“Who are you?” she asked quietly, bewildered by the weird, unbelievable connection, and the inherent trust she felt with him.
“Connor,” was all he offered.
“Connor.” The second his name spilled from her lips, her world went a little fuzzy around the edges and full-blown need reverberated through her blood, completely catching her off guard. Body braced against the seat, she drew a breath and inflated her lungs in an attempt to push back the feeling of light-headedness. Truthfully, what she’d suddenly felt for him was as frightening as it was exciting.
She swallowed. “Do I know you?”
Without answering, he shot a glance over his shoulder. Nicole followed the action and spotted Trent rushing from the café. The second her eyes locked on Trent’s, a foreboding shiver worked its way through her body and in that instant she realized not all was as it seemed.
She couldn’t explain it—heck, it wasn’t even logical—but as the cool air cleared her foggy thoughts, she intuitively knew that what she felt with Trent was nothing more than a superficial want. But with Connor, there was this deep-seated, genuine need that touched her soul, and it was so damn powerful it had the ability to take her breath away. It was unexplainable, crazy even, but it was there nonetheless, even if her logical brain couldn’t make sense of it.
“My friends. They’ll worry and come searching for me.”
He shook his head. “They know you’re in good hands.”
She narrowed her eyes and tried to sort through the turn of events. “What’s going on?”
“There will be time for questions later, Nicole. Right now we need to get the fuck out of here,” Connor said and floored the accelerator.
As he sped out of town, Connor turned up the heat to help keep Nicole warm, ignoring the way the warm blast angered his singed hands. Good thing he had his coat on and hood pulled up when he broke through Lucifer’s force field, otherwise his entire body would have sizzled like bacon. Sure, guardians could summon enough power to break the field, but it didn’t come without consequences.
He watched the way Nicole fidgeted, wringing her hands together as she kept glancing over her shoulder. A few times she cast him a sidelong glance, opened her mouth and then shut it again, anxiety and impatience written all over her face. As he studied her and read her emotions, it occurred to him that Nicole James had no idea what or who she was, or just how deep her abilities ran.
Yes, he planned to answer her questions and enlighten her to her destiny, just as soon as he got her as far away from Lucifer as he could, because if she wanted to live, the next few hours were going to be crucial.
But how she would react to what he told her was anyone’s guess. Would she try to flee or would she accept the hand fate had dealt her. And why was she just being discovered now?
Darkness had fallen over them as Connor turned off the road and followed an old beaten-down path into the woods, stopping the car only when he reached his safe house.
He killed the ignition and turned to Nicole, her beautiful eyes staring up at him in concern as she worried her bottom lip.
He studied her for a moment, his gaze moving over her face, her deep green eyes, plump red lips that were made for kissing and silky black hair that would feel most sensuous brushing over his body.
“Are you afraid of me?”
She shook her head, and oddly enough, her implicit trust in him seeped under his skin and warmed his darkest corners. Energy leaped between them as his glance fell over her body, his eyes taking pleasure in her soft, voluptuous curves, slim waist and long sexy legs. Despite the situation they’d found themselves in, he could feel his cock thicken, their sexual attraction palpable.
“Connor?”
The distress in her voice pulled him back and he cursed himself for allowing his thoughts to wander. Even though she was a guardian and there was a deep connection between them, now was not the time to be indulging in his wayward thoughts. He needed to get her to safety, see to all her needs and answer her questions to the best of his ability.
“Connor.” She clutched her stomach, her voice full of distress. “Your hands.”
He pulled his hands from the steering wheel and examined the burns. Nothing a little balm wouldn’t heal. “I’m fine,” he said, addressing her worries. He reached for the door handle, but Nicole’s palm on his shoulder stopped him. He turned to her, and the sincerity in her eyes tugged at his very soul.
She stared at him for a long, lingering moment, then in the softest voice, she whispered, “Let me take care of that for you.”
Connor swallowed down the raw ache of longing and worked to sound casual. “Come on. Let’s get you inside,” was all he managed to force out.
Having whisked her away without her winter coat, and dressed in nothing more than a pair of jeans and silk shirt, she looked chilled to the bone. Once inside, she followed him into his bedroom where he went to work on getting her warm clothes while he built a fire. Tucked inside his dresser drawer, he found her a pair of sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt.
“Put these on while I make a fire,” he said. He pointed to the room next to them. “The washroom is there if you need it.” When she nodded, Connor walked away, leaving her in private.
A few minutes later she came from the room, made a quick trip to the washroom and then plopped
