Billionaire Protector - Alexa Hart Page 0,33

hands were in my hair, pulling me to him with strong arms.

The kiss was enchanting.

I realized that I wanted much more than a kiss from Penn. I wanted all of him. Right there. In that truck seat.

All of him.

A brief thought of Murphy shot through my mind, and I immediately snapped back to reality. My reality.

I pulled back, breaking our embrace and instantly feeling the pain that accompanied doing so.

“I gotta go,” I whispered, looking at his beautiful, handsome, and slightly sad face.

“Okay.” He nodded. His voice was hoarse and needful.

“I had a good time, Penn. The party was... beautiful. Your family seems really nice.” The heat in my body was making it hard to say the right words – or any words at all.

“Those parties are awful. I feel like I barely saw you tonight,” Penn gave a weak laugh, and then grew somber. “But I see you now.”

That goddamn stare. I knew if he kissed me again that I’d be done for.

“I gotta go,” I repeated, my hand finding the door handle. “Thanks for the ride.” Panic shot through me then when I remembered that Kate’s truck was still in Denver.

Penn read me like a book. “It’ll be here by the morning. I promise.”

I smiled at him, blushing and suddenly more flustered than I’d been the entire night.

Penn read that too.

“I’ll let ya go. Have a good night, Anne.” He smiled, and I knew it was 100% genuine. No hard feelings.

Leaving Penn Hardick was a difficult thing to do.

Murphy breathed softly beside me. I watched the peaceful rise and fall of his chest while he slept.

He was so little. So fragile.

And for now... so safe.

After Penn had driven slowly away, I’d attempted to calm my heartbeat before going up the back stairs to Kate’s apartment. Sure enough, they were cuddling on her couch. Kate was watching Friends re-runs, and Murphy was completely passed out.

Kate hadn’t exactly been pleased to learn that her truck was still in Denver, but the fact that Penn had driven me home struck her as incredibly romantic. I tried to tell her it wasn’t. I had literally slept the entire drive.

She insisted it still was.

When I told her he was “sending someone” for her vehicle, confusion flooded her face. It was then that I began to describe the party in all of its grandeur. The lights, the crystal, red freaking carpet...

“Geez, Anne! I thought it was a party for his father?”

“It was.” I was still having a hard time breathing slowly.

“Well who the heck is this Penn anyway? His father’s gotta be some kind of big deal, I’d say!” We were keeping our voices down, but Kate’s octave had still risen considerably.

“Paul Hardick. Lincoln... Hardick. Paul Lincoln Hardick. There. That’s it. He’s some kind of –”

“Writer! Oh my God, Anne! Paul Hardick is a famous writer. Western romance – his books have been turned into movies! I guess I knew he lived somewhere on a ranch in Colorado. His bio says that much. I didn’t know he lived this close.” She was in awe.

“You read his books?” The idea was funny. Kate was incredibly no-nonsense about nearly everything. I couldn’t imagine her purposely sitting down with a romance novel and passing away productive hours of her day.

“I may have read a couple.” She had blushed to a deep red – one I had never witnessed on her face before. “I’m a woman, too, ya know.”

I giggled. “Of course you are. No judgment here. I just felt so stupid. I hadn’t even heard of him before. So. That on top of the fact that I’d just been blindsided by all the razzle-dazzle. I felt like an idiot.”

Kate was the one giggling now. “The only thing you should feel like an idiot about is using the term ‘razzle-dazzle’. Jesus, Anne. You’re like an eighty-five-year-old stuck in a twenty-three-year-old’s body.”

That made us both laugh a little louder, and Murphy stirred in Kate’s arms.

“Gonna take the little guy home. I’ll see you tomorrow, bright and early.” I nimbly took Murphy into my arms.

“Countin’ on it.” She winked at me, and I quietly closed her door before carefully making my way down the stairs with a sleepy Murphy in tow.

The streets of Corydon were silent. Clean. Peaceful. The back-alley entrance to my own place was well-kept and utterly devoid of any human activity. It was always like that here.

And now, in bed with little Murph, I realized that I was starting to feel safe for the first time in