“What if I didn’t want you to stay over there?” Lizzie had never been good about adding seduction to her tone, but she pitifully tried. It didn’t help when she wouldn’t look up at him.

  She had to have done something right, because she got a growl back in response. The sound made her pulse pick up slightly as she thought about how feral the strong man could get. Tommy didn’t have the build Doug had, and if Doug was anything like Tommy in bed, she’d wake up a little sore the next morning.

  Doug’s bare feet appeared and disrupted her perusal of the grout. He lifted her chin up so she could see his face. What met her was pure hunger, and she knew her goal wouldn’t be hard to accomplish.

  “You want me to stay over there, believe me. Is offering up yourself in any way part of you thanking me?”

  Lizzie tried to look down, but he held her face firmly. Something about her expression gave away the answer, and he shook his head before he wrapped his arms around her.

  “Damn it. Why do I have to be honorable?” he asked under his breath.

  “You don’t have to be. Most of the time I enjoy sex on some level, so it’s not like it will be a hardship on my part.” She’d gotten used to the pain and pleasure mixture that punctuated her sexual experience.

  “Most of the time?” Doug sounded shocked that she’d used the phrase as he pulled back slightly and looked down at her.

  She shrugged and leaned forward so she could rest her head on his chest. She assumed he wasn’t a virgin, so he didn’t need to act surprised. She’d only ever been with Tommy, but he’d shown her videos of people doing the same things they did, so it seemed things were pretty standard.

  “I don’t care if he threatens me or not, I’m killing that idiot. I take it you haven’t been with anyone else.” Lizzie answered his question by shaking her head. “Unless there’s a medical condition on your part, with the right stimulation and care by your partner, there should never be a question of whether you enjoy it.”

  Doug gripped her tighter against him and she could feel the hard length of him trying to get out of his shorts. As she thought about whether his words could be true, she let her hand start drifting lower. He hadn’t grabbed her and thrown her against the nearest surface, so she wanted to try to move things along. Talking about what she’d experienced before didn’t help keep the little confidence she had up.

  “I’m not sure where this is going, but let’s keep it north of the border.” Doug stopped her hand when she got to his waistband.

  “Do you want to have sex with me?” The signs were all there that he did, but she had trouble figuring out why he wasn’t acting on them.

  “No,” he replied, kissing her gently on the top of her head. “I want to make love to you, and it’s pretty clear you aren’t ready for that yet.”

  Lizzie maneuvered so she could look up at his face. Lust was still heavy in his eyes, but there was something else there. She’d seen that something the moment she met him, but she hadn’t figured out what to call it. Part of it appeared to be tenderness, and another elusive emotion she couldn’t name.

  “I don’t understand the difference.”

  “Which is why as much as I want to bury myself inside of you, I won’t be.” His voice was so soft, so caring, that Lizzie had trouble hearing the rejection laced in his words.

  Pretending he’d said something different, she raised her face up so she could lock her lips with his. He hesitated for a second, but opened his mouth as she prodded with her tongue. She found herself lifted up, so she had to wrap her legs around his waist as he took off out of the kitchen. Obviously she should’ve just started out with kissing. She already knew it was one of his favorite things to do based on how many times his lips connected with parts of her body.

  The towel she’d been wearing fell from her body as he moved. She thought the furthest he’d make it was the couch, but the length of time from her closing her eyes for the kiss seemed to go on longer than it would’ve taken to make it there. She hazarded a peek and saw they were in the hallway, and he was making a turn into the bedroom Ben was sleeping in.

  She squirmed to get out of his arms. She’d already admitted to herself that she was a horrible mother, but she wasn’t that bad of a mother. Doug let her down and moved over to the dresser to grab the shirt she was supposed to be wearing.

  When he turned back around to face her, his eyes instantly went to her breasts, and the anger she saw in his eyes took away all the tenderness. Under the scrutiny, she hurried to cover up with her hands as much as she could, sadly her boobs were a little big for her hands.

  “He did that to you?”

  Lizzie didn’t think the question warranted an answer, so she took the few steps over to him and grabbed the shirt from his hands. She turned her back to him as she slipped into the shirt. It was a tent, but it was a soft tent that felt good sliding over her skin.

  “Where’s your cell phone?”

  Lizzie wasn’t sure where the question came from, and she wasn’t prepared to feel his hands on her hips as he pulled her back into his body.

  “I left it in the car. I didn’t want to hear his messages coming in.”

  “I’m going to go get it and invite him to have a conversation with me, of course I won’t mention it’s actually me.” Lizzie was about to interrupt the thought, but he continued. “I’ll have him meet me somewhere else, so you won’t have to see him. You can’t expect me to let what he’s done to you go.”

  “And what if he’s watching the house and sees you leave? He’ll just invite himself in and add more scars.” Simply adding scars was looking on the bright side, but she didn’t want to agitate Doug any more than he already was. She could almost feel his heart beating rapidly against her back.

  He let out a deep breath and nudged her head to the side so he could kiss her neck. “Fine. I’ll wait until I can have someone come over to protect you, but eventually he’s going to be on the receiving end of my fists.”

  “I’m not asking you to do that, Doug. I’m just trying to find a way to keep me and Ben safe.”

  “And I’m not asking for your permission to do it. With any luck, he’ll be content he scared you by letting you know he was still out there. Maybe he’ll even head out of town. That won’t guarantee he’ll be punished for what he did, and any man who did that to a woman like you deserves to be punished.”

  Doug gripped her tighter and walked her over to the bed. She didn’t want him to let her go, but she couldn’t very well ask him to stay with her. He’d already turned down an offer to get to know each other better, and after he saw she wasn’t flawless, he was probably trying to figure out how he could back out of things. Sure, his words and gestures weren’t reiterating that, but Lizzie knew how guys worked. They liked something they thought was shiny and new. She could never be that for someone.

  “I don’t want you to get in trouble. I may have forgotten to mention that Tommy isn’t exactly in the lower echelon of the population. He’s a lawyer, at least he was the last time I saw him, and people have paid him a lot of money over the years to have him defend them.”

  Tommy probably didn’t have as much in the bank as Doug did, but he made enough to be influential. The only way she’d been able to get through the divorce with everything she wanted, which did not include a penny of his money, was that she’d been able to get a judge that had a beef with Tommy.

  “So you’re saying I should make sure someone tapes the fight and that he throws the first punch. I can handle that. You don’t have to worry about me. He’s not in Illinois anymore and he doesn’t have whatever cronies he has there to help him out.”

  “Just think before you do anything, please.”

  “With you and Ben involved, you can be sure of that. I’d like to go finish up with the dishes, but I’ll come back after I finish the skillet that I put in to soak. I was going to be a gentleman and sleep in my own room, but I’m hoping we’ll both sleep better if we’re together.”

  There wasn’t really a question of whether she approved of the idea, but she supposed her actions indicated how she felt.

  “I’d like that. In fact, I know I’d sleep a lot better if you were in here with us.”

  Doug didn’t say anything more as he gave her one last squeeze and left the room. The man was so different from what she was used to that she got a feeling she was in over her head. As she settled down on the bed next to Ben, she concentrated on trying to figure out names to put to the emotions running through her head.

  Chapter Eleven

  Friday flew by as Doug and Lizzie hung out and got to know each other a little better. There was still a lot to learn, but they knew basic things, like where they grew up and highlights from key events in their lives. They had minor intrusions from phone calls. The police called to verify the restraining order was legit and to let them know that they found no proof he was in the city. Lizzie knew differently, and Doug was inclined to believe her.

  He’d eventually gone out to her car and retrieved her phone, which had over a hundred missed texts. He skimmed over most of them, because many were repetitive and each one made him more homicidal. The ones about him were easy to deal with, but the ones that explained what the guy was going to do to Lizzie lit a fire in him he’d never felt before. Even when he’d helped his cousin out with her domestic issue, there wasn’t the burning desire inside him to kill.

  Lizzie worked hard to calm him down, thankfully not asking if he needed to use her body for relief. He knew he wasn’t going to be able to turn down the offer twice. He also realized after he’d seen her battle scars that she could see his refusal as him losing his attraction for her. That was the furthest thing from the truth.

  He tried to reassure her by touching and holding her close as often as he could, which was why they were curled up together Saturday afternoon on his couch watching his favorite movie. Ben was asleep, snuggled to his chest, and Doug’s free arm wrapped around Lizzie’s back, with his hand settled on her stomach as she stretched out on the couch.

  “I’ve seen this movie at least ten times, and I swear I notice something new each time I watch it.” Lizzie rubbed her head against his shoulder as she spoke.

  Doug had to laugh at her claim. She’d seemed excited when he suggested the movie, but he hadn’t expected her to be as into it as he was. Annie liked to make fun of his choice in movies, claiming they kept him from finding a girlfriend, and he’d started to think maybe she was right.

  “I think you better pinch me. This dream is starting to make me wish I never wake up.” Doug leaned down to kiss her head, but Lizzie looked up at the same time, causing his lips to collide with her nose.

  They both laughed and Doug settled his lips on hers, trying to keep things from turning into a battle of who could get their tongue to be dominant. Before he even had a chance to prove he’d always be victorious, the doorbell rang, causing both of them to stiffen like statues. A look of fear dominated Lizzie’s eyes as Doug looked towards the front door.

  “Take Ben and go to my room. Shut the door and don’t come out until I come get you.” Doug’s fists curled as he prepared for a very different kind of battle. To stop the curling of at least one hand, he reached over and hit the pause button on the remote.

  Lizzie didn’t seem to be capable of moving, but the doorbell rang again and pounding joined the noise echoing through the house. She jumped at the sound, and then scurried to grab Ben. She was still wearing nothing but his shirt, since she only had her scrubs. Eventually they were going to have to get her something else to wear, but he hadn’t been ready for them to venture outside.

  The pounding continued, and Doug wished he had a cannon to shoot at the door. He got up as soon as he thought Lizzie had enough time to get to his room. They’d slept in his bed the night before and he’d given her the full tour of the home, so she had no excuse for getting lost.

  Doug let out a sigh when he got to the door and looked through the peephole. It was good that he’d sent Lizzie away, but for a very different reason than what he’d originally thought. Seeing the party of people outside the door, he thought about pretending he wasn’t home, but the group knew better than that.

  He looked down at the clothes he’d been wearing for two days and shrugged. He probably stunk, and maybe that would get them to leave.

  Swinging open the door, he tried to put a smile on his face. “I’m not deaf Nelson, although there have been a few times that I’ve questioned whether you are.”

  Nelson, Annie, Dylan, Casey and their whole broods were on the front step, waiting to come in. Doug’s immediate thoughts were how the group would overwhelm Lizzie. He knew how Annie and Casey could get a little much when it came to giving advice, especially Casey. He also had to consider that Lizzie didn’t have anything to wear to meet the group.

  “It’s worse than I thought,” Casey said as she pushed her way through him and into the house. “Where is she?”

  It seemed the adults in the group all had bags in their hands, which was normal when they traveled with the kids, but they seemed to be grocery bags. Casey actually had a big duffle bag thrown over her shoulder. She looked to the empty couch, then rubbed her chin before taking off down the hallway.

  “Lizzie, come out, come out wherever you are,” she called.

  Doug thought about following the redhead, but Annie was quick to put her hand on his shoulder and gain his attention. He turned to look at one of his closest friends and saw a little pity in her eyes. He wasn’t exactly sure if the pity was meant for him or Lizzie.

  “We brought her some clothes. Nels said she was about Casey’s size, so we went on a little shopping spree. I’m guessing you haven’t let her go home to pick up some of her things.” Annie handed Isabel over to Doug, not giving him a chance to question the handoff.

  “Well, no, but I was just thinking about figuring out the logistics of going out today.”

  “And that brings us to the bigger reason we’re here.” Dylan walked through the opening Casey created by pushing Doug out of the way, and the rest of the group followed him in.

  Katie and Jack ran over to jump on the couch, literally. Doug didn’t know why his couch had been labeled as their trampoline, but every time they were over that’s what it ended up being.

  “I’ll fire up the grill. Dylan, you start setting out the sides and desserts. We’ve probably got fifteen minutes before hungry people start showing up.”

  Doug realized why they were there, and felt like kicking himself for not cancelling the barbecue he’d called and told everyone about on Thursday. If he was worried about Lizzie being overwhelmed by seven people, she was going to be drowning when over forty showed up.

  “Don’t worry, we brought enough alcohol that you won’t even notice we’re here.” Annie’s words did nothing to help Doug’s anxiety.

  He wasn’t about to drink with the threat hanging over Lizzie’s head. As far as he knew, Lizzie didn’t drink at all, so Annie might as well have tried to soothe him by saying they had plenty of gasoline to drink.

  “I don’t know that we’re up for all this right now. I’m guessing Nels relayed what’s going on, but I haven’t shared just how volatile the situation is.”

  Annie smiled at him. The guys had left to work on the food, so it was just her, Doug and Isabel in the foyer.

  “Haven’t you ever heard there’s safety in numbers? Do you really think the creep is going to try something when you have twenty hockey players hanging around? Plus, tell the truth, have you made her sit through the movie? If you haven’t, I’m sure it won’t be long, since you made me sit through it on our third date. I’m trying to save you from making a big mistake.”

  Annie had started pushing him into the living room. Since she was behind him, he couldn’t see her face when she saw the scene frozen on the screen, but he figured when her feet stopped moving was about the time she realized what it was.

  “Casey was right, we are too late. I told you about this, Doug. You’re never going to get a woman to stick around if you show her that’s what you think entertainment is.”

  Doug checked on the couch jumpers, making sure they weren’t too close to the edge, which somehow they magically never were. He turned around to face his ebony-haired friend and saw the pity amplifying in her eyes.

  “Wait until you meet her, Annie. Not only does she share my taste in movies, but she also likes my cologne. She’s perfect, and I’m scared to tell her it, but I’m already in love with her.”

  Doug had no trouble revealing the truth to Annie. Telling Lizzie how he felt was something he figured needed to wait at least a few weeks into their relationship. He wasn’t even sure she classified it as that. Sure she let him cuddle and kiss her, but she could’ve been doing that because she needed to feel safe and somehow that helped her.

  Annie studied his face for a moment, and then wrapped her arms around his waist. “My little Dougie’s all grown up.”

  He had to lift Isabel up to so Annie could snuggle her head to his chest. A throat clearing from the hallway drew his attention, and he saw Lizzie standing there with Casey behind her and Ben at her side. Casey hadn’t been gone long, but somehow she’d helped get Lizzie in a pink sundress, and if he wasn’t hallucinating, she even had makeup around her eyes.

  He still contended she didn’t need it, but by God she was beautiful standing there, looking to him for any kind of reaction. Actually, her eyes seemed to be staring at his chest. Annie straightened up and smiled at Doug before she walked over to introduce herself.

  “It’s nice to meet you, Lizzie. I’m Annie. And you must be Ben.” Annie knelt down to get a better look at the baby. “I’m sorry I missed meeting you the other day. You’re two, right?”

  Ben studied the woman a second before nodding, raising his tiny fingers up as he did to reiterate the number. Doug could see he was still a little sleepy, but he’d been changed into a new outfit too. Casey was clearly a tornado when it came to orchestrating a quick change.