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Jamie’s eyes sparkle with mischief as she turns back to me and poses. “I don’t know. I might let a man like that be the boss of me for a night or two. Seems like it could be a great time.”
I scoff and shake my head. “Trust me, it isn’t.”
Her eyes nearly pop out of her head, ruining what would have been the perfect shot. “Tell me that you slept with him. Make my week.”
“I don’t know if slept is the right word for what we did. More like he bent me over a railing, gave me an orgasm, and then proceeded to act like a colossal ass. Speaking of which, don’t repeat this or say anything to him about it.”
She squeals and strikes another pose, staying still long enough for me to take a decent picture. “You’re going to have to give me all the details. I don’t want you to leave anything out.”
“I don’t have any details for you other than that. It was nothing special or really anything to remember.”
“Brielle, your face is as red as your hair.” Jamie bounces her way over to me, grinning from ear to ear. “What I can’t figure out is whether you’re lying to me or to yourself.”
“A little bit of both, if my history of lying can be trusted.”
She laughs and shakes her head, leaning over to look at the camera screen. “You’ve never been much of a liar and we both know it. Yes, sometimes you use the truth like a weapon and you should probably work on that. But you’re not a liar.”
If only you knew the truth about who I am and why I’m really in this tiny town.
Not even Jamie — the only friend I have — knows about my past. Brennan and now Salvatore are the only ones with any shreds of the truth.
Though, there are things that I’ve kept from the pair of them as well.
Sometimes, a person is entitled to some of their secrets.
“You know, he is still staring at us.” Jamie nods toward Salvatore. “Do you think he is going to go away anytime soon?”
“I wouldn’t count on it.”
Jamie hums to herself as I show her the pictures I just took. I favorite a couple and delete a few others. Jamie takes off to change into the next outfit while I sit down at a bench and stare at the people walking by.
“You know, this all would have been a lot easier if you would just listen to me,” Salvatore says as he sits down beside me. “Don’t you think that instead of being a pain in my ass, you could have waited until after the security system was installed?”
“I left the tracking on my phone so you could find me.”
He scowls and puts his hands in his pockets. “That wasn’t the point, Brielle. When I told you that one of your options was sneaking out, I wasn’t serious. Why the hell do you insist on being reckless with your life?”
“That’s rich from someone in your line of work,” I say, leaning back against the bench. “You know, I think that part of the thrill of your job is probably the number of times you put yourself in danger in the run of a week.”
“Brielle, I have to keep you alive until Brennan gets back. After that, you can take whatever risks you like with your life.” He crosses his legs at the ankles. “But if you keep fucking around with me like this, you are going to find out what kind of man I am, and I can promise that you will not like him.”
“And how will that be different from right now?”
His jaw flexes and his eyes narrow. For the briefest second, I have a lust-filled hope for a repeat of what happened at the waterfall. When he looks at me, there is something unreadable in his gaze.
Salvatore shakes his head and stands up. “If you know what’s good for you, you won’t make the mistake of crossing me again.”
He walks away, blending into the background. Even as I stand and join Jamie near a wall of flowers for the next shot, I can still feel Salvatore’s gaze burning a hole through me.
“You should come over this weekend,” Jamie says in between poses. “It’s been a long time since we did a movie night. It would get you away from that bodyguard of yours for a little bit too.”
“That would be fun,” I say, crouching low to take pictures from a new angle. “But I have plans this weekend with the aforementioned asshole. Something about defensive training. He thinks that I don’t have what it takes to protect myself.”
“You know, men like that deserve a kick in the balls sometimes.” Jamie grins and pretends to karate kick the air. “Straight to the nuts.”
I laugh and shake my head, taking more pictures of her as she flails and leaps through the air. “Why else would I agree to self-defense classes with him?”
Jamie laughs and shakes her head, hitting a few more poses before we’re done for the day. She takes off to head to a meeting while I finish packing up my bag.
