“You’re marrying my best friend,” she reminded me.
“I am.”
“How can you not see it? What you want willneverwork? I wouldn’t mean as much to you as Coby. She would always own more of you than I ever could, and I know it’s not a competition, but it doesn’t seem fair. I’ve never done anything like this, but shouldn’t there be a balance? If you tip the scales too much one way, wouldn’t it all topple over? If I thought for one second that I could be the other woman and not let the jealousy consume me…”
She didn’t let the rest fall from her lips.
“You would say yes,” I finished for her.
“I would say yes.”
“Hunter…” I felt my frustration bubble and forced it back down. “I have to marry. It has nothing to do with wanting Coby more than you. You wouldn’t be the other woman, and I don’t care what a piece of paper says. You would be my wife as much as Coby.”
“But it’s how I would eventually feel if you married each other. I would still feel on the outside.” I felt her palm on my cheek; it was the first time she willingly touched me, so I closed my eyes to savor the moment. “Promise me you’ll keep Coby safe and make her happy when I’m gone.”
I turned my head to kiss her palm. “You don’t have to leave, Hunter. Even if you don’t stay for me, you can stay for Coby.”
“I doubt Coby wants me to stay anymore. She hates me now.”
“No, she doesn’t. Not yet. But she will if you leave.”
“Ocean, I told you I can’t stay.”
“I don’t mean for that. We both want Coby safe, but as my wife and the woman I love, she’ll be in more danger than ever. You’ve proved capable and willing to keep anything from happening to her. What if I gave you another reason to stay?”
Hunter’s hand dropped from my face as she stared at me in disbelief. “What are you talking about?”
“I want to hire you.”
The furrow in Hunter’s brows deepened, and I forced myself to let her go. “To do what exactly?”
It seemed like the entire world had gone still, waiting for my answer. “I want you to protect my wife.”
HUNTER
“Iwant you to protect my wife.”
My wife.
My wife.
Protect my wife.
“She’s still sleeping.”
The unexpected sound of Coby’s voice in the cabin startled me awake, but the responding one with a deep Chicago accent had my eyes flying open.
Protect my wife.
I reached under my pillow where my Sig was hidden.
After I had accepted his offer to act as Coby’s bodyguard, Ocean had given me some new and pretty toys to play with, which Coco kept mistaking for chew toys.
The floor was ice cold under my bare feet when I quietly climbed from the bed and pulled on my robe. Scooping Coco from the foot of the bed, I tiptoed to the door and peeked through the crack to see a man standing just a few feet away. His back was turned to me, but he still seemed annoyingly familiar. The blond hair, leather jacket, and cocky demeanor poked at my memory.
“Then wake her up, or I will. Her beauty sleep isn’t my concern. She knows what she signed up for.” I pushed open the door and slipped out with my gun aimed at the asshole’s occipital. As soon as I did, he cocked his head like a predator who knows there’s prey nearby. “Don’t you, Hunter?” The manturned to face me before I could react. “You really thought I’d let you get the drop on me a second time?”
I lowered the gun with a roll of my eyes when I saw his face. “You should have drowned.”
