Page 143 of Daddy's Wild Girl

She stiffened next to Corbin at Kent’s tone. And Corbin started to glare at his boss. If he dared to criticize her . . .

“Are a miracle worker. I don’t know what you did or how you wrangled him, but I owe you big time. I hope you’ll be happy on the Ranch. Are you a hugger? I’m not usually, but I need to hug you.”

“That would be okay,” she said in a stunned voice.

Kent drew her close and hugged her tight before letting her go. “Thank God the grouchy old bastard is asleep. I tried to drug him, and for some reason, it didn’t work. I thought I put enough sedative in there to take out an elephant.”

“Oh, he knew you were doing that. He told me he tipped the drink out when you weren’t looking.”

Kent looked stunned, and then he grinned. “Of course he did. Thanks, guys. You head off and I’ll see you all later. We need totalk about finding this stalker. And I need to get in contact with your father, Bebe. Maybe you’ll have more luck if you try.”

“Maybe,” she replied, sounding doubtful.

And he knew why she sounded like that, considering she’d already tried, left a message with his assistant, yet had heard nothing back.

“We’ll meet in the morning. Once you’ve settled in.”

“He’s going to come out swinging,” Corbin warned.

Kent grinned. “I know. I’m enjoying the idea of giving him a few smacks. Might knock some of his stubbornness out.”

Yeah, Corbin doubted it.

Corbin grasped hold of her hand and led her back toward the car.

“So, that was Clint, baby Annabel, and Kent,” he said.

“Ahh, yeah. That was . . . interesting,” she said with a small smile.

“I can’t believe you got him to go to sleep when everyone else has failed.”

“Guess I have some uses.” There was a note of forced lightness in her voice. Turning, he cupped her cheek with his hand.

“Oh, you have plenty of uses.” He leaned down and kissed her lightly.

“Are you saying that one of my uses is kissing?” she asked, sounding slightly breathless.

“Yep, I am.” He grinned. “And I should make use of that very, very often.”

A smile crossed her own lips as she lost some of that stress around her mouth.

“You should.”

Fuck. He wanted to take her home, carry her to bed and keep her there until he no longer felt this hunger for her, until the passion had abated.

Only trouble was that it might take months, years, even.

Hayes cleared his throat. “Are you two going to keep making lovey-dovey eyes at each other or can we get a move on? The sooner you’re behind closed doors, the sooner you can fu?—”

“Hayes!” he said sharply, interrupting the other man.

“What?” he asked. “I was just going to say you could fucking well unpack.”

That hadn’t been what he’d been going to say and they all knew it. But from the way Bebe giggled, she didn’t care.

And he’d do anything to hear her laugh.

37

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