Page 74 of Her Sensual Protector

“Hold onto your britches.”

If he wasn’t in such a surly mood, she’d make him smile.

This time the door wasn’t flung open—instead, it was slowly opened by someone who looked freshly showered, tired and sad, and hurting. He looked behind her and saw clothes strewn about and her backpack partially packed.

“You’re leaving?”

“Yep.”

“Were you going to tell me?”

“Of course I was. What kind of question is that? Come in and sit down on one of my many different seating options.” She tilted her head toward the bed.

Leo closed the hotel room door and took note of the fact she even had the window open, letting in the hot air from outside. “That kind of defeats the purpose of the fan,” he said.

“It’ll get my hair dried faster.”

As soon as he saw her try to fold one of her skirts one-handed, he gently pushed her out of the way. “Let me.”

“I can fold my own clothes,” she protested.

“It’s painful to watch. I can do it faster. This way you have time to explain why you’re leaving all of a sudden. Don’t bother lying to me; this is suddenly because Doug doesn’t even know about it yet.”

She slowly lowered herself to the bed with a wince. He wondered if she had been icing her hip.

“I was going to tell the team after I told you. Obviously, I’m putting everybody at risk here, and I can’t stand that thought. I’m going home so I can keep people safe.” He saw the anguish in her beautiful gray eyes.

“I applaud your thought process, but this is rather abrupt. Don’t you want to say good-bye to the people at the camp?”

Leo watched helplessly as her eyes filled with tears. “I can’t risk it. Don’t you realize that with my need to glorify myself I’m essentially the same as my father? I’m putting my own ego above the real needs of the people I say I care about.”

He threw down the shirt he was folding and crouched down, grimacing in pain. Then he went to his knees instead. “You’ve done nothing self-aggrandizing. Everything you’ve done has been to try to help from a humble and honorable point of view. You have always, and I mean always, thought of everybody before yourself. If you ever thought that something you were doing would put people in harm’s way, you would do exactly what you’re doing now. Leaving. All I’m asking is, is if you want to say good-bye. I can make sure it’s safe.”

“You can’t, Leo. Look what happened today.” Her lip trembled but she firmed it up, then stood up, and walked around him. “By the way, no more crying in hotel rooms for this woman.”

He chuckled.

“Okay, no crying. No visiting. What do you want to do?”

“I’ve done it. I’ve booked my flight. I’ll tell my team that I’m leaving, and now we can talk.”

Leo stood up. He didn’t like the sound of this at all.

She walked toward him then turned around with her back to him. “I can’t reach this with my arm in a sling. Can you take off my necklace?”

“Sure.” He took off the St. Christopher necklace and tried to hand it to her.

“No, you keep it. I want you to give it to Abia. I’ll have you record a video of me on your phone for her.”

“Jesus, Daisy, are you sure you want to do it this way?”

“Positive.”

“And me? Do I get a video kiss-off too?”

Her mouth fell open. “That’s not what you want, is it?”

“No way, not this time. You tell me what you’re doing. Tell me what you want. I keep walking out on the ledge, now it’s your turn.”