Leo (Vigilance #3) - Silvia Violet Page 0,8

but damn if I didn’t want to rip his clothes off to find out what other secrets he had to reveal.

Ezra chose that moment to look up. Our eyes met. I kept my expression neutral, something I’d learned to do to protect myself. But Ezra couldn’t hide anything from me. His cheeks were deeply pink, his lips parted, his eyes nearly glazed over. “I…”

“Do you have a question?”

He stared at me for another moment. “Um… it asks for my driver’s license number, but I don’t have a driver’s license.”

“That’s fine. Just leave it blank.” I didn’t need his license number to find out anything I needed to know about him. I’d done a background check on him months ago when I realized he always served my table if he was working.

Ezra’s gaze dropped back to the paper, and I wanted to cup his chin and make him look at me again. I was absolutely playing with fire. I had plenty of things to do before the shop opened for the day, and I was sure Ezra would be far less nervous if I left him alone. I just didn’t want to.

He fascinated me. His vulnerability made me want to hold and protect him. I hadn’t felt that way about anyone since I’d joined the CIA. I’d only had one actual boyfriend. I’d met him in a criminology class my last year of college. I’d been fascinated by his deduction skills and by how smooth and soft his skin was.

We’d left class, and he’d hurried on ahead of me. I made him nervous the same way I made Ezra nervous. I was nowhere near as scary back then, but I’d still been big, and I never let anyone intimidate me. Some asshole frat boys started picking on him. He’d watched, stunned, as I easily knocked both of them to the ground and warned them not to get up until I was out of their sight. I’d put my arm around his shoulders and guided him away.

We were close from then on, and I always made sure he was safe. After graduation, we never saw each other again. He took a job in California, and I headed to CIA training. We texted each other at first, but the messages became fewer and farther between. A year later, I found out he’d met someone else, someone much better suited to the quiet man he was, and I tried to forget how good it had felt to have a man who needed me the way he had.

As an operative, I could be sent on a mission at a moment’s notice, and the chances of me coming back from any single mission were never all that good. The last thing I wanted to do was get involved with someone. That kind of life didn’t mix well with relationships. I took pleasure where I could but never more than once. Nothing about that had changed since I’d left the agency.

At least not until Ezra. He made me remember how much I loved having someone to protect, but I still walked straight into danger on a regular basis, and after years as an operative, I wasn’t sure I even knew who I was anymore. I wasn’t fit for a sweet man like him. Physical protection and sex were all I had to offer.

Fuck. I needed to get out of my head. “Have you had breakfast?”

Ezra looked up, seeming startled by the question. “I… No. I was going to eat something after I started my shift, or when I got a break, or—”

“You shouldn’t skip breakfast. It’s the most important meal of the day. You need fuel if you’re going to work all day.”

“I… I really was going to eat.”

I smiled at him, trying to tone down my bossiness. “Once you’re done with your paperwork, go over and grab something for us both. Have your aunt put it on my tab.”

“You don’t have to—”

“I want to.”

There was a flash of something in Ezra’s eyes. I wasn’t sure if it was fear or lust. Maybe it was both. I had to stop fucking flirting with him, but he reacted so easily, and he was just so fucking cute.

If Niall or Giorgio saw me acting like this with him, I was fucked. I was never more than polite to Ezra when we all ate at the café. I’d played a hell of a lot of roles both in the CIA and for Vigilance, but I was used to being as