Your To Take - Connaghers 03 by Joely Sue Burkhart Read Free Book Online

been
neglecting her, then Jesse would be more than happy to fulfill her every need.
    “I’m going to go upstairs and make some calls, so feel free
to help yourself to the laundry, take a nap, whatever you’d like. First thing
tomorrow, I want you to see a doctor. Then we’ll go shopping so your baggy
pants don’t make me think about how easily they’d fall down, and we’ll go by
VCONN and you can meet my brother. Right now, I need…to think. About all this.”
    She must be seriously considering taking him to her bed if
she wanted him to get checked out, but at the same time, she wanted space. She
needed to slow down. He understood that. He wasn’t her whole world, not like
she was for him. “I’ll do whatever you want, Vicki. I’ll stay down here until
you call me.”
    “I…” Pulling back, she blew out her breath. “You don’t have
to stay down here or wait for me to call you. I want this to be your home.”
    “It is, as long as you’re here.”

Chapter Four
    Sitting on the edge of her bed with the door shut, Vicki
stared down at Jesse’s birthday card. Her hand trembled, making the butterfly
wings blur, but she already knew his subtle message to her. At first glance,
the black lines had merely seemed to be outlines to emphasize the soft
watercolors. But the longer she’d stared at the card, she realized the lines
were actually curves—no, letters—long, graceful cursive to spell out his
message over and over.
    I love you.
    Her phone rang, making her jump. Elias. Sick at heart, she
hit the button. “Please don’t tell me that you can’t make it tonight.”
    “What’s wrong, Vik? Is your houseguest starting to scare
you?” He laughed, telling her he wasn’t really serious.
    “You were right, Elias,” she whispered, fighting back the
tears. “You were right, and I’m in trouble.”
    “Trouble like you need me to come over and bust his mouth
open again?” His hard cop voice echoed over the line. “I can be there in twenty
minutes. If you’re in danger, then I’ll send the closest squad car to pick him
up.”
    “No, no, I’m not in danger. He is. I’m scaring
myself.”
    “Hold on a minute, Vik. Let me find a private room.”
    She heard the chatter of the office and finally the door
shut, sealing off all noises.
    “Okay, spill. What has you so freaked out?”
    “He does love me. He told me. Even the birthday card—that he
made months ago—says that he loves me.”
    “Yeah,” Elias said slowly, drawing the word out. “How’d you
react to that earth-shattering news?”
    She squeezed her eyes shut and held the phone away from her
ear in case he started yelling at her. “I kissed him.”
    It took her a minute to realize the muffled sounds coming
from his phone weren’t curses, but might actually be laughter.
    “You aren’t laughing at me, are you? I kissed him. No, I
slammed him up against the wall like you did last night, only instead of
splitting his lip open, I damned near bit it off.”
    Elias laughed harder. “Did he thank you for it?”
    “Yeah, yeah he did. In fact, he begged me to do it again.
Why aren’t you pissed?”
    “Oh, Vik, I don’t know. It’s not like I have any right to be
pissed at you for kissing another man when I haven’t been around in months.
Besides, you’re too upset for me to be mad, and he’s not a bad kid. No, he’s a
real good-looking kid, a nice tender morsel.” He laughed harder, like one of
his buddies had told him the most hilarious joke he’d ever heard. “Making love
to you has always been like wrestling a hungry crocodile. Did you shock the
hell out of him?”
    Stricken, she could barely breathe through the tightness in
her chest. “I’m that bad?”
    “Aw hell, no, Vicki, you’re that good .” His voice was
as tender as she’d ever heard him. “You’re the hottest, sexiest, most
passionate woman I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. But you’re not a soft,
passive woman in bed, far from it. Half the fun is wrestling