Page 2 of Her Ruthless Protector

“Oh, you do not know how evil my sisters are. Brittany shows up at my front door. She has the palest complexion I’d ever seen with stark black hair. She looks like someone who should spend her days in a coffin and her nights avoiding garlic and crosses. Hell, she’s even wearing black lipstick and black nail polish.” Cullen’s shudder soon morphed into a smile.

“I see that,” Asher Thorne said as he pointed at Cullen’s face. He’d been waiting patiently for the punch line. Asher knew Cullen as well as Kane.

“Fine, she has the lips and eyes of Scarlett Johansen and legs that went on forever. And she was wearing thigh-high leather boots that stopped just short of her stockings. Don’t get me started on the garter belt, which you could see because of her tiny mini skirt. I couldn’t decide whether to slam the door in her face or drag her inside for the night.”

“So, what are you bitchin’ about?” Kane demanded.

“I know, right? We walk out to her car,” Cullen smiled. “Being a gentleman, I let her walk first, which happily allowed me to admire the view. That’s why I was caught off-guard when she stopped at her gold Mini Cooper. I couldn’t believe my eyes.”

He paused for effect.

“Get on with it,” Raiden said.

“The damn thing is covered in raven stickers. I mean covered. Then on the hood of the car, is this huge decal of something called The Raven’s Code.”

Asher snickered.

“Oh no, it gets worse,” Cullen said as he lifted his hand. “Let’s not forget the license plate. Can you guess what that said?” he asked as he looked at each of his teammates.

“Raven?” Nick Hale guessed.

“Nah, too easy.” Leo Perez said. Leo spelled out each letter of the word RAVING, “as in, she’s a raving lunatic.”

More laughter, but Cullen was shaking his head. “First, she looked me up and down like a piece of meat and said that her license plate really fit her mood.”

Kane grinned. “CRAVING,” he said decisively.

Cullen dropped his head into his hands and groaned. Then he looked up. “Yep.”

“But still, hot and crazy isn’t always a bad thing,” Asher said slowly. “At least for a night or two.”

“For God’s sake, think it through, Asher. Crazy is a very bad thing when she’s friends with my sisters and knows where I live. Plus, I’m thirty-two, you do that kind of shit when you’re Nick’s age.” Cullen sat up straighter. “But it gets worse.”

“Regale us,” Asher pleaded.

“The car was a convertible, and damn small. I offered to drive. She laughed and said she was the only one allowed to drive her baby. Here I am, dreading having to fold myself into this tiny car, then I pull open the door to the passenger seat and get in. I shit you not, I’m confronted with a full-sized crystal wind chime hanging from the rearview mirror.”

There was no laughter in the back of the truck. Cullen was met by stunned silence, until finally Max spoke.

“You’re lying.”

“Seriously, how could I make this shit up?” Cullen asked as he hunched his shoulders. It was as if he were reliving his experience.

“What did you do next?” Nick asked.

“I’m thinking it’s time to bail. Enough of this happy horseshit, right?”

Hell, yeah. Gone. Sisters be damned. Not that he had any. But Kane knew he’d be gone.

“Then she turns to me and says, ‘Well, Navy, I owe your sisters some money, I didn’t think you’d have the guts to get in my car.’”

“She just throws down like that?” Dante asks.

“Yep.” Cullen nodded. “So, I ask her, ‘If you end up turning off men with a car like this, why do it?’”

“She says she’s separating the men from the boys right from the get-go. If a guy can’t hang with who she really is, she’s not interested.”

“Holy hell. She sounds like she could be interesting in a good way,” Raiden said.