“I’ll hire someone to bodyguard her.”

“Don’t you think you should ask her?” Maggie walked in with Liv and Penny, and an agitated looking Cassie brought up the rear.

“Yeah, I hear she gets really pissed off when people try to manage her life the minute she steps out of the damned room.” Cassie put her hands on her hips and glared at the men in her life.

“Of course I was going to ask you. It doesn’t have to be invasive, I know you’d hate that. But I can hire someone to drive by the house here a few times a night. Nothing major.” Brian’s tone was calm but firm.

“And you know as well as I do that a trace on the phone is a good idea.” Shane’s jaw was set in a hard line.

“Look, I’m not arguing. But I am not a piece of furniture either. You can’t just make plans about my life and my safety without including me.”

“You’re not arguing?” Brian looked surprised and Cassie sat on the couch beside him.

“I’m not an idiot, Brian. I just don’t want other people making my decisions and choices.”

And so they planned. Shane worked with the California authorities to get a warrant in place for a tap on her cell phone and they’d be ready to move on a warrant for the records from that company when and if Terry called again. That done, Brian arranged with Shane to have a local security company drive by the house every hour each evening after Cassie got home from work.

It wasn’t fool proof, there was a lot left up to chance and it made Shane uncomfortable but it was all he could do short of keeping her with him every moment of the day and neither one of them would survive that.

Later that night in bed after everyone had left or gone to sleep, Shane turned to Cassie. “Are you all right?”

“At first I lost it. I couldn’t deal with hearing him, with him being a reality in my life again. But I have a plan to focus on and I feel better. I feel safe with the precautions you and Brian have set up.”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, Cassie. I love you.”

“I know. But you should show me. You know, just in case I forgot.”

“Are you sure? I’m…well, I’m not sure I can be gentle right now. I’m so damned angry and worried for you. I hate seeing him do this to you. I hate not being able to stop it.”

“I don’t need you to be gentle right now. I need you to make me feel alive, Shane. And you can do something for me, you can touch me.”

With a deep groan, Shane moved his lips to hers, crushing them in a kiss filled with desperate need to make everything all right.

Feverishly, his hands roamed her body and pushed her tank top up and out of the way, work-roughened palms finding her ni**les hard and begging for his touch. His mouth swallowed her gasp as he pinched the ni**les between thumb and forefinger.

Her fingers sifted through his hair, holding him to her, drinking in his kisses, the passionate need in him. She was his refuge more than he could ever tell her. She often said he gave her so much but in truth, she gave him more. Gave of herself and made him whole.

He would not lose her. Would not lose this battle with her psycho ex.

She writhed restlessly beneath him as he rolled onto her body after getting rid of her panties one handed. Her thighs slid up his rib cage, keeping his torso nestled there against her. His hands moved to bracket her body as he rolled his cock, the heat of her pu**y nearly scalding him even through his boxers. Her hands were cool as she reached around their legs and bodies to pull his c**k out and stroke him.

He loved the way her thumb slid through the slick of pre-come on the head. She knew him, knew how to touch him in small ways that totally devastated him.

With a gasp of his own, he broke the kiss and looked into her eyes. “I love you, Cassie. So much.”

She nodded. “I love you too.”

“Are you wet for me?”

He noted the catch in her breath, loved it. Loved it even more when she nodded, wordless.

Putting his weight on one elbow, he reached down and slid his fingers through her pu**y, finding her ready. Superheated, slick and desire swollen. For him. He pressed two up into her and she moaned, her fingers tightening slightly around his cock.

“Let’s get this party started, shall we?” he murmured. “First the appetizers and then the main course.”

Latching on to a nipple with his mouth, he slowly thrust his c**k into her fist while he moved his thumb up and over her clit in time with his fingers sliding in and out of her body. Her clit bloomed beneath the pad of his thumb and he knew it wouldn’t be long before she came. And oh how he loved to make her come! It was like her body was tuned to his own, her responsiveness made him crazy with need.

Her back arched, pressing her nipple deeper into his mouth as she gasped. The muscles inside her clenched around his fingers and he felt her climax.

Without pause, he extracted himself from her grip and pressed deep into her pu**y in one thrust. Back straight, he looked down at her, spread out below him, her hair a spill of midnight around her head, gaze locked with his. “So beautiful. You’re so amazingly beautiful.”

A smile curved the corner of her lips as her palms slid up his abdomen and the wall of his chest.

“You’re one to talk. Look at you, all big and bad and masculine. So damned tall and broad-chested. I’ve never seen a more handsome man. That first night when I looked up from the steering wheel and deflated airbag and I saw you walking up my heart stopped for a moment. Part of me was screaming, cop! But the rest of me was like, hello there!”