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He just didn’t know how close the war really was.

Chapter Seventeen

Meadow smoothed her fingers over the blue bruise on Colton’s back. “This is where Zach hit you.”

He turned his head to look at her from the corner of his eye. “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t hurt.”

She stretched her fingers over his warm flesh. The muscles flexed under her touch. “I’m sure he hurts much more from what you did to him. But I wish you two wouldn’t fight.”

He let out a sigh. “You feel loyalty to him because of what he’s done around here.”

“I do. Just like all the other guys.” The silence of her bedroom enclosed them in a private cocoon. When he’d climbed through her window in the wee hours of the morning, she’d held out her arms in welcome.

He slipped right into her bed, and the rest was a warm melding of mouths and soft moans.

She wrapped her arms around him from behind and rested her head on the hard planes of his back. “Everyone knows about us. It won’t be long before Dad finds out.”

He grunted. “I don’t actually care what he thinks.”

She pulled back in surprise. “You sound…angry with him.”

“I am.” Colton’s forceful tone made her circle him to look up at his handsome face. His rugged features were set. His jaw tense and his dark eyes glimmering with barely-restrained anger.

“Talk to me, Colton.” She set a palm on his chest.

“He hasn’t been here for you.”

She couldn’t argue with that. “He’s been hurting for a long time. I don’t blame him for not caring.”

“You’ve been hurting too, Meadow. And alone with it all.”

She felt the need to defend her father. After all, he wasn’t a bad person. Just absent. “He still runs the ranch operations. Gives orders to Zach about what needs done.”

Colton grunted. It seemed to be the only response he was capable of giving.

She slipped her arms around his neck. “I appreciate you defending me.”

His throat worked. “I don’t know how to operate any other way.”

The man was a protector through and through. While the thought of him coming to her rescue left her a bit breathless, she was strong too. Strong enough to stand beside him and fight.

Their gazes locked. For a dizzying moment, she drown in those dark eyes, so full of shadows but light too. Small sparks seemed to burn like candles lighting up the night sky each time he looked at her.

She leaned against him. “I never knew I could have this.”

His arms came around her. He yanked her off her feet and turned for her bed again. When he lay her down, and covered her with his body, a hard banging on her door had it rattling the frame.

In one swift, tactical move, Colton leaped off her and turned for the door, hands fisted at his sides. She saw one hand twitch toward his spine, reaching for a sidearm he used to carry there.

Bounding to her feet, she grabbed for the clothes she’d stripped off him earlier that night. “It must be Daddy! You have to go!” She thrust the clothes at him.

He looked into her eyes for a split second before nodding. In the next heartbeats, he was out the window. She heard nothing as he dropped to the ground and probably took off running.

“Meadow, open up!” Her father’s angry tone sent her hurrying faster.

She grabbed for her robe and bundled it around herself, tying the belt. When she flung open the door, her father stood there swaying.

Meadow’s hand fluttered to her chest, hoping she didn’t wear the marks of Colton’s roughness with her. A roughness she relished—craved.