Free The Protector by Gennita Low

outside altars permeated the air. The clucking of hens as they moved among the humans. The sight and sounds of days gone by when she was at that desperate stage between fear and trepidation. The fear that she would be trussed out alone in the world with no income. The trepidation from knowing what she had to do to survive.
    Vivi didn’t want to be here. She felt out of place, unwelcome.
    She blamed her bad mood on the frustrating day. She was edgy from her inability to find a solution for Rose. Then she had challenged Juliana Kohl, knowing very well it was going to come back to bite her ass. But her instructions from GEM were specific. She pursed her lips as she darted a quick glance at Jazz again. He was too busy peeling another one of the girls off him.
    Jazz’s offer to beat up Rose’s father gave her an opening to vent her frustration. He was so smart, wasn’t he? Just beat up the guys at the bar, give the girl enough money for a couple of nights in the room, and all would be well. Just beat up the father, then life would be blue skies and sunshine. So she had goaded him, questioning his ability to act beyond violence.
    What he did next silenced all her inner rage. She could feel his pendant hot and intimate in the valley between her breasts. When he put his arm around her shoulders, drawing her own body against his, it caught her off guard. Then he nuzzled her hair, his breath blowing warmly where he gave her a kiss near her forehead. Through the rush of blood in her head, she heard him call her an endearment.
    Had she said there were choices? All alternatives narrowed down to a puddle of female hormones in those five seconds. She had been very conscious of the man’s sexual charisma since arguing with him at the bar, had even taken the steps to create a shield of dislike against him. She hadn’t been wrong about her instincts. The man was dangerous to awoman’s self-preservation, with those sleepy baby blues and that lazy Louisiana drawl. She’d made a mistake coming up so close; now he’d put his arm around her and like one of these girls, she wanted to slip her hand under that shirt, tuck her fingers into those pants, explore the hard body she had seen that morning. Check out and affirm those girls’ lewd observations to one another. Yeah, baby, he was as big as he was tall.
    That line jolted Vivi out of her fantasy. What the hell was wrong with her? Not only was her body flushed with sudden sexual heat, but her imagination had run off with a wet dream. She scowled. When had she lost control of the situation?
    “You can at least look more ecstatic at being my number one girl,” he murmured.
    “I have no intention of being your girl.”
    “You did say think out of the box. Now you’re mad because the girls have stopped.”
    The girls had indeed stopped touching Jazz, even though they still followed them. They appeared to accept that he had a girl with him already, and so was unable to afford them. Vivi let out a small sigh, following his lead as he maneuvered them back on the dirt path.
    There were small kids playing on top of the hood and the trunk of the car, and they made honking noises as Vivi and Jazz approached. They were still too young to care about being poor, to know about choices and alternatives. She smiled at a really tiny kid sucking on his thumb as he sat on his brother’s shoulders. He grinned back and waved his wet thumb at her.
    “Hi there,” she said, wiggling her finger at him.
    Jazz removed his arm from her shoulder and took two kids off the roof of the car. They laughed at being swirled high in the air before being set on the ground.
    “Little rascals,” he said, and laughed as one of them kicked his shoe.
    He was good with kids, she had to give him that. In fact, everything about Jazz Zeringue was too good to be true.Gentleman. Knight. Protective male. There must be something negative she could pin on him.
    “Where are their parents?” he asked.
    “Some of them don’t have