I kept babbling. “And Lawson, goes without saying, Law… son. Son of the law.” I pulled in a breath through my nose and then whispered, “Perfect.”
He stared at me some more.
Then he said, “Gwendolyn sounds like a song.”
Uh… nice.
I so totally loved my name.
“A short one,” I replied.
“But a pretty one,” he returned.
Uh… nice.
I smiled at him and Detective Mitch Lawson smiled back at me.
Yowza!
Then suddenly his neck twisted so he could look over his shoulder, his torso went straight and he stood, still looking behind him.
My eyes went there and I kept my cheek to my knee even as my heart skipped a beat.
The Great MM was standing there.
He wasn’t in a fabulous chocolate brown turtleneck, leather jacket and jeans. He was wearing what he was wearing earlier, a skintight, navy, long-sleeved t-shirt that delineated every carved muscle in his chest, shoulders and arms; army green cargo pants and boots. He was also wearing an unhappy expression and his eyes were locked on Detective Mitch Lawson.
Then his eyes moved to me and about a nanosecond later he moved to me, all masculine grace, a big cat on the prowl, fascinating.
My eyes moved with him but my cheek didn’t leave my knee as he got close then bent over me, lifting his hand. I didn’t know what to expect so I braced until I felt his fingers at my temple. They trailed lightly along my hairline, down, behind my ear and I closed my eyes as he slid the hair off my neck. Then his warm hand curled there.
Then I heard him ask softly, “You okay, baby?”
Baby?
My eyes opened and slid to see him bent close to my face.
“Fine,” I told him.
“You don’t look fine,” he noted.
“Well, I am,” I returned.
“Then why are you curled into a protective ball?” he asked.
This was a good question.
I shrugged.
“Heard she was yours,” Lawson noted, MM straightened and turned to him and I was so surprised at this comment, for a variety of reasons, that my head came up so I could put my chin to the space between my knees.
“She’s mine,” MM confirmed decisively.
“I’m not his,” I denied probably not decisively.
Lawson was looking at MM but when I spoke his eyes cut to me. He stared at me what seemed intently for a few beats then one side of his mouth twitched and he looked to the floor a second before he looked back at me.
“I need to ask you a few questions,” he said quietly. “You up for that?”