CHAPTER5
ADAM
“Areyou going to babysit me while I work, Michael?”
Okay, I was in a shitty mood, and I didn’t know what he’d done to tank it so quickly. But whatever it was, it was killing my normal vibe.
“Michael, huh? You’ve moved on fromHe-Man?”
When I didn’t reply, he just continued talking like it didn’t matter if I answered him or not. It was almost like this silver-tongued hottie thought he was going to talk me out of my foul mood like he’d done earlier.
“You can call me whatever makes you comfortable, Mr. Spencer. You can call me Michael, Mike, Mikey, Mickey, Mitch, Mick, Mack —”
My irritation had slowly dissipated against my will by the time he’d reached the fifteenth derivative of ‘Michael’.
He was so damn calm with a tone of voice that was smooth and coated my soul like a balm.
Somehow, he had diffused my irrational annoyance with the skill of a hostage negotiator. When I couldn’t take it anymore, I threw up my hands and tried to glare at him. “Okay, I get it. You win. I can call you ‘Big Mac’ if I want to.”
He-Man’s knowing smile irritated me again, but I had to give it to him. He’d soothed my insecurities without even knowing what they were, or why I felt like I did. Every time he spit out another nickname, the knot in my stomach loosened a little more.
“How old are you?”
He was amused with me. “I just turned thirty-four on the tenth. How old are you?”
I scoffed. “You mean you don’t know?”
I stared at him as he propped his elbow on the armrest while he continued to drive, then brought his index finger up to run it lightly over his bottom lip as if in thought. I wanted to be that finger, skating over his pillowy lips. It had been less than two hours and I was already fucked. And not in the good way.
“Of course I know,” he said. “I know almost everything about you.”
I didn’t know whether to be creeped out or impressed. I was going with creeped out because it was more fun. “Well, that’s creepy, man. Kinda stalker-ish really.”
Michael chuckled, then glanced over at me. “I didn’t realize you had such a flair for the dramatic, Rockstar. And I prefer to look at it as I know everything I need to in order to protect my client. We call it background information in my line of work. And you pay me to know it.”
My smile was threatening to take over my face.
“And to answer your question, your birthday is February eighth, when you’ll be turning thirty-one.”
When he made the turn into Cole and Patrick’s gated neighborhood, he stopped to show his credentials to the gate attendant. When the gate opened, He-Man drove through, leaving me enough time for another question. “Does it bother you when I call you He-Man? I’ll call you Phantom if you prefer it.”
He looked over at me with a kind smile. “I don’t mind. I kinda love it, actually. He-Man was hot!” He wiggled his eyebrows at me, making me laugh.
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, okay. Must’ve been that blond bob with the bangs.”
He threw his head back and laughed at my assessment.
“Settle down over there,” I chided. “You never answered my question. Are you staying or going while I work?”
When he pulled into the driveway in front of their two-story brick house and cut the engine, He-Man turned to me.
“I’m going to check out Patrick’s security system for Jesse. If you’re going to be here a while, I may head out to the office and grab my laptop so I can work.”
I already appreciated how he answered my questions honestly. “Okay. Just so you know, when we get going, we don’t stop until we have it down. Might be a long damn time.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll check in with GQ and go from there.”
I nodded, accepting his terms, then went to open the door. I stopped when his big hand landed on my arm and looked back at him. “Really? Even in a gated neighborhood?”
