Page 61 of Protect

I jump when my phone vibrates loudly in my purse. Rowan freezes as it stops ringing and then starts again. I can see the need in his eyes, the want. It reflects my own, he’s barely even had a chance to touch me.

“Shit. Sorry, shit…” I whisper, breathing heavily as Rowan stands.

I pinch the bridge of my nose in frustration. “I have to answer it.”

“Hey, Violette, uh, are you coming home soon?” Troy asks the moment I pick up. I try to steady my breath after Rowan’s face was just between my thighs, begging. Flipping from that to Troy’s demanding tone is not an easy feat.

“Why?”

“I texted you.”He did? How did I not hear my phone?“I had to bring Hollie home early.”

“I, uh—I called your mom, she came over.”

“What?What’s going on?” I toss back at him, my tone stern. The way he thinks I’m just at his beck and call is crazy. He’s been with Hollie for less than two hours.

I look back at Rowan, who hands me my shirt and my jeans, somehow knowing whatever we just did is now over. My eyes linger on his gorgeous face, his body, the way his arm ripples with muscle as he lifts my clothes?—

“Hollie was crying, saying she wants you, maybe she isn’t feeling well…I don’t know. I got a call anyway; they could use me at the hospital tonight, so I was just going to drop her off early.”

Right. Reality.

Rage slinks through my blood with Troy’s words—not because I don’t want him to bring Hollie home early, I’m happy to spend every second with her, but because he is such an ass sometimes. How does he ever expect her not to cry when he only sees her for an hour and a half every three weeks?

“So, can you come home?” he asks expectantly.

I turn my back to Rowan, not wanting him to hear me berate my ex over his utter lack of parenting skills. Mercifully, Rowan has dipped out of the living room. I see him open the fridge in his kitchen at the end of the hall. I take the opportunity to slide my jeans on and button them up, holding my phone between my chin and my shoulder.

“You can’t just expect her to be your little puppet all the time, she’s going to cry, she’s going to have emotions, and that is okay. You can’t just bring her home when she isn’t perfectly behaved,” I angry whisper into the phone.

“I know that, Violette. She just seems tired, and I already told the hospital I would be there a little early.”

I look up at the ceiling and blow out a breath.

This is my reality. My priority. My life.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes, I’m around the corner at a friend’s,” I tell him before I hang up.

I turn around to find Rowan coming back into the living room with two waters. He looks at me with concern in his eyes.

I toss my T-shirt over my head. For some reason—maybe it’s because I don’t want to get into the messy conversation about my ex, or maybe it’s simply because if I tell Rowan what’s going on—I have to mesh these two sides of my life somehow and I’m not prepared for that yet.

Whatever the reason is, I offer him no excuse. This phone call came to remind me that I’m a mom, and maybe this is a sign from the universe that I need to just unpack everything I learned tonight before Rowan ends up between my thighs again.

“I have to go, but I’ll…text you later, okay?” I grab my purse and sling it over my shoulder.

Rowan nods. “Everything okay?” he asks easily.

“Yeah, it’s just…I’m sorry. I got caught up in the moment, and you’re, well, you’re a really good kisser and learning all this truth is a lot for one night. And…not to mention all of this hotness,” I say awkwardly, waving a hand over his incredible physique.

“Thanks?” Rowan says, one eyebrow raised.

“I think I just lost all control there for a few minutes,” I say.

“Vi…” Rowan says when I turn to move toward his front door, but he gets to me quicker and stops me.

“Look, I’m not saying this isn’t something, it’s just that our lives are very different and…I—just have no idea how to be a mom and do…whatever this is.”

Rowan sets his jaw with my shitty excuse. I know I’m panicking because mixing my life with his scares the shit out of me. But before he can really even retort, I reach up on my tip toes and kiss him. It sends a rush of want through me but I force myself to back away because I don’t know what else to do or say.

---