Dare to Hold (Dare to Love 4)

She was so adorably flustered, and he hated to stress her out more, but it couldn’t be helped. “Okay, first, yes, you need to go home. But not to shower and relax. I want you to pack up your things and come home with me.”

“What?” she squeaked.

“Mike is following you. He’s threatened you. Your apartment doesn’t have security, you have no alarm, and it’s not safe. I want you where I can keep an eye—and other body parts—on you,” he said, trying to ease the whole dominant thing with a wink and a tease.

She narrowed her gaze. “I know what you’re doing.”

“I’d be disappointed if you didn’t.”

Meg blew out a long breath and paced back and forth in the small office. She might have just had an awesome orgasm, but her stress had returned the minute Tyler Dare had walked in on them. “I promised myself I’d think things through. When it came to dealing with you, to coping with Mike, I swore I’d be smart.”

Smart as in not falling hard for this incredible man who was doing his utmost to protect her and keep her safe. Who was insinuating himself in her life and making himself welcome and needed. She shook her head in denial. Nobody was indispensible, and she would be fine on her own. But she also knew better than to put pride, ego, or past mistakes ahead of keeping her and the baby out of harm’s way.

“Staying with you until this Mike situation is resolved is the smart, safe thing to do,” she conceded, and not easily. To that end, and only that end, Scott’s solution made sense. To everything but her heart.

Surprise etched his handsome face. “Thank you for making it easy.”

“Thank you for offering your house.” She turned away, not wanting to look into those dark navy eyes for too long. She could drown in them.

“I’ll arrange to have your car brought there.”

“Thank you,” she said softly. “Can we go now?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Because not only did she want to shower and rest, she wanted the answers Scott had promised her earlier. And she intended to get them.

* * *

Scott was grateful Meg needed to unwind when they returned to his house and she didn’t insist on talking. Oh, he knew he’d have to come clean eventually, but he appreciated the time to grill steaks, have a beer, and listen to her humming to the music she played through her cell phone while she prepared a tossed salad. He liked the sounds of her moving around in his kitchen, making herself at home. Normalcy wasn’t something he had much of, and being with Meg brought him a shocking kind of peace.

She’d taken a long shower first, and now she walked around his kitchen in one of those silky short outfits she preferred, this one in soft beige. The kind that showed everything and gave him a permanent hard-on. If he hadn’t caught her wearing something similar when she’d believed she’d be alone, he’d have thought she was deliberately torturing him.

After dinner, they moved out to the patio, relaxing on adjacent lounge chairs. He stared out at the pool, enclosed by a fence for baby and child safety, remembering the time and effort he’d put into designing the yard after he’d bought the house. The yard had been a priority, and he’d started on the back immediately because suddenly he’d been looking forward to a whole different kind of life. Leah hadn’t been.

He tilted his head and glanced at Meg. She studied him in silence, serious brown eyes taking him in. Waiting.

“I guess it’s time,” he said.

She lifted her shoulder, which had the bonus effect of raising her breasts beneath the flimsy top. Her nipples, tight from the slightly cooler night air, peaked against the sheer tank, and Scott bit back a groan. There was way too much to come for his mind or body to consider that kind of detour.

“Only if you want to. I’m not going to force you to bare your soul,” she said. Her little tongue darted out, moistening her bottom lip, and he was tempted to say fuck it, straddle her on the recliner, and forget all about his past.

But she’d hold it against him if he didn’t talk or tried to distract her. He got it. Her life was an open book for him. He’d made himself a part of hers. Fair was fair. No matter how much he hated revisiting that time in his past, he would.

He leaned his head back against the cushioned headrest but kept his gaze on hers. “You know about my family. My father never being home, finding out about his other kids and his mistress. I guess you could say it left a very sour taste in my mouth about marriage.”

She lay on her side and curled her knees in, getting comfortable. “I guess a crappy childhood leads you to go one of two ways. You search for something better or you decide never again.”

Meg wanted better. Scott knew that without asking. For all her talk about standing on her own—and he believed that’s what she wanted—deep down inside, she also desired the happily ever after you only read about in books. Which begged the question: What was he doing getting so involved with her now? Any way he sliced it, she’d be having a baby and settling into a domesticity he’d never envisioned for himself before or after Leah.

“Go on,” Meg said into his extended silence.

He blinked, her voice bringing him back to the present. He cleared his throat. “You’re right. I had no intention of getting married.”

“So what happened?”

He shrugged. “Hurricane Leah. I met her at a Thunder Christmas party. She was a model and had come with one of the players, but they weren’t getting along and broke up before the night even ended. He left her there; she was stranded…”