Page 8 of I've Got You

“There is every need. You could have been killed. What if I’d never got to meet you?”

“The world wouldn’t have ended. You would have found another girl to torment and take care of.”

He helps me up the sidewalk. His longer strides shortened to match my own strides.

“Nope. That’s reserved for you.”

“Lucky me,” I grumble, feigning unhappiness. Inside, my inner woman is doing little cartwheels and happy dances.

She needs to get a grip.

I touch the door and squeak when it comes open under my hand. Judd immediately pushes me behind him and steps through the door.

“Wait!” I hiss. “Shouldn’t we call the police?”

“Probably. But I’m gonna check it out. Don’t worry. I’ll be right back.”

“Hey, hey!” I whisper. “Come back.”

“Stay here,” he whispers back roughly.

I wait a couple of seconds, chewing on my lip.

“Fuck it,” I mutter under my breath. Then I push the door open and move into my dark house slowly.

Feeling my way with my feet and my hands, I make my way ahead. The house is eerily silent and I can practically hear my heartbeat banging in my ears. One step. Two steps. I count each step, barely breathing. Hoping that this is just an aberration. That I just somehow forgot and left my door open. Which I’ve never done before.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay outside?” A deep voice growls by my ear and I jump about a foot in the air.

“Aaah!” I whirl around and face Judd, surprising an angry look on his face. “What? Jeez! Why the hell did you have to scare the shit out of me?” I lift a hand to swat his arm and he grabs my wrist, swinging me into his body. Instantly all kinds of bells and whistles go off, nerves firing up and lightning streaking through me.

“Don’t even think about it, princess. I’m not the kind of guy that likes to be punished. I am, however, the kind of guy that likes to hand it out and you are seriously pushing my buttons,” he growls. “Do you ever listen when someone tells you to do something?”

I shrug and struggle to control the raging hormones that seem to be taking over my body like body snatchers.

“Hmmm.” He leans closer and I feel his nose skimming the side of my neck. Fire bubbles up and washes over my skin. “Someone needs to teach you to behave, little girl.”

I pull away from him and huff. “That’s not your job.”

“We’ll see. Now. I didn’t find anything so I think we should turn on the lights and take a look around. We don’t know what we’ll find and we can decide what to do afterwards.”

“I’ll decide,” I insist. “I think you keep forgetting you were just giving me a ride home. You’re not my husband and you’re not my daddy.”

He turns on the lights and I’m momentarily blinded by it. But then I see the shit-eating grin on his face and brace myself. I barely know this man but for some reason I feel like I know him better than anyone I’ve ever met.

“I’d like to be your daddy,” he says in a rough, husky tone that makes that spark sizzle in my belly again. There’s a tug so deep in my belly that it feels like a hand squeezes it.

“Ugh. You’ve got a lot of sexual innuendo going on for a guy I barely know.”

His hazel eyes sparkle like a kaleidoscope of green and gold and brown. “You know me pretty well, I think.”

“I literally only met you about a day ago.”

“Sometimes it doesn’t take a long time to know someone. Sometimes it can take seconds.”

“Humph! Well, it’s gonna take more than that for you to be my daddy!” I flush and my mouth opens and closes as he laughs at me. “That isn’t what I meant. I mean. I don’t mean that you’re my daddy. Or I want you to be my daddy,” I mutter.

“Agree to disagree, baby girl.”

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