Page 51 of Caleb
“I’m sorry I’ve kept you guys waiting out here for a while,” she says with a shy smile. She’s got absolutely no idea how perfect she is. She’s wearing a long-sleeved ivory wrap dress in a silky and flowy fabric that makes her look like an ethereal but modern Greek goddess. Her long, toned legs are on display mid-thigh all the way down to her delicate ankles. The dress is short enough to make me feel pleasantly uncomfortable, and I know I’m ready to die right fucking now.
Her hair is different, though. She’s wearing it down like she usually does, but it’s cascading down her back in loose waves, making me wish I could run my fingers through them.
The realization that I will only be able to admire Red’s beauty from a distance scrapes violently against my reality.
Swallowing hard to keep my shit together, I reply, “No need to apologize, Miss.” She looks at me from the corner of her eye, and her apricot-colored glossy lips upturn into the sweetest smile.
I wish I could tell her how gorgeous she looks as she places her keycard inside her golden clutch.
Annette claps once and says, “We should start heading out.”
Red nods and walks toward the elevator with Annette to her right.
Scott and I follow them as the familiar sweet-citrusy scent of her perfume trails behind her, but somehow this time, it’s got me in a chokehold.
Fuck me.
The last traces of the girl she used to be are far gone.
Red has bloomed into the most beautiful young woman I’ve ever seen right before my eyes, and today is the day that I realize this undeniable fact.
Not that I will ever be able to do anything about these feelings thrumming inside my chest and fluttering in my stomach. But there is one thing I can do, though, and that’s avoid stepping out of line to keep my job for as long as possible. That’s the only way I’ll be able to stay in her orbit, and that’s what I intend to do because I know I can take care of her in the way she needs to be taken care of without making her feel suffocated or unsafe.
“She’s smoking hot,” Scott whispers as we walk behind Red and Annette toward the CID.
“Excuse me?” I reply, forcing myself to get out of my head. I was deeply immersed in my thoughts and focused on Red and everyone in her proximity, as I usually do when following on foot. But I heard him alright.
“I mean, they both are,” he says, leaning closer, “but I have no problem picturing Miss Murphy’s legs wrapped around my waist or her mouth around my—”
“Shut the fuck up,” I snap back, staring at him with aplease-finish-that-fucking-sentencelook on my face.
Scott smirks and lifts his hands slightly as if trying to appease the tension between us. A goal he fails miserably at achieving.
“You hot for the girl or what?” He slaps my arm casually with the back of his hand, which does nothing to placate my annoyance because he’s not wrong.
Lifting my gaze, I realize that it only took a few seconds of distraction to lose sight of the girls in the crowd.
“Shhhhit,” Scott mutters in a subtle panic, realizing that too. “Do I call it in? Maybe someone else got a visual on them.”
“Don’t. Wait.” I pick up my pace and scan the sea of people arriving at the event as they crowd the main entrance. The last thing I need is for her father to think I’m incompetent without Aaron.
Ambassador Murphy’s words echo inside my head.Don’t let her out of your sight.
We’ve officially lost them, and I feel like an ass.
A few excruciatingly long minutes later of us bumping against people as we try getting around and ahead of them, I make out a long, wavy, auburn mane in the near distance.
I let out a deep sigh, feeling relieved when I spot her.
“I’ll take that as a yes?” Scott says with a laugh.
I glare at him from the corner of my eye. I’m done with this conversation.
“Chill, man. It’s not like I was going to do anything about it.”
Like I would allow him to get close to her.
Over my dead body.
