Page 71 of Rock Chick Rescue

“Eddie—” I started to object but he interrupted me again.

“Nothing’s going to happen. Not tonight. I’m too tired and too pissed off.”

I tried to decide if I could sleep with a tired and pissed-off Eddie.

I decided I couldn’t sleep with a tired and pissed-off Eddie.

“Those two choices aren’t choices at all,” I pointed out. “They’re the same thing in different places.”

“They’re all you’ve got,” he told me.

“I don’t like it.”

“I don’t care. I told you not to go after your dad. You did and you bought yourself a fuckload of trouble to add to the shitload you already had. If I gotta keep you safe, I’ll do it how I need to do it and I want you close.”

“But…sleep with me?” I asked.

“You don’t get it,” he said, his brows drawing together.

“I think I do.” I was beginning to go from freaked out to angry.

He let go of my wrist but tightened both arms around me. “Slick’s known for using that blade and not in good ways. I already told you what Vince is capable of. They come after you, I want them to get me first.”

Okay, so at that, the anger started to melt into that weird feeling again.

“You can’t do that for me,” I whispered.

“I’m not doin’ it for you. I’m doin’ it for me. I won’t get what I want out of you if your throat’s been cut.”

Putting it that way, it almost made sense. But only almost.

“This is going too fast, it’s—”

Again, he didn’t let me finish.

He interrupted me by laughing. If you can believe, he actuallylaughed.

His hands moved up my back and his head tilted toward me.

“Since I’m bein’ honest with you,chiquita, I’ll tell you I usually play with what I want until I feel the time is right to move in. The time was right with you a long fuckin’ time ago, but you’ve been so focused on your own shit you gave me no opening. This hasn’t been fast. You want to see fast, we’ll go into the bedroom and I’ll show you fast, but I’ll show it to you slow.”

Oh…dear…Lord.

My stomach curled and that was a pleasant feeling too.

Regardless, for self-preservation, immediately I said, “I don’t want to see fast.”

His arms separated, one stayed up my back, the other one went low on my waist.

His mouth came to mine and I quit breathing.

With his lips against mine he said, “You’ve got one night’s reprieve. Tomorrow, I start movin’ in.”

What did I do with that? I mean, I pretty much thought he was already “movin’ in.”

He didn’t give me a chance to do anything.

“I gotta make a call and then we’re goin’ to bed,” he announced.

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