Last First Kiss

by Sidney Halston

  Joey pinned his dark brown eyes on Annie. “I’d never fuck it up.” He then turned to Jax. “She doesn’t need to be here for this.”

  Annie pushed her chair back, the bottom scratching against the beautiful stained concrete floor. “You’re kicking me out of the meeting now?”

  “No one’s kicking anyone out,” Jax whisper-yelled, pointing for Annie to sit back down onto the chair. “We need her here. What’s up with you, Josef?”

  But then Joey turned his anger on Jax. “Since when is my sister needed at a consultation?”

  Annie didn’t give Jax a chance to answer, cutting right to the chase. She was the backbone of ICS. While they were out in the field playing superheroes, she was in the office holding everything together. “Since you opened the doors to ICS. Since I’m the one who organizes you two. Since I’m the only one who can properly secure our clients’ computers or hack most government agencies. That’s when.” She was pissed. When had her brother become a misogynistic asshole? He’d been fighting her for a week about this meeting, adamant that she not attend.

  “Screw you, kid. I’m the computer guy. Jax is the muscles.”

  She hated—hated!—when the guys called her “kid.”

  Jax rolled his eyes. So did Annie. “So where the hell does that leave me? I’m not a fucking secretary.” She was seething. Joey refused to let her out to do fieldwork. But she was ready. She’d been ready. She needed to get out of this office. Being behind a desk all day was slowly eating away at her soul. It was true that Jax did most of the hands-on security matters, including bodyguard jobs, but it was Annie and Joey, who had a ridiculous high IQ, who handled most of the IT-related jobs. Annie was capable of doing both; they just needed to give her a chance.

  Her life involved coding and algorithms and binary codes . . . rinse and repeat. She was so bored these days, she wanted to scream. “You are an important member of ICS, Annie. We need you handling things when they come in and helping me with the cases here in the office. Most of the shit that comes in these days can be resolved with a computer,” Joey said, a bit more calmly.

  She didn’t want to handle things behind the safety of a computer. Eight years in the Army had toughened her up—not that she hadn’t been tough already. She’d seen and experienced things that Jax and Joey couldn’t even begin to imagine. Anything Jax and Joey could do, she could do too—maybe better. But since Joey was already pissed off, inserting that little fact would be adding fuel to the fire.

  Jax, the voice of reason, slammed his palms on the table. “Both of you. Shut up. I want you both here to meet Rocco Monroe. So you’ll both sit there, smile, nod, and let me do all the talking. You got it?” He eyed them both until Joey and Annie looked at each other, blew out a breath, and reluctantly agreed.

  “You don’t need to keep using both names,” Annie mumbled. “Rocco Monroe. Rocco Monroe,” she chanted in a whiny childlike voice. Jax glared at her and Annie swiped her fingers over her mouth and pretended to throw away a key. Fine, she’d be on her best behavior.

  “You couldn’t shut up if your life depended on it, kid.”

  Annie whipped her head to the side and again glared at her brother. “And you couldn’t—”

  “Oh my God, would you two stop it. I’m getting tired of it. You know you’re both getting worse every day, right?”

  “Mom’s driving me crazy,” Joey added.

  “Don’t be such a momma’s boy. And stop tattling on me.”

  “I’m not tattling on you. You keep bitching to everyone who has a goddamn ear that you want fieldwork. Mom thinks it’s just a matter of time before you nag it out of me or him.” Joey pointed to Jax. “Every single day, she calls and gives me shit about your safety. And Will, who’s incommunicado, every time he has one moment to reach for a phone, all he asks is about you. Don’t even get me started on Eric—”

  “I don’t need the entire rundown of the family. I got the picture, thank you very much. But mom worries about us all,” she said. Her mother didn’t want any of them putting themselves in harm’s way. The difference was, Joey normally didn’t go out. He seemed perfectly content not to leave the sanctuary of his nerddom—he loved coding—and could sit in his office all day every day. Annie needed the mental and physical challenge that came with fieldwork. It was what she was used to, what she was good at. “Algorithms don’t give us all a hard-on, Joe.”

  “Oh my God. What is wrong with you?” Joey huffed as Jax chuckled. “I want peace and quiet. It’s why I love coding, you disgusting woman.”

  “She’s right, man, I’ve seen the way you look at your computer screen . . .” Jax teased.

  A buzz from the intercom shut them all up.

  The infamous Rocco Monroe was on his way in.

  From the moment Annie had heard about Rocco being a potential client, she’d been secretly doing her research. She was a huge fan of all six-three, two hundred and ten pounds of lean muscles and tan skin. His shiny, black, slicked-back hair had started to gray around the temples, making him look mysterious and worldly. Rocco’s ethnicity was ambiguous and regularly speculated about in the media. He’d played everything from the all-American baseball player in Ballers and Dreams to a sheik in The Desert Warrior. But his signature feature were his cobalt blue eyes highlighted by thick inky eyelashes. The kind of eyelashes women paid hundreds of dollars to have. And the man knew how to work them. There were pictures of him with most A-list starlets as well as a number of models and singers. He’d dated just about every woman in Hollywood, and recently, he’d been named Most Eligible Bachelor and the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine.

  Annie knew why Joey was so hell-bent on keeping her away from him. Yes, part of it was her safety, but the other part was his charm. Joey was stupid enough to think she’d succumb to him like all those poor lovesick idiots Rocco’d seduced.

  No, she wasn’t that kind of woman.

  The arrogant playboy wouldn’t fuck up her concentration by batting his lashes at her. She would never jeopardize her reputation by swooning over any man.

  That had happened once, and she wouldn’t bear that loss and humiliation ever again.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Things are getting heated. Reports from Villavincencio, Colombia—where Gabriel Mendoza’s illegitimate son is purported to reside—has banned El Traficante from playing in any cinema.

  Rocco ran his fingers through his hair and straightened the seven-hundred-dollar Charvet shirt. Surely someone would miss the exorbitantly priced clothes he’d essentially stolen from his photo shoot that morning, but he was already running late for his early afternoon meeting because the crew had been ill-prepared and the female model had been a world-class diva on set. He’d left the matching silk tie thrown somewhere in the backseat of his car, undone the top two buttons of the shirt, and didn’t even bother to remove his Aviators from his face. This was a ridiculous meeting and he did not want to be there.

  A bodyguard was overkill.

  The utilitarian-looking warehouse that housed ICS wasn’t in a neighborhood he’d normally frequent. But he had to admit, once he walked inside, that everything seemed top-of-the-line and expensive, not at all what he had expected from the area or the building. “I’m here for a meeting. My name is Rocco Monroe,” he said to the young man at the reception desk, knowing full well that he’d known who he was the moment he walked through the door. Everyone did. It wasn’t arrogance, it was fact.

  “One moment, Mr. Monroe.” The guy pressed a button and spoke into the phone. A minute later the guy led him down a long hall, pipes and ducts purposely exposed overhead, with maps from all over the world, as well as clocks with different time zones, hung in strategically placed locations.

  “Welcome to ICS, Mr. Monroe,” a large man, taller than him, said, standing up and buttoning his suit jacket. Rocco, at six-three, was often the tallest person in the room, but the man in front of him had him beat, and not just in height, he was also a lot wider. His handshake was firm and confide
nt. “I’m Jackson Irons. You can call me Jax.” Then Rocco turned to the other two people in the room for the usual introductions, his eyes moving directly to the tall, strawberry blond, hazel-eyed beauty who stood across the wide conference room table. He took his glasses off his face as his breath caught in his throat. He barely heard Jax speak. “This is the other owner of ICS—Josef, or Joey, Clad.” Rocco shook the man’s hand, barely registering his presence. “And this is Annabelle Clad.”

  “Annie,” she corrected, sharply. He took her small hand in his large one, and almost dreamily shook it. If there was a thing as lust at first sight, he’d just experienced it. He didn’t want to let go—she was soft and feminine, and sexy as hell.

  But then he came back to reality and his heart plummeted when he processed the last name. Was this Joey’s wife?

  Lucky fucking bastard.

  “Would you like anything to drink, Mr. Monroe?” Jax asked.

  “Please, call me Rocco. And water would be great, thank you.”

  “Annie, would you mind—” Joey began, but she gave him a look that would make lesser men quiver and instead Joey smartly pressed the intercom in the center of the table and asked whoever was on the other end to bring in a few bottles of water.

  Rocco couldn’t help himself and the words just flew out. “I’m sorry, but are you two married?”

  She laughed, humorlessly. “No. I would never be married to a misogynistic pig like Joey.”

  “Would you stop saying that? I’m not misogynistic.”

  “They’re siblings,” Jax explained, and then turned to the two. “I told you both to shut up.”

  What kind of mom and pop shop had NHN sent him to? NHN was arguably the most powerful movie studio in the world, they would undoubtedly hire the best, but these three did not seem professional. In fact, they didn’t look like they could secure their own building much less Rocco and all the hoopla that came with being a famous actor. But the woman was gorgeous, so gorgeous he couldn’t help but stare and imagine her flinging around orders in the office.

  Too fiery for a secretary.

  Definitely the office manager.

  In fact, for the first time since learning about needing a bodyguard, he was excited. Maybe he’d get to come to ICS often for meetings and hopefully Annie would be there with all that thick hair, and red lips, and . . .

  A cough from next to him jolted him out of his lustful thoughts. “Mr. Monroe, how is it that ICS can help you, exactly?” Shit, her brother had caught him staring. He wasn’t a fool. He’d learned from a long list of affairs that brothers could be overprotective. He didn’t have siblings himself, but if he did, he wouldn’t want his sister eye-fucked by a stranger.

  Before Rocco could answer, the guy who’d escorted him into the room moments earlier came in and placed three bottles of water and three glasses on the table and then stepped out. Annie stood and leaned forward to hand him one, and he couldn’t help notice her outfit. Technically, her black top and black pants were practical and professional for her line of work, but the entire outfit was so tight, she might as well have been wearing a black catsuit. Never in his entire life—not with the countless starlets he’d worked with and dated—had he ever seen a sexier outfit.

  Joey’s eyes narrowed in on him, and he realized he’d been inappropriately starting at Annie again.

  “Mr. Monroe,” Joey practically snarled. Notably not calling him Rocco.

  Annie was too distracting. He cleared his throat and turned to Joey. Why was he here, again? Oh yeah . . . riots, Colombia, decapitation photo . . . “As you’ve read in the NDA and probably have seen all over the news, I’m going to be playing Gabriel Mendoza, the Colombian drug lord, in a new NHN film. Unfortunately, this has become quite controversial and people seem to be unhappy I’m the one playing him. So, I’ve been getting some . . .” He shook his head side to side weighing the words. “Not-so-nice fan mail.”

  “Adam from NHN called it hate mail. He said you’ve been getting death threats,” Joey responded. Rocco chanced a glance at Annabelle, who was sitting quietly taking some notes. She was all business, professionalism oozing off her, not at all wowed by his fame and charm.

  Huh . . . That’s a first.

  “Adam exaggerates. The entire studio is up in arms. It’s not that big of a deal, people will get over it. Once I did a print ad for Ralph Lauren and my car was vandalized with the words, ‘Bring Jase back!’” He laughed at the memory, and when none of them seemed to understand, he added: “Jase was the previous Ralph Lauren model.”

  “Oh. Well, okay.” Jax shrugged. “So what exactly is it that you need from ICS?”

  “Personally, I don’t need a thing from ICS, with all due respect. I’m capable of fending off a few overzealous fans or haters. The studio, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to agree with me. There is a stipulation in my contract that I must have security on me at all times until the film is produced.”

  Joey and Jax looked at each other. “Okay, so you need a bodyguard.”

  “Bodyguard.” He scrunched his nose. “Such an extreme term, no?”

  Joey leaned forward and opened a folder, skimming something. “Says here, twenty-four-seven security. Armed.” He closed the folder and looked back at Rocco, crossing his arms and sitting back. “By definition, that’s a bodyguard, Mr. Monroe.”

  Rocco glared at Joey. “Fine. Bodyguard, if that’s what you want to call it. But I have a life, I have commitments. I don’t need, nor want, someone hovering over me as if I’m incapable of defending myself. I also have a personal life and I don’t want some man hanging around, making my guests feel uncomfortable, while I’m entertaining.”

  Finally, Annie spoke, her demeanor casual, sitting back on the chair, her legs crossed, her spine straight. “Our staff are professionals. They would not be there to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Further, we can’t protect someone who refuses to cooperate. We require compliance. No amount of money from you or from NHN will change that. If you are unwilling to cooperate, ICS will be unable to assist you, Mr. Monroe.”

  Fuck, she was feisty. He looked over at the men, thinking they were going to shut her down. He was, after all, a high-profile client whom NHN was surely paying top dollar for. This was the assignment of a lifetime for a small security firm like ICS.

  “She’s right. You cooperate or we will simply part ways. Up to you, Mr. Monroe,” Jax added. It wasn’t hostile, just matter-of-fact.

  Damn it. Paul’s words replayed in his mind. He needed to be cooperative or Spelling would find someone else who was. This film would be his big break from sex symbol to serious actor. He took a gulp of water and cracked his knuckles.

  “I’ll cooperate. I give you my word. But I want someone low profile. Discreet. It’s unnecessary and inconvenient.” And it was a blow to his ego. What would his fans think?

  “All our employees have had extensive military training and are armed at all times. They are all skilled and can surely be discreet, but if you’re in danger, they will take a man down, Mr. Monroe. When we pull the trigger, we aim to kill,” Joey said, his features tense. He looked annoyed by Rocco’s presence. He didn’t seem to be the kind of man who wanted to impress him in order to get the gig. And even though Rocco should have been pissed by the fact Joey wasn’t trying to kiss his ass, it was oddly refreshing.

  “That’s fine. I would expect that, although I’m perfectly capable of taking a man out myself.” He heard a snort come out of Annie’s mouth, but Joey and Jax both gave her a death glare. She shook her head and rolled her eyes, then went back to writing something down.

  Why he couldn’t take his eyes off her, he didn’t understand. She was beautiful but she showed absolutely no interest in him. In fact, she looked completely unimpressed. Day after day, women went through shameful lengths to get his attention and this woman seemed completely indifferent.

  Rocco shifted in his chair and turned his attention back to Jax. “I don’t want to be seen around town with a man at my side
twenty-four-seven.” What kind of pussy would that make me—the action star, the heartthrob—needing a bodyguard? “This is all bullshit, but it’s bullshit I have to put up with for NHN. So he needs to stand behind me, try to blend in. As little communication as possible.”

  “And not disturb you while you’re . . . entertaining,” Annie added, using air quotes for the last word.

  “Jesus Christ, Annie, would you please just shut your mouth,” Joey groaned.

  Rocco, however wasn’t insulted. In fact, he chuckled. Maybe I’ll ask her out after the meeting.

  “We understand. We have shadows. It’s not a problem. The contract NHN sent over says that they need us to begin in a week. Is that correct?” Jax asked.

  “Yes. We start initial shooting at a studio and in various sites here in Miami. Some shots will be done on location, though.”

  Joey’s eyebrows furrowed. “I thought the location shots were cancelled.”

  “They were, but it’s looking as some of them will be back on. And, of course, the studio will cover all the expenses.”

  “The majority of the problems are taking place in Colombia. So if the shoots abroad end up happening we may need to send you with additional men.”

  “No. Just one. I stand firm on that.”

  Joey clicked and swiped quickly on his iPad as he spoke. “How ’bout we discuss that if and when it happens? Meanwhile, we have a few guys that I think you’ll find will fit your needs for this immediate job.”

  As he pulled up some head shots, Annie, who had been relatively quiet and looking introspective, interrupted. “I’ll do it! I can do it,” she said, this time a little less eagerly.

  “Annie . . .” Joey warned.

  Rocco couldn’t help but laugh. Was she being serious?

  “What’s so funny?” Annabelle’s voice was hard and dangerous, definitely not the response he was used to.

  “Wait? You’re being serious?” Rocco’s eyes darted over her in a thorough once-over. Sure, she looked toned and definitely hot, but he was certain she wasn’t what the studio had in mind. At all. He wasn’t trying to be a dick, and he instantly regretted laughing, it just caught him off guard that she had volunteered.