Once Upon a Time in Bliss

Chapter Three

Nell picked up her broom, eager to get something done now that Rye had completed the obligatory report. She glanced around. No Henry. He was probably getting some fresh air on the porch.

She still couldn’t breathe thinking about how he’d kissed her. She’d been kissed before, but those tiny pecks and awkward fumblings seemed in another universe with what Henry Flanders had managed to do. She could still feel his lips on hers. Not tentative and waiting for her to take the lead. Nope. Not Henry. He’d just taken what he wanted, and wow, that did something for her.

She couldn’t allow her female hormones to turn her into a crazed sex addict. But wouldn’t it be okay to just be a little bit crazy? What was one step down from addict? Enthusiast. Yes. She could be a crazed sex enthusiast.

Of course she had to actually manage to have sex first.

“Nell, what do you know about that Henry fellow?” Rye Harper asked, his eyebrows arched as though it wasn’t the first time he’d asked her.

She could get lost in her own head. “I met him at Mountain and Valley an hour ago. He’s friends with Bill.”

“An hour ago?” If Rye’s eyebrow moved another inch, it would climb right off his forehead.

Nell flushed, but tried to hide it by crossing her arms over her chest and sending him her sternest look. “Are you judging me, Ryan Harper? Do you think I haven’t heard the story about the new cart hostess at the golf course in Del Norte? How long had you known her before you…well, escorted her into the bushes and got to know her in a biblical sense?”

A slow smile spread across Rye’s face. “I get your point, darlin’. I really do, but Beer Bringing Becky is a little less lethal than the man you were playing around with.” He frowned. “Though she could cut me off from beers. I hadn’t thought about that. Oh, well, we didn’t talk very much. The next time I see her I’ll pretend I don’t know her, and she’ll think it was Max who didn’t call.”

She knew she should lecture him on the whole turnabout twin thing, but her ears had caught on something else. “He’s not lethal. He’s a college professor.”

And a cranky one at that, but she was rapidly coming to the conclusion that his demeanor was likely brought on by a negative environment. She’d heard many professors complain about how rough it was to get tenure. Publish or perish. The ivory tower could crumble right beneath Henry’s feet if he didn’t have tenure. Yes, that was likely what was making him so crabby. And she suspected he ate too much red meat.

But she wasn’t sure how much that mattered since she could still feel her lips tingling and it had been a good forty-five minutes since he’d touched her and kissed her and thrown her on her bed.

She wasn’t a dumb girl, just a cautious one. She knew what would have happened if Seth hadn’t interrupted. She would have lost her virginity to a man she barely knew, and Rye Harper would have been sitting in her devastated living room listening to the whole thing. She knew how embarrassing that would have been.

And yet she was still a little mad at Seth.

“Nell, all I know is I haven’t seen a man move quite as fast as that one did,” Rye said, closing up his notebook.

She frowned. “You were watching?”

Rye Harper was completely immune to her sternest look. It really bothered Nell. “I wasn’t watching the sex stuff, but I damn straight wanted to see if Seth could save you from your rapist.”

She sighed. “Do people really think I don’t like men?”

Maybe Bliss was less tolerant than she thought.

Rye winked at her. “Honey, Seth is just a kid. He believes anyone who isn’t interested in him is likely a lesbian. Well, he hopes that. I happen to notice the way you look at a man when he takes his shirt off. You’re not disinterested, you’re just picky, and that’s a good thing to be, Nell.”

She wasn’t so sure about that. Her pickiness meant she was a twenty-five-year-old virgin. It wasn’t that she placed a special value on her hymen. She didn’t. She just hadn’t been moved to get rid of it. Maybe she did place a special value on sex, though. She’d heard one too many fairy tales. She wanted to be in love.

It was stupid, but she thought she might be able to love Henry Flanders. There was no intellectual reason to believe in the idea of love, but her heart had softened the minute she’d looked at him. She couldn’t take her eyes off him when they were in the same room.

Why wouldn’t he come back? She didn’t like not being able to see him.

Would he find her obnoxious? Lots of people did.

“I like him, Rye.” Why did it take such courage to admit that?

Rye gave her a brilliant smile. That was what she loved about Bliss. She could talk to almost anyone and they were open and happy to be engaged. This was a family. She’d spent years with only her mother for company, but everywhere she turned in Bliss she found a brother or a sister. Sure, it meant she had no private life, but privacy was overrated. “I’m glad, Nell. You deserve a great guy. And I stand perfectly ready to beat the shit out of him if he isn’t worthy of you.”

“Ryan!” She was a nonviolent person.

He shook his head, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Nope. I’m not going to feel bad. Every woman needs a couple of men who are willing to kick some ass for her. You don’t have any men. So me and Max will step up. Stef, too. You’re a nice girl, Nell. You need brothers.”

Tears filled her eyes. She should completely disavow the whole violence angle, but she had to admit the idea of having a few men who cared enough to look out for her made her want to cry. “Thanks, Rye. I really do like him. I’m a little scared though.”

Rye reached up, smoothing her hair back in a perfectly nice brotherly gesture. “You have to try, Nell. Nothing in this life happens without some risk. One day some sweet thing is going to come through this town and she’s going to be perfect. She’s going to love me and she’s going to love Max and I believe that. I have to. I can’t stand the thought of not having a family, but I’m weird. I worry deep down that it won’t happen. I think maybe I’m too weird, you know.”

She hugged him without reservation, throwing her whole body into it because Rye Harper was a wonderful man and he should know it every second of the day. “You’re not weird. You’re wonderful and Max is wonderful.” Max was a crabby man but someday some amazing woman would fix that. “You’re going to get married and be so happy. It can happen, Rye. I believe it.”

Because the universe was what a person made it. Positive thoughts brought about a positive outcome.

“I hope so, sweetheart. I sincerely do.” Rye returned the hug and then pulled away. “Now, I’m going to look into this, but I think it would be best if you stayed up at the commune.”

“I need to clean this place up.” She really couldn’t leave. She couldn’t let anyone trash her house again. She needed to be here. “I have to watch our house. Mom and I sank everything we had into this place and our insurance kind of sucks.”

He frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Look, I’ll send someone out here to stay with you.”

She didn’t want someone. She wanted Henry. “I think I can manage that on my own.”

“Okay, but if he isn’t interested in protecting you, I’ll send someone out here. We can take turns until this guy is caught. I think Seth and Logan can take first watch. They’re prepared to take out whoever comes your way with a Ping-Pong paddle and a couple of rolled-up comic books.”

She laughed and let Rye leave as Logan and Seth walked back in the house. They were sweet kids. Seth was a little older, but he was Logan’s best friend. He’d spent every summer of his life in Bliss since he was five. Nell envied him finding this place at such a young age.

“Rye said we needed to stay here tonight,” Seth said with a smile as he walked in. “I think we should grab some burgers and watch Star Trek. They didn’t get your DVD player. It still works. I rewired it so we’re good. Do you want fries?”

Logan looked out the window. “We should hurry. Dark thirty comes early this time of year. I’ll have to call my moms.”

Seth rolled his eyes as Logan walked away. His lips curled up. “I’ll take care of you, Nell. My granddad won’t mind. He expects me to stay out all night. I’m in college, you know. I’m working on a software system that will change the way we use operating systems, so my parents don’t fight me too much on staying out.”

How did she put this? “I appreciate it, but I think Henry can take care of me.”

She walked to the window looking for where he’d gone.

Seth frowned. “He left. He went to Hell on Wheels and told me to take care of you. It’s all right, Nell. Logan and I can handle it. I promise I won’t let him come at some stalker with a Ping-Pong paddle.”

He’d left? “When did he go?”

“A while back. He kind of shrugged and said you didn’t need him and left. It’s cool, Nell, because Logan and I can totally take care of you. I’ll get you some free cable, and we can just hang out.”

He’d left. He’d just walked away, and he hadn’t said good-bye. He’d kissed her like there was no tomorrow and she was the only woman in the whole world, and then he’d just decided a shot of liquor was more important than saying good-bye to her? He’d put his hands on her breasts and taken her to completely different places and he’d promised to take care of her, and this was how he did it? He went to a nasty bar with a bad reputation?

Did he think that would scare her off? He didn’t know her at all. Tears threatened and that really made her mad. She wasn’t the kind of girl who just sat back and accepted the unfairness of the world. She protested. She let people know when they were being douchebags of the highest order because some of them just didn’t understand.

Henry was about to understand.

She grabbed her coat and then opened the closet and found a knit hat. She had several but selected blue because it would go with Henry’s eyes and he didn’t have a hat. All he’d had was a leather jacket and that wasn’t the warmest thing in the world. She picked some gloves, too. Even if he was a complete ass, she wasn’t going to let him go cold.

Logan walked back in the cabin. “I talked to my moms. I can stay but I have to call in, and I can’t have sex with Nell.”

“Ewww.” Nell sent him her patented look, and it had the proper effect on Logan, who shrank back.

“They kind of laughed when I said I wouldn’t sleep with you and then I got that whole sympathetic tone,” Logan admitted, his hands up in a defensive position.

She sighed. “It’s okay, guys. I’m going to be fine. Y’all go on back home.”

Seth frowned. He was so young, but there was a deeply defined sense of responsibility about him. “That’s not going to happen. I talked to both Rye and Henry. I promised them both I wouldn’t leave you alone here. I can take you up to Mountain and Valley, but I won’t leave you here.”

She looked to Logan. He would be the voice of reason.

“Rye said he’d kick my ass if I left you alone.” Logan grimaced. “I kind of believe him.”

“We’re not leaving her alone.” Seth sent his best friend a nasty look. “Come on, man, we’re over eighteen. It’s time we manned up. We have to protect our woman.”

“I’m not your woman.” Even as she said the words, she winced inwardly. She apparently wasn’t Henry’s woman either. He’d walked out. He’d walked out after he’d kissed her like she was the air he needed to breathe. He’d walked out after he’d promised to take care of her.

They had two completely different versions of taking care of her.

A slow anger started. She should let it go. He didn’t like her. She got that. So why had he touched her? Why had he put his lips on hers and shoved her on a bed? Why had she felt that hard part of him when he rubbed against her pelvis?

He really should have thought about all of that before he’d done it. He should have thought about that before he’d made her think he’d liked her. It wasn’t fair to pretend.

He should know that.

Nell took a deep breath. She was naïve when it came to men. She knew that. She was kind of a dork. She spent too much time on intellectual things, but she’d learned long ago that it cost her more to fit in than it did to be herself. She sniffled, willing herself not to cry. She was weird. But she was a good person and she didn’t just lie down and take anything. She was deserving. She had a lot to give. She wasn’t willing to just sit back. Not for him.

He was going to get her speech. He was going to understand exactly what he was missing and then she would move on knowing she’d spoken her mind.

“I’m going to Hell on Wheels.”

Seth frowned. “Why? He left, Nell. He walked out.”

Nell shrugged. “I’m going.”

Seth took a long breath. “All right. I have fake IDs for me and Logan.”

“Dude, my moms will kill us both.” Logan went a little white. “Seriously, they consider you their second son, so death will come swiftly.”

Seth rolled his perfect blue eyes. He was skinny, but it was easy to see he would be a lovely man someday. “What they don’t know won’t hurt them.”

“They know everything,” Logan whispered.

“Ignore him,” Seth said. “I’ll take you up there if that’s what you want, but this Henry guy seems like an asshole if you ask me.”

She didn’t care. He’d made her feel more in a few hours than she’d ever felt before. “I’m going.”

Seth opened the door, and she followed him out trying not to think about the fact she was seriously contributing to the delinquency of minors.

Bishop looked across the bar at the pretty redhead and just knew he’d made a really big mistake. She was lovely. She was soft and feminine. She was obviously needy.

She was wrong because she wasn’t Nell.

The woman across the bar stared down into her Seven and Seven, ignoring everyone around her, but they weren’t ignoring her. Bishop counted at least four men who were eyeing the redhead, and they weren’t planning on being her friend.

“Hey, what can I get for you?” The bartender was an enormous man of obvious Native American descent. He looked to be in his mid-twenties and wore a leather vest. MC. Motorcycle Club and not the Harley-Davidson-riding weekend-warrior type. Nope. Damn. Even small-town Colorado had criminal problems. The man in front of him didn’t wear a three patch that would proclaim him a one percenter, but had the word PROSPECT emblazoned on his left side. One day, if he was a very good boy and did all kinds of nasty things, he would turn in his PROSPECT patch for the three patch and then he would be a fully adult criminal. When he turned, Bishop noticed he had his prospective club’s name on his back. The Colorado Horde. If he moved from prospect to member, that symbol would be inked on his back.

“Scotch, neat. At least fifteen-year.”

The bartender rolled his eyes. “Really? Where do you think you are, man?”

“I don’t know. A bar.” He’d been in plenty of shit-ass places, but he’d hoped for some civilization here in the States.

“This is my grandfather’s bar. He’s still living in the Wild West. I can get you whiskey or tequila or crap-ass vodka or beer. We have two wines. Red or white and they both suck ass. Those are your choices,” the bartender said.

Bishop sighed. It didn’t matter. He needed liquor. A lot of it. Maybe he would forget just how hard his cock was. He could still feel Nell’s arms around him. He could still feel her breasts pressed against his chest, her hips moving against his. Damn it. “Vodka. Double on the rocks.”

James Bond didn’t have these problems. Everywhere the fucker went there was a good bar, but that wasn’t Bishop’s life. He was stuck with shit-ass bars. He should have been born British. American assets got shit. The least he should get for his trouble was a decent drink.

The least he should get as his reward was a soft, sweet, innocent woman to take his cock any way he chose.

The redhead across from him looked up. She had a pretty face, and he could see a nice rack and it didn’t do a thing for him because she wasn’t Nell. That freaking woman had wrecked his goddamn vacation.

“Here you go.” The bartender slid a glass his way. At least it seemed clean. His head gestured toward the back of the bar. “She’s a nice lady, you know.”

Bishop shrugged and took a sip. Yep. It was low-grade, cheap vodka. “She’s pretty.”

“She just got divorced a while back. Apparently it was a nasty thing. She’s still trying to find her footing. She doesn’t need some asshole tourist to use her.”

Bishop stared at the bartender. “What’s your name?”

He frowned. “Sawyer. My granddad owns the place, so if you think you can get my ass fired, think again. I work for free, and I don’t like assholes using nice women. Holly’s a nice woman. She needs someone to look out for her.”

Bishop felt a smile cross his face. “Good for you. As it happens, I’m not terribly interested. I have my eye on someone else in town.”

Sawyer crossed his arms over his big chest and leaned back. “I’m trying to figure out who the hell that could be. Harper’s sister is too young. Stella’s a little too old for you. Red back there’s just about right.”

Bishop had no idea who any of those women were. “I just got in today. I’ve only been out to Mountain and Valley.”

Sawyer’s eyes went wide. He snorted. “You a nudist?”

“Nah. I have a friend out there.”

“Okay. I can buy that. Look, I live out on the reservation, but I have some friends around Bliss. It’s a nice town. The women are cool.”

He couldn’t help himself. He had to ask. “What do you know about Nell Finn?”

The temperature in the room seemed to drop by ten degrees. Sawyer’s face hardened and his eyes seemed darker than before. “I know she’s a sweet lady, and I wouldn’t like to see her hurt by some tourist who just blew through town and used her. She’s a believer, you know?”

He frowned. “No. What do you mean?”

Sawyer sighed. “She believes in all that good shit. She really thinks she can change the world. Look, I’ve met plenty of people who say they can change things, but Nell believes. She’s one of those people who gives it her all and it matters to her. She’s the kind of chick who might actually manage it.”

Bishop huffed. Had the guy been drinking his own product? “Seriously? You’re wearing an outlaw MC cut. You believe in that shit?”

Sawyer shrugged. “I live in a different world. I got no options to escape. Nell is an idealist. She thinks there are always options.”

“She’s a dreamer.”

“Dreamers can change the world. Look, man, I’m not that guy, but I also know the world. Sixty years ago, black people couldn’t vote and now we have a black senator running for president. It was people like Nell who did that so don’t underestimate her. And don’t you dare fucking use her. She sounds naïve, but what she says is important.”

He was serious. And maybe Bishop should be serious, too. He still had a job to do. Just because he’d bailed on her physically didn’t mean he wouldn’t find out who wanted to hurt her. “Has she dated much?”

Sawyer stopped. “No. I kind of thought she wasn’t all that interested.”

Oh, she was interested. She just needed the right man. “So there’s no man in her life.”

She’d been flustered. It was easier to pay attention to men who didn’t matter. She was a submissive who hadn’t been trained to please her Dom. She didn’t have a Dom. She’d likely never had a Dom so she didn’t understand that a Dom could take care of her and accept all that sweet love she had to give.

He’d gotten pissed off and walked out too soon. Why had he done that? He was patient. It was his hallmark. He was known for making careful decisions and then plotting out his next move. But he’d taken one look at Nell with that goddamn deputy and he’d walked out because he’d gotten his freaking feelings hurt. Seriously? When had he grown a vagina?

He’d made a mistake.

“Look, I only know Nell because she comes out to the rez and helps out,” Sawyer explained. “We have a lot of poverty and need out there, and she puts in a bunch of time. She’s kind of made herself a part of the family. I wouldn’t like it if she got hurt. She doesn’t have a man looking out for her.”

That didn’t seem to be her problem. The deputy seemed to care, and those two boys had been all over her. But she wasn’t sleeping with any of them. Sex was important. Sex could be the glue that bound people together. A woman would listen to a lover when she wouldn’t listen to a friend or family member. No matter how many well-meaning friends she had, Nell couldn’t really count on a man unless he was in her bed and taking responsibility.

What the hell was he thinking? He wasn’t someone she should rely on. He wasn’t going to be here in a few weeks. He was exactly the kind of lover she should avoid.

The redhead across from him took another long drink. She looked over as though trying to gather her courage.

“That one is going to be so much trouble.” Sawyer’s jaw firmed. “I wish I hadn’t come in tonight. I’m trying to stay out of jail.”

“Then you shouldn’t be prospecting for an MC.” Bishop watched the woman. She was going to be trouble. She was a lovely woman without a man, and she was obviously emotional. The sharks were already starting to circle. A nasty-looking asshole with a mean tat on his arm started making his way over, a leer on his face. “You going to take care of this?”

Sawyer sighed. “If I have to. My granddad is going to have my ass if I start a fight. You don’t understand how mean an old Ute can be when his shit gets trashed. He always threatens to go old school with the honey and the ants. My childhood bedtime stories were really horrible.”

Bishop couldn’t help but smile. He could imagine. The redhead pushed off the bar, obviously making a decision. She was on the move before her insanely large and muscular and very likely criminal suitor made his way over. She rounded the bar and made a beeline for someone in particular.

Fuck. She was coming his way.

“Nice. Holly made her choice.” Sawyer looked more chipper than he had before. “Now she’s your problem.”

Motherfucker.

“That’s Holly for you.” A cowboy slid into the seat beside him, a Stetson on his head. “She goes for the man who looks like he has a college education every time. It’s why she usually isn’t in real trouble here. I’m going to need a whiskey shot with a beer chaser.”

“See, that I can do.” Sawyer slapped a hand on the bar. “This guy wanted to know how old my Scotch was.”

The cowboy snorted. “Tourist.” He nodded the redhead’s way, and Bishop stared for a minute. He’d already met this guy. “Holly Lang. She moved here a couple of years back. Nice lady, but every now and then her ex-husband really gets to her and she comes to the conclusion that she should have revenge sex. It’s a real bad idea, so we take turns hauling her butt back to Bliss. It was Rye’s turn, but he’s working, so I got called in when Stella saw her buying that new dress. Apparently a woman in a V-neck means business.”

Bishop frowned. Holly seemed to have changed her mind and headed for the ladies’ room. She just turned right on her heels and walked away.

The cowboy next to him sighed. “See. She always changes her mind, but by then she’s got some jerk who doesn’t want to take no for an answer.”

Yep, there were several sets of eyes on her as she walked away.

“You’re the deputy’s twin.” They were really identical, but this guy had a deep frown where Rye Harper had been fairly sunny.

“Max Harper. I run the Harper Stables on the other side of town,” the cowboy offered. “And you’re?”

“Henry Flanders. I’m a professor of history. Just here on vacation.”

Max nodded his way and then shot the whiskey Sawyer put in front of him down in one quick swallow. “That’s got some bite. Where the hell did your granddaddy find that? I think that might strip my insides clean.”

“Hey, be grateful,” Sawyer shot back, handing him a beer. “Granddad likely would have given you Mel’s shit. He and Mel went to a sweat lodge and Mel convinced him to buy a case of his tonic. God, the thought of sitting in that fucking thing with twelve naked dudes in the heat does nothing for me. If they want me to get all spiritual and shit, they should put a couple of ladies inside.”

“Damn it. Here comes more trouble.” Max rolled his eyes. “I don’t know that girl, but she’s going to cause a ruckus.”

A semi had pulled up in the parking lot, and a blonde woman jumped out. She turned, and though Bishop couldn’t hear her, he was pretty sure that everything coming out of the blonde’s mouth was curses. She had a backpack in her hand and as she walked away, she flipped the trucker the finger.

Sawyer grimaced. “I don’t need this. Where’s the gun? I’m just going to shoot myself and get it over with.”

“Hi.” Holly was back, and she slid into the chair beside him. “Look, I’m going to admit something horrifically embarrassing to you. I was totally going to come over here and try to pick you up, but then I realized that I would just be having sex with you because my ex-husband is an asshole and that’s really no reason to potentially risk a venereal disease.” She flushed. “Not that I think you have one. I kind of picked you because you looked perfectly disease-free.”

The door slammed open and blondie walked in. She was wearing jeans and a sweater but no coat. And she had on some seriously high heels. She’d also been crying. Like Holly. He was surrounded by emotional females.

“No need to give him the whole story, darlin’. You don’t have to hit on tourists. Your escort is here.” Max Harper nodded Holly’s way. “Just let me finish my beer, and I’ll get you back into town.”

Holly sighed, a look of deep relief covering her face. “Oh, Max, thanks so much. You know it’s really nice that whenever I do something dumb there’s always someone around to help me out. This really is the best town ever. My ex thought it would be a punishment, but I’m good here.”

The blonde sat down at the bar, a devastated look on her face.

Holly’s eyes widened as she looked toward the newcomer. “Do you need a phone, hon?”

The woman turned, frowning. “I don’t have anyone to call.”

“Hey, I want to talk to you.” One of the muscle-bound idiots who had been stalking Holly had a hand on her arm, turning her to face him.

“What?” Holly asked, her eyes flaring with a proper amount of fear.

Max grinned, looking at the redhead and the asshole. “Thank god. I need a good fight. Stef’s been twelve kinds of mopey lately. He won’t even punch me. Artists. I don’t understand them.”

“Are you kidding me?” Sawyer’s hand slapped on the table as the door opened again. “What the fuck is going on?”

And Bishop felt a bit of righteous indignation course through his veins. Nell walked in, pretty as she pleased, with her two puppy dogs trailing behind her. Seth Stark looked around the bar, taking it in as though it was all just an experience and not the site of his potential murder.

Logan just looked scared shitless. He had a Superman T-shirt on, his hands in his pockets.

But Nell walked in like she owned the place. “Sawyer, it’s so nice to see you. This is a lovely establishment you have here.”

Sawyer frowned, his eyes moving around the room as though assessing all the ways his day was about to go to shit. “No it’s not. It’s a dive bar and a nest of criminal activity, so you should leave and take the underagers with you.”

“Uhm, you should really take your hand off my arm,” Holly said politely to the brutish man whose tattoos just might be a roadmap of all his murders. “I’m just about to go home. I don’t have time for a dance.”

“I do,” Max Harper said, putting his hat on the bar. He had a wide grin on his face as he rolled up the sleeves to his Western shirt.

“You were teasing me.” The muscular asshole didn’t look at Max. His eyes were on Holly. “I saw the way you looked at me.”

“Harper, don’t break shit,” Sawyer said before swinging back to Nell.

“I wasn’t looking at you,” Holly argued. “Not any more than I look at anyone. If you come into my field of vision, I will be forced to look at you, but that doesn’t mean anything.”

“You were looking at me like a woman looks at a man she wants to screw hard,” Holly’s assailant said.

“I think she was looking at me that way, too.” A second potential mass murderer stepped up.

“Oh, no, I wasn’t looking at anyone that way,” Holly insisted. “If I was looking at anyone, it was this guy, and I wasn’t thinking about anything like screwing him in a hard fashion. I thought maybe we would start with a little foot massage.”

He was going to have to kill someone and then Nell would get all pissy about nonviolence and she would probably give him a long lecture on why it was wrong to shove a barstool up someone’s rectum.

Bishop took a sip of his horrifying vodka. He didn’t need a lecture from her. And he didn’t need to shove a piece of furniture up some criminal’s asshole. Now, hers, yeah that he could do that, although he wouldn’t shove. No way. He would be smooth and slow. He would take his time getting that perky, tight asshole ready to take his dick. She would fight him at first, the muscles clenching to keep him out, but he would have his way. Sooner or later, his cock would slide in and then she would fight to keep him inside. That was what he needed.

“Are you going to help me with this, professor?” Max’s bark brought him out of his lovely daydream. No one seemed content to leave him be in this place. First, the kids broke up what should have been a nice long fuck, and now the violence was pulling him from thinking about a nice long fuck. The whole town of Bliss seemed intent on cockblocking him.

Holly was now surrounded by five large men who had started to use the term gangbang.

Blondie had jumped off her barstool and got to Holly before Max could. She swung her backpack. “You get your hands off of her, you filthy piece of crap. All of you better back away from her.”

Chaos. Wow. It was just taking over. One minute everything was fairly peaceful, and now it looked like Armageddon was about to happen. One of the assholes screamed as blondie’s backpack hit him in the head. She moved well. She was trained and not in a cardio-at-the-gym way. She was some form of law enforcement. Or she had been before she’d decided to backpack across America.

“I’m not underage,” Seth said with a confident grin. He stood at the bar talking to Sawyer. “I have the ID to prove it.”

“It’s a fake,” Sawyer shot back.

“Prove it.” Seth held out his ID.

Sawyer rolled his eyes. “I don’t have to. That’s Logan Green. He’s barely nineteen. He just graduated from high school last year.”

Seth held up a second ID. “You’re wrong. His name is Orion Buchwald. He’s twenty-two. We don’t know this Logan Green you speak of.”

Logan just sighed. “Please don’t call my moms.”

Nell’s eyes met Bishop’s and then quickly slid away, refocusing on the bartender. “Do you have any organic liquor?”

A rough shout pulled him back to the Holly issue. “Look, bitch, I can take you, too.”

He was really going to have to deal with the muscular assholes. The whole bar was watching the scene play out.

“You better take a step back.” Max got off his barstool. “These things can get nasty.”

“Don’t you try anything.” Blondie reached into her bag as Max stepped up. It was obvious she didn’t know he was trying to play savior. “I have pepper spray.”

“Why would you pepper spray me? I’m trying to help. Damn. I get sprayed too much as it is.” Max took a step back.

“I don’t think violence is the answer.” Nell just kept coming, her hands out in a placating gesture. “We should sit down and have a sharing circle.”

Why did he want her? Oh, yeah. Her boobs were really nice. And she had those freaking lips. “Don’t get closer.”

She was about to get into the middle of this and that meant he would be forced to take over.

“I’d like a beer.” Seth just bellied up to the bar like he didn’t have a care in the world. Little bastard.

Bishop got off his barstool. Fuck all. He would just pick Nell up and leave, but she would likely protest that action, too. “Nell. Get back, now.”

She frowned his way. “Why should I listen to you? You left me.”

She’d come after him. No doubt about it. So the sweet thing was really interested. Now the only problem was the way the world was kind of falling apart around him. “I was thirsty, Nell. Get back.”

“You didn’t say good-bye.” Nell crossed her arms over her very nice breasts. He could remember the way her nipples had pressed into his chest before the Stark kid had interrupted him.

“I’m not giving you a beer.” Sawyer rolled his eyes at Seth.

“Hey, you should get your hands off her.” Logan seemed to have stopped worrying about his moms once he finally caught sight of what was happening with Holly.

“Hey!” Seth followed his friend’s eyes and stopped bitching about his lack of a beer. He came off his stool and started making his way toward men who outweighed his skinny ass by a hundred pounds of muscle. “I don’t think she wants you touching her.”

“You two kids better step the fuck back, and blondie there can come with us, too.” The biggest of the mean assholes, whom he now numbered one through five since he would prefer to kill them in a neat order because when it came to killing, he was a little OCD, managed to get a hand in blondie’s hair. He tugged back.

“My name is Laura, bastard. I’m the blondie who’s going to kick your ass.” She struggled, trying to get those killer heels into his foot.

Max took a punch to his gut, but it oddly seemed to make him happy. He threw himself at his opponent, his fists flying.

Everyone got in on the action. Almost faster than his eyes could track, the entire bar erupted in pure chaos. Bishop sighed and eyed the door, hoping for a clear path out. The truth was none of this was his problem. Holly had come to the wrong place looking to get laid. The blonde chick was obviously in some sort of trouble, likely on the run from something she’d done. The two kids were obnoxious, and a near-death experience would just toughen them up. Max Harper seemed to have found his nirvana, and the dude behind the bar was a baby criminal with the patch to prove it.

Not his problem.

Nell, on the other hand, was. He took her hand and started to lead her out.

“Henry, what are you doing?” Nell asked, her cruelty-free shoes scooting across the floor.

Bishop kept walking. “Getting you out of here. They don’t want to join in a sharing circle, Nell. You’re going to get hurt.”

“My friends are already getting hurt.” She tried to pull away from him. “What’s wrong with you? We can’t leave them.”

He heard a crash and someone screaming. He totally could leave them. He was going to get a headache. “They’ll be fine.”

She pulled at his arm, finally dropping to the floor, her dead weight causing him to turn. He was surprised to see tears streaming down her face. He was amazed at how much the sight kicked him firmly in the gut. “You go on. I have to go help my friends.”

She weighed maybe a hundred and fifteen pounds. She’d almost surely never been in a fight in her life. She claimed she abhorred violence, and he believed her.

“They’re fighting, Nell. What are you going to do?” Bishop asked.

“I don’t know, but I can’t leave them.” She got to her feet.

“You’re going to get hurt.”

“Then I get hurt. I’ll hurt worse if I know I didn’t try. Let me go.” She would do it, he suddenly understood. She would walk into that chaos and try to talk reason to people who would just as likely kill her. She was stupid, and Bishop sort of admired her. He finally got what Sawyer had been trying to explain. Nell believed, but even more than that, Nell was willing to put herself on the line for her beliefs. They weren’t empty words to her. They were who she was.

He pulled her back. “I will take care of it on one condition.”

“Take care of it?” She was shouting over the chaos. “How?”

He wasn’t about to tell her the how of it. “I’ll take care of it but you have to go out with me tonight and you can’t blame me for what I’m about to do.”

She nodded. “Don’t kill anyone, Henry. That kind of karma is hard to shake.”

He had so much of that karma he was up to his ears in it, but he just gave her a nod. “And, Nell, don’t watch. Just trust me. Can you trust me?”

She put a hand on his chest and closed her eyes. “Don’t get hurt, Henry.”

It was five against one, like that could hurt him. The main problem he had was saving the civilians, though Max Harper was doing a fine job on his own. He was gleefully taking apart his guy and Sawyer had another in a headlock. Asshole Number One was trying to pull both Holly and Laura around the bar, likely to get them to the parking lot. Assholes Three and Five were dealing with the kids. Three had Seth Stark’s lanky body dangling from his hand, the kid’s sneakers kicking for the second time that day. Logan was faring better surprisingly. He was taking a chair to his asshole’s back.

Bishop started with the girls. He walked straight up to Asshole One, no hesitation.

“Get back or I’ll have to kill…” Asshole One started in a gruff voice, but Bishop was already close enough. He let his booted foot come back and kicked the fucker’s balls so hard he was pretty sure they now resided somewhere next to his large intestine.

The big guy dropped his hold on the women and went down with a low groan. This was the moment when he would normally give his opponent a nice adjustment to vertebrae C1 and C2 and then no one ever had to worry about him again, but he’d made a promise so he merely picked up the nearest bottle. Vodka. No great loss. One little tap and the glass was broken and the asshole was out for a while.

“Thanks.” The blonde, Laura, put a hand on her lower abdomen. She’d gone pale, the blood draining from her face. “I think I might have popped a few stitches.”

“Go sit with Nell and we’ll make sure you get to a hospital.” Bishop turned and assessed his next victim. Though he really thought the Stark kid was obnoxious, he was also turning a nice shade of blue. If Bishop had his way, he’d get this guy with one punch to the solar plexus. He would break the man’s xiphoid process, neatly shoving it into his diaphragm and causing an almost instant death. Instead, he took the boring route and wrapped his arm around the man’s neck, cutting off the blood flow to his brain and causing a very quick trip to nighty-nightville.

Seth Stark hit the ground, his chest heaving. “Thanks.”

“Go protect the girls.” He didn’t really intend for Seth to protect anyone, but he needed to give the kid something to do.

“Logan,” he started, looking back to his best friend.

“Is doing just fine.” Logan was a mean shit in a fight. His form sucked ass, but he made up for it with pure bile and rage. It was a beautiful thing. And he had to stop it because Nell would be upset by the blood.

He decided to take this shithead out long range. He grabbed Max Harper’s empty beer bottle and aimed for the dude’s meaty head. One nice thunk and Logan was left with a completely defeated opponent.

Logan looked down at the man, scratching his head. “Did I do that?”

“Sawyer, Max, finish them off or I’ll do it for you.” Those two were perfectly capable of handling it.

Max punched out one last time, blood coming off his fist as he broke his opponent’s nose. He got to his feet with a frown on his face. “Spoilsport. I was having fun.”

Sawyer finally seemed to find the right angle to cut off his guy’s circulation. His opponent went limp, and he slid to the floor.

“That took you long enough. You need to practice more,” Bishop said. It had been a sloppy takedown.

“Who the hell are you? Where did you learn that shit?” Sawyer asked, new respect in his eyes.

He learned that shit in Delta Force and later refined it in the CIA. Yeah, he wasn’t telling anyone that. “Krav Maga classes.” He stretched his hands out, popping every knuckle, and gave them his best professorial smile. “I take it with the other history professors at my college. You have to keep the body limber, too, you know.”

“Henry, can I open my eyes now?” Nell’s voice carried across the room.

“Yes, sweetheart. It’s over and everyone is alive.” He hoped. The beer bottle to the head had been a little stronger than he would have liked. Nope. He was still breathing. Excellent. The asshole would only be brain damaged, but he hadn’t seemed that smart before.

“Idiot youngsters, come on. The first and only beer is on me. You did good, boys.” Sawyer popped the tops on two cold ones.

Nell flew across the room. One minute Bishop was standing alone and the next his arms were full of Nell.

He wrapped her up and hugged her close. Something settled inside him when she was in his arms. He didn’t even try to pretend like he wasn’t smelling her hair.

“You did it. Thank you, Henry. Thank you.” Nell squeezed him tight.

“Guys, can y’all take it from here?” Holly asked. “I’m going to take Laura into Del Norte and get her looked at. She had surgery a week ago. I’m really sorry. I’m just going to stop doing this. It just gets me in trouble. If my luck holds, my soul mate is in Russia or Africa or someplace. Just not here.”

“I’ll drive you,” Max said. “Rye would have my head if I didn’t.”

Sawyer looked up from the bar. “How about you, professor? Want a drink? It’s on the house.”

“No,” he said, unable to stop staring at Nell, who was looking at him like he was a goddamn hero. “I can’t. I have a date.”