by CP Smith
Rolling my eyes, I leaned in further and tried to finish the tale without interruption from my dark and dangerous fiancé.
“Ignore him, I do,” I laughed. “Anyway, there she was holding her pose while well over six feet of hard muscles held her tightly for the camera, when all of a sudden she heard a deep voice growl, ‘You wanna get your hand off my woman’s ass?’”
“Oh, Lord,” Kasey sighed.
“Protecting his golden pussy,” Angela laughed.
“You have all the fun,” Kristina groused.
“CAUSING,” I broke in loudly so I could finish the story, “the fair-haired maiden to jump. I’ll remind you that the dark and dangerous looking fake warlord slash model had his lips a hairbreadth away from hers.”
“You kissed him?” Kristina gasped.
“Technically, it was more of a lip bump, but try explaining that to Dallas.”
“No wonder he won’t let you go to another photo shoot,” June mumbled looking back at Dallas.
“I tried explaining to him if he’d just posed for the cover in the first damn place none of it would have happened.”
“Oh, yeah, he would have been perfect for the cover, why didn’t he?” Kasey asked.
“According to him, he’ll do it when hell freezes over,” I answered with a shrug.
“So what happened when you kiss “bumped” the guy?” June inquired.
Smiling, I leaned in and whispered, “He may have looked like a warlord, but when Dallas lunged at him ready to rip his head off, he pulled me in front of him to protect himself from Dallas.”
“No way,” all four gasped in unison.
“WAY!” I confirmed.
***
“You gonna make it to the wedding?” Dallas asked Parker as he watched Nicola laugh with her friends.
“I’m stuck in Bethesda. The director pulled together a joint task force on The Harvest Killer. He’s hoping to get a jump on him before he starts killing again in the fall.”
“Your Harvest Killer makes Shockley look like a saint,” Dallas sighed.
“He’s a sadistic fuck, Vaughn. He hangs his victims in a field like scarecrows, even sews their eyes and mouths shut.”
“Jesus.”
“There’s no God involved with this one, he’s been sent straight from hell.”
“Right, so send him back,” Dallas growled.
“I will, with extreme prejudice,” Parker vowed.
“Before we hang up, answer me something, Parker. I asked you once why you pushed my buttons that night at the restaurant. You and I both know you were testing me for a reason and I want to know why.”
“I wanted to see your reaction.”
“I get that, but why?”
“You know Shockley hacked the firewall, but what I never told you was that he used your ID to get through.”
“. . . Are you telling me he concealed his identity by hiding behind me,” Dallas seethed . . . “Jesus, why the hell didn’t you arrest me?”
“I go with my gut. When I met you I knew instinctively you were being set up, but I had to be sure.”
“If you were so sure then why did you push my buttons that night?”
“Because after an hour with your future wife, I knew Nicola deserved a man who would fight for her, and I wanted to make sure you were that man.”
“Christ,” Dallas chuckled, looking at Nicola.
She was talking to her brothers now, laughing, her head tilted back as the sun kissed her hair, casting it into a shimmering veil of gold. She was the sexiest woman he’d ever met and she belonged to him. He didn’t know what fates deemed him worthy of such a woman, but he’d spend the rest of his life making sure she knew how lucky he was.
“You still there?” Parker asked down the line.
“Yeah, just looking at my wife.”
“Future wife,” Parker replied.
“Nope, according to Nicola, in medieval Scotland if you agreed to marry someone and then followed it with sex you were considered married.”
“So the wedding in two weeks is just—”
“A formality, Parker, she’s mine in every way that matters now.”
Dallas ended the call abruptly and moved toward his wife. When he reached her, he turned her around, bent at the waist, and threw her over his shoulder.
“What are you doing?” Nicola asked calmly as he stalked through their house and out to the driveway.
“Exercising my husbandly rights.”
“Dallas we have a house full of people,” she sighed.
“We’re going for a ride on my bike.”
“But we have a house full of people,” she repeated.
Dropping Nicola to her feet next to his bike, Dallas pulled out her helmet and stuck it on her head.
“Fair maiden, get your ass on my bike.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I’ll take you into the bedroom where you’ll get my gentle hand and my strong back as I drive into you until you scream my name.”
“God, I love it when you quote my books. Now if you’d only wear a kilt,” Nicola whined.
“Babe, it’s not gonna happen.”
“But you promised, Dallas.”
Narrowing his eyes, he watched as her cupid lips pulled into a grin.
“You remember?”
“I remember everything. You pulled me from a dark pit, Dallas. I didn’t want to wake up because in the darkness, I was safe,” Nicola told him as tears started to fall. “Then I heard your voice telling me that you loved me and I knew that the safest place I could ever be was with you, so I woke up.”
“Jesus,” Dallas responded with a husky resonance as he leaned forward placing his forehead against hers. He was overwhelmed with possessiveness and the need to own every part of her, to the very depths of her soul. To claim her in every possible way. With conviction born out of a need as ancient as time, he growled, “I want my baby growing inside you. I don’t want to wait a year or two. I want it right fuckin’ now.”
A half-sob, half-laugh broke from Nicolas lips at his announcement. She’d wanted to keep her secret until after their wedding, but decided after that demand by her modern-day warlord, that this was the perfect moment. Staring into Dallas’ honey-colored eyes, she saw her own love mirrored in his own. So, with a glint in her eyes, and a tremble in her voice, she took his hand, placed it on her stomach, and then choked out, “He already is.”
And they all drank coffee and lived happily ever after.
The End.
About the Author
CP Smith resides in Oklahoma with her husband, five children, and four dogs.
You can reach Ms. Smith at:
[email protected]
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-CP-Smith/739842239363610
Other books by CP Smith
Reason series:
A Reason To Breathe
A Reason To Kill
Standalone
Restoring Hope
