Page 34 of The Heiress

“Jace.”

His gaze locked with mine. “I know these people. They’re a hell of a lot richer than the assholes in my world, but they’re cut from the same cloth. They’re selfish and willing to do anything to get what they want. They don’t ask permission and they sure as shit don’t feel bad when they roll over someone along the way.” He gave my hand one last squeeze then shot the rest of his bourbon, setting the emptied tumbler on the cart. “Get some sleep, Sam.” He turned, then paused, reached up and ran his thumb along my cheek. My stomach flipped and my heart stopped altogether. “I promise you’re safe.”

I didn’t take a full breath until the door closed behind him and I heard his footsteps disappear.

12

The next morning I woke up abruptly.

I woke up that way because a really loud and annoying woman was yelling at me.

Okay, she wasn’t technically yelling at me, but she was loud and she was inside my room and that made everything worse.

“You’ll meet with Rose in an hour so we need to get you up and to breakfast promptly.” She tossed back my covers and I screamed.

Yes, screamed.

I felt it was a totally logical response to a stranger exposing my bare legs without my permission.

But it didn’t faze her one bit. In fact, she scowled at me. “Stop that. You’ll frighten security.”

“Good!” I yelled again, gathering my sheets around me and shrinking back against the headboard “Who the hell are you?”

“Kennedy O’Brien, your personal assistant.”

Oh hell no. I didn’t ask for one and I sure as heck wasn’t getting pushed around by one. I was out of bed and shoving her to the door, which I’m proud to say, caught her off guard. “Leave and do not come back. Ever.” Then I slammed the door.

The fact that the lock was easy to turn made me incredibly happy because it meantKennedywasn’t coming back in.

But it didn’t stop her from banging. “Open this door!” she had the audacity to demand.

Who was this bitch and where did she get her blind confidence? I ignored her and stomped back to my bed, which was cold now, and buried myself back under the covers. Maybe if I pretended I was waking up I could start the day on the right foot instead of the terrified one.

But that was hard to do considering the banging was now accompanied by muffled voices. So this time I got out of bed a little slower, returned to the door, and opened it to find Kennedy, Dombrowski, Jace, and two other guys I didn’t know, but were clearly security.

“What the hell is going on?” Jace demanded. His anger turned to discomfort as his eyes widened and then rose to the ceiling.

I looked down and didn’t see anything wrong with my pajama pants and tank top.Weird.“Apparently there are no boundaries in this house. I woke up to this woman in my bed.”

Dombrowski sputtered. “Miss O’Brien!”

“I wasn’t in her bed!”

“She was. She was in my room without my permission, yanking my sheets off my bed.”

Dombrowski turned beet red. “Why on earth were you in Miss Rossi’s room?”

Kennedy sputtered, looking back and forth as ifwewere the crazy ones. “It’s standard protocol. I provide the wakeup service along with the rundown for the day over coffee.”

“Standard protocol for who? Babies? I don’t need anyone getting me out of my crib in the morning and telling me I’ve been a good girl.”

Jace snorted at that.

But Kennedy fumed. “You were still asleep. What was I supposed to do? Hmm?”

“Knock?”

But my answer only seemed to confuse her. “Clearly we’re going to have to set some ground rules.”

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