Page 5 of Guarding the Billionaire

“What? Perimeter checks?”

“Do they go around the edge of the property at least once an hour and check your doors and windows, that kind of thing?” She sounded impatient.

“No clue,” I shrugged. “Now let me show you…”

“I’ll need you to find out immediately,” she interrupted. “You should know what your security contract says.”

“There’s a contract?” I frowned.

“Of course there’s a contract, do you think they just show up here for fun?”

This lady was pissing me off.

“I realize I pay them for their work,” I said with exaggerated patience. “I just never thought about there being a contract. My parents used to take care of all that.”

“Your parents have been dead for over a year, haven’t they?”

I blinked rapidly to keep from crying. “Yeah.”

“Well, it’s time to learn how to take care of yourself.”

Teresa

Istared into the eyes of the woman my inner demon was insisting was my mate. This had to be a mistake. Maybe my mate was around here somewhere, one of the guards perhaps, and my vamp side was confused, focusing on the nearest person it saw.

There was absolutely no way that Flora Meyer was my mate. Surely the gods wouldn’t be that cruel?

When I was a little girl, my best friend and I used to dream about finding our fated mates. Tracie was on Team Hetero, and her dream mate was some dude who was tall, dark, and handsome. Maybe a shifter or a powerful warlock, or even a good-sized human. My dream mate was always someone like me. A ‘tomboy’ as my mother used to call me. Adventurous. Smart. Curvy but fit. Strong.

This petite woman with her carefully styled hair, layers of make-up, and manicured nails was nothing like I’d imagined. She didn’t even know her security team was under a contract, how the fuck was she running a major corporation?

No, this absolutely had to be some kind of a misunderstanding.

She was pretty, no doubt about it, although I preferred a more natural look. Her hair was dark and wavy, her eyes large and brown. She was on the thin side, with a flat stomach and thin legs, and although her breasts were full and natural looking, the rest of her was mostly angles, with no visible muscle tone. She was wearing a blue wrap dress and heels like she’d just gotten back from a luncheon at the country club. Maybe she had.

“Does anyone else live in the house with you?” I asked, tearing my eyes away from her breasts.

“Just my housekeeper, Patty.”

Oh, maybe the housekeeper was my mate. “Is she here?”

“No,” Flora replied. “She went to Portland for a couple of months to help her daughter who just had a baby. Now I just have a temp service come in a few days a week.”

Okay, Grandma Patty was definitely not my mate.

It’s Flora. Flora is your mate!my vamp insisted. I ignored her.

“How many people are on shift for security?” I asked.

“Um? I think two or three. I’ve never seen more than three people here.”

I resisted the urge to sigh. “How many of them are female?”

“None. I’ve only seen men working here.”

Damn it, that meant my mate wasn’t on the security team. Fate had to know I was a lesbian.

“Is anyone else here at your house regularly?” I asked, desperate to associate that tantalizing scent of my mate with someone else. Anyone else.

---