“Don’t be silly,” I insisted. “You had no other choice but to give up your weapon, even though I knew it killed you to do it.”

  “I was supposed to be in this damn rainforest with you to protect you, Torie,” he said in a guttural tone.

  “And here you are,” I said, my voice still slightly off. “You put together a team and you’re here to protect me. You’re my hero, Cooper.”

  “Not the same thing as keeping you out of danger in the first place,” he argued.

  “Of course it is,” I disagreed. “I’ve never had a man come to my rescue before. It’s kind of…romantic.”

  Cooper released an exasperated breath. “I think you’re still stoned.”

  “I think you’re wonderful,” I shot back at him. “You’re my knight in shining armor, Cooper Montgomery.”

  “I doubt your brothers will think so,” he said drily.

  I tried to make out his face, but it was much too dark. “I thought my opinion would be more important than theirs,” I huffed.

  I heard him chuckle. “It is, sweetheart. Do you have any idea what they gave you? You sound pretty high.”

  “No idea,” I informed him. “They didn’t tell me they were drugging me or I wouldn’t have drunk the water or eaten the food.”

  “So you started feeling off right after you ate?” he asked.

  “Whatever they gave me, it was pretty strong. I almost went face first into my fruit. How long was I out?”

  “What time did you eat?” he asked.

  I thought for a minute. “Later in the afternoon.”

  “So, maybe a few hours,” Cooper guessed. “We came in not long after sunset. Are you sure they treated you okay? Your makeshift hut had some ventilation and your bindings weren’t cutting off your circulation, thank fuck.”

  “I didn’t exactly do a lot of chatting with my captors, but they didn’t mistreat me, Cooper, and they didn’t touch me, if that’s what you’re worried about. They just…drugged me,” I shared.

  “No offense, sweetheart, but that fact is pretty obvious,” he said, his voice a little lighter than it had been before.

  “My brain is mushed,” I said unhappily.

  “We’ll get it fixed,” he promised.

  “Actually, I don’t mind so much,” I told him happily. “It’s probably similar to being really, really drunk. Not that I’d know what that’s like. I’ve never drank enough at one time to find out.”

  “I have,” he said grimly. “It’s not so bad when you’re under the influence, but it truly sucks the next day.”

  “The hangover?”

  “Yeah.”

  I considered his words for a moment. “I don’t think I’d like that.”

  “I guarantee you wouldn’t.”

  “So how long are you planning on carrying me around?” I asked. “You’ve already done this once. Although it was probably easier in the park than it is for you in the rainforest.”

  “I don’t give a shit how long I have to carry you,” Cooper grumbled. “I’m just damn glad I have you in my arms alive and well.”

  “It just doesn’t really seem fair that you always have to carry me around. I can walk, you know.”

  He snorted. “Not right now you can’t. Baby, you’d land flat on your face. And I know you’re perfectly capable of walking. Just let me carry you right now.”

  “I don’t think I have any choice,” I considered. “Are you sure you’re okay? I can’t see you. It’s too dark.”

  “Now that you’re with me, I’m fine,” he said hoarsely. “Jesus Christ, Torie. You scared the shit out of me. I hope you’ve seen enough of the Amazon Rainforest because I really hate this fucking place.”

  I sighed. “I’m not all that crazy about it myself, but I really would have liked to see the pink dolphins.”

  “We’ll see how we feel in five or ten years,” he grunted. “Let me get over this trip first.”

  “Okay,” I answered agreeably. “You sound tired, Cooper. Are you sure you don’t want me to walk?”

  “I probably sound older,” he answered. “I think you took about ten or twenty years off my life.”

  “I was worried about you, too,” I confessed. “I was more worried about you than I was about me. At least people knew where I was this time. They knew I was in the rainforest.”

  “That didn’t mean that the bastards couldn’t hurt you between the time they took you and your rescue.”

  “I suppose not, but the actual kidnapping would have been over quickly.”

  I snuggled into Cooper’s muscular body and rested my head on his shoulder, relieved that he was obviously okay.

  At some point, I feel asleep again, and I didn’t wake until Cooper called my name.

  “Torie? Sweetheart? We’re back at the boat.”

  My head felt much clearer this time, and I was oriented almost immediately. I wasn’t sure how long I was out, but it had been enough time for the drugs to start wearing off.

  I could see the lights of the riverboat in the distance.

  “God, Cooper, you have to be exhausted.”

  “Glad we’re here,” he said, his words slightly uneven.

  “Cooper? Are you okay?” I said, feeling slightly panicked because he sounded stressed. “Put me down.”

  He ignored me and didn’t stop until we strode over the dock and onto the riverboat.

  I wriggled until he finally set me down on my feet.

  I gasped the second I could finally see his face.

  Blood was still trickling down from his head to his face, and the shirt he was wearing was saturated with blood.

  The areas of his face that weren’t covered with blood were so ghostly white that it terrified me.

  “We made it,” he said as his big body swayed.

  “Dear God, Cooper! What happened?” I asked, my voice slightly hysterical.

  He looked at Miller and Davis. “Make sure she stays safe,” he said tersely.

  “You got it, man,” Miller said. “Let me help you get to your room.”

  He never got close enough to Cooper to help him.

  I heard myself screaming in fear as I reached for Cooper.

  In the end, I couldn’t hold him up as his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed to the floor.

  Cooper

  “Talk to me, Torie,” I pleaded with her as we started our return trip from Iquitos to San Diego. “You’ve been taking care of me for four days now, but we’ve barely exchanged a personal word during that time.

  After I’d collapsed on the riverboat, I’d gotten transported to Iquitos for medical treatment.

  I’d suffered a skull fracture and a severe concussion, but after they’d fixed up the large gashes on my head, most of my treatment had been observation only to make sure I wouldn’t have any other issues.

  I didn’t, so we’d boarded my jet today for our return trip to San Diego.

  We were now leveled off, and it looked like we were going to have a smooth flight for now.

  “What would you like to talk about?” she asked politely as she sat down at the other end of the couch from me.

  “How about why you’re so damn distant,” I suggested.

  I couldn’t complain about her attentiveness or the way she’d taken care of me after I’d gone into the hospital.

  Problem was, she’d never gone back to the old Torie, who was relaxed and happy when we were together.

  “Maybe because you’re so damn stubborn,” she replied. “You didn’t have to endanger your life that way, Cooper. God, you shouldn’t have even been on your feet, much less carrying me for hours. You had a skull fracture. A skull fracture, Cooper. That’s serious. That’s not something to mess around with. And the amount of blood you lost was insane. Were you trying to kill yourself?”

  I lifted a brow as I looked at her.

  I wasn’t angry.

  Hell, how could I be when every word she said was because she’d been worried about me.

  “If I remember right, I think you risked your life for mine,” I reminded her. “I’d say what you did was more dangerous than me rescuing you and carrying you back to our boat.”

  “That’s different,” she said unhappily.

  “Why?”

  “I did what I did because I love you, dammit!” she said tearfully. “Did you really think I could sit there and watch them kill you? It would kill me, too.”

  I was temporarily stunned. “You…love me?”

  “Yes. How many times do I have to say it? I’m crazy about you, Cooper Montgomery. Madly, insanely, absolutely in love with you. So it kills me to know every step you took on that rescue mission was pure agony and life endangering for you. You could have let Davis and Miller carry me out of there. Hell, you could have let them run the entire mission while you got medical treatment. Are you completely insane?”

  I couldn’t stop the grin that slowly started to form on my lips.

  She thought I was insane?

  “But it was perfectly okay for you to talk those pirates into taking you and not slitting my throat because…why?” I said, asking for clarification.

  “Because I knew I’d get rescued,” she said testily. “But it really wasn’t necessary for you to do that yourself.”

  I was grinning like an idiot by the time she’d finished speaking.

  Hell, I was still floating on a cloud because she’d told me that she loved me.

  “Did it ever occur to you that I rescued you for the very same reason?” I asked her, still incredulous. “I love you, too, Torie Durand. I was absolutely terrified when I realized the pirates had taken you and not me. I didn’t know if they’d hurt you before I could rescue you. I didn’t know if you’d be okay. Do you have any fucking idea how torturous that day was for me? Christ, you nearly died in that goddamn rainforest and knowing I’d failed to keep you safe there the second time around nearly killed me. Do you really think I’d let anyone do a rescue that critical to me? There’s no other person that had so much at stake because there will never be a man who loves you as much as I do.”

  I moved closer to her, wrapped my arm around her waist, and pulled her into my lap.

  “There is no me without you anymore, Torie. If something happened to you I’d never survive it. So that’s why I had to make sure you got back to the boat safely. Do. You. Understand?”

  Eyes wide, she looked at me and slowly nodded her head as she said, “I didn’t know you loved me, too.”

  “How could you not know, sweetheart?” I asked her gently. “I think I’ve been pretty damn obvious.”

  “But you’ve always been the one to put on the brakes when things moved too fast,” she murmured.

  “Torie, you were kidnapped and brutalized until you nearly died a year ago. What kind of asshole rushes things after something like that. I didn’t want to screw anything up. I told you I suck at romance and imagination. I had no idea how to charm you into being interested in me. But I was crazy about you from day one. So I told myself to be patient until you were truly ready for a relationship and then I’d have to hope that you’d give me a real shot. I told you that I knew from the beginning that you could never be just a fuck for me. I needed everything or nothing.”

  A tear plopped onto her cheek as she said, “Cooper Montgomery, I don’t know who ever told you that you were unromantic, but she was wrong. Not all women want to hear bullshit that isn’t true. I feel beautiful, desirable, smart, and special whenever I’m with you. And maybe some men can toss out the words, but what guy carries a woman for hours when he’s critically injured himself? What guy offers to be friends because he knows that’s all a woman can handle right then? What guy takes care of a woman every day for a week when she’s injured? What guy sleeps with a woman every night just to try to make her nightmares go away? What guy adopts a puppy just to make a woman happy? What guy celebrates a woman’s birthday when it’s not her birthday? God, Cooper. Do you really not realize that the things you do are romantic? You just have the wrong definition of romance.”

  I shook my head. “Any guy would do those things—”

  “No,” she said as she put a finger to my lips. “No, they wouldn’t. I’m here to tell you that no man does things like that except you. If another man like you exists, I’ve certainly never met him.”

  “You don’t need another guy like me because you have the original,” I grumbled. “Do all those things really make you happy?”

  She nodded. “Yes. You make me happy, Cooper. Knowing you love me makes me absolutely ecstatic.”

  “I’m pretty elated that you love me, too,” I told her as I threaded my hands into her loose, silky hair. “I’m going to be a pain-in-the-ass protective lover,” I warned her. “Probably a jealous one, too.”

  She leaned over and gently kissed the top of my head. “I can handle that, Cooper, as long as you talk to me. And you’ll never have any reason to be jealous because I don’t see any man but you.”

  “I don’t think the Montgomery men actually need a reason to be jealous,” I considered. “Possessiveness seems to come natural to us the moment we fall in love. Maybe because we have it so good that we’re terrified that happiness will be taken away.”

  Maybe I should have been concerned that I’d turned into a happy lunatic, just like my brothers, but I didn’t give a damn. As long as Torie was mine for the rest of our lives, I didn’t care how crazy I sounded.

  “I’m not going anywhere, Cooper,” she cooed against my ear.

  “Then marry me, Torie,” I said impulsively.

  “Cooper?” she said softly.

  Okay, so that proposal had sucked. “I’m sorry. I’ll propose again and try to make it more romantic. You deserve the most romantic proposal I can possibly make, and you definitely deserve to have a ring on your finger when I ask. But I want you to understand where this is going for me, Torie. I want you to be my wife.”

  “Yes,” she said firmly. “That’s what I want, too.”

  My heart kicked against my chest wall. “I’ll find you an amazing ring, and I’ll set up something more romantic.”

  “I don’t want another proposal. You asked once and I accepted. You’re committed, mister,” she teased. “But I will take the ring when it’s ready.”

  Hell, I’d find her the most amazing ring out there.

  “It could be awhile before we can actually get married,” she said. “Harlow and Jax just got engaged, so we have two other weddings first.”

  “Oh, hell no,” I told her. “I’m not waiting for my chance that damn long.”

  “There’s always Vegas,” she said.

  “You’d want to do that?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t mind at all,” Torie answered. “I’ve never thought the wedding was as important as the honeymoon. And I will be hijacking you for a honeymoon.”

  “Where are you taking me?” I asked curiously.

  Hell, not that I really cared. I’d go wherever she wanted to go.

  “Let me think about that. It’s going to have to be special,” she replied as she put her fingers gently through my hair. “God, Cooper. These wounds still look bad.”

  “They don’t really hurt anymore,” I told her. “But they shaved enough spots to do the repair of those lacerations that I’m sure it’s not pretty.”

  I didn’t have a whole lot of hair at the moment.

  “You look incredibly handsome,” she corrected as she stroked my jaw.

  Our eyes locked, and I grinned at her. “If that’s true, then show me.”

  “Cooper Montgomery, you just got out of the hospital,” she admonished.

  I pulled her head down so my lips were so close to hers that I could feel her warm breath against my mouth. “I’ve missed you.”

  “I’ve missed you, too,” she said breathlessly.

  Torie squealed as I lifted her off the couch and headed for the bedroom.

  “Cooper, you’re still recovering,” she protested weakly.

  “I’m completely recovered and there’s only one thing I need right now to make me feel better,” I told her with a grin as I let her put her feet down next to the enormous bed.

  She shook her head as she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and lifted it over her head. “I know I should be arguing, but I can’t,” she said wistfully. “I want you too damn much.”

  I yanked my T-shirt over my head. “I need you, Torie. I have to convince myself that you’re fine, and that you’re mine.”

  We tore at each other’s clothes until we were both naked.

  I gently pushed her onto the bed and came down on top of her knowing I was going to do everything I could to make sure she knew exactly how much I loved her.

  Torie

  “You’re barely out of the hospital, Cooper. What you are you doing?” I moaned.

  Tears filled my eyes as I remembered just how easily he’d told me that he loved me back.

  And to think that he didn’t believe he was a romantic?

  Didn’t he know that real love didn’t depend on flowery, fake words or practiced seduction?

  “I’m about to hear the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard,” he said huskily as he kissed and licked his way from my knees to my thighs.

  Once he arrived exactly where he wanted to be, he spread my legs wider and slid his tongue up the inside of my thigh.

  “Oh, God. Stop. Just make love to me, Cooper. We could try to go slow this time. You still have stitches in your head, for God’s sake.”

  I really didn’t want to stop him, but I’d already been through hell wondering if he was going to be all right after he’d gotten his head beaten in.

  I reached down for him, but he pinned my hands to my side as he buried his head between my thighs.

  “Oh, God,” I groaned as Cooper’s tongue licked my pussy from bottom to top, and then stopped to play with my clit. “Cooper!”

  “Still want me to stop,” he said in a teasing voice.

  “You should…I shouldn’t want…”

  “Baby, I’m here to give you everything you want,” he said huskily right before he sucked the swollen bundle of nerves into his mouth.

  Once his tongue began to play, I was lost.