Page 67 of Her Loving Hero

Wyatt set down the tape gun on the desk and sat down in his office chair. “How hormoned up do you have to be, before I can have you?” His voice didn’t even sound like his own.

“Wyatt don’t try your sexy, schmexy Jedi mind tricks on me. We’re talking about the fact that you’re trying to get me and my sisters to stay at your place while you’re gone because you’re a control freak.”

He noticed that she allowed him to pull her forward and sat down on his lap. He loved the fact that she could snuggle up to him now and feel safe. Sometimes too safe. His Emily was getting more and more curious, and he was having a tough damn time adhering to the rules he’d set forth.

“One kiss, and I’ll admit to whatever you want,” he promised.

“Nope, no kisses. Instead you’re going to come clean like a good boy. Did you have to tell Ben that he would be watching out for us before he agreed to stay here?”

“No. He was up for staying here. But knowing he could help out was definitely an incentive,” Wyatt admitted.

“Is this going to be a problem for going into his Navy Training in Point Loma?”

“Yeah, he was going for GCCS.” At her confused look he clarified. “Global Command and Control Systems. They’ve been informed, but I have a friend over in that Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center, and I let her know that Ben was my brother and he would be staying with me until he could report for duty. Right now, the hospital wants to ensure he doesn’t have any seizures for the next month. After that, they feel more comfortable releasing him into the wild.”

“How likely are seizures?”

Now that was the sixty-four-million-dollar question. “They say his prognosis is good, but that it’s really a crap-shoot. But he has good genes. Look how well I pulled through after the gunshot wound that shattered my femur. I’m beating the old men’s’ asses on the obstacle course.”

Emily tried to hop off his lap.

“Wyatt let me off. I shouldn’t be sitting on your leg. It must hurt?”

He burst out laughing. “You’re kidding, right? Do you know what I do for training? What I do for a living? Seriously, if you are sitting on my lap was in any way of a problem, I’d have to hang up my boots.”

He tugged until she was settled back down across his knees. “Weren’t we going to explore your hormones?” he asked.

She sucked in a deep breath, and he thought he had her. “Seriously, to have five of us in this townhome is nuts.”

He stroked a hand down her back and looked at her seriously. “Am I worried about the three of you Hoag girls? Kind of. But, Em, I know you, you’ll keep things tight. But it will screw up your job with the book shop, won’t it?”

She nodded.

“Thought so,” he said. “But the truth is, traumatic brain injuries are tricky. If you don’t stay here, I’m going to have to come up with some way to convince Ben to stay at one of my team member’s houses so that their wives can look after them.”

“You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Yep.” He nuzzled the side of her jaw, gratified with how easily she slipped her arm around his neck. “The worst thing is that Kenna is the logical choice, and she just had Cora.”

“You can’t do that,” she protested.

Wyatt knew that by the way she was responding to his kisses, she was referring to Ben’s placement with the Evan’s family, and not his touches.

“So, cards on the table. Yes, I apologize for trying to coax, cajole, manipulate-”

“Manipulate would be the correct term.” Her words came out a husky sigh and she was now licking the shell of his ear.

“Fine, call me a manipulator. But I really do want Ben to have people around him while he’s recovering. And, call me a chauvinistic asshole if you want, but I would really like to know that Ben is around and you’re in a better neighborhood. In my book this is a win, win, win.”

“If I let you win on this, what do I win?” Emily’s breath was hot in his ear.

“You get dinner out, that’s what you win.”

She pushed back from him and pouted. “That’s not what I was talking about, and you know it.”

Wyatt’s hand cupped one side of her head. He kissed her temple. “We have all the time in the world, Miss Hoag.”

“I’m sick of waiting.”