Page 8 of Sweet as Sugar

“It’s not the same thing. I know who this guy is. He’s my ex.”

“That’s another thing, Chloe. Why did you go out with another man when I told you that I loved you and you ran? Do you not love me?”

The hurt and fear in his blue eyes makes me shiver. I shake my head. “No. That’s not it at all. I do. I do love you.”

“You’ve got a funny way of showing it!” He snorts.

“I’m sorry. I went out with him as favor to a friend. He’s her brother. But then he started acting weird and following me around and she told me that he’d taken pictures that were papering his dorm room. He tried to call me every day after I told him that we weren’t going to be dating. No matter what I did he just kept coming. Kept calling.”

“Why the hell didn’t you tell your parents? Or me? Somebody!” He throws his hands up and paces around the room.

“I tried! I talked to the police but they couldn’t do anything until he trashed my apartment. They found his fingerprints in there. I hoped that would be enough to arrest him but his attorney made the point that we had been dating so there was a reason his fingerprints were in the place.”

Samson paces back and forth. “I don’t like this. Where the hell is he?”

“They don’t know. He lost his scholarship because he wasn’t going to class and started failing his courses. Then he got kicked out and he was yelling at me outside my dorm for days so I moved off-campus. The building had a security guard so he dropped out of sight.”

“But now that I’m graduating and I left the area he may be trying to find me.”

He shoots me a sharp look. “You think? Yeah. He sounds like a damn psycho. Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“I didn’t want anybody else getting hurt. He’s kind of a nut.”

“Good. So am I.”

I huff out a breath. “Don’t get in the middle of this. I’ll get it figured out.”

Sam snorts. “Yeah. That’s not happening. If some asshole thinks that he’s gonna touch you he’s gonna have to go through me first. And I’m a little bigger and harder to move than you.”

“Samson. Don’t be silly.”

He stalks up to me and his icy eyes flash blue fire. “Do you really think that I’m gonna walk away and just forget what you told me? You’re mine, Chloe. You’ve always been mine! And this guy thinks that he’s gonna get between us and hurt you…or me, you’re absolutely out of your damn mind. From now on, I’m gonna be on you every second of the day. We’re gonna be joined at the hip. And as soon as this asshole shows his ugly damn face, I’m gonna put a fist through it! Nobody but nobody threatens what’s mine, Sweets!” He leans down and picks me up, walking into a wall. My legs wrap around his waist and he grunts, his big body pinning to the wall. His hands come up and he gently touches my jaw, turning me to face him. My eyes lock on his soft, steady gaze.

“I am not letting anybody touch you, treat you bad. Not even to yell a swear word in your face. From now on, I’m the one that will be standing between you and everything else. I’m your wall. And there’s no way that anything’s getting through this wall. I’ll kill him first.”

Chuckling, I lean my head back. Our breaths are so close that it’s like we’re one, the same air, the same heartbeat. “That will definitely not make me happy, Sam. I want a life with you. I always have. But I didn’t want to get you involved for exactly this reason. You’re gonna go all macho and grunty and want to break something. Like some guy’s face. I don’t need that and neither do you.” I reach up a hand run it along his strong jaw, lost in the mountain spring blue of his eyes as they darken to sapphire.“I couldn’t bear it if anything happened to you, Sam. And that includes going to prison for murder!”

He leans so close that he rubs his cheek against mine and my eyes close. He’s so gentle, so sweet that it breaks my heart one beat at a time. “I’ve missed you so much, Chloe. I couldn’t bear it if I lost you. Never again.”

My eyes open to search his heavy-lidded eyes. “You’re not gonna lose me again, Sam. I promise you. I needed the time to think and plan. I wanted to be sure because I couldn’t bear to hurt you if we did break up. And then there’s all our family to think of. It just seemed like it was going to be so complicated.”

His forehead leans on mine and he sighs. “It’s not complicated at all, Sweets. I love you so much that death would be preferable to watching you walk away. You love me too. That’s the easiest thing in the world.”

I snort. “You’re such a big softy, Samson Wolf.”

“Only for you, Sweets. And our families. Everybody else gets the wolf.”

I throw my head back and laugh and he leans down and his lips touch mine gently and that’s all it takes. My whole body lights up like a lit fuse, fireworks going off behind my eyes.

He lifts his head and studies me carefully, worried. I don’t let him say one word. Just wrap my hand around his head and pull his down. His lips touch mine and this time it’s hard, fast and deep. Our mouths meeting and tongues twining. I moan and he growls and all of a sudden it’s like two animals going at each other like wild things.

Sam walks back to the back and straight to his empty office. It’s the smallest one but it still has room for a couch and he drops me to the cushions, dropping to his knees beside the couch. His eyes pull at me even as we both stare, panting.

“Do you want this, Sweets?”

“I do. I love you, Sam. So damn much.”

He nods his head and then stands up, closing and locking the door. “Take off your clothes, Chloe. Let me see what’s mine.”

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