Trying to ease his phone from the pocket in his jeans without waking Natalie proved tough. She whimpered when Aaron shifted to the side. Okay, screw it. He wanted her to sleep. He’d been planning to catch a few hours of shuteye before he had to go to work, but he could live without. His dogs needed to be fed and watered, too, but he assumed they’d forgive him this once.

The sun was barely up anyway. It couldn’t be that late. He’d heard Natalie talk about how early she normally awoke and wondered if her family was out doing ranch chores. Would it piss somebody off if she wasn’t there? Were they avoiding her house because his truck was out front? What would Luke and her old man make of that?

A hearty dose of rebellion brought a smirk to his face. He called himself a bastard for good measure.

The knock on the door answered his question anyway. Clearly, someone in her family wanted to know where she was. Aaron automatically hated whoever was awakening his sweet baby.

“Make them go away,” she fussed and tightened her arms around him.

Chuckling, he kissed the top of her head. “My pleasure. Give me just a sec.”

Working his way out of the quilts and sheets piled on her, he skipped the shirt when the persistent knocking got louder. His long strides made quick work of getting to the door. Debating the best way to respond, he took a deep breath before answering. Telling her brothers he planned on returning to bed with her for another hour or two before he left was one thing. Telling her father that was another.

To his shock, Dec was standing at the door. He chuckled. “Thanks for putting pants on before you answered.”

“No problem. You need something?”

“I don’t, but I honestly don’t think I’ve ever seen Ev Camden so pissed and that includes the night Holly brought me here after I’d gotten her thrown out of school. I decided to come see if I could help get you off of this ranch before he locates one of his many shotguns.”

Hearing Natalie moving around in her bedroom, Aaron tried to speed things along. He wanted a few more minutes to revel in her cuddling into him, to assure himself he was forgiven for his misstep the night before. “I’ll take my chances.”

“Had a feeling you’d say that. Everything go okay last night?” Ah, so the family thought exactly what he would’ve thought had someone else’s truck been sitting outside her house all night long. Was Dec checking on him or on Natalie? Didn’t matter. Neither was necessary. What went on between them wasn’t anyone else’s business, even if Dec was a sex therapist.

“Think I’ll leave last night between me and Nat.”

Before Dec could respond Natalie was at Aaron’s side. His T-shirt still hung loosely off of her curves but she’d added a pair of tight black yoga pants, concealing what was only for Aaron from her brother-in-law.

“Is Dad pacing or shoveling manure?” She yawned.

“We’re way past that,” Dec rolled his eyes. “He’s unable to form coherent sentences.”

“Good grief. Okay, I’ll be out in a minute.”

“I’ll handle your daddy, Nat. You go back to bed,” Aaron huffed. Her hair stood in a wild mane around her face. Her cheeks were flushed pink and her eyes were the precise shade of the sugar maples outside Fort Carson in Colorado, caught somewhere between summer and fall, half green and half gold. The imprint of the collar of his shirt marred the alabaster skin on her shoulder. Her scent filled his nostrils as he put his arm around her, drawing her closer. He damned the world outside to hell. Why couldn’t everything else just leave them be? Hadn’t it taken enough from the two of them?

“Can’t. Have to go gather cattle and move them to another pasture.” Another deep yawn contorted her delicate features. When her mouth closed, she turned, threw her arms around his shoulders, and buried her face back in his chest.

“That’s as good an answer to my question as any. I’ll leave you to it. Good luck with Ev. My only tip in dealing with him when it comes to the Camden women, be very, very humble,” Dec offered.

“He doesn’t need to be humble because I’ll go talk to Daddy. Bye, Dec.” Natalie shut the door. “I don’t want last night to be over with.”

Well, you didn’t fuck it up too badly. Overwhelming thankfulness had him squeezing her tighter. “Me either, baby. I’m working the early shift again. Let’s go do something tonight when I get off. Nothing’s over. That’s the best part about dating. I swear I’ll come up with real plans this time.”

“Okay.” He felt her grin against his bare chest.

“Nat, I’m really sorry about last night.”

“Stop saying that. I’m erasing that one part from all of the really good memories. It’s harder to do that if you keep bringing it up.”

“Sorry. I won’t say anything else about it. I just need you to know how sorry I am. I wasn’t thinking. I let you down because I was an idiot.”

Her index finger landed on his lips. Lifting his left eyebrow in challenge, he licked her fingertip and then began to suck it. Her nipples rose once again to stiff pearls against the cotton of his T-shirt. Damn, but he needed more.

She pulled her finger away and he replaced it with her lips. A needy moan and her tongue filled his mouth. Oh, hell yeah. He opened his eyes to change position and saw her father heading their way.

“Baby, your daddy’s not too far from here. Let me get dressed and meet him outside.”

“You sure you want to talk to him? He’s ridiculously overprotective of me.”

“Well, then we have some common ground. I can work with that. Trust me, I’ve talked my way out of worse situations.”

Natalie followed him back to the bedroom. “I guess you want this back.” She started to remove his T-shirt but there was regret laced in her words.

“I’d rather you keep wearing it. Maybe send me a pic of you in it when I’m at work. Give me something to look at until I can see you again.” Aaron threw on the long sleeved shirt he’d worn the night before and stepped into his work boots.

“You really don’t mind if I keep it?” Almost instinctively, she brought the soft cotton to her face and inhaled. He loved her lack of pretenses, loved that she never played games with him. She liked him and it might’ve taken her a long time but she’d finally spoken up. “I kind of like smelling like you.”

A greedy grunt sounded from low in his gut. “I told you it turns me on to think about you in nothing but my T-shirt and trust me, I like you smelling like me, too. I’ll come pick you up as soon as I clock out.”

“Okay. If Daddy’s awful to you promise you’ll tell me.”

“Promise.” He’d bet a week’s worth of tips that her definition of awful was quite different from his, making that an easy promise to keep.

Warmth from the rising sun heated the sizzle of nerves under his skin. He’d never had an encounter with an angry father. Pissed off drill instructors, angry officers, hell, even furious terrorist insurgents at the end of their rope he’d dealt with. This was all new to him. Truthfully, he’d never dated anyone seriously. No one’s father even knew of his existence. He never used his real name in the clubs. Part of his job had been to make it appear for all intents and purposes that he didn’t exist.

But Ev Camden did indeed look like someone had shoved a few dozen corncobs up his ass. “Mr. Camden, sir.” Aaron waved to him while walking to his truck like nothing about that morning was unusual. Guy needed to get used to this. This sure as hell wouldn’t be the last time he stayed over.

“Where is…Hol, no, Gr, no, Jess. Ugh. Where is my daughter?” he fumed.

Aaron ran his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. “Uh, well, I have no idea where Holly is but Natalie is getting ready.”

Rage flashed in Mr. Camden’s eyes. “What did you, no, I don’t want to know. Why isn’t she…barn…horse?”

Okay, this was comical. “We slept in. She was tired, sir,” he added for good measure. “She’ll be out soon though.”

Aaron watched the man’s chest expand and his fists clench. He took a step back. He knew that stance.

“She is my little girl,” he finally managed with a shaky voice. Pain broadcast from his eyes and the deep sun-drenched lines of his face.

“I know, sir. I would never hurt her. She asked me to stay last night.”

“She isn’t ready for this.” Ev gestured to the house.

“I would never push her to do anything she didn’t want to do.”

Ev shook his head, lifted his cowboy hat, and ran his hands through his sweat-drenched hair. His eyes closed and he appeared to be counting. Aaron waited. He reminded himself that her father knew what had happened to her and most certainly would want to keep her safe.

“Sir, I…” He had nothing to offer this man to make him okay with this and he knew it. Hostile negotiations could only be calmed when both parties had something the other wanted. He offered the only thing he had in his possession. “I’ll always make certain she is safe. I promise you that. I know you don’t like this, but she means the world to me.”

Ev’s shoulders relaxed and Aaron knew he was getting through. “Is she okay?”

Whoa. Okay, that was a turn he wasn’t expecting. Genuine empathy welled in Aaron. This poor guy, a hard-working cattle rancher who loved his kids more than life itself just wanted to make sure his little girl was okay.

Clearing his throat to buy himself a little time, Aaron considered the weight of his words. They clearly meant a great deal to Everett Camden, a man he respected, a man he would be proud to have the respect of. He sorted through the night before. There had definitely been far more good than bad. Who could really ask for more than that?

“She’s the strongest woman I’ve ever met, sir. She’s good. She’s ready for a relationship. She deserves a good guy, someone who’ll take care of her. I want to be that for her more than I’ve ever wanted anything. I will do right by her.”

Her father gave him a nod but the agreement didn’t reach his eyes. “When she was a baby… Jesus, I don’t know why I’m telling you this.”

Because people tell me things. They always have. Made being an Intelligence officer just a little easier and makes being a bartender effortless. “I think you’re telling me this because you love her, sir. Because you’re worried about her. Believe me, I get that.”

“When she was a little girl she wasn’t afraid of anything. She was five the first time she killed a prairie rattler. Stared it down, stuck her tongue out when it did, and drove a shovel that was three times her size through its neck. She never even flinched. When she was barely eight, she used to jump the fences like they weren’t even there and that was when she wasn’t sneaking calves into my house cause she wanted to take care of ’em. Scared her mama and me to death. Then, all of a sudden, she was afraid of everything. It was all my fault.”

Seizing the opportunity, Aaron took a step closer. “What was your fault, sir?”

He shook his head. The grip of his jaw dammed back the words Aaron desperately needed him to say. “Get off my ranch. And so help me son if you hurt her I will make you sorry you ever stopped your truck in Pleasant Glen.”

“You have my word. I will never hurt her.”

“Good.”

“Daddy, please stop.” Natalie appeared at Aaron’s side. She was in her standard long sleeved shirt and jeans. Her shit-kicking boots were firmly in place and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. “I’m better than I’ve ever been.”

“Your mama’s got breakfast, little one.” The quiver of his voice betrayed the tears he was trying his damnedest to blink away.

Aaron had spent the majority of his adult life watching the most abhorrent pain men could render on one another out of hate. This was the first time he’d seen the kind of pain love could wield, somehow it was both better and worse.

Natalie threw her arms around her father’s neck, the same way she’d done Aaron that morning.

“I’m fine, Daddy.”

“You’ve been saying that for years, baby girl.”

“I know but this time I really mean it.” She turned back to Aaron. “I’ll see you tonight.” She blew him a kiss. Twenty-four hours earlier, if he’d seen any man pretend to catch a thrown kiss and bring it to his heart he would’ve called him a pussy of the highest order. Things had changed. He caught the kiss and laid his hand on his chest not giving a damn what the rest of the world might have to say about it. The rest of the world had fucked both of them over. In that moment, watching her cling to her daddy’s arms he knew he was staring at his saving grace.

“He ain’t even a cowboy,” Natalie’s father huffed as soon as they seated themselves at the breakfast table.

“Ev, honey, put food in your mouth,” her mother Jessie ordered.

Natalie giggled. “You’re the only cowboy I need, Daddy.”

That earned her one of her father’s customary grunts. Her sister and sister-in-laws all offered her sympathetic glances.

Katy, Grant’s wife, shook her head and winked at Natalie. “Hard for daddies to let go.”

Her brothers were all staring at their breakfast plates like the scrambled eggs and bacon had personally offended them. She didn’t care. If Aaron staying overnight caused them this much distress, they really needed more to do. Surely, her life wasn’t that interesting.

A symphony of grunts ranging from irritated to furious sounded around the Camden table.

Rolling her eyes, Natalie shoved eggs onto her fork viciously. “I don’t know what you’re all up in arms over. Not like you all haven’t had people stay over.”

Holly nodded her agreement. “Oh, you know they can do whatever they want but God forbid we do anything that makes us happy.”

“I’m going to assume I’m not being lumped into this,” Dec quizzed.

“No, you’re not. You are evolved.”

That brought on another round of grunts.

When her mother’s lips pursed and her eyes narrowed, Natalie knew they’d gone too far. “Luke Camden, you have two daughters who need to be fed before your wife goes to work and then you need to move your hay to the new field. Grant, I feel certain your wife needs her back rubbed before you go get on that horse of yours, seeing as how she’s pregnant, again. Austin, son, you chased a belt buckle and skirts for so long your daddy and I were concerned you were going to be solely responsible for infusing the world with more cattle ranchers than cattle. All of you get over yourselves or get up from my table because you are being ridiculous. And Ev, honey, why don’t you go find some fence to fix ’fore I find a frying skillet to take to your rear end. She is not a little girl anymore.”

Natalie and Holly shared a conspiratorial grin.

When her brothers downed the last of the eggs, even though she’d wanted more, they filed out of the house solemnly.

Holly grabbed her forearm. “Let’s do dishes!”

“You’re awfully excited about dishes, Holl. What’s up?”

“You. You’re up. Don’t I get a few details?”

“A few details on what?”

“Nat. An extremely good-looking guy spent the night at your house. What did you think I was talking about?”

“I don’t know. It was kind of great, except for one stupid little part I’ll forget about soon.”

“Wait, what stupid little part?” Her sister’s excited tone turned worried in a heartbeat.

“Nothing. It was almost perfect. I hope he stays tonight, too.”

“Good. That’s good. Does, uh, anything feel sore? It doesn’t have to. That whole thing about your first time being extremely painful is a myth if the guy knows what he’s doing.”

“What? Why would…? Oh.” Humiliation taunted the fringes of her consciousness. She should have had her first time last night. That’s what everyone thought had happened. That’s why her daddy and her brothers were acting insane.

Just lie. Just get this part over with. But it wasn’t in her. She’d been asked to lie about something several times the weeks before she turned twelve. Lying wasn’t something she would ever do again. “We didn’t have sex.”

“Oh.” Extreme confusion formed on Holly’s features before she was able to reshape them into faux understanding. “Well, that’s totally fine. It’s good even. Yeah, it’s good. You should take your time.”

“Yeah, that’s what I think, too. Aaron’s fine with it.” He all but enforced it, Natalie reminded herself.

“Good. He’s a great guy. You know, if you won’t talk to me, you could at least talk to him. Maybe.”

“We do talk.”

“I mean about what happened.”

“I don’t ever want to talk about that again. Quit bringing it up.”

“All right but if you have any questions or anything you know where to find me.”

“I’m fine, Holl.”

“You always—”

Natalie held up her hand. “This time I mean it.”