Текст книги "Revved"

Автор книги: Sherilee Gray

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Текущая страница: 7 (всего у книги 12 страниц)

“Rusty. You ready?”

Licking her lips, she nodded. It was all she could do. Her ability to form coherent sentences, hell, even a yes or no seemed to have deserted her. Not that she’d ever say no.

He climbed onto the bed, filling the space between her thighs with his large body, then the head of his cock was at her entrance, and his face loomed above her. Their eyes locked as he started to push forward, stretching her, filling her. He shook as he slid deeper, beads of sweat on his forehead slicking his skin. Her mouth dropped open as he pushed in another inch, pleasure pain burning her tender flesh.

“Good?” He grunted, his battle for control written all over his hard face.

She dug her fingers into his back, feeling the thick slabs of muscle tighten under her hands. She nodded, and he pushed inside her the rest of the way.

He hissed. “Fuck, baby. So wet, so fucking tight.” Then he drew out and slid home in one smooth movement, as if he had no control over the action. They both groaned.

Tightening her legs around his hips, she clung to him as he began to move, thrusting into her, hard and demanding. His expression could only be described as brutal, focused as he began to pound deep. Every muscle bunched tight, his chest pumping, harsh breaths puffing past his lips.

He reached back, holding one of her thighs tight against his side, and propped up on his elbow, slid his fingers into her hair, holding her immobile before pressing his mouth to hers. His tongue thrust inside, and she kissed him back just as hard. Groaning into his mouth when he slammed into her harder, deeper.

“Oh, God.” She arched as much as she could with his body pinning her to the mattress, sparks of fire, of unbelievable pleasure radiating from her core. Her body tightened, bearing down on him, and she came apart for the second time. Unintelligible sounds flew from her mouth as he rode her through it. Then with one last thrust and a shout, he came, his cock pulsing hard inside her, his shaking body rocking against hers.

Finally, he stilled, his weight pressing into her, still pinning her to the bed. God, she loved it.

His lips brushed her jaw, then moved to her neck, and she loved that, too. So much. With a groan, he rolled to the side, removed the condom, and threw it in the trash by the bed, then rolled back and pulled her in tight against him. “You good?”

“I’m good.” Yay! Words actually came out of her mouth.

“Knew it’d be great, but fuck, Foxy, I wasn’t expecting that.”

She understood completely. “I know what you mean,” she whispered. Then she turned to face him, running her fingers over his whiskered jaw. “I need to apologize to you.” He frowned, and she quickly carried on before he could interrupt her. “I came up with some wild assumptions about you, about where you came from, how you got where you are. I was wrong, and I just wanted to say I’m sorry.” She slid her thumb over his bottom lip. “You’re not the man I first thought you were, Reid Parker.”

He cleared his throat, held her gaze. “No?”

She shook her head. “You’re so much more.”

His eyes flashed, and he sucked in a sharp breath through his nose before he pulled her closer and rested his chin on the top of her head. “Could say the same about you, sweetheart.” He ran a hand down her back, kissed her hair. “You sore? You want me to run you a bath or something?”

“I’m fine where I am.”

“Yeah.”

It was one word, but the way he said it, pulling her tighter against him as he did, she knew it meant so much more.

She was completely and utterly screwed.

Chapter Thirteen

Reid slid out from under the Cadillac he was working on. “That should do it. Take her for a test run.” Law gave him a chin lift and another sideways look before climbing into the Caddy and firing it up.

Reid scowled at his friend to cover his ass. He’d zoned out several times that morning, and every damn time Law had been the one to catch him staring into space. Which included holding a wrench suspended in one hand and staring into the engine of the Caddy with “a pussy-assed, vacant expression”, Law’s words. He had to pull it together. This was not him. He did not get all twisted in knots over a woman.

But then Rusty wasn’t just any woman.

When the car rolled out for its test run, he went to this office and shut himself in, since he was apparently useless in the workshop.

Walking to the window, he stared out at the street. He’d tried, Jesus, had he tried to keep emotion out of it. In the past he’d never had to. Fucking was fucking. It was easy to keep his brief encounters only physical. But not with Rusty. The feisty redhead had gotten under his skin, and she’d dug deep. She hadn’t let him pull back the night before, no, she’d made it clear what she wanted—him—and then she’d proceeded to blow his mind.

Last night, she’d shown him the sweet trusting nature she kept hidden, and today it was tormenting the hell out of him. Because the way she saw him, it reflected back through those outstanding green eyes, and God help him, he wanted to believe in it. He wanted her to be right so bad it hurt. What if there was more to him, more than his shitty past? What if he was more than the screwed-up result of the nightmare he’d grown up in?

He’d never wanted to believe anything more in his life. To be more for her, to fight the tainted blood running through his veins and be the kind of man Rusty deserved…

Shit, he’d do anything to be that, to have that.

He knew now, he could never go through with his messed-up plan to take her business. He’d known it almost from the very beginning, despite his attempts at convincing himself otherwise. He’d tried to fool himself, telling himself that was the only reason he was pursuing her, but he knew the truth. It had never really been about that, not totally.

He moved to his desk and sat heavily in his chair. Could he really allow himself to have her?

She knew where he came from, some of what he’d been through. Hell, she’d seen it with her own eyes, and she hadn’t run the other way. No, she’d comforted his distraught mother and given herself to him. Had let him take her the way he’d needed last night, hadn’t shied away from the filthy shit that poured from his mouth, his need for control. Instead, she’d wrapped those long legs around his waist and clung to him, begging for more, taking it all and loving every damn minute of it.

He shoved his fingers into his hair.

What the hell am I doing? Put an end to it. Before it’s too late.

His phone rang, and he glanced down at the name flashing on the screen. Nina.

He blew out a breath, chest tightening. He had plans with Rusty tonight, but in his current frame of mind, he didn’t think seeing her again this soon was the greatest idea. Some distance might be for the best. He needed a distraction, a way to get her out of his head, get some much needed perspective. It looked like he had his distraction.

An unwanted emotion hit him hard, an emotion that felt a lot like guilt. He ignored it, shoved it down, and hit the call button. “Hey.”

“Hey yourself.”

“You got business in town?”

“Yep, and I’m here for one night only. You wanna meet up?”

“Love to. Where you staying?”

“No way was I going to let you sit at home pining,” Alex said, grinning as she drove Deke’s Mercedes into South Beach. It was late, but the good clubs would only be warming up about now, and apparently dancing was supposed to “cheer her up”. Though, why she needed cheering up she had no idea.

“I’m not pining. Jesus. We’re not joined at the dammed hip. He’s busy, I’ll see him tomorrow.” She didn’t admit to Alex or her sister that she’d been monumentally disappointed when Reid had called earlier that day to cancel their plans. He’d been apologetic, that deep, sexy voice rasping down the phone making her shiver.

He’d sounded fine, if a little distracted. She’d told herself she was being stupid, overthinking. But no matter how hard she tried to fight it, doubt had crept in as soon as he’d ended the call. The voice that constantly rattled around in her head, telling her that nobody would ever want her, not beyond the pretty exterior. That now he’d gotten what he wanted, he was going to give her the brush off.

But then she’d reminded herself that Reid hadn’t exactly shoved her out of bed afterward. Quite the opposite. He’d held her as if she was precious, like he cared. In the morning he’d made her come around his fingers, had taken her again, but this time slower, as if he was savoring every minute.

Alex had picked up on her change of mood and told her they were going out, no arguments. The woman was way too perceptive.

After that, Rusty had forced the doubt from her mind and decided to trust him, something that didn’t come easy for her.

“How are you doing, though, really?” Piper said, leaning forward from the backseat. “Did you tell him about, you know, what happened?”

“We talked some,” she hedged.

“That’s good.” Her sister’s brow scrunched, concern covering her face. “Did he…did he treat you right, Rust?”

Alex snorted and glanced over at her. “Did he get you off? I think that’s what Piper’s trying to ask.”

“No, that’s not…” Rusty raised a brow at Piper, and her sister flopped back in her seat. “Okay, well, yes, but not only that. Rusty is more vulnerable than she lets on, and I just want to make sure he treated her like he should, like she deserves.”

“I am in this car, you know. And despite what you think, I’m not some virginally challenged Pollyanna.” But if she didn’t give them something now they’d harass her all damn night. They loved her, they worried about her, and as annoying as it could be sometimes, she wouldn’t change it for the world. “But yes, he treated me right. He didn’t emotionally scar me with his giant penis, and miracle of all miracles, despite the years of celibacy, we were all wrong…my hymen hasn’t regrown.”

Alex snorted beside her. “Well, thank fuck for that.”

Rusty turned to look at her sister in the backseat. “I can’t tell you how relieved I was.”

Piper started giggling, but Alex wasn’t quite so polite. She gave up trying to hold it together and busted a gut laughing.

When Alex finally shut the hell up, she gave Rusty a light jab in the arm. “Maybe you could call him later, no way he’d turn down a booty call.”

The idea appealed, she couldn’t deny it. She’d thought of Reid all day, could still feel the man between her thighs. She was tender after their night together, but in a good way, in a way that made it impossible to think of anything other than what they’d done.

“I don’t know.” She grinned over at Alex, who had stopped at a red light.

“No more waiting, remember,” Piper added.

But Alex wasn’t looking at her. She was staring out the window, eyes locked on something across the street. “Motherfucker,” she whispered.

“What is it?”

“Nothing,” she answered quickly, too quickly. “When’s the goddamned light going to change?”

Rusty followed her friend’s gaze toward the Seascape Hotel. Reid’s Plymouth was parked out front, waiting for a valet by the looks of it. The man himself stood beside it, dressed in jeans and a dark gray button-down, looking gorgeous as ever. A beautiful brunette stood beside him, laughing at something he said, then he flung an arm around her shoulders and they headed inside.

Piper reached forward and wrapped her fingers around her bicep. “Rusty, there could be a perfectly good explanation for it. I’m sure it’s not what you think.”

No, it was exactly what she thought. God, how could she have been so stupid? A horn blasted behind them several times. Alex cursed and slammed her foot on the gas.

“Rusty?” Piper shuffled forward in her seat. “Don’t freak out, not until you’ve talked to him.”

“I’m not gonna freak out, Piper.” No, she was too numb to do anything but stare woodenly out the window. Too numb to think. And she sure as hell wasn’t ready to dwell on why she wasn’t enough, why she was never enough. Why besides her brother and the two women in this car, everyone else saw her as nothing but an empty shell. That because of a genetic fluke that made her some kind of ideal, a fantasy, they assumed there was nothing else.

Alex cursed and beat the crap out of the steering wheel. Then the car wrenched to the right, and they came to a stop outside a gas station.

Her friend looked over at her, determination shining in her eyes. “No, we’re not going to freak out. We’re going to get even.” Then she climbed out of the car and stomped inside. A few minutes later, she returned with her arms full of toilet paper rolls. She made three more trips, filling the trunk with what had to be every roll in the store, then slammed it shut and climbed behind the wheel. “Address,” Alex said, eyes narrowed, steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip.

Rusty turned to Alex and rattled off the address, then hung on as they peeled out of the gas station.

Yeah, TPing someone’s place was juvenile, but right then she needed to do something, anything to get back at him. Because it fucking hurt.

Her stomach curled into a heavy knot, and she clutched the door handle in a grip tight enough to cause pain, afraid she’d shatter into a million pieces if she didn’t hold on for all she was worth. Afraid she’d crumble to dust from the inside out. She never thought anything could feel worse than that night after her senior prom, but she was wrong. This was so much worse.

Seeing him with another woman—God, it cut, so damn deep, more than it should, but she’d fallen for the asshole hook, line, and sinker. Idiot.

A short time later, they were parked in front of Reid’s house, unloading toilet paper onto his driveway. Since he was currently holed up at the Seascape Hotel screwing someone else, and fences on either side made his place nice and private, they were free to decorate to their hearts’ content.

Alex loaded up with rolls. “I’ll take the back. Piper you get the garden and the garage. Rusty, you take the front of the house and the lawn.”

Piper nodded, a grim expression on her face. “Let’s do this.”

They knew better than to throw sympathy at her, knew how much she hated that. There would be no crying jag while listening to sad songs, and no eating her body weight in chocolate. That was not her, not how she dealt with crap when it was flung her way. The fact that these women knew that, were prepared to vandalize someone’s house for her, with her, and actually came up with the idea just to make her feel better? Well, it meant everything. These women meant everything to her. Always had, always would.

Rusty grabbed some rolls, shut her mind down, and got to work, putting extra effort into the task.

The entire front of his house had a curtain of white toilet paper hanging from it by the time she finished, matching the attached garage Piper had taken care of. She was aggressively hurling rolls over his small patch of carefully maintained lawn when lights hit them from behind, full beam, followed by the deep rumble of an idling engine. An engine she knew all too well.

Piper spun around and her mouth dropped open. “Holy shit.” The roll she was holding, ready to fire over the garage, dropped from her hand at the sound of a car door banging shut. “Ah, Rusty…”

“What. The. Fuck?” Reid’s voice came from close behind her, low and dangerous.

“I’m just…I’m getting Alex,” Piper hissed and tore off around the back of the house.

“Rusty?” he barked.

Ignoring him, she reached down and picked a decent-sized rock off the ground, tightening her fingers around its hard, cool surface. A mix of emotions swam through her, hurt and anger were right up there, but right then humiliation trumped the lot. I’m such an idiot.

“You wouldn’t fucking dare,” he said, coming closer.

Hauling back her arm, she let the rock fly, the sound of smashing glass followed as it exploded through the garage’s side window. “I fucking would.”

She bent to pick up another one, but he wrapped his arms around her waist, holding her immobile, and dragged her against his front. “Stop acting like a bitch and tell me what the hell’s going on?”

Fuck him. He did not get to be pissed at her. He was the one screwing someone else, not her. He was the one throwing the word exclusively around, lying to her face. “We weren’t expecting you home so soon. If you give us a few minutes to finish the front, we’ll be on our way.”

He dropped his arms and spun her to face him, staring down at her. Pissed didn’t really cover it, furious was a better description, maybe murderous. “There a reason you’re vandalizing my place, smashing the fuckin’ windows?” His eyes narrowed. “This can’t be because I canceled our plans?”

She laughed, the sound bitter to her own ears. “I’m not that goddamned precious.”

“Why?” he gritted out.

She imitated his stance, but only because she needed some kind of barrier between them. “I don’t like being lied to, and I sure as hell don’t like being treated like a brainless piece of ass.” She shrugged. “I thought you knew that about me—big surprise, I was wrong. You’re just a pig, same as all the other pigs I’ve had the displeasure of crossing paths with.”

Before she knew what she was doing, her hand was in the air, heading for his cheek, but he was faster and grabbed her wrist before it made contact with the side of his face. She tried to pull free. “Let me the hell go.”

“I don’t react well to being hit. I wouldn’t try that again if I were you,” he said, voice deadly calm.

She wrenched out of his hold and turned to Alex and Piper, who had just rounded the corner. “Let’s get out of here.” She went to push past him, but one of his hands wrapped around her upper arm and stopped her in her tracks.

“Talk to me, and I mean now, Rusty.”

Alex stormed forward. “Let her go, you cheating piece of shit.” Piper grabbed Alex around the waist before she launched herself at Reid.

“Cheating?” he repeated.

“We saw you with that skank outside a hotel. Don’t try to deny it,” Alex fired at him.

His gaze slid from Alex to Rusty and held. “That skank, though I wouldn’t say that to her face if I were you, was my cousin. She was here for one night on business. We had dinner. I dropped her back at her hotel.”

“Oh, a likely story,” Alex said, struggling to get away from Piper.

Jaw clenched, Reid pulled his phone from his pocket, and holding it up so Alex could see as well, scrolled down to someone named Nina and hit the call button, putting it on speaker phone.

It rang twice, then a woman’s voice sang out into the now deathly silent yard. “Yo. What’s going on? I was just going to bed. I have an early flight, remember.”

Reid held the phone closer to his mouth. “Hey, cuz, just wanted to tell you again how nice it was catching up for dinner.” His eyes were still locked on Rusty’s, and she wanted to shrivel up and die right there on his driveway. “And to make sure you say hi to Aunty Susan for me.”

“Are you high or something?” the voice said. “You already said that when you dropped me off. You going soft in your old age?”

“Obviously,” he muttered. And all the while, those eyes stayed locked on Rusty. Making her squirm. “Catch you next time, pain in the ass.”

“You, too, shithead.” Then the call disconnected.

He shoved his phone in his pocket and tilted his head toward the house. “Inside.”

Oh, shit. She stared up at him, mouth flapping, giving a good impression of a dying fish. “Um…”

“Say good-bye to your friends.”

“Um…” She looked to said friends, and Alex was no longer fighting to get free from Piper. Instead the pair of them were looking down at their shoes, feet shuffling about on the toilet paper coating the ground.

“Now, Rusty.”

“Good-bye?” She stared at them, eyes wide, hoping for some kind of backup. Nothing.

“See you at work Monday,” Alex called, already halfway up the driveway.

“Sorry about the…um, yeah, sorry,” Piper said, then ran after her.

Traitors.

“Let’s go,” Reid said, wrapping his fingers around the back of her neck, leading her toward the front door, or where it would have been if you could see it past the white toilet paper curtain.

Ah, crap.

Chapter Fourteen

Reid’s fingers were curled around the back of Rusty’s slender neck, over the rose inked there, hair sliding against his hand, warm and silky smooth as he led her inside. He used those seconds to calm the hell down.

What the fuck?

She was trembling. But it wasn’t from fear. She sure as shit wasn’t afraid of him. If she was afraid, she never would have thrown a goddamn rock through his window right in front of him.

Shoving aside the toilet paper blocking his way, he unlocked the door, letting it swing open. When she stood rooted to the spot, he gave her a gentle push. “In you go.”

Head down, she walked into his living room like a petulant child, one that didn’t want to admit she was wrong despite the glaring evidence. “Is this gonna take long?” she muttered.

“Sit your ass down.”

Surprisingly, she did as he said, though she scowled at him, throwing a shitload of attitude his way. “I’m sitting. Now what?”

“Now you talk to me, like you should have done when you saw me with Nina outside her hotel instead of coming to my place and messing shit up.”

She shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”

He arched a brow. Was she for real?

She grumbled something under her breath and crossed her arms. “Okay. God. I was wrong. I admit it. Sorry, whatever.”

Her chest rose and fell rapidly. She was nowhere near as calm as she pretended to be, not at all. And as hard as he tried, he couldn’t get a handle on her mood, what she was thinking.

He took a step closer. “Why are you freaking out right now? Have I given you any reason to be afraid of me?”

“No.”

“Then what is it? Why the attitude? What do you think’s happening here?”

She turned away, stared out the window. “Just get it over with.”

“Get what over with?” She was confusing the shit out of him.

Her gaze snapped back. “End it. Finish whatever the hell we’ve been doing here. You got what you wanted, right? Me in your bed. Now you’re done with me. There’s no need to pretend that you want to carry this further. I’ve even given you an easy out. I smashed your window. Your place looks like Frosty the Freakin’ Snowman took a dump on it. Doesn’t that piss you off?”

Something inside his chest coiled tight. “What did you just say?” His voice came out rough, pure gravel.

“Doesn’t that piss you off?”

He shook his head slowly. “No. The other thing.”

She swallowed, that slender throat working. “I said a lot of things. You’re going to have to spell it out for me.”

“I got what I wanted, and I’m done with you?” In the past? Any other woman? Yeah, he would have been done. He would have walked away without a backward glance.

But none of those women had been Rusty West.

Her gaze finally met his, full of challenge. “That’s the truth isn’t it?”

She was exquisite, full of fire and attitude, talented as hell. Yet he realized in that moment she was so insecure, so afraid that she wasn’t worth the effort, that she’d decided to push him away rather than risk getting hurt. She saw him with another woman and immediately thought the worst, thought that he could move on to the next and not look back.

He’d figured out early on that wouldn’t be possible with Rusty. Tonight he also realized she could never know about his plan to try to take her business from her. If she ever found out, she’d never forgive him. Never trust him again. As tough as she tried to act, it was just that, an act. She was fragile, needed to be treated with care. It was there, shining from her eyes, the wariness, the disappointment. The pain.

She actually believed the bullshit she’d just spouted.

Like hell he would let her go. He thought he could, but it was too late for that. “No. It’s not the fucking truth.”

She actually flinched. “What?”

“I told you what I wanted. I laid it all out for you. I told you I wanted to give us a shot. Do I have to go over it again? Is there something that you didn’t understand?”

“No. But I…”

“What? You thought I was lying to get you in my bed? That I’d screw around on you without a second thought?”

“I…ah…”

Possessiveness reared up inside him, a dark energy simmering just below the surface as his next words formed in his head. “Someone hurt you. I can see it. You show me every time you clam up, try to push me away. Who hurt you, baby?”

Her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No…that’s not it…”

“Tell me.” Taking the seat beside her, he hauled her into his lap, then gripped her chin, tipping her face up to his. “I’m not playing with you, Rusty. No one reacts the way you just did without some shit in your past. I know that better than anyone. I want us to move forward, but I need to know what I’m dealing with here. I need to know how to show you I’m in this for the long haul.”

“You are?” she whispered.

“What the fuck have I been telling you?”

She rested her hand on his bicep. “Right. I’m sorry.”

“So you’ll talk to me?”

Laying her head on his chest, she nodded against his pec, melting into him, soft and sweet, dropping that barrier. “Okay.”

“I’m listening.”

Her swallow was audible, but then she finally started talking. Thank God.

“I had a major crush on this guy at school, Brian Jamison. I never told anyone but Piper and Alex. I guess it was hard to hide. They pegged me right off. I’d start blushing and stuttering whenever he was around.” She wriggled on his lap, getting comfortable. “I had a reputation at high school. Some of the guys called me a cock tease, frigid, ice queen. You know, that kind of thing. I learned from a fairly young age my looks got me attention, whether I wanted it or not. I hated it. I’ve always hated it. People don’t tend to look any deeper, you know? So I never went on dates or favored any one guy.”

He rubbed her back, encouraging her to carry on. He had an idea where this was going and could already feel his blood pressure starting to boil over. “Keep going, Foxy.”

“Anyway, I liked Brian more than I’d ever liked any other guy. For the first time I wanted to be noticed, I wanted him to see me, get to know me. Our senior prom was coming up and a few guys had asked me out, but I wasn’t interested in any of them. So, nervous out of my mind, I got up the courage to ask him to go with me. He said yes right away. I was excited, really happy that he liked me too.”

Of course he did. Little asswipe.

“Prom night came, and we all went. We had a blast…then afterward Brian took me to the hotel he’d booked for us, and me being naive and, I thought, in love, followed blindly. He started kissing me as soon as we got in the door, no small talk, then onto the bed. It was embarrassing and rushed. He made no attempt to prepare me and just pulled off my underwear, pushing inside me before I was ready. It wasn’t only embarrassing, it hurt as well, and not just for the obvious reason.”

Every muscle in his body went rock solid. He was sure plenty of teenage girls had similar stories, assholes that treated them like shit, but this was Rusty, his Rusty, and the thought of anyone treating her that way turned him inside out.

“He finished a few minutes later. I…” He could actually feel her cringing against his chest. “I tried to wrap my arms around him. I thought he loved me. But he jumped off the bed, did up his pants, and ran to the door, flinging it open. His friends poured in and cheered. High fives were exchanged followed by…money.”

“What?” He growled, a dangerous edge to his voice.

She lifted her head, looking him in the eye. “It was a bet. To see if he could take the ice queen’s virginity. Thankfully, Alex and Piper were at a party in the same hotel, heard the noise, and ran over. Alex went ape-shit and smacked Brian over the head with a chair, and the guys took off.” She rested her head on his chest again. “That was my introduction to sex and relationships. My mother cheating on my father and leaving us a few years before had already skewed my ideas about love and lasting commitment. I guess that’s why I don’t date. Silly, I know. It was a long time ago, and I should’ve gotten over it already.” He felt her slim shoulders shrug. “But I don’t trust easily. It’s kind of hard when the person you trusted most in the world left you behind without a second glance, then the first guy you ever liked, took your virginity on a bet.”

He’d learned more about her and how her mind worked in the last few minutes than he had in the last couple of weeks. Now he understood her hesitation, her wariness.

Reid tightened his arms around her. “There’s nothing silly about any of it. That asshole treated you like shit when he should have treated you like gold. That’s his loss. As for your mother, she missed out big time. That was her mistake, and I can guarantee one day she’ll regret her decision to cut her kids out of her life.” He kissed the top of her head. “But you gotta know. I won’t fuck you over that way, ever. We give this our best shot. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t, we part ways like adults. But, Foxy, you gotta talk to me. If I piss you off, you tell me. You talk to me about it. You don’t throw a rock through my window, and you sure as fuck don’t try to hit me.”

She winced, all color draining from her face. “Oh, God. I’m sorry…after your father…” She slid her hands up either side of this neck. “You didn’t deserve it. I let my temper get the better of me. I can’t believe I did that.”

“I get it, babe. But this is finished now. We put it behind us?” She nodded, and he slid his fingers into her silky, red hair, tipping her head back. “Now enough talking for tonight. I want that mouth.”

She grinned. Then his woman wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed the hell out of him.