Read Online ROMANCING HER PROTECTOR by Mallory Monroe - Free Book Online

Matty.
    Yesterday, when she came to his office, she thought it was going to be all about business,
    specifically her setting him straight about hers, but it didn’t quite turn out that way. She smiled
    still at the thought of how it turned out. He made love to her twice, and she would have let
    him do her a third time if he had only asked. And the way he made love to her, including her
    first oral, still sent tingles down her spine.
    She wanted to phone him desperately. She had been thinking about him all night long.
    He even put her in his Mercedes and drove her back to campus yesterday, holding her hand
    the entire way, kissing her goodbye and promising to talk to her later.
    They’d also made a detour to a drugstore, where he purchased the morning after pill for
    her. He then suggested strongly that she get on birth control. What struck her as odd about it
    all was that they both were behaving as if they were in a full blown relationship when they
    hadn’t spoken about, or so much as mentioned, such a thing.
    Now he had given her a cell phone, something she was never able to afford on her own,
    and she was pleased to have it. Yesterday, before he made love to her again, she felt burdened
    by his gifts. Now she was pleased, which made her queasy. She knew she was operating
    more from emotion than her usual good sense, but she’d never experienced these kind of
    feelings before. Even old pros like Jessica were still fleshing out their own emotions where
    some man was involved. Shay knew it would take time for her to figure it out, too.
    But she wanted to phone Matty. But Jessica would give her no peace if she did.
    She began to walk at an angle away from Jessica, who noticed immediately. “Where
    are you going?”
    “You go ‘head on,” Shay said. “I’ll catch you up in class.”
    “You goin’ to be late, Shay.”
    “You go ‘head on.”
    Jessica rolled her eyes, but she went on ahead. Shay immediately opened the note
    again, found Matty’s number in the note, and dialed it.
    Matty was in the backseat of a limousine on the road to the airport when the call came
    in. He smiled when he saw the number. “Hello, sweetheart,” he answered.
    Shay smiled too. “Hi.”
    “Since you’re calling I take it you got the package.”
    “Yes, although I can’t afford no cell phone bill.”
    “Didn’t ask you to afford it. Where are you now?”
    “Suppose to be heading to class, only I had to ditch my roommate to call you.”
    Roommate? He didn’t know she had a roommate. “Have dinner with me Friday
    night.”
    “Dinner?” Shay asked. She loved remembering their encounters, she loved the idea of
    being with him, but the reality of it still scared her.
    “Yes, dinner. I’ve got some business to take care of in Florida, but I should be back in
    a couple of days. I very much want to see you when I return.”
    Shay’s entire body began to ache for him. She was craving him again just that fast.
    What was wrong with her? “Okay,” she said. “I guess I can catch the commuter train after
    school Friday, and I’ll see if I can get another girl to work for me that night.”
    “A car will be in front of your dorm at six p.m. sharp, Friday. All right?”
    Shay smiled. She should have known a man like him wasn’t going to have her catching
    any commuter train. “Yes, okay, Matty. I’ll be ready.”
    Matty smiled. “That’s my girl. You take care, sweetie, and I’ll see you then.”
    He hung up. Shay smiled and hung up, too. Maybe it was sex and sex alone that was
    driving his interest, and maybe sex was a big part of hers as well. But somehow she didn’t
    think that was all there was to this. Somehow she could feel, whenever she looked into
    Matty’s soulful eyes, that there was more, much more, to their attraction.

    ***
At six p.m. sharp Friday, Shay was stepping out into the warm evening air. To her dismay,
    however, Jessica was stepping out with her, on her way to the campus cafeteria for dinner.
    “Do