Guardian (Wolf Shifter Romance): Reckless Desires (Alpha Protectors Book 1) Read Online Free Page B

began to dim.
    “Hey! Don’t go passing out on me.” His voice was still distant, but his breath was hot on my face. He patted my cheek, his fingers rough with calluses.
    He had lovely eyes, so green and vivid and clear. No hidden secrets. No worries keeping him up at night.
    “ Shit.” I read the curse from his lips.
    Gorgeous lips, soft yet firm.
    “What?” I whispered as his brow creased. Even his frown lines were cute.
    “You’re in shock.”
    “I am?”
    He nodded, the movement pulling another wince from him.
    I struggled up to sitting, my stomach rolling as my head reeled. “Are you hurt?” My words trailed off as I got my first good look at him. And my apartment. Cole’s T-shirt was littered with holes, large swathes of fabric burned clean away. The walls… I couldn’t get my head around the mess that had once been the kitchen. A stillness settled over me, the numbness welcome.
    Without thinking, my hands flew to his chest and tugged the soft cotton up, wrenching it over his head.
    “Hey,” he protested weakly.
    “You’re hurt.”
    Large hands closed around mine. “I’m fine.”
    “No. You’re hurt. You have to be. Look at the walls.” I tried to pull my hands back. I needed him to turn around. I needed to see the damage.
    “Natasha.” He tugged me closer.
    I pulled away, craning my neck.
    “Natasha,” he repeated, this time pressing my hands against his chest. “I’m fine . See?”
    His heart thudded under my palm, his skin hot, little hairs curling against my hand. I finally looked up at him, searching his eyes for hidden pain. “You... I...” I couldn’t speak. He could have died trying to protect me. If he hadn’t been a shifter, he would have died. Actually… “How are you not hurt?”
    He let go of my hands and reached for his shirt, scrunching it into a ball. “Most of it missed me. It’s only surface wounds.” He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
    So that’s how he was going to play this? I made myself nod, as though accepting his sorry-ass excuse for an explanation as truth. He wasn’t hurt, so why did it matter if he lied to me?
    But he’d proved one thing—he could protect me. That moment in his arms had been the safest I’d ever felt. Ever. Apart from the whole not being able to breathe thing of course.
    I looked down, unable to stand the fact that he wouldn’t look at me. I found myself staring at the most delicious chest I had ever seen, and I’d worked with some of the highest paid models and movie stars in the business. It was exactly as I’d imagined: broad and tanned and cut with definition. The only thing my imagination had failed to conjure up was the hair. A lot of the guys in the business didn’t have hairy chests, and I’d forgotten what a real man looked like. There was nothing waxed and perfect about Cole. He was just as God had made him. Wolf and all. I was nearly one hundred percent sure he carried a wolf inside him now, with the way he moved and the glint in his eye. He reminded me of—
    “You’re staring,” he murmured, his voice husky with need.
    “I’m not.” My denial was weak and lacking conviction. Maybe because my eyes were glued to his chest. Hang on, they were traveling lower now, as if they had a mind of their own. The spattering of hair narrowed, arrowing down. The happy trail. Okay, maybe I had a concussion or something.
    “Natasha…” My name was a low growl, snapping me out of whatever spell I had fallen under. Now he was meeting my eyes, and his were burning with an intensity that threatened to set my hair curling.
    “Do you still want the job?” The question came out clipped as I valiantly tried to pull myself back together.
    He nodded, his gaze narrowing.
    “Then consider yourself hired.” I lurched to my feet, hands dusting off my clothes. “I have to finish this job, so I need you to protect me for the duration. A few different locations, shooting for print and TV, it should be finished in two weeks. Does that sound