Page 36 of Her Ruthless Protector

8

Kane rubbed the back of his neck. It was eleven o’clock and he’d been on a three-way call with Asher and Cullen when he realized he needed to go to the stadium.

“She’s your problem.” Cullen had said.

“What do you mean by that?” Kane asked.

“She intends to stay in her trailer tonight.”

“Tell her not to,” Kane damn near shouted.

“Tried that,” Asher said. “It didn’t work.”

It was at that point that Kane had changed directions from the airport. The good thing was that his friends didn’t leave the arena until he showed up.

“She sure is stubborn,” Cullen said with a grin.

Kane’s hackles rose, he really didn’t appreciate Cullen’s look of admiration. “Yeah, but she out-stubborned you, didn’t she?”

“I know. I liked it. But Asher told me which way the wind was blowing. Still, if she ends up spending the night in the trailer after you try to talk her out of it, I’ll know the field is clear.” Cullen gave Kane a chin tilt and walked towards the tunnel with Asher.

Kane headed towards A.J.’s trailer. Now he was testy about two things. Cullen better back off, and A.J. should know better. It was almost midnight and he didn’t give a shit if Ed now had thirty men prowling around, A.J.’s trailer was in the thick of things. Didn’t she have any sense of self-preservation?

Kane made it over to her trailer. He sure as hell felt like stomping the entire damn way, but years of training had him moving silently in the dark. So how in the hell did she open the door when he was ten meters from it?

“Took you long enough.”

“How’d you know it was me? I didn’t see a curtain move, and you don’t have a peephole.”

“Trade secret,” she said as she moved just the tiniest bit, so he was forced to brush up against her as he made his way into her trailer. She did that on purpose. There was just one dim light on in the back of the trailer so nobody could see that she was wearing cut-off jeans with a checked shirt that was tied right under her breasts. Damn, she looked good. Even in the dim light her hair lit up like fire, all shades of ruby, red, gold, and sunshine.

“You’re going to your hotel tonight.”

“Nope, I’m meeting with Amber in six hours, going to the hotel is a waste of time.”

“Fine, I’m sleeping on your couch.” He cringed as soon as the words were out of his mouth. Even if he shrunk two feet he couldn’t fit on the damn thing.

“Yeah, sure, that would work,” she drawled. “You can have the bed and I’ll take the couch. I’d offer to share the bed, but I don’t think we’d be good little boys and girls.”

“What are you talking about? I’m good. I’m damn good.”

A.J. raised her eyebrow and sat down at the little dinette table where sheets of paper and colored three-by-five notecards were strewn about. Even though she looked sexy as hell, she looked a little stressed.

Wait a minute, had she been dressed like this when Cullen and Asher had been here? How could he ask that without sounding like a Neanderthal?

“It was hot today, I guess you decided to wear something that was cool.”

“Yeah, Kane, I pranced around all day in my cut-off jeans in a Muslim country as I tried to make sure that I commanded respect from a mostly male staff. Wasn’t that smart?”

Kane went over to her laundry basket and fished out the bottle of scotch.

“Hey, only smart people get to drink my single malt. You’re being a dumbass.”

“I think I was feeling a little bit uncomfortable at the thought of my teammates seeing you dressed like this.”

“Next time I’m wearing a bikini and washing a truck.” She got up and pulled down two glasses and watched as he poured them both a shot of Scotch.

“You can’t sleep here tonight, or if you do, I’m going to tell Ed one of his guys has to stand guard outside your trailer,” Kane said.