Singe (Guardian Protection #1)

She craned her head back and peered up at me expectantly. “That wasn’t the part where you were a dick.”

I arched an eyebrow and shot her a pointed glare. “Maybe you should fill me in so I know what to apologize for.”

“Okay, maybe that was what you should apologize for,” she lied softly.

“You’re still taking the stance that nothing happened?” I leaned down until my lips were once again at her ear. “I know that isn’t true. Memories have a way of finding their way back over time.”

At least mine did. I’d been cursed with flashes of that night with Rhion all week. Some of them had been innocent. Most of them had not.

Her entire body jerked in a way that took her away from me. One sentence and the invisible ties that drew her to me became a brick wall dividing us. The loss hit me harder than I would have ever expected.

I wanted her back.

“Move,” she said, grabbing the handle before giving it a firm pull.

My forearm kept it sealed shut. “No,” I rumbled, giving her hip another squeeze in an effort to bring her back into me, but she didn’t budge. “I’m starting to remember what happened. But I need you to fill me in on why and how it happened, Rhion. You said we talked. Start with that.”

She moved all at once, her hand leaving the door, her torso twisting to the side, her knees bending, and her feet shuffling as she ducked under my arm.

I turned with her, but she backed away, moving up the steps.

“Why are you always runnin’ from me?” I bit out. With long strides, I advanced toward her.

She scrambled back, tripping when the heel of her shoe clipped the edge of a stair.

Hooking an arm around her waist, I caught her before she fell and tugged her against me. Her soft curves molded around my hard planes, and a growl rumbled in my chest at how fucking right it felt. Sparks fired off in my veins, the likes of which I’d never felt with a woman before.

And they did this for Rhion fucking Park.

Christ. I needed to be institutionalized. The craziness at Guardian must have been contagious.

As I took the final steps up to the landing with her in my arms, her feet dangling off the floor, I ordered, “Talk to me.”

She shoved at my chest and squirmed in my arms, but it was all for show. There was no fight behind it.

“You said it was a mistake. Let’s just forget it ever happened,” she pleaded.

I shook my head and grumbled, “I tried for four years to forget about you, Rhion. It never happened. This isn’t gonna be any different.”

Her mouth fell open. “You never…”

I gentled my voice as I begged, “All I’m asking is for you to help me remember.”

“It was noth—”

“Don’t say nothing.” Sliding her down my front, I placed her back on her feet. Bending to keep our faces close, I backed her against the door.

Her breath caught when her shoulders hit the wall, or perhaps it was because my hand had slipped down to her ass.

“You opened your legs for me like you were welcoming me home,” I announced, using her ass to grind her against me. “You were fucking drenched, Rhion.”

Her lips parted as something between a gasp and a moan escaped in the sound of, “Uh oh.”

“Yeah, baby. I remember. Not all of it. But enough to know something happened—something huge and something I remember enjoying a fuckuvalot. And something I’d fucking kill to have happen again. But I still don’t know what started that something. So I’m gonna need you to open that sexy little mouth of yours and fill me in.”

That was in no way what I had planned to say to her when I finally got the chance to see her again. I should have been apologizing. But I couldn’t. Not with her that close, the smell of coconut filling my senses.

She once again became pliable, and a shy smile played at the side of her mouth. “You’d kill to have it happen again?”

Fuck. I would have. If being with her was even half as good as my drunken memories, I’d wage wars with innocent men to get her back there. No matter how fucked up and confusing it might have been.

“And, judging by the way you react to me, I know you feel it too,” I said.

Her minty breath whispered across my lips as she asked, “How do I react to you, Jude?” She slid her hand up to my shoulders and then up my neck and under my hair.

My skin crawled at the contact, and I reached up and caught her wrist. Pinning her hand to the wall beside her head, I dropped my forehead to hers and grazed the backs of two fingers over the smooth skin at her cheek, taking great pride as it heated beneath my touch.

“Like you can’t decide if you want to melt into me and stay forever or disappear so you never have to see me again,” I told her.

“Jude,” she breathed.

I growled and dipped my head lower.

Her tongue snaked out as she dampened her lips, stealing my attention. I wanted that tongue at my lips like I wanted my next breath. To taste her without the effects of alcohol diluting my senses.

“Which is it, Rhion?”

She pressed up onto her toes and ghosted her lips across mine. “Right now, I want to melt.”

“Thank fuck,” I rasped, because there were no words to explain how much I wanted that too.

I swallowed hard and held her gaze. Pink cheeks. Sultry eyes. Damp lips.

Never once after the fire had I ever thought of Rhion in a sexual way. For four years, she’d haunted me. My failures. My guilt over the roof and, worse, the alcohol. But, over the last week, with constant flashes of her invading my mind, some wires had gotten crossed and completely reprogrammed my already-fucked-up brain.

“Who are you, Jude?” she whispered, sliding her free hand under my suit coat, her nails biting into my back as she fisted my shirt.

It was an odd question, but I had an honest answer. “I don’t know right now.”

She brushed her nose with mine, murmuring, “Okay, then tell me what you want. And we’ll figure it out together.”

My hand tracing that fiery butterfly on your naked chest as you ride my cock.

Unable to help myself, I glided my hand down her side, allowing my thumb to trail over the curve of her breast. An encouraging moan fluttered through her parted lips.

You in my bed, my mouth between your legs, where I’d make damn sure your eyes would be filled with ecstasy instead of pain.

She arched off the wall, pressing her breasts into my chest as she tugged me closer.

You up on all fours, your ass in the air, the red tips of your hair tickling my thighs, my cock disappearing into the back of your throat.

Seconds before my body convinced my mind to take her to mouth, a rational thought finally made it through the sexual fog.

This was Rhion.

Just standing in that stairwell with her was fucked up on more levels than I’d ever be able to count. Much less having her pinned against a wall with my cock thick against her stomach as I ached to drive into her.

What the hell was I doing?

My better judgment finally prevailed.

“No!” she gasped as I pushed off her.