Page 79 of Second First Kiss

She looked at her phone again. She’d hung up with Nolan three minutes and sixteen seconds ago, and it was just over a ten-minute drive—without traffic. Then again who would be on the road at nine at night?

“We just have to hold on and pray the intruder gave up or isn’t smart enough to get in for another six minutes and forty-seven seconds,” she said.

Six minutes forty-six seconds.

Forty-five.

Forty-four?—

A knock sounded at the back door and Kat jumped. She wasn’t one for hysterics, but she felt a little hysterical at the moment. Not only had she heard a noise, she’d seen a shadow of a man in a ball cap.

Her phone buzzed with a text.

Nolan: At back door. Let me in.

Kat: How do I know you aren’t the peeper who knocked Nolan out and is pretending to be him?

Nolan: I left a hickey on your right breast.

Definitely Nolan. She stepped out of the bathroom and she and Tiny Dancer walked to the back door and let Nolan in.

He cupped her chin so he could see her eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I am now.”

“Stay right here. Understood? Don’t move until I come back and get you.”

Nolan had his weapon drawn and started clearing the house. He took six steps, and not wanting to be alone, Kat followed, Tiny Dancer hot on her heels. His hooves gave them away.

Nolan turned around, he whispered. “What happened to staying put?”

“I don’t take orders all that well.”

“Don’t I know it.” With a sigh, he took her hand and tucked it into his back pocket which gave her a nice grope of his ass. “Hold on and be my shadow. I move, you move. Understood?”

She nodded.

“Say it out loud.”

“Understood.”

With accuracy and skill, he cleared the entire house room by room, closet by closet, with her right behind him. The house was empty.

He holstered his weapon. “Are you really okay?”

She nodded and before she knew what he was doing, he pulled her into his arms and wrapped his body around her.

At first, she endured the hug, then she realized she was trembling and wrapped her arms tightly around him, pressing her cheek to his heart. “I don’t know why I’m shaking,” she said, her words muffled by his chest.

He held on tighter, as if he was afraid he’d lose her. To reassure him she wasn’t going anywhere she scooched closer, something she rarely did.

“I don’t know why I’m shaking,” she repeated. “I’m not scared anymore,” she admitted, and it took Herculean effort just to come clean about that truth.

“Adrenaline, Kitten. Your body is pumped full of it and now you’re coming down from it.”

She leaned her head back to look him in the eyes, “I don’t like it. I feel like I’m out of control.” It felt like the day she learned her granddad died. “How do I get rid of it?”

“Honestly?” he asked, and she nodded. “This isn’t a come-on, but sex is a great stress reliever.”

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