Rules of Protection (Tangled in Texas #1)(55)

I shone my flashlight on his face on purpose as he shielded his eyes with his hand. “Congratulations, Scooby. I guess you solved the mystery.”

“You’re mad?”

I sighed. “I’m too tired to be mad. And it was good stew, before I realized we were eating bunnies.”

Back at the cottage, we stepped over the lifeless dog on the porch and went inside. I collapsed onto the edge of the bed and pulled off my shoes. Jake stood at the door, watching. As soon as my shoes hit the floor, he moved forward and leaned over me, as if his body were willing mine to lie back on the bed.

Jake’s eyes were expressive, his face intense. “We have unfinished business,” he said, crawling onto the bed and overwhelming me with his presence. I moved farther back, but he followed. “So how tired are you?” he asked in a hushed voice, his face close to mine.

My brain turned to mush. “W-who said I was tired?”

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. He leaned into my hair and nibbled my ear. “You did,” he said, breathing on my neck.

Chills ran over my skin. “Well, I was wrong.”

Jake stopped kissing my neck. “So far, that’s the sexiest thing I’ve heard you say.”

Jake placed his mouth over mine. His warm hands worked their way under the edge of my T-shirt. He trailed them to my breasts, molding and cupping them in his palms. I was practically purring by the time he pulled away and told me to lift my arms, snatching the shirt from my body. He held my wrists above my head.

I leaned up slightly and kissed his neck, trailing my tongue softly along his throat and kissing down his jawbone.

He grunted at first and squeezed my wrists tighter, but then got quieter. “Uh…Emily…”

I groaned. “If you stop this now, I’m never going to forgive you.” He closed his eyes, and I got the hint. “Jake, you’ve got to be kidding me. Let me guess. You don’t have a condom.”

“No, that’s not the problem.”

God only knew what was going through his mind. “Then what?”

“You aren’t going to freak out, are you?”

“Why would I freak out?”

“Because you have a tick embedded into your armpit.”

“What?” I jumped up, screaming. “Get it off me! Oh God, get it off!”

Jake chased me around the room until I stopped moving. Then I did the gross-out dance, where your feet run in place and you shake your hands constantly. As if it does any good.

He ran into the bathroom and got some tweezers. “Hold still, Emily. The head is still inside you. I have to pull it out carefully.”

Once he removed it, he threw it in the toilet and flushed it, while I gagged.

“Thought you said you didn’t have a gag reflex?” Jake said, laughing.

“I lied,” I said, dry heaving again. “That’s sooo disgusting!”

Someone knocked on the cottage door. “Hey, Jake?”

Jake went to the door while I pulled out some alcohol and sterilized my armpit. But I overheard the conversation at the front door. “Yeah, Hank,” Jake said, opening the door.

“Is everything okay? I was lugging some trash down to the burn pit and heard Emily screaming.”

“She’s fine. She had a—”

“That’s okay, son. I don’t want to know what the two of you were doing. Some things are better left unsaid.”

Jake chuckled as he shut the door. He stepped back into the room where I lay curled on the bed in my robe, holding my stomach. “You okay?”

“No. I don’t feel good. I feel…contaminated.”

Jake smiled. “Didn’t you check yourself for ticks when you took a shower after hunting this morning?”

“I didn’t know I was supposed to.”

Jake rubbed at his face and sat on the bed. “Come here and put your head in my lap. I want to check your scalp to be sure you don’t have any more on you.”

“Oh God. You think there’re more?” My stomach churned as I crawled across the bed and placed my head on his leg, resisting the urge to puke. “Why couldn’t I just have carpet burns or something? I’m going to need therapy after this.”

Jake poked through my hair, lifting and moving a section at a time. “Stop whining and being melodramatic. You won’t need therapy.”

“Oh, you don’t think so? I had a waxing once that left me needing post-traumatic stress counseling afterward.”

Jake laughed and ran his fingers through my hair again, showing off his fine motor skills and making my scalp tingle. His touch was heaven. Soft. Soothing. Sleep inducing.

I slipped out of consciousness and could do nothing to stop it.



Chapter Twelve

I wanted to kick myself.

Why did I have to fall asleep? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. God, I’m an idiot. Apparently, Jake was too, since he didn’t bother waking me. He must’ve snuggled around me and went off to dreamland himself.

He lay next to me, breathing deeply, all warm and hard. Yep, definitely hard. As easy as it would be to turn in his arms and wake him, I knew Hank would interrupt us soon. That alone made the option unappealing.

With the barbecue this afternoon, it would be a busy morning, though technically, I didn’t have anything to do. No one trusted me to handle anything on my own. I guess I’d follow the boys around and try to help with what I could. It embarrassed me that nobody had any faith in me and spoke volumes as to what kind of character they thought I had.