Page 85 of The Broken Aztec Princesses

His tone brooked no argument, so I shut up and nodded, but not without glaring at his retreating back.

“Are you guys a couple?” Elim asked.

“He’s my guard.”

“So, if I asked you out on a date, he wouldn’t try to beat me up?” he asked, flashing me a smile.

My face heated, but I smiled back.

“He wouldn’t because I wouldn’t say yes. I can’t go out in public yet.”

“What about somewhere within the pack grounds? I have a little movie projector I always bring with me.” Elim suggested.

“You carry around a movie projector?”

“It’s small, you’ll see. It helps break the ice. Not a lot of supernaturals are comfortable around vampires because of the blood thing.”

“That must be tough.”

“Sometimes. That’s why I carry the projector, though.”

We finished the set of reps and set the equipment back where it belonged.

“Thanks for keeping me company,” I told him, genuinely grateful. I would’ve just spent the night inside my head otherwise.

“You didn’t answer my question, though,” Elim reminded me.

“I don’t know. I’m not in a place where I’m comfortable being in a room alone with you, Elim,” I told him honestly.

“Fair. I’ll take the progress, though. You let me near you today.” He flashed me another smile.

“Definite progress,” I smiled up at him as we reached my brooding, glaring guard. For someone with an amazing poker face, he sure wasn’t hiding it right now. “Have a good night, Elim.”

“Have a good night, Violet.” Elim made that dramatic little bow he gave me the first time I met him, and flashed me a smile.

Chris grunted and opened the door, exiting first and keeping the door open for me to follow him. We walked back to the pack house in tense silence. Once again, Chris was walking a little too fast for me, but this time, I didn’t try to keep up with him. I let him keep going until he realized he was fifty feet ahead of me. He frowned when he saw me walking way behind him, and came back to me.

“Sorry,” he grumbled.

It was my turn to grunt. Maybe it was catching. We made it to my room and stared at each other in silence.

“You like Elim,” Chris said. He didn’t ask, he stated. “You trust him. You let him near you.”

“I’m beginning to trust him. He’s been nothing but kind and respectful of my boundaries,” I replied.

“You’ve been spending a lot of the evenings talking to him since he arrived. You like him.”

“He’s a nice person, and he doesn’t know anyone here.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?” I challenged.

I was annoyed right now. If he liked me, why couldn’t he just say it? Why were we dancing around the real question? He left me with a thousand questions last night, then this morningwhen he woke me up, it was like it never happened. Then, I had to watch him getting mauled by five different women, and he’s the one angry that Elim is helping me?

“You were training with him.”

“I didn’t wake up at four in the morning to watch you getting pawed by other women,” I blurted and then felt my face heat at having blurted it out.

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