“I like your nose better.” Axe handed the phone back to Leanna. “She’s a pretty girl, but if that’s her, she’s mixed up with some bad people.”
“Which is why we have to find her. Gabe’s friends told me to meet them at a cantina tonight. I’m hiring one of them to guide me to the caravan Carmelita joined.”
Axe forwarded the text message to his phone. “Not you. Me. You’re staying here. I’m going.”
“They said I have to come alone.” Leanna grabbed her phone and stuffed it into her purse. “If I’m not alone, they won’t talk.”
“This picture isn’t proof of anything,” Axe said. “You take your shower, and I’m going to ask around.”
“Oh, no, I’m not letting you out of my sight.” Leanna pointed to her bathroom. “If you’re going to shower, it’s in there.”
“Thought you were going to shower.” He stood, immovable. “I’m not letting you out of my sight, either. Go ahead, ladies first.”
Leanna stood her ground, not moving an inch. “Let me get one thing straight. I hired you to protect me. You don’t get to give the orders. You don’t get to run the show. This is my daughter and my investigation. You’re supposed to be my backup, but if you can’t do the job and follow my orders, you’re fired.”
“Great. I’m fired and free to move around.” He walked toward the connecting door and unlocked it. “I’ll go my way. You go your way. I wish you good luck.”
Opening it, the arrogant ass stepped through the doorway.
Leanna expected him to slam it shut, but he left it wide open.
She walked over to give it a good slamming, but her arm refused to obey, and her eyes gaped wide open.
Axe flipped his tight T-shirt over his head and tossed it, exposing a sculpted torso with a perfectly symmetrical six-pack of abdominal muscles.
Sweat glistened over the fine hairs of his chest, and before Leanna could step back and shut her eyes, he loosened the lion-head belt buckle and dropped his pants.
Oh! Leanna’s traitorous gaze immediately fixated on a new sight to behold. His tight briefs were no match for the monstrous coil, and they rode low enough to show the sexy, tight curls of his lower abdomen.
She licked her lips, and her mouth pooled with drool. It should be disgusting. This hired hand of hers stripping like a male prostitute.
Step back and slam the door. Don’t give him the satisfaction. He’s an arrogant ass.
Said arrogant ass turned around and flexed his muscles. He swung around the stripper pole and ran his rather prominent erection against it.
Leanna felt her knees turn to jelly and her belly flood with liquid lava. Her breasts perked, and her nipples tightened. There was no harm in watching the show. After all, she wasn’t the one leaving the door open.
“Like what you see?” Axe asked, shimmying up and down the pole in a masculine way. He snapped the waistband of his briefs, and for a shocking moment, Leanna’s body sparked with lust, anticipating Axe’s monster to spring out.
Instead, he ambled toward her, arms open.
“Hold it.” Leanna held her hand out. “You’re fired.”
“Fired up all the way,” he replied.
“This isn’t what we came for.”
“I agree, but you weren’t going to let me out of your sight.”
“No, I’m not. I don’t trust you.”
What she didn’t trust were her hormones and the endless fantasies she’d harbored all these years visiting Axe’s club and admiring his backside.
“Trust this.” He took both of her hands and lifted them to his lips. “I will always have your back, Leanna. I will never let anyone hurt you or your daughter. I won’t tie you to the bed unless you want me to. I’m going to keep the car keys and your phone with me when I take a shower because I won’t let you go out by yourself. You understand?”
“I don’t take orders from you.”
“Then take this.” He kissed the backs of both hands. “A request to be reinstated.”
