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    Atticus (Steele Protectors 2)
    Atticus (Steele Protectors 2)
    Atticus (Steele Protectors 2)
    Ebook147 pages2 hours

    Atticus (Steele Protectors 2)

    By Carole Mortimer

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    About this ebook

    ATTICUS (Steele Protectors 2) is the 2nd book in USA Today and Amazon #1 Bestselling Author, Carole Mortimer’s, BRAND NEW Contemporary Romantic Suspense series.

    Author’s Note: Beware of the very sexy & very alpha Steele brothers. These books are HOT!

    Atticus is eldest of the six Steele brothers, and he takes that role very seriously. Even more so when it comes to the welfare and safety of his fiercely independent and adopted sister, Jenna Riley. Except Atticus hasn’t thought of her in a sisterly way for years. If he ever did.
    Recently Jenna was viciously attacked by two thugs, who have since learned the error of their ways at the hands of the Steele brothers. Atticus insists, for her own safety, that Jenna live with him once she’s well enough to be discharged from hospital. Weeks later, she’s still there, tormenting him on a daily basis, with her presence, her perfume, and the sexy items of her clothing occasionally left in his bathroom, which she insists on using because she says his shower is better than hers!
    Atticus isn’t sure how much more of this torment he can take before he loses it completely and gives in to his need to take and own Jenna. All of her.
    When Jenna’s life is once again threatened all bets are off!

    More books by Carole Mortimer:

    Steele Protectors contemporary romance Series:
    LOGAN (Steele Protectors 1)
    ATTICUS (Steele Protectors 2)
    BRYCE (Steele Protectors 3)
    ROURKE (Steele Protectors 4)
    More books to come in this series.

    Regency Lovers Series:
    INDECENT (Regency Lovers 1)
    OBSESSION (Regency Lovers 2)
    CRAVING (Regency Lovers 3)
    FORBIDDEN (Regency Lovers 4)
    SURRENDER (Regency Lovers 5)
    More books to come in this series.

    Dragon Hearts:
    NATHANIEL (Dragon Hearts 1)
    DERYK (Dragon Hearts 2)
    BRYN (Dragon Hearts 3)
    DYLAN (Dragon Hearts 4)
    GRIGOR (Dragon Hearts 5)
    GARRETT (Dagon Hearts 6)
    AERAN & RHYS (Dragon Hearts 7)
    Series now complete

    Regency Sinners Series:
    Wicked Torment (Regency Sinners 1)
    Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners 2)
    Wicked Scandal (Regency Sinners 3)
    Wicked Deception (Regency Sinners 4)
    Wicked Captive (Regency Sinners 5)
    Wicked Temptation (Regency Sinners 6)
    Wicked Sinner (Regency Sinners 7)
    Wicked Christmas (Regency Sinners 8)
    Series now complete

    Regency Unlaced Series:
    Books 1-9: Series is now complete

    Contemporary Romance Knight Security Series – spin-off to Alpha Series:
    Books 0.5–6: Series is now complete

    Contemporary Romance Alpha Series:
    Books 1-8: Series is now complete.

    Carole Mortimer has written 245 books, in contemporary romantic suspense, Regency romance & paranormal romance. She became an indie author in 2014. In May 2017 she received a Career Achievement Award from Romantic Times. She is the Recipient of the 2015 Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Is an Entertainment Weekly Top 10 Romance Author—ever. Also 2014 Romantic Times Pioneer of Romance. She was also recognized by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012, for her “outstanding service to literature”.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCarole Mortimer
    Release dateApr 12, 2019
    ISBN9781910597736
    Atticus (Steele Protectors 2)
    Author

    Carole Mortimer

    Carole Mortimer was born in England, the youngest of three children. She began writing in 1978, and has now written over one hundred and seventy books for Harlequin Mills and Boon®. Carole has six sons, Matthew, Joshua, Timothy, Michael, David and Peter. She says, ‘I’m happily married to Peter senior; we’re best friends as well as lovers, which is probably the best recipe for a successful relationship. We live in a lovely part of England.’

    Read more from Carole Mortimer

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      Book preview

      Atticus (Steele Protectors 2) - Carole Mortimer

      Steele Protectors 2

      ATTICUS

      By

      Carole Mortimer

      USA Today Bestselling Author

      COPYRIGHT

      Copyright © 2019 Carole Mortimer

      Cover Design Copyright © Glass Slipper Designs

      Editor: Linda Ingmanson

      Formatter: Matthew Mortimer

      ISBN: 978-1-910597-73-6

      This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

      All Rights Reserved.

      DEDICATIONS

      My husband, Peter

      Chapter 1

      Not again!

      A low growl emanated from Atticus’s chest, and he came to an abrupt halt as he was about to hang up his bathrobe before taking his morning shower. Because the hook where he would normally hang his robe was already occupied.

      By a tiny scrap of black lace and silk.

      Black.

      Lace.

      And silk.

      His cock immediately engorged as he imagined the sexy bra lovingly cupping the pert breasts of the woman it belonged to. Full breasts he could imagine were tipped with pretty, pale, rose-colored nipples to go with her peaches-and-cream complexion and gorgeous tumble of red hair—

      Jenna! Atticus bellowed as he pulled on and refastened his robe to cover his raging erection. Get your ass in here. Now!

      I’m busy, came the muffled reply down the hallway.

      I said now, damn it!

      God, Attie. That mocking voice became clearer as Jenna walked down the hallway toward him. You are such a pain in my butt. I’m trying to get ready for work here— She broke off as she came to a halt in the open doorway, one auburn eyebrow arched as she saw the bra now dangling from one of his fingers.

      Do not call me Attie, Atticus warned gruffly. He held up the scrap of material. Yours, I believe?

      Her mouth twitched, and it was obvious she was holding back a smile. Even if there’s something you aren’t telling me, I’m pretty sure this isn’t going to fit you. She gave his covered and muscular chest a pointed glance as she unhooked the bra from his finger.

      He continued to scowl. This is the third time this week I’ve found an item of your…clothing, for want of a better word, in my en suite bathroom.

      Your shower has better pressure than mine.

      They’re exactly the same, he grated. Besides, how can you forget your bloody bra, or the two pairs of panties I found in here earlier this week?

      She shrugged. Must have left them in here after I undressed and brushed my teeth before going to bed.

      Atticus had noticed a couple of days ago that Jenna’s toothbrush and toothpaste also seemed to have found their way into his bathroom. Along with her shower gel and shampoo. The whole bloody room—make that the six bedroomed penthouse apartment—smelled of Jenna. Of the perfume of the products she used along with the heady female musk that was purely her.

      Atticus wasn’t known for his patience. Never had been, apparently. According to his mother, he couldn’t even wait to be born and had arrived a full month earlier than his due date. But what little patience he did have, Jenna seemed to take delight in testing. Constantly.

      Even dressed formally in one of the crisp blouses, cream today, and pencil-slim skirts Jenna wore to work, she looked gorgeous. Her shoulder-length red hair was pulled back and secured at her nape, revealing her heart-shaped face dominated by dark green eyes. There was a light dusting of freckles across the bridge of her nose and creamy cheeks, which Atticus knew she hated but which he loved. She had full lips above a pointed and determined chin.

      Jenna’s lips… Dear God, those slightly pouting lips were designed for kissing. Or wrapping around the length of his cock as he fucked her mouth.

      She gave a pained grimace. Maybe it’s time I moved back to my own apartment.

      No!

      Atticus bit back that immediate response. Even now, four weeks after the beating, he could still see the remains of the bruises and cuts Jenna had received, mainly on her beautiful face, after being abducted and assaulted by two thugs. Atticus and his brothers, with the help of the head of security of the London bratva, had since ensured those men would never harm another woman ever again.

      And Atticus knew his feelings toward Jenna weren’t in the least step-or-whatever-the-hell brotherly they were supposed to be.

      His parents had taken eight-year-old Jenna Riley into their family fourteen years ago after the death of her mother, a single parent, who had been a close friend of the parents. Atticus had been twenty-three at the time, the eldest of the six Steele brothers and no longer living at home, having joined the army at eighteen. Which hadn’t deterred young Jenna from following him about his parents’ home with hero worship shining in her eyes every time he paid them a visit.

      Fourteen years later and Jenna had grown into a beautiful woman who no longer looked at him with hero worship in her eyes but seemed to enjoy nothing more than annoying the hell out of him every chance she got. Something, unfortunately, it was far too easy for her to do where Atticus was concerned.

      Again, as the eldest brother, Atticus had insisted Jenna stay with him at his apartment once she was discharged from the hospital.

      It had now been three weeks since Jenna moved in, and she was slowly healing. Physically, at least. Most of the bruising had faded from her beautiful face. Her fingers were no longer strapped after being broken, along with a couple of ribs. She had also, with the doctor’s okay, returned to her job in the bank at the beginning of this week.

      But the damage inflicted on her by those two bastards wasn’t only physical. The blow it had given Jenna’s usually feisty self-confidence was evident in the way she now allowed him to use his SUV to drive her to work and pick her up again in the evening, rather than walking or taking the tube, as she used to do before the attack. Once Jenna was home from work in the evening, she didn’t go out again either, preferring to spend her nights in the safety of Atticus’s apartment, where the security was so high, no one could even reach the penthouse floor without the number code for the lift.

      Oh, Jenna still gave Atticus shit, but that was just par for the course between the two of them and something he knew to expect from her. He would think Jenna was really ill if she even attempted to be polite to him.

      The situation had been made more difficult because, even a month after the attack, reporters were still trying to get photographs or a statement from her.

      The story of the vicious attack had been in the newspapers the day after it happened. Once Jenna’s identity had been verified as the person attacked, the newspapers had run with the story for days, somehow having acquired old school photographs of her, along with her passport photo, to print with the story. The first photographs of Jenna as she was now had appeared when she was discharged from hospital three weeks ago, still battered and bruised but managing to maintain a smile for the cameras clicking in her face.

      Atticus had put a stop to any more photographs being taken by always leaving the apartment building from the underground garage, the black windows on his SUV ensuring no one could see who was inside the vehicle.

      But once the trial began, and it was scheduled for two months’ time, he knew it was going to be more difficult, if not impossible, to stop those reporters from hounding her.

      There was absolutely no way Atticus was going to let her move back to her apartment until the hue and cry had died down. That he had never been able to think of Jenna as being even a pseudo younger sister, even when she was younger, let alone now she was a fully grown and beautiful woman, was his problem to deal with, not hers.

      A problem that certainly wasn’t helped by the fact she kept leaving items of her sexy underwear in his bathroom!

      Jenna held her breath as she waited for Atticus to respond to her suggestion of moving back to her own apartment.

      It was the last thing she wanted to do.

      The abduction a month ago, and being badly beaten afterward, had affected her more deeply than she would ever care to admit out loud. To anyone. But least of all to Atticus.

      Because, much as she teased and tormented him, he was her hero. The man she admired above all others. He was also her safe place. He always had been. Nothing and no one could touch or hurt her when Atticus was around. What had started as starry-eyed hero worship in her childhood had matured into a love so deep, it prevented her from even seeing other men, let alone being attracted to any of them. Oh, she flirted with other men and went out or dancing at clubs with her friends. But she never took any of the men she met home with her, nor went home with any of them. Atticus was it for her, and he always would be.

      The fact he was currently wearing only a black toweling robe that revealed the dusting of dark hair on his chest and the long length of his bare and muscular legs beneath the robe’s knee length wasn’t doing much to settle the pounding of her heart and rapidly beating pulse.

      Not surprising when Atticus was six feet and five inches of pure muscle and alpha male. She loved his bad-boy looks: long dark hair falling untidily about his wide shoulders, a leather vest sometimes worn over fitted dark T-shirts but sometimes not, and dark combat trousers worn with heavy black biker boots. She also knew there was an eagle in flight tattooed on his broad and muscular back.

      It wasn’t just a look. Atticus owned several vehicles, but preferred, whenever possible, to ride his Harley. He was head of the Steele Protectors security company, owned and run by the six Steele brothers. He’d spent ten years in the army, and in doing so became a lethal weapon in his own right.

      The fact he was also gorgeous took Jenna’s breath away every time she looked at him: piercing chocolate-brown eyes, a long nose

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