Page 32 of The Attraction

“Loud and clear,” Ashton replies.

Then all the guys go through some logistics of the monitoring of both me and Chester, and I can’t seem to concentrate on what they are saying, because my mind is stuck on the words “mentally unstable stalker.”

“I don’t think we all need to be here for this part. Why don’t I take Felisha and Harper and get them some dinner?” Flynn says while Ashton, Rem, and Sandon seem deep in conversation. I don’t think I could eat if I tried, but even though I was all determined earlier to be involved in everything, I’ve changed my mind. I can’t deal with this any longer and fresh air is what I need.

“I’m taking her home. I’ll feed her,” the surly man next to me voices to his brother, and the look between them is like a silent conversation that none of us are a part of.

“I want to argue, but I think I would like to go home, thanks anyway, Flynn.” And the moment I am not fighting against Forrest, I can see the worried look on Felisha’s face. “I’m fine, just need some air and my bed, exhaustion is hitting.” I know it’s more than that, but I don’t want to voice that I’m about to have a meltdown and shed some tears… again.

“Let’s go.” Forrest is up out of his chair and helping me to my feet before I have second thoughts. He’s probably shocked that I didn’t argue with him.

Ashton stands, and I lean over the table to shake his hand and thank him for all he is doing. Because at the end of the day, he doesn’t know me, yet he is willing to help me anyway.

As we leave the boardroom, Forrest stops me. “Just wait here for a few seconds, I forgot something.”

In the start of a brain-fog state, I just do as he tells me, and he is back before long, and we continue walking to the elevator.

“What did you forget?” I ask him as the doors close and we are in the elevator alone.

“To make sure Ashton understood you are off limits, and if he lets anything happen to you, I’ll hunt him down myself and kill him.” The words roll off Forrest’s tongue, so matter of fact, like he is ordering a coffee.

My mouth drops open, but I can’t even speak, so I don’t.

And the silence between us stays that way the whole drive home.

Who is this man, and why do I think that was the hottest thing I’ve ever heard?

I escape to my room as soon as we get home to give myself time to just go over everything that happened tonight.

I have so many questions, and they aren’t about what Ashton told me, and I find that bizarre in itself.

I sit on the edge of my bed with my childhood stuffed bear dressed like a Queen’s Guard—well, it was the queen then, and now he would be a King’s Guard. He is old and worn, and no one knows I still have him because he only ever comes out when I feel this unsettled. My dad bought him for me on the second day we were in London and doing some of the tourist things as a family before he started work and we didn’t see him very often.

“When I can’t be around, he will guard your heart for me.” He hugged both me and the bear as I giggled and didn’t completely understand what he said, but I was just happy with the hug I was getting.

I can still hear his voice as clear as the day he said it to me. And as much as I hate my father for everything he did and how he destroyed our lives back then, I know there will always be that little girl inside me that will never stop loving the man he was.

When I packed to leave my apartment for the renovation, I put my bear in my bag because he is the most precious thing I own. Not in monetary value but in such a treasured memory that I would never be able to replace.

A knock on my door startles me, and I quickly push him back under the bed so Forrest doesn’t see him.

Before I even have time to get up, his voice comes through the closed door. “There is some dinner for you at your door. Eat it,” his gruff voice mumbles through the wood, and then he is gone.

“Shit, how long have I been in here?” Checking my watch, I see it is nine pm, and he probably thought I was never coming out.

Little did he know I’ve been sitting in here trying to analyze the complex man he is.

Why am I attracted to a man who drives me crazy?

I make him so agitated, yet he never backs down from me.

For someone who is so stern and arrogant, why is he so attentive to me? Knowing what I need before I do.

And the biggest question that is spinning around in my head is why the hell when he touches me does it do the opposite of what I feel with anyone else?

It gives me a strange warmth and calmness that I don’t know how to understand. Instead of wanting to crawl out of my skin, I just want the contact between us to last that little bit longer. But he seems to know just the right amount of what I need and then pulls away, though he is never far away.

Just the simple act of turning up in my office tonight so I wasn’t on my own was something I didn’t know I needed, until he looked at me with those deep brooding eyes.

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