Protective Beast

And I can’t believe I’m already obsessed with her.

He’s going to fucking kill me.

That’s okay. I’d die happy after seeing this beautiful angel’s face and hearing her sweet melodic voice. She’s perfect. Perfect for me. Perfect in every way.

“Do you live here with Collin?” she asks as I guide her into the kitchen.

Her cousin is the last thing I want to talk about, but I don’t want to scare her off. I want to talk about the boys that are harassing her. I want their names. I want their addresses. I want to break bones and snap necks. I can’t wait to get my fucking hands on those punks and let them know why they call me a beast.

“Collin travels a lot for work,” I say as I watch her sit down at the table. “So, he stays with me when he’s in town. This is my house.”

“Oh,” she says as she looks around at it with new eyes. Fuck, I wish I had cleaned better. I keep the house pretty spotless, but there are some dishes on the counter and I want everything to look perfect for her. It’s not every day that the girl of your dreams walks into your house and if I knew it was today, it would have looked impeccable.

“What does he do?” she asks.

“He’s a salesman for a turf company that makes fake grass for football stadiums. I think he’s in Indianapolis right now, but I’m not sure.”

“I’m sure he’s good in sales,” she says with a smile that nearly buckles me. “He was always so good with people.”

Her blue eyes drift down to the table and my breath gets caught in my throat as I watch her. She’s stunning and I bet she doesn’t know it at all.

I can’t get over her. I feel like it’s going to be torture when she leaves. How am I going to get through the night without her in my bed? How am I going to last a minute without her?

My hands keep squeezing in and out of fists as I gaze at her, my obsession growing with every passing second.

Her silky brown hair is pulled back in a ponytail that’s starting to unravel. Her eyes are insane—blue like the sky in June with an alert intelligence that lets me know she’s smarter than the girls her age. Shit, she’s probably smarter than the girls my age.

I want to do things to her. Dirty things. Things that are making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Things that are making my cock long and hard.

I step behind the counter, partly because I don’t trust myself around her, and partly because I’m getting a hard on and I don’t want to scare her away. I know I’m intimidating. I know I’m a beast. I have to be gentle with her, like a wolf trying to befriend a bunny.

“So, these guys,” I say, bringing it back to my burning curiosity. “What did they do exactly?”

She sucks in a sharp breath as she traces a circle on the table with her fingertip. “Just… you know… bullying stuff.”

I lean over the counter and her little blue eyes dart to mine. “You can trust me, Ali. I want to help you. But to do that, I need to know the truth. I need to know who these guys are and what they did.”

She opens up and tells me everything. Every shit thing that these fucking dead punks did to her. I’m livid. I’m a volcano about to erupt. I’m a raging dragon hovering over a city about to turn it to ash. I grip the counter and squeeze it so hard that the granite is about to crack.

“Please don’t do anything,” she says. “I don’t want any trouble. I just…”

“What?”

“Maybe you could pick me up from school? The football players still respect the great Elijah ‘The Beast’ Stoll and maybe if they see me with you, they’ll lay off a bit.”

“I’m picking you up every single day,” I tell her. “And dropping you off in the morning.”

Hell, I’d escort her through the hallways and have her sit on my lap during class if I could. I don’t want to spend a second away from her. I want to be around her at all times.

“Really?” she says with an innocence that shakes me to my core. “That would be so helpful. Thank you. I can pay you. I don’t have much, but—“

“I don’t want your money, Ali. Being around you is payment enough.”

I grab a pen and a pad of paper and walk over to the table. She smells so fucking good. I don’t know what the scent is, but it’s so sweet and sugary. It’s getting me hard all over again.

“Write down the names,” I tell her. “Don’t leave any of them out.”