My arms got tighter.

“Do you have to go to Mexico?”

“Fuck, I hope not,” he muttered and I hoped not too. Mexico was a long way away and I had enough trouble thinking of Tate hunting a dangerous fugitive, I didn’t want to think of him doing it a long way away. “He’s faxin’ me the particulars. I gotta get on the road.”

My arms got even tighter though I whispered, “Okay.”

His hand slid up my back and his fingers sifted into my hair to cup the back of my head.

“Kiss me, baby.”

I used the moonlight on the angles of his face to aim and found his mouth. The minute my lips hit his, he rolled partially into me, forcing me to my back in the bed, and my mouth opened as did his. My tongue slid inside, he growled against it and when I absorbed that in my mouth, a small moan escaped my throat. His head slanted one way, mine tilted the other and my kiss turned into a kiss.

I was breathing heavily and holding on tight when his mouth disengaged and his tongue slid along my lower lip.

Then he stated, “I want you to stay here. Look after Buster.”

I blinked in the dark at his close up, shadowed face.

Then I asked, “Sorry?”

“I’ll leave the keys to the Explorer and the house on the kitchen counter. Garage door opener is in the truck. Take the Explorer into town, I’ll call Deke to bring it back. The alarm code is three five six one. To set it, you punch in the number and hit the red button and you got a minute to get into the garage. To disable it, hit three five six one and hit the green button. Once you enter, you got a minute to do that too. When you’re goin’ to sleep for the night, doors secured, windows stay closed and you hit three five six one and then the blue button.”

“Um…” I mumbled, not keeping up with him. “Sorry?”

His arms tightened and he rolled to his back, pulling me with him so my torso was resting mostly on his chest.

“I want you stayin’ here,” he repeated.

“To watch your cat?”

“Yeah, to watch Buster. And ‘cause I have an alarm.”

This belatedly penetrated.

“You have an alarm?”

“Don’t use it when I’m home. You’ll use it when you’re home without me.”

I felt something silken slither through me.

“When I’m home?” I whispered.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“But, my room at the hotel –”

“Want you stayin’ here.”

“But, the hotel –”

“Want you in my bed.”

That slithered through me too.

“Tate –”

His fingers sifted in my hair, cupping my head again and bringing my face close to his.

“Could be gone a day, could be gone two weeks. I want you texting again and when I get my phone calls at night, I wanna know I’m talking to you while you’re lyin’ in my bed.”

That silken thing started to wrap tight around me and it didn’t feel bad at all.

Even so, I whispered, “Tate, I don’t know.”

“I do. You’ll be safer here.”

“The hotel’s safe,” I told him.

“Carnal Hotel ain’t safe,” he told me.

“Ned and Betty are right across the way.”

“Ace, first, to find this place, you gotta know where it is. Second, to get to work from here, you gotta be in your car, a fact I like since it’s a f**kuva lot safer than you walkin’ to the hotel after your shift. Last, my alarm goes straight to dispatch. Boys’ll know I’m gone, they’ll also know you’re stayin’ here. They get the warnin’, they won’t f**k around. Carnal PD is mostly shit but I got some friends there that are good men. They know my woman is here and the alarm tells them you’ve been breached, they won’t f**k around and they got trainin’ and guns. Ned don’t have that.”

This was true. Still.

“Um…”

“And Buster likes you.”

“She’s friendly,” I reminded him. “I think she’d probably like anyone.”

“She is and she does and that’s why I don’t like leavin’ her alone. She prefers company.”

“You’re out of town a lot, who looked after her before?”

“Krystal.”

This surprised me so much I had to take a moment to let the thought of Krystal coming up and taking care of a dainty cat as a favor to a friend sink in. She didn’t seem like a friendly-favor-doing type of person or a taking-care-of-a-dainty-cat type of person either.

“Babe, I gotta get the fax, get packed and get on the road. You stayin’ here or what?”

“I think –” I started hesitantly and he rolled me to my back again and pinned me to the bed with his big body.

Then he pulled out the big guns.

He did this by murmuring, “Peace of mind.”

“I’ll stay,” I agreed instantly

His head dropped but moved to the side and he flicked my ear with his nose.

Then he said in my ear, “That’s my good girl.”

And I was. I was his good girl. Even though this seemed like a big step, a step that was too big and too soon, a step that was too big that also didn’t say “I’m a cool and hard to get biker babe” but said “I’m your good girl and you’ve already got me”.

I was such an idiot.

His head came up and his mouth touched mine. Then he exited the bed.

I curled into myself and watched his shadow as he moved around. Then I listened as he took a shower. Then he came back, got dressed and I lifted up to sitting cross-legged in the bed. Buster joined me, sitting on her booty in my lap and since she was there, I gave her scratches. In that position, Buster and I watched as he packed mostly in the dark (he turned the light on in the walk-in closet and it partially shone in the bedroom). Buster knew the packing drill and I got the impression she wasn’t a big fan. Then again, neither was I. Tate was going away for an unspecified period of time again and I was back to texts.

He turned the closet light out and came back into the bedroom. I heard the zip go on his bag that was sitting on the bed and watched his hand curl around the handle. My hand shot out and my fingers curled around his wrist.

“Tate,” I called.

“Yeah, baby,” he answered.

“Does this happen a lot?”

“It’s my job, Laurie.”

“No, I mean, phone calls in the middle of the night.”