Protector's Instinct. Janie Crouch
bill, threw it down on the table and stood, not caring that she was tipping the waitress almost as much as the bill itself.
She felt every eye on her as she turned and walked out the door. She didn’t care and definitely wasn’t afraid to go back to her house now. She was too damn pissed.
She made it to her truck before she heard him.
“You can’t seriously be going on this trip.”
She didn’t turn around. “You know what, Zane? You don’t know anything about it.”
“I know it’s dangerous.”
Now that they didn’t have an audience, she didn’t even try to keep her volume in check. “No, you’re making a snap judgment that it’s dangerous because you don’t know all the facts.”
“Then tell me all the facts.”
Now she turned around. “I’m not stupid. And believe me, I have no desire to put myself at risk. I have taken precautions to make myself as safe as possible.”
What was more, she needed this. Had talked extensively to Grace Parker about this time by herself. The psychiatrist had agreed that, with the right precautions for her personal safety, it was a good idea.
She would’ve told Zane all of this already if he’d been around. If he’d been a part of her life. But he hadn’t been. So by damn, he did not get to have a say in her decisions.
“You know what? Just forget it.” She spun back toward her truck.
“Hey, I’m not done talking to you.”
“I don’t give a damn if you’re done with me or not. Have you thought of that? Maybe I’m done with you this time.”
He strode directly to her. “What do you mean, this time?”
His nearness didn’t bother her. Zane’s nearness had never bothered her. This entire shouting match—so much like old times—was so freeing in a lot of ways.
“You bailed on me eighteen months ago, Zane. You don’t get to have a say in anything I do anymore.”
His volume rose with hers. “I didn’t bail on you. I knew me being around you would be a constant reminder of the worst day of your entire life. So I tried to do the noble thing and get out of your way.”
“Noble?” She all but spat the word, poking him in the chest. “You were too much of a coward to fight for us, so you ran.”
“This discussion is not about the last year and a half. This discussion is about your asinine plan to go hiking for a week by yourself.”
“Why do you think you get to have a say in what I do, Zane?”
She got right up in his face and shouted the words.
God, it felt so good to yell. To have someone yell back. To not have someone treat her with kid gloves like she was going to break any minute.
“You don’t, Zane,” she continued, poking him in the chest with her finger again as she said it.
His eyes flared as he wrapped his hand around her finger against his chest.
And then, before either of them realized what was happening, he yanked her to him and kissed her.
Caroline had been kissed since the rape. She’d even had sex with a couple guys since. But they hadn’t been Zane. Hadn’t been who, deep inside, she truly wanted.
And it sure as hell hadn’t been a kiss like this.
Zane’s lips were like coming home. His arms banded around her waist and hers slid up his chest and around his neck.
That hair. Thick and brown. She thought of how many times she’d flicked off his hat and ran her fingers all the way through it as he kissed her. Exactly like she was doing now.
He devoured her mouth and she couldn’t get enough of it, pulling him closer with fists full of his hair, moaning as his fingers bit into her hips in his urgency to get her closer.
He backed her up until she was against her truck, then grabbed her by the hips and hoisted her up to the engine’s hood. Now she could wrap both her arms and her legs around him.
Passion simmered through her blood as his lips nipped down her jaw to her neck. Not gentle, not timid. Just Zane. Fierce and passionate, the way lovemaking had always been for them. She moaned as one of his hands came up and fisted into her hair, holding her so he had better access to what he wanted.
Her.
And she couldn’t get enough of it.
Dimly she was aware that they were still in the parking lot of the Silver Eagle. That any minute her colleagues, law enforcement officers who generally tended to frown on sex in public places, were going to make their way out.
This needed to be taken back to her place. Or his. Or a hotel room.
Stat.
“Zane, we’ve got to stop.”
She sighed at another one of his nipping kisses, at the feel of him pulling her closer. She’d missed this so much.
But damn it, she didn’t want to get arrested.
“Zane, stop.”
She gripped some of his hair and gave it a tug.
She could tell the exact moment he came back to his senses. His hands dropped from her hair and he all but jumped back from her body.
But it wasn’t until she saw his face that she understood. He was ashen. Distraught.
“Zane—” She reached for him, but he moved farther back.
“Oh, my God. Caroline, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what came over me, I—”
She jumped down from the hood of her truck, desperate to wipe the distressed look off his face. Zane hadn’t done anything wrong. He’d done everything right and she wanted more.
But at that moment Wade yelled from the open door of the bar. “Hey, Captain sent me out here to make sure the two of you hadn’t killed each other.”
Caroline rolled her eyes and turned toward Wade, waving her arm at him over the hood of her truck. “We’re fine. Leave us alone and you guys mind your own business.”
Wade’s chuckle rang out in the still night air as he went back inside.
“So I wasn’t saying, ‘No, let’s stop. I don’t want to do this.’ I was saying, ‘Let’s move this party someplace a little more...’” She turned back to Zane, her biggest smile in place.
But Zane was gone. She heard his truck start on the other side of the parking lot before his tires squealed as he sped onto the street.
Zane woke from the nightmare, heart pounding, sweat covering his entire body despite the cool air coming through the screened windows of his bedroom.
He’d dreamed about the night Caroline had been attacked by Paul Trumpold a year and a half ago. It had been a while since he’d dreamed about it. Although it was no surprise that he’d had it again after what had happened in the parking lot of the Silver Eagle two nights ago.
He probably would’ve had the dream last night if he’d slept a wink.
The dream—really more of a memory—always started the same way: Zane sitting at his desk at the CCPD headquarters, even though it was late at night, doing some work, avoiding doing what he really wanted to do, which was accept Caroline’s invitation to go over to her house when he got off work. He hadn’t wanted to give her the upper hand in their relationship. Wanted to keep her a little off balance like she so often kept him. Wanted to let her know, for once,