His to Protect - Em Petrova Page 0,64
to her.
Six minutes seemed to be an eternity. She stood at the door waiting, while the rest prepared. Rose took out a first-aid kit. Simply the sight of it made Sloane’s stomach pitch with the memory of Bodhi stitching up his own wound.
“He’s hurt?”
“They’re all hurt. Here comes Lars and Archer.”
Seeing the two men exit the vehicle made her heart pound so hard she had to grip on to the wall to remain upright. Then she realized the condition they were in.
Both looked to have been…blown up.
Shocked and stunned, she only stared as Rose and Oz sat them down at the kitchen table and began tending to their burns. When she heard the door open again, she whirled.
Across the space, she met Bodhi’s gaze. A cry escaped her, and she ran to him. He opened his arms and gathered her in. She buried her face against his hard chest and breathed in the noxious stench of burned hair and something chemical that reminded her far too much of that trunk.
A sob escaped her, and he flexed his arms around her, drawing her onto tiptoe. She couldn’t stand here and not say what had been going through her mind for long hours while thinking him to be dead.
“Bodhi…did you mean it?”
He drew away enough to meet her stare. “Every word.”
A sharp cry left her lips, and she threw her arms around him. Just then she saw the thick gash on his temple and the fact he was bleeding and looking more than a little pale.
“He’s hurt. Someone help him!”
Oz came out of the kitchen to inspect both Bodhi and Madeline, who appeared to be missing quite a bit of her ponytail if not all of it. “Jesus Christ. No wonder you all smell like burned hair.”
To Sloane’s shock, Bodhi exchanged a look with the woman, and they both burst out laughing. From the kitchen, the others joined in.
“You’re all insane,” Sloane cried.
Even though she liked the look of her man smudged in dirt and looking all roughed up, she did not like to think of what happened to him.
“Everyone come to the kitchen,” Oz directed. After they did, and they took up chairs around the table with Rose doling out antiseptic and bandages, Oz looked at the group. “What the hell happened?”
Bodhi rubbed his fingertips between his brows as if his head hurt. To her surprise, when he glanced up, he was grinning. “We almost died.”
The crazy people burst out laughing again. With a sigh, Rose shook her head, and Sloane hovered near Bodhi. “That cut must have knocked you senseless. Why are you laughing at almost being killed?”
His eyes danced with amusement as he looked at her. “Pretty sure the blow to the head did that, not the bullet winging past my ear.”
“Oh God.” She sat down hard on the chair next to him.
“He’s got such a hard head, he’ll be fine in a few hours.” Madeline scraped her fingers through her burned hair.
“Guess you’ll be sporting a GI Jane look, Sister,” Oz said.
“Yeah, I hope you have some clippers here. Or maybe I’ll blade it off using that antique knife Bodhi and I placed a bet over. I’m pretty sure I won the rights to it when I got all the hair burned off my head.” She rubbed at her hair, and everyone chuckled.
Talk continued, and Sloane listened although her mind kept circling back to the dangers the man she loved faced—all because of her. What kind of love put someone in peril?
He took her hand and rubbed her knuckles lightly while Rose cleaned his cut and bandaged it. “You’ll have a scar,” Rose said.
He shrugged. “What’s another scar?” He focused on Sloane. “C’mon. We need to talk.”
As he stood and led her through the kitchen and upstairs to a bedroom, she still felt the aftershocks of what she’d endured. The minute she got him alone, she planned to let him have it for scaring her to death.
Right after she kissed him.
He drew her inside a bedroom and closed the door behind her. She barely opened her mouth before he grabbed her, pinning her to the wood. His warm breath washed over her lips. “I love you, Sloane. I can’t fight it anymore.”
She searched his eyes and saw all the truth lying in those sparkling depths. “I love you too, you idiotic man! What were you doing to get yourself blown up? Have you even seen your hair or clothes?”
“No. I was too busy freeing your sister from her