Daddy Devastating by Delores Fossen Page B

neck. She pulled him down to her and kissed him.
    In the back of his mind, Russ considered that she was kissing him to get him to shut up. He considered it. Accepted it.
    And because he needed to feel her in his arms, he kissed her right back. The mouth-to-mouth contact didn’t soothe him exactly, but it helped when he felt Julia’s muscles relax a little.
    The taste of her went right through him, turning his anger and rage into something warm. Something that felt too damn right for something so wrong.
    He pulled back not because he wanted the kiss to stop, but because he knew it shouldn’t continue. He needed to check her for injuries, and it didn’t take him long to find them. In addition to the scratches on her knees, there were some on her elbows, as well.
    Russ double-locked the front room door and took her by the arm. “Come with me.”
    He had her sit on the bed, and he went to the bathroom to get a wet washcloth. The curtains were also closed tight, so he shut the bedroom door, too, and locked it. Double precaution since Emily was in the room with them. If he could figure out a triple one, he’d take it, too.
    Russ knelt in front of her and got to work, trying to be as gentle as he could. Still, Julia winced.
    “Sorry,” he mumbled.
    “It’s all right. It has to be done.” She kept her voice soft and low, probably so she wouldn’t wake Emily. “I didn’t have a panic attack.”
    “I noticed.” He pressed the cloth to her right knee and looked up at her. “Want to have one now? There’s time.”
    The corner of her mouth lifted, but it didn’t stay there long. “When the bullets were coming at us, all I could think about was Emily. I was terrified something bad would happen to her.”
    “Yeah. I know.” Russ had had those same fears. But not just for Emily. For Julia, too. He wouldn’t have been able to forgive himself if something worse had happened to her in that parking lot.
    “I realized just how important Emily is to me,” Julia continued. “And how I would feel if someone took her.” Hell.
    Russ knew where this was leading. “Julia, no one expects you to help with an FBI investigation. Better yet, I don’t want you to help. I want you to be safe.”
    She touched his cheek with her fingertips. “I will be, because you’ll be with me.”
    “Right,” he growled, moving her hand away. He recognized that maneuver. She was trying to soothe him. The woman sure learned fast. “You noticed what a good job I did of protecting you today,” he mumbled, in disgust.
    “Actually, I did notice.” Unlike him, there was no sarcasm in her voice. “You shielded me with your own body. You put yourself in the line of fire for me.”
    Russ wasn’t comfortable with her gratitude. He damn well didn’t deserve any credit for reacting after the danger was right on them. If he’d done things right, if he’d anticipated better, he might have been able to get her out of there before the bullets started.
    She caught onto his face again, this time with both hands. “You can’t put me ahead of the Richardson baby,” she whispered. “And I can’t put my fears ahead of him, either.”
    He stared at her and thought of a lot of things he could say. Russ settled for probably the dumbest one of the bunch. “Who the hell are you? Are you the same woman I met in the bar yesterday?”
    “I’m Julia Howell, recluse heiress and occasional neurotic. Who the hell are you? Are you the same cocky guy who put his hand up my dress?”
    “Absolutely. I haven’t changed a bit.”
    “Liar,” she said, and her mouth came to his again.
    Unlike the other kiss, there was no desperation in this one. No unspoken need for comfort.
    Man, he was a goner.
    The air left the room. It left his lungs too, but he didn’t need air to feel. One kiss from her, one touch of his tongue to hers, and Russ was already thinking about stripping off her clothes and having sex.
    But it couldn’t happen.
    For one thing, Emily was sleeping