“I didn’t like the house being empty of you. No.”
That makes me smile, and I slide my arms around his neck. “All right, meu amor, I’ll stay right here.”
Chapter
Twenty-One
Igauzu Falls, Brazil
ZOE
Ithought Rio would be my favorite place in Brazil, and I did love it, but the stunning mountain top house overlooking Igauzu Falls is the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life.
Technically Connor is in Brazil on business, but in Rio he made time to sightsee with me and to go out at night. The music and dancing were fantastic, and it was so much fun. Being on vacation with him is wonderful.
The house over the falls is surreal. Morning mist greets me when I go out onto the deck to do yoga. The canopy of green stretches as far as the eye can see in one direction. In the other, there’s the massive range of roaring waterfalls. Here, nature is king.
“Morning. Sorry,” someone says.
I straighten and turn to find Derrick Miller on the top step just below the deck’s platform. He has binoculars in his hand.
“It’s all right.” I quickly grab my robe and wrap it around myself because I’m only wearing tiny boy short style undies and a camisole. I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone, except possibly C. The massive house has two wings that are connected by a stone-tiled glass corridor. None of C’s men have used the walkway to come to our side of the house, not even Sasha.
“Are you working?” I ask as he starts to turn away. “Derrick?” I grimace at my slip. Trick gave me some good advice on how to smooth things over between Miller and me. Trick said to be polite but formal with him. Because of that advice, if I call Miller by name, it’s using his last name. I think it’s helped, which is important to me. Miller has risen in C Crue and, next to Anvil, he’s C’s main bodyguard. He also routinely bodyguards me again, too.
“I can wait,” Miller says. “Please finish. I’ll come back in…thirty?”
“What do you need to do?” I ask, beckoning him up onto the deck, trying to show him that I respect the importance of his doing his job.
“Security. We scan every day at four- to six-hour intervals. I’m on this morning. Thought I’d get the first sweep done.”
“Go ahead. Please.” I move to the back of the deck with my mat to wait.
He frowns, then finally nods and goes to the wood rail. He raises the binoculars and starts what seems to be a systematic process of examining pretty much everything in his line of sight. It takes several minutes for him to move from one side of the deck to the other. Very thorough.
“All set,” he says finally, striding back to the stairs.
I don’t speak again. That was Trick’s other advice. “Be nice, but don’t try too hard to be his friend. Miller thinks it’s disrespectful to C to get too friendly with you.”
When Miller’s gone and there’s no sound but the water and the wind again, I return to my morning yoga. I’m almost finished when I hear the boards creak. Pausing in my pose, I look over to find C leaning against the rail. I close my eyes and try to concentrate. It doesn’t work. I finish my stretch and then stand.
“Good morning,” I say, crossing the deck to him.
“Why’d you stop? Because of me?”
“I was finished…or close enough.”
“You never stop dancing when I come to watch you in the studio.”
“No, that’s different. Working on choreography is kind of like rehearsal. Having people around doesn’t bother me, especially when it’s you. I like when you watch me. There’s a special energy from our chemistry. I’ve done some of my best work with you in the doorway.”
He smiles. “Yoga’s not the same?”
“With yoga, I’m trying to connect with universe in a different way. I’m searching for calm and serenity. When you show up looking so magnificent, I feel many things, but calm isn’t one of them.” My hands slide over his bare chest.
“Sorry to be a distraction, but watching you do yoga is better than porn.”
I laugh. “Come on, C. Don’t tell me that! How am I going to forget you said that?”
