Free Shield My Heart (Heaven Hill Book 9) by Laramie Briscoe Page B

to work out on my own.”

‡
Chapter Thirteen

    D alton wasn’t sure what he was doing here. He hadn’t even realized this was where he’d decided to come until he’d parked his bike in the extra space next to Mandy’s car. His bike had chosen its own way there, and it had gone home. He was as much a nomad as his brother these days. That was becoming more clear to him every single day of his life. But this woman, she represented so much of what he needed in his life. She was the air he needed to expand his lungs, the rest he needed at night, and the blood he needed pouring through his veins.
    He was so fucking tired. Tired of worrying about other people, denying his feelings, and most of all, tired of lying to himself. He needed her like he needed his next breath. Denying their need of each other was doing nothing but hurting them, and for one night he didn’t want to hurt anymore. He was raw after talking to Samuel and trying to figure out how they were going to fix the problem he’d dragged all of them into.
    More than anything, he needed his home, and that was wherever Mandy Walker was. Slinging his leg over the back of the bike, he walked up the sidewalk leading to her apartment. He could break in, but he knew if he broke in tonight, she might well shoot his ass. Instead, he knocked softly on the door and sent up a prayer that she wouldn’t slam it in his face.
    *
    A part of Mandy contemplated not opening the door when she heard the rapping of Dalton’s knuckles. Without a doubt it was him; she’d know the sound of his bike anywhere. For so many years she’d sat on the front porch of her home, waiting for him to come down the driveway and pick her up. The sound was as much ingrained as the sound of her dad’s bike.
    The memory of when the sound had made her heart beat faster, knowing she’d see the man she loved, was still at the forefront of her mind. They weren’t far removed from that part of their lives. She had to remind herself—the bad times, so to speak, had only been around for a few months. The need to see him was still there though, as desperate as it had been when they were younger. She figured it would always be this way, no matter what they were going through.
    Opening the door and seeing him took her breath away, the same way he’d taken her breath away when they’d been teenagers. He’d always been a good looking guy, always. And she’d wondered more than once why he’d decided to be with her. His tall frame and broad shoulders filled her doorway, presenting him to her like a picture in a photo album. His arms were braced so he could lean in towards her and appear as nonthreatening as possible. Without meaning to, her eyes went to his biceps, pushing hard against the cotton of his T-shirt, skimming the edges of the leather cut he still wore. Moving lower, she sucked in a breath as the same T-shirt pulled up when he flexed, exposing a small sliver of abdomen above the metal buckle of his belt. God she missed this man and the things he could do to her body.
    “Hey.” His dark eyes raked over her body, and she felt it down to her toes. His voice was rough, the way she liked it, but behind the indifferent mask he wore, she could see pain and desire. Mandy wanted to wrap him up in her arms and take away that pain, but until he was honest with her and how he felt, she wasn’t going to make it easy on him.
    “Hey,” she answered back, folding her arms over her chest. It was a protective gesture they both recognized. One that also hid her shaking hands. Being this close to him after so long not only made her nervous but made her itch to touch him.
    “Can I come in?” At one time he would have walked in without even knocking, because he’d had a key. When things had gone to shit, he’d given it back and even that had been done in a cowardly way. He’d stuck it underneath the door of Charity’s office with a note. He hated having to ask her now, but he didn’t want to push himself