a reason to live(70)

“You’ve been shot before?”

“Yep.”

“While you were in the Army?”

“Yep.”

I pulled back the covers and scanned his body.

“Where?”

Shane rolled to his side and I saw the puckered skin. I ran my fingers across the scar then leaned down and kissed it. I scanned his body as he rolled back, taking in all the hard curves and plains. He was beautiful inside and out, and I wanted him again.

Starting at his chest, I ran my hand across the hard muscles and circled one nipple. His breath hitched when I flicked the bud, and I looked up into his gray eyes.

“You’re gonna be a handful, aren’t you?”

I smirked at him.

“It’s not my fault you look like this. If you don’t want me coming on to you all the time, you should stop working out.”

One second I was on my side and the next I was underneath him, my legs spread wide to accommodate his hips.

“You sayin’ you only want me for my body?” he asked, a grin pulling across his mouth.

I caught something in his eyes, a hint of insecurity in the tone of his voice, so I didn’t tease back. I placed my hand on his heart and shook my head. “I want you because of your heart. It called to me from Emma Jane’s letters. If you hadn’t been overseas, I would have made excuses to come to the base and visit Emma Jane as often as possible just so I could meet you. After what we lived through, I know what’s inside is more important than the outside.”

Shane froze for a moment, his jawing working as I spoke. I knew bringing up Emma would be hard for him, but he needed to talk about her, to hear me talk about her, so he could continue to move forward.

“I’d have beaten any man who looked in your direction,” he finally said.

“Would you have?” I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“Still will,” he grinned.

My stomach growled. Shane looked down and chuckled.

“Did you eat?”

I scrunched my nose. “Not since lunch. I was nauseous earlier.”

“Time for nourishment then. You’re gonna need your energy.” Shane grinned a sexy grin, then kissed my nose, my lips, and then moved to my stomach before he started to rise.

I tried to follow him out of bed, but he pointed a finger at me and ordered, “Stay.”

“I’m perfectly capable of making a sandwich.”

“Don’t care. I want you resting.”

I looked down at my naked body, then looked up and raised a brow. “You call what we just did resting?”

“What we just did was part of the healing process.”

“You’re saying that was the doctors’ orders?” I teased.

“It’s Doc’s orders . . .”

I eyed him with suspicion. “Nice try . . . Emma wrote me about your nickname.”

Buttoning his jeans, Shane flashed me another grin and then winked. Then he grabbed a gun I hadn’t noticed from the nightstand and shoved it into the back of his jeans. My attention was trained on the weapon. I’d forgotten about my stepfather while wrapped in Shane’s arms. My brows furrowed and I bit my lip. Shane leaned in and tilted my head up with a finger until I looked at him. Heat was still burning in his gaze from our earlier activities. He said nothing, just scanned my face for a moment, then inch by infinitesimal inch he crossed the distance until my heart was racing and my breath hitched. He brushed a kiss across my lips, feather light. It wasn’t meant to set my blood on fire, it was supposed to distract me from the gun, but the effect was all the same. I was putty in his hands. And he knew it, too, if the devilish grin he awarded me with was anything to go by.

“Stay here and don’t get up,” he ordered before crossing the room and opening the door.

I muttered, “Bossy,” as he exited and giggled when I heard him call out, “Get used to it.”

Lying back on the bed, my mind raced with everything that happened. I still couldn’t wrap my head around the fact Richard was alive. Closing my eyes, I replayed the moment when Shane turned back to look up the river, essentially shielding my body from Richard’s shot. I kept seeing the look on his face when he was hit, the blood that seeped from the wound as I tried to stop our fall. I could still feel the impact of the icy water as we fell over the falls. All of it swirled around my head, making my heart race all over again. It hit me like a bolt of lightning how close I came to losing Shane, and I began to shake.

“I won’t let you take him from me,” I whispered to the room.

I was no longer the weak girl he’d preyed upon. I would fight him with my bare hands if I had to, to keep those I loved safe.

“You’re a coward.”