Page 22

Olivia
We stared each other down as the air grew heavy with tension. I had no idea what the actual hell, but his icy-blue eyes blazed with an intensity that I’d never seen in a man before. It was as if something switched in his mind in the span of one moment, and suddenly he was taking this whole thing personally instead of just another job. Which made no sense.
“Not leaving?” I echoed, my muddled brain grasping at the one thing that stuck out. “As in...?”
He glanced around at the open doors of the hallway. “You have a guest room?”
My jaw fell open. “What?”
He ignored that and spun around, poking his head into the room next to mine, which held a mix of a few storage boxes in the closet, my Christmas decorations, some craft supplies, and a futon. “Perfect,” he said as if to himself. “This will work.”
“Work for what?”
“You guys about done back there?” my brother called from the kitchen. “I think someone is about ready for a nap and I’m not sure how much longer I can ply her with Goldfish to keep her calm.”
Justin lifted a brow and tilted his head that way, as if already knowing it would override my argument. “Shall we go discuss it with him?”
I wanted to stomp my foot and let him know that I didn’t need my big brother to make any decisions for me, but Elizabeth’s cranky cries put that on pause. I shot him a glare, then pushed past him, ignoring the way his hard muscles felt when I did that and how his dark, spicy scent filled up the small space, making it hard to think.
In the kitchen, Cam had Elizabeth at the window, trying to distract her by pointing out birds and squirrels in the trees, but she was getting crankier by the second.
“Here. Let me take her,” I said.
She fell into my arms, and I rubbed her back as her head dropped to my shoulder. I met Justin’s gaze as he sauntered in and approached my brother.
I hummed to her as I walked out and down to her room, then slid her into bed with her favorite stuffed platypus and covered her up. I brushed the curls from her forehead as her eyes slid shut.
I pressed a kiss to her forehead and whispered, “Mama loves you.”
I watched her for a moment, but she didn’t move. All I could think about was how she’d changed my life, in all the best ways. In ways I never knew I needed it to change. And I’d do anything at all to protect her. Even consider letting a strange, sexy man sleep on the futon in my guest room.
With a deep breath, I turned and headed out to meet my fate, only to find the kitchen silent and empty.
“Cam?” I called.
I moved to the front window and peeked through the blinds. Both of their vehicles, black and imposing in their own ways, were still parked outside, making my simple blue sedan look a bit ridiculous and cheap in the driveway.
I tilted my head at the faint sound of male voices at the other side of the house. Following the murmur, I found myself at the back door, watching as Camden and Justin stood in the middle of my backyard, studying the back of my house.
Justin pointed out my bedroom window and murmured something, and Cam nodded thoughtfully.
“Care to include me in this little powwow, or is this a man club thing?” I said as I folded my arms across my chest and leaned against the doorframe.
At least my brother had the sense to look apologetic. Justin just slid those glacier-cold eyes my way, everything about him as unreadable as an iceberg.
I lifted a brow, silently demanding a reply.
“Your master bedroom window is an intruder’s dream.”
My gaze swung that way in shock. “What? No—”
“Yes.” He cut me off as he strode that way, his black boots eating up my too-long grass like it was nothing. He reached up and rattled the pane, demonstrating his point. “Old, outdated locks. Single pane. No security sticker.” His eyes flashed back to me. “Not even some shrubbery planted below to deter me if I wanted to climb inside.”
Thoughts of him climbing in my bedroom window at night filled my body with automatic heat, flushing my cheeks.
He either didn’t notice or ignored it, thank God, as he continued berating my home’s shit security. “I’ve been here less than an hour, only eyeballed the place, and already I can count at least a dozen ways someone could get to you or that baby if they wanted to.”
“Fuck,” Camden growled, shoving his fists into his front pockets.