Chapter 6

I do watchher while she walks away, and I hate myself during every second of it.

Cash doesn’t want Hannah to know I’m her makeshift fucking bodyguard because she’ll react exactly like this, and I don’t blame her. I’d lose my shit if someone tried to watch over me. But I’m also qualified to protect myself.

I follow Hannah through the bar, but she doesn’t head back to the table where June and Cash have their heads together. She’s moving toward the exit, fast, and I can’t let her out of my sight.

Fuck, a part of me wants to go over to Cash and tell him this is not going to happen. She doesn’t want a bodyguard, she doesn’t even want to stay in this town, but the other part, the one that takes over whenever she’s close by, is nudging me relentlessly.

I war with myself as I stride out of Longhorn’s and into the parking lot.

The sea salt on the air is punctuated by the wash of waves on the beach, the thump of music from the bar. My senses take it in, but I home in on her.

Hannah stands near the road, her phone in hand, shaking her head. “Unbelievable,” she mutters. “What an ass.”

I walk up behind her. “Talking to yourself?”

Hannah screams and throws up her hands, her phone flips end over end and lands in the dirt. She glares back at me, her blue eyes flashing hot, and then picks up her phone.

“You all right?”

“You mean, apart from you scaring the pants off me?”

I scan her body, and grit my teeth.

She takes a step back, eyes widening, her heel hits the tarmac on the street, and I grab her by the elbow and pull her out of harm’s way.

Her skin is soft, and I fucking despise how my body reacts. A grinding heat that works its way up my arms, through my chest, and travels straight to my dick.

I release her and wipe my hand on my jeans.

She stares at the spot I wiped and makes a noise in her throat. “Right,” she says. “Right. I’m leaving.”

“I’ll give you a ride.”

“No, I’m leaving,” she says. “And you’re staying here with my brother and June. We both know you have no desire to be my bodyguard, and I don’t want a bodyguard either, so let’s just stop the friggin’ madness and move on with our lives.”

I fold my arms.

She tilts her head, her glossy dark locks chasing over her cheek, resting against her throat. I picture brushing them away and kissing that soft, supple, delicate neck. Closing my hand around it, pressing her against a wall, dominating her.

She is ten years younger than you. She is your best friend’s sister. You swore.

“What?” she asks. “Why do you always look like that? Like you’re about to rip somebody’s head off.”

“I made a promise to your brother,” I say.

“And you just do everything my brother says?”

“I’ll take you home. You can’t drive.”

“And you can?”

“Yes,” I say. “I haven’t had anything to drink.”

She bites her bottom lip, and she’s killing me.

“You know what?” Hannah lifts her phone and starts tapping away on the screen. “I think I’ll just call Todd. I’ll come by and get my car tomorrow, because I can’t deal with Cash right now, and I certainly don’t want to deal with this.”She shakes her hand toward me. “And, ugh. Just ugh.”

“What’s the problem? Your brother cares about you. He wants you to be safe.”

“And that’s exactly why I’m doing your one-day crash course, the self-defense thing. I can get behind that. That’s great, but the bodyguard thing? No. Hell no. Sorry.” And then she starts walking off.

I catch her by the arm and turn her around. “No.”

“No?” Her gaze drops to where my hand rests on her tan skin.

I pull away, wiping my hand on my jeans again. “No. If you call Todd, I’ll be taking a ride with him too. And once we get to your apartment, I’ll be posted outside your door all night.”

Her jaw drops.

“It will be more comfortable for me if I get to spend the night in my SUV, rather than on the steps of your apartment.”

“SUV?”

I point toward my SUV with blacked-out windows. It’s a new acquisition, and it has my logo “Savage Self-Defense” printed across the side. Looking at it makes me sweat. I like my privacy, and setting up the camp and the classes is working on my nerves, but it’s something I have to do. I’ve been running a few courses, but never a full-on camp.

“You can’t follow me.”

“It doesn’t matter what you think,” I say. “I will be following you. Closely. So either I take you home or Todd does, but we’re both going to your apartment tonight.”

She lets out a tiny breath, her lips parted.

I stare at them, and the seconds tick by, the tension bands across my chest.

“Fine,” she says. “Fine. Whatever. But tomorrow, you two, you and Cash, you’re going to pay for this.” And she goes as far as to poke me in the chest, right on my pec. She snatches her finger back. “Wow. That is… That’s hard.” And then she blushes and practically runs for my SUV.

Adorable.

I follow her and unlock it with a click of a button. She’s standing at the back door, but I walk to the front passenger door and open it for her. “In.”

Hannah blinks.

“I’m not an Uber driver. Get in the front seat.”

She walks over and grabs the door handle. I take her elbow and help feed her into the car safely, then let go like I’ve been burned, because I have. I have been burned by Hannah Taylor, not that I’ll let her know it.

I shut her door, then head over to my side and get in, starting the engine in silence.

Hannah puts on her seatbelt and stares out the window, which suits me fine. We don’t have to talk and make this worse, but I keep glancing at her, whenever I can, taking in her side profile, her cute nose, the glasses that are slipping down and that she keeps pushing back into place.

“I live above the bakery on?—”

“I know.”

Her head whips around.

“We’ve been going to the same potluck dinner for years,” I say. “Did you think I wouldn’t know where you stayed?”

She shrugs. “I didn’t think you cared.”

I don’t step on that landmine.

I park in front of Bagel’s Bakery. “Stay in the car,” I say.

“But—”

I get out and slam the door, then head around the side of the brick building to assess the alleyway and the grated steps that lead up to the apartment. The alleyway ends in a chain link fence that would be easy to climb. It’s dark, the light from the lampposts barely reaching the first step. There are two green dumpsters that are shut.

I don’t like it one fucking bit.

There are plenty of places to hide, an escape route over that fence, and it’s dark. This will have to be remedied.

I open the dumpsters, check around them, jog up the stairs and back down them, and make sure the area is clear.

I walk back to the car and open her door.

“What are?—?

“You’re going to listen to me,” I say, “and you’re not going to talk. Understand?”

She glares, her beautiful eyes narrowed almost to slits. My cock throbs in my jeans, and I want to punch a hole through a wall because of it.

“Understand?” I repeat.

“I’m confused,” Hannah says, “do you want me to talk or not?”

“Just say you understand.”

“Fine.” She sweeps a hand through the air. “I understand.”

I grunt. “The entrance to your building isn’t safe. From now on, I will be escorting you in and out of it. I don’t want to hear any complaints. You’ll move quickly and do as I say. If I say get down, you get down. If I say run, you run. Got it?”

She presses her lips into a thin line.

“Confirm that you got it.”

“But that would be breaking rule number one,” she says. “No talking. Because I’m a mute woman who needs to be cared for by a big strong man.”

“I don’t like it any more than you do,” I say.

Her expression shifts, a drawing downward of her brows, a widening of her eyes, and then she shakes her head. “Yeah.”

I hate this shit.

I’m aware that Hannah has a crush on me. Or she did. Seems like she hates me tonight.

Either way, it’s never going to happen. I won’t allow it.

I exhale. “There could be a fucking psycho with a knife in your dumpster, or waiting at the top of the stairs, and until that issue has been resolved, you’re going to do what I say.”

“How is the issue going to be resolved?” she asks.

Big foot in my big mouth.

Cash wouldn’t want his sister in on this shit.

“You said you were leaving town, didn’t you?” I ask, deadpan.

“Right.”

She slips out of the car, handbag over her shoulder, phone in hand.

“Follow me, and move fast.”

I lead her toward the entrance and up the stairs. Once we hit them, I walk behind her, creating a protective barrier between her and the stairs, my gaze fixed on the empty landing.

Hannah pauses on the steps and looks around. “This is crazy. You and Cash are out of your minds, I swear.”

“You have a stalker.”

She doesn’t argue but gets her keys out of her purse and inserts them into the lock. She turns it and opens the door, and I step through.

“Hey, I didn”t even invite you in,” she cries, but I’m already moving through her house, checking the closet, under the bed, anywhere a man could hide. I force down the memory of the last time I was in here.

Thankfully, it’s a small apartment, so the search goes quickly.

I find her standing in the living room, hugging herself, her purse on the coffee table. “I hate this,” she says.

“Good night, Hannah. Lock the door behind me.” And then I walk for the exit, because the scent of her perfume is on the air, and being in her personal space is doing things to me I don’t want to think about.

Even if Hannah Taylor wasn’t off-limits, even if she wasn’t younger than me, I don’t have enough pieces of a heart to give to any woman, let alone Hannah. Hannah who deserves a life of joy, a man who can love her.

I pause at the door. “Keep it locked,” I repeat.

“Okay.” She stands there, painfully pretty, her nipples plucking at the front of her camisole, her bottom lip caught between her lips. “Goodnight.”

I slam the door shut and wait for her to lock it, then jog down the stairs and get into my SUV. I punch the dashboard so hard it cracks.