Page 4 of Protector Daddy

I didn’t move a muscle. I wasn’t sure I was even still breathing. But I finally couldn’t bear the silence any longer and I turned my head a fraction to see his steely blue-gray gaze locked on my mouth.

I was breathing now. Panting. He was so much taller than I was, nearly six and a half feet tall, and so broad and muscular to boot. I wasn’t small by any means and he made me feel tiny. Petite and fragile in a way I’d never been in my life.

And I still couldn’t stop breathing as if I’d run a mile.

“I didn’t forgot our meeting.” His voice was low, husky, soft like pussy willows skimming over my flushed skin.

“You didn’t?” I was still whispering. I didn’t know why.

I didn’t understand any of this.

“No.” He slipped his hand into his pocket, his fingers moving as if he was stroking the bottle he’d hidden from my view. “I hated missing the first one.”

“You did?”

For a second, the edge of his mouth seemed to almost tilt. Then his mouth tightened into his usual scowl. “It couldn’t be avoided.”

I nodded as if I understood. “I figured.”

“Are you sure you want a job here?”

For some reason, the question seemed loaded with things unsaid. Have you really thought this through, Honey?

Though he’d never said my name. Not once. Why would he have a reason to? He rarely came into the bakery and his smiles were a rarity. I wasn’t even sure he knew my name, but if he regretted missing our meeting…

“You know I’m Honey?”

His brows drew together. “Of course. How could I not?”

Plenty of people didn’t know me, even in a small town like Crescent Cove. I didn’t command attention like my brothers. They were the ones who all the women wanted and loved to talk about, even after Brady had moved away to work for the FBI.

I’d been here all my life and I’d never done anything particularly noteworthy. And that was saying something, since small towns ran on gossip. I just wasn’t someone who colored outside the lines or did anything other than what was expected.

I shrugged. “I’m the quiet McNeill. The plays it safe, good girl. The boring—”

He covered my mouth with his hand and I fell immediately silent. Also, his hand was absolutely enormous.

Do not make any inferences from the size of his palm. Do. Not.

“Don’t call yourself boring. Why would you say that about yourself?”

I started to reply but I was rapidly losing air and my head was pounding from my frenetic heartbeat. So I nipped his palm and consigned myself to finding another job.

I couldn’t wait to see his report about this failed interview.

Applicant dismissed due to biting.

He frowned and removed his hand, studying it as if he couldn’t believe I’d actually marked him. I was rather surprised about that myself.

“Boring isn’t a bad thing. I’m just…dependable.”

“Dependable is good. I like dependable. The world is full of people you can’t count on.” He shoved the chair he’d recently vacated against the desk, making it shake. “I wish like hell I knew more people like you. I’ve had it up to here with the other kind.”

“Does that mean I have the job?” I asked impulsively, knowing there was no way after this…whatever the heck it was.

I hadn’t even done anything wrong pre-biting—and hey, he’d covered my mouth—but the cards were just not stacked in my direction.

Could be for the best.

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