Page 15 of Guarded By the Phantom

My breath whooshed out of me, and I looked away. I knew I couldn’t blush, but my face felt fuckingpink.I was just so thrown by her reaction. She should have screamed and struggled to get away. Not… not tried to touch me with those soft, guileless hands.

“I know, right?” I said, doing my best to sound nonchalant. “Let me tell you, if abominations ever modeled, I’d be the first choice. I’d have a line of lace underwear named after me.”

She laughed, shaking, and I realized I still held her even though she could probably sit up now. But she was so relaxed against me, so warm and real, I was loath to let go.

“Hey, Mike,” I said into my comm set after getting a connection with the guard by the gate. “It’s Phantom. Uh-huh. Yeah. Listen, we have a small emergency, and an MSA doctor should be here soon. No, nothing serious. He’ll show you a badge. Let him in. Oh, and did you happen to see someone leaving the estate just now?”

Mike said no, and he didn’t see anyone on the screens, either. I was disappointed but not that surprised. That mind manipulator was good, better than I’d expected.

“You said it was a he. A man,” I said to Barbara after disconnecting. “How do you know?”

She stared at me with huge, blue eyes that were like deep pools of water sparkling in the moonlight. Her face lost its softness, her frown growing wary as her body tensed in my embrace. She was catching on.

“I’m not death,” I said belatedly. “You’re alive, so now would be a good time to find some fu—some things to care about, yeah? Now, back to my question. How do you know it’s a man?”

She blinked and slid off my lap with a soft grunt, sitting by my side in the grass. The chill of the night got to her, and she hugged herself, shivering. She still didn’t scream, for which I was grateful. The princess seemed to be tougher than I expected.

“He was inside me,” she answered then cringed, looking away. “I mean, he was in my mind. I… I felt him. And last night, I didn’t remember anything, but now I do. How he stood under the tree. He had… glowing eyes. And his presence was… was slimy and very male. But I didn’t really see him.”

“Glowing eyes,” I repeated, nodding. “That’s a nice lead. Well done, princess.”

“I’m not a princess,” she muttered, hugging her knees.

Right before she pressed her chest to her legs, I noticed her nipples. They were hard from the cold, pointing sharply through the silk. It made me feel a peculiar sort of way, and that in turn made me need to curse real bad.

“Fiddlesticks!” I spat instead of saying what I really wanted. It wasn’t even half as satisfying as the other F-word, even though I put all my vicious frustration into it.

Barbara gave me an odd look.

“Are you all right?”

The arrival of the doctor saved me from answering that. No, I wasn’t all right, but that was a permanent state, and not even a team of psychiatrists could untangle all the things that made me a fucked-up mess.

Elijah was on call tonight, and he lost no time dropping into a crouch in front of Barbara so he could shine a flashlight into her eyes. He wore a spick-and-span suit, but even the extra-long pants didn’t hide the fact he had hooves. I knew he was some type of Moroccan djinn. When I once jokingly called him Fatima’s cousin, she blew her top, asking me in a hissy fit why I thought all djinni were inbred relations.

Now, as I watched him examine Barbara, who shook from the cold, a wave of annoyance overcame me. I was sure he had a thermic blanket somewhere in his bag—he had to. Then why wouldn’t he take it out and cover her? Why was he being such a fucking dick?

“Count backwards from twenty, please,” he said, his voice dispassionate as he held her wrist, monitoring her pulse while her teeth chattered.

Asshole.

I took off my tactical jacket with a huff. It was heavy and cool, because I kept lots of things in the pockets and released little body heat when enclosed in my carapace. But it was the onlything I had, and I wasn’t about to ask the asshole doctor to do his job if he didn’t know it himself.

Barbara jolted when I dropped the jacket over her shoulders. Before she threw me a surprised look, I was already heading for the driveway, rolling my eyes at myself. If I didn’t know better, I might mistake myself for a chivalrous man, but it would be bullshit.

I was the kind of man who blew his load on a woman’s face and offered her her own panties to clean up. Definitely not a gentleman.

So then, why did I worry about the spoiled princess being cold? My job wasn’t to shield her from discomfort but to keep her safe, and those were two different things.

As I waved at Mrs. Ashford’s car slowly crunching up the driveway, I decided it was because of the nipples. It wasthemI was worried about. Not the girl.

And anyway, who cared? I had a situation to report and a fucking criminal to catch. My hands were full.

Chapter 6

Barbara

“It was a murder attempt,” Phantom said bluntly, standing tall with his hands behind his back as he made his report to my mother. “The situation escalated dramatically. This isn’t just about protecting your daughter’s reputation and wellbeing anymore, it’s about her life. I’ll have a list of recommendations ready for you tomorrow, and in the meantime, I’m staying here.”

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