Page 17 of Forever Fickle

Stuck.

He couldn’t leave.

There was nowhere for him to go – and he certainly didn’t know the area… nor did he want to. His feet remained planted where they were, almost as if against his will, as he watched the scene unfold before him.

Karen was asking for a call sign, to be treated like one of the team, and accepting that this was a different world she was a part of for the next few months, with different rules.

The team accepted her, hugged her, she fit in their world – which made him want her all the more.

Lightning fast, Reaper had said… and he understood.

When Karen had moved to get her purse, every instinct in him had moved to stop her from leaving his side – including grabbing her purse. He had found himself mere inches from her, losing himself in her eyes.

She had greenish-blue eyes surrounded by the darkest eyelashes he’d ever seen. Her finely sculpted cheekbones were pink, and her nose was a bit too strong for her face – but matched her personality. All that dark hair was just driving him nuts…

But it was that look in her eyes?

That was his undoing.

She would fight him – and this would take some real effort to win her over as a friend or something more.

It would be a beautiful battle between them, one he knew deep in his soul. He could practically taste the swift jabs, the counters, the parries, and then the ultimate victory because he realized it didn’t matter if he won or lost, so long as he could be a part of the game – he would be happy.

Karen may have said ‘No’to dinner, but what she didn’t realize was that the chase was on for Jace. If he was in his Falcon, he would announce he had ‘G-lock’ and take the shot.

This was different.

No, this ‘enemy’ was stealthy, and he would have to be patient, clever, and make sure that she didn’t have a chance to put her guard up. He would also need to make sure that the team didn’t try to sabotage things for him… to keep him away.

They were hugging Karen like she was some family member, little sister, or long-lost cousin… which meant they would protect her if they thought Jace was a threat.

He already knew they thought of him as a wild card, a ladies’ man, and he’d never tried to argue the matter.

It made it easier when he got drunk or had to be pulled out of a bar, driven home. They thought he was sleeping around, carousing all over town, and a playboy of the worst kind… so yeah, they would certainly keep him from Karen if they knew he was interested in her.

It’s what he would do, if the roles were reversed.

No, Jace wanted to know more about Karen and would have to be very careful with how he went about getting to know her. Asking her to dinner was too obvious, too cliché. He needed to think of this, plot it out, like a mission.

Gather intelligence, determine all the pieces of the puzzle, and then plan his ‘attack’… carefully.

CHAPTER8

KAREN

Tuesday

She spentMonday evening mentally preparing herself for whatever came this week after dealing with Jace ‘Hot Cakes’Sorensen…

He was annoying with this know-it-all-smile on his face because he knew he was cute… and she despised arrogant men. They always had this massive ego that completely overshadowed anything regarding their personality. The rest of the guys might call him a ‘friend’ but that didn’t mean she had to.

Even the four weeks that Karen worked with their other friend, Reaper, the man had kept his distance. He barely said ten words to her the entire time, mostly nodding, or keeping away from her. The one time he’d actually addressed her was the first time she’d really met him.

Reaper walked in her office, told her ‘I need your phone’… and promptly shut the door in her face and Armadillo’s.

The cowboy explained what was going on, how Reaper was calling to check on his new wife at the funeral director’s office after the loss of a family member, and she realized that maybe he wasn’t such a bad guy after all… just awfully brusque.

Since then, they had a quiet rapport that involved little discussion. If he needed something, she provided – and left him alone. Truthfully, he was a grim representation of his name, and she couldn’t picture anyone being married to the man.

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