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Evie jolted in surprise and snorted an embarrassed chuckle as her free hand covered her mouth, and she tried to hide the amusement. She hadn’t meant to crack him on the nose with the car door, but he had to take some of the blame for that. “Play silly games, win silly prizes,” she said, rushing to stomp on the ping of guilt.
“Yeah, thanks,” Parker said, testing his nose to see if she’d managed to break it. No blood, just pain that made his eyes water.
“Are you crying?” Evie asked, noting the glistening just under his eyes as the tears caught in the light illuminating the front of the house.
“No!” Parker said, drawing his head back and screwing up his face; that move didn’t help the pain in his nose. “Your eyes water when you get a crack on the nose.”
“Mine don’t,” Evie lied, remembering the pain she’d endured when Jennifer had thrown her sippy cup at her in a tantrum once, which had bounced off her nose; it was the perfect shot. Now she felt another pang of guilt but wasn’t about to let him know. “And you shouldn’t have sneaked up on me.”
“There was no sneaking; you saw my headlights in your mirrors the whole way back,” Parker said. “Unless you weren’t paying attention, which is bad in so many ways.”
“Oh, yeah? List them,” Evie said, pushing out of her seat and shooing him back to give her some space.
Parker was over six feet tall, his broad shoulders could fill a doorway, and he gave off the kind of male dominance that didn’t need thinking about or explaining – he was just one of those guys you knew not to mess with – unless you were a wicked witch or a Navy Seal and wanted to take your chances.
In the sex appeal department, he was a ten; she knew it, and so did her female bits. Fate had been more than kind, and she should have been grateful he wasn’t a troll or an elf, but right then, she was still miffed at fate for the position she found herself in.
Even when Parker stepped back, he still dominated the immediate space; she couldn’t see around or over him; he was one big dude. Still, she didn’t feel intimidated, just blockaded in.
Parker was surprised she’d asked for a list, but it came spilling out of him. “Due care and attention on what’s around you on the road. Personal safety.”
Evie smiled inside because he was actually counting them down on his fingers; bless. She closed the door and moved around the car to get Jennifer. She could feel Parker behind her every step of the way.
“Overtaking, you don’t wanna be surprised and yank the wheel. Braking if the car is too close and wildlife runs out in the road…”
“You mean like a big old wolf?” Evie said, amused.
Parker raised his eyebrows at her as they stood by the passenger door. “Yeah! It happens.”
“In your case, I can well believe it.” She pulled open the passenger door and leaned over the sleeping child to unclip the seat belt, making sure to feed it back gently and not whip it across Jennifer’s body. “But, which other wolf here is dumb enough not to learn road safety and run out in front of a car?” she asked, straightening and getting ready to lift a sleeping weight.
Parker scowled. “That’s not the point,” he said, gently nudging her out of the way with his elbow.
“I’m sorry; what are you doing?” Evie asked, holding her ground between the car door and his large muscled body as he invaded her personal space and heated the air between them.
Parker looked confused. “Getting Jennifer out.” He motioned to the sleeping child like she was a prized vegetable at a local fair.
“That’s my job,” Evie said.
“Mine now,” Parker said, matter of fact, like she should have known that.
“Excuse me?” Evie asked, raising her eyebrows at him as she twisted her head to regard him with disbelief. “That’s a little presumptuous and a lot of arrogance, right there.”
Parker let an easy smile take his lips and saw the way her gaze flicked down, and she held there until he finished, and the smile was perfect, so perfect it tweaked her girlie parts. “What’s yours is mine,” he said with a cocky tone. “It’s the way this whole mating thing works.”
“Do not speak to me like I’m five,” Evie said, pulling back her head and screwing up her nose. She was trying to ignore those traitorous girlie parts that were sending the wrong signals to her brain, at least for now.
“Uh-oh,” Parker said. “Do you not understand the mating principle?”
Evie felt the urge to make him understand her mama bear principle. “Back off, or I’ll explain the knee to the balls principle,” she hissed.
Parker held in place. He looked more than thoughtful as he assessed the risk to his private parts.
Evie bit down on nothing but air; she tried not to smile because that would be wrong after warning him off. Those damn eyebrows of his were up, down, crinkling and dancing over his dark eyes as he mulled things over – how could she not smile? Fingernails into her palm, that’s how.
Parker got it, she was protective, and he knew that feeling well. From the moment he’d realised that Evie was his mate, he’d felt his protective gene ramp up and click into gear, and that feeling extended to Jennifer. “You get the door, and I’ll get the child,” Parker said, making it sound logical and a foregone conclusion.
Dang! Evie forgot that the front door wasn’t open, and she would either need to open it first or do some incredible gymnastics and a balancing act while trying to juggle a sleeping child and get the key in the damn lock. Poop – well, there was only one thing for it; she tossed the keys at Parker and noted his fast reflexes. “You get the door, and I’ll get Jennifer,” she said. “And if you’d moved that fast before, you wouldn’t have got hit by the car door and cried.”
