Page 40 of Daddy's Wild Girl

Because she’d known that she was safe. That he would take care of her.

And it wasn’t because he was her bodyguard. It was because she liked him. She was beginning to trust him.

Which was so darn stupid.

She shouldn’t trust anyone.

“Come on, let’s get you back home. I should call Hayes and have him come get us,” he said.

“I can walk.”

He shot her a look but moved beside her as she began strolling back home. He was even carrying her helmet and skateboard.

“I can carry those.” She tried to reach for them, but he drew them away with a frown.

“Don’t even think about it, Bebe.”

“It’s my stuff, though.”

“I just saw you fall through the air and slam to the ground. I am not in the mood to have you argue about carrying your things.”

Okay.

He was still a bit grouchy, then.

“I’m sorry,” she blurted out.

Shoot.

What did she do that for?

Um, maybe because it’s your fault he’s mad at you and you want to fix it.

She hated the idea that he was upset. It felt like having worms were in her belly.

Why mustI always correct you, Belle? I don’t want to, but you force me to punish you in order to help you remember to be better.

Fuck.She’d taken up skateboarding to gethisvoice out of her head. But now he was back.

Awesome.

“What are you sorry about?”

“Pretending to be hurt when I wasn’t. That was uncalled for. Sorry,” she added again hastily.

She hoped that would be enough.

Did he want her to do more to atone?

“Hey, Bebe. Stop and look at me a moment.”

She stilled at his words and turned to look up at him.

“I’m not upset at the joke. I mean, you did give me a minor heart attack when you started limping, but that wasn’t the thing that really worried me.”

“It wasn’t?”

“Bebe, you gave me a heart attack when you fell! I thought you might have broken your neck!”