Guardian For Hire: A For Hire Novel by Christine Bell Page B

refreshed. She applied a dab of lip gloss and some mascara just for the illusion of normalcy and pulled on the next outfit she’d found in the plastic bag of horrors—another pair of jeans that were a size smaller than they should’ve been and a tight purple scoop-neck shirt. She was lucky that her breasts weren’t big enough to pour over the top of the collar. The same couldn’t be said for the bottom half of the shirt. No matter how she turned, it wouldn’t meet the top of her jeans. Instead, it clung to her stomach, exposing a three-inch swath of skin almost to her belly button. She shot a glance down at the balled-up, bedazzled DTF shirt and sighed. Not a whole lot of options.
    So much for feeling refreshed and confident. She wiped her suddenly damp palms on her second-skin jeans and threw her shoulders back. If she was going to wear it, there was no point in skulking aroun d. What was that Lindy was always muttering to herself when she got stressed?
    Everything’s fine. Everything’s fine.
    She swung open the bathroom door to find Gavin sitting on the bed, waiting for her. He leaned back on his elbows, and the motion made his biceps bulge in a way that made her want to test one with her fingers.
    “Good, you’re all set. Right then, let’s go.” He pushed himself up and crossed the room without looking at her twice, which may have been a blessing. Tight as her clothes were, his pants were far more distracting. The dark wash skimmed his bottom, and she couldn’t keep herself from watching every tantalizing movement as he strode ahead of her. He might be the kind of guy who liked to push buttons, but clearly Mother Nature had doled out a little extra in the “Fine” department to even it all out.
    Once they were settled in the car and safely on their way, she decided it was probably time to get real and figure out what came next. “So what’s going to happen to me now?”
    “Breakfast. Like I said.” His gaze stayed locked on the road.
    “After breakfast. What then?” She tried to sound brave, but her voice cracked on the last word. Luckily, he seemed so focused on driving that he probably didn’t even notice.
    “I’ll take you back to my place. Keep you safe ‘til the whole thing blows over.”
    “Like, ‘safe’ as in locked in some kind of panic room, or what?” Her skin prickled with goose bumps and her hands went icy cold. Panic room was the perfect name for those things. Tiny space plus four walls and no windows certainly equaled panic to her.
    “No, no, of course not. You’ll have your run of the house.”
    She unclenched her fists and nodded. At least that was somewhat better. “So I’m just going to hang out there?”
    “Not all the time, no. I’ll be taking you to work with me so I can keep an eye on you. We’re going to call you my apprentice. And while we’re at it, I might as well use some of our time to teach you some basic self-defense moves. Not that I think you’ll need to use them, but it can’t hurt.”
    Visions of being sprawled on her back in a leg lock or some such with him plastered over her ran through her head and she shifted in her seat. Suddenly the panic room didn’t sound so bad.
    “You’ll be fine,” he assured her. “There’s nothing to worry about.” He parked the car and got out without sparing her a glance. She fumbled with her belt, and just when she thought he would have kept going without her, her door swung open and he was on the other side, hand outstretched.
    “Come on.”
    He didn’t strike her as the kind of guy who opened a door for a girl, and it took her aback for a second. Then his brows rose impatiently and she swallowed a grin. That was more like it. She took his hand, amazed again by how huge it was. Like a bear paw. Warm. Strong. Capable. And with such a simple touch, her fears ebbed again. If Gavin said it was going to be all right, something deep inside told her she should believe him.
    He led her into the diner up to the