“Then you have two choices. You can tell him the truth right now, or you can let him get to know you better and then confess everything to him.”
“I’m not ready to confess everything.” The fury fades from her eyes as she shifts her gaze to the floor.
“Alright, but at least let me help you pack. You can borrow some of my clothes.” Thanks to our public identities, I know for a fact that Elsa has nothing in her closet that doesn’t make her look like a librarian. “I think I might even have some new bra and panty sets.” At least someone will get some use out of them.
three
Trace
“Islept with Emberlast night.” There’s no way I heard Jack correctly. My hand is already curling into a fist, ready to knock his teeth out if it’s true.
“What the fuck do you mean you slept with Ember last night?” Anger I’ve never felt before rushes through my body. I made the mistake of letting Ember get under my skin—from her sassy words to the sadness in her eyes—I felt something inside me stir to life. And now one of my best friends, someone whose like a brother to me, had sex with her.
It's not that I expected her to be a virgin or anything, especially after I read her file that Gray sent me when he gave me the assignment this morning. “The Temptress” was the file's label. The notes he sent highlighted her as a party girl with a different boyfriend every night. He also sent strict instructions to keep her safe by bringing her back to Valor Springs while letting her continue her party lifestyle to draw out the suspect, all while living with me on my ranch.
The plan isn’t that different from numerous other assignments, except that I’ve never felt this pull for any of my other clients like I do for Ember. And none of my other assignments have lived with me in my personal space.
Now that I know Jack has been intimate with her, I want to break something—preferably his jaw.
“Wait,” Jack raises his hands in front of him, as if trying to diffuse a tense situation. His eyes flick to my hands, and I realize I’m clenching them tightly at my sides. “What I meant to say isthat I slept with Elsa last night, but she told me her name was Ember.”
“Why would she do that?” The tension leaves my body, knowing I don’t have to kill one of my best friends for touching what’s mine.
She’s not yours, idiot. She’s a job, nothing more.
“I don’t know why she did it. When I left the reception to get a drink from the bar, she was sitting there alone, looking beautiful. When she glanced my way and met my gaze with those soft, innocent blue eyes, I was a goner. Ten minutes later, she was in my hotel room, in my bed for the rest of the night, until she snuck out sometime before sunrise.”
I’ll tease him about losing her that easily someday, just not today, when a thought hits me like a ton of bricks, “Are you sure it was Elsa you were with and not the real Ember?”
“Yeah, I know for sure I was with Elsa, not Ember, last night. Even if I wouldn’t have been sure when I first saw her today, the way Elsa was fidgeting in her seat and nervously looking at me was a dead giveaway.”
“What are you going to do about it?” I’m not sure whether the question is for him or me. I want to act on my attraction to Ember, but she’s a job. My first priority is keeping her safe, not trying to make her fall for me.
“Nothing. I have a job to do.” He clenches his jaw, a telltale sign he’s fighting back strong emotions. “Besides, you know thebodyguard’s oath: never let her out of your sight, never let your guard down, and never fall in love.”
Unfortunately, he’s right. We have a job to do. And just like any other job, once it’s over, we move on to the next one and never look back. It’s best I keep myself walled off from these feelings I’m having for that sassy little curvy beauty.
But if push comes to shove and she needs some sexual relief, it will be by my hand and not anyone else’s. I just have to pray it doesn’t get that far, because I have a feeling that once I have a taste of her, I’ll need her for more than a quick fling.
As if on cue, my fiery beauty comes barreling out of her father’s study, with Elsa right behind her, her head held high as she passes by us without so much as a glance. It’s enough to chap my hide, as we say in Texas.
Refusing to let her have the last word in our standoff, I pull out my best Southern accent and call out to her retreating back, “You have fifty minutes to pack your bags and come back down here, darlin’.”
To her credit, she takes it all in stride, ignoring me completely except for the slight tension that ripples across her shoulders as she continues her march up the stairs. In that moment, I realize I am truly and utterly screwed when it comes to this woman.
four
Trace
Exactly fifty minutes later,both Ember and Elsa come strolling down the stairs, with a pair of butlers lagging behind, balancing what looks like ten suitcases between them. Ember never glances our way as she walks to the front door. I almost swallow my tongue now that I’ve gotten a good look at her outfit.
The short dress barely skims the tops of her thighs, leaving a lot of bare skin and long legs in high heels that will now be starring in all my fantasies. Along with the way her breasts are popping out of the top of her dress, I’m going to be fighting off all the guys on the plane.
Damn her parents for not letting us use their private plane.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Elsa wearing an almost identical outfit and Jack looking like he’s about to throw her over his shoulder and take her back upstairs to her room to either make her change her clothes or make love to her.
I know that if I were Jack and had a taste of Ember like he had of Elsa, I’d throw her over my shoulder, make love to her until she was too tired to argue, and then wrap her in sweatpants and one of my hoodies to mark her as mine. But I haven’t had a taste of Ember, and she isn’t mine to mark.
