Page 50 of Hunted Hearts
The room blurred. Willow’s hand found hers, squeezing, and for a moment Juliette clung to that warmth, even as her vision shimmered with tears she could barely blink away.
A knock on the door broke through the heavy quiet. Willow stood to answer, cracking it just enough to speak with whoever was outside. Juliette heard the murmur of a male voice, low and steady.
“Everything okay in here?” she heard him ask.
Willow whispered something in reply. Then Juliette caught a clearer word, one that made her spine stiffen.
“…delivery.”
Theo was in motion instantly, his spine straightening like pure steel. He crossed the room in two strides and caught Juliette’s hand, his palm warm and firm around hers.
“Come with me.”
Juliette barely had time to rise before he was leading her out. His grip was an anchor against her rising tide of panic. Her heart hammered hard against her ribs, not just from fear, but from the solid strength of him and the way his hand swallowed hers, steady, unyielding.
The hall stretched ahead, dim and quiet except for their footsteps. As they neared the front door, Juliette slowed, focusing on the heat of his hand, the way it grounded her even as the world tilted sideways around them.
Whatever was waiting outside, she could face it.
As long as Theo didn’t let go.
Chapter Ten
The moment Theo caught the low voice at the conference room door and heard the word “delivery,” his gut tightened. He already knew what it was—the one thing he’d told the veteran from the program to flag him for the second it showed up.
It couldn’t have arrived at a worse damn moment.
Juliette’s slender fingers were cool against his palm, but she didn’t resist as he laced their hands and guided her toward the side door. The hallway was hushed, the muted hum of the ranch giving way to the faint whisper of wind outside.
Through the window, Theo spotted the truck idling in the gravel drive, its chrome catching the weak sunlight filtering over the mountains. Beyond it, the peaks rose jagged and pale with a dusting of snow gleaming like the calm before another storm.
If this surprise he’d planned went well, Juliette’s tears would dry up, and he couldn’t think of anything he’d rather see than a smile on her beautiful face.
He paused in the mudroom. Coats hung on a row of hooks running the length of the wall. Below that stood every variety of footwear from muck boots to cowboy boots with embossed leather for honky-tonkin’, and even a pair of shiny dress shoes one of his brothers had kicked off. They lay haphazardly, forgotten.
“Theo, you’re scaring me.” Juliette tilted her head up to him, her wide gaze filling him with more protectiveness than ever.
He skimmed the pad of his thumb over the curve of her cheek. “Nothing to be afraid of.”
He grabbed his heavy oilskin jacket off the peg and draped it over Juliette’s shoulders. The cloth swallowed her small frame and made her shoulders droop under the weight.
But one look at her wearing his coat had his guts twisting and his cock growing hard.
Unable to stop himself, he lightly pinched the point of her chin and leaned in slow to press a tender kiss on her plump lips. She tasted of mint and salty tears, something that she wouldnotbe shedding again. Not if he had his way about it.
And he would. Starting now.
He glanced down to see she was wearing her own shoes and nodded. Taking her by the hand again, he led her outside into the brisk air.
The driver of the truck, a neighboring rancher who’d driven about thirty miles to make the delivery, pushed off the side of his vehicle.
Theo strode forward to clasp his hand in a firm handshake. “Frank. Damn good of you to do this for me.”
The man was gnawing on a toothpick that wobbled as he smiled. The lines on his weathered face told stories of their own, something Theo could appreciate.
When he stepped back, he slipped his arm around Juliette. “This is Juliette.”
He felt her holding her breath, as if waiting for the rancher to recognize her as a celebrity. But he only extended his hand, and she took it with a warm smile.
