Warm, soft lips met my ear lobe, not a kiss, but an erotic touch, a hypnotic foreplay to something I realized I wanted more than anything in the world.
“… Done,” I whispered back, stunned by the sheer need in my voice.
He pulled back slowly, his eyes locked on mine. My whole body was trembling. Wanting.
“Be right back.” He smirked—arrogant and smug and devastatingly sexy.
And then he walked out the door, taking all that heat, all that energy, all thatpossibilitywith him.
My protection. My peace of mind.
My… what?
I plucked the wine glass from the counter and watched him ride down the driveway on his big, white horse to meet his brother.
Phoenix Steele, my patient.
My knight in shining armor.
My weakness.
The last of the porch light caught his face as he turned and locked eyes with me.
A smile crossed my lips. A desperate need crossed my body.
He winked, then faded into the darkness.
And I knew, at that moment, I was falling madly in love with Phoenix Steele.
I knew I was in trouble.
I just didn’t realize, at the time, exactly how much.
33
PHOENIX
It was past ten by the time I finished hacking through the last section of the tree. The manual labor had helped. So had the drop in temperature, which cooled more than just the sweat on my skin—it calmed the adrenaline still buzzing from my conversation with Jagg at Frank’s.
I'd come here ready to go ten rounds the moment Rose got home. I'd been primed for questions, accusations, hell, even a fight. I’d spent half the day angry—at the unanswered questions, the secrets, the mystery midnight visit to that damn ranch house. At the feeling that she was keeping something from me.
But then she showed up.
Jogging down the hill in those little boots, smiling like I hadn't been two steps from losing my mind a few hours ago.
And I’ll be damned if everything in me didn’t just… settle.
I forgot what I was even doing there. Forgot every sharp-edged question I’d been planning to throw at her.
She had that effect on me.
The chaos in my head went still the second she smiled at me. My heart slowed. My thoughts straightened out. Hell, she made me feel something I hadn’t felt in a long, long time—something dangerously close to peace.
It was hypnotic.
And it scared the hell out of me.
I set the chainsaw down, gave Spirit one last stroke down her sleek neck, and started toward the house. The porch light spilled a warm glow onto the yard, her silhouette visible through the living room window.
