Page 52 of Harboring Shantae

"Turns out he was sexy with an amazing body."

"Tell me more."

Shantae chuckled, but didn't stop there. "Sweet and caring. Not to mention a touch overprotective."

"Overprotective is good."

"Overprotective is very good." She scooted closer. "There's a reason most love stories have a man who's willing to sacrifice himself for a woman."

He would sacrifice himself in a heartbeat if it meant Shantae's life. And he had to admit it was a characteristic of every one of his teammates.

"Do you regret reaching out?"

"Nope." She shook her head. "And if I wasn't so dead set on living in the moment, I might wish I'd done it sooner."

That was all he needed to hear. Scooping her up, he headed straight for the stairs.

"Where are we going?" Shantae laughed as he took the stairs two at a time.

"I'm going to show you just how caring I can be."

And he did. Three different times that night before they both passed out from exhaustion and orgasm overload.

Chapter 24

PanthercouldtellShantaewas nervous. They had come home from work, and instead of relaxing while they decided what they wanted for dinner, she was deep cleaning the already clean kitchen.

"I think it's clean." He gently pulled her pruned hand away from the sponge. "You've been attacking the same area for twenty minutes now."

She dropped her head to his chest as he pulled her into a hug.

"I know, but I tend to stress clean when things are out of my control. It's the only way to get out some of the pent-up energy I have."

He could think of much better ways to release that energy, but first, they needed to talk about why she was stressed.

"The ball isn't until tomorrow. Trista and Falcon are just leaving tonight so she can meet up with a few sponsors beforehand. Plus, they're safe. This is what we do for a living. It will be fine."

"Easy for you to say. You're not the reason they're headed straight into the lion's den. My father isn't happy. He's going to lash out, and because I'm not there, he's going to find someone else to take it out on. He probably knows who Trista and Falcon are."

"I'm sure he does, but that doesn't mean Falcon can't handle himself. And Trista for that matter. That woman can give a tongue-lashing that would make the devil himself question crossing her."

He knew he succeeded in making her feel a little better when he felt her chest rise and fall against his own. It was just a small chuckle, but it was a good start.

"You have the best teammates and friends, you know that?"

He did, but even he could admit that he never truly understood how lucky he was until she came into his life. Before that, he was living just a shell of an existence. Going through the motions each day because it was expected of him. But the only real time he was happy was when he got a letter from her. The times in between were boring, and he didn't realize he was missing out on the happiness his friends had.

"I do, and I was an idiot for not realizing it earlier. I was happy to just give to them, but I never allowed them to return the favor. I see now that was selfish of me. So many times they tried to get me to own up about the letters I received, and the reason I was so quiet. I always shut them down. Maybe if I hadn't, they could've convinced me to find you sooner."

Too many years wasted. It would always be his one regret.

"You can't look at it that way. Things are meant to happen for a reason. There's no telling how I would've reacted if you showed up before I was ready. The fact that you respected my anonymity for so long is the reason I felt so safe with you. If you had broken that, I'm not sure how I would've felt."

Shantae was too good for him. She proved time and time again how caring she was. Her family was full of idiots for taking advantage of that. He wasn't going to complain, though. Their loss was his gain.

"Are you feeling less ‘stress cleany’ now or do I need to get creative with how I help you work through it?"

"I mean, I wouldn't complain if you decided to find alternative ways to keep my mind occupied."