I take a hard right out of the front door, descending the steps that lead into the canyon. There are about nine thousand trees between me and Mick’s house, but with all the excitement and energy bubbling in my system, I weave in and out of them with ease—
Something…no, someone snags my elbow.
I scream.
A hand clamps over my mouth to cut off the sound. I’m caught. My father caught me. I’m dead. I’m dead.
“Goldie,” Mick breathes in my ear. “It’s just me.”
My body deflates and I sag, making it necessary for Mick to hold me up like a sack of potatoes. “Would you still want me if I’d peed my pants?”
“Hell yes.” Our mouths meet over my shoulder in a kiss full of relief and hunger. “I want you any way I can get you, baby.”
“Okay good, because my legs still won’t work. It might be permanent.”
With a smirk, Mick swings me up into his arms, carrying me—backpack and all—like a baby in the direction of his house. There’s one advantage to having the stuffing scared out of me, though, and that’s the angle I have to study Mick’s nose. I slide a finger down the slope of it now, encountering a bump. “How many times have you broken it?”
“Three times.” He steps over a log. “What is your fascination with noses?”
“I’m a painter,” I whisper. “Your nose is the reason we met.”
Mick stops walking. “How is that?”
I rub a hand on his chest. “You can put me down now. I…there are things I should tell you.”
He seems reluctant to let me go, but after a moment, he eases my feet to the soft canyon ground, such a contrast to the hard man he pretended to be last night. “There are a lot of things I plan to ask you, Hailey. After I get you somewhere safe, we’ll have time.”
Cold creeps over me. “By then, you might not want me anymore. You might not even think I’m worth keeping safe.”
His utter disbelief gives me some comfort. He takes a step away and returns, dragging a hand through his hair. “I fucked you like a monster while your father watched last night, Hailey. While you screamed. If anyone is worried, it should be me. I haven’t slept, I’ve been so sure you wouldn’t come.”
“You looked at me like I was a princess,” I murmur, shaking my head. “Every time I got nervous, you’d find a way to touch me, so only we could see or feel it. You consumed me until I forgot anyone else was in the room. And I…think I like it when you lose control and hold me down. Is that normal?”
“Yes, Hailey. Everything about you is good and pure and healthy.” His hands close around my arms, shaking me a little. “Listen to me. I’m out of my mind over you. You ripped my beating heart out on sight and it’s still there, right in the palm of your hand. I’m your man from now on. Period. There is nothing you could say to change that.”
I blink back tears, barely managing to restrain myself from jumping into his arms and clinging. But the truth has to come first. “I’ve been watching you. From my bedroom window, I’ve watched you swim and pace on your balcony. There was something that drew me to you. You were different somehow and I wanted to know more…so I started to paint you. The night we met, my father was out of town, so I snuck over to your house, hoping to get a closer look at your face—your nose, especially—because I couldn’t get the angle perfect.” I wet my lips. “I was in your driveway when you walked out of the house. I was in your backseat on the way to the bar.”
A few beats pass. I don’t expect him to laugh, but he does. The hearty, booming kind. “I guess I shouldn’t be so grateful an amateur got the drop on me. But hell, I am. Whatever brought you to me.” A line forms between his brows. “No more risks, though, baby. It was dangerous walking into that bar.”
“I knew you were in there.”
“You didn’t know what kind of man I was.”
“Yes, I did,” I whisper, running my flattened hands up and over his pecs. “I could feel you from my bedroom, even though you couldn’t see me.”
There’s a thoughtful expression on Mick’s face as he slides both hands under my skirt and over my bottom, drawing me closer. “I’ve been restless in that house since moving in. Now I know why. You were so close and I couldn’t see you. Get to you.”
I’m not expecting him to lift me off the ground. And he does it so fast, I gasp, wrapping my legs around his waist, leaving my feet dangling several feet off the ground. “Mick,” I moan, my head falling back as he attacks my neck. “There’s more.”