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that.”
     
    “He hasn’t.”
     
    “Yet.”  Tessa looked up at Red as if she doubted his confidence in what his friend was likely to do.  “I’m not kidding, Tessa.  He’s been like a monk forever, and for the first time in a long time he seems happy.”
     
    “I’m glad.”
     
    Red put his hand on her arm.  “I just don’t want to see him hurt, but after meeting you I don’t think he’s going to be -”
     
    Of course, Sean came back at just that moment, but he said absolutely nothing, just stared at the younger man’s hand where it lay on Tessa’s arm, a muscle in his jaw saying everything he didn’t.
     
    Red snatched his hand back as if it had been scalded and quickly exited the room, not meeting Sean’s eyes as he did so, as if Sean was a rabid dog he was trying to avoid getting bitten by.
     
    “What was he in here for?” Sean asked, reclaiming the chair that Tuck had vacated.
     
    Tessa looked him straight in the eye.  “He came in here to molest me right under his best friend’s nose.”
     
    Sean’s head snapped up from his plate.  “He what?!”
     
    Tess rolled her eyes at him.  “Well, when you came in here you looked at him as if you thought that’s what he – what we – were doing.”
     
    Sean scowled.  “Of course not!”
     
    “Well, then why did he run out of here like a frightened rabbit?”
     
    He waited a long beat before answering her, meeting her inquisitive gaze head on.  “Because he knew I wanted to rip his arm off for touching you.”
     
    Tess’s eyebrow rose.  “Caveman much?”
     
    “I don’t like other men touching my woman.”  He wasn’t going to apologize for his behavior, if his tone was anything to go by.
     
    “Well, if you’d found his hand in my crotch, then you’d have something to be concerned about.  But since I wouldn’t allow him to do that anyway without flattening him myself, then you have nothing to worry about, do you?”
     
    The mental picture of Tessa cold cocking Red who outweighed her by a good hundred pounds or so was so funny he couldn’t help snickering, even when she smacked him a good one for his impudence.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

Chapter Four
     
     
    Although that scene between them had her a bit wary – she didn’t intend to get involved with any man who had violent tendencies, no matter how hot his possessiveness made her – Sean gave her no other cause for concern while they dated.  Well, except for the fact that he seemed to take any possible excuse to spank her.  He was particularly assiduous about reddening her bottom after having borrowed her car and discovering it was a rolling deathtrap.
     
    It was the morning of the first time they were going to sleep together; she just didn’t know it yet.  The telephone rang at  6:30, just as she was stepping out of the shower.
     
    “Yeah, what?”
     
    Sean just laughed.  She was usually so cheerful and pleasant – granted, more to her customers than to him, but still, overall she was pretty laid-back and easy-going.  He appreciated that more than he could tell her - not that she hadn’t warned him about what she was like before a civilized hour.  “Wow, you really are little Mary Sunshine in the mornings, aren’t you?”
     
    “Bite me.  What do you want, and you’d better make it good, Maddox; I’m standing here dripping onto my carpet.”
     
    Sean’s entire body clenched.  “You mean you just got out of the shower?”
     
    “Yes,” Tessa replied distractedly, trying to simultaneously talk on the phone contorting herself into an acrobatic position as she attempted to wrap her long hair with a towel.
     
    “And you’re standing there naked right now?”  He didn’t know why he was asking these questions.  They were only driving him crazy, and with his truck out of commission he couldn’t do a thing about it.
     
    “Yes .  .  .”
     
    “Totally naked?”
     
    Sometimes – especially first thing in the morning – she