street. “You all right?”
“I don’t know. I think so.”
“You did good in there.”
“In the storage room?”
“Yep.”
She made a doubtful sound. “Bob got to me.”
He glanced her way and saw a deep frown touching her pretty
mouth. He ached low, his groin reacting with brutal intensity. If he could
taste that mouth, he’d take away her frown. Damn. Calm down, boy. You aren’t
getting any tonight.
He wanted to ease her mind. “I don’t blame you. Bob is
offensive and condescending. I’m sorry you were subjected to that.”
She drew her thick hair back away from her face, stuffing
her fingers into the mass of curls. His fingers itched to explore the soft
strands and feel them brush across his body. An erotic image popped into his
head of that hair touching his chest as she kissed her way down to his cock.
Jesus, he had it bad.
He swallowed hard. “It’s a trigger for you. It’s
understandable.”
“I don’t want it to be a trigger. I thought I was over this
stuff.”
“Don’t beat yourself up. You were trapped in the room with
him. If you could have walked away it would’ve been different.”
She unbuttoned her long trench coat and he caught a flash of
black leggings, black boots up to her knees and a fluffy pink sweater. She
looked good enough to eat.
“Thank you for…” She hesitated. “For watching out for me.”
“Anytime.”
“Considering how things ended between us all those years ago,
I wouldn’t think…” She trailed off once more.
A craving started inside him but this one had nothing to do
with sex. “Look, if you want to talk about it—”
“There’s the burger place.” She pointed to the local joint
they used to eat at as kids.
Okay. So she didn’t want to discuss their past. Their very
rocky, stormy past. Maybe he didn’t want to either. He’d buy her dinner, take
her back to the hotel room and…leave her there to sleep.
They made it through the drive-through in record time and
she let him buy her the biggest combo. As they drove away, she clutched the
food bag on her lap as if it was a lifeline, her gaze pinned somewhere in the
distance. She didn’t speak on the way to the The Dixie. The Dixie was two
stories of old-style hotel. One street off the main drag, the hotel had few amenities
enclosed in its old building. She directed him to the end of a row and her
first-floor room. He brought the sedan to a halt.
“Come inside,” she said.
Not much longer and she sat on the king-sized bed trying not
to spill fries and messy burger all over the dull yellow comforter, and
wondered if she’d lost her mind.
I freaking invited this hot, totally ripped man into my
hotel room.
Now that she was here with Jake nervousness had taken hold.
He didn’t have the demeanor of a man interested in a night of sex. He sat at
the desk, munching fries and taking a big bite out of his double burger. He ate
with enthusiasm, as if he’d never tasted anything better in his life. She
watched without remorse. Yeah, she’d told Lena and Melanie she wanted a one-night
stand with this man and part of her really, really did. The other part wished
she’d never invited him. Not because she feared him. Hell no. She knew without
a doubt he’d never hurt her. In fact, she knew he’d protect her with his life.
Maybe that was what was wrong with her. This mouth-watering soldier had flipped
her libido into overdrive when he’d taken care of her in the mall. An equally
defiant part of her reared its head. She didn’t like a man taking care of her,
making decisions for her. But he hasn’t. He’d waited and watched, been
there when she needed but never intrusively. Damn him. Could he be any
sexier? She didn’t think so. Maybe naked. Yeah. That.
As a teen he’d been good-looking with that hint of the man he’d
become. Girls had drooled over him, including her. At thirty-one he’d grown
into tall, rugged, delicious man who fired up all her female needs.
“Something wrong
Kristene Perron, Joshua Simpson