Page 27 of Unlikely Guardian

If Jason were to make a list of Dumb-Things-To-Do, this would be at the top.

With that reminder, he didn’t curse. He’d already cursed himself enough. Nor did he try to talk Lilly out of leaving the downtown office building and immediately returning to his house. He knew now that he’d be wasting his breath.

Why?

Because after two days of arguing with her about this, Lilly had delivered the ultimate ultimatum—she was going to her office with or without him.

Right.

As if without him was an option.

Rule number one of protective custody was to protect. Plain and simple. And he couldn’t protect her if she was halfway across the city in the absolute last place she should be. He couldn’t stop her from leaving, either.

It’d done no good to remind her of the incident at the hospital. Or the incident with the security gate. Or Raymond Klein’s threatening call. She was here, and it was up to him to make sure she stayed safe.

The elevator came to a stop, the metal doors swishing open, and Lilly and he came face-to-face with a massive hallway lined with office doors. Even though he was a cop who was trained and armed, it was unnerving to face all that space. All those doors. Where anyone, especially a killer, could be lurking.

However, Jason knew the place was probably safe. Probably. Two officers who were now patrolling the parking lot had gone through every office, every hall, every nook and every cranny. There was no one else in the building except for Lilly and him, and Jason intended to keep it that way. He also intended to make this a very short visit.

In addition to the thorough building check, Jason had taken every other security precaution that he could possibly take. He’d driven a circuitous route, backtracking and watching to make sure they hadn’t been followed. He had also left a police guard with Megan and Erica in case the perp decided to go in that direction instead. Now, he had to hope that all those security measures were enough to counteract the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Jason stepped out of the elevator onto the third floor, and he reached out his arm to assist her. Lilly either didn’t see his gesture, or else she blew him off. Instead, she used her cane to walk.

“Walk” being a relative term.

She was still wobbly, and he figured she’d have bruises on her palm from putting so much pressure on the cane. He’d offered to help. Lots of times. But he had finally given up trying to convince her to take the slow and easy approach to her recovery. It was like talking to a brick wall.

Or to himself.

That thought caused him to smile. God knows why. He certainly didn’t have anything to smile about. He could blame that on the below-the-waist, brainless part of his anatomy. It was a myth that men were ruled by their heads and not their hearts.

Heads and hearts indeed. Those parts were definitely involved in the process, but he knew for a fact that at this stage, lust was the number one factor.

Once this was over, he really needed to make the time to be with a woman.

Of course, his body immediately reminded him that Lilly was a woman, but he told his body what it could do with that reminder.

“Don’t say it,” she mumbled.

Since he was still embroiled in his own borderline lecherous mental discussion, it took Jason a moment to figure out what she’d said. Good grief, had she figured out what he was thinking?

“Don’t say what?” he asked cautiously.

“About this not being a good idea.”

Oh, that. “It never crossed my mind.”

She laughed. One short burst of sound and air to form a Ha! “Sarcasm. A lost art form. I’m beginning to like you, Jason, and I don’t think that’s a good thing.”

He didn’t even have to think about that one. “It isn’t. And you don’t like me. Not really.”

Lilly made a throaty sound of disagreement. “We’re back to the you-saved-my-life stuff and that’s the only reason I could possibly like you?”

They could go there. Easily. But Jason was tired of the BS. Maybe if they just dealt with it, like adults, it wouldn’t be an issue.

Okay, that didn’t make sense.

But avoiding it wasn’t working, either.

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