Boot Key Harbor Series: Contemporary Romance Short Story Collection by Cyndi Raye

Author:Cyndi Raye [Raye, Cyndi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: contemporary romance, military romance, United States, second chances, short read, short story, sexy hero, Series, saga, vacations, beaches, Holidays, singlehood, Single Authors, Romance, sea stories, boxed set, Short Stories, short reads, Anthologies
Publisher: Cyndi Raye
Published: 2016-09-08T18:30:00+00:00

Chapter 5

Zach turned the key and the engine shut off.

He had just pulled into his reserved parking spot in the condo building. It was about three o’clock in the morning. Jasmine was passed out in the back seat, strapped into the car seat they had removed from Caroline’s car. Caroline was in the passenger seat.

The sparse lighting cast angles across her face. It revealed her tiredness and the stress of the last few hours. She looked straight ahead and he touched her hand to get her out of the negative head space he knew she was falling into.

“Let’s go in,” he said, bringing her hand up to kiss the back.

The police had shown up shortly after Zach had almost beaten the manic criminal to death. He took a shuttering, deep breath. When he had entered the house and seen the man looming threateningly over Caroline, pressing that gun against her porcelain skin…

Zach was not a man prone to letting anger take over his senses.

He had already been on the edge imagining her in danger, hurt... The sight sent him in a realm of where only rage existed. He had intended to kill that man with his bare fists.

Then she called his name.

Like water to flames, she doused his rage with her voice.

Then shame settled in.

He was behaving no better than a beast – no better than the criminal at his feet. He did not feel bad for his actions – he would do far worse to make sure she was safe. He was ashamed that she had witnessed it – had seen him like that. He had placed fear in her eyes. She had felt the need to physically step back as he had approached.

When he learned about her past abuse, he felt like even more of a heel.

She had been scared of him and he hated that.

He mentally sighed. There was nothing he could do about it now except treat her right and show her real men did not hurt the woman they called their own. No man would willingly hurt the woman he loved.

And there was no doubt Zach was in love.

He carried Jasmine, toting a bag with her supplies on his shoulder. He twined the fingers of his free hand with Caroline’s and led her to his place. After Dale had been carted off in an ambulance, secured in police custody and they had been questioned, Zach let her know she was staying with him.

There was no way he was letting her and Jasmine spend the night alone after what they had been through.

He expected her to protest and was already planning his rebuttals. He was not taking no for an answer.

When she said, “Okay,” he breathed a sigh of relief.

When they stepped inside his home, he looked at it, trying to see it through it through her eyes.

The design was modern. It was clearly a bachelor pad. It was not a place for raising kids.

Caroline’s place was rented and too small for the huge family he was hoping for.

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