“Hey, darlin’,” he said, turning to her with an open smile.
“What are you doing out here?”
Before she even had time to shiver in her thin blue dress, Walker had slipped off his suit jacket and eased it over her shoulders. Warmth took her over and seeped into her skin.
“Just taking it in,” he said after he’d tucked her under his arm so they could watch the last colors disappear behind the mountain. The light hovered for a long moment as if the sun was showing off just for Charlie and Walker.
“I love this place,” he whispered.
“I know,” she said past her tightening throat. He put in so many hours here. He volunteered at every after-hours event. At first, she’d thought it had been because he was working toward a position, but he’d been hired on full-time two months before, and his devotion hadn’t wavered. Walker simply adored the work. It filled him up until he came home to her glowing with it.
He loved the kids, of course, but she thought it was the work more than anything. The purpose of it. The joy. Heck, he’d spent the past two weeks working with veterans, and nothing had changed except that he occasionally met them at the saloon after a long day of lessons.
“It’s almost seven,” he whispered, his hand sneaking down to rest on her hip.
She nodded and closed her eyes, snuggling into his side. “Maybe we can stay a little longer.”
“You said you needed to work.”
“I know, but... What the heck. What’s the point of being the boss if you can’t take a night off every once in a while?”
Walker turned to her and touched a finger under her chin. She looked up at him, at the strong planes of his face limned with the last purples of twilight. “You’re hot when you’re in charge,” he said.
“So you’ve said every day for the past three months.”
“Hey, the truth is the truth.”
She smiled and didn’t deny it. It was pretty hot. She’d certainly been awfully horny anyway. She’d founded Pinnacle Security exactly ninety days ago, she’d fulfilled her first contract five days later and now she had thirteen clients, every one of them rich and willing to pay a lot of money for a custom security plan to keep their mountain estates safe. She designed systems that fed information not only to a local security company, but also to the estate management firm and the client’s computer itself. The clients never seemed to actually check it, but they loved knowing they could even operate the cameras via remote signal.
Actually...the best part about her new job was that she no longer had a boss, and if she had anything to say about it, she never would again.
A flurry of excited barks gave Charlie the chance to back away from Walker before she got knocked over by the furry blur that launched itself at him. “I’m glad he’s not a girl, or I’d be jealous,” she said just before Roosevelt gave Charlie an equally enthusiastic welcome.
“Down, boy,” Walker said. “Your mom is all dressed up tonight.”
Roosevelt obediently plopped onto the ground while Charlie snorted at the words.
“You don’t have to be jealous, you know.” Walker gave Roosevelt a thorough head scratch. “He loves every single kid that comes through the gates exactly as much as he loves me. I don’t think he’d come home with me now if he could. Too much attention here.”
“I’m glad. I’m not sure which of us you’d rather cuddle.”
“Hey, come on. I’d absolutely pick you. But then you’d have to get out of the way so Roosevelt could sleep next to me.”
When she smacked his chest, Roosevelt jumped up, anticipating a new game, but the dog was distracted by a distant whistle from the barn and took off.
“He’s so happy here,” Walker said.
“Everybody seems pretty happy here,” Charlie said, sliding her fingertips over his jaw to draw his attention. When he looked at her, Charlie kissed him. “I’m so proud of you,” she whispered against his mouth.
He kissed her for a long moment before pulling back. “What about you, Charlie? Are you happy?”
She shivered as a gust of wind snuck snow-chilled air beneath the coat, and Walker pulled her into a hug. Charlie went willingly, laying her cheek against his chest and slipping her arms around his waist. The party looked so bright and warm past the glass. A separate world like yet another feed she was watching on yet another monitor. But strangely, all those people, all that joy...that was her life now. She wasn’t removed from it. She wasn’t observing.
She was a part of it, and for the first time in her life it felt as if she was the one being protected. “Yes,” she whispered. “I’m so happy.” She’d faced her biggest fear, finally.
This was love. With Walker. With all these friends. Her very own love story. And she wasn’t scared at all.
* * * * *
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ISBN: 9781460319581
SO TOUGH TO TAME
Copyright © 2013 by Victoria Dahl
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
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