Page 4 of Angry Lion’s Naughty Little Neighbor (Company 417 Shifters #60)

Chapter Four

Aaron

She’s reached the breaking point.

No. She’s past it. I suppose the only thing I can do is hope that this isn’t just temporary, that she really wants to turn her life around. No, it’s not the only thing I can do. The other thing I can most definitely do is stop thinking about how nice her body feels pressed against mine.

I can stop noticing how her robe isn’t really designed to cover her up when her body is twisted a bit because she’s turned in order to hold me while she weeps.

She’s half sitting and half kneeling next to me on the couch and I’ve caught flashes of her breasts and glances of her ass.

Her body is perfect.I absolutely ought to stop thinking about that, too.

Yeah, I know I saw her body yesterday. But right now, she’s so vulnerable and clinging to me—don’t get me wrong.

She was vulnerable yesterday. In some ways, she was far more vulnerable yesterday than she is right now.

Yesterday, I could have slept with her and she might not even remember it or, at least, wouldn’t remember it was me.

Yesterday she was vulnerable in a terrifying way.

Today, though, she’s vulnerable emotionally and seeking a protector and a rescuer.

Today, she’s here as exactly what I find desperately attractive.

She’s all of that but in an emotional state that would make seduction so easy!

Damn it all, I hate those thoughts even coming to my mind but as long as I have a penis, I don’t think there’s any way for me to keep thoughts like that at bay.

At least there’s not any way for me to completely vanquish them.

Vanquish. Yeah, look at the brave lion shifter who thinks not being a total asshole prick and sleeping with a girl who will regret it makes him a vanquishing hero.

That’s a great thought for me to have even though it stings.

It’s a great thought because it kind of snaps me out of concentrating on the girl’s body.

That’s a little bit of a miraculous thing, actually. After all, I’m only (mostly) human.

With my mind a little bit better on track, I can simply hold her without anything else.

I let her cry and keep talking about how she’s screwing up and then finally, she’s silent against me.

I just stroke her hair and her back. I have a feeling she might be falling asleep.

She needs the sleep, too. She needs to get through the emotional turmoil a little so that she can approach her life now with a goal to turning the things she feels right now into decisions and then making the decisions stick.

Yeah.

Here I go.

Mr. Rescuer.

And then she makes my life a whole hell of a lot harder.

At least my sense that I’m a good guy, anyway.

She pulls back, looks at me without speaking for what feels like forever but is probably only five or ten seconds, and then straddles my lap and kisses me passionately.

This isn’t a gentle, careful, tentative kiss.

This is a kiss that says she’s ready to give herself to me completely.

Right now.

Right here.

And she’s naked under her robe. I know exactly how she looks and it’s perfect.

She’s perfect.

I can’t tell you how I manage to gently push her back. The hurt in her face is almost enough to stop me but I say, “I can’t tell you how much I want what you’re offering me, Kelsey. If you meant what you said about changing your life, though, it’s not a good thing for us to do right now.”

“But you want it?” Then her eyes open wide. I realize she feels my erection pressing against my pants and then pressing against her. “You do!” she says and kisses me again.

And I feel myself responding. It’s a brief second or two, but I hate that I give in even that tiny bit. I start to move my hands up to hold her to me, and then, I switch my goal. I manage to claw back some semblance of dignity and control and take hold of her waist.

I lift her up and set her on the couch next to me. Then, I hold my hands up, anticipating her next advance. She’s almost shaking. “What’s wrong?”

Oh, too damn much. Almost everything is wrong about this.

I want to say that but, to her I say, “This is not going to happen right now.”

She puts out a hand to reach for me, but I grab it in my own and pull her arm down as gently as I can. I’m very aware that she probably reads everything as some kind of sexual game, so I disengage my hand immediately.

“Look, I’ll make a deal with you, Kelsey.”

She smiles and leans in. “Okay.”

“I am going to give you some assignments while I’m away at the fire house on my next four-day shift...”

“That’s amazing. You’re a fireman. Of course you are, noble and ...”

I block her trying to lean in again and keep talking. “These assignments are going to be things to help start you on a new path. Kelsey, this is your chance to really change things, and I need to see that you are sincere when you say that’s what you want.”

She shrugs. “Okay.”

“Kelsey, I’m not playing here. You come over here and cry in my arms about how terrible your life is and that you really want to change things and then you just push me to sleep with you. That is not a step in the right direction.”

“Oh, I don’t know, I think it’s the step I want to take right now.” She bites her lower lip and lets part of her robe slip down her shoulder.

I pull it back up. “Kelsey, that’s enough. You are either going to listen to me and decide to agree to what I’m going to ask of you, or you’re going to stand up and walk out of my door right now. What do you want to do? Change things or just fall back into the same shit over and over?”

She looks briefly like she’s going to cry and then, a small angry spark flares in her eyes. “I’m listening.”

I nod and continue, “If you complete these assignments and decide, after finishing them, that you still want me that badly, I won’t resist.”

I feel strange putting this as a deal, my attentions for this girl straightening out her life, but it seems the only motivation she has right now.

“You’re a fireman, like in all of those calendars.”

“No, I’m a fireman like in all of those fires being put out. Now, do you understand what I’m telling you?”

She stares at me for a moment and I wonder if I’ve managed to get to her at all.But then, she smiles and says, “Okay, deal...but just one last kiss until you’re back.”

She darts forward and kisses me again.