Ashley held the peppermint out to Berry. He took it and nudged his nose in her palm for more. She smashed the plastic wrapper in her hand and stuffed it in her jeans pocket.

“Stop giving him so many of those,” Beck called from the other side of the barn where he worked on his Camaro.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She held her finger to her lips in front of Berry. “Shh. It’s our secret.”

“Your secret is making him ornery. Every time I try to feed him, he nibbles at my pockets looking for those things.”

Ashley gave Berry one last pat and headed down the aisle to the wide door that separated the horses from Beck’s garage and workshop. Berry nickered, calling her back so he could have another candy.

Beck eyed her as she leaned against his car. “You’re spoiling him.”

“I’m happy to spoil you, too.”

Beck finished prepping the window frame for painting and winked at her. “You did last night.”

“And this morning in the shower,” she added, her voice husky.

Beck set aside the roll of tape and came to her, planting his hands on the car door on either side of her. She thought he’d lean in and kiss her, but his head dipped, missed her lips, and he kissed a path down her chest to the V in her sky-blue sweater. His lips settled warm and soft on the swell of her breast, his tongue sliding against her skin before his lips pressed another light kiss and moved on to the next oversensitive spot. She held his head to her. Eyes closed, her total focus on the feel of his mouth on her, she let her head fall back with the passion-filled sigh she let loose.

Beck nuzzled her neck, kissed behind her ear, and smiled against her skin when he said, “We keep this up, there’s no telling how long it will be before we make it back up to the house.”

“I don’t have anyplace else I need to be but right here with you.” She cupped his face and pulled him in for another searing kiss.

Beck growled low in his throat, lifted her onto the side of the car, and swung her around to the front. He moved around the fender and right between her legs. She hooked her feet around his hips and pulled him close, losing herself in his taste and heat as his body pressed down on her and her back hit the hood.

Beck’s big hands smoothed over her shoulders, down her chest, and covered her breasts, kneading them in his hands and driving her crazy. His hands trailed down her sides. She giggled when he hit the sensitive curve above her hips. Nothing deterred him from his mission as his hands rubbed down her thighs and legs to her feet. He pulled off her boots, smoothed his hands up her legs to the button and zipper on her jeans. He hooked his fingers in the denim and dragged the pants and her panties down and right off her feet.

Her bottom settled on the cold hood. Goose bumps rose on her legs, but Beck warmed her, rubbing his big hands up and down them as he kissed her belly. One hand swept up the inside of her thigh. She rocked her hips into his hand as it settled between her legs, his thumb rubbing against her soft folds, up and down as she rocked her hips to his rhythm.

As desperate for her as she was for him, he undid his jeans, clamped his hands on her hips, and rubbed his hard cock against her slick core until she moaned, greedy for him to be inside her. His fingers clamped tight and pulled her down on him. His warm body settled over her as he thrust hard and deep into her wet center, filling her and making her want more.

She stared up at him, his eyes intense and locked on hers as he held her hips gripped in his strong hands, pulling and pushing her as he thrust into her again and again. Harder. Faster. He didn’t relent until her body locked around his. She shattered right there on the hood of his car while he watched her, but he didn’t let her go alone. His gaze stayed steady on her as he buried himself deep and his body bucked against hers and he lost himself in her.

His gray-blue eyes filled with intense emotion. Love. Possession. Raw desire. Longing. Neither of them said a thing. Words weren’t needed. Nothing they said would accurately convey what they both felt in this moment. They stared at each other, locked together, her heaving breath a match to his. Her body rippled with aftershocks as he held her hips tight against his. The connection they shared surrounded them like a living thing; she felt like a warm blanket wrapped around them. Her heart and soul pulsed out of her chest, captured the piece of Beck he sent out to her, and fell back within her, a piece of him now a part of her. No matter what happened between them, she’d carry that piece of him with her the rest of her life.

“I love you. You know that, right?” Beck’s passionate gaze never left hers.

She didn’t understand what came over him. Why he needed her to convince him that she did know how deeply he cared for her. But she knew those words and the emotion she saw in his eyes to be wholly true and indestructible. That’s the way Beck loved.

“I know it. I feel it. I believe in it and us, Beck. I never thought I’d have someone like you as a part of my life. I feel lucky and unworthy, but I will love you with my whole heart until the day I die and hope that you feel the way you make me feel.”

He fell onto her chest, his head pressed to her breasts, his ear over her heart. His arms circled around her back and held her close, their bodies still joined.

“I don’t want to ever lose you.”

She brushed her fingers through his dark hair and wrapped her arms around his head, holding him tight. “You won’t. I promise you, Beck, the only place I want to be is with you.”

He leaned up and stared down at her. “Don’t you want to go back to Hollywood, your job, the fans waiting to see you again, all those people you’ve missed and are waiting for your return?”

“Yes. When I’m ready. But that doesn’t mean I leave you. While I want to be with you here, I’ll never be content to give up acting. I love it. The way you love your work and would never give it up even if you do it in a different way. We can make this work, Beck.”

“We will make it work.”

“There is nothing from my old life that pulls me so hard it will tear me away from you,” she assured him.

“Do you think you could be happy living here?”

She placed her hand on his strong jaw. “I am happy living here.”

Beck turned his face and kissed her palm. Satisfied with her answer—and getting what he wanted—he held her legs, stepped back, took her hand and helped her sit up once she unwrapped her legs from around his waist and planted her feet on the car bumper. He handed her the jeans and panties he’d tossed on the hood beside her earlier.

“You’re a beautiful hood ornament,” he teased.

She gave him a pinup pose and made him smile, his eyes filling with renewed heat as he stared at her. “Should I give up the big screen for doing car shows in my bikini?”

“Not enough of a challenge in that for you, sweetheart.”

He was right. She loved creating the characters she played. She smoothed her hand over the hood. “I’ll miss the black, but I can’t wait to see this thing once you’ve painted it.”

“What do you think, red with black racing stripes?”

“Silver with black stripes.”

“Really?”

She shrugged, not really caring what color he painted it, more concerned with the fact every drug dealer in the state probably knew the car belonged to a DEA agent. A paint job wouldn’t change the fact the car stood out just as much as her tattooed boyfriend. “Aren’t you nervous about being seen in this car?”

“My face has been splashed all over the news and tabloids as your bodyguard lover.” He shook his head and pinched his lips with distaste.

“You know you’re more than that to me. That’s all that matters. But people are interested in you because you saved me.”

“Yeah, I get it. DEA Agent Saves Oscar-Winning Movie Star is a great headline.”

She pulled on her pants over the panties she’d already shimmied up her legs and hips. “That’s Sexy DEA Agent,” she teased, punching him in the gut, his abs tightening under her fist.

He rubbed his hand over his rock-hard abs. “Nice jab.”

“I’ve had some training on set for a few of my roles.”

“Yeah, what other skills are you hiding from me?”

“Aside from boxing, I’ve had some martial arts and weapons training.”

“Weapons?”

“Knives and guns. I played an assassin in one of my movies.”

“Anarchy.”

Happy and a little self-conscious he knew which one and had seen her movies, she smiled. “We should go target shooting sometime. I’m out of practice, but I wasn’t half-bad.”

“I’d like to keep you away from guns and anything else that puts you in harm’s way.”

“I’m as frustrated as you that Brice is still on the loose. But I can’t say I’m surprised. He’s probably left the country and will remain a ghost in my life, always out there but unseen.”

Beck narrowed his gaze and handed her the shoes he’d dropped on the ground. “They’ll get him.”

“You’re mad you aren’t out there hunting him down.”

Beck planted his hands on his hips. “I’m pissed off as hell they let him walk right out of the sheriff’s department.”

If not for that fight that allowed Brice a way to escape custody, he’d be in jail now.

“Any news on how Sergeant Foster is doing?”

Beck swept his thumb over her cheek. “Better.”

She leaned into his palm. “I hope he’s able to shake off what Brice did to him.”

“You’re still having nightmares. He probably will too for a little while.”

“Mine are better. So are my ribs. I just want Brice found and for this to be over.” Her cell phone rang in the jacket she’d taken off earlier and draped over the stool by Beck’s workbench.

“Your manager again, wanting you to say yes to that media tour.”

“I’m not doing that.” She refused to put herself on display. For all she’d talked to Beck about what happened, and the cops, she wasn’t ready to bare her soul to the public. If she could keep this private, heal in her own time and way, maybe she’d be able to talk about it someday without feeling like it was happening to her all over again.

She dug her phone out of her jacket pocket and checked the caller ID. “It’s the sheriff’s department.”

Beck’s eyes narrowed. “How’d they get that number?”

“Maybe they wrote it down after I called the office yesterday to make sure they received the file you sent with the rest of my statement.”

“You didn’t use the house phone?”

“No.” She swiped the screen and answered her ringing phone before it went to voice mail. “Hello.”

“Miss Swan, Deputy Kent from Crystal Creek Sheriff’s Department.”

“Yes, Deputy Kent, what can I do for you?”

“We have Brice Mooney in custody. We’d like you to come down to the station to assist us with verifying his answers while we question him.”

Her hand shook as she pressed it to her mouth.

“What is it?” Beck asked.

“They caught him. He’s in custody. They want us to come down to the station.” Her voice shook with the relief coursing through her system. She spoke to the deputy. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

Beck’s eyes narrowed. “How did they find him?”

“He didn’t say. They want me to verify whatever Brice says when they question him.”

Beck still didn’t move to leave. “Why? They have the pictures and recordings.”

“I guess they want me to verify the details that aren’t in those things.” She hesitated to leave now that Beck’s radar had gone up. “What is it?”

“I don’t want to put you through listening to him lie about and distort all the things he did to you. I can’t imagine the sheriff wants to put you through that either.”

Underlying Beck’s concern for her was the fact he didn’t want to hear all the things Brice did to her. While he’d read the beginning of her statement, he couldn’t bring himself to read the rest. He couldn’t read it dispassionately as a victim’s statement and not feel anything, not when he cared so deeply, not when he loved her so much.

That alone made her love him even more.

“If I can’t handle it, we’ll leave, but I need to see him. I need to know that he’s locked up and will never come after me again.”

She needed to look him in the eye one last time and let him know he hadn’t broken her.