Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(10)

His finger rose and traced over her arms, making goose bumps. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

She nodded. She couldn’t hear any sounds from the outer area. The blinds were all shut in Wyatt’s office, effectively closing them off and giving them a bit of privacy.

“When I saw the crash and those guys trying to stuff you in that trunk...” His hand fell away from her. “You scared me.”

She blinked at his words, taken aback. “I scared you? I didn’t think anything could scare someone like you.”

He stared at her intently, like a snake targeting his prey. “A guy like me?”

She’d said the wrong thing. She was nervous and scared and when he was this close, she just felt hyperaware of him. Veronica shifted from one high heel to the other. She really hated these shoes. “You know what you are. You’ve seen so much. Done so much. You’ve—”

“Killed?”

There it was. He’d just tossed it right out. So she wouldn’t back down. “Yes.”

His pupils seemed to expand, the darkness taking over the green of his eyes. “Every man can know fear, but you can’t ever let that fear stop you.”

Sounded as though he had his own set of rules to follow.

“I said I’d help you.” He took a step forward. She refused to retreat. So he just got...very close to her. Her breath came a little faster. Her mouth seemed to go dry. Especially when he added, “But my help has conditions.”

“Conditions?” She had to tilt her head back to better meet his gaze.

“You hired me to find your brother, but you didn’t say anything about your own life being at risk.”

“Th-that’s because I didn’t think I was at risk.” And, dang it all, her stutter had come back. She’d tried so hard to defeat that stutter over the years, but when she got too nervous, it still slipped out. Being around Jasper, yes, he made her too nervous.

“Someone just tried to abduct you. I’d say that definitely puts you in the ‘at risk’ category.”

She tried to get him back on track. “They know my brother.”

He nodded. “Yes.”

“They’re a lead for us!”

Another nod.

She wasn’t sure where this was going, so Veronica just asked, “Are you... Do you not want to help me anymore because of the attack?” While she waited on his response, she pretty much held her breath. Don’t back away, don’t back away, don’t—

The faint lines around his eyes deepened. “I don’t back off a job, no matter what. You should remember that.”

Um, okay. She would. She tended to have a very good memory.

“The fact that you seem to be in danger, that means that I’m gonna be staying close to you, real close.”

He was already close. So close that she could feel the heat of his body against hers.

“I’ll find Cale, but I’m not going to risk you in the process.”

A mercenary with a heart? She wasn’t surprised. Cale had a good heart, too, despite what the rest of the world seemed to think.

“Will you trust me?” Jasper asked her.

She nodded. At this point, he was the only one she could trust. No one else had been willing to help her. Only Jasper.

His pupils had definitely gotten bigger. They almost swallowed the green of his eyes. “Good.” Then his fingers were under her chin. His head was bending toward her.

Was he...was he about to kiss her?

Veronica was pretty sure she’d had this dream once, only she hadn’t been recovering from a near kidnapping in the dream.

“I won’t let you get hurt,” he promised. His voice was rough and dark, the way that she thought it would sound when he was in bed with a woman, whispering in the night.

Her gaze fell to his mouth.

She wanted him to kiss her.

She arched toward him. Maybe she even rose onto her tiptoes.

He wasn’t closing the distance between them.

I want to kiss him. Maybe it was the adrenaline and the fear still pumping through her. Whatever it was, in that one instant, Veronica felt a little bit wild.

Wild enough to curl her hands around his shoulders. To pull him down against her and to press her lips against his. His lips were firm and a little cool. And they were opening beneath hers. She’d initiated the kiss, but Jasper quickly took over. His lips hardened on hers, and his tongue swept inside her mouth, sliding right past her lips. He didn’t rush the kiss. Didn’t try to take too much from her, too fast. He explored. He tasted. He made her knees feel a little bit weak, and he made her smell smoke.

Smell...smoke?

Jasper pulled his head away from hers. “What the hell?”

He whirled away and yanked open the office door. Over his shoulder, Veronica caught a glimpse of Wyatt rushing toward them.

“Get out of here!” Wyatt yelled. He had keys in his hand. “The storage room in the back is burning!”

Then Veronica heard the crackles of flames.

An explosion shook the building, reverberating with a stunning echo even as a blast of heat seemed to lance over her skin.

Before she could do more than suck in a shocked breath, Jasper was hauling her out of the office and away from the flames—flames that weren’t just in the back room any longer. The flames were spreading around the station, burning with deadly ferocity.