Rough and Ready (More Than A Cowboy 2)

I was about to knock again when I heard the lock snick.

The door opened, and I didn’t give her a chance to shut me out again. I took a step toward her, picked her up without slowing and carried her across the room.

“Reed!” she cried.

I wasn’t putting her down. No fucking way. I breathed her in her scent. Some kind of fruity shampoo and pure Harper. I felt her lean muscles, her lush curves.

I glanced around. “There’s no place to sit,” I said, frustrated.

“I haven’t unpacked.”

That was obvious and only prompted me to what she’d said. She was leaving, taking the job in the UK. Why should she unpack?

“Why is it so dark in here?” I asked, going to the light switch on the wall.

“Don’t!” she said, her body tense. She grabbed my wrist before I could touch it.

I stilled, looked down at her. Saw the panic in her eyes. Felt the anger coursing through me. “You don’t want them to know you’re here, do you?”

She shook her head. Bit her lip.

Jaw clenched, I spun about, carried her out of her apartment. The door had never closed behind me.

“I can walk!”

I ignored her, tugging it shut with one hand as I carried her to mine, then set her down long enough to unlock it. Carrying her to my chair, I sat down, settling her on my lap. With one arm about her waist and her head tucked beneath my chin, I just held her.

And breathed.

“Reed.”

“Give me a minute,” I said, shutting my eyes.

This. This was what I’d been wanting. No, needing. Ever since she’d cried in my lap last week, I wanted her right back here in my arms. She was safe. I didn’t want to talk. I just wanted to hold her, kiss her, hell

, sink into her sweet pussy. But no. I had to know what was going on before we could move forward. While she’d opened up to me, there was a shit ton of stuff left unsaid.

I sighed, felt her warmth seep into me. “Tell me about the guys in the car.”

She stiffened but didn’t move. “They’re here?” she whispered.

I pushed her away from me only enough so I could tilt my head down, meet her eyes. “Now? Yeah. Several other times.” She glanced away, and I gently turned her chin back, so she had to look at me. “Who are they?”

“I… I don’t want to talk about it.”

I looked between her eyes, saw the fear, the anguish. I wanted to take that away.

“Don’t?”

“Can’t.”

I brushed my thumb over the little indent in her chin. “Why?”

She sighed, lifted her hand to cup my jaw. It was the first time she’d touched me, initiated the contact because she wanted to. She was studying me as I had her. “I don’t want you hurt.”

She doesn’t want me—

Something broke in me then. I’d been trying to stay two steps ahead of my past for years. First the military then training with Gray. I fought and fought to escape what I’d done, what I’d become. In and out of the ring. I’d done all that because I wanted to be better than the boy my parents had done shit to raise. I’d even thought I’d done a damn good job of breaking away from it all.