Page 124 of Damaged Protector

“A worm? Really?”

“It’s a very big worm,” I soothed. “Like a super worm.”

He rolled his eyes wryly and picked up his black bottle of body wash before smoothing it over my skin. “I want you to smell like me,” he explained at my questioning look.

“Then I should get to wash you with mine.”

His lips quirked up on one side as he thoroughly—very thoroughly—soaped up my breasts. “Nah, I’m good.”

“Such a double standard,” I sighed, earning me a glare.

“Fine, next time we take a bath, you can wash me with that stuff you use.”

“There’s going to be a next time?” I voiced the concern I hadn’t really let myself think about yet, though it had been brewing somewhere in my brain. Would he want me again?

“I fucking hope so.” Then he added “As long as I don’t have to go to work the next day. The guys would never let me hear the end of it.”

I looked down to where he was still washing my breasts with his hands. “I think my nipples are clean now.”

“One can never be too careful with nipples,” he retorted before rinsing me off.

Squirting some of his body wash in my own hands, I rubbed them together and began washing his body. The man was built like a brick shithouse, broad and muscular, without an ounce of fat. I loved running my hands all over him.

When I got to his shoulders, I noticed the bite mark there, and gentled my touch. “Did I do that?”

He looked down at it and shrugged. “Well, it wasn’t Nut.”

“Stop calling her that. Her name is Coconut.” I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the teeth marks. “Sorry about that.”

“Any time you want to mark me, feel free, baby,” he replied in a voice with a hint of rasp. “As long as I’m inside you when you do it.”

When I reached for his face, he caught my wrists and stopped me. “You can wash any part of my body, Little Bee, except for my beard.”

“Why not your beard?”

He flashed a mischievous look. “Because I want to smell like my last meal for a while.”

Despite the cooling water, my skin flushed. Damn, this man has a mouth on him. And I’m totally here for it.

Once we were out of the tub and dried off, Hawk dropped one of his T-shirts over my head, sans panties, and lifted me onto the bed. Climbing on behind me, he wrapped those big arms around me and buried his face in the back of my neck.

Like I’d done every night this week, I waited until his breathing deepened and snuck out of bed to head to my own room.

Or at least I tried. I was halfway off the bed when large hands pulled me back. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“You, uh…” I turned over to face him, finding his sharp eyes shining in the faint moonlight peeking between the curtains. “You said you like to sleep alone.”

Hawk stared at me for a long moment, and I could almost hear his brain turning. Then he yanked me hard against his body and kissed my lips.

“Stay.”

It was only one word, but it held enough power and intensity to make the back of my neck prickle.

So I stayed.

Chapter 36

I was in a cocoon. A big, warm, muscular cocoon. I sank deeper into it, smiling in the haze of that space that existed just between sleep and waking.

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