He stepped further into my space, forcing my eyes up to meet his blazing gaze. “I don’t have a fucking girlfriend. If you had stuck around another five seconds, you would know that.”
“She told me she was your girlfriend,” I insisted.
“Don’t doubt she did. Elise is batshit crazy. Instead of believing what she said, you should have told her to get her ass up out ofyourchair,” he growled. “And you most definitely should not have up and left when I couldn’t come after you.”
“We barely know each other,” I protested.
“Baby, I think we both know that isn’t true. Don’t give a fuck how long it’s been,” he argued. “Now, let’s get a few things straight. Elise is not my woman. She’s not my anything. I’m a one-woman man, and she’s standing right in front of me. You don’t understand the man I am, not yet. But I’m tellin’ you right now, I would not have had your name on my lips after getting shot if I had another woman on rotation. And even if I was that kind of jackass, you’d hope I’d be smarter than going after another prez’s daughter if I wasn’t serious as sin. And baby, I am.”
My heart was hammering out of my chest as I stared up at him in utter shock. “You live in Colorado,” I blurted in consternation.
He shrugged. “Logistics.”
“Logistics?” I gaped at him.
He raised a brow. “You just gonna keep coming up with reasons why this can’t work? Or are you gonna go with the part of you that had you sleeping by my bedside for two weeks?” he murmured, his hands cupping my face. “The same part, by the way, that would have had me doing the same. No hesitation. Tell you what,” he persisted when I continued to stare at him in muted shock, “while you’re mulling that over, I’ll follow you back to your place. Promised the doc if he released me early, I’d take it easy.”
His comment had any indecision about us replaced with worry for him as I took in what I now realized were tired eyes. “Are you even supposed to be out of the hospital?” I demanded.
He grinned. “Doesn’t matter what I’m supposed to be. What matters is I’m here. Now, you gonna put that gorgeous ass in your girly-as-hell car and direct me to your place? Or am I gonna have to go to the Knights’ headquarters and see if they’ll put me up?”
There was no doubt the Knights would put him up. The daunting fact, I realized, was that I wanted to take care of him.
Lord, I was screwed.
“Follow me to my place,” I replied, wondering if I’d lost my mind. “And my car is not girly.”
He grinned as he reached out, his thumb skating over my lower lip. “Whatever you say, baby.”
I made a grumbling sound and opened my car door. After hearing his motor rev to life, I pulled out of the lot, headed for home.
My gaze continually shot to the rearview, my stomach clenching at the gorgeous sight of him following closely behind me, his muscular arms mastering the large machine with ease.
It was far too short of a drive to come to grips with the fact that Ruston was about to be in my space and seemed determined to be in my life. To trust that reality and truly understand its implications would take far longer. And yet, I found myself looking forward to the challenge.
Chapter 5
RUSTON
My entire body was taut with tension as I fought all my instincts to go back and pummel that asshole for putting his hands on Grace.
My Grace.
With her sparkling green eyes, gorgeous red hair, and a body built for sin, from the moment I first set eyes on her, I’d never been more taken by a woman. When she’d opened her mouth and her soft melodic voice had washed over me, I’d accepted the fact I’d found my woman. It had been that easy.
Then she’d gone and slept by my bedside, forgoing comfort and rest to be by my side. If she didn’t think we were forever after that, she had another thing coming.
The fact that Elise, who’d been a pain in my ass for the past year, had made Grace doubt my intentions would keep me on edge until I could make her truly mine.
A goal that wasn’t going to be entirely easy, if the skepticism in her expression said anything about it.
Luckily, I was up for the challenge.
When she pulled into the driveway of a well-kept home fifteen minutes later, I pulled alongside her, shutting the motor off and striding to her driver’s side door, opening it for her.
She looked up at me in surprise but took my outstretched hand as I helped her out of the car.
I followed her up her walkway, my eyes locked on her delicious backside as she let me into the house.
