Free Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) by Tina Folsom

in… ” Good, it seemed she wasn’t in the mood to talk to this interloper.
    He brought his hands to his front, and Aiden instantly went on alert, in case he was about to touch her. Yet, his hands held a square box about ten inches long on each side, wrapped in colored paper, a ribbon and a bow around it.
    “Just wanted to be the first one to give you a birthday present.”
    “Ohh,” she cooed. “You shouldn’t have.” Yet she took the box from his hands.
    Now get lost , Aiden wanted to growl.
    Jonathan raised his finger. “But you’re not allowed to open it until tomorrow. It’s not your birthday yet.”
    She smiled back. “Promise.” Then she paused. “I’d invite you in, but… ”
    No!
    Aiden took a few steps up toward them to interfere if necessary.
    “No, no, don’t worry, I can see you’re tired. We’ll hang out some other time.” Then he bent toward her and kissed her on the cheek. “Happy Birthday!”
    Piss off!
    “Good night, Jonathan, and thanks again.”
    She turned and disappeared back in her apartment. Aiden watched as Jonathan waited until the door closed behind her, then walked up a flight of stairs. So that jerk lived in the same apartment building. This wasn’t good. It meant he had to stay with Leila day and night, there was no way around it. He couldn’t allow this guy to slip past him.
    He put Jonathan on his mental list of people to check out. For all he knew the guy could work for the demons. He was clearly human, but that didn’t mean a thing. The demons had plenty of humans on their payroll—humans who didn’t even know who they were working for.
    The asshole had kissed her, only on the cheek, but nevertheless it was a kiss. Leila hadn’t seemed surprised by it either, as if he’d done it before. Had he?
    Aiden looked down at his hands that had balled into fists, as if wanting to hit someone, preferably Jonathan. What the fuck was making him so aggressive?
    He knew he couldn’t jeopardize this assignment and draw attention to himself, so he forced himself to relax and unclench his fists. If the council got wind of his erratic behavior, they’d take him to task. Not even his status as the son of the current Primuswould help him then. Not that it had ever helped him before: now that he thought of it, he’d never received any preferential treatment because of it. On the contrary, sometimes he felt that he was being treated harsher just because he was Primus’s son. Well, he didn’t care. Whatever they threw at him, he could handle it.
    Without another thought, he entered her apartment. Whatever was driving him, he didn’t care to analyze.

EIGHT
     
    Aiden smelled her arousal.
    Leila had taken a brief shower after finishing her dinner, a shower he had forced himself not to watch. It was inexplicable enough that he lusted after her. Watching her as hot water ran down her naked body would have snapped his control like a twig in the path of a herd of elephants. Merely imagining pearls of water trickling over her lush flesh made him wish for a dip into a frozen lake to cool down his overheated body.
    Now she lay in bed, naked, the covers pushed to the side.
    He glanced at her face, but her eyes were closed. She wasn’t sleeping yet and she wouldn’t for a while, because he knew what was coming next. Anticipation made him hard and battled with the guilt that he felt rising in his chest. Because what he was doing was dishonorable. He should give her privacy, but he couldn’t tear himself away. A better man would have left her bedroom and gone into the living room, guarding her from there. Maybe he was just as depraved as Manus. Wasn’t that what his second had alluded to a few days earlier? That given the right woman, he would disregard the council’s rules the same way Manus did?
    Or maybe rasen was controlling him, despite the fact that he was fighting its influence.
    Aiden allowed his hungry eyes to travel over Leila’s nude form: from her graceful neck and the