AllFreeNovel
Share Us
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.
Seven
HANNAH
Savage knows I have a crush on him, and he avoids me like I’m carrying the plague. And that’s why Cash forcing him to be my bodyguard is the worst. First, because it’s degrading and second, because I know Savage doesn’t want to spend time around me.
He touches me and then wipes his hand off on his jeans. He gets angry when he looks at me.
I sit on my living room sofa, frozen, my mind traveling back to that night, the scent of his cedar and smoke cologne trapped in my nose.
It wasn’t that long ago. Just a couple of weeks.
Marci was upset and I took her to Longhorn’s for some girly day drinking. Jesse took her home, and he called Savage to fetch me. And after tequilas and enough cocktails to tranquilize a horse, you would think I wouldn’t remember it in painful detail.
But I do.
Oh my God, do I remember it. I cover my eyes, my cheeks heating.
Savage feeds me into the back of his SUV and leans across me, clipping on the seatbelt. I smile up at him, because, what the fuck? Why not?
He might hate me, but he’s so gorgeous, and I am so tired of holding back. So tired of wanting a man who doesn’t want me.
Why is it that the only guys who are interested in me are people like Franklin? Ugh. Men who are walking red flags, who see me as an object?
Savage peers at me. “You good?”
“You have pretty eyes,” I say, fluttering my eyelashes at him.
Savage makes a noise that might be a laugh, and his dark eyes pinch at the corners. “Tell me if you need me to stop the car. Lie down if you need to.”
“Okay.” And then I flop sideways with a sigh.
Savage gets into the car, and the engine purrs to life. I drift in and out, the SUV spinning around me, as I stare at his muscular arms, hands on the wheel of the car, his beard, the tattoos inked along his strong neck.
A while later, we park, and an influx of cool air tells me that the door is open. “We’re here,” he says, and then gentle hands lift me upright.
“Thanks,” I manage, as he unclips my seatbelt and lifts me out of the back of the SUV into his strong arms.
I loop my arms around his neck and snuggle in close, pressing my nose to his neck, inhaling deeply.
He stiffens.
