Page 26 of Under His Protection
Haley takes the bag from me. “Oh, wow, it’s heavy.” She sets it on the foot of her bed, opens it, and peers inside at a whole bunch of wadded-up pink tissue paper. Carefully, she starts removing the padding. I probably went overboard on the tissue paper, but I wanted to make sure the books were protected during transit.
When she finally makes her way down to the brown paper package, she says, “What’s this?”
“Open it.”
Haley sets the package on her bed, unties the twine, and carefully peels back the brown paper. When she finally realizes what’s in there, she squeals and turns to me. “Oh, my God, Philip! You didn’t!”
“I did.” I step closer.
When she picks up the first book, the look on her face is absolutely priceless. “I don’t know what to say.” Her eyes start to tear up as she opens the book and gently flips through the pages, stopping to admire the illustrations. “They’re gorgeous.” She smiles up at me. “Philip, you shouldn’t have. They’re so expensive.”
“I wanted to get you something special, something I knew you’d really like.”
“Like?Are you kidding me? Ilovethem. Thank you so much! I’ll treasure them always.” She quickly scans the room as if looking for a spot to put the books. “I need a bookcase.”
“I’ll get you one.”
She frowns. “But there’s no room.”
“Sure there is.” I point to the wall space at the foot of her bed. “There’s room here for a small one. I’ll find something that fits.”
The smile she gives me is everything. I reach out to stroke her soft cheek. Hell, I would move heaven and earth to get this girl anything she wanted.
I finally realize we’re alone in the room. “Melissa’s not here?”
“At the last minute, she decided to go to Game Night with a few of her track buddies. I’m sure you saw the crowd in the community room.”
“It was kind of hard to miss.”
Her eyes are mesmerizing. I think she has a bit of eye shadow on, and her lips are shiny and pink.Lip gloss?Iamunderdressed. She’s just too nice to say it.
I cup her face in my big bear paws and lean in to kiss her lightly, careful not to mess up her lips. “Mmm.” I smack my lips. “Strawberry.”
“Do you like it?”
“I do.”
She goes up on her toes and whispers in my ear. “If you’re good tonight, I’ll let you lick it off me.”
OMG! Did my sweet, virginal girlfriend just make a sexual inuendo? Kill me now.
Immediately, the image of me tasting every inch of her strawberry-flavored body flashes through my brain. “Sweetheart, you’d better be careful what you say. You’re giving me ideas.”
Her response? She just grins. “Well, we do have this room all to ourselves at the moment.”
“What about the thing at Layla’s?” I’m trying to take the high road here, but she’s making it difficult.
She shrugs. “We have afewminutes.”
That’s all the green light I need. I lean in and press my lips to hers. She sighs as she opens her mouth, drawing me in to a deeper kiss. Her hands grasp my upper arms, her fingers kneading my biceps.
My breath catches. “Did I mention you look gorgeous tonight?” I groan the words against her lips.
“Yes. So do you.”
When she runs her tongue against my upper lip, my partial hard-on jumps ahead to a full-on erection.
Our make-out session has gone from zero to sixty in no time. When I cup her left breast, she moans in response, and that sweet sound goes right to my head, leaving me unable to think clearly. “Hale—”
