Protecting Rose by Cheryl Yeko Page B

to remember that without her memories to guide her, Rose was like a babe in the woods. The last thing he wanted to do was to move too quickly and frighten her again.
    He ran his hands through his hair and exhaled a long sigh of frustration. Somehow, when this was over, he had to convince her to take a chance on him. To see if they had what it took to forge a lasting relationship. Because his gut told him, they did.
    He just hoped there wasn’t someone else waiting to claim her.

Chapter 8
     
    Rose woke up when the car came to a stop. A soft caress feathered across her cheek. She opened her eyes to a night sky, with very few stars to offer light.
    “Wake up, sleeping beauty,” Nate whispered.
    Sleepily, she smiled up at him, perfectly content just to gaze into the calm waters of his eyes. Until her mind began to clear. She jerked to an upright position at the realization her head rested in his lap.
    Her eyes dropped to the hard bulge in his jeans. With a blush, she forced them away, only to have them drawn back down to his lap. Remembering the passion they’d shared earlier, her body tingled. The touch of his hands as he’d explored her, his mouth scorching her wherever he touched. Her breasts grew heavy, and her nipples tightened at the same time moisture pooled at the juncture of her thighs.
    Nate’s rough chuckle reached her ears. “Rose, my control has its limits. You need to stop looking at me like that.”
    She bit her lip and met his darkened gaze.
    Nate ran his thumb over her bottom lip, before leaning down to soothe the spot she’d bitten with his own warm tongue. She closed her eyes, parted her lips, and welcomed his gentle exploration of her mouth. He kissed her tenderly and her heart swelled with longing. The taste and feel of him made her dizzy with desire. She gave a moan of protest when he removed the warmth of his lips from hers.
    “You’re killing me here, babe.”
    Rose opened her eyes and her breath caught. Nate watched her with his signature-dimpled smile.
    “Come on, let’s get you settled in.” He leaned across her and opened the door.
    Dazed from his kiss, she stumbled from the car and studied her surroundings. He’d brought her to an old white farmhouse with a large yard, shaded by about a dozen trees. A weathered red barn sat at the back of the property near the woods. “Where are we?”
    “This is my parents’ property. We should be safe here for now,” Nate assured her. “By the time anyone figures out we survived the explosion, I’ll have you somewhere more secure.”
    They walked up the steps of the old farmhouse. Nate reached around her and opened the door to flip on the light. Rose stepped inside a compact old-fashioned kitchen lined with built-in wood cupboards, adorned with beveled glass doors. A small table sat before a picture window that overlooked the backyard. Halfway through the kitchen to the left was an archway leading into a tiny living room filled with antique furnishings. A few steps further beyond that, a screened-in porch faced the road.
    Nate laughed. “Well, what you see is what you get.”
    He pointed to the back of the house. “There are two bedrooms and a bathroom through there. The bedrooms are almost big enough to hold the beds, but not quite. We had to remove the door on the smaller room to fit the queen-size bed into it. You can have the other room with the working door,” he teased.
    Warmth filled her as she glanced around the quaint little house. “It’s cute. How old is the home?”
    “It was built in the early 1900’s, although Tom added the sunroom in the late seventies. There’s an old one-room schoolhouse in the backyard. It’s in pretty sad shape, but one of these days, we plan to fix it up. I’ll show it to you tomorrow when it’s light out.”
    Rose nodded. “That would be nice.”
    She glanced at her watch. Only 9:00 and she wasn’t the least bit tired after her nap in the car. Her cheeks heated at the memory of waking up with