Her Guardian Angel 4-Her Angel Series by Felicity Heaton

do that
with, and this time she had felt it wouldn’t end in
tears.
    He could
have been her Mr Right, but such a man wouldn’t have told her to
keep away from him. That hadn’t been in her dream of what would
happen today when she bumped into him. She hadn’t anticipated that
response at all. She couldn’t blame him though. Chatty old Mrs
McCartney next door had probably told him all about her poor choice
in men and he was telling her to keep away because he didn’t want
to get sucked into her miserable life.
    Amelia
jumped when her mobile phone rang, the jaunty tune breaking the
heavy silence as it buzzed on the table. Marcus frowned, his blue
eyes darting to it. She wanted to ignore it, knowing that it would
be Mike calling to chew her ear off about last night and make her
feel wretched for the rest of the weekend, but the ring was so loud
that people around her were staring.
    Instead
of answering, she picked it up, put her handbag on the table, and
dumped the phone into it, muffling the annoying
ringtone.
    “Why
didn’t you answer it?” Marcus stared at her bag. Amelia tapped the
table, cringing inside and wishing the phone would stop
ringing.
    “It’s my
ex.” Ignoring him was preferable to speaking with him.
    Marcus
surprised her by reaching across the table, fishing the phone out
of her handbag, and flicking it open. Amelia could only stare as he
brought the phone to his ear, his face set in grim dark lines, and
glared at the table as though he wanted to kill it.
    “I
thought I told you to leave Amelia alone?” He paused, his
expression darkening further and the muscle in his jaw tensing.
Amelia’s heart pounded hard and she wished she could hear what Mike
was saying to Marcus, because he looked close to going ahead and
breaking something. Anger radiated from him in strong waves and
everyone stared as he barked into the phone, “Stay away from her
because the next time you dare to go near her, I’m not going to be
so kind as to let you walk away.”
    Amelia’s
hands shook, her limbs trembling with them, and she joined everyone
in staring at Marcus as he clicked the phone shut and dropped it
back into her purse. What had just happened?
    He had
defended her again when she had been convinced that he wanted
nothing to do with her.
    His eyes
met hers across the table and the trace of compassion in them only
confused her further. He blinked slowly, dark lashes shuttering his
pale blue irises, stealing them from view before lifting again to
reveal the full extent of their beauty. Warmth shone in them, a
softness that reached out and curled around her, filling her with a
sense of safety even as her whole body quaked with the fear that
Mike wouldn’t heed Marcus’s warning and would come after her
again.
    “I won’t
let him near you, Amelia. You don’t have to worry about him. I will
keep you safe.” Those words, so softly spoken in his deep voice,
weren’t a lie. There was truth in his eyes and his open expression,
and she believed him.
    She just
wasn’t sure what to make of him.
    What sort
of man told a woman to stay away from him and then promised to keep
her safe?
    Marcus
was an enigma and something inside her was telling her to take his
advice and keep away from him, because if he turned out to be
another black knight and broke her heart, she didn’t think she
would recover from it.
    She
gathered her things, rose from her seat and hesitated only long
enough to catch the confusion surfacing in his eyes before making a
swift exit.

    ***

Chapter 5
    There was
no doubt about it.
    Marcus
had put his foot in it.
    Everything had been going well yesterday until Amelia had
taken hold of his hand and he had quickly withdrawn his, and rather
than making an excuse as planned, he had warned her
away.
    Instinct
had pushed those words from his lips.
    He had no
desire to get any closer to her than was necessary.
    Marcus
raked his fingers through his overlong black hair, combing it away
from his forehead, and