know what to say. This was beyond what she’d expected. This was deeper. Not such a quickie. It was almost, sacred.

  His hand reached for her mask just before he bent to kiss her.

  She stopped his hand with hers. “We won’t unmask,” she said. “I want to remember us, just like this.”

  “All right,” he said. “May I have your name now?”

  “Woodland fairy,” her voice was firmer now. “And you are my gladiator.”

  He pulled away and clasped his fist to his chest. “I am your gladiator.”

  “Thank you for this,” she said. “My fantasy come true.”

  “No, my enchantress,” he replied. “Thank you.”

  They exchanged smiles and then he removed the condom and dropped it into the trashcan. She sat up and adjusted her fairy costume. He handed her the thong.

  “I think I will go without,” she said.

  The thought of her naked beneath that short skirt made him grown. “Careful or you’ll have more wood on your hands.”

  “They aren’t very comfortable.”

  “Then don’t wear them. Be comfortable. But also be safe.” He held out his hand. “Will you let me give you ride home, to make sure you arrive safely?”

  She shook her head. “I came with a co-worker and will ride home with her.”

  “I’ll escort you back to the party then.”

  Her hand was already on the door. “I’m good. No need to.”

  He watched her go, thinking; there is every need to. Protective was his nature. But he was good at surveillance. He’d be watching until the women were safely in their care heading home. She would never know.

  Diesel wished he’d gotten the mystery woman’s number before he had to ship out. Two days later, he had his duffel packed and was on his way still wishing he knew how to contact her. Her couldn’t get her out of his head.

  There was just something about her.

  I’ll look for her when I get back. For now I have to focus on the mission.

  ****

  “Maybe I should have given him my number,” Pippa said.

  “I think you did it just right. Had a night of great sex with a hot guy and no strings or complications because he has no idea who you are.”

  “He seemed very nice and I don’t mean just the hard body and great sex.”

  “Just focus on that hard body and the great sex and let the rest go.”

  “I mean he just seemed like the kind of guy you could introduce to your parents and might want to marry. I really liked him.”

  “You don’t need the complications right now. Not when you’re trying to finish school. Having a man in your life just means having a guy who wants your attention. And then when something goes wrong, and it always does, you have the heartbreak and drama of a break up to deal with. Do you even have time for that?”

  “Not really. You’re right. And my track record with men isn’t good. Getting to know him better might have ruined everything. No guy is that perfect.”

  “Exactly. You needed to have sex with someone, you did that and now you can move on. Think of it as a great night and a great memory and leave it there. No second guessing.”

  “Yeah, you’re right I guess.”

  ****

  Pippa’s cousin Louise called her at work and left a message for her to call back. Far from being a normal call, Louise would only have called if someone had died or something very big had happened. So as Pippa called her back, she held her breath.

  “Hey Louise. What’s happened.”

  “This time it’s good news, Pippa. You won’t have to worry about Stan any more. He’s been sent to prison. Felonious assault. He beat up a guy in a bar and that was bad enough. But then he went back and beat him some more. The guy was hurt real bad and they had to call an ambulance. Stan claimed it wasn’t his fault and the other guy did this and did that, but everything was caught on the bars security cameras.”

  Pippa breathed a sigh of relief. “He can’t find me now and show up on my doorstep to hurt me. Not while he’s in prison. I’m safe!”

  She felt like dancing and spinning around the room.

  “Yes you are,” Louise said. “Does this mean you will come home now?”

  “I am home,” Pippa said. “I just started taking a couple college classes.”

  “Oh. So you’re staying.”

  “Yes.” Pippa didn’t say that she never wanted to move back to her home town, but she surely felt that way. Now that she’d escaped a horrible marriage, a depressing house, and a town, which lost more jobs every year, she never wanted to go back. There was no future there. Only the past.

  “Well, all right, if that’s what you want,” Louise said. “I just want you to be happy.”

  “Oh I am happy,” Pippa said. “Happier than I’ve been in a very long time.”

  ****

  That happiness lasted exactly one and a half months when it became clear that Pippa was pregnant. There could be only one father. A man with the body of a gladiator, a voice which reached deep inside of Pippa, and a face she had never fully seen. A man whose name she did not even know.

  “But we used a condom,” she told her doctor. “How did this happen?”

  “Condoms are not one hundred percent protection. There is a small percent of error.”

  “Great.”

  “Do you want this child?”

  “Yes.”

  “All right then. We need to get you on some good prenatal vitamins and schedule your next visit.”

  Pippa couldn’t believe it. She was going to be a mother. A single mom. This wasn’t how she’d thought her life would turn out. When she’d set out for the Halloween party, planning to have a memorable evening she would look back on for the rest of her life, she hadn’t planned this. She was having trouble wrapping her mind around it.

  The next day at work she told Cheryl and watched her jaw drop.

  “Girl, you have the worst luck,” Cheryl said.

  “I’m trying not to think of it that way,” Pippa said. “This baby, though not planned, will be loved just as much as any other baby.

  Apparently one percent of the female population the pill did not work. Lucky her, to fall into that one percent. She’d thought about looking for the handsome gladiator but how would she find him? She didn’t even know where to look.

  Chapter Three

  Two years had passed since Diesel had made love to the beautiful fairy princess with no name. He’d often dreamed of her, but the SEAL missions he was sent on kept him busy deployed to the middle east, and one year had slid into two, until he’d thought of her less and less. She was now just a fond memory and a good dream when she showed up in his dreamtime.

  This week he was back in town on base and his father was visiting. It was great seeing his dad and showing him around, introducing him to the guys. His father wasn’t getting any younger, and the pride in his eyes said everything to Diesel.

  Ben Tayler was enjoying the visit with his son but it would soon be at an end.

  His son had been called in for a meeting and would be shipping out soon. Since they couldn’t have lunch together today decided to pick up lunch somewhere and take it to the park to enjoy the great weather. Too soon he’d have to go back home where the weather wasn’t as nice. Sitting on a park bench, he watched as a little boy about two years of age played in the park.

  Something about the boy drew his eye.

  As he got closer he blinked twice to clear his eye
s. Dark wavy hair and brown eyes, along with a voice that sounded just like Tanner’s had when he was two, gave Ben Tanner a sense of déjà vu.

  The boy resembled Tanner so much it was uncanny.

  As he spoke, the boys voice took Ben back twenty-six years. He had to be Tanner’s.

  The mother wore no ring. Was she a single mom? Had she dated Tanner? He had to find out. He didn’t want to alarm the woman or make her think he was some kind of creep trying to get close to her for nefarious purposes. How could he ask the questions pressing on him that he wanted to ask?

  He watched mother and child walk to the parking lot holding hands and stood up, gathering his half eaten sandwich and wrapper. Following them, he dropped the sandwich in the trashcan on the way. They moved toward an older model blue Chevy Nova with one red quarter panel. It had obviously been in an accident. He hoped neither of them had been hurt.

  She opened the car door and put the boy into his car seat. Then she buckled him in and closed the door. Getting into the drivers seat she closed the door and turned the car ignition over.

  Her car wouldn’t start.

  A grin crossed his face. Good thing I’m a mechanic, he thought. I can fix this and maybe learn more about her and the boy.

  Soon she and her boy were on their way and Ben had the information he’d wanted. She was a college student and a single mom. The boy was two. And his name, was Ben.

  The irony was unbelievable to Ben Taylor.

  This boy had to be Tanners. And it was time he had a talk with his son.

  **** Full of boundless energy and the smile and face of a Gerber baby, Paige often lifted Ben into the air and looking into his eyes said, “You’re a handsome boy, just like your daddy.”

  If only she knew who and where his daddy was. He was missing out on seeing this beautiful child who was now her whole world.

  ****

  Stan was out of prison. He collected his personal belongings and walked out a free man, after serving two years. Now he was going looking for Pippa. It was time he got his wife back. He’d been a long time without a woman and he wanted to sink into her softness again and take what was his.