Singe (Guardian Protection #1)

I gripped the back of my neck and began to pace the small corridor. “Fuck,” I grumbled, mentally arguing with my body as it screamed deafeningly loudly.

“Jude,” she breathed, and like I always did, I felt it deep in my chest. In a place I had no business feeling anything for Rhion.

“You should go,” I said, keeping my gaze aimed at the floor. “Before we both do something we’ll regret.”

She inched toward me, asking, “What just happened?”

“No,” I clipped, lifting a hand to stop her. “Stay back.”

If she got close again, I wouldn’t be able to stop myself. No ifs, ands, or buts about it, my mouth would be on hers before she could use those plump lips to whisper my name.

“For fuck’s sake, please go!” I ordered, giving her my back.

I expected her to jump and scramble away from me, tucking her tail and running like she seemed to do so often.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

A laugh bubbled from her throat. A real, honest-to-God, schoolgirl giggle.

Planting my hands at my hips, I turned back to face her and eyed her suspiciously.

“You’re freaking out,” she declared.

My eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me?”

She smiled, and it was hands down the most spectacular thing I’d ever witnessed.

“Holy shit, Jude. You’re freaking out.”

I was. Absolutely. One hundred percent.

Mainly because I was being a dick…again. And, now, she was looking up at me while smiling wider than I’d ever thought a mouth could be stretched.

“It’s okay to freak out sometimes.” She swung a finger toward the door I’d had her pinned against. “When something feels that right, it’s bound to make you question all the things you thought you knew. Don’t try to explain it. Or understand it. You just have to feel it.”

I blinked. What the fuck was this woman talking about?

And how was her read on this situation so accurate?

“You’re crazy,” I informed, because I was starting to think she really was.

She aimed that brilliant, white smile in my direction and coupled it with a wink.

A. Fucking. Wink.

Christ, you didn’t even have to work at Guardian to catch the crazies. Apparently, it seeped through the floors and infected the neighbors too.

“Am I, Jude?”

I raked a hand through the top of my hair. “I’m thinkin’ it’s a strong possibility.”

“Because those were the exact words you said”—she swayed her sexy, smiling face from side to side as she corrected herself—“or actually slurred to me on Friday night when I was freaking out.”

I turned to stone, but my mind suddenly found the superhuman strength to concentrate on something that wasn’t her mouth or her body. “Wait. What? I said that to you? About what? What were you freaking out about?”

She shook her head and turned to the door. Then she paused to peek at me over her shoulder. “You’re real. This guy. Friday night and again right now. It’s who you really are.” She barked an I-told-you-so laugh. “I knew it!”

Yep. Pure fucking head case.

“What does that mean?” I shouted, lunging for the door, but she was already squeezing through it. “You can’t leave me with that bullshit,” I said, following her out. “Quit playing goddamn games and tell me what the fuck happened Friday night already.”

She didn’t reply.

Someone else did though.

“Friday night?” Johnson rumbled as he suddenly appeared beside the door.





“Shit!” I yelled, jumping back at least a foot and slamming into Jude’s chest as he emerged from the stairwell. “Don’t scare me like that!” I gave Johnson a hard shove, which did absolutely nothing to move him out of my path.

But that was completely okay with me. I wasn’t going anywhere. Not after Jude’s arm had protectively wrapped around my waist.

Johnson didn’t miss it. His gaze pointedly dropped to the hand splayed across my stomach then back up to Jude. “Something I should know about Friday night?”

My huge smile returned. “Yes. Actually—”

Jude’s hand spasmed as he told Johnson, “You and me should talk. In private.”

I glanced over my shoulder and found his stoic gaze locked on Johnson.

“I’m thinkin’ that’d be good,” Johnson replied, menacingly cocking his head. “Though I’m thinkin’ that conversation should have happened before whatever the fuck happened on Friday night.”

“Agreed,” Jude replied curtly. “But it didn’t. So now’s gonna have to do.”

Wait. Wait. What?

“What conversation?” I asked, swinging my gaze between the two equally pissed-off men.

Jude’s arm tightened around me as he murmured, “Go home. I’ll be down in a little while.”

While my insides flashed warm about the idea of him being “down in a little while,” I was still confused about what Jude and Johnson were going to chat about.

And the longer I thought about it, the less I wanted said talk to happen. Johnson knew entirely too much about me. Things I’d eventually fill Jude in on. Keyword: eventually. No one saddles the new man in their life with baggage right out of the gate. And, after that little pinning-me-against-the-wall bit in the stairwell, I had every intention of making Jude the new man in my life.

“I’m not going anywhere. You two have nothing to talk about,” I announced.

“Babe,” Johnson answered at the same time Jude said, “Sweetheart.”

“Don’t alpha pet-name me!” I exclaimed. “You two have nothing to talk about. Actually, as of right this second, Jude, I forbid you from ever talking to Johnson.”

Jude’s chest got tight at my back, and when I glanced up, he was staring down at me like I had three heads.

“Never,” I confirmed just to make sure he understood the seriousness of this situation.

His eyes turned dark, and not in the sexy way—well, okay, it was still pretty sexy, but also a little scary too.

“You forbid me?” he said slowly.

“Prohibit. Ban. Outlaw. I also forbid you from listening to him. If he starts talking, you run. Got it?”

“Run?” he asked, incredulous. His expression remained hard, but when I nodded, his lips twitched.

Gorgeous.

I couldn’t afford to get lost on Jude’s mouth until I was positive my point had been made. “Sprint. Race. Dash.”

Johnson piped up. “Babe, he works for me. He can’t run every time he sees me.”

I kept my focus on Jude. And this was because he was still holding me securely against his chest and still staring down at me, but his face had softened, so I was back to having only one head.

When my cheeks heated, I hid it by looking back to Johnson. “Right, okay. Well, you work for me. So, how about this? I forbid you from talking to Jude. You can listen to him though. That should make things slightly less awkward around the office.”

Johnson stared at me blankly and announced, “I don’t work for you.”

I scoffed. “Oh, really? Did the adoption paperwork come through and I don’t know about it yet?”

Jude’s body turned to stone. “Adoption paperwork?”

Johnson smirked and shrugged. “I refused to marry her.”

Jude released me so fast that you’d have thought he’d been struck by lightning.

“Marry her?” he breathed ominously.