A loud thud, then glass breaking shot over the alarm, and I jerked the door open. Cal was in there. I screamed his name again when more crashing noises came.

I barely made it three steps before Cal ran out the front of the house and looked both ways.

“Mother fucker!” he cursed, then ran toward me. “I’m getting you out of here now.” He ambled me back into the truck. For a second, I thought he was going to hoist me over his shoulder. Instead, his big body just overtook mine as he maneuvered me like a doll into the vehicle and shut the door. He was around the front and behind the wheel peeling away in record time.

“Cal, what happened? Are you okay?”

“Slippery fucker got out. I didn’t know if he was coming for you.”

“Are you okay?” I asked again. My heart was jumping in my throat and banging so loud it was hard to hear over the rushing in my eardrums.

“I’m fine. Just need to get you away from here.” He made several turns until we were bounding down a back dirt road. The sound of sirens in the distance echoed.

A flare of red marked his forehead. I reached over to touch his chin and tilt him slightly toward me.

“Oh, my God, you’re bleeding.”

He frowned, then looked in the rearview mirror.

“It’s fine. Just a scrape.”

“No, it’s not fine.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and he pulled to the side of the dark road.

“Put your belt back on.”

“Not until I look at this,” I said, moving closer to him. He killed the engine and I unbuckled him and cupped his face in both hands. The same fire I’d felt when Bea got hurt shot through me. There was a cut on the top of his brow, right by his hair line.

“I’m fine,” he said again.

“Will you shut up?” I said and took the sleeve of my sweater and blotted at the blood, clearing it away. Thank God it wasn’t deep. But, he’d been in there, running toward a danger without even thinking. “What is the matter with you?” I yelled at him. “You can’t keep doing this, Cal. You can’t run in after every damn scary situation and leave me like that. You could have been hurt. You were hurt!”

He smiled.

“This isn’t funny!” I yelled louder. My pulse was working double-time and my palms trembled. “You can’t do that to me.”

“Careful, Kitten, you may admit you care.”

I frowned, and an anvil to the chest would have rocked me less. “I do care. So much. If anything happened to you…I…I love you, you big jerk!”

He closed his eyes and lifted his head up slightly, like he would if enjoying the warmth of the sun of his face.

“You love me,” he repeated softly around a happy smile.

I tapped his cheek and his eyes opened and centered on me. “This is serious.”

“Oh, I know it is,” he winked. His hands slid around my waist and I moved across his lap and straddled it like it was most natural thing in the world.

“I will always protect you,” he said, touching my forehead with his.

I inhaled deeply, the only breath I needed was Callum Malone. Between the worry, the adrenaline, and the softness of his voice, I couldn’t fight it anymore. Part of me wanted to continue yelling at him, but a bigger part just wanted him. In my arms, wrapped around me, until I lost myself completely.

His nose brushed mine, his mouth so close I could almost taste it. The grip on my waist moved to my ass and tightened, but he didn’t draw me close. Just sat there, waiting for me to come to him.

“Don’t do that again,” I whispered.

He gave my bottom a squeeze. “Which part?”

“The running into danger part.”

Tags: Joya Ryan Reign Erotic
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