Page 16 of Her Delta Force Protector

The anger was back in his voice and the ice was back in his eyes, and she understood it was for her and not at her. “No, he didn’t. Any friend of mine thought I was dead, so he was suspicious. The next day, he drove to the island to show me the video feed from his doorbell camera. The man on the video was my attacker.”

“He’s a dead man.”

“Don’t say that. I don’t want you killing anyone for me. Let’s just see that these men have to answer for what they’ve done.”

“There you go, taking away all my fun.”

“Not sorry.” She didn’t know what effect being in Special Forces had on these men, what demons they returned home with. They all held their feelings and those demons close. She was not about to let him add to whatever rested heavy in his mind because of her.

“What I don’t understand is why you went back to that warehouse the next day, and especially why you went inside. What the hell were you thinking? What if one of those men had been there?”

“Well, they weren’t, and I was worried about my friend, okay?” She’d done what she’d thought she had to. She’d saved her friend from...well, she hadn’t known it at the time, but she’d saved Lisa from predators of the worst kind. She’d do it all over again, but smarter.

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “I thought you had more sense than to do something like that, Harper.”

Now he was making her mad. “You know what? You can take your surly attitude and stuff it up—”

“Mysurlyattitude?” He stood, paced to the end of the patio, then returned, put his hands on the arms of her chair, and lowered his face to within inches of hers. “I thought you were fucking dead. I held your goofy-assed dog in my arms and cried into his fur. You could have come to me for help. Did you even consider that?”

“You cried for me?” Her anger at him melted away. After the attack, she’d wanted to call him, almost had.

“Like a bawling baby.”

That this man, a man who’d faced death more times than she could probably guess, would admit such a thing stole her breath. “I’m sorry. I wanted to call you.”

He sank onto the chair next to her, making her think of a deflating balloon. “Why didn’t you?”

“I wish I had.” She impulsively reached over and put her hand on his. He turned his hand, palm up, and wrapped his long fingers around hers. She stared at their hands, joined together. The intimacy of her skin pressed against his was something she’d never experienced with him, had never dared to hope would happen.

It was unnerving how right it felt.

Chapter Eight

Kade reached for the control he’d honed over years of special operations. What he really needed was to go do a hundred laps around Marsville or five hundred push-ups before he exploded. He could have lost his best friend, and although he couldn’t help being sent out on a mission, the guilt sat heavy that he hadn’t been able to go with her when he’d said he would. If he had known what she was up to, he would have made her promise to wait for him to return.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t here for you.” He rubbed his thumb over the top of her hand. “But I’m here now, and I’ll keep you safe. That’s my promise to you.”

Funny how her touch calmed him. But she’d always kind of had that effect on him. When he would return from a mission, his mind sometimes a bit screwed up, the first person he’d want to see was Harper. His best friend had a way of getting him out of his head.

Her eyes were focused on his thumb as he caressed her hand. Something was changing between them, but he wasn’t sure exactly what. He was trained to pick up on clues that people put off, and by the puzzled expression on her face, she was as clueless as him on what those changes meant. He eased his hand away because he liked touching her too much.

Duke raced up with a stick and dropped it at Harper’s feet. “Aww, someone’s getting bored with all this talk.” She picked it up and threw it into the yard. He looked at where the stick landed, then back to her and tilted his head as if to say,Why’d you do that?

“That dog has a few loose screws,” Kade said.

“I think he was giving me the stick as a present and doesn’t understand why I tossed it away.”

“Watch.” He pointed at Duke. “Roll over.” Duke jumped in his lap.

She laughed when Duke tried to lick Kade as he put his hands over his face. “Don’t tell me you don’t love him.”

“Not about to admit that,” he said, while trying not to laugh with her. Her laughter, that was what he’d missed and thought he’d never hear again. The way she could make his worst day better with the joy that lived inside her.

He set Duke back on the deck. “Why don’t we get you settled in, then go grab some lunch.”

“Sounds great.”

“Tristan’s giving you his floor while you’re here.”

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