Turning his charming male attention back to her, Daniel again let her have a look at the spider, and just to pick on Andrew, she leaned so close to inspect it that she could smell Daniel’s manly aftershave. “All right now,” he was saying in his deep voice, “if you hold the spider’s belly against your attacker for three seconds, it will render him unconscious for at least twenty minutes. Even one second will give you time, but three is better. Here. Let me show you how to pin it onto yourself without activating any of the buttons.”
Andrew snatched it up, then grabbed the shoulder of Daniel’s jacket and yanked him to his feet. “If you don’t mind me pinning it on her before you drown her in your drool?” he growled.
Daniel straightened. “Fairchild, you almost Tasered yourself. Whitney practically grew up in my house, man! She could be Chloe for all I know.”
Whitney wanted to agree truthfully that Daniel had always been like a big sexy brother to her, but when Andrew sat next to her, her throat closed with emotion and need and suddenly she couldn’t do anything but be aware of him. Feeling weak with all the things he was doing to protect her, she fell against the back of the couch as he leaned over her, his scent stealing into her nostrils. He drugged her with his smell. His nearness.
Her thighs went watery as she stared into his face while his tan hands worked the spider into the shirt, her gaze suddenly flicking along his nose, taking in his lips, his square jaw.
He pinned it down fast, then he left his big proprietary hand there, above her left breast, and her pussy clenched at the way he stroked the silver spider with one finger as he stared into her eyes and murmured, “You’re going to need to be accompanied from now on. I want you safe.”
She knew she should argue, but suddenly she wanted him to take care of her again. She wanted to let him . . . just a little . . . just this once when she was afraid again.
“I need you to carry your phone powered at all times.” His voice, so thick and sexy, made her tremble as she sat there, almost lying down so that he could pin the spider more easily onto her. He seized both her wrists and brought them up to his mouth, and his eyes took her in as he laced his fingers through hers. “You should carry the spider, too. Don’t let anyone this close but me.”
Her voice sounded strangely breathy. “I won’t.”
He stared in silence, then his eyes traveled down her nose, to her mouth. She trembled.
And he saw.
And everyone else in the room saw.
“So if you two don’t need anything else . . . ?” Daniel said, from the door.
“Buchanan, are the tracking devices fully installed?” Andrew asked as he headed after them.
“All done. You can get her location anytime whether or not her phone is powered.”
“Bye, friend! I’ll see you tomorrow,” Chloe called.
And then they left.
Andrew locked up after them and returned to the couch as Whitney forced herself to her feet, and the atmosphere felt heavy with awareness. He glanced at her mouth, and she glanced back at his beautiful lips while a painful wave of love and lust thrummed through her system.
His eyes looked weighted as he reached out and scraped a heavy hand along the back of her head, then he seized her chin and forced her to look at him, his voice a gentle plea. “I need you to stay here until this is settled.”
The need to reclaim this man as hers again throbbed through her with such force, she could ha
rdly think straight with him so near.
But if she spent the night, she’d want his mouth, his hands, his body to remind her that he was hers, and she was his. It sounded marvelous and yet she knew that she couldn’t let him keep physically filling her while the void he’d put in her chest continued to gape wide open. “I don’t know about that, Andy. We each have our own places and I can’t stay here indefinitely—”
He dropped his arms. “Just don’t fight me on this. Come on!”
He started circling around the room, dragging his hands down his face in pure frustration.
“For the love of God, just let. Me. Protect. You.”
Her heart twisted. “I just don’t want to put you through this again! I wanted to show you that I can take care of myself. If I . . .” She stopped, then dragged in a shaky breath. “If we are ever together again, I want you to know it won’t be because I can’t stand on my own. And if you leave again, then I want to know that I can stand on my own and I won’t be falling apart after you go!”
“You’re standing on your own, Whitney. How can you tell me about falling apart? Have you seen yourself?” He snatched her hand and dragged her to the mirrored wall near the entry, swiftly positioning her so she could see the full length of her frame, with his big body towering behind.
“Look at you,” he commanded.
His eyes blazed with emotion as their gazes caught in the mirror, and his voice dropped to a thick haggard whisper that only made the ache inside her grow bigger.
“Look at what you’ve become.” He surveyed her in the mirror with eyes that were liquid with love and admiration, and then he lowered his head, his breath spilling into her ear with his deep voice. “I. Am. Wild. About you. Wild.”