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“I was afraid he was a serial killer,” Joanna confided.
“No,” Kat snapped. “Just an expert at breaking and entering, evidently.”
I reached deep into my soul for patience. “I’m trying to help, Kat,” I said. “Stop breaking my balls.”
“I’ll have to think about that,” she said coolly. “Probably I could think about it better without having you all up in my face. I need a break, Ethan.”
Whatever. I slid my arm around her waist, pulled her tight against me, and gave her a fierce, hungry kiss. She didn’t pull away. For a brief moment, she melted against me, which felt so fucking good, it made my heart thud and my eyes blur.
I pulled away, trying not to pant. “We are not done,” I told her.
“Whoa!” Joanna’s eyes were wide with delight. “Sexual tension! Rawr!”
Oh, for fuck’s sake. That was definitely my cue. I strode out the door, and glared over at Shelby, who was leaning on my car. “I’m going to go check out some leads.”
“Alone?” Shelby frowned. “Not good. You should take one of us with you.”
“I’m not doing anything dangerous,” I said. “I want you here, with her. Keep your eyes on her. Call me if she decides to go anywhere. Whatever it is, she has to wait until Trey is back.”
“Got it.” Shelby glanced at the door in trepidation.
“She’s scary, but she won’t hurt you,” I told him. “I think.”
Shelby rolled his eyes. “That’s real comforting, boss. Watch yourself out there.”
I set a course for the house of Jordan Meechum, the CFO of Clemens & Associates. I figured I might as well chase down another lead while she cooled off. I needed something concrete to offer her when I came back.
Right now, a peace offering would be a very prudent move.
CHAPTER23
Kat
Istared at the door after it slammed shut, swallowing a lump in my throat.
We are not done.His words had sounded more like a threat than a promise, as pissed and frustrated as he was with me, but I still found them perversely comforting.
I was doing my usual harpy from hell routine, the one that had never failed to drive away an unwanted suitor. It gutted me to think it could actually work on the one man I’d ever really wanted.
Problem was, he was stubborn. He felt responsible for me, and I didn’t have time to drive him away with my bitchiness and snark. That could take weeks. At least days.
And now I was bodyguarded, for fuck’s sake. It was comical, really. I could have been a bodyguard myself. I’d been urged to be one often, but I’d always backed away. People who needed bodyguarding were all too often those people who had cameras trained on them, journalists trailing them. People like Ethan Masters himself.
It all circled back to the awful, miserable, shitty impossibility of the two of us being together. Because of what destiny had made him. Because of the demons forever on my trail. Him, a gorgeous golden boy forever in the spotlight. Me, condemned to the dark corners and the holes in the wall, like a cowering mouse in a house full of cats.
I tried hard not to be mouse-like. I had invested every last drop of my energy in learning not to act like prey. And all my efforts were for nothing. I still had to run skittering back to my dark hole in the wall whenever the light flicked on.
“Holy crap, Kat!” Joanna said, in hushed tones. “What did youdoto that guy?”
“Oh, you know,” I muttered. “I was just my usual charming, scintillating self. That’s me, making friends right and left.”
Joanna whistled. “That one looks like a friend worth making! Hubba hubba!”
My throat tightened, as if there was something in there that was diamond hard and aching. “Not me,” I said thickly. “I can’t afford friends like that.”
“Who cares what you can afford? The question is, can he afford a friend like you, and the answer is unquestionably yes. The dude is stinking rich. Yesterday I looked him up. I knew I’d seen his face. And holy crap! MasterTech, for flip’s sake?”
“It’s not about money,” I said dully.
