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Pike looped his arm around Tulsi’s waist. “Let’s go, Tulsi.”
He hustled her out of the office and across the waiting room to the door, fighting the urge to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of the building. He ignored the primal voice in his head that insisted Chad should suffer the beating of his life for daring to talk to hiswoman that way. It didn’t matter that Tulsi hadn’t beenhis for years.
All he could think was—mine.
Tulsi was under his protection and no one was going to hurt her, not as long as he had breath left in his body.
CHAPTERFIVE
Tulsi
Under normal circumstances,Tulsi would have still been reeling from the nightmarish meeting with Chad. But with Pike’s arm around her, gluing her to his muscled body as he practically carried her across the street, all she could think about was how incredible it felt to be close to him. It was almost too much to wrap her head around.
Pike was touching her,holdingher. Her body was pressed tight to his for the first time since he’d kissed her behind the barn at his parents’ house seven years ago, the afternoon everything had gone to hell, and her body was on the verge of a spontaneous meltdown. She tried to tell herself this didn’t mean anything and Pike would have responded the same way if it had been any of Mia’s friends being harassed by a creep. But she’d never heard him sound so angry and the possessive way he’d swept her out of the office had her stomach fluttering and her body aching to get even closer to him.
By the time he charged up the stairs into the Blue Saloon, pushed open the swinging doors, and lifted her onto a stool with an ease that made her viscerally aware of the powerful man he’d become, Tulsi had to sit on her hands to keep from wrapping her arms around him and holding on tight. She wasn’t ready to let him go. She needed more time, just a few more minutes to memorize the way they fit together, to give her something to replay over and over in her mind while lying alone in the dark for another seven years.
“What the hell were you thinking?” Pike braced his palms on the bar on either side of her, leaning in until he was so close his Pike smell—still familiar after all these years—rushed through her head, making her racing heart beat even faster. “There’s no point in trying to reason with a prick like that. You should have been out of there five minutes ago, the second things starting going south.”
“I know…I just…” Tulsi swallowed as she forced her gaze from Pike’s lips, knowing she’d never be able to form a sentence if she kept thinking about kissing him. Unfortunately, looking into his eyes only made things worse.
Their gazes connected and Tulsi’s breath rushed out even as a fire whooshed to life inside her.
God, she wanted him. She wanted him as much as she had when she was eighteen and every nerve in her body ignited with desire when they touched. She wanted to be skin to skin with Pike, to breathe his breath, to feel his pulse echoing in her chest and feel as safe and treasured as she’d always felt in his arms. She wanted to make love to him until all the walls were down and all the hurt had been healed because she had never stopped loving this man, no matter how much she’d wanted to, no matter how hard she’d tried.
The charged silence thickened the air between them, broken only by the tinny notes of a country song playing on the jukebox in the corner. Slowly, Pike’s gaze slid from her eyes down to her mouth, and for a heart-stopping moment Tulsi thought he was going to kiss her.
Instead, he whispered, “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?” she asked, just as Clint, the bartender, materialized behind her.
“Hey, Tulsi, can I get you two something to drink?”
“Two whiskey shots and a draft beer chaser, a pale ale if you’ve got it,” Pike said, not breaking eye contact with Tulsi. He waited until Clint moved away down the bar to fix the drinks before he continued. “You know like what. Don’t play games with me.”
She swallowed hard. “I’m not playing games. I’m… I just…”
“Just what?” He leaned closer, until she could feel his breath warming her lips, sending a tremor of need rocking through her from head to toe.
She didn’t want to talk; she wanted to taste him. She wanted her tongue stroking against his and his big hands roaming over her body so much that it felt like she’d die if she didn’t get to be that close to him. Just one more time. Just once before he went away and left her behind all over again.
“Just what,” Pike repeated softly.
“I can’t help it,” she said, her longing so thick it felt like she was choking on it. “I’m sorry, but I j-just c-can’t.”
Pike’s gaze softened as he lifted one hand, brushing his knuckles lightly from her cheekbone to the point of her chin, stealing her breath away. “Relax, okay? It’s just me. You know I would never hurt you.”
Her lips parted to say that he’d already hurt her, hurt her so badly that she’d done something unforgivable, but before she could speak, Clint set the drinks down on the bar beside her with a loudthunk thunk thunk.
“Two whiskey shots and a pale ale,” he said, an edge in his usually friendly voice. “You want me to start a tab, Mr. Sherman?”
“No, I’ll pay now.” Pike shifted to pull his wallet from his jeans pocket, putting some much-needed distance between them and giving Tulsi a chance to pull herself together.
She couldn’t afford the luxury of easing her conscience. She couldn’t let her mouth run without thinking or give Pike any reason to suspect the truth.
“That’ll be fifteen dollars even,” Clint said, but he didn’t reach for the credit card when Pike laid it on the bar. “You okay, Tulsi? You seem a little shook up.”
“Oh no, I’m fine.” Tulsi turned on her stool, forcing a smile for the forty-something bartender who had always gone out of his way to look after her and her girlfriends when they came into the saloon.
