Page 9 of Protected

So much more that should scare me and make me want to run for the hills. But I wasn’t.

“Tell me what you are thinking, babe,” he asked softly.

I took a sip of my soda and really looked at Hail.

With every word he spoke, I saw more of him.

He wasn’t trying to spin some web of bullshit.

Sure, he couldn’t tell me what it was that drew me to him, but I felt it, too. Obviously, in the five years I had lived upstairs, I could have sat down with a different guy every night, but I never did.

Hail was different.

“I barely know anything about you, but something is gluing my butt to this chair so I can find out more.”

He drained the last of his beer and smirked. “Same, babe. Fucking same. Been watching you for two months, hoping whatever it is about you that keeps me coming back goes away. Trying to figure out what it is that you’re doing, I can’t live without.”

“I’m not doing anything,” I insisted.

“I know,” he grunted. “Ever since I joined the Lost Mavericks, I’ve been knee-deep in pussy. Women throwing themselves at me because of the cut on my back, willing to do anything to spend a little time with me.”

“Knee-deep in pussy, huh?” I giggled.

“Babe,” he drawled in an amused tone. “Is that the only thing you heard?”

I heard him. I knew what he was saying. He had his pick of women, and he was sitting here with me. “I heard you. I should be lucky the hot biker is willingly spending his time with me.”

“You think I’m hot?”

I rolled my eyes. “Is that the only thing you heard?” I mimicked.

A sexy smile spread across his lips. “Heard you loud and clear, but you’re not the lucky one, I am. I know I’m going to sound like a douche when I say this next thing, but it’s the damn truth.”

“Now I’m intrigued.”

“In twenty-nine years, I have never had to chase anything.”

“Just had to crook your finger, and whatever you wanted came running?” I surmised.

“Something like that.”

“Then why didn’t you talk to me two months ago?” Hail took what he wanted whenever he wanted, and no one ever argued with him about it. Yet he waited two months to even talk to me. Why?

“You’re different from anyone I’ve ever laid eyes on. You have this air about you. You’re fine on your own and don’t need anyone to mess that up.”

“You got that from me just walking from the front door to the stairs?” He wasn’t wrong, though. I had been through a lot over the past few years, and I was finally at a place in my life where I was fixing my problems and could see the light at the end of the tunnel, even if that light was two years away. “I think I need to work on my poker face.”

“Nah, it helps keep the losers away. You did say you’ve never had any problem walking through this bar every night.”

“Until last night,” I laughed. “Does that make Jim the loser, and you saved me?”

“Thank god you came to that conclusion and not the one where I’m the loser.”

“The air you give off is anything but loser, Hail.”

His gaze held mine, and the air around us charged. “I’m an idiot for waiting two months to talk to you, Mary Jay.”

“Idiot is the last thing I would ever call you, Hail.”

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