Page 44 of Ruthless Protector

She snorted. “Uh-huh.”

“Fay,” I warned.

She chuckled. “Well, you have to go. I’m meeting Jennifer for dinner.”

“You’re kicking me out?”

“I sure am.”

He appeared again and started up the stairs to my place. Crap. I didn’t want to talk to him. I didn’t want to see him because when I did either of those things, I wanted to do a hell of a lot more than that with him, and that was out of the question, right?

No men.

I’d promised Rebecca.

I growled under my breath when he banged on my door for a second time. I needed to get this over and done with. He’d only come back if I didn’t go over there and see what he wanted. I said goodbye to Fay and headed home.

He turned at the sound of Fay’s front door opening and closing, huge fist poised, ready to knock a third time. He watched me walk toward him, his eyes locked on mine, before dropping, going all the way to the sparkly blue flip-flops I was wearing and back up.

I heated, every part of me, and I despised my lack of control. I was stronger than that. Jude was just a man, like any other. Sure, he was capable of climbing out of a second-story windows while holding small children, but despite the evidence to the contrary, he was still just a guy.

He was just a man, like any other.

Trusting him with any part of me was a stupid idea. I could admit that he appeared to be a decent human being. But come on, no one was that nice without having an ulterior motive. People didn’t do nice shit for nothing, even if it was just for the accolades.

No one was that…good.

Who are you trying to convince?

I ignored the internal argument I was having with myself and focused on fighting my body’s intense reaction to just the sight of him. “What are you doing here?” I said, a little sharper than I’d intended.

He turned, crossed his arms, brows lowering. “Jesus, yeah, nice to see you too, babe,” he muttered.

I was being a bitch and that pissed me off. Which usually meant I felt threatened. I was self-aware enough to know this about myself. I’d been doing it all my life. So, I forcibly dialed it back. Jude had saved my ass the other night, and as much as I wanted to think he’d done it for some nefarious reason, I knew he hadn’t. I was wrong. He’d looked out for me, and he didn’t deserve a dose of my attitude, no matter how pissed off I was at my current situation.

Now I was closer, I could the tightness of his jaw, the wariness lining his face. “What’s going on? Is something wrong?”

“Yeah, a couple of something’s, actually. First, the meeting with Jethro fell through, the fucker backed out and backed off for some reason. We can only assume our covers were somehow blown. And second, my place flooded. The apartment upstairs burst a pipe, and most of my shit is fucked beyond repair.”

He stared down at me, waiting for my response.

His frustration was palpable, and he looked…tired. I didn’t know what to say. I had the strong and highly disturbing urge to comfort him, to tug him closer and, shit…hug him. I spun away, unable to look into his eyes a moment longer, and unlocked the door. “That sucks,” I said, which I knew was completely inadequate, but all I could manage with the way my throat was tightening, with the way unwanted emotions for him were bombarding me.

He followed me down to the kitchen. “Tilly’s at school?” he asked when I turned to face him again.

Yeah, he looked tired, but damn, he also looked really, really good. “Yep.”

He dipped his chin, and his jaw worked again as he looked at me, gaze darkening, heating. “Right. So, we’re all on our own then?”

I broke eye contact and walked to the fridge. “Drink?”

There was a charged silence for several seconds, then, “I’m fine.”

I grabbed a Coke, even though I wasn’t thirsty, and poured it into a glass, something I never did, but right then, I couldn’t take the tension, the…whatever that was between us, crackling and sparking whenever our eyes met.

“Willa?” he said, a question in his voice, a question I did not want to answer.

“What?” I carried on avoiding that stare, avoided him, and started putting away the groceries I’d gotten earlier. He wanted me. And God help me, I wanted him too, but the way I wanted him right then, it terrified the hell out of me.