Real men stood up for women. Period. That was how he’d been made, raised, and how he would die. A defender. Never a coward. Never a bully. Okay, so he had a full-blown hero-complex. He had been an Army Ranger, damn it. That’s who he was.
“Did you hear what I said? Tripp? Hello.” Ashley was looking up at him again, that same soft glow in her eyes, her fingers lightly tap-dancing on his wrist to get his attention.
“Ah, excuse me. Sorry, no. I ahh…”
“Please don’t be angry with me.”
“I’m not. Why would I be?”
“Because I didn’t do what you wanted.”
“So? You’re a grown-assed woman. I’m not the boss of you.” Damned if he didn’t hear Mother coming out of his mouth.
“But if I’d stayed at your office, none of this—”
Tripp covered Ashley’s lips with his whole mouth, just closed his eyes and swallowed any excuse she might come up with. Two things were abundantly clear. Ashley Cox was that one in a million, and he wasn’t going to let her blame herself.
He kept this kiss wet but quick, ending it with a throaty purr that came out of nowhere. “I need to visit my sister and mom tonight. Trish is still at the hospital. Come with me?”
Ashley looked up at him a little cross-eyed, which made her sexy as hell. “Umm, w-w-what?”
He loved that he’d put that star-struck hitch in her voice and the just-been-kissed shine on her lips. “Come with me. Mom’ll love to meet you. She needs someone in her corner.”
Ashley’s fingers drifted through her hair, pushing it away from her face and over her shoulders. “Umm, sure, I guess. But what happened?”
Oh, that’s right. She didn’t know. Tripp gave it to her straight. “I think the same guy who hurt you two years ago attacked my sister tonight. She’s been in emergency surgery, which is the only reason I left. Trish is going to live, but she’s got some serious trauma to deal with and—”
“And you didn’t say anything to me until now?” Ashley nearly shrieked.
Thump. Poor Peewee fell off his perch again.
“Relax. Mom needs some good news and, honey…” He pressed a kiss to Ashley’s forehead. “I think that good news is you.”
Ashley’s fingers fluttered back to his chest. She’d snuggled into him, even kissed him before, but this was different. This was a woman reaching out to a man, intentionally touching him, up close and personal. Her fingertips glided over his shirt. Up his collarbone. Lighting a wave of heat and appetite beneath them.
Tripp’s hands curled around her biceps, and he pulled her close. There would be no one-and-done with a woman like Ashley. While that had always been his take on the women he’d partied with before, something else was happening here. Until this moment, he’d thought he’d known Ashley’s future. It included children, a white picket fence, and a good man in her life. Some Plain-Joe who’d always put her first, who’d work a nine-to-five job, and take the family to Disneyland once a year. It included her big, pink bird and her safe job. What it hadn’t included was a vigilante.
Keeping his distance and his true identity had made perfectly good sense until she’d touched him. Her sweet fingers were laying claim to him. Time held still. Peewee stopped squawking. Tripp stopped breathing. The only sound in his head was the rhythmic ba-bump of his heart valves opening and closing, the heady rush of blood in his veins, and the reflexive, involuntary movement of life. In him. In Ashley. Around them.
The rest of the world fell away. There was only Ashley and Tripp. Just one more kiss. Another taste. That was all he wanted. But one more kiss wouldn’t be enough, and he knew it. He wanted Ashley in his bed and beneath him. Tripp leaned into her, every move a calculated hope that he was doing this right. That he wasn’t scaring her.
Trembling with what could’ve been the same need—but obviously wasn’t—she eased out of his hands. “Uh-uh. Your mom needs you,” she whispered, her breath still soft and warm against his mouth. “I’ll stay here tonight.”
“But I need you,” he growled, his body going up in flames at the scent of her skin and hair. At the taste of her.
Ashley kissed him then, a sexy, wet meeting of lips and tongues that promised there would be another kiss. Tripp kept it hot, but quick. When he ended the kiss, they were both breathing hard, but he knew Ashley was right. Andy needed him tonight. Maybe Trish did, too.
He had to get back to the hospital. “Promise me you’ll be okay?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
In the end, Tripp only left Ashley because tonight wasn’t an appropriate time for her to meet his mother, not with Trish still in surgery. Andy could only handle one trauma at a time, and if things went sideways with Trish, Tripp didn’t want Ashley there. Besides, she was ten shades beyond exhausted. She promised she’d be ready to go the next morning. He stood outside her door until he heard her deadbolt click into place.
The Alexandria Surgical Center wasn’t far away. His truck was parked and Tripp was back with his mom and his TEAM within twenty minutes. Not much had changed. Alex sat with Andy, his wife Kelsey at her other side. Which was damned thoughtful, Kelsey being there. Everywhere Tripp looked he saw friends, empty and half-full paper coffee cups, and plenty of empty fast-food wrappers. He took the chair across from his mom. “Any word?”
Her eyes and nose were red. “Doctor Smith is in with her now. He came and talked with me first, but he said we should go home. That this kind of surgery will take hours. But I don’t want to leave, Tripp. I’m staying.”
Kelsey held Andy’s hand sandwiched between hers. “I told her she’s entitled to stay if she wants. She’s Trish’s mom, and moms know what’s best.”
Tripp could’ve seriously kissed Alex’s sweet wife for her fierce loyalty to
