Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents 2)

He grabbed his jeans, jerked them on and yanked his shirt over his head. He heard the rustle of Veronica dressing behind him, and he just had to turn and enjoy the view.

A virgin. That news still shocked the hell out of him, but it also...made him happy. No one else had ever seen her eyes go blind with pleasure. No one else had heard her sweet gasps when her climax hit.

“What is it?”

She’d caught him staring at her.

Clearing his throat, Jasper told her the truth. He figured she deserved a truth from him. “You’re beautiful.” And dangerous to me. So very dangerous.

A flush of heat filled her cheeks, and then a warm smile spread over her lips. “You’re pretty gorgeous yourself.”

Right. The woman had seen all his scars. Kissed them. He still couldn’t believe that she’d done that. She hadn’t been repulsed or scared. She’d just been...loving.

Perfect.

He was so messing everything up with her. He knew it. His breath rushed out. He had to talk with Logan. Get permission from the EOD powers-that-be, aka Bruce Mercer—the bigwig Mystery Man who seemed to run Elite Ops—to brief Veronica fully on the situation with Cale.

She deserved the truth.

He couldn’t, wouldn’t keep lying to her.

Veronica was dressed now and staring at him a bit uncertainly as her smile wavered.

He walked toward her with slow, sure steps. She tilted her head back to look up at him. “You aren’t what I expected,” he told her.

“Is that good? Or bad?”

Both.

“Don’t hate me, okay?”

Her brows rose. “Ah, is this typical morning-after etiquette for you? You tell a woman not to hate you because—”

“There’s nothing typical about you.” That was a big part of the problem. If she hadn’t been getting under his skin, he could have kept playing his part, and he could have stayed the hell away from her last night.

But he’d wanted her too much.

A reckoning would come soon. He’d pay for that desire.

As soon as he got her to the main house, he was calling Logan and Mercer. No more secrets. No more lies.

Jasper pulled his gun and headed toward the door. He peeked through the blinds of the nearby window, searching the area outside. Then he moved to the other windows, scanning and checking.

“Do you think someone was watching us l-last night?” she asked him, voice suddenly hushed.

Giving a quick shake of his head, Jasper told her, “No, the storm was too bad. No one was out there.” And it looked as though no one was out there now. He went back to Veronica, took her hand and led her outside.

The ground was still wet, heavy with mud, while standing water covered much of the area. Driving back to the main house would be tricky, but the truck would handle it. He cast a quick, worried glance at Veronica. He didn’t want her to have any bad memories if the truck started to slide.

She climbed into the truck, buckled her seat belt and said, “I’m fine, Jasper,” in a determined way that told him she knew exactly what he’d been thinking.

He hurried around to the driver’s seat. He secured his weapon and cranked up the vehicle. When the engine growled to life, he gently pushed down the gas even as he swept the steering wheel around in a large circle. The driving would be slow going—so damn slow—but he wouldn’t take any risks with Veronica.

His gaze swept the area up ahead. The storm had knocked over trees, sent the stream to swelling and had pretty much ravaged everything in sight.

“It’s funny,” Veronica murmured. “Once we got together, I forgot all about the storm.”

He started to smile.