It was bad enough that he was alone in the house with her, charged to protect her from herself. Who would protect her from him? The only thing standing between him and running after her now, throwing her onto the nearest flat surface and burying himself in her was his loyalty to Scanguards and the veiled threat Samson had issued. If he screwed this assignment up, he’d be out. Once more, he’d be without a family.

As he stalked into the living room and slunk into the soft couch, he tried to find more reasons why he shouldn’t go up to Portia’s room and make a play for her. He came up with plenty: the girl was unstable. According to her father, she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown and was acting out. Grief for her mother had made her emotionally unbalanced. No wonder she had first looked at him as if she wanted to devour him, and in the next instant hurled insults at him. Perhaps his endearment had triggered something. For all he knew, her mother had called her baby girl.

There was no way he would get involved with a volatile woman who would probably stake him if she was in one of her moods. He didn’t need shit like that. He was here to do a job: watch her and make sure she didn’t harm herself. Her father couldn’t come home fast enough to suit Zane. The sooner this assignment was over the better. And hopefully once he’d proven to Samson and Gabriel that he could be trusted and wouldn’t derail, they’d reinstate his class A status and assign him to a real job.

Zane snatched a magazine from the coffee table and paged through it while his senses remained on full alert. He heard Portia rummage in her closet upstairs. In the bathroom next to her, a faucet dripped. The occasional car drove by the house, and a neighbor walked his dog. That reminded him of the puppy.

He’d left Z at home and set out bowls with water and dog food on the kitchen floor. He couldn’t drop off the dog at Yvette’s—yet. Samson had made it clear that the puppy was part of the deal, like it or not. For now, he was stuck with the animal, but as soon as this was over, the dog would end up right where he belonged—with Yvette and Haven. No way was Zane gonna keep him.

Chapter Seven

Portia applied the finishing touches to her makeup and glanced at her watch. She didn’t have much time left to make it to her date on time. Sneaking down the stairs and past Zane would be a wasted effort since the vampire had installed himself on the couch in such a way that he could see anything happening on the first floor. Her only chance was getting out through the window on the second floor.

While she wasn’t one for climbing, she could jump. From the window in her room down to the back yard, the vertical distance was less than fifteen feet. No big deal for a hybrid. Portia pushed the sash window up as far as it went and peered outside into the dark. Beneath it, the grass came up to the wall, allowing for a soundless landing. She wouldn’t have to worry about Zane seeing her jump either since her room was over the garage and the laundry: there was no window where she was about to land.

Portia lifted one leg out the window and caught a glimpse of her shoes. Jumping with high heels was definitely not advisable. She swiftly took off her pumps and dropped them into the grass below. They made a soft thumping sound. Portia’s heart stopped. Had Zane heard it? She kept herself motionless and stopped breathing, listening for any sound in the house, but it remained quiet.

Relieved, she swung her legs out backwards and twisted her body under the window. She cursed the sash window, because unlike a regular window, it only opened halfway, forcing her to lower herself out of it facing the wall. Her hands still on the window sill, she pushed herself away from the wall and let go. She dropped into the cold and damp grass, her knees going soft to absorb the impact. Portia smiled to herself. In a gymnastics competition she would have received a perfect ten for her landing.

She brushed her hands on her skirt and turned to gather her shoes.

Shock wasn’t the only thing that catapulted her against the wall at her back.

“Going out?” Zane asked as his hands captured her shoulders and pressed her against the siding.

With her heart stopping and no oxygen reaching her brain, Portia’s ability to respond was severely impacted. Or was it the fact that Zane’s body was only inches from hers that turned her speechless? She felt his heat as if tiny flames jumped from his body to hers, igniting her cells like kindling in a fireplace. If she didn’t stop this from happening, her entire body would go up in flames. Already now, heat traveled to all her extremities, and even her naked feet felt warm as if she were wearing bunny slippers.

But the heat wasn’t the comforting heat she knew from a cashmere sweater or a woolen blanket. The heat she felt now was consuming, engulfing, destroying. Instinct told her to stay away from this fire or get burned, but everything feminine in her rebelled against the thought of pushing him away.