Page 53 of Protecting Love

Now he decides to tease her?

What the hell?

And the look in his eyes before he said it? Like he knew she knew what he was saying. Almost taunting her to say yes.

And the worst part of all? She wanted to.

She wanted to say, “Let’s go back to my place to find out.”

But she wouldn’t.

Those were emotions speaking and she wasn’t one to be led by them.

At least she didn’t use to be.

“Well,” she said. “You sure know how to turn the dial up for the show.”

He wiggled his eyebrows. “Isn’t that why I’m here? This was your idea.”

She didn’t need to be reminded of that.

That she was so annoyed over the fact some kind of security would be stuck to her like glue she didn’t want anyone to question it.

What did she do? Threw out only if it looked as if they were dating so that no one wondered what was going on.

West had shrugged and said it was her call. Maybe she thought he’d tell her she was nuts, but nope. He was letting her have her way.

Her way was to be here alone and wish none of this crap was going on.

She wasn’t getting it, just like she couldn’t control the way her body was reacting as Fletcher’s eyes rolled over her in a soft caress the moment he’d opened the door to get out and saw her walking toward him.

“We should find our seats,” she said.

She saw the laughter in his eyes. Not the sound. She wasn’t sure she’d heard him laugh once.

Maybe it was part of his persona. Or his personality. Could be his job.

Who the hell knew and she was sick of trying to guess.

“Looks like Nelson is already there.”

“I see,” she said, walking closer, her drink in her hand as she took a sip. Thankfully, Fletcher didn’t try to walk with his arm around her.

Jesus, she hadn’t expected he’d have a gun under his suit.

Which made no sense because he was security and he was meant to protect her and, considering his past profession, yeah, he had a gun on him.

“There you are,” Nelson said. “Hitting the bar already, I see.”

“Very funny,” Paris said. Before she could pull out a chair, Fletcher already had it moved away from the table for her. She sat next to Kenzie, Fletcher on the other side of her.

Kenzie leaned over and whispered, “How are you doing?”

“I’ve been better, but I wasn’t going to bail on this over what happened. It’s not a big deal.”

“I think it is,” Kenzie said. “And I’m used to animals. I lived on a farm. We had mice and rats all over the place in the barn.”

She shivered and gulped some of her wine.