AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Protectiveness.
Her lashes are damp and her eyes are red-rimmed. It looks like she’s been crying.
“Sh-Shepherd.” Her voice cracks. “I... I know how it looks, but IswearI... I didn’t—”
“I know,” I growl.
“Huh?” She looks up. “You do?”
She immediately looks a tad less wretched.
It’s clear she’s been beating herself up over how I’ll react.
And hell if she wasn’t right five minutes ago—if Hannah hadn’t intervened, I would have been the human volcano she’s imagining.
I would have forced her to pack up her shit and leave, effective immediately.
Now, the very thought physically hurts.
“I do,” I say, and I can’t help myself.
Everyone standing here already knows, so fuck it.
I walk around the desk and pull her against me.
Comforting isn’t something I have much practice with, but for her, it comes too naturally.
She turns her face into my chest and takes a deep, shaking breath.
Then another.
Slowly, she inhales me, and I let her take whatever she needs.
I hold her tighter, combing a hand gently through her hair, letting my fingers smooth the flyaway gold strands of her stress back into place.
“No one will hurt you. No one, Dess. I promise you.”
The worst of my days under Uncle Aidan flood back, before the military shaped my violent urges into something useful.
All I can think about is how much I want to strangle whoever did this with my bare hands.
My reputation has taken another hit, but that isn’t the first time.
That doesn’tmatter.
No, it’s the fact that if this wasn’t what she was planning, this might be enough to ruin her entirely. And without her parents’ money as a backup, she has no safety net in place.
She can’t lose her kindhearted dreams because some mysterious prick has an axe to grind with me.
I’ve seen her passion for nature and animals firsthand. I believe she genuinely cares about making an impact on this sleazy damned world.
Her breath rattles again as she struggles to hold it together.
The fury rushing through me feels so potent, my vision goes black.
The only thing I want to do right now is find the conniving asshole responsible for this and crush their windpipe.
I’m going to destroy them.
