Page 27 of Protected Hearts

* * * * *

The rope handles of the bag Oaks held burned like a brand in his palm. It couldn’t possibly be due to the fact that he was hyperaware of all those sexy undergarments wrapped in tissue paper.

Suddenly, his brain swirled with images of that red bra and panties set Shiloh had picked up. Her toned legs would be sleek and smooth, running right up to the lace around the high-cut underwear.

Fuck. He had to get moving. If he stood here long enough, he’d drown in images of her wearing them—in every position.

During the night, he’d slept light—and that meant he’d caught glimpses of her on the bed beside him. Her bathrobe was open more than closed. He already knew the size and shape of her breast and the length of thigh leading to the crotch of her white cotton panties.

He’d damn near shot his load from a single look, like some damn teenage boy. He brought his focus in tighter to Shiloh right now. She stood a foot away from him, checking out the stock of laptops. The store didn’t seem to have one she liked, and she was trying to decide between two.

He would catch hell for this from Carson. Giving his ward a device the previous night was enough of a security risk, but he and Carson agreed that covering up information about their flight from New York to Wyoming was a good idea.

But he knew she was hiding something more from them. That something involved using technology. Giving her a device she felt they couldn’t look at would get Black Heart the information on her they needed even faster. She was sure to hang herself.

He just hoped Carson saw it the same way Oaks did.

She tossed her blonde hair over her shoulder and leaned in to read the specs, noting the amount of RAM on the computer.

God, she really was beautiful. Not in the girl-next-door way like Layne was, but Shiloh had more of an exotic appeal. With those long legs, she could be a model. Her face had a femininity and softness that made him think of old-fashioned military pinup girls on playing cards or even on the side of B-52 airplanes.

As if feeling his gaze on her, she glanced up. A pink flush in her cheeks made his gut squeeze. Then his cock started to stiffen as he pictured her just like this—flushed—and wearing that skimpy bra and panties set.

“I’ll take this one.” She pointed at the device.

Needing to leave as quick as possible, he raised a hand in the air and caught the attention of the salesperson hovering in an aisle nearby. He twitched his hand, indicating they were ready to make the purchase.

As soon as he had paid for the laptop, he handed the bag to Shiloh. She took off toward the door.

By the time he caught up to her, she’d pushed her way outside.

She was standing in the open.

Alone.

He latched on to her arm and yanked her back against his side. “You need to stay with me.”

She gaped at him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“If you take a step, you take it with me.”

“That’s a little over the top, don’t you think? I only walked to the door. Oaks, let go of my arm. No man is going to control me again! I went through this once. No more.”

He leaned in close and lowered his voice so the other shoppers strolling on the sidewalks outside the stores in the plaza didn’t overhear. “You think this is about control? It’s not a control thing. It’s a safety thing. You have no damn idea how much control I’ve had to exercise when it comes to those red—”

He bit off the words, cutting them short. But he’d already said too much. His current state of arousal was his own damn fault. He was the one letting his daydreams about the woman run rampant.

“Come on.” He took her arm whether she liked it or not. “There are too many eyes here. Too many people. Besides, Layne is waiting in the car for us. We’ll talk at the ranch.”

“What’s there to say?” Her voice was also lowered to a furious whisper, but he ignored it—and the way it stroked his libido. The short drive to the ranch didn’t ease the tension throbbing between them.

Her refusal to speak to him ticked him off, but he wasn’t speaking to her either. What was there to say when his body wanted to do all the talking?

When they reached the ranch, he gathered all the bags. “Go to the bedroom.”

Her eyes widened so he saw the whites around the livid gray-blue. “Go to your room? Stop treating me like a child, Oaks.”

He took a step toward her so fast that she jumped. “I just want a conversation with youalone. Away from prying eyes.”

---