Page 34 of Sweet Temptation

“Nothing has to change here,” Brody informed me, lying through his teeth. “Except we make sure you’ve got someone looking out for you. That’s all it is.”

Yeah, right.

I looked at them all. Ash shook his head at me. His eyebrows were still all twisted up.

“For now,” Jude went on, “Haz will stay on you, Ash. But we’re talking full-time. Every time you leave home, he’s with you.”

“Fine with me,”Ash said.

“We can bring on Lucas for you, Xander, but same deal,” Jude said. “You use him every time you go out.”

“Sure,” Xander said.

Neither of them offered a shred of resistance to this plan. Why would they? Xander’s bodyguard, Lucas, was a buddy of his. Ash and Haz had become friends, too. This situation hardly changed anything for either of my bandmates. All they’d gained was a full-time wingman.

“So, Ronan,” Brody said. “Do you have someone in mind for Summer’s security detail?”

“Yeah,” Ronan said, clearing his throat. “For the time being, I’ll be Summer’s bodyguard.”

I turned to stare at him.

“That’s great, brother,” Jude said. He sounded surprised. “You sure you don’t want to put someone else on it?”

“I’m sure. I’d like to monitor things on the front lines for a bit. At the greatest point of… vulnerability.”

Vulnerability?

Oh, I did not like that word choice. Sounded way too much like weakness.

If any of them referred to me as a delicate or damsel anything, I was out of here.

“That’s great,” Brody agreed. He and Jude definitely seemed a lot happier about this arrangement than I did.

Actually, all of them did. Ronan was the only one who didn’t seem pleased. Just… neutral.

I met Brody’s eyes, and he definitely noticed I wasn’t swooning with delight. “Ronan is the best there is,” he assured me. “Like I told you last night. You couldn’t be in better hands.”

“Fabulous,” I forced out, and got to my feet. “Are we done here? I’ve got stuff and things.”

Brody nodded. “Sure. We’re done, for now.” He got up, and I left the room before I strangled the nearest one of them. Would’ve been Ronan, and I probably would’ve just pulled something trying to get a grip on his muscular neck.

I threw him a displeased side-eye as I left. And he fucking nodded at me, completely unruffled.

“You can shove my vulnerability right up your goddamn asses,” I muttered, heading for the foyer. I heard a little laugh and turned to find Jessa in the kitchen. “Oh. You heard that?”

She smiled at me sympathetically. “Yeah. I also heard about what happened. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Really.”

“I’m glad,” she said, and gave me a hug. “It must’ve been scary.”

“Sure, I guess,” I said, distracted by the small human toddling out of the kitchen past us.

“Ah, there he goes.” Jessa followed her little boy, Nicholas, into the foyer, and I went with them. “Do you want to talk about it?” she offered, keeping one eye on her kid as he wobbled along with determination on his chubby little legs.

“Not really.” I was already tired of everyone asking about it. I felt weirdly defensive, like I’d done something wrong and gotten in trouble for it.

Irrational, yes.

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