Free Guild of Truth 02 - Shield from the Heart by Mary K. Norris Page B

belt.
    Sydney ran her hands along his arms and torso worriedly. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
    Her touch set his pulse racing. His cock hardened as a wave of hunger and want flooded him. Their eyes locked and he saw an answering flash of desire swirling in her green gaze.
    Fuckin’ A.
    His hand reached for her face.
    The officer returned.
    Merrick dropped his hand. Sydney glanced away, but not before he saw the disappointment. His lungs constricted.
    “I called it in to the station. They’ll keep a look out. I didn’t get much of a look at your attackers. I’d be happy to take you back to the station so you can give a full report.”
    Merrick shook his head. They needed to make their train. “That’s much appreciated but we’d rather be on our way. Could we leave the report with you?”
    The officer took notes as Merrick described Regina and her goons down to the very last detail. He even dropped her name to give her a little extra hell.
    “And how did you learn her name?” the officer asked.
    “One of the men let it slip when they were talking to her,” he supplied helpfully.
    The officer nodded and wrote it down on his pad before flipping it shut and tucking it away. “I’m really sorry this had to happen to you two. You seem like good people.” He offered Merrick a card. “You can check in with the station to see if they get your wallet back. We’d be happy to mail it to you.”
    “Thanks.”
    The officer disappeared the way he’d come.
    Merrick headed back to Market Street, Sydney at his side. She worked her jaw, reminding him that she had been hit. His temper flared. “Come on.” He led her into a drugstore and bought a frozen bag of peas from the food section with the card she handed him.
    “What’re those for?”
    He crunched the bag in his hands. “It’s for your face.”
    They made it to the Montgomery station without incident. Merrick sought out a deserted part of the platform and took a bench. He turned to Sydney and cupped the side of her face in his hand. She shivered. He pretended not to notice as he placed the frozen peas on her jaw.
    She jerked away from the cold. “Ow. Don’t you need your own bag of peas?”
    “I wasn’t hit in the face,” he said, though the backs of his legs and his knees were aching fiercely.
    “I don’t get it,” she said. “Why’d they attack us to just run off?”
    Merrick scanned the crowd. No one was within hearing range. “I don’t think they were trying to capture us.”
    “Then what were they doing?”
    He shifted the bag against her face. “The fabric they used to cover my nose and mouth, I’m pretty sure it belonged to that Dreamer you told me about. Kevin.”
    She didn’t need any more prompting. He could all but hear the wheels in her mind turning. “That’s why they roughed you up. They wanted your emotions running high so you’d use your powers without meaning to.”
    “Roughing me up wasn’t what pushed me over the edge.”
    She blinked up at him, her head tilted slightly. “Then what’d they … oh.” Pink flushed her cheeks and she looked away. “You got upset because they were hurting me?”
    With his free hand he cupped the other side of her face so that she’d look him in the eyes. His blood rushed through his veins, his cock throbbing with repressed need. “When they touched you, I wanted to kill them,” he confessed.
    Her lips parted but nothing came out.
    He couldn’t explain why he felt this need inside of him to protect her. To claim her. All he knew was that he had to have her. That she was his. And he had to taste her.
    He dipped his head to capture her mouth with his.
    She gasped against his lips.
    He pushed harder against her, half afraid that she’d pull away.
    Fingers gently slid through his hair to grasp the back of his head. Excitement and desire spiked through him. Her lips moved under his, carefully at first before gaining more and more confidence.
    Merrick dropped the peas on their bench so he