Page 28 of Herding Cat

His expression of outrage was comical. “I...ah...” He cleared his throat. “I was impatient.”

She smacked his shoulder. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I intended to take it slow. Really I did.”

“I didn’t want it slow.”

“Well, good.”

She reached up and kissed his pout. “Next time it will be slow.”

“I can’t promise that either.”

“Can’t you?”

“You make me crazy.”

She lifted a brow. “In a good way, I hope?”

“A very good way. I’m always hard around you. I always want you.”

She glanced down at his cock, snoozing against his belly as it was. “You’re not hard now.”

He grinned. “Workin’ on it.” She loved that he pulled her closer, stroked her back. “Your skin is so soft,” he murmured against it. The stubble of his beard scraped her neck as he nuzzled her.

“Yours is warm.” He was warm. Delightfully so. Like a furnace. She loved the feel of his chest against hers. It was a lovely cocoon, there in his arms. She wanted to stay there forever.

And indeed, she did, or for what seemed like an eternity, each stroking the other, discovering their hidden secrets. Kissing, tasting, a slow, luxurious exploration. As her arousal rose, she raked him with her nails, only a playful scrape, but he shivered.

She stilled as she encountered raised skin just beneath his shoulder. She circled it with a fingertip. “What is this?”

He grunted, as though he couldn’t be bothered to chat. “Bullet.”

“You were shot?”

He lifted his head, cocked it to the side and gazed down at her. “Um, yes?” His tone made it clear it was a silly question.

“Seriously?”

“Cat, I’m a bodyguard. Before that, I was a Navy SEAL. Yes. I’ve been shot.”

“How many times?”

She was horrified that he laughed and shrugged. “I can’t remember.”

“You can’t remember?” She would remember being shot. She was pretty sure of it. “How dangerous is your life?”

“It kind of depends.”

“On what?”

“On the mission.”

She pushed away and sat up, staring at him in horror. “Roll over.”

Thankfully, he didn’t object. He flipped over on his stomach and revealed his back to her. Her heart clenched. There were a number of bullet holes, a couple scars that looked like slashes and another, around his kidney, that looked as though he’d been cut in half.

“Good lord, Garrett. How are you still alive?”