Page 61 of Her Intense Protector

“Gotcha. How is that girl Pam doing for you?”

“Much better now that I started using Eden’s techniques. I feel much better now that I’m going back to the office. This first week of telecommuting about killed me.”

“I could tell. My house has never been so clean.”

She laughed a little ruefully. “Well, you’ll be back to your normal standard of clean. I found an apartment on-line that I’d like to look at.”

“Samantha, that’s just plain stupid,” Ezio retorted. “You already told me, you’re going to lose your first and last month’s rent if you break the lease on your current apartment. They’ve already caught everybody but the old guy running the game. The Vice detectives think they’ll catch him soon, and then you can move back. So, you should stay at my place.”

“I can’t, it’s too weird,” Sam said just as he was pulling off the freeway.

“Why is it too weird?”

It took her a while, but she finally answered. “You know.”

Well, that wasn’t an answer.

“No, I don’t know. Elaborate.”

“You agreed the first day I came to live with you that we should take some time to get to know one another, and I agreed. It made sense to me. But darn, Ezio, I didn’t think you’d take the whole hands-off approach, especially after making out on Sunday. The first couple days, sure, but it’s been the better part of a week. It’s weird, and a little hard to handle. So of course, I started looking for another apartment.” The words burst out of her, and then silence permeated the vehicle.

Ezio hit three green lights in a row. How the hell, how was that possible? He finally gave up on finding a red light and pulled over into a gas station mini-mart instead. He shut off the Jeep.

“What are you doing?” Sam asked.

He turned around in his seat and looked over at her. She was beautiful, sitting over there with her blue eyes staring at him.

“Samantha, when you told me that there hadn’t been anybody since Kevin, I got worried.”

“I told you, I was past the rebound syndrome. I’m a grown woman, I know my own mind.”

He took a deep breath. There was no way he wanted to get into an argument with her about that.

“It wasn’t just me being worried about Kevin. There was the fact that you’ve been a guest in my home, and I felt uncomfortable taking advantage of that situation.”

Samantha unbuckled her seatbelt, squirmed around so that she was kneeling up in the seat and staring over at him. “If I could, I would crawl across this console and grab you by your gorgeous hair and shake you. I absolutely would. You would not be taking advantage of any situation. Again, I’m twenty-six years old, I have a master’s degree and I haven’t lived with my parents since I was eighteen. If you really think I’m so obtuse that I can’t figure out what’s best for me, then no wonder you’re not interested in me.”

“Whoa there.” Ezio held up his hands.

“I will not ‘whoa there.’ I’m getting close to being angry. I don’t like being angry, but I’m getting there with a man I really like and admire. Which makes me even closer to being angry. Do you understand me, buster?”

“I think so?” Ezio did his best not to laugh.

“And don’t think I don’t see you trying not to laugh. Laughing now would not be good for your self-preservation.”

“Samantha, I get that. I truly do.” He bit the inside of his cheek. “You’ve convinced me.”

“Enough to take me seriously?” she demanded.

“Can I say something?”

“Does it end with us going back to your house and me ending up in your bed?”

“I’ll make sure it does,” he promised. He reached across the console and cupped her cheeks and pressed his lips against hers. She was wearing tangerine lip gloss, and he wanted to take their kiss deeper, but he was aware of all the people around them. When he pulled back, she was smiling.

“You promise your bedroom?” she whispered.

“Yes.” He whispered back.