Page 14 of Guarding Bristol

Then he caught a flash of bright pink out of the corner of his eye and stood there gaping as Eric’s sister appeared.

She made her way down into the culvert, wearing flip-flops, jeans, and a snug fuchsia-pink top that hugged the sexy curves of her breasts and waist.Her brown hair was loose around her shoulders, a thin shaft of light from a streetlamp above them highlighting it with shades of gold and caramel.

What the hell was she doing?She stuck out more than a clown at a funeral here.

She stopped picking her way down the side of the steep incline to scan the area.When she saw him, her face lit up with a relieved smile.“Hi,” she called out, seeming oblivious of the stares she was getting.Some curious.Others hostile.All suspicious.“Boy, you were not easy to find.”

Fuck.Me.

He strode forward, making a beeline to intercept her before she came any closer.She stopped at the hard look on his face, her smile slipping a notch.

“What the hell are you doing here?”he demanded.

She faltered, took a step back.“I—”

He took hold of her upper arm, spun her around and started marching her back up the incline toward the road.Flip-flops, for fuck’s sake.She could get jabbed with a needle.“You can’t be here.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s not safe,” he muttered, exasperated.She could have been assaulted out here while out searching for him.“How the hell did you even find me?”

She scrambled to keep up with him as he practically towed her up the incline.“I went to the jobsite, but they told me you weren’t scheduled today.So I asked around, and someone said to try the shelter on MLK Junior.”

He shot her a disbelieving look.“You went to the shelter to find me?”

“Yes, and then three others before one of the volunteers said you sometimes camp down here if the shelters are full.”

Jesus God.He shook his head, kept going.“Please tell me you’re not alone.”

The guilty look on her face gave him his answer.

Sweet baby Jesus.“Shit.Seriously?”

“Cassie knows where I am.”

“Yeah?That doesn’t do much to keep you safe though, does it?”He ran a hand through his hair.Why was she so damned insistent on finding him?“All right, where did you park?”

“A few blocks up that way.”She pointed up the hill toward the streets located in the roughest part of the city.

The thought of her wandering through it alone almost made him break out in a sweat.“What were youthinking,coming down here by yourself to look for me?”The sun had disappeared.It was getting dark out, for Chrissake.“And what if I hadn’t been here?”

“Then I would have asked if anyone at the campsite had seen you or knew where else you might be and tried there.”

“At night?”Because yeah, that was a great idea for a hot woman alone in this neighborhood.

“It wasn’t dark when I started.And I have pepper spray.”

Given what he’d seen of her to this point, he had his doubts about her knowing how to use it.

She lifted her chin and faced him, blue-gray eyes full of indignation.“I know you think I’m naïve and maybe even stupid for coming here, but I assure you I’m not.I’ve done this many times before, alone, in rougher areas than this to find Eric.I’ve been mugged and forced to run for it a few times, but I’m still here.And guess what?Zero regrets.”

He stared at her, at a loss for words.She’d been lucky she’d walked away from any of it without serious injury or trauma.“And how do you know I’m not dangerous?”

She didn’t answer.The top of her head barely reached his chin.He easily outweighed her by sixty pounds or more, even though he was the thinnest he’d been since bootcamp.If he’d wanted to hurt her, she would have zero chance against him, even without his training.He had twice her strength.

The risks she’d just taken to find him made him incredulous—and furious.

“Hm?You think you’re safe with me just because I served with your brother?”he pressed when a shadow of doubt clouded her eyes.Dammit, she smelled good too.Something light and clean and irresistibly female he was struggling to ignore.He was struggling to ignore a lot of things about her that he shouldn’t be noticing or thinking about.“You don’t know me.What makes you so sure I’m not a threat to you?”

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