Blacklisted (Loveless, Texas #3) - Jay Crownover Page 0,67
with dangerous promises. “Good thing I’m ready to put in the work to make sure the person I have in mind is going to be my forever home as well.”
I couldn’t form a coherent thought on the rest of the way to my apartment. He’d stunned me to silence and snatched all rational thought from my mind. It would be so easy to start spinning fairy tales around his words, but I was still scared of believing what he was telling me. Our lifestyles were so different, I couldn’t come up with a logical way they would ever seamlessly mesh. We’d been spending more time together, and I was terrified he would get bored of me after a few weeks. But he wasn’t letting me put distance between us anymore. In addition to insisting on coming with me today, he was sending clear signals that he wasn’t planning on leaving me on my own tonight.
I didn’t say anything when he followed me up the stairs to my apartment a little while later. I figured he was going to see me inside and make sure nothing had been tampered with while I was gone for the day. He was taking the whole protection thing incredibly seriously, but when I mentioned he might be going overboard he reminded me of what happened at the bar, which immediately silenced me.
The inside of my apartment was dark and quiet. I was going for the light switch and dropping my purse on the catch-all in the hallway, when suddenly I felt Shot move behind me. I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing and tried to turn so I could see. But my movement stilled when a strong arm wrapped around my shoulders and a heavy hand landed on my mouth. The chill of metal rings decorating the fingers of that hand sent a shiver racing through my body. I dug my fingers into the forearm locked across my chest and kicked at the shins pressing into the back of my legs.
I was intimately familiar with how those thick, rough fingers covered in heavy rings felt pressed against my skin. When Shot didn’t let me go as soon as I started to struggle, I shifted tactics and went totally limp in his hold.
It was easy to forget that he’d been a highly trained soldier before becoming an outlaw biker. Anyone else would’ve dropped me to the floor. Shot tightened his hold and lowered his head so he could whisper in my ear, “You need to leave the lights on when you go out and you should get better locks for your door. Anyone can break through the ones you currently have.”
Instead of nodding, I jammed my elbow back as hard as I could, hitting him in the gut and forcing out a whoosh of air. When he let me go, spinning me around so I was facing him, I pushed him with all my might, glaring at him as I pointed a finger in his handsome face.
“Not funny.” I really was far from amused.
Shot rubbed what I knew were his rock-hard abs through the cotton of his T-shirt. “Wasn’t meant to be funny. I wanted you to see how easy it would be for anyone to grab you if you don’t take precautions. I’m worried about you.”
I scowled at him. “I don’t need you to intimidate me.”
He nodded, dark hair flopping across his forehead and falling into his eyes. “Your instincts are solid. Your flight-and-fight responses seem to be pretty equally balanced. If one doesn’t work, you fall back on the other without hesitation. Those self-defense classes paid off.” He tapped his stomach again and gave me a grin. “You could do some serious damage if you really needed to.”
Frustrated at how he went about proving his point, I dragged my hands through the front of my hair and tugged. Everything about him was over the top. There wasn’t a subtle bone in the man’s big, built body. It was hard to keep up with him. He’d gone from quiet and observant while we were house hunting to an aggressive combatant in the blink of an eye.
But, there was no arguing that he got results. “Hill told Kody that they’re going to open an official investigation into Dr. Kemper and that he won’t be able to practice medicine ever again.” I met his penetrating look with a grateful one of my own. “Thank you for that.”
“Didn’t do it out of the kindness of