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It seemed to take ages before he must have decided the coast was clear. As he turned around to face me, he slipped the gun in the back of his waistband and reached out to run his large hands up and down my upper arms.
“Are you okay?” he asked in a low voice. “You look really pale.” Concern wrinkled his brows, and I was speechless for a moment. When was the last time someone had been worried about me?
“I… ah… yeah. I’m fine,” I stammered. “What happened?”
“There was a man in a car. It looked like he was watching you.”
My throat tightened and my heart sped up. “What?” I stepped out of his grasp to look around the parking lot frantically, as if the car was still there and I could get some answers. “Who? What kind of car? What did he look like?” My words came fast and breathy as my brain spun through possibilities and I kept looking around the lot.
Who the hell would be following me? Could it be the person or people who’d broken into my house? The person who’d broken into my car? Surely not.
“Shit,” I muttered when I didn’t see a single hint of what Saint was talking about. I turned to look at him and caught him staring at me. “Are you sure?”
“Augie, what the hell is going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“What? Nothing,” I said, clamping my mouth shut. “I’m sure it was nothing. Probably just someone lost.”
“It wasn’t nothing. And it wasn’t someone lost. A man in a silver four-door sedan was definitely looking at you,” Saint said. His voice wasn’t harsh or anything. In fact, it was sweet and concerned. As if he was genuinely worried about my safety. While that was nice and all, I didn’t need some big tough guy looking out for me. I wasn’t a wuss. I could take care of myself. That was why I was taking the lessons, after all. And as my grandfather always taught me, Stiels were strong as steel. And I’d be damned if I was going to be the first in generations to prove that assertion wrong.
I shrugged. “I’m sure it’s nothing. And if it is something—just think, maybe I’ll get a chance to practice my new moves.” I tried to smile up at him, but the creases in his forehead only deepened.
“Are you being followed, Augie?” he asked.
“Of course not,” I replied, hoping like hell I was right.
He continued as if I hadn’t said anything. “Is that why you signed up for this training? Something more than the break-in? Has someone been threatening you?”
The concern on his face caused my chest to tighten. I wanted to tell him I was scared. I wanted to step forward and lean my face into his chest. To ask him to take over watching my back so I could stop being nervous and scared for one goddamned minute.
Or lonely, for that matter.
But I wouldn’t. I couldn’t. Because Stiels were strong as fucking steel. If I’d heard it once, I’d heard it a thousand times. It was especially drilled into me by my grandfather after my dad’s murder. He’d made sure I’d understood it was my job to be the strong one for Rory’s sake. I was the one who was supposed to be strong, supposed to be brave. I was the one responsible for protecting my mother and sister once my father was gone. It was my job. And I could do it like I always had. I just needed to remember to toughen up.
I’d been an idiot to beg Saint to stay with me like I was some kind of baby.
“It’s fine, Saint. I promise,” I said. “But maybe it’s not a good idea for you to come over. This whole thing kind of ruined the mood.”
I walked toward my rental car without looking back at him.
“That isn’t your car,” he called across the space between our vehicles. “What happened to your SUV?”
Saint didn’t know about the broken car window from my jaunt to Dallas.
“In the shop,” I called back. “It’s fine.”
I ignored whatever other question he called out and got into my car to begin the drive home. It wasn’t until I was a mile away on the drive home that I realized Saint was following me in his truck. Just the idea of that control freak feeling like he needed to babysit me set my teeth on edge.
As I continued down the road, I was tempted to pull over and scream at him that I was fine. But there was a bigger part of me that wanted the tall muscled Adonis in my bed more than anything on earth. I knew I shouldn’t want him, but I did.
So fucking much.
It had been a long time since I’d had to talk myself down from being attracted to another man, but that was the situation I’d found myself in with Saint. I didn’t want to want him. I didn’t want to have to deal with this shit when everything else was blowing up in my life. Even though I was out of practice, I knew what I needed to do. Call Lanny and ask for a different trainer. Stop exposing myself to Saint. Stop tempting myself with the man I couldn’t stop fantasizing about. Forget what it felt like to touch his bare skin and take his tongue into my mouth.
