“I need you to not move,” he tells me. His voice is deep and rough. He should do audiobooks.
“Why?” I whisper.
“I want you to take a step toward me.”
“Why?” I ask again, reaching up to fix my tiara. It somehow managed to stay on. Grams was right; this is why you really need to have them fitted.
“There is a giant-ass cat behind you.”
“Are you serious?!” I hiss, knowing exactly who it is. What is with her lately?
“Move toward me.”
“We’ll leave in a second. I’m so sorry for all of the trouble. I’ll handle the cat. Grab my lightsaber, will you?” I tell him before spinning around. “Minnie! What did I—” I’m cut off when an arm wraps around my waist and yanks me back.
Minnie surges forward with a loud growl, baring her teeth. Holy crap, she looks so badass. When the man pulls out a gun, I almost die. I shove at him, but he’s like a giant unmovable boulder. “Don’t shoot! That’s my baby!” I tell him. “Minnie, no! Bad girl.” She freezes with one of her front paws still raised, ready to launch forward.
I hold one hand out toward Minnie and the other on the giant man's bicep. It’s bigger than my thigh. I give it a small squeeze. His attention jerks down to my hand. Minnie takes a step back.
“Sorry.” I have to fight the urge to do it again. “Is that gun real?”
“You think I’m carrying around a fake gun?”
“My lightsaber isn’t real.” I swear I can make out a slight twitch of his lips.
“You got me. It’s fake.”
I puff out a breath. “Scare tactics. I get it.” I nod firmly in understanding. It’s to spook people. “Let me deal with her,” I tell him, forcing myself to drop my hand from his bicep but not before one last small squeeze.
“This is your cat?” he asks as I step toward her. “A lynx?” I can't have that going around town or these woods. Mum's the word.
“Shh, she doesn’t know she’s one. Minnie is a normal tiny house cat. Aren't you?” I ruffle her ears, making her purr. “Now back to the house or no more ear rubbing,” I order her, pointingback the way we’d come. She lets out another loud huff but turns and takes off back toward the house. “Sorry about that. We can be a bit codependent.”
He stares down at me.
"You should put that away." I go to poke the gun, but he pulls it back before I can. "All right, I won't touch." I put my hands up. "But then you can't touch my lightsaber." I walk over and pick it up off the ground. "Who am I kidding? You can if you want."
"I'm good." He steps over toward my bags lying on the ground. A stack of cash had fallen out. I grabbed it from the safe. In case of emergency money. Plus, Mr. Gem can't track cash.
"Did you rob the place?" he asks.
I snort a laugh. "I can't rob my own safe."
"And you came from up there." He nods back toward the house. You can't see it from here.
"Yep. That's my place. I'm Teddy. You're the driver, right?"
"I drive." He shoves the money back into my bag. "Get in," he grunts, nodding toward the SUV. I turn off my lightsaber and head for the car.
"Thank you," I tell him as he carries both my bags over, putting them in the back seat for me. I pat myself down in search of my phone.
“Looking for this?” He holds it out. With the door open, the dome light reveals his face to me for the first time. I suck in a deep breath.
“Holy crap, you’re attractive,” I blurt out, making his brows rise. Probably shouldn’t have said that, but it's a little too late now.
Can you really blame me? The man has to be a handful of inches taller than six feet, making him well over a foot taller than me. I don’t think I have seen a person with such broad shoulders and muscular chest. My fingers itch to touch his jaw that's shadowed with a short beard that grew in from the day.This man is, well, all man. His eyes, however, steal the show. They’re a dark brown with gold flickering around the edge.
“I wasn’t hitting on you or anything. I mean, I wouldn’t even know the first thing about hitting on a man. And obviously you’re all man.” I can’t control how my eyes roam up and down him. “With your size, I don’t think you need a fake gun. You could wrestle a bear.” His brows manage to rise higher. “I should probably get in.”
