His fierce blue eyes.
Eyes that are intensely locked on mine.
I find myself melting beneath his gaze, an upheaval of emotions that can be neither defined or defied.
“You’re safe now.”
The weight of those three words weave themselves into my soul, penetrating the walls I put in place long ago. He leans in close, pulling me in for a hug, wrapping his free arm around my waist to hold me close.
Tight.
Like he never wants to let go. I find safety in his warm embrace. Comfort and shelter from the storm that has been chasing me for far too long.
My shoulder hurts like hell but it’s worth the throbbing pain to finally hold her this close. I’ve been dying to do it since I found her in that filthy basement. I can’t explain it. The way she makes me feel inside.
Something has shifted.
Something that wasn’t there before.
I’d been born with an instinct to protect but I’d never had a feeling quite like this. The irrefutable need to not only protect this beautiful, lost creature but claiming her seems almost as peril. It’s what had me leaping in front of that bullet to save her. It’s what has me desperate to hold her right now. Because if I look at those supple lips for another fucking minute, I’m going to possess them in a way that already scares the shit out of me.
Selena pulls away to meet my gaze once more. “Oh, I’m sorry, did I hurt you?” she asks, dragging her fingers beneath her wet eyes.
“I’m good,” I tell her and she smiles shyly.
That tug in my chest grows stronger, my cock twitching with the curl of her lips. The greedy bastard hasn’t let up either. Not since she was bent over me in a pool of my own blood, begging for me to hang on. She thought I was dying, I thought I’d died and gone straight to heaven. Now she’s sitting here in front of me, looking broken and lost and the only thing I can think of is burying myself so deep inside of her nothing bad can ever touch her again.
“The nurse brought me some clean clothes earlier. Would it be okay if I took a shower?”
“Yeah, do whatever you need to do. I’m not going anywhere.”
She giggles and the sound trickles down my spine in a wave of heat. “I won’t be long,” she reassures me. “Do you need anything before I go?”
I shake my head and, almost reluctantly, she eases from the bed. She retrieves the small plastic bag on the couch then walks into the bathroom, shutting the door quietly behind her. When I hear the water switch on, I sink down farther into the bed, exhaling loudly.
Closing my eyes, I do my best not to think about Selena naked in the shower or the fact that she’ll be staying with me at the ranch. A knock sounds before Reid pokes his head inside.
“Hey, I was hoping you would be awake. How’re you feeling?”
“Sore as fuck.”
He walks closer to the bed, taking a seat next to me, looking tired and haggard.
“How’s Cassidy?”
He blows out a long breath, relaxing back in the chair. “She’s going to be okay. They’ll release her in a few days. Bodie came by to talk to her.”
Bodie is Cassidy’s brother and Reid’s former best friend. They thought he was murdered six years ago but turns out he’d been hiding out in Mexico, working for the DEA and infiltrating Del Marco’s cartel.
“How’d that go?”
“I’m still pissed but I gotta find a way to make peace with this shit, for Cassidy at least.”
“You’ll find a way.”
“When are they letting you out?”
“Sometime in the morning,” I answer.
