Attraction, of course. But that was no surprise.
Before his mother’s death, he’d been a walking advertisement for testosterone. Bravado and a Southern charm had spilled off him in syrupy waves, and he’d had every girl in grades nine through twelve swooning.
But now, she felt…
What?
It was more than remembered attraction. More than nostalgic lust. More than mere enchantment over a pretty face and a Vin Diesel voice and body that looked as solid and as immovable as fortress walls.
Intrigued, she decided.
She was intrigued by him.
By how he had the same slow drawl despite having spent almost twenty years hell and gone from Rabun County. By how his once laughing green eyes now held deep shadows. By how he was so much the same and yet so…different.
It’d been a long time since she’d been intrigued by a man.
On second thought, had she ever been intrigued by a man?
Much to her Southern momma’s chagrin, Lura had spent the last fifteen years focused on college and her career instead of marriage and providing grandbabies. She hadn’t been a nun, by any means. But men had come and gone out of her life as easily as houseplants.
One minute, they were there and thriving. The next, they’d meet their inevitable end because she couldn’t be bothered to tend to them like they wanted or needed.
C’est la vie.
She had more important things to do. More important things to think about.
But Graham Coleburn felt…different.
More than once, she’d caught herself watching him too closely. More than once, she’d wondered how time could turn a small-town boy who’d loved fishing and football into a man who was basically the real-life version of James Bond. More than once, she’d?—
“Miss Dougherty!”
Leonard Meadows’s voice cracked like a whip through Fiona Apple’s husky voice crooning, “I’ve been a bad, bad girl.”
“Coming!” Lura called, pulling out her AirPod and grabbing her tablet. She held it in front of her like a shield as she scurried across the small room.
“Yes, sir?” After she pushed into the chief of staff’s office, she forced a bland smile and thumbed on her device, ready to take notes.
“Close the door behind you.”
She blinked. That was…unusual. He seldom asked for privacy when it was just the two of them.
After easing the door shut, she faced him again with what she hoped was a calm, composed expression.
His desk was organized chaos as usual. His posture was military straight as usual. But there was something new in the set of his jaw, in the sharpness of his eyes behind the glint of his glasses.
The hairs on the back of her neck lifted and she had to grit her teeth to keep from rubbing a hand over them.
“How was it at Black Knights Inc.?”
It was said breezily. But something about the weight of the question seemed to fill all the space in the room.
“Uhhh.” She had to stop and clear her throat. “It was…enlightening,” she finished carefully.
“Enlightening.” He rolled the word around in his mouth like he was tasting it. “How so?”
“The Black Knights are even more impressive than I imagined.”
