Page 45 of Shelter for Sharla

Without even thinking, he whispered, “PennyTadlock.”

“Who?”

“Oh, nobody. Just… nobody, really. But seriously, women don’t look at me that way.”

“Yes, Carter, they do. All the time.”

“Well, it won’t do them any good because I’m taken.” He grinned at her. “They can’t have me. I’m all yours.”

“If you’re all mine, then let’s get this kitchen cleaned up so I can enjoy what’s all mine, how’s about it, stud?” She wiggled her eyebrows and Carter laughed at her.

“Stud, huh? I’ll show you stud! We can clean up the kitchen in the morning! Get in that bedroom, woman!”

“No. We’ve got to clean up our mess and then we can make one in your bed. Come on. Help me out here,” she said, rising and taking dishes to the sink.

An hour later, as he stroked into her, Carter looked down into those big, luminous, blue eyes and smiled. “I love you, beautiful girl,” he whispered and leaned down to nip her lips before he dropped a kiss onto them.

“And I love you too, my hero.”

My hero.He wanted to be her hero, and he had a lot of work to do to get there. But he made himself a silent promise right that minute. She’d be safe, she and those two kids, sheltered from the pain of neglect and poverty. They’d never be hurt or abandoned again. They’d never be alone. He’d see to it.

Still, he’d never say that out loud to her. It was better not to make a promise if you weren’t sure you could keep it. At that point, everything was up for grabs. They had to get some kind of fruitful lead soon. He hoped lives didn’t depend on it.

* * *

“You didn’t tellme Cruz was staying here!” Sharla whispered as she slipped back into bed beside him.

Carter rolled toward her in the early-morning darkness. “I thought I did.”

“No. You didn’t. I went in the kitchen to get a bottle of water and ran right into him as he came out of the bathroom.”

That made him sit straight up in bed. “Oh, shit! You weren’t…” He threw the covers back?tee shirt. “Thank god you weren’t naked.”

“Yeah, no shit. That would’ve been awkward, to say the least.” She reached for him as he fell back into the pillows and he rolled to face her. Her fingers combed through his hair and she smiled. “I like this.” Snuggling down beside him, she threw an arm over him and he kissed the top of her head.

“I like it too. We’ve got tonight and then the kids will be home for the weekend, so we’ll have to… Wait. They know.” Carter grinned. “We don’t have to sneak around.”

“Yeah, but we can’t be having wild monkey sex with them in the house.”

“True.”

“So what’s on your agenda for today?”

“I don’t know, but I have this feeling Cruz is going to want to go to O’Fallon, which is fine with me.”

Sharla nodded against the pillow. “Okay. So don’t hold dinner. Is that the message there?”

“Probably.” He rested his cheek against the crown of her head and sighed.Here we go, he thought grimly.Pretty soon it’s going to be fussing about why I’m not home for dinner, why I have to work on Sunday, why we can’t have a holiday together. And then it’ll be over. He knew that. It was a surety. And yet there he was, trying to forge a relationship and believe Sharla would be different. It wasn’t about her being a woman. It was about her being a partner in a relationship where it seemed she was the only one giving anything, and that was exactly how she’d start to see it. It was simply a matter of time.

Just as he started to say something along those lines, the alarm clock went off.Saved by the bell, he told himself as he slapped the top of the damn thing. “Time to make the coffee. I sure hope you brought something to wear as bottoms.”

“Yoga pants.”

“Good. At least you can get around in the house without having to be fully dressed.” The coffee pot was calling him, and he left Sharla sitting in the bed, rubbing her eyes.

By the time the coffee was done, Cruz was standing in the kitchen, mug in hand. “You up for O’Fallon today?” he asked as Carter reached up into the cabinet to retrieve mugs for himself and Sharla.

“I told her that’s probably what you were going to ask about, and yeah, I’m up for it.”

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