Page 39 of Guarding Colton’s Witness

“Yes, Kelly. She’s a defense attorney, so you can imagine the arguments she and my cop brothers have. All in good fun, though.”

“It’s great that your family’s close.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“I noticed that only Jon and Emily call you Matilda. It’s an old-fashioned name, but I like it.”

“Eh, it’s okay. It was my grandmother’s name. I think I look more like a Matti than a Matilda.”

“What you look like is kissable. Want to make out like lusty teenagers?”

He waggled his eyebrows, making her smile. “I do. I really do.”

“Then come over here, Matti.”

He had a way of saying her name that sounded intimate, as if she was special to him. She scooted over, and he took her hand and tugged her onto his lap. He stared into her eyes for a moment before slipping his hand around the back of her neck and pulling her toward him. Her heart fluttered as their lips touched, his warm breath mingling with hers.

Their lips met in a soft, tentative kiss that he quickly deepened. She’d never been kissed so passionately before, and he lit a fire inside her, the likes of which she’d never felt before him. When they pulled away, breathless and flushed, she wondered if he felt it, too, whatever it was.

“I need more of that,” he said as he brought his hands to her cheeks.

“Yes, more,” she agreed right before their mouths met again. When he broke away, he leaned his head back, and his eyes locked on hers. Although brown, they were far from ordinary. They were the color of rich dark honey, so beautiful and intense when looking at her. The heat in them mesmerized her. She could lose herself in them.

“I want you like crazy, Matti, but tonight’s not the time for us. There’s a little boy in your bed, and if he wakes up and comes looking for you, I don’t think it’s a good idea for him to find us naked.” He grinned. “All three of us would be traumatized.”

“So traumatized. I walked in on my parents once when they were naked and doing it.” She gave an exaggerated shudder. “I’m still not over it.”

“I think every child has that happen at least once growing up. I was six. Old enough to know something strange was happening, but too young to know exactly what. I thought maybe they had taken their clothes off because they were going to take a bath. My parents didn’t look me in the face for a week. They were more traumatized than I was.”

She laughed. “Well, since I don’t want Sam having that kind of story about us, I’ll head back to bed.”

“Give me a kiss first,” he said, that hunger she’d seen in his beautiful eyes back. “Then send me off to wonderland where you’ll be the star in my dreams.”

“The man’s a poet.”

“Only for you, I think.” He brought his hand to her face, then trailed his fingers down to her throat, and then to the back of her neck.

His touch was sensual, a word she’d never thought before when with a man. She moaned as he deepened the kiss, explored her mouth, tasted her. She could become addicted to kissing him. Before she was ready for him to, he pulled away.

“Go to bed, Matti, before I decide I don’t care if we end up traumatizing us all.”

“I hope I really do star in your dreams. Good night, Ryan.” She slid off him and walked to her bedroom with a smile on her face.

The smile disappeared at seeing an empty bed. She turned and went to the guest room, where Sam had been sleeping. He wasn’t there either. She ran back to the living room.

“Ryan, Sam’s missing!”

“What?” He jumped up. “He has to be in the house. To leave, he’d have to pass us to get to the front or back door.”

They looked everywhere but couldn’t find him. Her panic that he’d been somehow taken grew. “Did they take him?”

“All the windows and doors are still locked, so no. He’s here somewhere.”

He might think that, but there was panic in his voice, too, and that didn’t help her fear that the men had somehow found a way to get in her house and take him.

“Sam,” she called. They went into each room and called his name. In her bedroom, she tried again. “Sam! Where are you?”

“Matti?”