“Turner, I need to see you in my office. The rest of you, hang tight. This shouldn’t take long, and then we’ll go over everything you need to know together.”
Feeling as though he was being called into the principal’s office, Matt grabbed one of his coffees and stood. Though a lot worse had been said in that room—ahellof a lot worse—it was the only reason he could come up with that Jake would summons him to his private office…alone.
“Sorry about that, Boss,” he mumbled as he followed Jake down the hall. “The guys were giving me shit, and I wasn’t in the mood, and—”
“Relax, Turner.” Jake stopped in front of his closed door to face him. “This has nothing to do with that.” The dark-haired man shot him a look while shaking his head. “Jesus. When did I become such a dick to work for that you’d think cursing in the conference room would be grounds for a private ass-chewing?”
“You’re not a dick, Boss. What I said wasn’t very professional and the door was open, and…you know what? Never mind.” Matt decided to stop talking before he dug himself any deeper.
One of Jake’s dark brows rose in amusement. “Glad we got that cleared up. Come on.” He turned and reached for the knob. “I want you to meet our new client.”
As he followed the other man through the doorway, Matt had the fleeting thought that he was going to need something a helluva lot stronger than a cup of coffee to get him through this day. A second later, he realized just how right he was.
Stopping dead in his tracks, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. There, standing in the middle of his boss’s office, was the one woman he’d spent a decade trying to forget.
It was the only goal in his life he’d ever failed to achieve. Christ, had he failed miserably.
The pretty teenager she was when he’d last seen her was gone, replaced by an even more beautiful, grown woman. She was still lean, but even beneath her dark jeans and plain, olive sweater, he could tell she’d developed delicious curves in all the right places.
The kind I’d like to—
Thankfully Jake’s voice broke through his thoughts before they could venture down that senseless path.
“Matt, I’d like you to meet—”
“Katherine Anderson,” Matt finished for his boss. It was the first time he’d uttered her married name aloud. He still couldn’t believe she’d left him and married some rich prick.
A swirling collage of memories assaulted him, both good and bad. Matt’s heart kicked the shit out of his chest as he stared back at the only person to have ever made him truly happy.
She was also the person who’d brought him more pain and misery than anyone or anything he’d ever known.
“Matt?”
Dark, round eyes grew wide, and she looked and sounded every bit as shocked to see him as he was her. Of course, she always was a good little actor, so there was that.
Despite his loathing for this woman, Matt felt his cock twitch inside his jeans. He wanted to punch the damn thing for choosing now…choosingherto respond to.
He crushed his molars together to the point of pain. Feeling as though he’d stepped into some sort of alternate universe—one he wanted to get the fuck out of—Matt glared at her from across the room.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he growled, not bothering to hide his disdain for her.
Round, dark eyes blinked at his harsh tone. “I-I…um…”
With his blue eyes bouncing back and forth between them, Jake sounded less surprised than Matt would expect when he said, “I take it you two know each other.”
“Used to,” Matt answered for them both. With a casual shrug, he added, “It was nothing.”
A brief flash of pain crossed behind those damning eyes, but Katherine collected herself before looking to Jake. “It was a long time ago.”
Jake looked over at Matt and back to her. “I see. Well, I should give you two a minute to catch up before we get started.”
“Okay,” she said with a smile Matt knew was forced.
At the exact same time, he practically blurted out, “No.” When Jake gave him an odd look, he did his best to recover. “I mean, we should probably get on with whatever this is. I know you’re busy, and I still have to finish up my portion of the paperwork from that last bodyguard gig, and…”
“Gracie already took care of it all before she and Nate left.”
Well, didn’t that blow a huge fucking hole in his reason why they shouldn’t be left alone.
