Page 23 of His Wild Seduction

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about the fact that men won’t be pawing through your clothes or any part of you! Are you dating someone?” he asked.

Stunned, I had no idea how to answer. But I must have shaken my head no because he replied with a growly sort of hum. Like he approved.

“Good. Because even if you were, Meredith, it’s all over now. No dating. No guy friends. Nothing like that. And no fucking men pawing through your goddamn drawers. Anyone who tries it will lose their fucking limbs. I’ll see to it personally,” he growled, dragging me down the aisle before nudging me into a seat.

I sat down. Quietly.

What could I possibly have said to whatever the heck that was?

He sounded angry. Jealous even. But that wasn’t possible. And I wasn’t about to ask him to clarify. I just kept my mouth closed and squirmed a little in my seat.

I expected Josef to move to another row, but of course, he didn’t. And I supposed he was going to just sit there, broody, handsome as sin, and smelling exactly how you’d expect the hero of your favorite smuttiest romance novel to smell.

Spicy, Exotic. Masculine. Divine.

CHAPTER NINE

MEREDITH

This motherfucker.

I thought I’d get a little reprieve from all his potent masculinity during the flight, but of course not.

Josef took the aisle seat beside me. He actually squeezed his big ass frame into the admittedly large seat for a normal sized person, but just a touch too small for him, right beside me.

I bit back my moan as the entire side of his hard, warm body pressed into mine.

“Seat belt.”

“What?” I asked dumbly.

“Put your seat belt on, Little Red,” he repeated, taking the thing from my useless hand, and clipping it in place.

“Are you sure about this?” I asked, finding my nerve.

“About your seat belt? Absolutely. Safety first,” he repeated, turning his attention to his cell phone.

“No, you ass. I mean, are you sure about marrying me?”

He just stared at me until I started fidgeting.

This wasn’t me. I wasn’t the sort of woman who looked down when in the company of men.

I was confident. I was a badass. In my line of work, I had to be.

Never one to back down, I faced down angry husbands and boyfriends at St. Elizabeth’s all the time.

My job as an intake counselor meant I had to deal with the brunt of them and really, doing that was nothing compared to having to ask this man if he was serious about this.

“Isn’t there something else I could do to save those people’s jobs besides marrying you?” I whispered, feeling like an idiot.

Flashes of the past scattered through my frazzled brain. I remembered the things we’d done once upon a time, and it made me want to weep.

How could he sit there so unaffected?

It had all been so new and fresh. Scary, too. He was the first man I had ever wanted physically and emotionally. Just being near him made my pulse race and my entire body tremble in my seat.

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