The Protective Dominant Read Online Free PDF Page B

feel bad all evening.”
    He nodded and handed her the bag with her shoes inside.
    Feeling suddenly awkward, she got out of his truck. “Well, uh, thanks.”
    “I’ll start work on the fence tomorrow morning. You can cook me breakfast.”
    She blinked. “Yeah, I can do that.”
    He nodded again and headed toward his house. Then he paused and looked over his shoulder at her. “We’ll go somewhere else next time. Somewhere you’re afraid to go.”
    Her throat tightened. “All right.” She thought maybe she could do it.
    As long as he was with her.
    * * * *
    “Didn’t see you running on the beach this morning,” Luke said as Taz got out of his truck on the driveway leading up to Luke and his new wife Sian’s beautiful house on the water. Taz took a deep breath, appreciating the fresh sea air.
    Maybe he should consider moving closer to the water…
    Except then he wouldn’t be living next to Jenny. Unacceptable. He had to be around to keep an eye on her.
    “Thanks for loaning me that jigsaw,” Taz said, ignoring his friend’s implied question about his whereabouts.
    “Sure. So are you coming out to give a hand at the rebuilding party for Coffee Dreams ? ”
    The coffee shop had been severely damaged in a firestorm. Taz missed it, even though Sian and Dharma, the two women who worked there, seemed to enjoy giving him grief over his attitudes about women. “It’s tomorrow, right?”
    “Yep, after work.”
    Taz thought about it. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Can I bring someone?”
    “You? Bringing someone?”
    “Yeah, what of it?”
    Luke shut his mouth. “Nothing. Do I know this woman?”
    “Maybe.”
    “Taz, man, you gotta tell me more than that.”
    A proprietary grin tugged at Taz’s mouth.
    “Shit, you’re gone over this girl.”
    “Am not. See you later.”
    “Taz!”
    He shut the truck door in Luke’s face.
    * * * *
    The lightning woke Taz hours later. He sat up in bed and a fine mist hit his chest. He’d left the window open so that he could hear Jenny, so he could see her if he needed to. Another blade of blue white speared the ground and some instinct made him lunge to the window.
    He stood there, peering out, trying to see in the obsidian darkness. Rain fell like a waterfall. Thunder rumbled overhead like stampeding horses. When light flashed again, he spotted her, a little heap on the earth.
    Jesus, was she moving?
    He yanked on shorts and ran barefoot out of his house, slipped on mud, swore.
    Jenny. Have to get to her.
    He trampled her flower bed getting to her.
    She was huddled in the cold, her shoulders hunched up, her body hugging in on itself to try to keep warm. Her eyes were wide and spacey. A garden trowel lay limp in one hand.
    “ Jenny! ” Taz shook her. He’d never done that before. She rattled in his arms like loose change. “Jenny!”
    Her dark eyes widened, saw him. She lifted a trembling hand.
    He crushed her to him, covered her mouth with his.
    There in the streaming rain and the dirt, he kissed her, taking her breath, feeling her heart pound against his chest. Her hand curled in his hair, tugging him closer.
    He sipped from her as if he hadn’t ever had a taste of a woman. She felt like his first, the lightning, the thunder, inside his body, the storm all his, brewing for weeks, exploding now. “My woman.”
    She made a soft sound. Agreement? Despair? He felt her nails digging into his lower arms.
    He kissed her, dying for her lips. She’d gotten inside him. Crept in like a mouse and made her pain his.
    He was lying on top of her. Her long hair was spread out, lodged with windfall, slick with mud. He kissed every part of her chilly skin he could touch then reached down and tore her nightie at her neckline Her breasts were pale, luscious and he buried his face between them, sucking desperately while he held her down.
    She howled, banging small fists against him, scoring his face to get to his eyes. “Jenny!” Hoarse, animal sounds. She scuttled from him. “Jenny,