Page 11 of Falling for her Guardian

“Nah.”

She peeked at him and could see he was smiling.

Damn he was sexy.

Too bad.

He led her down the hall to the left, opening the door to what looked like a small lunchroom. There were several round tables and chairs in the space and a long, L-shaped counter that ran along two walls, with a commercial refrigerator and sink on one end of the counter and three microwaves on the other.

Along the counters were drink machines, food in glass cases with heat lamps, and baskets with packaged snacks like chips and cookies.

He stopped in front of a drink machine and said, “Hot chocolate or coffee?”

“You can’t just have someone take me home?”

“This first. You look like you’re about to shiver out of my coat and yours.”

She tightened her grip on his jacket. It was warm in the room, but she was still chilled to the bone.

“Hot chocolate.”

He gestured toward one of the tables and she plunked down into a chair with a groan. She took off her gloves and hat, smoothing her hair back. She touched her cold nose, glad to find it was actually still attached.

There was a sputtering sound from the machine. While his back was turned to her, she ogled her fill.

The man could wear a pair of jeans.

As if he knew she was staring at him, he glanced over his shoulder at her.

Her cheeks heated and that made her skin prickle because she was still cold.

She took her phone out of her pocket and realized there was no service. “Is there a way I can contact my parents or sister and let them know I’m okay?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the sexy guy who she absolutely, positively was not going to ogle a second longer.

Starting…now.

Now.

Damn it.

“Yeah, of course.” He turned from the counter with two mugs and set one in front of her as he took the next seat. Tiny marshmallows shaped like snowflakes were floating in the sweet smelling brew, and her stomach growled. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she smelled the chocolate.

“Hungry?” he asked with amusement as he took a slow drink.

“My lunch was at eleven, and I had soup.”

He wrinkled his nose. “That doesn’t sound like enough to eat. Was it at least a hearty soup with dumplings?”

“No dumplings. It was a simple homemade chicken noodle.”

“At least there was meat in it.”

“Yeah,” she said. “But it for sure wasn’t as filling as I would have liked, and I hadn’t had any change for the vending machine for an afternoon snack.” She took a tentative drink of the hot chocolate, worried she’d burn her tongue. But it wasn’t too hot, just hot enough to warm her from the inside out. It was possibly the very best hot chocolate she’d ever had.

“Dang,” she said. “This is really good, thank you.”

“You bet. When we’re done, I’ll take you to the security office and you can call whoever you need to, and we’ll arrange for someone to escort us back through the Entrance and to your car.”

“Us?”

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