“I’m a different Lexie Keller now.” She sat up out of his embrace, immediately missing the warmth of his body and the comfort of his vibrating voice moving through her.
“Not that different,” he said, looking at her with something peculiar in his eyes. She couldn’t quite name it before he wiped it away.
“So what do you want to do? Stalk me too?”
He ducked his head, half a smile touching his mouth. Lexie remembered when she’d kissed that mouth, and wow, seven years was not long enough to dull some memories.
“I was thinking maybe….” He lifted his eyes to hers. “We pretend. You know, me and you. I’m your boyfriend. I’m jealous. Victor better back off.”
Lexie stared, blinked, and then burst out laughing. She stood up, needing a mega-huge cup of coffee right now. “Yeah, I don’t think so.” She got down two mugs and though the coffee wasn’t quite finished yet, she paused the machine and poured two cup’s worth.
“Do you have a better idea?” He joined her in the kitchen, taking a seat at the bar and facing her as she slid his mug toward him.
“Anything’s better than that.” Because she knew, with Jason Burnes, there was no pretending. The man did things one hundred percent, or he didn’t do them at all.
“I’m all ears.” He lifted his mug to his lips and sipped. Lexie had never been jealous of a coffee mug before, but she was now. Just by having him in her home for this conversation would infuse the air with the delectable scent of his cologne for days.
Lexie stirred sugar and cream into her coffee, every cell in her body begging her to take them to bed. She didn’t have to work at The Straw tomorrow, and maybe they could talk about this then.
She didn’t have to work….
“How often do you valet at Sweet Breeze?” she asked.
“A few nights a week.”
“And your security gig?”
“Whenever Owen schedules me.”
She could see his mind whirring, trying to catch onto what she was getting at. “I know Owen,” she said. “I’ll talk to him.”
Jason set his mug down and folded his arms in front of him on the counter. The urge to lunge across the island and kiss him drove Lexie toward the brink of insanity. She was too tired to be around him. Too emotional. The last time she’d felt like this, they’d ended up in Jason’s office, the door locked, while she kissed him and kissed him and kissed him.
“Talk to him about what?” Jason asked, even the sound of his voice throaty and beautiful.
“Hiring you to be my bodyguard,” she said.
Chapter Six
Jason stared at Lexie. “I’m sorry. Bodyguard?”
“Not to be confused with boyfriend,” she said, taking a swig of her coffee. Surely it was too hot for that, but with the amount of cream she’d stirred in, maybe not. He’d worked hard not to make a face when she’d ruined perfectly good coffee. She’d always liked it to taste less like coffee than anything else, and he’d teased her about it enough for one lifetime.
“The two B-words shouldn’t be confused,” she said. “Got it?”
Jason could barely keep up with the conversation. “I don’t think I’ve got anything.”
“Let’s be clear, then.” She glared at him with those gorgeous eyes, and he wanted to kiss her so, so badly. For a moment there, on the couch, he thought she’d melt a little, let him hold her like he used to, let him back into her life, her heart. Even just getting through the door of her home was impressive.
“I need a bodyguard,” she said. “You don’t really have a job. You’re big. You’re strong. You can look scary. I’ll pay you to watch me. You’re doing it for free now. This is a step up.”
“I don’t watch you twenty-four-seven,” he shot back. “Being a bodyguard is totally different than what I’ve been doing.”
“But you’ve been doing something.”
Of course he had. She knew that. He didn’t need to say it out loud, though she seemed to be probing for just that.
“So you want me to move in here?”
“I…hadn’t thought that far ahead.” The trepidation on her face said she didn’t want him here. But somewhere, deep down inside her, she probably did. Jason had seen this kind of indecision before—when her father had met with her, needing to know if he should put her in the will as the owner and operator of the company. His cirrhosis of the liver had advanced, and she’d been as distraught over his health as much as she hadn’t been sure if she should take over the investment firm. Jason had simply held her while they talked it all through, knowing she would in the end. And she had.
And he could also predict how this situation would end, and he wondered if he’d even kept the ratty luggage he’d come to Hawaii with—because when things went south, he’d be forced to leave again.
“This place seems pretty big,” he said lightly, as if he didn’t care one way or the other. But the pumping of his blood through his veins said differently. He really liked Lexie Keller, and he always had, and if she needed him, he wanted to be right there beside her.
You’ll have to tell her what really happened in New York.
For the first time, the thought didn’t have Jason running for the exit. Maybe it was time to get everything out in the open. Time to heal those wounds. Time to move forward. Time to see if any of the love they’d once had could be rekindled.
For him, some of it already had been, and the private detective in him knew she felt the same about him.
“Want to give me a tour?” he asked, standing and leaving his half-empty mug on the counter.
“Fine.” She had some snap to her voice, but it didn’t bother Jason. He’d seen Lexie Keller angry, and this wasn’t it. Plus, he wanted to follow her around and discover anything he’d missed in the past seven years. He’d missed her more than he knew, and he’d acknowledged that after they’d broken up, he’d experienced the lowest point of his life.
Everything in her house was beautiful and straight, just like her. He wanted to grab onto one of the gray, gauzy curtains in the guest bathroom and ruffle it up a little bit. He kept his hands to himself instead.
She led him around a house that looked exactly like it fit her, and the atmosphere felt comfortable and lived in, despite her extreme attention to detail and order. She talked about her choices of colors for each room, and how they’d spoken to her as she designed the house. With a private office beside her bedroom and a huge living room, her main floor could’ve easily accommodated four of his houses.
And upstairs was even more impressive. As she led him into a comfortable loft, he imagined himself lounging there, something on the TV while he talked to Lexie about her day, strategized for how to keep her safe, and kissed her before he went down the hall to one of the three bedrooms.
“I could stay in this one,” he said, being very careful not to use the word “live.” He did not want to suggest they live together. But if she was serious about this bodyguard thing—and Jason believed she was—he wouldn’t be able to stay in his beach bungalow and be here to protect her.
“This one would work for you,” she said as equally as careful. “It’s the biggest one, and I don’t ever come up here.” She stood in the doorway with him, looking around the room as if she could imagine him there.
They’d dated secretly for a year, and since they couldn’t even really be seen in public together, the idea of them living together had never come up. Lexie was traditional in that regard, anyway, as the biggest reason for their secret rendezvous were because she’d always dreamt of having her father walk her down the aisle, and her father would definitely not have approved of his daughter—the heiress of a multi-billion dollar investment firm—marrying someone like Jason.
But the man had died six years ago, a year after the catastrophic events that had torn Lexie from him. She’d been engaged to another man by then, but she still hadn’t gotten that picture-perfect wedding she’d dreamed about.
Thinking of that made Jason’s hear
t ache for her, and he wondered what she was thinking. So he asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said, her voice almost childlike.
“You don’t know what you’re thinking about?”
She gazed up at him, more vulnerable than he’d seen her since moving to the island. “What are you thinking about?”
“When we were together,” he said simply, honestly. “About how you wanted your father to walk you down the aisle at your wedding.” A smile touched his lips, and it felt like a really long time since his lips had curved that way.
His fingers drifted across hers, and he latched on, taking a moment to settle his in the spaces between hers.
“I was thinking that you hate gray paint, and this whole room is gray.”
He glanced around it again and said, “I don’t hate it.”
“But you don’t like it.”
“Would you let me paint it?”
She hesitated, and Jason squeezed her hand. “Lex, you haven’t changed as much as you think you have.”
She drew in a breath and turned to go into the hall. He released her fingers, wishing he could simply latch on again, but walking down the hall they couldn’t exactly be side-by-side, and it felt awkward. She poked her head into the other two rooms, but she was right. That one right off the lounge was perfect, and he’d definitely move into that one if she was serious about hiring him.
“There’s a basement too,” she said when they landed back on the main level. “But I use it for storage mostly.”
Jason hated that she seemed right back to her impersonal persona, and he wanted to go back upstairs and make the real Lexie come back.
“How do you feel about dogs?” he asked. “I mean, if you’re serious about this. Are you serious about this?”
Lexie hugged herself as if cold, and she did keep the house pretty chilly. “I think I need to be. Name your salary.”
Jason would work for free if he could spend his time with Lexie, but he couldn’t say that. So he said, “Whatever you think is fair,” and swiped his keys from where he’d left them on the kitchen counter. He hesitated, looked her in the eye, and said, “Am I starting tonight?”
Fear paraded through her expression, and Jason put his keys down. “All right.” He wasn’t sure if he should be happy with this new arrangement or not. “And you said you’d talk to Owen? I’ll need my job back after this is done.”
“I’ll call him right now.” She pulled her phone from her pocket and wandered away from Jason. “Hey, Owen,” she said, shooting a look over her shoulder. Jason supposed she did have an in with the man if she could call him this late at night and get him to pick up on the first ring.
Jason moved over to the double doors off the dining area that led outside, wanting to give Lexie more privacy. But when he glanced behind him, she’d disappeared. So he opened the doors and went out onto a deck that spanned to the right and left and overlooked the yard. The darkness here reigned supreme, and he wondered if she’d done her house hunting in the dead of night.
He looked up into the sky, finding the stars easily and grinning at them. “Please,” he said, but he’d never been much for religion and church, and he had no idea how to finish. He settled on the top step of the stairs and rested his elbows on his knees.
She joined him a few minutes later, sitting beside him as she said, “It’s done. You’ll just keep your valet job. Owen said he couldn’t let you go from that. I guess they’re desperate.”
“Yeah, Sterling’s been having some family problems and couldn’t work overnight anymore.”
“Oh.”
Jason lifted his arm and Lexie snuggled into him, and in that moment—that single moment—he tasted happiness again. It had been a while, and there was no one he wanted to share it with more than the woman beside him.
“You’ll be okay overnight while I’m at Sweet Breeze?” he asked.
“I should be,” she said. “It’s more about the appearance of you, anyway. So you’ll have to stop strutting around the beach in your swimwear. I want a suit, Mister, and I want it to be pressed and straight.”
Jason tipped his head toward those stars she loved and laughed. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Do you own a suit?” she asked.
“I used to have a real job,” he said. “I have a couple of suits.” Not ones he’d consider high-end to be a billionaire’s bodyguard, though.
“We’ll go shopping in the morning,” she said, eliciting a groan from Jason. She nudged him with her shoulder and said, “Come on. I’ve never had a bodyguard, and I want you to look like the freaking Secret Service.”
He looked down at her, and the light from the moon fell across her face in such a way that she appeared to be glowing. Radiant. His angel.
“You had a bodyguard for a few weeks right after the story broke,” he said. As soon as the words left his mouth, he wanted to take them back. But he couldn’t. And he wanted her to know he knew. “He became your fiancé if I remember right.”
Lexie’s face blanched and she squirmed out from underneath his arm. She stood, brushed off her shorts, and said, “We all make mistakes, Jason,” before going inside.
Her words branded him, making his skin sear and his jaw clench. But what was he going to do? Go barging into her bedroom and yell at his boss—and the woman he wanted to be his? What would that accomplish?
Nothing.
So he sat on the back steps until his anger had simmered down, and then the went inside, locking the sliding door behind him and going up to his new bedroom. He could sleep in the buff as well as the next man, and tomorrow, he’d bring over everything he needed to be comfortable—including Steve, whom Lexie had never commented on but better get used to. Because Jason had a feeling he wasn’t going to be any less lonely in this house than he was in his small cottage on the beach.
Chapter Seven
Lexie lay in bed, the echo of Jason’s hand still burning against her palm and between her fingers. It had felt so nice to hold hands with a man again, as it had been a very long time for Lexie. She’d had few relationships here on the island. To be honest, she hadn’t really tried more than a couple of times, and they had both been worthless.
She realized she’d never called or texted Sasha or Jasper, so she sent quick messages to both of them. Only Jasper answered, and he said he’d tell his wife, who had already fallen asleep.
Lexie wanted to wander out to the kitchen and dig through the cupboards until she found a forgotten box of cookies. But she had no idea where Jason was, and she didn’t want to face him right now.
We all make mistakes.
What a cruel thing to say. She shouldn’t have said it, and she’d known it the moment it had popped into her mind. She’d allowed it to come out of her mouth anyway, and regret lanced through her like a hot knife.
And yes, she’d had a bodyguard before, and no he hadn’t become her fiancé. It was a touch satisfying to know that Jason could be wrong, but seeing as how Lexie had fallen for her temporary bodyguard’s boss, it wasn’t much better.
Derrick Lancaster was everything her father wanted for her, and Lexie could admit that was half the reason she’d been interested in him in the first place. After that, he turned out to be charming—if there were people and cameras around. He could be generous, if there was someone watching. And he could act loving, if the situation required it.
But behind closed doors, the man who would take over the huge Lancaster television empire one day was cold, distant, and ruthless. She’d been thankful every day since their breakup that she’d found him cheating on her with a nightly news anchor. She couldn’t even remember feeling sad, or hurt. Just relieved.
She’d been in so far that she wore a diamond ring on her finger. Neither of them wanted to pick a date, but they carried on to the public as if they were blissfully happy and just searching for the right time.
Whatever Jason had seen in the tabloids and on TV wasn’t real. She wanted to tell him that, confess that every t
ime she kissed Derrick she imagined it was Jason. Her phone buzzed on the nightstand, and she snatched it up, hoping it was Jason and she could issue a written apology.
But it was Sasha who’d said, Thanks for letting me know. How are things with Jason?
How did she know Jason had followed her home? As far as Lexie knew, the two didn’t have any connection.
So Lexie said Jason? and sent the text.
Several seconds passed where Lexie obsessed over Jason. She’d lived like this for weeks after their break-up too, and it didn’t feel pleasant to be returning to the past.
He texted Tyler to go get Steve. So Tawny texted me to see what I knew, and I didn’t know anything, but I figured maybe you guys… ???
Lexie was still trying to find something to tell her when another message came in. I mean, I know you said there was nothing between you, but I can sort of feel the flame myself whenever you’re together.
You’ve been with us once.
He came and asked about you today. It’s obvious he still likes you. Really likes you.
Lexie shook her head and typed out: I was cruel to him tonight.
Then apologize. Sasha made it sound so simple, but she didn’t know Jason the way Lexie did.
Lexie sat up straighter. She didn’t know Jason the way Lexie did.
She jumped out of bed and practically ran to her bedroom door. She paused, listening to hear if anyone moved out in the hallway. But he would’ve had to be practically standing right outside the door, or banging pots and pans around in the kitchen, for her to hear him.
She’d need to be brave if she was going to pull off this apology, so she pulled open the door and stepped into the hall. Jason was nowhere to be found. The sliding door off the dining room was closed and locked, and she cast a glance up the stairs before moving past them and going into the kitchen.
She knew Jason better than anyone else, and she knew two things about him. One, he adored chocolate chip cookies. And two, he didn’t sleep much. So she creamed butter and sugar, dropped in eggs, measured flour, and dumped in a whole bag of milk chocolate chips as quickly and quietly as she could.
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