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As she rolled to her back, a little moan left her lips at the unique tenderness of her body that reminded her far too well of the hours past and the sexual exhaustion that had gripped her somewhere in the early hours of the morning.
She glanced at the bed beside her, and a folded square of paper had her reaching out. Picking it up and unfolding it, she couldn’t stop the pleasure that tightened her chest.
Had a few meetings this morn. Will be back to work on the cycle. As well as another project I’m considering.
She bit at her lower lip; still, a smile curved it and she couldn’t help but reread the letter and wonder what he had in mind for another project. She couldn’t imagine he’d top the night before. The things he’d made her feel, the pleasure that had exploded through her, still amazed her.
So why the dream? What was it that made her dream such a thing after experiencing such ecstasy at his touch?
As she glanced at the clock, her eyes widened.
Damn, Lyrica would be arriving in only a matter of hours. Zoey had promised her sister the painting she’d finally completed of her family. Graham, Lyrica, and their three-month-old twins. She had the painting ready and she knew her sister wouldn’t accept putting it off. Dammit.
Forcing herself from the bed to the shower, she made a mental note to make certain to inform everyone she was painting for the next week or so. That would keep them away; it would make certain no one bothered her while Doogan was there. She doubted he’d be there long; she couldn’t afford for him to stay long. But she wanted every touch she could take as her own, every moment she could steal with him before she had to let him go.
—
Elijah could feel the bullet Natches was going to put right between his eyes, bearing down on him. He was so dead and he knew it. The Mackays were going to kill him. It was his job to keep Zoey safe, no matter what she got into, or if he couldn’t do it, then he was to call one of them.
Her brother, Dawg, knew he was pushing Zoey away from him by being so overprotective with her older sisters. He was trying desperately to give her the freedom they hadn’t had, and to keep her from running from Somerset. She was the only one who didn’t threaten to do so, and the only one who withdrew from the family completely whenever she went head to head with her brother or cousins.
And they were right. She would leave. She wouldn’t run, she’d simply pack up, tell everyone good-bye, then be gone. That was why he’d agreed to help them. That was why he’d accepted her invitation to use the guest room when she’d offered it.
Then Doogan had called that night, just days after the Mackays secured his promise to watch out for her. And he’d seen what could happen to her, even while she was living within one of the most secure homes in the county.
Drugged, convinced she’d killed a friend, her mind so vulnerable, so open, he and Doogan had to remain completely silent, communicating with hand signals alone while slipping her back into her suite at her mother’s inn.
He’d watched her hold on to Doogan as he laid her back in her bed, heard her quiet sobs as Doogan eased her arms from around his neck.
“Don’t leave me,” she’d begged him, as though aware Doogan was more than the dream she’d been told he was. “Please don’t leave me.”
And he’d seen Doogan’s face too. That tormented, dark regret that creased the other man’s face and filled his dark eyes. He’d never seen that look on Doogan’s face before, and he’d known the older man nearly all his life.
Eli knew him wel
l enough to know that Zoey had somehow taken a hold on him, and it was one Doogan hadn’t been able to free himself from in the past year. But that didn’t mean Doogan wouldn’t shred her heart and leave her broken.
Eli had become fond of Zoey in the past year. And he’d found more than one reason to regret the promise he’d made her brother. If he betrayed Zoey, she would hate him. There would be no forgiveness. And if he didn’t? What would happen to Zoey if he didn’t find a way to protect her from Doogan and the enemies now focused on the woman someone had realized the other man cared for?
Hell, Eli knew Doogan was already in her bed. His truck had been in the garage, but the spare guest room was empty and Doogan hadn’t been anywhere else. As Eli had stood in the living room, he’d heard the faint sounds from Zoey’s bedroom. It was as well soundproofed as most of the bedrooms; still, the slightest sound had escaped and Eli had made himself leave the apartment entirely.
Hell, he’d ended up dozing in his truck until daylight. Now, he had to figure out what to do.
He should have never obeyed Doogan’s order to bring her to Louisville with him. He should have told the bastard to get fucked. It wasn’t like Doogan could really fire him for it. But Eli hadn’t been able to get the memory of the torment on Doogan’s face that night out of his mind.
And now, Eli told himself furiously, he was fucking paying for it in spades.
He liked to think he was a fairly intelligent man most days. He might not agree with Dawg and his cousins where Zoey’s protection was concerned, but he understood why they did the things that so enraged the sisters. Over the past several years he’d seen the danger Zoey’s sisters had faced. If it hadn’t been for Dawg and his cousins’ determination to protect Dawg’s sisters, then they would have died.
He didn’t always agree with how they did it.
This time, someone needed to know what was going on, though. He was going to have to tell someone, some way. Warn them and at least make sure someone suspected she could be getting into trouble.
Unfortunately, if he told, Doogan had the power to lock him in a deep, dark hole and throw away the key.
Damn, this whole situation was making his guts cramp. Zoey had been vulnerable enough after the man determined to kill Lyrica a year ago had broken Zoey’s arm while trying to force her to betray where her sister was hiding. The arm had barely healed before Sam found Zoey huddled in front of Lyrica’s apartment, drugged out of her mind and convinced she’d killed someone she considered a friend.
A year. He and Doogan had investigated the incident for a year, and still they didn’t have a single suspect. And they hadn’t been able to find Harley after Sam’s meeting with him that night, after Zoey showed up outside her apartment.
