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I hadn’t been notified he was even leaving DC by any of my men, and worse, he hadn’t traveled or shown up with them. Something was off, and I hated the ominous feeling rolling around in my gut. My mind snapped to the news articles that had been piling up, connecting the former senator to the bombing and attempted murder of his daughter.
I knew he’d be pissed about the leak, but it had come from his office as mentioned in the reports, so there wasn’t much I could do about it. His anger would have been better directed at his own team, but I’d been around men like Robert enough to know that fingers would be pointed at the outsiders, and his team was on the outside of this entire clusterfuck. By the time I’d arrived on my office floor, I’d sorted my clothing back to rights with the help of the mirrored elevator doors, and there was no trace showing I’d been about to fuck this man’s daughter against a door.
And I had been close to it. I wouldn’t have stopped, professionalism be damned. The elation that she was safe from an assassin had been its own aphrodisiac to my starving body. The pull to feel her body against mine, to feel her sink down on my cock, to feel her coming around me… it was a need stronger than I’d ever felt before. I’d been holding back until she’d yanked me down to her, kissing me with that same starving need. A month ago, my job had been the most important thing in my life, and somewhere along the way, this woman and her safety had become my only priority.
I needed her.
That was a foreign and terrifying feeling, especially with the target on her back and little clue as to who had put it there. Too much was out of my control, even the way my body craved that closeness with her. The security of the building had been the reason I’d spent the last week keeping my distance. Knowing she was only feet away in my home was far different than her being across the hall in her estate. Each night I wanted to lift her from that guest bed and lay her down on my own, strip her down and spend hours exploring every curve of her heart stopping body.
So instead, I had avoided my own damn bed until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Every night I stumbled exhausted into my bed and slept just long enough to wake up and shower before her and leave. She’d probably thought I was sleeping in my office by how little I’d seen her in the apartment, but I had to keep away. Seeing Lake in my space felt too good, and it would have been too easy to cross that line I’d set in place. And what a stupid line it was. Losing two of my men had hit me in a way I’d never seen coming. I held the guilt and pain of losing part of the family I’d built with Remington Security, but more than that came the dire need to stop wasting time.
A near-death experience could really put some things into perspective.
Buttoning my suit jacket, I crossed the length of the reception area and nodded to Betty, my receptionist, before entering my office to be greeted by five men, all of them, I had already met. Robert stood rigid, pinched face flaring at me as he looked up from his phone. Dominic Parker lounging in the seat across from my desk looking like he’d rather be anywhere else and three men who I’d known longer.
Davey Reynolds stood, stone faced, legs slightly apart with his arms crossed over his chest, looking like the typical bouncer in his dress pants and black button down, rolled up his forearms. Davey owned Oceanic, a West Coast agency that was second only to Remington in the world of private protection. Beside him stood his two best men, Rodney and O’Shae. And now, the lack of Remington was starting to make sense.
It was an obvious power play by Robert to bring my direct competition into this meeting, and I wanted to laugh in his face with it. Politicians played by a very passive aggressive set of rules. I was a military man. My strategies were much more direct. Instead of speaking first with the former senator, I reached my hand out to Reynolds and gave him a small smile.
“Reynolds, good to see you again. You get those last two referrals I sent your way?” From the corner of my eye I saw Harrington puff up ever so slightly at my snub and clear familiarity with his entourage.
Taking my hand and giving it a firm but friendly shake, Reynolds smiled pleasantly, breaking up the permanent scowl for only a moment. “Sure did. Thanks for that.”
“Anytime,” I responded lightly as I stepped around to my side of the desk, refusing to sit in the chair. To the men who understood this game, sitting was a sign of weakness. Dominic, finally catching on, bolted to his feet and worked on smoothing out his suit. Finally I turned my attention to Robert. “Mr. Harrington, I don’t recall a meeting on the schedule.”
“You’re fired.” The words were spit with a rage I’d never heard from the man before, and it was obvious by his own surprised blink that hadn’t been how he’d wanted to begin his verbal dressdown.
Crossing my arms over my chest, I gave him a slow appraisal before raising a single questioning eyebrow. Yeah, I had a feeling this was coming, but I hadn’t expected him to yell at me like a child.
Clearing his throat, Robert started again, this time in a carefully tempered tone. “Discretion was very clearly demanded of this entire mess, and you let some reporter paint me as a car bomber. My name is spread all over the media now, and I will not let you incompetence threaten my career any longer. Or my daughter’s safety.” That last bit seemed to be tacked on at the end, as if he’d forgotten we hadn’t been hired just to protect his reputation. In fact, we hadn’t been.
Before I even responded, Lake was gliding through the door like she was walking down a runway, completely composed and with no sign that she’d been wrapped around me, rubbing her pussy against my cock only minutes before. Damn, she was amazing. She halted at the men she didn’t know and eyed them suspiciously before weaving around the crowded office to gracefully lower herself into the chair Dominic had vacated.
While the idea of any of the men sitting was a sign of weakness and capitulation, the act from Lake was one of dominance; she seemed to command the room from a throne of her own making and watching her casually cross one leg over the other as she reclined in the chair made me want to laugh and kiss her at the damn time.
The air was thick with a tension that Lake seemed to give no fucks about as she examined her manicure. “What’d I miss?” she asked lazily.
This act she put on in front of her father had previously annoyed me and made me despise even having to work with her, but seeing it now after knowing her the way I did, I realized we’d both done the same thing to Robert when we’d come in. Making him feel insignificant to knock him off his high horse. Maybe at one time she’d done it for attention, but now she wielded that bratty temper like a sword, and it sliced through every man in the room.
“Your father was in the process of firing me.” My reply was measured and held little more than boredom, just to irritate Robert further.
Lake’s eyes flashed to mine and there was a raw lust in those deep green eyes that told me she very much appreciated my tone when addressing her father. Wait. Was this foreplay for her? My girl was a complicated one, and I was very interested in learning everything she was hiding.
“Remington, as a whole. I was unaware you were so well acquainted with Mr. Reynolds, but it makes this much easier than having to explain his presence.”
Without looking at her father, Lake gave each of the Oceanic men a long up and down, and I felt my neck heat with irritation. The beast inside was pacing the cage, growling low in warning, and I knew I would lay out all three men if they so much as winked in her direction. Whatever she’d been looking for, Lake found the men wanting and turned her gaze on her father finally.
“So, when I hire them, personally, I won't have to deal with them reporting to you?” She folded her hands in her lap, looking like a demure lady as she smiled. “I find this turn of events extremely advantageous. Thank you, Robert.”
I’d never seen a politician turn purple before, but rage clouded Roberts' features and my fists clenched as the room went deathly still. I could see by the hard eyes fixed on the back of the former senator by the Oceanic crew; they were ready to break up a physical fight as well. Who would they restrain? Like I’d let them anywhere near Lake.
“Rodney and O’Shea will be escorting you back to your condo in New York City where you will stay until it is safe.” He’d managed to control himself and spoke like he had a podium in front of his tense body. “For once, I would appreciate it if you could keep your opinions to yourself and do as you’re told.”
A smile that was all teeth and absolutely no amusement spread across Lake’s face as she slowly uncrossed her legs and stood to face him completely.
“Lake,” he rushed on, hoping to stop the storm he’d just unleashed. “Under Remington’s protection you have been followed, spied on, and blown up. Now they’re throwing our names into a media circus and I refuse to allow it any longer.” At this point I took the seat behind my desk, not hiding my amusement as I waited for the sexiest and fiercest woman I’d ever met to unleash hell. And she didn’t disappoint.
“Your half-assed attempts at concern are too little too late. Someone put a hit out on me, in some connection to you. An actual assassin that, until last week, I thought only really existed in fiction. During that fun little adventure to a house no longer safe to me, Remington,” she emphasized the company and glared between Robert and Dominic, “kept me completely safe. When someone blew up the car in front of mine and then attempted to lead us into a trap, those men thought quickly and sacrificed themselves to help me.”
