Page 110 of Beneath the Burn

“You’re chipper this morning.” She bumped her arm into his as they walked. “Sleep well?”

He glanced back toward the room he’d just departed and fiddled with his phone. “Uh huh.” A smile fluttered through pinched lips as if he were trying to keep it from fully emerging. And why was he looking anywhere but at her?

“I didn’t know the guest room was so close.” Had he heard her moaning from Jay’s room?

He stopped and dropped his phone into his breast pocket. Staring at the wood floor, he rubbed his jaw and propped his hands on his hips. Uh-oh. His defensive stance.

He shifted his weight. “That isn’t a guest room.”

A laugh burst out of her. “You move fast, playboy.” She punched him in the shoulder.

“I’d take offense to that if I hadn’t heard you screaming at the wee hours of the morning.”

Jesus. She shouldn’t have been embarrassed, considering he’d seen and heard her at her absolute worst, but she couldn’t stop her cheeks from burning. “You heard?”

He grinned. “No, and thank God for that.”

“Fucker.” She aimed to punch him again, but he was expecting it that time and bounced out of the way.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “That’s a terrible thing to joke about…considering.”

A swell of sympathy curved his eyebrow and rounded his eyes. Thankfully, it wasn’t pity, but he’d never been one to pity her.

He gripped her shoulders and bent his knees to meet her eyes. “If we tiptoe around our thoughts, Roy wins.”

A sigh pushed past her lips. “You’re right.” The easiness between them was owed to their openness with one another. “You’re always right.”

It was so good to see his charming smile instead of the usual vigilance that tightened his expression and twisted her gut. “Look at us. We could’ve had our own rooms, slept diagonal in our beds and hogged the covers. Since we didn’t take advantage of that, does it make us dependent creatures?”

His eyes softened. “No, it makes us lonely.”

They stared at one another for a long silent moment. She knew he didn’t mean it as a dig against her as a companion. He referred to the isolation that came with the lack of intimacy. She’d felt it, too, and her thoughts skipped through their years together. The constant moving. The dead ends with Roy. The persistent fear. All the sacrifices Nathan made to keep her safe.

She lifted on tiptoes and wrapped her arms around him. Apologies and gratitude weren’t necessary. A place in her life was all he wanted from her. She would never be able to express to him what that meant.

He returned her embrace, his thumb stroking the spine of her back.

“Relaxed is a good look on you.” She leaned back. “As are the new threads.” Black button-up, crisp black pants, black leather shoes. His blond hair was longish but neatly combed away from his forehead. His familiar features, especially the grin he was donning, brought to mind another handsome face. One so like his her chest squeezed every time she looked at him. She shoved that away and lowered her voice. “Will there be any flak from fraternizing with the staff?”

“Actually, she’s my boss now.” His smile glowed against his flushed complexion. “We’ll work it out.”

“Oh.” Her forehead wrinkled. Knowing he would be compensated for protecting her eased her guilt a little. “Is that what you want? To work for someone?” Since the Marine Corps, he’d been self-employed. She couldn’t envision him reporting through a chain of command.

“My priority is keeping you safe. As a member of this team, I’ll be able to do that more efficiently. And I happen to like my new boss.”

“What about your employer? Do you like him?”

“No, but you do. That’s enough.”

She started walking along the wide corridor toward the main room, feeling Jay’s absence like an incessant tug. “What’s the plan today?”

“I’m going to get you a cell phone and meet with the security team. You are going to stay on the property until I get back.”

The hall emptied into a gaping, sunlit room and with it came the aroma of sizzling bacon. The open-space kitchen on the right connected to the entertainment room on the left, which flowed seamlessly into the backyard. TheU-shaped estate curved around the veranda and pool area, where a smattering of voices carried on the warm breeze.

The walls that would’ve formed the dish of theUwere nonexistent. They rolled back somehow, but she couldn’t make out where they fit into the high ceilings. And the ceilings went on forever, magnifying the vastness of the space. The leather seating, electronics and gadgets, artistic light fixtures, and a see-through fireplace at the center gave the room a lived-in feel. Even though she’d lived in luxury under Roy’s roof, she’d never been able to appreciate it. After all, she’d been more a part of the furnishings than an inhabitant.

A tall, leggy blonde sashayed beyond the edge of the in-ground jacuzzi wearing only bikini bottoms, which were held precariously in place by tiny bows on her curvy hips.

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