Page 25 of Lone Star Protector

“Sorry,” she muttered just as he muttered, “I’m sorry.”

So, once again, they were on the same wavelength. But this time, there was no smile. No heat in his eyes. Heat that she’d seen just for her. Now, there was bone-deep sympathy. The grief of what’d happened to her and what she’d lost of herself in the attack.

“No need for you to apologize,” she managed. “Before yesterday, the scars weren’t my number one thought.”

Caroline paused and shifted the conversation to a better direction. “And the scars still aren’t. No way for me to develop selective amnesia about Bodie’s escape, but you’re sort of sharing top billing in my head right now. FYI, your part of the top billing is good. I’m just glad you didn’t apologize for that kiss,” she spelled out to him.

“I was going to,” he admitted. Now, he smiled just a little. “For what it’s worth. You share top billing in my head, too.”

He stood, went to her and eased her into his arms. Heck, this wasn’t a got-to-have-you-now kind of embrace. It was because of those scars. Because it’d brought up the past for him, too. She had to remember that she wasn’t the only one who’d been cut during the attack. She’d taken the physical brunt of it, yes, but they’d both been dealt a whopping mental blow.

She eased back a little to assure him of…well, anything that needed assurance, but their gazes locked. Just locked. And they stood there staring at each other.

Caroline drew in her breath, taking in his breath, too, since they were so close. So close that she caught his scent, too. It wasn’t a scent found in a soap or a bottle. It was unique to Nash, and it stirred her.

Mercy, it did.

She moved toward him just as he moved toward her, and their mouths met, not for a comfort kiss. Nope. This was one of those got-to-have-you-now deals.

And the taste, the heat, the intensity roared through her.

He moved his mouth over hers as if he’d had tons of practice doing just this with her, and when he made the kiss French, this kicked up the urgency. Kicked up that aching need that was already spreading from her mouth to her center.

She’d never considered a single kiss to be scalding hot foreplay, but this one was exactly that. A prelude that her body insisted could lead to even more scalding, hotter sex.

It didn’t though.

Nash stepped back, and with his breath gusting, their gazes connected again. Her breathing wasn’t so steady either, and certain parts of her were already whining about the kiss not continuing.

“Uh,” she managed but had no idea how to finish that.

“Uh,” he repeated, and he somehow worked up a smile even though she was pretty sure his body was burning as much as hers. “I think that proves just how much you’re in my head, and I wish I could do something about that. More kissing, some touching,” he added, surprising her with the admission. “I’d like to do both things with you. But there’s this investigation, this hunt for Bodie. And I need to keep you safe. That has to take priority over kissing you.”

“Are you sure about that?” she joked.

He smiled. Then, he sighed. “I’m sure.” And Nash repeated it as if to convince himself before motioning to the report on the screen. “I’ll read this and do my best to keep my hands off you.”

So, he’d sneaked in an apology of sorts after all.

She added her own pseudo-apology by helping him get back that focus with a work-related question. “Anything else in that report I should know?” she asked. And this time, no matter what he said, she wouldn’t be hiking up her top to show him those scars.

“Jordana has a history of helping felons,” Nash explained, putting air quotes around helping. “So, Bodie wasn’t her only venture into the criminal world. Sometimes, she pays legal fees for an inmate or uses her father’s name to pressure prison officials into giving inmates certain privileges, like conjugal visits.”

“Conjugal,” she repeated, though it came out more like a hoarse whisper. “She had sex with Bodie?”

He nodded, and judging from the sudden tight set of his mouth, he was just as disgusted with that as she was. Caroline hadn’t known that Bodie was a monster when she’d invited him into her life, but Jordana did. Of course, the woman thought he was innocent.

“So, how does Jordana’s father feel about…all of this?” Caroline settled for saying.

“Serious disapproval. Serious,” he emphasized. “Right before Bodie and she said I do, he tried to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital and declared mentally incompetent. Jordana fought it. Won. And then she seemed to have mended fences with her father for the whole ordeal. I think what really happened was that Leland decided to back off and keep his hatred of Bodie under wraps so he could work behind the scenes and put an end to the marriage.”

Caroline gave that some thought. “Do you think Leland actually set up Bodie’s escape?”

“It’s possible,” Nash was quick to admit. “Leland has the means and motive, and he could have hired someone on the inside to set it up. Maybe he hoped Bodie would be gunned down at the prison or shortly thereafter.” He paused a moment. “I seriously doubt he wanted Bodie to hook up with his daughter.”

“No,” she muttered, and Caroline had to shove aside something that flashed through her mind. That Bodie and Jordana had already hooked up.

And that Bodie had murdered her.

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