“I’m not.”
I smiled and held her cheek, rubbing my thumb along smooth skin peppered with ugly purple bruises. “Whatever you say, babe. Now, sleep.”
“You’re bossy,” she yawned.
“All part of the irresistible package that is me.” I winked, and she giggled just as I hoped.
“You are pretty irresistible,” she admitted, and I knew the meds were getting to her. “Thank you for rescuing me, Cash.”
She drifted off on my shoulder, and I wrapped my arms around her as she fell asleep. Sleep didn’t come quite so easily for me as I thought about her admission. It was the first time she’d complimented me outside of sex, and I knew it was too soon to hope, but I knew she was mine.
Mine.
It was the last word I thought before sleep claimed me, too.
***
Minx
“I know you’re not ready to hear this yet, but I love you, Minx. You’re prickly as hell and you love nothing more than giving me a hard time, but it only makes me want you more. I know you need to be strong because you’ve been through six kinds of hell, and I want you to be strong. Hell, I can help you be stronger if you want, but dammit I don’t want you weak. I love you strong, and I love that you trust me enough to be vulnerable. I promise never to betray that. I love you so much. Please don’t use this as an excuse to run from me.”
I still couldn’t believe he’d said all that to me. I didn’t know what to say or do in reply. That’s not entirely true because as soon as he said that scary ‘L’ word I knew that was the strange feeling twisting my gut and squeezing my heart. Love. It was uncomfortable, made it hard to breath, stole all the moisture from my mouth, and made me want to be around him all the time. It had to be love.
Which meant I was totally screwed.
And a coward because I pretended to be asleep while he poured his heart out to me, and when he returned I kept the pretense up because I couldn’t figure out how to respond. I knew how I felt, but it all was happening too soon. How could I trust that this was real? That it wasn’t just wild and crazy sex combined with an intense situation?
I couldn’t.
But I also couldn’t have anticipated that a member of a biker gang would save me and help me start my new life. I never could’ve dreamed that I’d be making and selling dresses or that I would have a good man in my life who loved me. I had to be brave. I had to be the strong woman Cash saw when he looked at me. I started with a caress, stretching my arm to where his head lay on my lap, and ran my fingers through his hair.
He looked up and flashed that dimpled smile that never failed to turn me on and turn my insides to goo. “You’re awake.”
“So are you. I can’t believe you slept here.”
“Of course I did, I needed to make sure you were okay.”
“In a building full of doctors and medicine?” The man took the overprotective alpha thing to the extreme.
“I needed to know for myself. Shit, Minx, hearing that asshole hit you and knowing I wouldn’t get close enough in time, fuck, I wanted to kill that bastard.”
I caressed his face. “I know, but you came for me. You came.” I didn’t know how to make him understand how much that act alone meant to me. “For years I wished my parents’ or the police would come and save me, but no one ever did. It didn’t even occur to me that you would come. When I heard your voice, I thought I was hallucinating.”
He moved up to sit beside me and put his forehead to mine. “You’re killing me, babe.”
“I’m trying to say thank you, dork. For coming for me, for staying with me.”
“Don’t thank me. I needed to be here as much as you needed me, even if you didn’t say so.”
I returned his smile. “But I didn’t say you shouldn’t which is kind of the same thing.”
He laughed and shook his head. “Minx, what am I going to do with you?”
I took a breath and looked at him, my big blond Boy Scout. His green eyes stared at me so full of some unknown emotion that stirred an emotion I was slowly coming to terms with. “Love me?”
“I already do.”
Damn, he was good. “Oh damn, I love you too, Cash.”