The Texas Lawman's Last Stand by Delores Fossen

house before Bo could even attempt to comfort her. Which was just as well. He didn’t know what to say or do to make this better. Besides, he needed to get the kids out of there.
    He took the lead, heading to the passenger’s side of the car with Holly. Rosalie went to the other side, and they strapped the twins into the car seats. Rosalie took the seat between them.
    “I’ll call you after the meeting at headquarters,” Bo assured the nanny, and then he kissed the babies one more time.
    This wasn’t an ordinary goodbye, but he prayed it wouldn’t be a long one. He needed the twins far more than they needed him.
    Bo stepped back into the garage and watched as they drove away. He waited until the patrol car was out of sight before he closed the garage door and went back inside, expecting to see Mattie.
    But he didn’t.
    He heard the sound of water running and followed it until he found her. She was in the bathroom, door open, and she was brushing her teeth. Her movements were frantic, probably because her hands were shaking.
    “I’ll do whatever it takes in this meeting to get this all resolved,” she promised. She grabbed a brush from her purse and assaulted her hair with it.
    Bo went to her, took the brush from her hand. Or rather tried to. She fought him, struggling to hang on to it, all the while tears pooling in her eyes. He could feel the nervous energy radiating from her.
    He gave up on the brush and hauled her into his arms.
    Mattie put up a token resistance. And then fell apart. The sobs racked through her, consuming her, and Bo knew there was nothing he could say or do except stand there and let her cry it out.
    He wasn’t sure how long the worst of it lasted, minutes probably, but each minute drilled home that this situation with Mattie was not going to be resolved easily. Somehow, in this already dangerous mix, Bo had started to be concerned about her. Not her situation.
    But her.
    Maybe that had something to do with the way Jacob had taken to her. Or maybe it was this stupid attraction.
    As if she’d read his mind, Mattie lifted her head and looked into his eyes. They were too close, of course, because she was in his arms. Her breath met his, and he drew her scent and taste into his mouth.
    Oh, man.
    He didn’t want this.
    But apparently the warning wasn’t enough, because he lowered his head and kissed her. Bo instantly changed his mind.
    He wanted this.
    Her mouth was damp from her tears, and he could taste the salt and her mint toothpaste. That should have been a turnoff, a big red flag that the timing sucked for kissing, but it didn’t turn off anything for him. Bo kissed her, keeping it soft and gentle, so he could take in everything her mouth was telling him.
    And what her mouth was saying was that she wanted this, too.
    Mattie made a soft sound deep within her throat. Part surprise, part pleasure. Almost hesitantly, she put her hands on his chest. First one, then the other. She leaned into him, closer and closer, increasing the pressure of the kiss with each fraction of distance that she erased between them.
    The pressure erased the soft and gentle approach, too, and Bo found himself taking rather than consoling. Her taste hit him like a ton of bricks. It had been so long since he’d kissed a woman and had one in his arms that his body was suddenly greedy for more.
    He took more.
    Bo deepened the kiss, touching his tongue to hers.
    The jolt hit him even harder. Man, this was not a good place to go with a very vulnerable woman who had more emotional baggage than he did.
    Mattie obviously realized that, too, because she jerked back, an “oh” rushing from her mouth as she took her lips from his. She blinked, stared up at him and repeated the “oh.”
    Bo repeated it, too. “Sorry,” he said, because he didn’t have a clue what else to say. Kissing Mattie was wrong on too many levels to count. He pushed aside the part about how right it’d felt, though.
    She fluttered her fingers in the