Read Colin: Her Warlock Protector Book 4 for Free Online Page B

understand. But when she turned, she could see that they were alone with marble statues. One of a woman rising out of sea foam seemed to be staring right at her. The woman's smile, slight, humorous and knowing, made her blush. To hide her embarrassment, Selene jumped down on the tile. After a moment, she looked back up at Colin, who was standing in the alcove, for all the world like another statue himself.  
      “Well? Are you coming down?”
    “What were you thinking just a moment ago?”
    There was a tease laced through his voice, something that lit a warmth inside Selene that made her blush again.
    “That I didn't want to get taken to jail because we broke into the art museum?”
    “You know I wouldn't have let that happen,” he said airily. “And I don't think you were thinking about prison at all, not for a little bit there.”
    Sometimes, Selene's sharp tongue ran away with her. It would likely get her into trouble one of these days. Apparently it had decided that she was not handling this all that well on her own.
    “Well, why don't you show me what you think I was thinking about?” she asked.
    Colin grinned. Like a hunting tiger, he leapt down from the alcove to land mere inches in front of her, and she was confronted with the delicious size and shape of him all over again. She was a petite woman, and he overwhelmed her. The grin on his face was frankly predatory, and she found herself sliding backwards
    “Where are you going, Selene?” he purred. “I thought you wanted me to show you.”
    “Hmm, I'm thinking about it.”  
    She backed up, and he followed her. In just a moment, she knew that she was going to let him catch up with her. But then a loud alarm started to wail. Selene nearly jumped out of her skin. Only too late did she realize that she must have crossed some kind of laser tripwire.
    Colin cursed, and she instantly wrapped herself around him again. They appeared in the middle of a tropical jungle.
    “Did…did you take us to South America?”
    Above them, a bird twittered a happy song, and Colin grinned.  
    “Nope, it's a glassed-in garden. Pretty though, huh?”
      “It's beautiful.”
    The lighting of the greenhouse was kept low, and as she ventured closer to a tree that was surely too large to be part of a mere greenhouse, she realized it was meant to evoke twilight. She turned to look at Colin, who stayed where he was, watching her with a certain smug look.
    “What?” she asked, suddenly feeling exposed and naked.
    “You,” he said simply.
    “Me what?”
    “I can take you anywhere, and it wouldn't phase you for more than a moment, would it?”  
    She laughed lightly.
    “I'm sure you could. There are places I don't want to go. Wouldn't want to go to jail, I guess. I wasn't really fond of southern Illinois for some reason.”
    “But, say, Death Valley?”
    “Hell, if you could promise to bring me back, I would give you a tip.” She paused for a moment.   “Can you?”
    “Take you to Death Valley? I'd rather not. You might be of an adventurous spirit, but I almost died there a few centuries ago, and I prefer greener spots.”
    “An adventurous spirit. I think I like the sound of that.”
    Colin eyed her with something like wariness.
    “You have a look in your eye I think I am beginning to mistrust,” he said, and she grinned.
    The adrenaline from the near miss at the museum and the utterly strange night she was having made her a little giddy. That was the only explanation for why she stepped closer to him—and then closer again. The humidity of the greenhouse after the chill of the museum made her feel languorous. She reached out a slender finger towards the pin on his collar.
    “This means that your a colonel, yes?” she asked, and there was a huskiness in her voice that made his eyes widen briefly.
    “So I'm told,” he allowed. “At least everyone of a lower rank listens to me. So it counts for something.”
    “Does that mean I have to listen to you too?” she