Page 38 of Her Ruthless Protector

“You got half of that right.”

“Besides the dishes, what can I do to help? Don’t you need to enter something into that paperweight over there.” He pointed to her laptop that was shut off and sitting in the corner. “I’ve never seen anyone do as much with paper as you.”

He watched as A.J. blushed. “Look, technology has never been my friend. That’s why I have Shelly. I like to kill trees.”

Kane tugged the notepad she’d been scribbling in. She basically had a hellish spreadsheet mapped out with tons of eraser marks.

“This is crazy. It should be done in a spreadsheet, if not a database.”

“And tomorrow Shelly will start one.” A.J. tried to pull back her notepad but Kane wouldn’t let it go.

“Come on. First, you’re questioning my ability to take care of myself, now you’re questioning my intelligence.”

Kane let go of the pad and she took it back. Then she stood up and moved to the kitchen sink. He followed her.

“Do you really think that?”

“With most men I wouldn’t have one single worry. As a matter of fact, I mostly scare most men away. With you, I think that I might not measure up.”

“Angela? Amy? Ariel?”

A.J. snorted. “Yeah, I’m the little mermaid.”

“Yeah, but if you were named Ariel, you’d definitely be using A.J.”

She tilted her chin in agreement.

“Now, about this bullshit that you won’t measure up. Where in the hell did you get that stupid idea?”

“I’ve Googled you. Not only are you Super Alpha SEAL Boy, you’re a suave millionaire tech genius. I’m not in your league.”

She fidgeted with the ends of her shirt where they were tied. He noticed the flat plane of her smooth white stomach. She had freckles. He hadn’t realized it, but he fucking loved freckles. He looked down farther and saw that her toenails were purple. Red hair and purple toenails.

“Quit looking at my body,” she groused.

“It’s part of the package. I like your smart mouth. I like your humor, and you keep me guessing. Alice? Annabelle?”

Kane couldn’t help himself, he had to do it. He touched one freckle that was just a half an inch to the right of her innie belly button. She shuddered. He circled the brown speck and she gasped.

“I have work to do,” she whispered.

“So, do I. How many freckles do you have?”

“I don’t know. A lot.”

“Let’s count.”

He moved his finger a quarter of an inch and traced another freckle. “That’s two. I think I should make a spreadsheet. I would section off each part of your body, then do a count.” He moved his finger. “Three.” A.J. sucked in air.

“No time. Must get work done.”

“This would be work. I would be really diligent.”

She pushed his hand away and sidestepped him. “If you’re so eager to work, make me up a spreadsheet for the press. I need to get this going. Otherwise I’m going to be at this all night and then I’ll end up being a cranky-assed-bitch to Amber tomorrow.”

A.J. picked up her laptop and shoved it into his hands as he chuckled.

“This is not the work I was suggesting.”

“An hour of this, then I’ll let you have the bed and everything,” she coaxed.

“If you think I’m taking your bed, you’ve got another think coming,” Kane said mildly as he sat down and opened up the laptop. He twirled it around. “Enter in your password.” She told him what it was. He scowled at her. “You never, ever. Never, ever. Tell someone your password.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, if you wanted to hack into my computer, how long would it take you?”

“Do you use facial recognition?”

“No.”

“Ten minutes,” he answered.

He keyed in her password, then held out his hand for her notepad. Soon he was engrossed in setting up a database.