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I hadn’t considered that my insecurity was insulting. In Duke’s presence was the one place I shouldn’t be scared. “I didn’t mean…”
He laid his hand over mine on the center console. “I’ll keep you safe. You can count on that.”
My leg calmed. I didn’t know whether to attribute that to his words or the strength his touch conveyed, but my tension eased. Instead of pulling my hand away, I turned it over to grip his. He was suddenly my anchor.
I shifted my focus from what was outside the vehicle to what was inside—or rather, who. Years ago, the kind eyes of the boy I’d known had intrigued me. His touch now was so much better than my teenage fantasies.
He’d changed since then, and not just physically. There was a hardness to him. Obviously, we’d both been through things the other didn’t know about.
My eyes traveled to a tattoo that showed on his forearm.
If knocked down,
I will get back up,
every time.
I tapped it with my free hand. “Is there a story behind this?”
He glanced down before returning his eyes to the road. His jaw clenched. “It’s a line from the SEAL creed.”
“You were a SEAL?”
He nodded. Unlike my dipshit ex, George, who liked to boast about having been a SEAL, Duke was the strong, silent type.
He glanced down again as I ran a finger over his ink. “It’s important to you?”
Suddenly, he jerked his hand away, hitting the horn.
I looked up to find a car headed for us. I jammed my feet against the floorboards. Closing my eyes, I braced for my second crash of the day.
CHAPTER 8
Duke
“Hold on,”I yelled. Tapping the brakes, I whipped the wheel to the right, then the left, and then right again, the tires complaining loudly. “Fuck, that was close.”
The tiny car that drifted across the center line missed us by about a foot. Only when the horn got her attention did the young girl behind the wheel finally look up from her phone and swerve back to her side of the road. She probably pissed herself.Good.
“Fuck,” Serena screeched, looking behind us. “Do you think that was…?”
“Not unless your attacker was a teenage girl watching her phone more than the road.” When I glanced over, her eyes told the story.
She was hyperventilating. “Almost killed twice in one day,” she gasped. “That has to be a record.”
Shaking my head, I gave her the truth. “We would have been fine, but that girl would have…”
“Died,” she finished for me.
I nodded, letting out a slow breath. “A toy car like that, head-on against this big truck only ends with bad news for her.” I hoped the incident had scared some sense into that kid.
The near miss had rattled Serena terribly. Her telltale leg twitch reappeared, and the hand she put on the console shook.
I should have kept a professional distance and resisted the dangerous invitation for physical contact. But I was only human, and seeing her in distress hit a weak spot in my armor. She might be a spoiled brat, but she was mine to protect and to console.
“I understand that scared you, but trust me, I’ll keep you safe.” I laid my hand over hers again.
She relaxed, which had been my intention. Her skin was soft and warm, and my mind quickly wondered what other parts of her would feel like, which had very muchnotbeen my intention.
