Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
“Tell me about the guy,” my dad said. “The one who saved you.”
“He was amazing,” I said sincerely. “I don’t think we’d be here without him.”
My dad’s lips curled into a smirk. “He likes you.”
I balked, feeling my face heat. “Daaad!”
“I saw the way he looked at you, when he left,” my dad said firmly.
Paige perked up and gave me a sly smile. “Oh really?” She’s been trying to find me a man ever since we met.
I shook my head at both of them and tried to change the subject. “I guess the cops want to talk to us?”
My dad nodded and looked towards the door. “They want statements from all of us. I asked them to give us a minute but I’m expecting a knock at any time.”
I shook my head, suddenly exhausted. “There’s something I need to do, first.” I took Cody through to my room and closed the door. Then I sat on the bed, put my arms around him, and just hugged him to me, burying my nose in the hair on the top of his head.
It was the first time I’d had a chance to let go and I sat there shaking as aftershocks rippled through me. Jesus, I nearly lost him! I clutched Cody so hard it must have been painful but he didn’t complain, just hugged me back as tight as he could. He nearly lost me, I realized and smoothed my hands over his back. This wasn’t like when he woke from a nightmare and I could reassure him it wasn’t real. Those men had been ready to kill us, and I had no idea why.
Our breathing gradually slowed until we were just sitting quietly, holding each other. Me and you against the world, I thought fiercely. I’d keep him safe, whatever it took.
As my thoughts calmed, they started to circle in on something. A big, warm hunk of granite in my mind, solid and heavy enough that it had its own gravity and roughly textured in a way that made me want to stroke up against it.
JD.
While we’d been running through the streets, I hadn’t been able to really register the attraction, but now…
Just the memory of that deep, Texas growl sent little earthquakes all the way to my toes. And the curving slabs of his pecs, so deliciously firm against me when he’d hugged me…the feel of his hand around mine as he pulled me into the alley, his fingers thick and strong and supremely warm…
I flushed, self-conscious. I hadn’t reacted to a man in this way in years. But JD was unlike any man I’d ever met, straightforward and uncomplicated and stubbornly determined to do the right thing. The ruggedness of him, the thick black stubble and the frayed jeans and battered boots…he felt authentic. Real. And for some reason, my weird brain, which spends 99.9% of its time thinking about buildings that don’t exist, locked onto that realness and wouldn’t let go. I kept seeing that gorgeous, full lower lip, imagining those blue eyes scowling down at me as he came in for the kiss….
My dad’s words echoed in my head. He likes you.
Stupid. Men went for slender little things like Paige, not women like me. I pretty much decided in college that I wasn’t destined for romance. Then I met Adrian and, for two glorious years, I felt attractive. Wanted.
And then, not long after Cody was born, I found out it was all a lie. And my self-confidence dropped like an elevator with its cables cut, thundering right down to the basement. Now, closer to forty than thirty, with a son and the stretch marks to prove it, the idea that a guy like JD would be interested in me was crazy. Right?
I thought of those prairie-sky eyes gazing down at me, baking me with their heat. And that look of protective fury that had made me feel so safe.
It’s irrelevant, I told myself. JD was gone, back to his own life, wherever that was. And I’d never see him again.
6
JD
One Week Later
I woke up with her thighs wrapped around me and the hard bud of her nipple against my tongue. But the beep beep beep of the alarm was destroying her, turning her to smoke under my hands. I buried my fingers in that soft black hair just as it disappeared.
I opened my eyes and I was alone in my bed. Goddammit. Third night in a row.
Lorna McBride had taken up permanent residence in my dreams.
I threw back the covers, twisted around to get up, and—
Fuck! My whole lower back exploded in pain. Every nerve was suddenly a piano wire stretched horribly tight, and someone had thrown a heavy wrench into the whole damn cat’s cradle, sending each nerve spasming as it bounced its way down my body. All I could do was lie there panting and grimacing, waiting for it to be over.