Page 58 of Beneath the Burn

Silence. Then his voice muffled through the door. “Does it have red hair and blue eyes?”

Her cheeks puffed with contained laugher. The cheesy bastard didn’t need encouragement.

Something thumped the door. Was that his head?

“I’ve changed my mind.” His voice vibrated the wood between them. “I want a crumpet.”

Her laugh escaped, echoing around her, and for the first time in a long time, she felt free.

30

A survival skill Jay picked up early in his stardom was his efficiency in quick disguises. He adjusted the long blond wig over his short brown hair until the fake bangs brushed the top of his big plastic framed sunglasses. A frayed Alice Cooper ball cap completed the concealment.

The bathroom door opened with an exhale of steam. Charlee padded out, straightening her black top over the waistband of her jeans. “I’m keeping yourDead Milkmentee—” She tripped, staring at him with a slack jaw. “Shit. Garth Algar?”

“Who?”

“Never mind.” She inspected his body from hat to Chucks with an amused cant to her eyebrows. Then she circled him, wrapping him in a sweet natural scent that was uniquely Charlee.

When she came back around, she was grinning and chewing a fingernail. “Jay Mayard’s sexy ass is still back there, but the rest of him is incognito.”

Just thinking about her noticing his ass made his dick jerk against his zipper. “This disguise hasn’t failed me yet.”

“Then you haven’t tried to pick up women wearing that wig.”

A laugh erupted from deep inside him. Dear God, it was so easy to want her. The way her cheeks glowed. The challenge in her eyes. The catch in her breath when he returned her stare. All the countless fucking reasons he never stopped craving her after she was gone. He dipped his head and brushed his lips over hers. “I’ve only tried to pick up one woman.”

A wall of silence descended between them. He searched her eyes, unsure how to interpret her mute response. “Has it failed me?”

“Not yet.” The level of resistance in her voice only fortified his resolve to scale her walls. He suspected she wanted to fight it, but maybe she was as drawn to him as he was to her.

A fist rapped on the door. “Charlee?”

“You can come in, Nathan.” She didn’t unlock her eyes from his glasses.

Nope, he was certain she couldn’t ignore the pull.That’s right, baby. Don’t fight it.

Nathan strode in and dismissed the disguise with a brief smirk. “Tony and I worked out the drop-off and pick-up points and the best evacuation routes at the apartment. We’re ready when you are.”

The absence of bulges in Nathan’s nondescript pants and button-up shirt meant his weapons were hidden. That kind of unobtrusiveness combined with his constant awareness of Charlee and her surroundings made him an ideal bodyguard. No doubt he’d piss in a store trash bin before he’d leave her unattended.

However, it was the instinctual way he placed himself between her and everything else that made him the only man Jay wanted leading the team he would hire to protect her. “I want to offer you a job.”

Nathan glanced at her and back at him. There was no surprise in that gaze. “I have a job.”

“This one would be the same. Just better paid.”

Nathan’s current income from odd PI assignments couldn’t possibly be enough to fund his crusade in revenge.

The tic in Nathan’s cheek confirmed it.

A toe poked the back of Jay’s knee, her nudge teetering his balance. “I know what you’re up to, Jay Mayard. Thethreeof us will discuss this later.”

Small, sexy, with her honeyed lips pouting, she refused to be managed. He tried not to think about the events that made her so defiant, but he respected the hell out of her for standing against him if he slipped in his efforts tonotcontrol her.

“Mr. Mayard.” Tony poked her head in. “I summoned the car. It’s waiting at the elevator in underground parking.”

A ripple of panic bit along his spine. Time to leave his safe environment. His disguise hid his face, so there wouldn’t be any grabbing and touching.

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