Guardian Bears: Lucas Read Free Page A

her. A nice, normal prettiness, with a cute blush on her pale cheeks.
    "Don't stare at me like that," she muttered, looking away at last. Lucas shook his head.
    "I've got to know what you look like," he said. "I'm meant to be here to protect you. I can't do that if I can't recognize you easily. Or if you attack me and run off like an idiot!"
    He hadn't meant for that last bit to come out as a snarl, but he couldn't help himself. His eye was throbbing with pain, but his pride was more injured – she really shouldn't have been able to take him by surprise like that. He wasn't looking forward to telling Marcus and Karl about that one.
    She shrank back from him again, by now edged as far back as possible into the corner of the sofa. But her eyes flashed with something other than fear.
    "I thought you were one of them ," she said, venom in the word. "I did what I had to, to get away."
    "Yeah, well, it wasn't great. If I'd been a bad guy, you'd have really been in trouble."
    "Hey, at least I hit you! Some bodyguard you are if I can give you a black eye," she snapped. Before he could reply, the flash of fire in her eyes was overwhelmed with fear, and she looked away.
    Lucas had to laugh at that, rubbing the spreading bruise. It was a bit bleak, but there was genuine humor in it. "You did, I suppose. I'm not sure you ought to remind me, though."
    "Sorry! I didn't mean that," she said. "I didn't mean to, it was just a reflex."
    Is she talking about hitting me or snarking at me about it ? Lucas didn't know and didn't care. What he did know was that he preferred that flash of anger to the meek fear she was showing the rest of the time. It showed that there was some fire in his strange client after all. For some reason, that made things better, even if she was letting that anger out at him.
    "A pretty quick reflex," he admitted ruefully. "Not much good if you can't follow it up, though. If there is someone after you, then yeah, you're going to need protection."
    He sighed, long and heavy, and sat back.
    "Look, you hired my company to look after you. You're obviously scared of something, scared enough that you ran when you saw someone coming to your door. Tell me what I'm supposed to be protecting you from."
    Her blush deepened, and she looked at the floor. "I can't tell you that!"
    Lucas found himself noticing just how cute her blush was, and frowned. He wasn't usually one to pay attention to things like that, and it annoyed him that he was getting distracted by her. Standing, he turned his back on her and walked towards the door.
    "Okay, fine," he told her, unable to keep a note of irritation out of his voice. "You hit me, you won't give me details on the mission, maybe you don't want my help. That's fine, too. We'll return your initial payment, and you can find someone more suitable. Maybe I can refer you to someone else, who won't scare you as much?"
    He stopped, looking at the front door with reluctance. As much as she didn't want him here, and he didn't want to be here, she was obviously frightened of someone – leaving her to face that danger alone didn't feel right. It took an effort to steel himself to reach for the door. If she doesn't want me here, I can't stay, he told himself.
    "Wait!" Emily's pleading voice stopped him and he turned with another sigh. She stood watching him, her bright blue eyes sparkling, and she bit her lower lip as they looked at each other. He couldn't help noticing how cute that gesture made her look.
    "I'm, I'm really sorry I hit you," she said eventually. "Let me do something about that at least. And, um, if you don't want to protect me after that I understand, maybe I can get someone else from your firm instead?"
    Lucas shook his head at that, bemused. First she wants me to go, now I have to stay? Still, it would make him feel better to make sure she was safe before he left. Taking a step back into the small apartment, he let her look at his bruised eye. She flinched as he stepped closer, but held