Chapter 11I don’t have a welcome mat at my door because I’m not a liar.

-Welcome Mat

Theo

“My friend’s house burned down,” Liner said as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Do you mind if they stay here? I’m the only one with a spare room.”

I bit my lip.

Did I mind that they stayed here?

Yes.

Was I allowed to mind? No.

I was a guest, too.

I couldn’t say no.

“You can say no,” Liner said, practically reading my thoughts. “Castiel and his woman, Turner, are more than capable of getting a hotel.”

I immediately shook my head. “No. That’s fine. You can have them stay here…do I need to hide?”

He shook his head. “No. I’m not trying to hide your presence, darlin’. I’m just worried that you’re not going to do that well.”

He was right to have that concern.

I was scared of everything.

My shadow. A sound that I’d never heard before but turned out to be a dog barfing on his master’s chest.

You name it, I was scared of it.

Granted, I had a good reason for being scared, but I wasn’t going to allow myself to be this person forever. I had to start somewhere.

“Are you sure?” Liner scrunched up his face in concern, causing one side of his beard to pull up along with his cheek, making me want to smooth it back down.

I nodded, looking more confident in my answer.

“Castiel’s not going to hate you on sight,” he said softly. “He’s not like Hoax. Castiel’s a cop…he’s trained to look at the big picture.”

I smiled and he nodded his head, his hand going back up to place the phone to his ear.

When he did, a sliver of skin flashed, causing my eyes to go to his lower belly.

Only minutes before, when Liner hadn’t closed the door all the way, it’d allowed me to see a portion of his naked body as he got dressed after the mishap.

What little of it I’d seen had been beautiful. Wonderful. Sexy and hard.

God, I wanted to touch the man all over.

Which was a conflicting feeling for me seeing as I wasn’t used to having these feelings at all.

I never found anyone attractive. Hell, the one and only person I’d wanted to kiss when I was in eighth grade had been kissed by my sister first and she did it deliberately right in front of me.

I hadn’t wanted to consider him as anything other than just a guy in my class after that.

I may be willing to be someone’s second…as long as that someone’s first wasn’t my sister.

There was a line, and I drew it there.

It was thick, dark, and there was no doubt that that line was there to anybody that was made aware of it.

“What’s that look for?”

I pasted a small smile on my face, hopefully one that was enough to make me appear as if I was okay when I really wasn’t.

“Oh, nothing,” I said softly. “I was just wondering if they wanted to eat.”

His grin was every bit as hot as his abs.

Seriously…this man standing in front of me? I just couldn’t with him.

He was hot, beautiful, and everything I always prayed would help me.

And yes, I’d prayed.

I hadn’t prayed for anything but…him.

Him exactly.

Granted, I hadn’t pictured the colorful tattoos that would run up his arms and disappear into his shirt sleeves. I hadn’t figured the man’s ears would be pierced, or he’d have a tattoo on his neck. I hadn’t pictured the beard or the bulging muscles…but I had pictured a man that would protect me whether I wanted to be protected or not.

And Liner was definitely that man.

“Yeah, you can come over,” I heard him say into the phone. “You eaten yet?”

I licked my lips, trying not to continue my downward spiral of thoughts…and failed.

Why?

Because Liner sat down hard on the kitchen chair that was right next to me and brought his feet out in front of him to cross at his ankles. The next thing he did was bring his hand up to rest on his abs…under his shirt. Meaning I got an eyeful of his belly.

He had a trail of hair that led from his belly button to the waistband of his jeans. The hair there was dark and on the thicker side, surprising me because he didn’t have excessive body hair anywhere else.

I wondered if he had hair on his chest as well as his belly, or if it was just thick there.

“All right, I’ll order a couple of pizzas. See you in a bit.” Liner thumbed his phone to ‘end’ and then immediately opened up an app on his phone.

Curiously, I moved closer until he was a couple of inches away from me.

“What are you doing?” I asked inquisitively.

His eyes flicked up to me and flared for a few long seconds before he looked away, licking his lips as he said, “Ordering pizza off an app.”

Tags: Lani Lynn Vale Bear Bottom Guardians MC Romance
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