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Now, I’m not an idiot. I didn’t leave a hunk of genuine crystal in a juvenile delinquent’s bedroom on accident. Think of it as a sacrificial lamb with wings. Rather than wait for the kid to steal something I might not notice for a few weeks, I figured it’d be more efficient to place temptation well within reach. If she steals the damn thing, I’ll know, and she’ll be out on her ass faster than I can tell my sister, I told you so.
I reluctantly wait for Mary and the new addition to my household downstairs in the kitchen. When I hear the rumble of a car engine, I get up and open the front door. Mary climbs the steps with a store-bought birthday cake in her arms.
“Where is she?” I ask, taking the cake from her.
My sister glances back at the car. “Just give her a minute.”
I bring the cake into the kitchen where I set it on the table. When I return, I’m stunned to find an angel in my foyer dressed in denim cutoffs and a white tank top.
"Teagan, I’d like you to meet my brother, Jonah Parkes. Jonah, this is Teagan Moss.”
I’m speechless. My sister had said the girl was pretty, butprettydoesn’t even come close.
She’s drop-dead fucking gorgeous.
Honey-blond hair frames her face and falls in loose waves around her shoulders. Her wide doll eyes are a deep chocolate brown, and I’m so fucking grateful that she refuses to meet my gaze, because it means I can stare at her without making her uncomfortable. She has the poutiest lips I’ve ever seen, and though it’s the last place my mind has any right to go, I can’t help picturing those soft pink lips stretched around my cock.
Forget firm. I’m already rock fucking hard for this girl.
“Good to meet you,” I rasp, my voice thick.
Teagan nods, still refusing to look at me. It’s for the best. I slide my hand into my pocket to pin the monster down. I’m a big guy with a dick to match, and the last thing I want to do is scare the living hell out of her.
“Why don’t you show Teagan her new room while I get out some plates,” Mary says.
“Sure,” I say. “Follow me.” I head for the staircase. When I glance back to make sure she’s following, she’s closer than I expect, close enough to reach out and pinch a lock of golden hair between my fingers if I wanted to—and goddamn, do I want to.
I want to do a hell of a lot more than that.
Teagan’s eyes meet mine for the briefest of seconds, and a second is all it takes for me to come completely undone. All of my reservations about sharing my house with this girl dissolve into dust. Teagan isn’t going anywhere. Not in a week, not in a million years. My home is hers now. My house, my arms, my bed—especially my bed.
Fuck, I’m already thinking of her as mine and I haven’t even touched her yet.
She shadows me up the stairs. I turn into the guest room and step aside so Teagan can move past me. She sets her backpack on the bed and walks to the window. I study the curves of her ass and her gorgeous legs. Her shorts are so short that I can’t stop thinking about licking a long, straight line from the inside of her knee all the way up her thigh.
“Bathroom’s next door,” I tell her, praying she mistakes the huskiness in my voice for anything other than what it is: a hard lump of lust. “Towels are in the closet at the end of the hall. There’s all kinds of soap and shampoo in there, too.”
Teagan stares out the window. I’m willing to bet she’s spent her whole damn life perfecting that blank stare, reinforcing it brick by brick, a wall between herself and the world. But that wall might as well be made of glass for how well it hides the sad, scared little girl inside.
I want to reach behind those dark eyes and take that lost little girl in my arms, kiss away her worries and tell her she has nothing left to fear. I’m gonna make it my mission to learn everything I possibly can about what makes her smile. If she prefers Cheddar on her grilled cheese, I want to stock my fridge with full-sized wheels. If she’s afraid of the dark, I’ll saw through my fucking roof to build her a skylight, and fashion the walls and ceiling with glow-in-the-dark stars.
Is it too much too fast? Definitely, but who gives a fuck. Teagan needs someone to care for her just as much as I need to take care of her—with every hard, pulsing inch of my being.
That’s a hell of a lot of inches.
“Consider this house your home now,” I tell her. “You’re safe here.”
My eyes stalk her as she paces the perimeter of the room, her gaze gliding over every piece of décor. I’ve always considered myself a realist, but I know in my bones that she’s been brought here for a reason, and that reason has everything to do with me. She’s had a rough life, that much is clear. But that all ends today. Teagan’s never going to have to worry about finding a place to sleep or food to eat. She’ll never have to feel lost or cold or lonely.
And I swear to God, if any man tries to touch her, if he even so much as looks at her a second longer than I think is necessary, I’ll break his fucking neck.
She stops in front of the crystal hummingbird, her fingers hooked on the edge of the bureau. An hour ago, I would’ve assumed she was sizing up its value, but it’s obvious now that she’s simply admiring the bird’s beauty. Either way, it doesn’t matter, because from the moment she walked through the door, what’s mine became hers. She can’t steal what already belongs to her.
“Thank you,” she says. Her voice is soft as silk and a little scratchy, probably from lack of use.
I bet she sounds like an angel when she comes.
My cock flexes, leaking precum into my boxers at the thought of throwing her over my shoulder and carrying her to my bedroom like some kind of caveman. Even the slight pressure of my own hand against my shaft has my balls aching; I can think of at least three places they’d like to unload, all somewhere in the vicinity of the girl in front of me.
