Page 84 of Her Chosen Protector

“Don’t try to make me laugh. I’m so damn mad at you, I’m going to scream.”

“You’ve been screaming,” he pointed out calmly.

She hit his shoulder. Not hard. If he was any kind of gentleman, he would have flinched.

“Explain,” she said as calmly as she could.

Instead, he reached for her, and fool that she was, she fell into his arms. Oh, God, he felt so good.

Better than she remembered. Better than all of her dreams. Her hands slid under his suit coat, trying to touch flesh. She wanted to rip the buttons off his shirt.

“Easy,” he whispered.

“No.”

His fingers were busy undoing her hairdo—bobby pins were falling on the floorboard—and soon he had his fingers tangled in the dark mass. He tilted her head and dove in for a kiss. A kiss that tasted of need, of desperation.

Eden managed not to melt. She needed him too much. She dug her fingers into his shoulders and opened her mouth, sucking his tongue inside, suckling him, doing all she could to keep him close, to prove to herself that he was real, that he was hers and not leaving.

He moved so that his hot hands cupped her cheeks. It took a long moment for her to realize that his thumbs were brushing away teardrops. She broke the kiss and looked up at him through tear-filled eyes. Dammit, I told myself I wasn’t going to cry.

“Why didn’t you call? I don’t get it. Why didn’t you call?”

“Honey, for the first couple of weeks I wasn’t in any shape to call anyone. They ended up calling my brother. Mom flew in from Belgium.”

“You could have died?” she wailed. “And I would never have known.”

“Kane and Law would have told you. Kane would have known to call.”

“But why didn’t he? I wanted to be there.”

He hugged her close to his chest. “Next time you will be, I promise.”

She shoved away from him and he gave an abbreviated groan. “There better fucking not be a next time, Sailor. And I better damn well be notified next time. What’s changed?” She demanded to know as she glared up at him. Her emotions were all over the place, she was happy and mad and so freaking thankful. She wanted to eat him up and hold him close and never let him go.

“You’re my woman. The guys know that now.”

She arched her brow. “They do? How do they know that?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?”

She thought about making it harder on him, but why? He was right where she wanted him to be.

And she was in his arms, right where she wanted to be. She pulled his head down for another kiss. He shook his head.

“Hold up. Are you sharing a room with anybody? If you are, we have to check into a new one, because I’m rooming with Lawson.”

“You’re here with your brother? I want to meet him.”

“You can in a couple of days.”

Her entire body tingled at his words. “I like your plan, and no, I’m not rooming with anyone. I’m checking out tomorrow though.”

His hand cupped her breast. “Not now you aren’t.”

A loud sound interrupted their reverie.

A teenaged skateboarder had just slammed the flat of his hand on the hood of Eden’s rental. “Get a room,” he called out.