Page 82 of Her Sensual Protector

“You…you…I can’t believe you did this for me. It’s so damned perfect. You’re so damned perfect.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and nestled her head against his chest.

“I’m just glad you like it, now come back to bed.”

She shook her head. “Need to tell you something first.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been afraid that you would go away.”

He kissed the top of her head. “I’ve noticed. But I’m not. I’m here for the long haul, if you’ll allow it.”

Her head shot up. If she were taller, it would have bonked his chin. “You’re thinking long-term?”

He cupped her cheeks. “Daisy, I love you. I want to be in your life forever.”

Her eyes heated as tears threatened. It took her a moment for her to find her voice. “I love you too, Leo. I really, truly do. I don’t ever want you to leave my life.”

His lips hovered over hers. “That’ll do.”

* * *

“I’m not sure about this,” Daisy said for the umpteenth time.

“It’s fine.”

“Your lieutenant is mad at me.” Another thing she had repeated for the fortieth time. He glanced over and saw her fiddling with her new necklace as she watched the beautiful scenery. The drive to Kane’s lake house was gorgeous, just like his house was. Leo wanted to invite Daisy to his mom’s for Sunday dinner with the family but figured she’d have a heart attack. He’d been lamenting about that at work and Kane came up with the idea of her meeting the team first as her first baby step to meeting the family. Hence, a party at Kane’s house.

“No, Max is not mad at you. He was mad at me, but I finished all of his paperwork and even got some of his spreadsheets done. He is purring like a lion cub. So I’m now off the hook.”

“You do spreadsheets? I didn’t know that was in SEAL training.”

“You learn what you can to help out.”

He turned down an almost-hidden driveway, and then Kane’s house came into view. “You’ve got to be kidding me. This is one of your teammates’ houses? How cool is that? It’s gorgeous.”

He looked again at the contemporary wood architecture that seemed to blend with the outdoors and had to agree with her. There were only four vehicles in the driveway, so they were second to arrive.

Great.

He’d wanted to ease her into things.

“I thought you said there were going to be ten to twenty people, where is everyone?”

“We got here a bit early. I wanted you to get a chance to meet A.J. before everyone else arrived.”

“That’s nice of you. Thanks for stopping off at the store before we left so I could get some things to take to the party.”

Leo snorted. “You didn’t get ‘some’ things. You bought up half of the grocery store.”

“I did not, that would have been rude.”

He parked his truck, then laughed at her when it took the both of them to bring all the stuff up to the house.

Kane opened the door. “What’d you do, buy up half the grocery store?”

“We went a little overboard,” Leo said. “Now take the stuff from Daisy.”

“This is perfect,” A.J. said when they got to the kitchen. “Put the veggie tray over here, and I’ve got a bowl for the Greek salad.”

“And for being an ass, you don’t get any of the brownies,” Leo said as he put the treats down on the dessert table.

“Daisy, this is Kane McNamara and this is his much better half, A.J. Lancaster.”