Not that Cera felt she was the kind of woman to draw that level of attention from every man she met. That thought was so far off the rails it was laughable. But something had brought this man to her doorstep, and she wasn’t leaving until she knew exactly what that something was.
One corner of the man’s lips twitched as if he were fighting a grin. “You looked scared when you drove off,” the James Bond impersonator explained. “I wanted to ask you what was wrong before you left. Ishouldhave asked. But I…” He slid his hands into his pockets. With a loud exhale, he glanced away as he admitted, “I couldn’t let you drive off without making sure you were okay.”
She frowned. “So you dropped everything to come here and check on a woman you just met?”
That same corner of his mouth lifted ever-so-slightly as he shrugged one of his broad shoulders. “As crazy as it sounds, I needed to know you were okay.”
“Oh.” Her natural defenses lowered slightly. “That’s, um...”
“Sweet?”
Cera stared up at him, unsure how she should respond. If he was telling her the truth—and she had no reason to believe otherwise at this point—then what he’d donewassweet.
Sweet. Weird. Crazy, since they’d only just met. But mostly it was just…sweet.
“How long have you been here?” she asked him point-blank.
“Pulled in right after you did.” He pointed toward a slick black 4Runner parked by itself at the far end of the lot. “That’s me down here. I got here right as you were walking into your room.”
Cera followed the invisible line leading from the tip of his index finger to where he was pointing. Blacked out, equipped to the hilt, and windows tinted well beyond the legal limit, the man’s SUV looked every bit as badass as the man who drove it.
Not that she should be thinking about any of that. Because she shouldn’t.
Should. Not.
“Right.” Cera nodded, refusing to acknowledge the unwanted—and massively ill-timed—attraction she felt toward this man. “I guess that makes sense.”
“What?”
“Nothing. It’s just…for a second, I thought maybe you’d seen…” Cera let the pointless words trail off.
She’d started to wonder if he’d seen her intruder. But if he’d followed her here—and all evidence says that’s exactly what he’d done—that meant he would’ve pulled into the parking lot after her.
And after her stalker had already left.
“You thought maybe I’d seen what?” His demeanor took on an almost protective nature as he stepped closer. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
That’s right. He’d asked her what was wrong when he’d first approached her car, but she was too busy demanding to know why he was here to answer.
Even now, with her gut telling her he wasn’t a threat, Cera’s lips reflexively pressed together in a straight line. It was a second nature move meant to help keep herself—and her secrets—close to the vest.
But for the first time in over a year, she began questioning her own stubborn resolve.
If this guy worked for Jax Monroe, then maybe hecouldhelp.
Fresh out of new ideas, Cera pushed past the thick wall of trepidation she lived behind and told him about the break-in.
“Someone trashed my room,” she shared. “For a second, I thought maybe you’d gotten here in time to see who. But that wouldn’t make sense because you got here after I did, so…”
The man’s muscular form stiffened, his chiseled features hardening with an anger she didn’t understand. With his spine stalk-straight, he seemed to tower over her five-five frame even more than before.
Even his voice changed, dropping to an impossibly low, menacing tone as he asked, “Someone tossed your room?”
Cera swallowed hard, her throat working overtime to move past the knot of emotion forming as she replayed the destruction in her head.
“They destroyed everything.” She nodded. “My clothes, my shoes—”
“Get in your car and lock the doors,” he barked.