Page 40 of Steal My Breath Away

Aside from an easing of the tension, nothing outwardly changed between Haley and me in the week after our night together. I followed her to class, her clubs, and her work at the coffee shop. She slept in her room, and I slept in mine. We talked about neutral things like the weather or what the professor had said in class, but the bigger issue of what had happened at the hotel was onewe didn’t touch. We’d crossed a line and there was no going back. But we didn’t know how to move ahead.

Friday morning, Haley walked into the kitchen and smiled. “Ace…”

I knew that smile and that tone of voice. She wanted something that she knew I wouldn’t like.

“No.” I scrolled through my phone. “Whatever it is must be dangerous or you wouldn’t have waited to tell me until after I’d had breakfast when you think I’ll be more amenable to whatever it is you have planned.”

“Okay then.” She folded her arms and leaned against the counter. “I’ve been offered a gig at Bin 46 tonight. It’s an upscale rooftop bar in the Loop. I have a deal with the owner. When one of his acts cancels at the last minute, I get time on the stage, and in return I work the rest of the evening for tips.”

“Definitely no.” I sipped my coffee. Theo had an espresso machine the same size as the one at Haley’s coffee shop and the coffee was almost as good.

“I have to go,” she said. “Music producers sometimes show up. It’s a chance for me to get discovered.”

“No point in being discovered if you’re dead.” I didn’t even look up from my phone. Not because I was trying to signal that “no” was the end of the matter, but because I knew that if I looked at her, I’d give in.

“No one will know I’m there until I’m actually on stage,” she protested. “I’m not on their regular schedule, and I won’t advertise on social media.”

“What if you’re being followed?”

“Then you wouldn’t be doing your job,” she retorted.

I made the mistake of looking up. She was wearing a low-cut, tight red T-shirt that accentuated her beautiful breasts. Her hair was loose over her shoulders and if I wasn’t mistaken her lips looked redder and fuller than usual. “You aren’t being followed.”

“Then we’re good to go.” She gave me a happy smile. “I work from six until ten and then I’ve got the stage from ten to eleven.”

I had to tear my gaze away. “Still no.”

“I believe I’m the boss, and the boss says we’re going.” She put a hand on her hip and struck a pose that drew my attention to the curve of her hip and the dip of her waist.Fuck.How was I going to keep it professional when all I wanted to do was rip off her clothes?

“You’re mistaken. I’m the boss, and rule one is you do what I say.”

Her face flushed and she spun around and yanked open the cupboard. I made a mental note to use that tone of voice the next time we were in bed together—if there was a next time, which would be a terrible idea, but maybe not that terrible.

“You work for me,” she pointed out.

I leaned back in my chair and folded my arms. “I work for Stellar Security and they work for your mother. She’s paying the bills.”

“Should I call her and tell her you’re interfering with my music career?” She glared at me over her shoulder.

“She’d probably give me a bonus for keeping you from making a terrible mistake.”

Her back stiffened. “I’m not missing this gig. Either you come with me or I go alone. You can’t stop me.”

“I could tie you to the bed,” I said casually.

Big mistake. Huge.My mind was instantly flooded with images I shouldn’t be having after I’d spent the last week beating myself up for my total and utter lack of professionalism the previous weekend.

She turned away again and gripped the counter. I watched her shoulders rise and fall.

“You like that idea,” I said quietly.

“It doesn’t matter what I like,” she said, taking a mug from the cupboard. “It’s not happening again. I never imagined that we’d cross paths, or that you’d wind up being my bodyguard boyfriend, or that I’d be able to get over the past enough to spend the night with you, but I did and it’s done, and now that we have thatout of our systems, I need to look forward and focus on what’s most important to me.”

I leaned forward, elbows on the table, relieved that we were finally going to hash this out but also afraid of how it might end. “We can’t keep pretending it didn’t happen, Haley. Or that we don’t have insane chemistry. I never imagined being in this position either. But now that we are, we can’t go back. You will never be out of my system. I was hired to protect you, but now it’s also so much more and I can’t let you take that kind of risk.”

She turned back to me, a pained expression on her face. “First, I wouldn’t be taking a risk, because you’d be there. Second, it’s the only time I feel likeme. When I’m on stage, it’s like everything falls away—the pain, the emptiness. I used to feel whole before everything fell apart. When my dad was alive and my family was a family, they’d come to watch me perform. It didn’t matter if it was a school talent show or the winter fair or a pretend concert in the basement. They were always there. I felt seen. Loved. It wasn’t just about the music—it was them, all of them, watching me, supporting me. And then… I lost that. I lostthem. And I lostyou.”

“Christ, Haley.” My gut twisted in a knot. “I never meant to add to your pain.”

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