Page 25 of The Monster’s Weakness

“Hey, pretty lady.” He was looking directly at her chest. It was disgusting. She was used to pigs because she was busty, but that didn’t mean she liked that kind of attention. On instinct, she brought her arm up across her cleavage.

“Excuse me.” She tried to go around him.

“Can I give you my number? I’ll show you a real good time.”

“No, I’m not interested.”

He braced his stance in front of her with an ugly grin, his friends moving in. “You don’t have to be a bitch about it.”

Her heart was racing now because his aura shifted quickly and it scared her. She always tried to be a kind person, and it hurt when people talked to her like that. No one else was around right now and she felt cornered.

“Move.”

The man glanced over her shoulder. She did too. Caleb was walking toward them, parking receipt in one hand. Relief hit her so hard her knees almost weakened.

The stranger straightened. “This your girl?”

He didn’t answer him. Caleb came directly to her, stopping close enough that the warmth of his body settled against her side. His eyes moved over her face.

“You okay?”

She nodded. “Yeah. He just—”

“I know.”

His hand settled at the small of her back. Only then did he look at the man. There was no puffing out his chest. No anger. No jealousy. No ridiculous display of testosterone. Nothing, actually.

“Step aside.” He was quiet, almost polite.

The other man scoffed, looking toward his friends as if expecting an audience. “Or what?”

He simply looked at him. Something passed between them that she couldn’t understand. The man’s smile faltered, then he moved.

“Thank you,” she breathed as they walked away.

His hand slid from her back to take hers. “You never have to thank me for coming to get you.”

She looked up at him, surprised by how completely calm he seemed.

“You weren’t even jealous.”

His thumb brushed across her fingers.

“No.”

No bruised ego, no macho confrontation. He hadn’t even raised his voice. And somehow, walking beside him, she felt safer than she ever had.

****

He waited until she was buckled in.

“I left something inside.”

“I thought you had everything,” she said.

He leaned through the open door and kissed her forehead.

“Two minutes.”