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Bennet
We tidied up in silence, with a building tension growing between us. I banked the fire as she slipped off into the only other bedroom. I caught her eye as she went and read her intention. The little minx. I was across the room and shouldering open the door just in time, before Laura could lock it. It was like the last few hours had been an act of civility, and now, with Benji safely in bed, we were picking right back up from the bathroom last night.
“Now, come on, sweetheart. You really think I’m going to let you out of my sight after the stuff you’ve pulled?”
“Don’t be sore to be shown up by a woman. It’s not a good look,” she snipped at me, moving away from me as I advanced.
“Shown up? Maybe. How about blue-balled? It’s not good for a man’s health to rile him up like that and then skip off,” I growled at her.
She had the audacity to smirk at me, brave with the bed between us.“I never asked you how you got out of the cuffs,” she mused.
“I yanked the pole off the wall. Happy?” I asked, raising my arm to show her the deep cut the steel cuff had made when I’d broken out.
Her eyes went wide, and she looked guilty for a moment, before she pasted over that expression with hard indifference. “You should have just waited for housekeeping, like a normal person.”
“And let you get further away from me? No, I don’t think so. And I told you, Laura, what would happen if you ran from me again. I wasn’t lying, sweetheart.” My voice was molten lava at this point.
Anticipation and thrill ran through her eyes before she angled her chin up and shrugged. “You have to catch me first,” she said flippantly. She wanted to play, in that case.
I grinned, and she sobered at the sight. “Sweetheart, that only makes it more fun,” I promised her, and lunged. She darted away, but I was too fast. I vaulted across the bed, landing beside her and hauled her to me before she could round the end of the rough-hewn bed end.
Before she could speak, I tossed her facedown onto the mattress and sat beside her, throwing one of my legs over hers so she couldn’t move.
She raised herself up on her elbows and glared at me.“That wasn’t fair,” she complained, but there was little heat in it.
“Such is life, as you know. Now, I promised to turn your backside red, didn’t I?” I asked, my voice dropping to a murmur as I leaned over her. She wriggled against the bed, but my leg was too heavy. I lowered a hand to her hip, still clad in jeans, and she stilled. She turned her face toward me, collapsing forward so she was prone against the covers. Her eyes observed me, full of curiosity. “Didn’t I, Laura?” I prompted her.
She rolled her eyes, and then spoke. “Yes, you did.”
I flattened my palm against the swell of her hip, sliding my finger just under her waistband to feel her skin. It was so creamy; I wanted to be naked against her, feeling all that softness underneath me. “Are you ready for that, sweetheart?”
She narrowed her eyes at me. “I think you’re bluffing. You’re an ex-Marine who’s working for my family. You wouldn’t dare—”
The first soft motion stole her words. Her mouth went round in an ‘O’, and her nostrils flared. It hadn’t hurt. She still had clothes on, but it was the audacity, I guessed, that shocked her.
“I wouldn’t what?” I asked lazily and repeated the motion on the other side. Laura’s hands bunched the bedcovers beside her face and her eyes shuttered for a second. She liked it. Well, well, my girl was full of surprises.
When I was still a long moment studying her reaction, a soft jiggle of her behind pulled my attention. “You want me to stop? Shall we play truth of dare? We could just sit down and talk it all out. You tell me why you’re running and what happened that night.”
“No. Don’t stop.” Laura’s voice surprised me. She opened her eyes to look at me, liquid heat roiling in their endless depths. “I choose dare, and I dare you not to stop.”
Her whisper set my blood on fire. I felt my mouth curve in a grin that I felt down to my toes. Since I’d come home, civilian life had been mundane, after the excitement and uncertainty of service. The predictability of my settled life had started to wear on me. Laura Lavin wasn’t predictable in the slightest. I couldn’t guess what this woman would do next, and I’d be damned if her company wasn’t intoxicating as hell.
“I’ll deliver that dare, sweetheart,” I said, and turned my attention to the denim covered peach before me. I delivered what she wanted, two hard times, one on each side, and turned my attention back to her.
“Well? What now?” I really didn’t know where she wanted to go with this, but her breathing was heavy and her eyes hooded. My blood had rushed so fast downstairs it was tough to think right now.
“Truth or dare?” she muttered, watching me with eyes that seemed to glow. I could look into them for years.
“Truth. Ask me anything,” I prompted.
“Why haven’t you taken us back yet?” The question was immediate, as if it was living on her lips and waiting to bust out.
“Because I won’t take you back somewhere that I’m not sure is safe. I don’t trust Brian. I think there’s a lot more going on, and I won’t take you back until I can protect you from it,” I answered unerringly. She frowned at me, a tiny tear slipping from her eyes into the bedding.
“You want to protect me?” she repeated cynically. “Why?” Her hard tone told of years of feeling unworthy of that attention from someone.
I wasn’t a bullshitter, and I didn’t dodge the truth, and I decided to lay it on her straight. “Because there is something here between you and me, and I think you feel it, too. Something out of the ordinary. Something important. You feel like family to me, and I’ll protect you like one of my own.”
