Page 40 of Her Intense Protector

“Sam, answer the question. What’s the worst thing that’s happened before?”

“It wasn’t too bad. I made a pretty good friend while I was in jail. But seriously, when can I go home? Those people need to be stopped.”

“Jail? You ended up in jail?” Ezio tried to keep his voice level.

“It was a protest thing. I ended up in jail a couple of times in Boise.”

“When was this?” Ezio asked as he unlocked his front door, disabled the security system, and ushered her inside.

“What about those guys at the wig shop?” she asked.

“David and Asher called the cops. Gideon will know soon if they’ve been captured, but until we know, your ass is planted here. Now tell me more about how you ended up in jail. Who was with you, Kevin?”

“Oh no, this was before I met him. My friend Nancy needed someone to go with her to a PETA protest at the University where they were breeding sick dogs for research and then doing inhumane testing on them. I got arrested three times. Nancy wouldn’t tell me where the next protest was after she found out it would endanger my scholarships.”

“Christ, Samantha, what were you thinking?” Ezio ground out. “Are you always such a bleeding heart?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked as she stepped out of her shoes with a sigh of pleasure. Ezio felt his blood hum at the sound she made. “I don’t suppose you have something to drink?”

“Alcohol?” he asked.

“God no. But maybe something hot and sweet.”

“Hot cocoa?”

“That would be fabulous.” She kept her wrist held up against her chest as she walked around his living room.

“Why don’t you sit down before you fall down,” he suggested as he waved his hand at one of the two recliners and the couch.

“You like the creature comforts, don’t you? Is your TV large enough?”

Ezio ignored her and headed for the kitchen. He flipped the switch on his coffee maker, then he found the king-sized can of cocoa he had on hand for when his sister Lucia and her girls came to visit. He nuked a mug of water and stirred in some cocoa. He looked at it.

“Aw, what the hell.” He shoved in two more tablespoons of the powder like Lucia always did, figuring that Samantha could probably use the extra oomph tonight.

When he got to the living room, she was not sitting down; instead, she was snooping. He couldn’t hold it against her since he’d done the same thing at her house.

“I like your library,” she smiled as her left hand slid over a row of books on his shelf. “We like some of the same authors.”

“Good to know. Now, sit down and let me look at your wrist. If you’re a good patient you’ll get to have this sickeningly sweet hot chocolate, made to my sister’s standards of one part water and three parts cocoa mix.”

“Okay, I’m up for playing doctor,” she grinned.

“Are you always this much of a flirt?” he frowned.

“Only when I know that you want to throw the book at me and yell. If I think flirting will stop all that crud, then yeah, I’m a flirt, so sue me.”

Ezio laughed. “I was wondering if your perspective was off. After all you’ve been through tonight…”

“Look, Ezio, I’m a grown-up. It got hairy. I get that. It got really, really hairy. But I came out of it with some quick thinking and a lot of luck, so you need to chill a little bit.”

He put the drink on the coffee table next to the couch, then maneuvered her to sit down. “Drink some of the chocolate, and I’m going to examine your wrist. You’re really babying it. I want to see if there’s a broken bone.”

“Nah, I’m fine. It’s just a bruise, at most it’s a sprain.”

Why hadn’t he considered that a bone could be broken before now? She had dainty wrists and ankles, he should have taken her straight to the hospital.

“Can you let me look at your wrist?” he asked.