Guardian by Kaitlyn O'Connor (ebook e reader txt) 📗

up in an apartment in the middle of the city.They would hide it out in the middle of nowhere.

So it must be something like theEinstein-Rosen bridge … or maybe a wormhole?

Which didn’t actuallyexist—for humans, but they wereconsidered scientifically possible so it didn’tfollow that no one had them.

Assuming there was other life forms inthe universe.

She snickered and then struggled withthe urge to cry.

Just when she was sure she’d crieduntil she couldn’t anymore, that she had no more tears to shed, shestarted crying again.

Jarrod wasn’t even human!

Didn’t that just figure! She’d beenwaiting her whole life for the man of her dreams.

And he was a … dragonperson.

This time she knew without any doubtat all that it was totally over between them. They weren’t going topatch up their breakup as she had secretly hoped when she’d sneakeddown to his apartment in the middle of the night.

Chapter Eleven

Marilyn roused toward awareness whenshe felt a tugging and pulling, coming fully awake when her facewas captured between two palms. She opened her eyes then, struggledto focus on the face so close to hers.

“Jarrod!” she gasped andsurged toward him, hugging him tightly.

He hesitated and then put his armsaround her and held her.

“I had the most horribledreams.”

He stiffened at that and drew awayfrom her to study her face.

“I kept dreaming you saidyou’d never speak to me again after I snooped. I’m so sorry! Ididn’t mean to screw everything up. I really didn’t!”

He scanned her face a littledoubtfully, wondering just how much she remembered. “How much doyou remember? How much have you figured out?”

Marilyn stared at him uneasily. “Well,honestly, I don’t know what’s going on. But … it couldn’t be aninvasion, could it? You wouldn’t … you wouldn’t dothat.”

His throat closed. “So … youremember?”

She chewed her lip. “Ah … yeah?” shesaid a little doubtfully.

He did not want to know, but he neededto. “You saw me?”

She heard the doubt in his voice andinstantly realized he thought she wouldn’t, couldn’t care about himif she knew he was different—which was just so far from the truth!She lifted a hand and touched his face. “You are handsome to mewith or without that thing on your head … whatever itis.”

He kissed her, long and lingeringly.When he broke the kiss he was all business. “Stay put. I have todeal with that cop.”

Dismay flickered through Marilyn. “Youaren’t going to … hurt him?” she asked when he moved to the cop onthe floor—that she thought must way twice what she did—and pickedhim up without any obvious effort and dropped him on thesofa.

“You may as well quitplaying possum. I know how long the paralyzer works.”

Dillard opened his eyes and glared athim. “Fing alien!” he growled. “Untie me!”

Jarrod crouched in front of him. “Intime. First—I am Guardian Jarowd el-Karaket, a ranger for theGalactic Alliance—Earth Division. Cop to cop-do you want to jointhe galactic rangers, assuming your application is accepted? Orwould you prefer to just disappear?”

Dillard gobbled at him a good twominutes before he managed to get anything out that actually soundedlike language. “Murdering a cop will get you the death penalty—evenif you are a cop like you want me to believe!”

Jarrod laughed. “I was nottalking about killing you, cop. I was talking about relocating youwhere you would not be a problem. I cannot have you interferingwith our witness relocation program. Or, alternately, you couldundergo a memory erase if that’s more to your liking. But wewill come to anunderstanding.”

“Witness relocation ….You’re trying to tell me that this is … an alien relocationprogram, witness protection like the Marshall’s office?”

“Yes.”

Dillard narrowed his eyes. “And ourgovernment knows all about it and they’re onboard?”

Jarrod gave him a look. “If they wereI would not have to get an agreement from you. They would just makeyou disappear … permanently.”

Dillard paled. “Okay, okay! Let methink about it. I don’t think I could handle working as a ranger. Igot a wife and three kids, and I’m pretty damned sure my wifewouldn’t like the school situation. But the memory thing—Can’t sayit doesn’t worry me, but I might agree to that.”

Jarrod studied him for several verylong moments and finally began to untie him. “I will walk you backto your car.”

Dillard chuckled uneasily. “No needfor that.”

“Oh I insist. You look alittle wobbly to me,” Jarrod said, patting him on theback.

“No. I’m fine.”

He barely got the word out beforeJarrod zapped him with something that felled him like an ox. Jarrodcaught him as he went down.

Marilyn gasped. “Oh my god! You didn’tkill him?”

Jarrod shook his head at her. “Humansare very blood thirsty. Is it common for your cops to kill people?We do not do that. No. I did not kill him. I am going to put him inhis car.”

With that, he hefted the man over hisshoulder and left.

Dillard came around when he wasjostled as Jarrod stuffed him back behind the wheel of hiscar.

He turned to look at Jarrod inconfusion.

Jarrod grinned at him, patted hisshoulder—hard—and stepped back. “Good talking to you! Have a niceday.”

Dillard gaped at him as he strode off,struggling to recall what they’d talked about. His mind wasstrangely blank. He strained, but the last thing he remembered wasparking his car to stake out the apartment building and watch forweird stuff.

He didn’t remember seeing Jarrodbefore he found him crouched beside his car window, let alone aconversation.

Shaking his head, he started his car.It was his partner’s shift and even as the thought occurred to himhe saw the guy drive up and park. Nodding, he drove off.

* * * *

Marilyn couldn’t decide whether sheshould wait for Jarrod to get back so they could finish making upor if she should leave because she was still in danger and he wasjust stringing her along.

She’d just decided that, maybe, sheknew too much to be safe and it would be better to leave whenJarrod returned.

He met her as if she was runningtoward him, not trying to escape, capturing her in a light embrace.“So … woman, what’s it going to be? Are you going to be my mate?Because I am pretty crazy in love with you and