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“We’rerunning! I prefer not to talk when I’m exercising.”
“You don’t talk to me most of the time, not just now.”
“What the hell do you want to talk about so badly?”
I opened my mouth, and suddenly my brain disconnected. I couldn’t think of a single specific thing to say.
Blake scoffed. “Let’s finish this run, and if you think of something afterward, you can tell me then. And stay behind me.”
He took off running back toward his house, leaving me behind. I knew he wouldn’t leave me too far behind, he couldn’t protect me properly that way, but he was clearly staying enough steps ahead he thought he could ignore me.
We’ll see about that.
My brain finally engaged again. “You could slow down for a second.”
“Catch up,” he challenged.
As I watched Blake’s muscled ass flexing in his shorts, I smiled. “Hate to see you go, love to watch you leave.”
He stopped so fast, I almost ran into him. But I spun and moved around him without having to slow too much. I ran to pull ahead, and then without overthinking it, I ran double-speed to get ahead. “No,youcatch up.”
Blake barked out, “Callie.”
He said he wanted me behind in case of a threat. If he wanted that then, he was going to have to catch up to me first. I knew it would piss him off. I knew it would earn me a safety lecture.
But at least he would have totalk to me.
He growled my name again, so I ran harder. And I had to admit to myself that I really just wanted Blake to chase me.
He grabbed my arm, pulling me back against him as he stopped our forward momentum. “What the hell’s wrong with you? How many times have I told you to stay behind me? Are you trying to—”
“Watch it,” I said. “You’re in danger of breaking your record for consecutive words spoken to me at one time.”
When he paused to take that in, I twisted out of his grip before trying to run again. He caught me easily, but when he pulled me toward him, I stumbled. I fell back against his chest, much like the first time we met when he caught me as my ankle turned at the gala five years earlier.
“What’s gotten into you?” he asked, though his voice sounded less angry than before.
I stayed there, my back against his chest, and turned my head to look up at him. “Guess I just wanted to be chased,” I said, while still trying to catch my breath from sprinting.
He stared down at me, his brows furrowed. His grip on my arms softened, and I felt him taking deep breaths. His hands slid down my arms, toward my hands.
Then he let go of me and took a step away. I missed the contact instantly.
“I can’t do this,” he said. “You need to understand that right now.”
“This? Getting to know each other? Talking on a friendly jog?”
He glared.
“Or telling me that I’m beautiful, almost kissing me, and then treating me like I don’t exist?”
He huffed. “Your father hired me to protect you. That makes you my responsibility and the daughter of my boss.”
I walked up to him and put my hands on his chest. “What if I wasn’t? Would you—”
He grabbed my hands to pull them off his chest but held onto them. “Don’t. That makes it too hard... I have to focus on my job, or you could get hurt. Worse.”
“I don’t understand how talking to me would make it harder to protect me. Blake, I was so disappointed five years ago to find that you’d quit and moved on. I never stopped thinking about that night. I know you don’t remember—”
