Wyvern Protection Unit - Chapter 9: Chapter 9

“You sigh a lot.”
“I do?”
“Yep. Wanna talk about it?”
“Um, well, the thing is, you are really good looking, Jasper,” she said, seeing she had surprised him by his expression. “But I am sure you know that. Anyway, I am an artist and I appreciate beauty, but I am afraid this situation I am in has made me a little, I don’t know, but anyway, I apologize if I was staring. I am sorry⁠—”
“Don’t be,” He interrupted. “I like your eyes on me. I like knowing you like the way I look,” he said, voice so low she barely heard him.
Did that just happen?
She wondered and shook her head. No way. That was her curse, she supposed. Eternally optimistic and frequently disappointed.
Well, at least this relationship was purely business. She just had to remember that, even if, for whatever reason, that fact depressed her.
“So, tell me, Carolina, why do you need protection?” Jasper asked, and his rapt stare made her squirm under the thick terrycloth robe she’d slipped on.
Was it her, or did his eyes just drop to her chest? She narrowed her gaze and removed the cinnamon ginger tea bag from her mug, nodding at him to do the same.
After a minute, she got up and grabbed a package of gingersnaps she’d bought from the gas station just down the mountain. Jennifer was pretty well-stocked, and Caro did like her tea, but she adored cookies.
Obviously.
“Thanks,” he said, grinning as she offered the box of sweets.
He took a handful, and she hid her surprise. So, he wasn’t a health nut.
Very interesting.
“How much do you know?” she asked, ignoring the sexual tension in the room.
She’d only been divorced a few months, but it had been years since she’d had sex. And even then, sex with Joffrey was nothing to write home about.
Sex with her bodyguard, however…
That seemed a much more interesting prospect. Jasper leaned forward and closed his eyes while he sucked in a deep, long breath. When he opened them, she noticed they were glowing.
“Holy fuck, you’re a Shifter!” she exclaimed.
Knowing about Shifters and having tea with one while daydreaming about the naughty things she wanted to do with him were entirely different things. Excitement filled her as a million questions emerged in her mind.
“Uh, yeah, about that, Jennifer said not to⁠—”
“Oh, puhleeze! Ask the woman to pose for you once in her Owl, and I have never heard the end of it! I mean, really, did she tell you the whole story?”
“What?”
“Look, I was a newbie back then, and I hadn’t perfected my sculpting technique. Besides, her eyes really are that big when she’s shifted,” Caro explained, holding up both their tea saucers for him.
“Um, I don’t⁠—”
“I still don’t see her problem, but everyone is a critic these days,” Caro huffed, but she couldn’t seem to stop. “Anyway, I made up for it with that piece she keeps on her mantle.”
“Wait, slow down a sec so I can catch up.”
Jasper grinned again, and damn, there went her hooha again. Getting all crazy for the guy, like she stood a chance. If Caro hadn’t needed new panties before, she sure as fuck did now.
“You’re a sculptor, I got that part. I take it you sculpted Jennifer, and she didn’t like it?”
“Yes, I am a sculptor—and thank you for not saying sculptress, I hate that word. It sounds like a skin disease. Anyway, I don’t know. I guess, yes, she hated it, but in my defense, I was really young. Like twelve, maybe, when I did my first study on her, and let’s just say she was not flattered.”
Heat burned her cheeks, but for some reason she kept talking, in fact, she found him perfectly attentive and enchanting.
“I’m sure anything you made was perfect.”
That crazy sexy voice of his, coupled with the certainty behind his words, had her very aware of him in the closed space of the suddenly tiny kitchen.
“Oh,” she said, hypnotized by that amber fire glowing in his eyes.
Carolina was a passionate woman. Like most artists, or at least that was what she’d always assumed. But even so, she had never had such strong feelings for a stranger before.
Sure, she knew his name, had gotten it from his credentials after she’d tazered the poor guy—and it was again confirmed by Jennifer via phone call—but Jasper Wessex was unlike any man she’d ever met.
Animal magnetism was like his own personal brand of cologne. She was drawn to him. Her ovaries were practically exploding. Her panties were soaked. What more proof did she need that she wanted him?
Dang it.
What was she going to do? It would be way too embarrassing for a thirty-seven year old divorcee to jump her smoking hot bodyguard, wouldn’t it?
“What are you thinking about over there, beautiful?” Jasper seemed to purr the words, and she felt her nipples tighten in response.
Carolina sipped her tea, willing her hormones to slow the heck down. She hadn’t even told him about her problem yet. It was only fair she warned the guy, Shifter or not.
“So, if you read the file on me, you’ll know I was in Egypt up until yesterday,” she began, waiting for his signal to continue. “While I was there, well, er, I kinda, sorta, maybe let an Ancient Egyptian Demon—whose hieroglyph resembles a giant dildo by the way—free from an old tablet where he’d been imprisoned.”
“Oookayyy. Uh, is that it?” he asked, tapping his fingertips on the table.
“Nope. Did I mention he also wants me for his princess bride?”
“What?” Jasper asked, and that time, she knew he growled.
“Yeah, so, that’s me,” she finished.
Carolina didn’t know what she expected from him.
Some laughter, maybe?
A joke.
A snarky reply.
A suggested trip to the ER to have her head examined.
But the one thing she was not expecting was for him to jump, lightning quick, out of his chair and over to her side of the table.
Yowza.
He’d gone from one place to the other in the blink of an eye. Caro hardly had time to react when Jasper pulled her into his embrace. He was repeating something. One-syllable fell from his lips, and it had her hotter than the steaming pot of tea.
She swallowed nervously.
“Mine!”
Jasper’s large hands squeezed her upper arms as he tugged her into the cradle of his enormous body. Liquid heat pooled between her thighs, and her nipples hardened painfully beneath her robe.
Caro had no time to think or react before he claimed her lips in a kiss so rough and hot, so completely sexy that Carolina dropped the thankfully empty mug she’d been holding.
She needed her hands just then. Had to use them to grab onto his incredibly wide shoulders just to steady herself.