Her ex-husband stood in the doorway, his lip pulled back in a snarl, his dirty blond hair in need of a cut and a good shampoo. His gray eyes narrowed. “Coming to get what belongs to me.”
Sierra jammed her arms into the sleeves of the sweater and dragged it over her head. “I don’t belong to you, Clay,” she said, her tone one of a parent explaining a simple concept to a particularly dense child. Once she had her sweater on, she slung her purse over her shoulder and dug her hand inside.
“You don’t have your boyfriend in here to get in the way.” He let the door close behind him and stalked her like a snake slithering up to its prey. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll scream.”
He shook his head. “Won’t do you any good. The band is playing now. No one will hear you.” He reached out a hand toward her. “Come with me now and I won’t be angry.”
Her fingers curled around the hard plastic device T-Rex had armed her with. “I’m not going with you now or ever.” She stood straighter, ready to take him on.
“Woman, you’re coming with me, one way or another.” He grabbed her arm and spun her around, slammed her back into his chest and clamped his arm around her middle.
Holding tightly to the stun gun, Sierra let her purse fall to the floor. “Let go of me, Clay.”
“Or what?” He leaned close and whispered into her ear. “You’ll yell for your boyfriend?”
“I don’t need my boyfriend to fight my battles,” she said through gritted teeth as she flicked the on switch.
“That’s right. Come along quietly and no one gets hurt.”
“No way.” And someone was about to get hurt.
“Baby, you belong to me.” He edged her toward the door.
Sierra dug in her heels. “I’m not going with you. This is your last warning.”
He laughed. “Or what? You can’t fight me. You’re not strong enough.”
“I don’t have to be that kind of strong. I just have to be smarter than you. And that’s not all that hard.” She angled her arm backward and jabbed the stun gun into Clay’s thigh.
He screamed like a little girl, shook violently and fell to the floor.
At one time in her life, she might have felt sorry for the man lying on the ground, completely incapacitated. But not anymore.
Sierra waved the stun gun at him. “Don’t ever touch me again. Do you hear me?”
He lay there, his eyes wide, his body still twitching.
Flipping her hair back over her shoulders, Sierra tugged her damp sweater into place, picked up her purse off the floor and headed for the door. A woman with brown hair, wearing a leather jacket, stepped in as Sierra stepped out.
Sierra smiled at the brunette’s horrified expression. “Don’t worry, I’ll notify the manager he needs to clean the trash out of the restroom.”
The woman’s lips twisted. “He must have deserved it.”
“You have no idea.” With a last glance over her shoulder, Sierra left the restroom and plowed into a wall of muscles.
An iron grip descended on her arms, steadying her.
Shaken, she glanced up into T-Rex’s face and sagged against him. “Oh, thank God.”
He enveloped her in his strong arms. “What’s wrong?”
The woman in the leather jacket who’d walked in while Sierra had walked out pushed out of the ladies’ room, shaking her head with a smile as she passed Sierra and T-Rex in the hallway. As the door opened and closed, T-Rex had a chance to see what was inside.
His jaw tightened. “Ellis?”
Sierra held up the stun gun and grinned like the village idiot. “Couldn’t have done it without your help. Thank you.” She shook all over, but she’d never felt more empowered.
T-Rex caught her wrist, reached up and switched the device to the off position and then chuckled. “Glad it helped.” He dropped the device into her handbag. “Are you ready to go?”
“More than ready.” She gnawed on her bottom lip. “How long will the effects last again?”
“Sometimes as much as thirty minutes.”
“I hate that he will tie up the ladies’ restroom for all that time.”
“I’ll have someone remove him.” T-Rex curled his arm around her shoulders and guided her back to the table where his teammates had taken up residence.
Garner stood and held out his hand. “Miss Daniels, it’s good to see you again.” He frowned. “Is everything all right?”
T-Rex jerked his head toward the hallway. “Can you have someone clean up the dirtbag in the ladies’ restroom?”
“Holy hell, did I miss a fight?” Hawkeye jumped up, grinning.
“Miss Daniels had a run-in with her ex-husband, Clay Ellis,” T-Rex explained.
“I have a restraining order against him. You can call the sheriff and have him haul Clay out on charges of violating the order,” Sierra said. What was the use of a restraining order if the man wasn’t punished when he violated it? She’d hit him with a stun gun—how much madder would he get if he was hauled off to jail? Frankly, Sierra didn’t care. Clay deserved everything he had coming to him and more.
Garner nodded. “Don’t worry about the dirtbag. Just get Miss Daniels home.”
“Thank you,” Sierra said. For the first time in a long time, she felt like she had others, besides herself, looking out for her. With T-Rex’s arm around her, the chill of being caught in the ladies’ room by her ex began to fade.
The fact she’d taken care of herself gave her a surge of power, reinforcing her overall decision to get on with her life, without Clay Ellis. She’d been divorced for six months. Perhaps it was time to start dating.
A different kind of warmth spread through her, making her even more aware of the massive marine and the potential she’d felt in his kiss.
Chapter Six
T-Rex walked with Sierra back to the bed-and-breakfast, his arm firmly around her shoulders. He hated that she’d had to face Clay Ellis alone. But his chest swelled with pride over how she’d handled the man. Ellis would think twice before accosting her again.
The sweet day care employee who loved children shouldn’t have to put up with an ex-husband of Ellis’s low caliber. She deserved someone who could love and respect her. Someone who treated her like the beautiful, caring woman she was.
Someone like him?
He paused in front of her bedroom door and turned to face her. “If you need anything, just yell. The walls aren’t very well insulated. I’ll hear you.”
She laughed. “Not very well insulated?”
Her smile was contagious and had his lips tilting. “You’ll see.” T-Rex leaned down and brushed a kiss across her forehead. “Sleep tight.”
She stood for a long moment, staring up into his eyes.
He counted the seconds, praying she would go inside before he did something he might regret, like kiss her again. Lord knew kissing her a second time would only lead to more internal struggle than he was capable of resisting.
She moved, but not in the direction he expected.
Sierra leaned up on her toes, wrapped her hand around the back of his head and pressed her lips to his. She ended the kiss on a sigh. “I’d ask you in, but I wouldn’t want you to think less of me.”
“Sweetheart, I wouldn’t think less of you. You impress the heck out of me.” He leaned his forehead against hers. “The way you handled Ellis in the tavern...” He chuckled. “In my book, that makes you sexy as hell.”
He was prolonging something he shouldn’t even consider. The walls were thin. Anything they might get into would be heard by all of the guests.
As he thought about it, he couldn’t remember seeing any other guests. The rodeo had left town, taking with it all of the out-of-towners, leaving Grizzly Pass feeling empty, almost deserted compared with the rush of people who’d been there days earlier.
Sierra and T-Rex might be the only visitors in the bed-and-breakfast. In which case, why was he worried if noises carried through the wall?
Then again, there was the issue of his being a career marine and confirmed bachelor. He wouldn’t feel right playing with Sierra’s emotions. She had enough problems dealing with her ex-husband.
“As much as I’d love to come in,” he said, “I’m not sure that would be a good idea.”
She nodded. “You’re probably right. I’m a divorcée with baggage. You really don’t want to get involved with me while you’re here. Although it’s a little late for that. My ex thinks we are already involved. That, I’m sorry to say, will continue to cause you grief while you’re in Grizzly Pass.”
“I can take care of myself. And the fact you’re a divorcée with baggage wasn’t what I was thinking about.” He brushed a strand of her blond hair back behind her ear. “I don’t want to shortchange a beautiful woman who deserves more.”
“Shortchange?”
He nodded, traced his thumb across her lip and resisted kissing where his thumb had been. “I’m only here for another week, maybe two or three. But then I’ll return to my unit. I won’t start anything I can’t finish.”
“Oh, I wasn’t thinking of any commitment. I was thinking of practice.” Her cheeks reddened.