Page 83 of Shielding Instinct

This is the write-off.

“You’re covered in bruises and abrasions. It looks like every part of you is in pain.”

He doesn’t want me despite my being naked and his dick standing ready.

“I want our first time together to be more than what I can give you tonight. I want it to be special and memorable. There’s no need to rush us. We already have plans for a date at home.” He paused and she held her breath.

This must be the string it along kind of brush off.

“You’ve told me how you ruminate for years and decades about events, and I wonder if it would be a bad thing to connect this particular day with a relationship milestone. I want to make love to you, obviously. But perhaps, this isn’t the right time for significant firsts.”

Significant firsts, she let that phrase somersault through her brain.

Significant firsts wasn’t a phrase used for a stress-relieving roll. Or a “nice to know yah, that was fun.”

It was something someone said when they believed there was a future.

His hands slicked down her sides, coming to rest on her hips, holding her tightly against him. “And I’m hoping it would be all right to wait.”

Petra blinked at the wall in front of her.

She ran that conversation through her mind again without applying her “I’m not good enough” filter. Special and memorable, she cycled the phrase again and again.

That was so damned sexy.

Petra turned around, lifting to her toes to wrap her arms around his neck. She kissed him long and hard.

This experience with Hawkeye was absolutely a significantfirst.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Hawkeye

Hawkeye hung up the hotel phone after ordering pizza.

Petra came into the room, walking tenderly. Dressed in a pair of panties and a T-shirt, she hugged a towel and comb to her chest with one hand, pressing the other into her lower back.

As hard as it was for him to ask her to wait, seeing her now was exactly why.

Did he want her? Hell yeah, he did. But not at her expense. Not when she was in such obvious pain.

He would always put her well-being first.

As she passed the open door that adjoined their rooms, Cooper whined for permission to come in to be with them.

When Hawkeye called him in, Cooper jumped down and came to sniff Petra, then rested his muzzle on the mattress.

“Load,” Hawkeye said.

Cooper bounded onto the bed, circled, and then plopped down.

“He’s exhausted, too,” Hawkeye said as Petra pushed down the comforter and crawled onto a cool white sheet.

The feel of her skin, the curve of her ass, her sweet lick-able breasts had filled him with unexpected sensations. He feltfiercelyprotective of her. Not violent—though if violence were required to keep her safe, he’d bring it.

Talk about significant firsts; his reaction to her was a force that thrummed through his blood.

He reached for Petra’s comb. “Come sit in front of me.”

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