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Their voices lowered as they moved away, and finally disappeared. A few minutes later the door at the back of the hallway closed and everything was silent.

Kelly watched Rowdy. His hair was still too short. The spiked military cut suit him, but she had loved his long hair when he was younger. The way it framed his face, emphasized his green eyes. He looked like a fallen angel come to tempt mortal women when his hair was long. Short, he looked like the warrior she knew he had to be. A fighter, a Marine. Tall and tough and hard.

He turned to her, placing his hand over his chest, the dark blue material of his cotton shirt stretching across his shoulders.

“Kelly darlin’, you look like an angel standing there.” His smile was a tad goofy and too damned sexy.

Unfortunately, she knew better. She was wearing another of his shirts, one she had stolen the last time he was home. A pair of loose sweatpants and socks that bunched at her ankles. She looked messy and frightened, and she knew it.

She licked her lips nervously. Facing him was one of the hardest things she had ever done, knowing he knew what had happened to her, terrified he would blame her. She blamed herself. What she had done was stupid, leaving that window up, stubbornly refusing to give up that pleasure despite the danger she had been warned of.

“I missed you, Rowdy,” she whispered, trying to still the trembling of her lips. “I’m glad you’re home.”

His expression sobered as he moved toward her slowly. She forced herself to stay still, not to retreat. But he was so big, and powerful.

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Lora Leigh

Strong. The memory of hard hands holding her down, a rough voice muttering in her ear as her face was pressed into the pillow, haunted her.

“So why didn’t I get my welcome-home hug?” He stood in front of her, his arms at his sides, his eyes dark and glittering with hunger.

He still wanted her. She could see it in his eyes, just as she had seen it during his infrequent visits over the last four years.

“I…” She swallowed tightly, glancing away as her hands tightened on her arms.

“Just a hug, Kelly-baby?” He whispered the words, his lips quirking gently. “I dream of your hugs, darlin’.”

She stared back at him in surprise.

“You don’t believe me?” He reached out, his arm lifting slowly, his hand moving to her as his fingers reached out to lift a strand of curls from her shoulder.

She glanced quickly at where he held her hair, biting at her lower lip as she tried to still the pounding of her heart. She had dreamed of his touch for so long, waited for him, longed for him. Oh God, this wasn’t fair, she wailed silently. This was Rowdy. He wouldn’t hurt her. She knew he wouldn’t hurt her.

“Rowdy…” Her throat tightened as she fought herself, the fear and the needs warring inside her.

“It’s real easy, baby,” he crooned, his dark velvet voice washing over her. “You just lift your arms and put them around my neck.” He let go of her hair, fingers curling around her wrists as he lifted her arms, urging them up until they curled around his neck. “Then you come up real close to me, so I can hug you back.” His arms went around her, slowly, so slowly, pulling her against him until her head rested on his chest.

“There we go.”

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NAUTI BUOY

She was shaking, but was it fear or something more? She didn’t know what she was feeling, didn’t know how to assimilate the sensations and emotions washing through her.

“I came home for you, Kelly,” he whispered, his breath caressing her ear as she jerked against him. “I came home to touch you, to taste you, to claim you. Do you know what I would have done if I had known you were home when I pulled in?”

She shook her head, a jerky movement as a small whimper left her lips.

“I would have come to your room and kissed you awake. I would have seen your pretty eyes opening, knowing it’s me beside you, my lips touching yours. I want that real bad, Kelly. Even though I know if Dad caught me he’d skin me alive.” He breathed in roughly; the feel of his chest rasping against her breasts sent a shudder racing through her.

“Now,” he whispered, “I really don’t care if does skin me.”

She stiffened against him, needing to draw away, needing to get closer to him. God, she hated this. Hated the fear holding her back, hated not knowing, not understanding the emotions raging through her mind and body.

“Rowdy…”

“Shh.” He stilled her protest as he rubbed his head against hers.

“Just settle here against me, baby. Let me hold you for a minute; let me know you’re okay. Just that.”

“But I’m not okay.” Her hands clenched in the fabric of his shirt as she finally admitted it to herself. “I’m scared, Rowdy. I’m so scared.” She pressed her head against his chest, the words slipping free after nearly a year of burying them. She was terrified.

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“I know, baby.” He kissed her head, his hands running over her back.

“But I won’t let you be scared of me. You know that. I’d never hurt you.

I’d die before I’d hurt you, Kelly.”

She heard the pain in his voice, felt it tighten her chest. No, Rowdy would never hurt her, but fear was an insidious disease, and fighting it took more courage than she thought she had.

“We’re going to take this nice and easy,” he crooned. “We’re going to go upstairs and you’re going to sleep, baby. I’m going to lie right beside you so you know no one can get to you, no one can hurt you as long as I’m there. Okay?”

“In my bed?” She jerked back, staring up at him. “Ray will skin us both alive.”

“Dad will deal with it.” His expression hardened, determination glittering his eyes. “He already is. You’re not sleeping, you’re not eating.

We’re going to change that, starting tonight.”

“Oh, are we now?” The highhandedness in his voice pricked at her.

“Kelly.” He tilted his head, staring down at her, a smile quirking at his lips. “Are you going to fight me, baby? Really? Remember the last fight we got into?”

“You put another snake in my drawer, and I’ll start calling you Douglas,” she sniped. “I can’t believe you’d threaten me like that.”

She stared back at him, incredulous. She hated snakes, any kind of snake, especially those mean little green snakes.

He smirked, his gaze drowsy, his expression so sensual it was enough to make her panties damp. And they were damp. Yeah, she was scared spitless at times at the thought of touching him, having him touch her, but he could make her so wet, so fast, that it wasn’t even surprising anymore.

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NAUTI BUOY

“I’m just going to lie beside you, that’s all,” he whispered. “If you can’t sleep, then I’ll lie on the floor. But I’ll be there, Kelly. Will you trust me enough to let me be there?”

She was breathing roughly, the realization of it forced her to try to regulate it. She hated this weakness, this fear. Even the sessions with the psychologist hadn’t been able to erase it.

“I would trust you with my life, Rowdy,” she whispered, knowing she did.

“Come on then.” His arm wrapped around her as he led her to the stairs. “Let’s go on up and see if we can get some sleep. I don’t know about you, Kelly, but I’m dead tired.”

She hadn’t had nightmares in months, she thought as he turned out the lights and led her upstairs. She wasn’t sleeping well, but when she did sleep, she wasn’t waking screaming as she did in those first months.

It should be safe. She could have something she had always dreamed of.

Rowdy in her bed, sharing his warmth with her. Maybe even holding her.

Surely she could handle that?

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Kelly finally eased into sleep hours later. Rowdy felt her relax against him, felt the soft sigh that left her lips. Moving slowly, he eased the blanket further over her shoulders, feeling her head on his arm, her silky hair against his chest as he held her. It was killing him, the pain, the fear he knew she had to have endured. He could feel his heart breaking in his chest even as a killing rage burned in his soul.

She was his. She had been his as long as he had known her and by God he wasn’t letting her go. She knew him, knew he would cut out his own heart before he’d hurt her—that trust was still within her. If it

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weren’t, she would never have been able to sleep in his arms, to allow him to hold her, her sweet body tucked so close against his own.

He stared into the dimly lit bedroom, his eyes narrowed, his mind working. Whoever dared to hurt her, to stalk her, wouldn’t be breathing for long. He wouldn’t be breathing two seconds past the time Rowdy learned who he was. And that was a silent promise, a vow he made to Kelly. She would never be hurt again.

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NAUTI BUOY

Maria opened Kelly’s door the next morning, not really expecting what she saw. Ray had warned her the night before, but he had been drunk, amorous, so she hadn’t really taken him seriously. Perhaps she should have, the shock wouldn’t have been so great.

She was used to coming in to find Kelly napping in the large wingback chair on the other side of the room, the television droning in the background. The room was silent now, and Rowdy was staring at her through slitted eyes from the bed.

He was wrapped around her sleeping daughter like a living vine. Kelly lay on her side, her back pressed against Rowdy’s front, her head sheltered beneath his chin. One hard leg lay over her daughter’s fragile ones, his arms surrounded her as her hair tangled over them. He was bent over her, wrapped around her, and Kelly was sleeping peacefully.

Kelly was still dressed in the large T-shirt and sweats she had worn last night, and Rowdy had changed into a pair of his own sweats. Rowdy was lying atop the blankets and all modesty was intact as he held her covered body, but it was still a shock. Kelly was her baby, seeing her sleeping in a man’s arms, especially Rowdy’s, was disconcerting. She had expected the closeness they had before her marriage to Ray to develop, but not in this way. As siblings, very close friends, but never this. This terrified her.

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Lora Leigh

The sensuality that seemed to wrap about the two whenever they were together had always worried her, deeply. She had been terrified for years that Rowdy would break her daughter’s heart. What she saw now filled her with conflicting emotions. Rowdy would protect her and, ultimately, that was Maria’s greatest wish. Her daughter’s protection. But what he could do to her baby’s heart was almost more than she could bear.

She breathed in deeply, realizing she had pressed one hand against her chest at the surprise that had gone through her. She just hadn’t expected it. Kelly was so skittish, so wary since the attack that Marie hadn’t truly expected her to trust Rowdy, not after the amount of time he had spent away in the last eight years and the changes the Marines had wrought. He was tougher, harder. More determined. The steel in his eyes had come in the first year, and had only grown stronger. And Kelly knew what Rowdy was. She knew the man he was and the men his cousins were.

As she stared at the two, Rowdy’s frown darkened, his gaze narrowing at her. “What?” he mouthed.

Ray had warned her, she had known herself what was coming.

“We’re going to the marina.” She mouthed the words back at him, hoping her daughter would continue to sleep.

He nodded with a subtle shift of his head, never really moving.

Content. That was how he appeared. Content where he was, holding Kelly close.

She backed slowly from the room, her hand lingering on the door panel for a moment as she fought the worry building within her. Maybe Ray was right. Maybe Rowdy was all Kelly truly needed to get past the rape and the explicit phone calls they tried to shelter her from.

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They were worse than Kelly knew. To the point that Maria and Ray turned off the phones and the answering machines whenever they knew Kelly would be home alone. She didn’t need to know the filth that bastard was spouting. Or the threats. It was bad enough that Maria knew the calls were still coming.

Rowdy was home now though, they could protect Kelly more effectively. And if Ray was right, Rowdy would eliminate the threat altogether. She prayed Ray was right. Just as she prayed that her daughter could handle what Rowdy was sure to ask from her.

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Kelly came awake slowly, her senses alive, her skin tingling beneath her clothes at the warmth that surrounded her. There was no momentary fear, no surprise. Rowdy was holding her. She could feel him wrapped around her, spooned against her as though she had been made for the position.

Languorous pleasure suffused her, a drowsy, dreamy sensation of erotic promise. It wrapped around her, veiled her within it, and heated her from the inside out. It sent fingers of warmth to race over her breasts, hardening them, peaking her nipples as hunger raced through them. She wanted to feel him against her there, his hard chest rasping over them, the light mat of hair creating erotic friction. She wanted his mouth there, his lips, teeth and tongue. She wanted everything, wanted all of him.

She was aware of something else as well as she lay there, her body tucked into his. He was hard. His erection pressed against the crevice of her buttocks, a thick intruder, waiting. It was hot, thick, pressing against her in erotic promise, or an implied threat. The barrier of the

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Lora Leigh

blanket between her and Rowdy did nothing to stem the feel of him, or the heat.

She bit her lip, stiffening in his arms, her muscles tightening.

Pleasure and fear combined inside her. And the pleasure was stronger.

The culmination of what felt like a lifetime of fantasies and needs rose inside her, blocking the fear, pushing it back until nothing mattered except Rowdy.

“Easy, baby.” His voice was drowsy, calm. “It’s just a hard-on.”

He snuggled against her, tucking her closer to his chest as her hands gripped the bedspread and she fought to level her breathing. His voice held an edge of teasing indolence and carnal delight. As though it were an everyday occurrence for her to wake up with a man’s hard-on pressing into her ass.