I nod. “I had seen you last year at the finals in Vegas. I was…” I clear my throat. “I’ve been obsessed… with you…”
I wait for her to jump up. To scream. To run out of the room, but all she does is tilt her head and watch me.
I continue. “You had a bodyguard, but he did a shit job. He let people get too close, and I was tired of him screwing up. I went to Grayson and told him I wanted the job.”
She bites her lip, and I can see she’s trying to make sense of it all. “Wait… so you got my bodyguard fired so you could have his job… because you’re obsessed with me?”
She’s not buying it. It’s like she’s looking for a different answer.
I lift my chin. “Yes.”
She opens her mouth, closes it, and then shakes her head. “Is this some kind of joke? Are you messing with me right now?”
Instead of answering her, I tell her everything that is on my mind. “I had to know you were safe, and I couldn’t just trust your safety to someone else.”
She holds her hands together on her lap. “So you got the job to keep me safe… is that it?”
I nod. “Yes.”
She rolls her hand in front of her, “Okay… and…”
I cross my arms over my chest to stop from reaching for her. “And, well, you’re too young for me.”
She leans away from me. “I’m too young for you?”
I nod. “Yes. Too… well… everything for me.”
She throws her hands up in the air. “I don’t even know what that means.”
I stand up and put some distance between us. I lean against the open door. “I didn’t take this job for any other reason than to make sure you’re protected.”
She stands up, and I tense, waiting and anticipating if she’s going to come closer. She tilts her head, watching me. “So I just want to make sure I got this right.”
I nod.
She takes a step toward me, and I press my back to the door. She smiles softly, as if she’s just discovered something. She moves closer until she stops in front of me, and I suck in a breath.
Her hand goes to my waist, and I expel the air in my lungs like I’ve been holding it for minutes.
Her smile gets even bigger.
It’s almost like she knows exactly what she’s doing to me.
CHAPTER 3
LONDON
I lean my head back and look up at him. He looks like a man that is barely holding it together. “So just to make sure I got this right… You got this job to protect me. And… you’re obsessed with me.”
He tilts his head, and I swear I can hear him say “fuck it” just with the shrug of his shoulders.
He holds himself upright and tense. “And I’m too old for you. Don’t leave that part out.”
I nod and reiterate. “And you think you’re too old for me.”
He leans back as if he’s trying to put some distance between us. “I AM too old for you. So just let me do my job.”
My fingers splay on his stomach, and he bites his lip. I lean into him, and the scent of him, all manly, leather and woodsy, surrounds me. I trace a circle on his stomach. “But you want me.”
