Page 8 of Hold Me Until Morning

I blamed his overpowering presence on his sheer size.

He had to be at least six foot three, a pillar of strength. Shoulders as wide as he was tall. I swore that I could have counted every muscled groove and ridge beneath the soaked fabric that had clung to his chest and abdomen.

Arrogant.

Cocky.

The man dripping sex and easy smiles.

He’d aged, though.

The boyish features that I remembered had hardened to something rough and rugged.

Worst of it all? I’d nearly gotten swept away by the undercurrent of something beautifully brutal that had radiated from him when he’d reached out and touched my chin.

Like he was on the verge of understanding.

I knew I looked different. The years have changed me. Inside and out. But I’d just thought…

Shaking off the direction my thoughts were going, I focused on trying to get into the box and did my best to ignore the way my skin tingled in the spot where he’d held me by the chin.

“Have I seen you?” Lolly tsked, taking a couple steps across our still-empty living room. “The most gorgeous girl on the planet?”

I finally got the tape up at the edge and ripped it free, and I gave a roll of my eyes to my Lolly, my voice drifting into a light chuckle. “You have a moral obligation to say that.”

“I think you know full well I tell it like it is. No lies come from this tongue. And you could be my twin back in my heyday, and believe you me, I was a looker.”

I laughed outright. “Don’t kid yourself. You’re just as beautiful as you’ve ever been.”

Her smile went wry. “That’s right. You and I are going to be the talk of this little town.”

Well, it was certain one of us was going to be.

A grin spread across my face when I suddenly heard the clatter of tiny feet rushing up the hallway that ran down the right side of the house, her sweet little voice carrying as she came. “Did you find my Princess Verona?”

I glanced up to see my four-year-old daughter standing just inside the living area, wearing her favorite purple jammies and bouncing on her bare toes.

“I think it might be in one of these.”

I’d searched through the trailer for the boxes with her name written on the side that had come from her room.

Madison.

She’d written her name on them herself, all the letters different colors, messy, and upper case. She’d insisted on helping me pack her room, which was how I was pretty sure we’d ended up with a missing Princess Verona, assuming the stuffed animal had been accidentally tossed into a box.

So no, Cocky Cowboy, there was not a better time to unload these boxes.

It was bad enough that Maddie had freaked out when she realized she didn’t have it. The only way I’d been able to calm her down was I’d promised that Princess Verona was in one of the boxes keeping an eye on the rest of her things, and I’d find her the second we got to the new house.

We stayed at a motel in Hendrickson last night since I couldn’t pick up the keys to the house until this morning.

It wasn’t in the first, so I hurried to open the second box, and I rummaged around inside. Relief struck me when my fingers brushed over the soft, plush fabric.

I pulled it out, producing the stuffed, purple bunny.

“It’s my Princess Verona!” Madison cried. She came running over and slid onto her knees in front of me. “You found her, Mommy! You found her!”

No question, the stuffed animal was a safety blanket for my child. One that gave her comfort when she was afraid. One that made her believe she was always secure.

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