“Who knew you were such a sweet-talker?” She leaned against the counter to drink her juice as he washed her dishes. “Thank you for making breakfast and cleaning up.”

He dried the plate, eyes narrow and serious. “I called Red. She and some of the girls are coming over.”

“Why?”

“I’ve got to take care of some business, and you shouldn’t be alone.”

“Diesel, there are two beefy bodyguards outside. I don’t need to bother everyone else. I’ll text them.”

“Your phone broke. The cops found it on the ground last night. I’ll pick you up a new one. You need to see the girls. They’ve been blowing up my phone. Josie’s going to drive your car over from the shop so you’ll have it. She can catch a ride home with Red.”

She crossed her arms, but it hurt her shoulder, and she winced, dropping her hands. A flash of pain shone in his eyes, like it had last night. As much as she wanted a little girl time, she didn’t want to feel like a victim any more than she already did. “I don’t need them to come over, and I can call an Uber to take me to get my car.”

“The girls are coming over, and you’re not getting in an Uber with a stranger,” he said emphatically. “And once you’re healed up, I’m going to teach you how to fight.”

He had a point about not riding with a stranger. “I know how to fight. I’ve been doing martial arts for a year and a half. I just hesitated, and there were two of them.”

“If you want to protect yourself, you’ve got to be trained the right way. Doing martial arts in a studio is great for getting the basics under your belt, but it’s worthless unless you’ve been trained to handle situations with pricks like the ones from last night.” He stepped closer, those all-seeing eyes challenging her. “Unless you’re afraid to try?”

She scoffed and lifted her chin, ready to slam him with a sassy retort, but all that came out was “Do you really think I can learn to protect myself against guys like that?”

“I wouldn’t waste my time offering to teach you if I didn’t. You may be small, baby girl, but you’re fierce.”

His belief in her bolstered her waffling confidence, and his use of baby girl brought a whole different range of emotions, and awareness, like of his thighs brushing against her.

“If you put half as much energy into learning to fight as you do into giving me hell, you’ll do just fine.” The side of his mouth quirked up with the tease, but just as quickly, that teasing smirk morphed into something darker, bringing with it a jolt of electricity.