Bodyguard (Shifters Unbound #2.5) by Jennifer Ashley

the rest of the world.
    Elizabeth straightened her shoulders. "I said
I'd dance. Don't you have to work or something, Ronan?"
    If she thought Ellison would laugh and waltz
away with her, she was wrong. Ellison kept his gaze on Ronan. "Do
you mind?" he asked. "Promise I won't touch."
    Ronan considered a moment, then he nodded.
"Take care of her."
    "Hot damn. Come on. Before the song's
over."
    Ellison led Elizabeth off but carefully
didn't touch her until they reached the dance floor. Elizabeth
looked over her shoulder at Ronan, who watched them go, unmoving.
Ronan stared at them for a while, then he turned his broad back and
made for the entrance of the club, where he stationed himself like
a sentinel.
    Ellison could dance. He had a long-legged
grace despite his large size, and could two-step with the best of
them. He never lost the beat and led Elizabeth so she didn't,
either. He twirled her and spun with her, all with great enjoyment.
Through it all, she never lost her awareness of Ronan. The entire
club separated her from Ronan, but Elizabeth sensed him at the
door, solid as a boulder, his big arms folded, his gaze taking in
everything.
    When the song ended, another similar one
began, and Elizabeth readily kept dancing.
    "Are you the Ellison that Ronan said he'd
have help me with some carpentry?" she yelled over the music.
    "Yep," Ellison said. "Spike and me will come
by tomorrow. You close up on Sundays, right?"
    She did, but Elizabeth usually went in to
catch up on paperwork, ordering, inventory, accounts, and
everything else. "Tell me something," she said. "Why is everyone
acting like Ronan owns me?"
    "He does, if he mate-claimed you. It's hands
off for all other Shifters."
    "To keep me safe, I thought," Elizabeth said.
"Not to dictate every move I make."
    Ellison stepped in close. "Honey, we're
Shifters. It means we're horn-dogs most of the time. The minute you
walked in here, every unmated male--which is most of them--wanted
to howl. But now that Ronan's claimed you, we know we have to back
off. When you reject the claim, though, you'll be fair game again,
and we can go back to being rabid males after you. Rivals with each
other instead of friends. Until someone else beats us to the
claim."
    "Are you serious?"
    "Damn right I am."
    The dance had them part again, and Elizabeth
pondered what he'd said. She'd spent her life struggling to remain
independent, to keep from having to rely on a man for . . . well,
for anything. She'd watched girlfriends become victims to abusive
men they were certain they couldn't live without. If I
leave him, who takes care of me? they'd ask.
    Elizabeth had learned to take care of
herself. So much so that when she'd had to cut her losses and run,
she'd been able to do it. If she hadn't run, her life would have
become pure hell, and she shuddered to think what Mabel's life
would have been. Much of her decision had been for Mabel's
sake.
    Now she'd walked into a society where the
males thought nothing of saying openly, That woman is
mine. Hands off. Animals in mating season fought each other,
sometimes to the death, and Shifters had a lot of animal in
them.
    She glanced over at Sean and Andrea. They
were sitting alone in the booth now, Mabel and Connor dancing
together not far away. Sean sat against the wall, Andrea leaning
back against him in the circle of his arms, and he had his hand on
her abdomen, where his child slept. Protective, yes, but also
loving. One didn't always go with the other, in Elizabeth's
experience.
    She thought of Liam and Kim, with their
closeness, so comfortable, and Liam holding Katriona on his lap
with a look of open love. Perhaps these Shifters had discovered
something that had eluded Elizabeth all her life.
    Elizabeth looked at Ronan, who was standing
at the open door, watching people go in and out. He caught her eye
and sent her, not a smile, but a reassuring nod.
    A little warmth wound through her heart.
Elizabeth would make him pay a bit for so obviously giving her