Explosive Attraction - By Lena Diaz Page 0,76
Darby didn’t know what her mom had said to him to get him to come here, and she was too afraid to hope.
“Rafe,” she choked out. “What are you doing here? You should be in the hospital.”
“I’m still a cop, Darby Steele.”
Her hopes plummeted. “And I’m still a therapist.”
He climbed the first step. “I’m still going to put as many criminals as I can behind bars.”
Darby stiffened. “And I’m still going to fight you every chance I get. Nothing has changed.”
Rafe climbed another step. “Everything has changed. Before I knew you...before I really knew you, I didn’t understand. I never considered people’s pasts, what they’d been through, what they’d suffered. I never considered that criminals might be victims, too.” He raised a hand as if to stop any crazy thoughts she might be having. “I still think most of those criminals should do hard time. But now I’m willing to consider both sides.”
He climbed another step.
Darby stood and crossed to the top step, but even with him a step below her, she had to crane her neck up to look him in the eyes. “You didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?”
“I would have chosen you.”
“What?”
“Remember what you said in my car, about Batman having to choose between saving two different people? It doesn’t matter who the other person is. If I had to choose, to save someone else or to save you, I would always choose you.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet,” one of Darby’s sisters whispered next to her.
Darby elbowed her in the ribs. “You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you here?”
He lifted his hand to cup her face. “You left the hospital in the middle of our conversation.”
She looked around at her family, her face flushing even hotter. Every one of them was staring at her. “Fine,” she said. “What else did you have to say?”
“You’re not going to make this easy, are you?”
“Make what easy?”
“This, I needed to tell you this.” He pulled her against him and gave her a blistering hot kiss, right on the porch steps, in front of her mom, her dad, her entire family.
Darby was blinking in shock when he ended the kiss.
“I love you, Darby Steele,” he said. “I want to marry you, but we haven’t known each other that long. I understand if you want to date first, and take your time. But you’re going to have to agree to live in sin with me. Because I can’t stand the thought of not being with you. I’m not a saint. And you’re way too sexy, especially when you make those little moans deep in your throat—”
She clapped her hand over his mouth.
Rafe’s eyes danced with mischief, and Darby’s family broke into laughter around them.
Everyone except her father.
He cleared his throat and stepped next to her. “Young lady, I’ll not tolerate this kind of behavior. If you and this man have done something you shouldn’t, well, then, you’re going to have to make it right. Looks like you’re going to have to get married.” He winked and broke into a smile.
Darby looked around, overwhelmed by the love surrounding her. The tears she’d thought had long ago dried started running down her cheeks. She reached up and wrapped her arms around Rafe’s neck. “I love you. You gave me back my family.”
“You gave me back my best friend.”
“Jake went to see you?”
“You know he did.”
She shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. “I’d hoped. I didn’t know, but I’d hoped.”
He brushed back her hair from her face. “You gave me something else, Darby. Something far more precious than anything I gave you.”
“What’s that?”
“You gave me your heart.”
* * * * *
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Chapter One
“This special news report just in—an amber alert has been issued for six-year-old Hank Forte. Hank was last seen at the county fair in Amarillo.”
Brody Bloodworth’s heart clenched as a photo of the boy appeared on screen. The little boy had blond hair, was wearing a black