I was in my parents’ house.
Before the shadow of his descending head hit its intended target, my hand shot up and covered his mouth.
“What are you doing?” I hissed through a whisper.
His hand came up, fingers wrapping around my wrist and he pulled it away.
“What do I always do?” he asked back, also whispering.
“You broke in my parents’ house!” I was still whispering and hissing.
“Yeah,” he replied like this was perfectly okay.
“We can’t have sex when my parents are practically right next door!”
He was silent, his body still, then he moved fast, his face disappearing in my neck as his arms got super tight and he rolled me to my back with his torso on mine and I heard his muffled laughter.
“Hawk!” I snapped, my hands at his sleek-skin-over-hard-muscle bared shoulders, pushing back.
His head came up and his weight came off me as he rested both forearms into the bed on either side of me.
He looked at me through the shadows. “Babe, not gonna f**k you,” he murmured.
“You just said, ‘what do I always do?’ And we always have sex,” I returned.
“Yeah, babe, but it starts with a kiss.”
Oh. This was true.
I stared at his shadowed head through the dark. “Then what are you doing here?”
“You’re here.”
“So?” I prompted.
One of his hands came to my face and I felt his fingers glide along my hairline before they moved into the hair at the side of my head.
“Last night, someone targeted you and got close enough to you, he freaked you out. When that happened, my boys were eight minutes away and I was an hour away.”
“You’re telling me something I know, Hawk.”
“That’s not gonna happen again.”
He had sounded amused, at first, then informative. His last sounded like a vow.
My stomach got squishy.
I resisted the squishiness and reminded him, “Dad’s right next door.”
“He’s a man who can take care of himself and you, Sweet Pea, but there are people out there who don’t know that. They see my ride sitting at the curb, they’ll think twice before they f**k with anyone in this house.”
Holy crap. He was protecting me. And Dad. And Meredith.
Wow.
“So you’re here just to um… be here?” I asked.
“That and make sure you sleep.”