For Her Protection: An Alpha Romance by Amber Bardan

she sat and he didn’t, he still seemed too close. “I’m far more preoccupied with what goes on when I’m awake.”
    Her skin rippled with awareness.  Yeah, there’d been a lot to be preoccupied with while they’d been awake together. What happened in her office…
    Images flashed, hot and pulsing, and filled her with need. She still couldn’t believe she’d not only allowed that but virtually begged for it.
    In her office.
    At her work.
    “You mentioned your Mom was a single mother?” The question blurted out, but then there’s nothing like talking about a dude’s mother to keep thoughts platonic.
    He rocked back on his elbow, his lashes lowering, getting a little guarded. She’d seen his reaction at her office when they’d talked about this. A wicked little part of her wanted to see him like that again. Vulnerable and exposed . Less a caricature of the man he obviously thought he had to be.
    “Yes?”
    “She still around?”
    He scooted a little higher, no longer so lounging on her bed. “She is.”
    “You see her much?”
    His jaw worked. Would he stop talking now? Like that first night when they’d met, and he’d been so silent and sullen. Except she’d allowed him to stay in here to keep her company.
    “When I’m not on assignment.”
    Of course…He’d already been assigned to her for a month. A wash of guilt ran through her. She’d thought of her own lack of privacy when visiting her dad, but not of there being family of his that may be missing him. “Being on assignment must make it difficult to see family?”
    “I don’t usually take assignments myself anymore.” He stared at her harder, almost expectantly.
    Her skin prickled . He didn’t? Then why the freaking hell had he now? Her lungs grew tight. Her room didn’t seem big enough.
    Tension poured thick between them.
    She couldn’t take a breath that wasn’t filled with the scent of his cologne. Couldn’t think above the sound of his breathing. Couldn’t see anything outside of his expression.
    Why was he here?
    “I wouldn’t stop you from seeing your family, if you need to take some time off for a visit.”
    He blinked, and the tension thinned. “As I told you before—you won’t be getting rid of me easily, or at all.”
    Her heart rushed. He didn’t say that as he had the last time, this time there was a thread of something else—warm and almost like this was where he wanted to be.
    “I could go with you.” She sucked in her breath.
    His eyes went heavy lidded again, and something about the way his lashes lowered over his eyes made the rushing of her heart more of a flutter.
    What was it about him that made her blurt things out before she’d finished thinking them through?
    “If you wanted to visit your mother, I could go with you, like you came with me to my Dad’s today.” She broke away from his gaze and looked at hem of her pajama top.
    “You want to come with me to see my mother?” His voice dropped low, and so rich it was like the vibration reached into her belly and hummed there.
    “I mean this is just your job, but you’re a person with a life.” She picked up the edge of her top examining it at though it had come unstitched. “It’s not like I do much on weekends.”
    Other than work.
    “But, Charlie.” The rumbling texture of his words sucked her gaze back to his. “My mother lives in Leavenworth, I always stay at her house for the entire weekend.” His lips pressed together, hinting at more of a sense of humor than she’d given him credit for. “But if you want to come stay with me, I can make it happen. It’s quiet—secluded—intimate.” His lips twitched higher. “And since she spends most of her time in her button shop, it’s also private.”
    Her lungs went tight and itchy, her pelvic region heavy. She had a moment of seeing just that—the two of them cloistered away in a picturesque retreat.
    But this was reality, and a kind suggestion didn’t mean she’d gift wrap herself for