Protecting Summer (3 page)

Summer tried not to be aware of the big man in cabin three, but it was hard not to notice him. Every time she cleaned his cabin, she was aware of how good he smelled. She only allowed herself to bury her face into one of his towels once, and felt ashamed after she did it. He didn’t know she existed, and that was par for the course. First of all, she was a damn maid, and second he was beautiful, even with his scars. She wasn’t. She wasn’t putting herself down; she just knew what she was and what she wasn’t. In her former life she knew she needed to lose some weight, but that was hard to do with a desk job. But now that she really only ate one meal a day, she’d lost a lot of weight, too much. She figured it wasn’t helping her looks any.

The man was extremely neat. All of his clothes were put away in the drawers in the room. His shoes were lined up next to the wall. Any towels that he used were hung up over the shower rod. He’d made his bed every morning. There really wasn’t much to clean in his room, but Summer always vacuumed and changed his towels out. She saw him twice at the office. The first time he was eating breakfast and was dressed to go hiking. She saw his backpack against a wall and he was wearing boots, a flannel shirt, and khakis. The second time she saw him was when she knocked on his door to clean his room and he opened the door, nodded at her, and left. She wondered what he was doing here and how long he was staying.

Most of the time when people came to the cabins they were there for a long weekend and almost always with someone else. It was unusual for someone to stay as long as this man had and be by himself. Summer had noticed he went hiking most days, so maybe he just needed the time off of work and wanted to be alone. She mentally shrugged. She had another long day ahead of her. She ignored her rumbling tummy and forced herself to close and lock the cabin door and head for the next room.

* * *

Mozart blew out a breath. It’d been a long day, but a productive one. He’d found evidence that a person had been in the mountains nearby. Mozart figured it had to be Hurst. He was careful not to disturb the primitive campsite so Hurst wouldn’t know someone was onto him. This was as close as Mozart had ever been to catching him. He considered calling Cookie and seeing if he’d come up and help him, but decided against it. Cookie and Fiona were still working through Fiona’s issues, and he didn’t want to disturb them when they had a rare week off.

Mozart eased himself into the chair on the front porch of the small office building. He’d noticed that each night the people staying in the cabins generally gathered around the office to chat. He wasn’t one to crave the attention of others, but he wasn’t ready to go back into his cabin yet. The evening was beautiful.

Mozart held a beer loosely in his hand and watched as a SUV pulled into the parking lot. Three women climbed out. They were the kind of beautiful that came from hours spent at the spa and in the bathroom before stepping a foot outside. They were all wearing skin-tight dresses and high heels. They looked like they’d just spent a night out celebrating something. The cabins weren’t exactly the Hilton, so Mozart wondered briefly what had brought them there. Being a man, he also admired the way their dresses showed off their bodies. It’d been a while since he’d been with a woman, and these were some fine looking specimens.

“Oh shit, Cindy,” the woman in the blue dress said a bit too loud, “he looked hot from the car, but you can have him, I wouldn’t be able to look at him while fucking him.” All three of the women giggled drunkenly.

“But you could always have him do you doggy style then you wouldn’t have to look at his face,” the woman, who was apparently Cindy, said. “I’d do him, look at his muscles!”

Unfortunately, Mozart had gotten used to those kinds of harsh comments from women since he’d been injured. He chugged the rest of his beer and shifted to stand up and leave. He didn’t care what they thought, but he wasn’t going to sit there and listen to it. The shallow comments from the women didn’t deserve a response.

Before he could move, he felt a hand slide over his chest from behind in a tender caress and felt a woman lean over him.

Before Mozart could say or do anything, he heard a husky voice say from right behind his right ear, loudly enough for the three bitches to hear, “Come on, honey, those three orgasms you gave me before dinner weren’t enough. I can’t believe you can stay hard that long. Before you call for the jet can we have one more round in the shower?” The mystery woman nuzzled the side of his face, his scarred side, as she playfully ran both hands up and down his chest.

Mozart’s body locked tight. His teeth clenched and he could feel his jaw clench. Even not knowing exactly what the woman’s game was, her tone, and words, made his cock stand up and take notice. He brought up a hand up and wrapped it around one of her forearms as she continued to caress him with her other hand. Mozart didn’t know if he wanted to wrench it away from his body, or force it down lower into his lap. He did neither, just held on as her hand moved up and down his chest and he watched as the bitches’ mouths dropped open and they stared as they walked past him on their way into the small office.

The woman who had her hands all over him apparently wasn’t quite done. As the trio passed by, he felt her head turn toward them as she sneered in their direction, proving she knew they could hear her the entire time, “He’s
all
man, and he’s
all
mine. If you’re stupid enough to not be able to look past his face, then you don’t deserve to have a man spend all night pleasuring you. And
believe
me, he knows how to use every
inch
of his body for
my
satisfaction.”

The woman then stood up, grabbed Mozart’s hand, and pulled him off the porch toward his small cabin. Mozart didn’t even look back to see what the other women did, he only had eyes for the dynamo who was towing him to his room.

Summer’s heart was beating at what felt like a million miles an hour. What this man must think of her. But she couldn’t stand there and let those bitches say those things about him. While Summer didn’t really know him, she felt as if she has a small connection to him. After all, she’d been cleaning his room and handling his linens…linens that had been up against his body. No one deserved to be treated that way.

Summer had no idea what happened to him and how he’d gotten the scars on his face, but she had a feeling he was probably military of some sort. He had that look about him and maybe he had some sort of PTSD and that’s why he went on the long walks in the woods. Those women being rude to him felt wrong on so many levels. He was always polite to the employees at the motel. He was neat. He was quiet. But if Summer had stopped to actually think about what she was about to do, she never would’ve done it. She was pretty embarrassed, but she had to keep going until the women were gone.

When they reached the door to his cabin, Summer stopped, took a deep breath, and turned around to face the big man who was still holding her hand.

Mozart watched as the woman in front of him took a deep breath before she turned around. He grinned. Now that he could see her face, he knew exactly who she was. She was the maid for the cabins. He waited for her to speak.

Summer tugged at her hand, but the man wouldn’t let it go. She looked up at him a bit nervously and watched a crooked smile take over his face, and all the words in her brain fizzled away.

“Do you think I could know the name of the woman to whom I gave three orgasms and apparently pleasured all night long?

Summer nearly choked. God, she was embarrassed. “I’m so sorry about that back there,” she quickly said. “Those women were such bitches; I just wanted them to be jealous as hell and to realize what they were missing. I didn’t mean to embarrass you or anything. I really am sorry.” She trailed off when she saw he was still smiling.

“Your name?” Mozart demanded in a low voice.

“What?”

“What is your name?” he repeated easily, seemingly not upset in the least.

“Summer,” she told him without thinking. Shit, maybe she shouldn’t be blurting things out without thinking first. It had always gotten her into embarrassing situations in the past, seemed like she hadn’t learned her lesson after all these years.

“Summer,” Mozart told her, “I’m not embarrassed. I think that was one of the nicest things anyone has done for me in a long time. Don’t be sorry. Shit, don’t be sorry. I’ll never forget the looks on their faces when you said jet. I just wish I had it all on film to show my buddies.”

Summer chuckled a little, still feeling embarrassed and very aware he still held her hand. It felt awkward, but at the same time it didn’t. “I don’t know what came over me. I’m not usually like that. Anyway, well, I’ll be going…” she trailed off and attempted to once more remove her hand from his, but he still wasn’t letting go. She looked up at the man questioningly again.

“Come to dinner with me.” It wasn’t exactly a question; it came out more like a statement.

“What?” Summer couldn’t have heard him right. She knew she sounded silly asking him to repeat everything, but she was confused.

“Come to dinner with me, Summer,” the man said again.

“But you don’t even know me,” Summer said in bewilderment.

Mozart laughed a little. “But Summer, I gave you three orgasms before dinner.”

Summer blushed and looked down. “Jesus, I’m never going to live that down am I?”

Seeing Summer’s embarrassment, Mozart got serious. He put his finger under her chin and lifted it so she was looking at him, noticing she didn’t fight him. “You’re too easy to tease, but please, let me take you to dinner to thank you. You didn’t have to step in there for me. It honestly doesn’t bother me what people say about me, but you didn’t know that. You went out on a limb for me. Please let me treat you to dinner in return.”

Summer looked at the man again. He was serious, she could tell. She
was
hungry. It didn’t matter where they went, she hadn’t had a good meal in forever. She tried one more time to dissuade him.

“But I don’t even know your name.”

He finally let go of her hand, only to immediately hold it out to her again. “I’m Mozart, nice to meet you, Summer.”

“Mozart? Can you play piano?”

Mozart laughed and continued to stand there with his hand out. He’d stand there all night if he had to. He’d forgotten how fun it was to pursue a woman. He hadn’t had to do it very often and it made him feel ten feet tall. If Summer knew how cute she looked and how her actions only made him more determined, he knew she’d be mortified. “Go out to dinner with me and I’ll tell you how I got my nickname.”

Summer smiled and shook her head in exasperation. He was crazy, but she was finding she liked his brand of crazy. Finally, she put her hand in his and shook it. “I think that’s blackmail, but you have a deal.”

Apparently, they were going to dinner.

* * *

Mozart ended up taking Summer to local steak place. It wasn’t fancy, but the food was good. He’d already been there a few times and had enjoyed everything he’d eaten. Maybe even more important, the restaurant was quiet and Mozart felt like he could get to know Summer a bit better. The hostess had sat them at a booth in the back and asked what they wanted to drink when they’d arrived.

“Get whatever you want,” Mozart told her when he saw her hesitate.

“I guess I’ll just take a water.” At Mozart’s raised eyebrows, Summer hurried to defend her selection. “It’s fine. I’m hungry and don’t want to fill up on soda or alcohol.”

Mozart nodded and ordered a beer. After the waitress had left to collect their drinks, he turned back toward Summer and just watched her as she read over the menu.

“You aren’t going to even look at the menu?” she asked Mozart nervously.

“Nah, I’ve been here a couple of times and know what I want.”

The way he said he knew what he wanted made Summer nervous for some reason, but she didn’t call him on it. Maybe it was how he looked into her eyes as he’d said it instead of looking at the menu itself. Summer looked down at the menu as if it held the answer to world peace and tried to ignore Mozart’s presence and steely gaze.

When the waitress came back with their drinks, Mozart ordered an appetizer of cactus dip with chips and a Rib Eye steak with potatoes and spinach. Summer asked for a sirloin, medium rare, with a baked potato and fire-roasted green beans.

After the waitress left, Mozart leaned his elbows on the table and asked, “So, how long have you worked at the motel?” As a get-to-know-you question, it was pretty tame, but Summer was embarrassed anyway. She’d grown very adept at handing out vague answers that sounded like she answered the question, but never really gave much away.

“I’ve been there for a while now. It’s okay, but not something I want to do the rest of my life. You’ve been there a while, what are you doing up here in Big Bear?”

“Oh you know, just enjoying some time off and hiking in the woods.”

Summer nodded, she’d figured that was what he was there doing. Something didn’t ring true about his answer, but it wasn’t as if she could call him on it when she was trying to avoid answering any deep questions about herself either.