Baby Protector Bear: BBW Bear Shifter Baby Paranormal Romance (Who's the Daddy? Book 4) by Harmony Raines Read Free Book Online

separately.
    “Really? I don’t see what the difference is. If someone breaks in, the alarm will go off.” She pointed to the console on the wall. “You have the alarm code. Right?”
    He looked down at the key in his hand. There was a fob on it, and she was guessing that had the code number on it. She smiled. “Nice try.”
    “I didn’t…” He blushed, the color creeping across his tanned face, making him look young and vulnerable, not easy for the six-foot-plus god that he was. “I want to make sure you are safe. Both of you. If we’re in the same room, no one will get past me.”
    “We’ll be fine. Sam and I know how to scream. Believe me, Sam definitely knows how to scream. At least if we are in separate rooms, you might get a good night’s sleep.”
    He raised an eyebrow. “Why, were you thinking of jumping my bones?”
    She burst out laughing, stifling the sound as Sam stirred. “You have a way with words, don’t you? No, Joel, honey, you are quite safe with me,” she drawled.
    “Pity,” he said, and headed to the kitchen. “Coffee?”
    “Yes, please. Actually, I’m starving. Shall we eat?” she asked, looking in the cupboards.
    “Can you cook, Princess ?” he asked, as he spooned the coffee, narrowly avoiding the dishcloth she threw at him.
    “Not funny. At all.” She took out some rice and searched around for a pan.
    “Why does he call you that?” Joel asked. “Seriously, I’d like to know.”
    “My parents live in a big house. My dad made millions in his younger days. The whole dot.com thing. He got in and out at the right time. Invested the money carefully, and lived off the interest.”
    “Nice. Are we talking millions? Or billions?” he asked, flicking the switch with a satisfied sigh as the coffee began to brew.
    “We don’t talk about it at all,” she said curtly.
    “Private, I get that. But we’re supposed to be husband and wife, so we need to know things about each other.” He leaned back, arms folded across his chest, and watched her work, which made her clumsy, and hot. But mostly it made her confused.
    “We can make something up.”
    “It’s usually easier to stick to the truth, or as near as you can make it.”
    “Believe me, if we want to stay low profile, we don’t want to share who my parents are.”
    “You intrigue me,” he said, coming over to her. “Are you royalty?”
    “No,” she said, shaking her head. “But if anyone knew who my family was, it would draw attention to us.”
    “In what way?” he asked, frowning, his hand reaching to brush her hair back from her face. “Tell me. I think it would be better if I knew what I was trying to keep covered up.”
    She looked at him, and then said, “This is between us.”
    “Absolutely.” His hand dropped to her upper arm, and he stroked it, soothing her.
    “My real name is Crystal Cartwright. But I’ve been Chrissie since childhood.” She watched his face, but it didn’t change. “My dad is famous for making millions, and then being stabbed by an armed robber. He lost the use of his legs. Spent the last twenty years in a wheelchair. All so some stranger could get high on his next drug fix.”
    “I’m sorry. That must have been extremely tough. But that’s not the end of the world. People have full lives, even in a wheelchair.”
    “He lost a lot of blood…” She wasn’t sure if she could carry on; the vision of her dad, lying there in a pool of blood, while she sat by his side crying helplessly still haunted her. It was why she had pushed her boss to let her have this case. The similarities were almost too much to bear. Only Sam was too young to help his mom, but she should have been able to scream, run for help, do something before her dad’s brain became irreparably damaged.
    “I’m sorry. Truly I am.” He pulled her into his arms and held her tight against his chest, and she breathed in the scent of him and languished in the safety he exuded. It reminded her of how she used to