Cross My Heart (A Contemporary Romance Novel)

his face. He was totally bent out of shape.” She smiled suddenly. “It’s nice to know he cares.”
    “Claire, your father adores you. You know that, don’t you? You’re the most important person in his life.”
    Claire shrugged. “I guess. But knowing it isn’t the same thing as feeling it. Do you know what I mean?”
    Yes, she did. And it was obvious that Claire took her father’s uncharacteristic bad temper as an expression of love.
    In Claire’s case, that was no doubt true. In her case, not so much. Michael had said a couple of things to her that definitely weren’t an expression of love.
    She shouldn’t let it bother her. Why was she giving some man—a man she’d only known a few days—the power to make her feel so damn bad?
    After a moment, she decided she didn’t really want to know the answer to that question.
    * * *
    “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me you know Jenna. I went on and on about her last night.” Jim was standing in the office doorway, waiting for him to finish up his paperwork and head out for the night.
    “You didn’t go on and on. You mentioned her briefly.”
    “You still could have said something. You knew I was interested. And I’m still interested. My God, this is perfect. Next door neighbors! Invite me over this weekend, will you? I know if I have a little one-on-one time with her I can—”
    He looked up, and Jim froze. A few seconds ticked by.
    “Damn,” the younger doctor said softly. “Wow.”
    “What do you mean, wow?” Michael asked irritably, his eyes on his paperwork again, wondering what had been in his expression to make Jim look like that. He’d always prided himself on his ability to hide his emotions, but today that skill had deserted him completely.
    “I didn’t realize you and Jenna—”
    “There’s no ‘me and Jenna’. We’re just friends.”
    “Yeah, but you want more. Don’t deny it. I’ve never seen you go all alpha like that over a woman. Not even when Denise started dating again.”
    Michael looked up again, frowning. “Alpha?”
    “Alpha wolf, man. I’m telling you, if I had a tail, it would be between my legs right now. You should have seen your face. You made it clear that no other guy is welcome anywhere near her.”
    Alpha wolf. It sounded so primitive.
    But was it true?
    Hell yes, it was true. He didn’t want any other man going near Jenna. The idea made something twist inside him. It made his muscles twitch, like he was getting ready to hit somebody.
    “I need to finish this. I’ll see you in a couple of minutes.”
    Jim took the hint and left him alone.
    He looked down again, but the charts on his desk were just a blur.
    He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. Jim had been right about something else—he’d never felt this way before. But the idea that it showed in his face…what the hell was happening to him? Where was his self-control?
    The way he’d talked to Jenna just now…God, she probably never wanted to see him again.
    But when he’d seen the two of them right there in the clinic, so close to a violent scene that could easily have ended worse than it did…even now, his stomach tightened in reaction.
    He’d grown up in a neighborhood where poverty and addiction and violence had been an inescapable part of life. His mother had been a drunk, his dad a card player who drifted in and out of their lives. He’d always been surrounded by ugliness and chaos, and as a father he’d sworn to keep Claire a million miles from any of that.
    So, yes, he’d overreacted when he saw her in a place that wasn’t exactly a war zone but could definitely get dicey now and then. And it hadn’t only been about Claire—it had been about Jenna, too. The thought that either one of them could have been hurt…
    His stomach tightened again.
    And then the damn haircut. He might be an idiot when it came to the female of the species, but even he knew better than to insult a woman’s hair, no matter what her age.
    It was just…Claire had had long hair since she was a little girl, and he was used to it. He remembered how she used to put it up like Cinderella’s, every Halloween until she was ten.
    Seeing her look so different had thrown him. Seeing her and Jenna at the clinic, so close to danger, had thrown him.
    The feeling itself was understandable. What bothered him was the fact that he’d let it show.
    He finished up his paperwork, said goodbye to Jim, and left the clinic. A little while later he was