There was a privacy fence around her house, but the only gate was at the driveway around the side. It wouldn’t be a hardship for anyone to walk up to her door and leave her the gift. Obviously thinking the same thing, Harris scowled. “I shall review the security footage. Here, let me take those. You should not be handling any suspicious packages.”
She hesitated a beat before handing him the bouquet, which he treated as gingerly as a bomb. “Let’s look at the footage right now.”
Harris’s bald head shone in the morning light as he inclined it. “Yes, Miss.”
She followed Harris through the kitchen, where he placed the bouquet on a counter, and into a small pantry she had converted into a security office. Three flat screens showed split video of all of the cameras, both inside and outside the house. Harris leaned over the keyboard and typed a series of commands. The middle screen changed, displaying the front door and the gate. Harris played the footage at double speed, until a dark blur had him pausing. He backtracked a bit.
Three a.m. A large figure came up the walkway, bold as anything, and carefully placed the bouquet on the stoop. Though the exterior lights didn’t shine directly on the man’s face, they didn’t need to. Akira stiffened. Oh. My. God. She would recognize the way that man moved anywhere.
Jacob had left her flowers in the middle of the night? Jacob? Straight-and-narrow, felt-ashamed-to-get-a-boner-for-her Jacob?
“Hmm. Rather late to leave flowers.Suspiciously late. Shall I call the police?”
Yes. Call them. Have this man arrested for delivering flowers and reminding me he exists. Here, I can give you his address.
“No.” Damn it.
“Miss?”
“No, Harris. I can handle this.” She spoke through her teeth, wishing she could be cold enough to shuffle her ex-stepbrother and ex-moment-of-madness-lover to the big house.
“I’ve told you before, you should consider around-the-clock security,” Harris fretted.
She had an alarm system and excellent locks on her doors. Generally, she only employed security when it was absolutely necessary. Her father had insisted on personal bodyguards because he’d liked how important they made him feel—she’d had enough of people following her around when she was growing up. “No. This is no one to be concerned with.” Maybe he had suffered momentary insanity, resulting in a floral delivery. Of course Jacob had to be exceptional even when he went insane.
She could call him and chew him out, or visit his house. The bolt of anticipation shooting through her at those ideas immediately nixed them.Hadn’t she decided just last night she didn’t need his brand of crazy? Her life was volatile enough on a good day.
“All the same, you never know—”
“Trust me. I know. This man isn’t unstable.” She glanced at the screen and muttered under her breath,“Just annoying as hell.”
Harris bowed in that way he had that managed to look neither mocking nor ridiculous. “Yes, Miss.”
She almost made it to the exit of the kitchen before she had to halt, her body quivering. Muttering a curse, she stomped to the counter, picked up the bouquet,and glared at the fragrant sunshine.
She thought of the tidy home she had visited a couple of weeks ago, where she’d found Jacob’s sister instead of him. There had been no room in front, but perhaps Jacob had a flower garden behind his house filled with the sunflowers and daffodils and other various blooms making up this bouquet.
Don’t you dare be charmed. Don’t you dare find the thought of a massive Jacob lumbering through flowers and snipping them for you the slightest bit adorable.
Oh God, what if he had arranged this bouquet?
Control yourself, woman.
What was she supposed to do with these? What was this anyway? Weeds to serve as a sop to his conscience?
They were a pretty sop, though…
She stiffened, her spine straightening.Fuck this weird, vague offering. And fuck him.
She marched over to the trash can and held the bouquet over the bin. For some strange reason, her fingers wouldn’t uncurl enough to drop the blooms into the basket.
Finally calling herself a weakling, she laid the flowers on the counter as Harris joined her in the kitchen. “Put these in water, please,” she said, not caring that she sounded more than a little grumpy. “You can leave them in my bedroom.”
She didn’t wait for a reply. If the scent of sunshine and spring followed her out the door and all the way to her office, she’d never admit it out loud.
Chapter Nine
Akira managed to keep Jacob out of her mind until noon, due to a fire at one of her Houston locations. Thankfully, the bar hadn’t yet opened for the day when the wiring in the walls had sparked, so no one was hurt. Still, the damage meant the place would be out of commission for a few weeks, at least, and she was kept busy dealing with the fallout.
