But the sheriff’s voice must have carried. It’s the only thing that saved him because Drake heard Mason call out.
“Drake! Your sisters!”
That was what he needed to remember. He looked down at the terror on Delmar’s face. Instead of the final punishing kick he’d intended to deliver, Drake used the toe of his boot to, ever so softly, touch his chin and push him back down into the snow.
“The DEA wants to talk to you, Delmar. I suspect some of your old perps are going to have a great time meeting up with you again at Pikeville.”
“Fuck you, nobody has nothing on me,” he said through a mouthful of blood.
“Huey actually had a lot to say earlier to the DEA. They were very interested. As a matter of fact, when I was told you were here, my lieutenant called them to say where you were. I wouldn’t be surprised if they got here any minute.”
Drake loved the look of horror on the old asshole’s face.
***
He was wounded, couldn’t Karen be a normal girlfriend and offer him comfort? No, she crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows.
“Did that feel good?” she asked.
“Did what feel good?”
“Playing with that man like you’d tied a string on a kitten’s tail.”
“I would never do that to a kitten,” he protested. “And yes, it felt wonderful.”
“You were moving kind of stiffly.” Her lips twitched.
Thank God, they’d had the good sense to go upstairs while everybody else was occupied with cookies in the living room. He really didn’t need anybody else seeing how he was getting his ass handed to him by a kindergarten teacher.
“I was not moving stiff, I was just letting Delmar think he had a chance.”
Karen took a step closer and knocked on the body armor. “Take this off.”
“Okay.” He grinned. “Wanna see my boo-boo?”
“Is that what men are calling it these days?”
“Just SEALs.” He pulled her gently into his arms, happy to see that she seemed to be healing. “We need some privacy, and I’m not talking about a bedroom with a house full of my teammates and sisters.”
“Your boo-boo isn’t up for it?” she teased.
“Oh woman, if you want to play that game, I’ll lock the door.” He let her go and turned toward the bedroom doorway.
“No! I was kidding! Please, Drake.”
He turned to her with a wolfish grin. “I thought so. But, Lady, we are so going to find some privacy soon.”
“Aren’t you going to take off the vest so I can see your chest?”
He shook his head. “Seriously, Karen, I just don’t have that kind of willpower around you.” He turned back to the door and locked it. As he walked over to the window seat, it hit him that this was more than sex. So much more. But was she even on the same page with him? He thought she was.
“Are you in this thing with me?”
“Huh?”
“Are you in it with me? I mean really in it? Or am I flying solo?”
She looked at him with a bewildered expression.
Oh God, he’d totally misread everything. He started to get up.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she said in that firm kindergarten teacher’s voice.
“Downstairs.”
“You don’t get milk and cookies yet,” she said firmly. “You sit back down, Mister. We’re not done talking.”
“This isn’t funny, Karen. I just bared my soul to you.”
She looked at him in amazement. “Your exact words were ‘Are you in it with me, or am I flying solo.’ If that is your idea of baring your soul, we’re going to be having lessons in communication for the next fifty years.”
“Look, I don’t need this shit. Fine, you don’t love me. I can handle it. I’m a big boy.” He wrested his hand from hers and was halfway across the room before her words penetrated. He spun around.
“Did you say fifty years?”
“If we take care of ourselves, it could be sixty,” she said primly.
He skidded to his knees in front of her.
“Sixty’s good. I can eat healthy.” He pulled her down into his arms.
“Drake, do you love me?” she inquired softly. He cupped her cheek and touched the corner of her mouth with his thumb.
“So much. So, so much. I don’t know how it happened. It hit me like a ton of bricks you know? I never thought I would fall in love, I thought something was wrong with me, and then you came along. But you’re so fucking sweet. I feel like I’m leading a virgin astray.” He paused and looked at her in horror. “You’re not a virgin, are you?”
“No.”
“Thank God.” Then he pulled her close. “But it would have been okay if you were. But it would have scared me.”