“Un-fucking-believable,” I said.
She jumped, nearly spilling her cup of what I suspected was coffee onto her keyboard. “Jesus, Hayes, you almost gave me a heart attack.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “What happened to lights out at eleven? That was two hours ago.”
“Well, I’m on deadline, and your rules are throwing off my mojo, so…”
“Wrap it up, then get your ass to sleep.”
“Yes, sir,” she joked.
“Rule seven: no sarcasm.”
She rolled her eyes.
I grabbed the coffee cup from her. It was cold and half full,and the contents slopped over my hand. “Where the hell did this come from?”
She shrugged. “The lobby. I didn’t leave the building, I promise.”
I counted back from three before I spoke. “What was rule three?”
She scrunched her nose. “Was that the one about keeping my phone charged?”
I shook my head. She was pushing my buttons and doing a damn fine job of it. “You go nowhere without me, and you should be asleep.”
She pushed herself off her stomach to sit cross-legged. “You’re still awake, and besides, this is a hotel, not an author event.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “You’re a writer, so you must understand the English language. What does the wordshadowmean?”
She cocked an eyebrow.
“A shadow means I go with you everywhere. A shadow isn’t asometimesthing, Luna. ”
“Well, technically, if it’s dark—”
“Enough. Bed. Now.”
She laughed and took the cup back from my hand
Her sarcastic pushback had my dick paying attention.
Shit, did the brat thing work for me?
I couldn’t just be attracted to an average woman with a stable job. I had to get hard for the wildcard with an attitude problem.
The sound of her typing followed me back to my room. Protecting an uncooperative client was my least favorite type of assignment, so why was I letting her run over my rules on day one?
Chapter Five
Luna
“We leave in half an hour,” Hayes’s stern voice called through the hotel room door.
I pushed myself to sit, feeling the gentle throb in my temple. It was six thirty in the morning. I glanced around the room, seeing my laptop on the table. My notebook was open, with line after line of scribbles that could be either gold or gibberish.
I had done exactly what he’d told me not to do, and I wasn’t interested in hearing about it this morning.
I might not know my schedule as well as he did, but I did know there was no reason to leave the hotel at seven. My first stop was the shower.
