Page 72 of Her Guarded Hero

“Aurora, I get why you waited. Hell, I would have done the same thing in your shoes if I had heard all the shit I spewed.” Dalton dragged his hand threw his blue-black hair. “But it still doesn’t…”

“Just say it.”

Instead he wrapped an arm around her neck and drew her close. He slammed his lips over hers. Heat. The power and passion of this man hit her like a tsunami. She opened her mouth and his tongue dipped in, mating with hers.

He was conveying every one of his emotions, his pain was raw, and she wrapped him close to her, but she felt his anger too, even though his kiss did nothing but evoke heat and hunger. One hand cupped the back of her head, positioning her so that he could mold their mouths together, while the other hand snuck under her sweater. When he touched the swell of her abdomen, that was when everything changed.

His rough and powerful kiss turned languid. She tasted wonder. He stroked her hair and sipped at her lips. She clung to him, undone by the reverence in his touch. Finally, he pulled away.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

It took a full minute for her to compute his words. “Why are you sorry?”

“I was angry when we started.”

“Oh.”

He looked at her for a long moment and then laughed. “Come to think of it, there was a little bit of angry kissing going on, on your side too.”

“Huh, you’re right. There was.” She hadn’t really realized she’d been pissed off at him, she’d thought she’d been feeling sad and sorry, not angry.

He put his knuckles under her chin and tilted her head up. “I’m not sure this is going to be all solved today, but we can agree on the fact we love each other, and we love our son.”

She sagged against him. “Oh yeah. I do love you. So much.”

He stroked her cheek. “I have the world here in my arms.”

It took long moments for Aurora to rouse herself out of this state of bliss. She realized that Lindy would be checking on them soon, if not Gunnar himself.

“We need to go into the other room. This whole little party is about me.”

“I know it is. That’s why I brought reinforcements.”

“I still don’t understand how you were watching over me, if you only just decided to come back to me. Care to clue a girl in?”

“His name is Dexter Evans, aka the housemother. He’s the one I tapped to get information on Ned in the first place. He did a lot of the digging.” He tried to open the refrigerator, so she leaned against it.

“That still doesn’t explain why the Scooby Gang is here.”

She didn’t miss him wince. “If I tell you that I was coming no matter what, will you believe me?”

“Absolutely,” she said, and he frowned.

“Dalton. You’ve never lied to me. You’re the most honorable man I have ever met.”

She watched as he relaxed. “Thank God you think that, because this just seems a little too coincidental, I would be questioning it.”

“You’re a cynic,” she grinned.

“You’re an optimist. You believe in fairytales and happily-ever-afters.”

She went up on tiptoes and pressed a long kiss against his sexy-as-sin lips. “Damn right I do, and they’re coming true.”

“My teammates, who by the way don’t want to be referred to as the Scooby Gang, are here because we’re going to take down and pulverize whoever is out after you. Dex knew that you were important to me. He believes in happily-ever-afters and knew you were my woman before I got it through my thick head. Therefore, you were part of the Black Dawn family. He just keeps an eye on all of us, and when things started pinging, like Ned Little dying in jail, Dex started to get concerned.”

She was going melt into a puddle of goo. “He thinks of me as a part of your team’s family?”

Dalton kissed the tip of her nose. “You are a part of our family.”