Screw Me Sideways

“Thank you.” She swallowed. “For everything.”

“You don’t need to thank me. What happened today shouldn’t have happened to you.”

“Why did it?”

“I don’t know.” He grimaced. “Jade, have you ever been with Nory when she’s been approached?”

“No.”

“But you know about her father and what’s going on?”

“You mean about her dad’s debt to the mob?” She sighed. “Even the students at Fletcher High know about Nory’s past. The cops around here talk. A lot of ordinary folks are on Kane Cartwell’s payroll and the locals seem proud of that fact.”

Kellan narrowed his eyes on a stack of college textbooks. “Going anywhere tonight?”

“I’m taking online classes this semester.”

“No roommate?”

“We covered that one in the garage.” Plus, he’d searched her condo so it was pretty obvious she lived there alone. At the moment, she wouldn’t mind a roommate.

“Comfortable couch?”

Or maybe not. She sort of liked where this conversation was going.

“It’s very comfortable but I’ll be fine, Kellan.”

“I’m not asking,” he said, opening up her refrigerator.

“By all means, make yourself at home.” She

was slightly miffed then. She appreciated a man who wanted to protect her but she didn’t feel all warm and fuzzy inside when one strong-armed her. She didn’t know Kellan well enough for him to open her drawers or snoop in her cabinets. And her refrigerator? That was far from acceptable.

She gulped then, remembering what she’d recently put in the freezer.

Lately she’d been quite curious and with her twenty-first birthday approaching, she’d purchased a few things to make sure she brought in the new era with a few experiments. One such test would require research and the tools for said research were right inside her freezer. Before he had a chance to open it, she stepped in front of him, blocking his view of blueberry yogurt, tofu, and fruit.

Kellan had once saved Nory’s life and she’d always found him insanely sexy but Kellan was the kind of man a young woman typically avoided. He could tear up her world with one look, one kiss, and she didn’t need a man like Kellan throwing a wrench in her plans.

Jade planned to tiptoe into the next stage of adulthood. Besides, she had a real thing for Reason. He was a cutie pie, the sexy quiet type. Kellan, on the other hand, was definitely a man’s man. The kind of guy who looked out for his own and expected that much from everyone around him.

“We’ll go to the grocery store and I’ll get us stocked up.” He placed his hand on the freezer.

She gripped his wrist. “I don’t need to go to the market. Everything I eat is—” She stopped talking as soon as she noticed how Kellan had deliberately closed the difference between them. “What are you doing?”

“Do you understand what happened to you today?” His expression was tight, serious.

Jade was still miles away but she wasn’t thinking about the incident at the high school. She needed to steer him away from the kitchen. She’d had enough nerve-wrecking moments for one day. Besides, a woman with her lack of experience didn’t typically explain why a bowl of ginger fingers and a “freeze play” dildo were the only items in her freezer. “I’m almost twenty-one and I can handle myself.”

“Because you’re almost twenty-one?” He laughed at that. “Tell me something, Jade. How would you have ‘handled yourself’ today if I hadn’t been in the parking lot?”

“But you were.”

“Yes,” he said, inching still closer. His aftershave was an Irish blend she wouldn’t soon forget. It filled her senses and made her feel vulnerable. She’d never been this close to a man. Apparently sensing her nervousness, Kellan quickly added, “And you might as well get used to it because I’m not going anywhere right away. So if you don’t want me to stay upstairs in the bedroom next to yours, then make sure you have linens for the couch. I’ll be here tonight and the night after and the night after that. Until the feds or the Cartwells or both put a stop to this madness with Nory and her father, I’m not going anywhere.”

“Why do you care?”

“Be glad someone does.”