Page 14 of Playing with Forever
“She’s not my girl,” I said immediately. Too fast. Too sharp.
They all went still for a beat—just long enough for me to feel it—then went back to their sets like they hadn’t noticed. But they had. Of course they had. These were men who made a living off reading people, threats, and dire situations.
“She’s an acquaintance,” I added, forcing the words out in a casual tone. I shrugged like it didn’t matter because I wasn’t in the mood for anyone’s shit talking. “Just showing her a good time.”
Austin glanced up at me from the bench, his mouth twisting like he didn’t quite buy that load of bullshit. I didn’t let it show that I saw him clocking me. Didn’t let him see how badly I wanted to punch something, someone, out of sheer frustration.
“Good for you,” Xavier said easily, flashing a grin. “She definitely looked like she had a good time when you were walking her to the door after the fact.”
I gave a noncommittal nod and turned back to the treadmill, punching in a harder speed like I could sweat out the guilt gnawing at my gut.
Just showing her a good time.Yeah, right.
I could lie to the guys. Hell, I could lie to myself and pretend that’s all it was—that my night with Andrea hadn’t felt different and more intimate the second she called mesirwith that sweet, trembling voice.
Unfortunately, no amount of running or lifting weights was going to change the truth.
I wanted her.
Not just her body. Not just another scene.
Her.
And that knowledge rattled me more deeply than any threat we’d ever faced on the job, because deep down, I knew how my time with Andrea would end. I’d walk away. Not because I wanted to, but because she deserved a man who could give her something permanent and lasting. And better than a guy whose life was built around exit strategies and contingency plans because an emotional commitment wasn’t something a man like me had the ability to offer.
She deserved someone who could put her first. Someone whole and stable. And that person wasn’t me. Because if I let myself believe, even for a second, that I could keep her…I also knew I’d eventually devastate her. And that was something I’d never be able to forgive myself for.
But give her lessons in all the ways she could enjoy pleasure and pain? Yeah, that I could do.
As if I didn’t have enough on my mind, Sutton pounced on me the moment I walked into the office after having showered in the gym and changed into a professional suit for my current assignment.
Sutton was the head of security operations at the firm, hired by my father and Mac to handle the Las Vegas division of Noble and Associates. He was older than the rest of us by over a decade, but still someone I considered a friend when we were off the clock. He had a steady head on his shoulders and I appreciated his experienced perspective on things.
“Chase. Glad you’re in.” Sutton grabbed me lightly by the elbow and guided me through the building toward his office. “I have an update for you on Rothschild.”
“Everything all right?” Harry Rothschild was the man I was currently assigned, and who’d received death threats from a former employee he’d fired. I’d only stopped by the office to check in before heading to his estate to pick him up and provide security detail for the rest of his day.
“Better than all right,” Sutton said, as we entered his wing of the firm and his newest secretary looked more than a little anxious at her boss’s return. “The police arrested the guy behind the threats.”
“Well, damn,” I said, surprised to hear that as I nodded politely at Amy as we passed by, hopefully to offset Sutton’s more gruff and demanding attitude when it came to his assistants. “What happened?”
Sutton scoffed as he lead me into his office. “Idiot bought a shit-ton of illegal fireworks. His neighbor noticed and called the police, worried that he’d set them off in the neighborhood and damage nearby houses. Once the police arrested him for that, they did a quick search in his garage and found more hostile letters to Rothschild. It appears he was planning to use the explosive material to turn it into a homemade bomb to use on Rothschild in some way.”
I scrubbed a hand over my jaw and shook my head. “Jesus.”
“I know.” Sutton sat down in the leather chair behind his desk. “We’re lucky the guy got caught before he could execute his plan. I hope Rothschild reconsiders some of his firing practices after this.”
I snorted in derision because that wasn’t likely to happen. Harry Rothschild had inherited the CEO position from his father who built the company. He was spoiled from the day he’d been born and had grown into a pretentious prick. I didn’t see him wising up and making smarter choices with his employees all of a sudden. The whole time I’d been his security detail he’d thought he was untouchable and had treated me as though I was nothing more than a nuisance.
“At least it’s over with,” I said, uncaring of how relieved I sounded.
Sutton gave me a small smirk that told me he agreed, then he quickly smoothed it out into his usual stern look. “In the meantime, I don’t have a new assignment for you yet, so take advantage of having a few extra days free before something else comes in.”
That’s how this business worked. I really had no set days or hours. My assignments—depending on what they were—dictated when and how much I worked, so it was nice to have a little down time. “Great, thanks,” I said, heading for the door as I tossed a little jab over my shoulder. “You can go back to terrorizing your latest secretary now.”
“I do notterrorize—"
I left Sutton still arguing with me, gave Amy a reassuring wink on my way out of our boss’s office, and pulled out my phone. I was composing the text to Andrea before I even realized what I was doing, and then I had to stop myself.
