Page 37 of Crossing Lines

I blinked. I was so tired that it took me a few seconds to let his words sink in. Labor? He was worried about something that wouldn’t happen for about seven and a half months; God willing, I was going to carry this baby to term if I had to super glue my vagina shut. I wasn’t going to allow myself to think of anything else.

“You’re being a nutter.” He barked out a laugh, but I was serious. “Don’t laugh this off. I’m not dropping a baby tomorrow.I can drive; the construction yard is just a few miles away. Daddy is mostly always there. You need to calm your shit and?—”

“I’m serious,” he cut me off.

I scowled. Did he think I hadn’t figured that out? It still didn’t change my response. He’d lost his damn mind. Maybe it was all the pain meds. His arm tightened around me, his crutch pressed between us.

“Hey, you’re squishing my tit. Unless you want me to be lopsided, I’d stop that.”

“I love you,” he said, shifting us so my back was to the wall. I grinned as his big body pressed against mine. My fingers, who had a mind of their own, trailed up his body, moving under his T-shirt to run across his very taut abdomen. Damn, he was a fine specimen of a man.

“I love you, too.”

His mouth landed on mine before I knew what was happening. My tiredness vanished. My skin was now covered in a fine dusting of gooseflesh. I blamed that deliciously scratchy beard of his. He knew exactly how to trail his lips down the side of my neck to turn me into a ball of hormones and need.

Now that my hormones were on high alert, it was ten times worse. “Trace…” I whined as my lady bits started to scream at me. Throbbing, wanting him.

“Hmm…” His fingers brushed the strap of my night shirt to the side. My eyes closed as his lips trailed across the exposed skin. A groan pushed past my lips as I squirmed against him. The evidence of his arousal was pressed against my stomach. The feel of him, the feel of what I did to him, turned me into a needy, wanting whore. This man, God, he was the best drug I’d ever get my hands on.

“Don’t tease me…” My words were breathy. He nipped at the skin under my ear, moving my head to the side.

That’s when it happened. The fates put a halt on our lust-filled moment. There was a loud crashing sound, a thump, and then the fucking house alarm blared loudly. It was deafening.

My heart leapt as I pushed back from Trace.

“Call the station.” I was moving before he could stop me. I grabbed my Glock from the dresser drawer and moved out of the room. The baby was screaming, startled awake by the alarm, but I had to make sure the house was clear first.

Why would anyone break into the home of well-known, armed bounty hunters? Were they on something? Was it random? Or was this something more. Retaliation? There could literally be a hundred answers to the reasons rolling around in my head.

As my feet hit the bottom of the staircase, something moved. A hulking shadow was darting out of the back slider. I snarled a curse and took off after it. My eyes saw the broken glass door, but I didn’t stop. I jumped over it and landed on the patio. The intruder went over the fence, and I followed him. My bare feet pushed me faster through the neighbor’s backyard. He was right there, but before I could get to him, I saw a streak of something moving toward me.

I heard a familiar voice call out, “Police!” I knew the drill. I stopped, gun hanging from my finger as my hands went up.

“My name’s Stella Malone. I’m chasing a perp who was inside my house.”

“Stella, dammit, get back,” Kruger growled as he and Hulk, his K9 partner, passed me. The asshole had taken off as soon as my attention was turned from him.Fuuuck!

I heard Trace call for me, then curse and snarl something I couldn’t hear. Silence fell around us; someone must have shut off the alarm. It was deafening. All I could hear now was my heart slamming into my chest wall. The loud cadence was hard to ignore. The baby was still screaming; I could hear him all theway out here. I cursed to myself and moved toward the fence, pushing through the gate and running back to the house. Poor Ethan. He was probably scared out of his little mind.

I found Trace in the baby’s room—aka our very small spare room. He was cradling Ethan protectively as his whole upper body hung out the window, hollering for me.

“I’m here, stop your hollering. Give him to me,” I said, putting my Glock on the dresser. I heard the bump as he tried to bring his big body back through the window. I winced in sympathy. Once I had Ethan in my arms, I started to shake, the adrenaline spike hitting me hard. I felt my knees buckle, but Trace grabbed me and held us close.

“I swear to God—if you ever do something so stupid again, I will blister your ass and not in a way you like. Don’t do that to me. I mean it, Stella. Don’t fucking do that again!” His face was pinched in anger, his eyes boring into my soul.

I tried to pull away, but with my arms full of crying baby, I couldn’t. “I knew what I was doing. Don’t try to order me around, Tracey Daniels.”

“You ran out in the fucking dark with a gun and no idea what in the fuck or who in the fuck you were chasing. You can’t do that kind of shit! Use your fucking head, woman.”

“I’m a bounty hunter. I can handle myself. That bastard was inourhouse! You couldn’t go after him! I did what I had to.” I shoved back, snarling, “I’m not a fucking child. You don’t get to boss me around.”

“You put yourself and our baby in danger!” He was shaking with rage. I heard it in his voice. Our tempers rose the longer we stared at each other.

“Stella. Tracey.” Drew was calling from downstairs, but I didn’t move. My gaze was hard on Trace. He’d called me stupid! Okay, so it was a little stupid, but that wasn’t what had my hackles up. He thought he was going to tell me what I could andcouldn’t do here. Pregnant or not, I had a mind, and I was going to use it how I saw fit.

“You two...okay?” Drew stopped in the doorway.

I took a step back from Trace and turned.

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