Page 47 of Tempt

He paused mid-stride and turned back. “That’s good to hear. It takes work, and if you don’t see the progress, then you can never really understand the soul.”

Was he talking about buildings or people? “I couldn’t agree more, Sam.” He finished walking me to the door and we were just shaking hands when I looked up and caught someone watching me from the top floor.

He (or she) was too far away to see anything specific, and I noticed that they seemed to have gone to some effort to be inconspicuous looking. The hood of their sweater was bunched around the neck and the bill of their hardhat was pulled down low.

“Who’s that, Sam?” I nodded up at the figure, but before Sam could turn, the person stepped back and disappeared, which set off my nerves.

“Who?” Sam asked, looking up where I was pointing.

“They moved away.” That wasn’t the normal behavior of someone simply caught staring. “Never mind.” But really, I was starting to freak the fuck out.

Sam looked about as uneasy as I felt. “You be careful, okay?”

“I will.” And then I left, but not before waving my security detail over. Theo had assigned Joe to follow me. I knew he was there, but most of the time he stayed out of my way, preferring to blend in and follow me.

“Is something wrong, Miss Riley?” Joe was incredibly normal looking. Five-foot-ten, one-eighty, with nothing overly distinctive about his face or build. He was exactly the kind of guy people walked past without giving a second glance.

I bit my lip and looked up at the top of the building. I had a really bad feeling about who might be following me. “I think someone was watching me.”

Joe’s eyes widened. “Tell me everything. Don’t leave anything out.”

Before I could finish my explanation, Joe was on the phone to Martin and things happened fast from there. Joe moved me back inside the building until a car could come pick us up (we’d walked from the iON Innovations building, which was ten blocks away), I was taken back to work via a strange, winding route, and then we pulled up to the rear entrance of the building instead of the front.

Theo was waiting for us when we pulled up to the curb. The car had barely stopped when he yanked the door open and jumped into the backseat.

“Circle the block,” he demanded before kissing me hard, with both hands in my hair.

I was a little shocked by the intensity of his kiss before it dawned on me that he also thought the person following me was Toni. “Theo?”

He pulled back just enough to look into my eyes. “Yes?”

“You think it was him?”

He nodded slowly. “I do.”

“Why?” We were so close I could feel the thumping of his heart in his chest. Or maybe that was mine.

“That’s what he does. He hides in the shadows. He loves top floors where he has a good vantage point.”

“So he knows about me?” Obviously. But still, I needed to hear it.

“So it would seem. It would have only taken once. One time seeing you leave my building. And Toni’s the kind of guy who would follow up, see where it lands. Hopefully this was the first time.”

My skin tingled. “Hopefully?” What did that even mean?

“If he’s seen you over the last couple of months then heknowswe’re seeing each other. If he’s just started following you, then he doesn’t know a damn thing yet.Hopefullyhe doesn’t know anything.”

Oh.Well, in that case, I had some bad news for Theo.

“I thought someone was watching me Friday, too. On the way to the pub. It wasn’t you, was it?” I was holding on to a glimmer of hope that Margaret and Theo had seen us walking down the street and that was the prickly feeling I’d had instead of Toni.

But Theo made a face. “Me? No. Margaret had just asked to be dropped off at the pub when I texted you. We pulled up a few minutes later and I saw you in the window.” That was when my words sank in. His eyes widened and his fingers tightened in my hair. “Fuck.”Then with one hand he pulled out his phone, keeping the other threaded through my locks. “Friday, too. Pull the records and check with the team.” He clicked off the call and tossed his phone onto the seat.

“Hey Theo?”

“Yeah?”

“How’s that plan coming?”

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