Page 167 of Cross Checked
“I’m very threatening after sunrise too.”
I smile before I can stop myself, and his gaze drops to my mouth like the smile personally did something to him. The room changes in that immediate Cade-and-me way, the air warming despite the early morning chill, and I have one terrible second where I remember his body over mine last night, his voice at my ear, the terrifyingly honest way he said he had never felt what I made him feel.
My stomach flips.
His hand tightens slightly on my hip like he knows.
“What are you telling them?” I ask, because apparently sleep deprivation has made me brave and stupid.
His expression shifts, not darker exactly, but more focused. More captain. More man who has already spent the hours I was asleep building a plan around every threat I handed him.
“Not your story,” he says immediately. “That stays yours.”
My chest tightens.
“Then what?”
“That Dempsey is unstable. That I pushed him publicly yesterday, and he’s the kind of guy who might retaliate sideways instead of coming straight at me.”
I go still beneath the blanket.
Cade notices.
Of course he does.
His hand smooths once over my hip, grounding but not restraining. “I’m not trying to scare you.”
“Awesome job.”
His mouth barely moves. “I’m trying to keep you, Aura, and Charm from being easy targets on campus while everyone figures out what the hell comes next.”
Oh.
That lands differently.
Not boyfriend panic. Not alpha posturing. Not Cade wanting backup because he can’t handle his emotions.
For the spaces Luke already knows how to access because he has spent years being allowed too close to everything that belongs to me.
My throat goes tight before I can stop it. “Cade.”
“I’m not telling them details.” His voice stays calm, but there’s steel under it. “I don’t need to. I can tell them enough to make sure nobody lets Aura walk alone from night class, nobody lets Charm get cornered outside The Sin Bin, and nobody ignores Dempsey if he shows up around your apartment, the arena, the parking lots, or anywhere near you three.”
For a second, I can’t speak.
Because that is the thing about Cade Mercer that keeps knocking me off balance. He can be filthy and arrogant and possessive enough to make my entire nervous system consider mutiny, but then he turns around and thinks ten steps ahead in a way that makes safety feel less like a fantasy and more like infrastructure.
“You’re making a campus protection grid before coffee,” I whisper.
“I had coffee.”
“Of course you did.”
“I’m also texting Knox after practice.”
My eyes widen. “My brother Knox?”
“He’s a cop.”
