Romance on the Edge 01 - Hooked

“I’ll tell you where you can put your—”
    He interrupted her again, but this time by dragging her against him. Her breath rushed out in a whoosh. “Tell me you aren’t savoring the chance to make love with me again? Some place more comfortable than against the side of a Jeep.” He lowered his voice to a seductive whisper, “Where I can explore your body all night long with no chance of interruption.”
    Heat of another sort fought with the anger in her eyes, and he couldn’t help the smile that teased free.
    “Y-you are not sleeping in my bed.”
    He cocked a brow. “Who said anything about sleeping, sweetheart.”
    “Why you arrogant, overbearing fish cop.” She pushed free of his embrace. “I am not having sex with you again. Been there, done that. Time to cut bait.”
    Cut bait? What was he? A piece of meat? Only good enough for a one night stand and a frantic fuck against a Jeep? He’d battled panic earlier when she’d been dangerously cold, alarm over more proof that someone wanted her dead. Now he was doing his level best to protect her, and she wanted nothing to do with him? It was enough to make any man lose his grip on sanity. He yanked her flush against him and silenced her mouth but good. Hungrily, he slanted his lips over hers, licked into her mouth and made a meal of her until her arms knotted around his neck, and a moan flowed from deep within her throat, as she arched into him.
    Now that was more like it. Time to cut bait, my ass.
    He knocked the ball cap free of her hair and tunneled his fingers into the loose strands, loving how they felt against his skin, and kept her head prisoner to his plundering mouth.
    “Tell me, Sonya,” he said, breaking the kiss, his voice hoarse with the effort it cost him to reel back his need. “Was that enough of a lure to welcome me back into your bed?”

    Sonya swallowed past the unwanted feelings impeding her better judgment. What had she been objecting to? Sex with Garrett. Now why had she been objecting again? That’s right, he’d commandeered her vessel. Well, to be honest, he hadn’t taken over the running of her boat, but he’d plowed over her protests as though he had no regard for them or her. She knew he was trying to protect her but—with him on her boat—he’d just put her smack dab in harm’s way.
    Uniform or no uniform, he was still a fish cop, and every fisherman out there on the water would know it. She might as well use his alibi and end all the speculation, for her reputation was surely ruined with him inhabiting her boat.
    “You’re sleeping up here.” She pointed to the bunk in the pilot house. “Alone. If you insist on staying to protect me, then that’s what you are going to do. Protect me and mine. No fringe benefits.”
    “I can protect you better if I’m close to you.”
    “No. You need to treat me as just another job.”
    “You aren’t just a job.” His eyes narrowed in warning. “I care about you.” It looked as though it physically hurt him to say that. Not the declaration every woman dreamt of.
    “What does that mean, ‘you care about me’? Are you in love with me? Want to be with me always and forever, until death do us part? Or is this a summer fling? Not a lot of women out here, and you found yourself some easy entertainment?”
    “Babe, there is nothing easy about you.” If at all possible, his eyes narrowed even farther, until she barely caught the piercing glint promising a storm to come. “Sonya—”
    “No.” She held up her hand. “No more.” Now she’d had it. “I need a break.” She reached for her rain jacket hanging on the hook.
    “Where are you going?”
    She paused with her hand on the door to the pilot house, not liking that he wanted her to explain herself. “I said I needed a break.”
    “I don’t want you outside in the rain after what happened earlier.”
    It was hard staying mad at someone who seemed to be looking out for her best interests, but she made the effort. “I’m going to check on the guys, change places with one of them.” Anything to get away from him for a while. Until she could reestablish some sort of normalcy or, at the very least, regain authority over her own life, damn it.
    “Think again. I’m here to keep you safe, which means I don’t leave your side.”
    “You’ve got to be joking.”
    “Not laughing, sweetheart. Consider me your shadow until this situation is resolved.”
    “This won’t work. There will be times when I’ll