Page 32 of Mine to Protect

“I have the car keys.”

Looking up the road, I turned back with a broad smile. “Scared you won’t be able to keep up? Get Benny, would you?”

Even from where I stood, there was no mistaking the grumbled curses.

Knowing there was no way he could resist the challenge, I turned and took off once again, only to have two dark shadows by my side less than a quarter-mile later.

“Running helps me think,” I said through my even, deep breaths.

“We’re in hiking boots.”

“Already coming up with excuses for why you’re going to lose, huh?” I laughed and rammed a shoulder into his ribs.

Retaliating, he shoved me into oncoming traffic with a deep laugh before tugging me back to safety. “Come on, Lady, let's see if you could’ve cut it in the marines.” Without warning, he upped his pace, leaving me to breathe in his dust.

“Well, poop,” I exclaimed with a happy smile.

This was fun. I snuck a quick peek down to Benny at my side, who looked up at the same time. I could’ve sworn he was smiling.

For the first time in forever, we were having fun. And it was glorious.

* * *

“What do I get,”Cas wheezed, “for winning?”

Shoulder against the side of the cabin, I gripped my ankle and pulled it back, stretching my tight muscles. “It was a tie, and you know it. Don’t try to cheat.”

His lips twitched upward in an almost smile. “What are we doing here again?”

“iPad.”

“Kitchen table is the last place I saw it, I think,” Cas said as I squeezed past.

“Thanks.” Ignoring the wonderful warmth his body emitted and the sweet smell of manly sweat, I strode to the kitchen table and swiped the iPad open. “Something you said back there, about the husband being twice my size. It made me realize I had the same thought about him and the first husband. Both abnormally large, strong, and fit.”

“Could be a coincidence. Aren’t most dudes fit?”

An incredulous laugh rattled through my chest. “Um, no. But if you seem to think so, maybe I should go where you hang out, if they all look like you.”Well snap. “I mean your friends. If you think everyone’s fit, I’d love for you to meet your friends. I mean me to meet your friends. You know, because they sound hot like you.”Double snap.“I’m going to stop talking now and focus on these pictures,” I grumbled in complete embarrassment.

Heat crept across my cheeks.

Focus. Focus on the task at hand.

Thankfully Cas didn’t mutter a word about my ramblings of finding him attractive; he simply disappeared into his room. At the sound of a shower, I sneaked to the front door, locked it once, twice, and a third time, then went back to my seat, resuming my picture-scrolling with hopes that my random connection wasn’t so random after all.

* * *

“It can’t be a coincidence,”I mumbled as I flipped through the pictures again and again. I saved pictures of the husbands in a separate file to make the comparison easier. Like the two husbands here, the others were all fit too—a few looked like they had some illegal steroid help—massive and, by their looming postures in the pictures, also dominant.

I peeked to the couch. Half an hour ago, Cas emerged from his room, freshly showered and dressed in a pair of mesh shorts and a long-sleeve T-shirt. Since then, he lay on the couch in complete silence, just staring at the ceiling. It was unnerving how well he played the silent, hot guy.

I needed to break the silence before I exploded.

“Want to see what I’m seeing?” I asked, swiveling in the chair to watch for a reaction that I didn’t get. “Okay fine. I’m going to run back to the station—”

“For fuck’s sake, woman, no more running. I had enough of that shit in boot camp. Bring that thing over here. I’m not getting my ass up. My legs are sore.”

With the iPad cradled against my chest, I couldn’t help my smile as I shuffled across the room to the couch. Tentatively, I kneeled on the floor beside his head and rested the screen on his chest.

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