Doing what they do, knowing how messed up the world truly is? No way would he open himself up to the kind of pain his teammates had experienced.
Been there, done that.
Grant learned a long time ago no matter how much you loved someone, that person always left. By choice or death, it didn’t matter. They would leave, and the other person was left behind to suffer in their wake.
Why fucking bother?
He’d already lived that shit once. Was told by so many that, with time, his wounded heart would heal. It was the biggest line of bullshit ever to be thrown his way.
Even now, all these years later, the pain was still there. Some days, it was no more than a dull ache. Others, it was as fresh as the day it happened.
So, no. Grant Hill didn’t do love or anything close to it. He fucked when he wanted to fuck and moved on. No strings, no commitments, and sure as hell no thoughts of happily ever after, because he knew better than most. That shit didn’t exist.
He was still mentally shaking his head at his friends—the poor bastards—when a woman entered the room through its elaborate double doors. Grant recognized her from the pictures he’d been shown, but they hadn’t come close to doing the beautiful redhead justice.
Dressed in a long, black dress that hugged her perky breasts in the most delicious way, Senator Cantrell’s daughter began making her way through the crowd of supporters. She was poised and moved with a graceful ease one would expect from someone of her stature.
Now at her father’s side, she hugged him with genuine affection, the senator returning the embrace as if the two had done so a million times before. A pang of jealously surprised him, and it took Grant a second to realize he was staring.
Cantrell said something to his daughter and they both turned his way. Blinking, he tore his eyes from them and looked back over the crowd, but his thoughts remained on the stunning woman.
For reasons he didn’t understand, Grant became agitated when the father and daughter duo began walking in his direction. Before long, he heard Cantrell’s rough voice as the older man approached him with a smile.
“Mr. Hill, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. This is my daughter, Brynnon. Brynnon, this is Grant Hill, the security expert I told you about.”
Brynnon smiled up at him, and when Grant looked into the set of almond-shaped, emerald eyes, his pulse spiked to a rate well beyond his norm.
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Hill. My father has spoken very highly of you.”
Against his better judgment, Grant took the woman’s outstretched hand. She had a surprisingly strong grip, and her skin was a little callused. Something Grant found oddly enticing.
An electric jolt raced up his arm and down his spine from their contact, and he hid the fact that his lungs had just seized in his chest.What the hell is wrong with you?
Jaw clenched, Grant was still trying to find an explanation for the visceral reaction he was having to this woman when he realized she was waiting for him to respond.
Clearing his throat, he did his best to not growl. “Nice to meet you, Miss Cantrell.”
“Please. Call me Brynnon.”
She sounded pleasant, and her smile seemed legit, but there was something in those amazing eyes that Grant couldn’t quite put his finger on. Though there was no real evidence to the contrary, he got the feeling she’d rather be anywhere else but here.
Brynnon pulled her hand free, and Grant felt an unwelcomed void from the loss of contact. After a brief conversation with her father about a few security questions the man had, he and his daughter left to finish making their rounds with the senator’s guests.
The second they were gone, Grant filled his lungs slowly before letting the air out at the same, steady pace. He repeated the action several times in an attempt to bring his heart rate back to normal.
What the fuck was that?
Whatever it was, he didn’t care for it. Not. One. Fucking. Bit.
Unable to help himself, Grant glanced back over to where Brynnon and her father were now standing. She was talking and laughing with yet another of her father’s guests.
To anyone else, it would appear as though she were having the time of her life. But even from here, Grant could tell it was nothing more than a show.
Out of nowhere, he was hit with a sudden urge for her to come back. To talk and laugh withhim. And not the fake-as-fuck laugh she was working the crowd with now.
None of it made any sense.
From the time he’d turned eighteen, his life had revolved around guns and bombs and taking down the worst humankind had to offer. He didn’t give a damn about smiles or laughing...or gorgeous red hair and hypnotic green eyes.
Grant was still giving himself that same speech weeks later, long after his job as Senator Cantrell’s personal security guard was over. And night after night, despite all his best efforts, images of Brynnon Cantrell continued to invade his dreams.
****
