Page 6 of Beau
“I couldn’t just let the guy take that girl away!” I explained. “You’re victim blaming! Those men are the ones who you should be yelling at. They’re the ones who took–”
“My little sister.”
I blinked at his simple and surprising response. “Your…”
“Cammie, my little sister.”
“Oh my God, is she okay?”
He nodded. While the lights from the arena brightened the sky, his face was in shadow beneath his dark Stetson. “Thanks to you.”
I sighed, suddenly all the adrenaline seeping away. “That’s good. I kicked him in the balls, Beau. Was running away, too, but he got a grip on the back of my shirt. Caught me. I swear I kicked him hard enough for him to suffocate on those tiny things. I have a knife on me. I was gonna–”
He held up a hand and swore. “I don’t want to hear what you were gonna do with a knife or how he could have overpowered you and used it on you.” He studied me.
“What?” I asked.
His gaze lowered to my lips and suddenly the summer night around us crackled like there was an incoming storm. “Fuck it.”
I was following along, but when he cupped my face in his hands and kissed me, I was surprised.
Then I wasn’t because the kiss was everything I expected from a man. He took charge. Took full control, angling my head just the way he wanted to take the kiss deeper. To have his tongue find mine when I moaned. To claim.
I had no idea how long we kissed for. I also hadno idea how I’d ended up pressed against the side of an empty horse trailer, Beau’s body holding me in place.
I felt his heft. His hardness. I tasted him. Smelled him. I was absorbing him as if I were a plant in the desert and it finally rained.
When he lifted his head, he ran a thumb over my lower lip. His hat was gone. The hot, intense look in his eyes was giving off the idea that he didn’t have any plan to stop. He looked like he wanted to devour me, but somehow was holding himself in check.
“What was that for?” I whispered.
“Just giving you your last first kiss.”
I blinked. “What?”
The corner of his mouth tipped up. “You heard me.”
My last first kiss.As in he was the only person I was going to be kissing from now on.
“You can’t mean–”
“Yes,” he said simply.
“But–”
He put his finger over my lips for a moment to silence me.
“It’s done, love. You’re mine.”
I frowned. “You do realize the irony of youtelling me that after rescuing me from a shitty kidnapper.”
He growled. It seemed he didn’t like being reminded of what just happened. “The difference is I’m gonna take care of you and treat you like a fucking queen.”
He… what?
I had to admit, it sounded good. To have a guy look at me like he did and want me? Butterflies were having a party in my stomach. That kiss proved there was definitely chemistry. And he’d rescued me? Hot.
“There’s one big problem.” I shrugged. “Well, eight.”
