Page 44 of The Female Warrior & The Charming Gentleman

“Did you get any injuries?” she asked, stopping his advance. “From Easton?”

How much to admit to and still appear tough in her eyes? She worked with men much tougher than him every day. He wanted to measure up.

“Eli and I don’t always train in the morning when I’m fresh. He likes to push me when I’m already reeling from a long day. Says he learned it in SEAL training. I’ve had injuries before.”

“That explains how well you hung with Easton. He’s been trained on level with most special ops teams.”

“He’s a great fighter.”

“So are you.”

His chest poked out. “Thank you.”

“So nothing hurts?”

“Maybe a few places,” he admitted.

She nodded and then she shocked him whenshe reached up and gently touched next to his split eyebrow. “This looks a little sore. You might scar.”

He captured her hand in his and placed a kiss to her palm. “The thought of a scar on my face would’ve upset me, before I knew you. Now it will remind me that my love for you is enough to bring a peaceful man to violence.”

Her eyes widened at his speech. She didn’t say anything, but she arched up onto tiptoes and pressed her soft lips next to his eyebrow.

Jarom pulled in a quick breath. What was happening? She was willingly making the moves on him.

She fell back onto her heels, her dark eyes cautious. He knew she’d been through a lot as a child and as a female warrior. He was certain she’d seen and inflicted death, yet she had a depth of soul and internal strength about her that tugged him in as surely as her sass, her bravery, and the vulnerability he felt she only revealed to him.

Jarom took her hand that was clasped in his and lifted her fingers to his cheek. “It hurts here as well.”

“Poor battered billionaire,” she teased, but she kept going with the game and eased up, pressing her succulent lips to his cheek and lingering there as his heart took off at a gallop. She pulled back and tilted her head, her dark hair spilling over her firm shoulder. “Anywhere else bruised and broken?”

He would be bruised and broken, devastated, if she left him. He tugged her hand to his neck. “Right here.”

“He hit you in the neck? How do you not have a collapsed carotid artery?” she teased.

He chuckled with her. “Easton doesn’t hit that hard.”

That was a lie. Easton absolutely hit that hard. Like an anvil slamming into him over and over again. If he was brave,he’d lift his shirt and have Autumn kiss his chest, his abdomen, his shoulder. He could never do that. Not unless they were married. He forced his thoughts away from such ideas.

“Hmm.” But she didn’t say anything more, simply arched up and pressed a lingering kiss to his neck.

His blood heated.

“How do you smell so delicious?” She took a deep inhale of his neck that did funny things to his stomach. “You smell like your own cologne.”

“Maybe my cologne smells like me and not the other way around.”

“So I could buy your scent, keep it with me, and not need the real thing?”

He chuckled even as his stomach clenched. She needed the real thing. He prayed she did. “You actually have Walker and Marci to thank for that, love. Walker gave me his sample bottle.”

She cuddled closer into him, wrapping one arm around his back and holding onto his hand with her other hand. “You should thank them. If it wasn’t for that mind-altering smell, I might be in bed asleep already.”

He grinned against her lips. “I will definitely thank them.”

They stayed close, him relishing her touch, smell, and feel, the rightness of her in his arms.

She blinked up at him. “Anywhere else I need to kiss better?”

---