Guarded by the Hero_An Older Alpha Male and Curvy Younger Woman Romance by Adele Niles

Author:Adele Niles [Niles, Adele]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Adele Niles
Published: 2019-07-30T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Cody

After so many years in the business, I knew to trust my gut.

When my instincts said something wasn’t right, I knew to prepare. And even though it had been five days since Ben had contacted Maria, I was preparing for another incident. I double-checked all of the alarms. I made sure the cameras all had fresh batteries and were aimed at doors and windows. I moved Stormy’s crate closer to Maria’s room, so she would hear if anything happened in the night.

And when Maria went to bed, I moved out to the living room to wait out the night.

Ben was dedicated, I’d give him that. It’s a shame he wasn’t choosing to be dedicated to something productive.

If he’d cared about a job as much as he cared about stalking his ex, he really could have made something of himself.

Instead, he’d chosen to be a loser. An unhinged loser.

I didn’t like calling guys like this crazy. Mental illness wasn’t usually the problem. It was entitlement, and men thinking they could get whatever they wanted without having to work for it.

Maria was obviously a woman worth working for.

She was gorgeous and smart, and while she could be sensitive, she was incredibly strong. Her fear wasn’t a sign of weakness or being overly-emotional. She was right to be afraid of a man like Ben.

But now that she had me on her side, she was gaining confidence. I could see the change in her already. Between the interview and now, she was like an entirely different woman.

A woman I still wanted to be with, for sure.

I sighed, leaning back on the couch. I kept thinking about her in that little tank top the night of the break-in. She hadn’t been wearing a bra, her nipples hard through the thin fabric.

I’d felt them against my chest as I held her.

It had been hard to keep control of myself. I’d wanted her, wanted to lay her back and show her how a real man would treat her. But she’d been too upset, and as badly as I wanted her to be mine, I didn’t want to take advantage of her.

I sighed, looking up at the ceiling of the living room.

Everything was quiet. Stormy was sleeping in her crate; Maria was probably sleeping by now, too.

Outside, everything was dark.

Peaceful.

I let myself close my eyes.

Maybe my instincts had been wrong this time.

* * * * *

I jolted awake to the sound of Stormy barking.

A second later, something shattered at the back of the house.

I leapt to my feet as the alarms started to blare. The system would alert the police for me; all I needed to do was get to the source of the sound.

When I heard Maria scream, I knew.

He’d gone straight for her, straight for the bedroom.

I ran down the hall. In her crate, Stormy was on her back feet, facing the bedroom door and barking ferociously. I ran to the door, pushing my shoulder into it and turning the knob.

It didn’t move.

Why was it

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