Page 10 of Defended By Love

“Even though you’re taking me to a secondary location? Most likely to kill me.”

His face immediately becomes serious.

“That’s not funny.”

I shrug. “It’s kind of funny.”

He adjusts me from bride carry to a hold that presses me right up against him. My clothes are sopping wet, which means I’m freezing and my nipples are hard. They press against his chest in a way that feels way too good. In fact, everything about the way he’s holding me feels too good.

The smell of him in the rain overwhelms my senses. The feel of his body has me arching my back to be even closer to him. Again, I’m struck by just how much I’m drawn to him.

Usually, the feeling would be terrifying. I’m an attractive blonde with a great job, I don’t struggle for first dates. However, my terrible personality (their words, not mine) has them running at their first chance.

Except, maybe I don’t have to worry about that with him. I don’t have to think about to the inevitable heartbreak.

I want to celebrate being alive. I want to follow the sparks of my kick-started heart and see what happens. I want to forget everything that usually plagues my every thought and get lost in the bliss that is actually feeling something for once.

“Let’s be clear,” he rumbles, using the new position to look intently into my eyes. “Nothing about you being in danger is funny.”

His eyes continue to pierce me, like he wants me to feel every ounce of sincerity in his words. Oddly enough, I do.

“You don’t even know me,” I mumble. “How can you be so sure?”

The Garnet Defender looks away.

I guess I got too real. I usually don’t say things like that. I don’t hint at the vulnerability that I feel inside. Dr. Debbie’s book has a chapter on why people find it off-putting to be around people who put themselves down.

This is exactly why I should focus on the right here and right now with him. There’s clearly something about him that pulls me to him. Maybe it’s the adrenaline or his rock-hard body, whatever it is, I want him like I’ve never wanted anyone before.

I know I couldn’t keep him in the long-term, but for now?

Why not tonight?

“We’re here,” he says softly a moment later.

The hard ground under my feet startles me more than anything else I’ve experienced tonight. Although, there’s a good chance I’ve already started the all-important task of repressing trauma. In any case, I’m shocked to find myself on solid ground.

Which is to say on a penthouse balcony of, approximately, a fifteen-storey building. A penthouse, that is the most gargantuan, ostentatious penthouse I’ve ever seen, including on television. The balcony looks out almost directly over the water. From what I can see, the inside is a vast, open-concept that laughs in the face of square-footage and budgets.

It is beyond beautiful, but I don’t care about any of that. All I care about is that there’s a bedroom. And even that’s negotiable.

“Can I come in?” I ask, trying to make my voice sultry like in the movies.

The Garnet Defender gulps. Audibly. His Adam’s apple bobs as his eyes widen.

Well, if I didn’t want to fuck him before, I certainly do now.

Chapter 6

“You want to come—” His voice breaks. He clears his throat and then he deepens it to his radio DJesque voice. “You want to come in?”

I smile as he goes to lean casually against the sliding glass doors, but stumbles when he misses his mark.

Thank goodness I didn’t see his clumsy side before he took me flying through the sky.

“Yeah. Call me crazy, but I’m not much for the view right now.” I gesture to the stunning eagle-eye view of the ocean that makes my stomach churn painfully. I’ve never been more grateful for my first-floor apartment.

“Oh, no. Yes, of course. I’m so sorry,” he sputters. Zipping around to put himself between me and the edge of the balcony—like he’s trying to block my view so that I’ll forget it’s there—he ushers me inside into his penthouse.

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