Page 160 of Protecting What's Mine

“Mackenzie,” he gritted out.

She was quickening around him, which was a fucking miracle considering he was coming and coming and coming inside her. And she was closing around him, gripping him.

Her hungry squeezes milked his dick, drained his balls, as he emptied himself into her. Giving her everything that he had, all that he was.

“Linc,” she whispered, arms banding around him as she rode out her world-destroying aftershocks on his still-hard cock. “Linc.”

53

The next morning, Mack’s phone rang on the nightstand. Linc had spent the last thirty minutes watching her sleep in his arms. It was almost eight in the morning, and she was still sleeping. Not wanting to disturb her, he reached over her.

Andrea.

It said something that the woman was in her daughter’s phone as Andrea, not Mom.

Easing out of the bed, he took the phone with him down the stairs.

Sunshine followed him

“Hello,” he answered sharply.

“Oh, I’m calling for my daughter Kenzie.”

“If you mean Mackenzie, she has nothing to say to you,” Linc said coldly. He opened the back door and let Sunshine scamper out into the frost-bitten grass.

“Don’t be silly. I’m hermother. We had a little misunderstanding. That’s all. If you put her on the phone, I can straighten it all out.”

“Your misunderstanding amounts to assault, Andrea.”

“It’s Auhn-DREA-uh,” she corrected.

“It doesn’t matter what your name is because your relationship with Mackenzie is officially over.”

“Oh, sweetie, you don’t understand. Kenzie and I had a little tiff, and I just need a quick word with her. The rent is due—”

“That’s your responsibility. Not hers,” he said.

“I’m hermother. We’refamily.”

The emphasis on the words rang emptily in his ear.

“That’s a title you earn, lady, and you haven’t earned it. You’ve done nothing for Mackenzie her entire life. She’s no longer obligated to save you.”

“Who in the hell do you think you are?” Andrea dropped the sugary sweet Southern accent.

“I’m the man who’s going to convince Mackenzie to marry me someday.”

“She didn’t say anything about you while she was here.”

“You mean while your other daughter assaulted her on the street? Why would she? Why would she share anything important with you?”

“We’re family.” Andrea was back to wheedling.

He thought of his own parents, of his sisters, of his nieces and nephews.Thatwas family.

“You don’t know the meaning of the word. You and your other daughter are no longer welcome anywhere near Mackenzie. No more money. No more guilt trips. She’s mine, and I protect what’s mine.”

“You don’t understand. Ineedto talk to her! The police were here looking for Wendy, and I accidentally forgot to pay the light bill—”