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My eyes bugged. “I can’t hook up with the man living down the hall. There’s no such thing as a clean break when you have to stare at each other every morning at breakfast.”
A gusty sigh turned her pages. “Excuses, excuses.”
“Goodbye.”
Sienna’s laugh followed me into the hall. I rode the elevator up to Liam’s floor. It was impossible to surprise the man since he had to input the code to let me out. Liam leaned against the doorframe. I tripped over my feet when I saw him.
Barefoot and bare-shouldered, his tight tank and low-slung pants were the complete opposite of the model outfits I caught him in every day of the week.
This guy wasn’t a businessman. He’s a handyman here to teach me the proper way to hold his big wrench. My lower belly tightened. Heavens to Hera it’s been a long time since I had sex. Coming up here after Sunny filled my head with fantasies of him cuffed to the bed was not my best move.
LIAM
“What can I do for you, Miss Blaine?”
“When did we move off Kenzie?” She ducked under my arm without a by-your-leave.
Amused, I followed her firm ass inside, shutting us in. I felt no shame admiring her assets in that tight, sequined blue skirt. She certainly didn’t hold back ogling me as she came down the hall—though I’m sure she believed I didn’t notice.
Mackenzie Blaine was night and day the raggedy old mop, trying to melt into the carpet the day I first met her. This woman was classy and confident, wearing the hell out of that skirt, blue sweater, and canvas black sneakers covered in lion heads. A purple gift bag dangled off her fingertips. I was off her shapely back and fixed on her face by the time she turned to me.
“I’m going to help Sunny, and you, find this guy. Whatever it takes.”
“Direct approach,” I mused, erasing the distance. “Came up here to tell me to my face, leaving no room for argument. I appreciate it. Makes it easy for me to say no.”
She cocked her head. “You’re a mercurial man. One second you’re begging me to stay, the next you’re telling me to leave. One minute you’re shutting me down, the next you’re flirting with me.”
“Sweetheart.” Our chests bumped. “If I ever flirt with you, you’ll know it.”
Mackenzie smirked. “When a guy’s as indecisive as you, I find it’s kinder to put him out of his misery and leave him with one simple choice: mine.”
“Indecisive?” I admit it, I was a tad offended. “It’s not indecision. It’s realizing I’m about to send a girl who gets squeamish at the thought of blood off to get her head blown off for the sake of protecting my daughter. Excuse me for remembering I have a conscience.”
“Woman.”
“What?”
A strand of hair stuck to her red lips, drawing my gaze to it over and over against my control.
“You’re about to send a woman who gets squeamish at the thought of blood, off to get her head blown off for the sake of protecting your daughter.” She beamed. “Good thing I’m volunteering.”
I leaned back, humming. “Interesting. There wasn’t mention of psychopathy in your background check. Thatcher didn’t do a deep enough dive.”
Peals of laughter flowed from her smooth, bronze throat. “Oh, Liam, I’m beginning to love our verbal jousts, but that’s enough for one day. I’m doing this and it’s not just for you, or Tricky, or Sunny. It’s so I don’t have to spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder for pale bald men. If this guy is eliminating people who might lead you to him, who do you think is top of his list?”
“I never liked rhetorical questions, any more than I like questions with only one answer.”
“Because we both know what has to happen.” Her smile softened around the edges. “Let’s stop pretending we can do this another way and get on with it. The sooner I trap you a rat, the sooner he leads you back to the person behind all of this. That’s when I’ll really be safe.”
I considered her words. “Sounded like you were asking for permission there.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Because you’re making the decisions around here now.”
“That’s right. Got a problem with it?”
“That’s another one—you’ll know when I do.” I made a decision. “I’ll consider letting you have the job if Bane signs off on you. No arguments,” I said over her. “You get the Alexander seal of approval, and I’ll believe you can handle anything.”
“I can handle you,” Mackenzie purred. “What could be more difficult?”
My cock twitched. I wonder if she knew the sexual energy that mixed with her fruity perfume and filled unsuspecting noses, reducing them to drooling cavemen in the span of a heartbeat. I would not be another in her long line of victims. I was twelve years older than her, a father, sleeping with a woman my age, and—
