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I had to get her name and number. Because everything about her was all I’d ever wanted in a woman. Standing that close, feeling her tremble, short-circuited my brain.
She was younger than me, and likely not interested in a thirty-two-year-old who wasn’t a playboy with a sports car, but I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t at least try.
“I can take you to your car if you’d like to leave. Or if you want to wait, I can escort you home after I’m off-duty.”
She zeroed in on the wire stretched from my earpiece that disappeared into my shirt.
“So youarea part of Dad’s security team. I thought so. You have that serious look about you. And you didn’t stay to chat me up after running that guy off the first time. It almost hurt my feelings.” She grinned widely.
Dad’s security team.
Shit.
“Callie Ellis?”Petal One.
“That’s me,” she said, holding her hand out. I took it in a quick shake and didn’t want to let it go. “And you are—”
“You’re supposed to be in Europe.” I stared intensely into her eyes. The only photos in my file were of people I’d be protecting, not family members who lived elsewhere, so I hadn’t recognized her.
“He didn’t inform us you’d be here.”
“It was a surprise. I decided to come home a little early.”
Ellis should have told me she came. How the hell could I properly protect his family if I didn’t know they were there?
“Callie?” Alicia Carmichael walked up the hall, with Andrew a few steps behind. “Everything okay?”
“Yes,” she said. “Just some creep. Fortunately, I was rescued by—I still don’t know your name,” she said to me.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” I said, and I walked away fast, barking orders into the mic to get one of the undercovers to shadow Callie Ellis while I got back to work watching her father.
“Your jacket!” she called out.
I’d just had the cold fucking shower of learning that she was Vincent Ellis’ daughter. I didn’t give a shit about the jacket. I had to focus on protecting Ellis and putting that auburn-haired, twenty-year-old beauty out of my mind.
Five Years Later
The small private plane taxied in as I got out of the car and walked toward it. Austin to Elm Grove was only two hours by car, but the governor had arranged a private jet anyway.
The flight was on time, but I’d known it would be with Andrew in charge. Andrew still worked for Ellis, and as I’d expected, he’d become the new chief of the governor’s security team after I’d left.
He was a good man, and I’d congratulated him while we exchanged details of the hand-off over the phone. I looked forward to shaking his hand again.
What I hadn’t been looking forward to was getting another glimpse of the beautiful Callie Ellis.
After the gala, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. She was visiting for the summer and would be staying with the governor at his mansion. I’d been tasked to oversee her security detail as well. I’d done the only reasonable thing I could, which was to resign and make sure I stayed far away from her.
I’d only managed to think of her less over the last year or so. Maybe if I’d known she was Vincent’s daughter before I’d thought too much about her lips, the memory of her wouldn’t have hung on as much as it did.
But I knew that after we went our separate ways this time, she was going to be even harder to get out of my mind.
I should never have agreed to protect her, with her beautiful blue eyes and her sad little karate chop. But when Vincent had called me about the threats against her, he’d practically begged me to watch over her.
She refused to stay with him because she and Beth didn’t get along. And he was worried that the threats were serious this time. The threats had been getting progressively worse, and some lunatic had thrown a brick through her bedroom window.
I couldn’t stand the thought of her being out there, protected by someone else.
Andrew came down the stairs first, scanning the area for danger. Then Callie followed him out. This time, instead of a form-fitting cocktail dress, she wore jeans and a T-shirt, both snug enough to show off every delicious curve. My body went hot at the sight of her walking toward me.
