Page 100 of His to Protect

It was only a matter of time.

For now, I still wanted to take care of Trina and get her through the fallout of Kevin’s death with as much ease as possible.

Even it if was three o’clock in the morning and reporters were camped out on my lawn.

“You doing okay?” I asked, and pulled her into my arms once she removed her coat and draped it over the side of my couch.

The last three days had seemed to go on forever. I was exhausted, but as soon as my hands brushed the skin at her back beneath her shirt, everything south of my waist perked up.

“Yeah. I’m good.”

“Kevin’s funeral is tomorrow.” I watched a deep line form between her eyes. A weight compressed my chest. “We can still head down there if you think you need that.”

I’d mentioned it several times and should already have known her answer, but a part of me thought she needed the closure. That maybe she needed to go back to Kentucky and say goodbye, now that she wasn’t fleeing out of fear.

But she still didn’t want to return unless she had to. “I don’t want to go.”

“You’ve been sleeping all night.”

She tilted her head to the side and frowned. “Is that a problem?”

“No. I just figured after the week you’ve had, after you started realizing the truth of everything that’s happened, you might not sleep so well.”

Her downturned lips turn upward. “Not sure how I can go to bed and not feel safe and protected from everything going on when your arms are around me and you’re holding me so tightly I fall asleep listening to your heart beat.”

And there it was.

I’d found a woman who trusted me implicitly, even when she slept. I’d fallen in love with a woman who not only loved me, but loved the life I’d built and the restaurant I wanted to grow. She not only loved it, she jumped right in, loving the work and the long, hard hours, right along with me.

After Mara left, I might not have admitted it, but I sometimes wondered if I’d ever find a woman—a good woman—who wanted to be with a man who owned a simple, local sports bar.

But just like Trina believed I could keep her safe and protected from everything that could harm her, I’d found a woman who, simply by being herself and all that she was—good, kind, pure, sexy as hell, and hilarious when she remembered she could tease people—had healed the parts of me Mara had wounded, and healed them so well there wasn’t even scar tissue left behind.

Just a fresh newness inside of me that I couldn’t wait to share with her.

Of its own accord, my finger drew a circle around her ring finger. Her tan line was still there, the faded mark of her former ring still visible. I couldn’t wait to cover it up with my own diamond.

It would no doubt be smaller than the one she’d had before, but I knew that she wouldn’t care.

“I know things moved fast for us,” I whispered against the top of her head, pulling her close to me, “and I hope this doesn’t scare the hell out of you, but I can’t wait until I can make you mine.”

Her soft laugh warmed my chest. “I’m already yours, Declan. Everything I am and everything I have is yours.” She tilted her head back, eyes sparkling with honesty and admiration.

I loved this woman.

I silenced her, pressing my lips to hers, and then I picked her up and carried her upstairs and into the bedroom, where I dropped her in the center of our bed. My body fell on top of her and her legs wrapped around my hips as I sank inside her, and I spent the next hour making love to the woman I knew would always be by my side.

We’d already experienced darkness and rough times, and now, hopefully, it would only be smooth sailing from here on out.

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