Unexpected Guardian (Skyline Trilogy Book 3)

by Willow Summers

  Unable to breathe, she walked into her living room to calm down. To get her head around the access she was offering him.

  A forest of bags and boxes greeted her, hanging out on her coffee table.

  “What the—”

  “I brought them while you were working.” Josh moved in behind her and crossed the space to her couch. He moved like he knew the place. Like he belonged in it.

  Rigid, she stood in the center of the room, noticing the give of her couch as he sat on it.

  “How did you get in?” she asked in a breathy voice. He’d been in here without her. Into her space. Unattended.

  “I took your key,” he said nonchalantly. “I put it back, though. Is that a problem?”

  “What made you think I would want you in my home uninvited?”

  His body tensed and his eyes took on an intense light. He leaned forward, suddenly uncomfortable. “Did I cross a line?”

  “Yes,” she blurted.

  He stood up. “I’m sorry, Jenna. I didn’t look around. I just thought I was helping. I didn’t realize, uh, that you didn’t want me here. I’ll go.” He edged around her, making her feel like a real asshole.

  Again.

  “No, just—” Jenna took a deep breath. “Sorry, don’t go. I just don’t really invite people here, so it took me off guard, is all. I’m not used to it.”

  Josh nodded slowly. In a subdued voice, he said, “Are you sure you don’t want me to go? I don’t want to make you uncomfortable.”

  “It’s okay.” She couldn’t seem to eradicate the near hysteria in her voice. “I can admit when I overreact.”

  Josh smiled. “You? Overreact?”

  “Har har. Come with me and I’ll show you where you can sleep.”

  Josh followed her down the hall, past the kitchen, and into the guest room.

  “You did a great job with the décor,” he said as he moved through the apartment, using that soothing voice again. Trying to calm her down.

  It was working.

  “Thanks. Here’s the room. Tomorrow you can load up the closet and dressers and whatnot. Down the hall is the bathroom. My bedroom is at the end of the hall.”

  Josh stared down into her eyes. The air thickened as she processed the heat in his gaze.

  “Okay, well, make yourself at home.” Jenna backed out of the suddenly too small room.

  “What is off limits?” Josh asked, his steady gaze following her, but his body staying put.

  “My room. The shower, when I’m in it. My body. Other than that, make it your home for the next few months. I’ll get you a key.”

  “I won’t peek through your drawers.” He was mocking her, but it also comforted her. She just wasn’t ready to admit it.

  Chapter Nine

  The day dawned bright and muggy. It had been a long time since Josh had been in weather like this; it took some getting used to. There was air conditioning, but he’d left his window open through the night, so it wasn’t doing much good. The city was imposing, and he felt claustrophobic in an apartment with people and concrete on all sides of him. The little bit of natural air, no matter how sticky, was enough to give him peace of mind.

  Josh took stock of his room, certain that he wouldn’t be in it long. Jenna was having a hard time keeping him at a distance. Soon the dam would burst and he would join her in her room.

  Until then, he couldn’t claim he was really put out. The bed was a cloud. Pure luxury. The bed dressings were even better—high-thread-count linen, down pillows, and a down comforter folded at the bottom of the bed.

  Jenna’s home reflected her best qualities, without the hard shell or the need to brace itself against the world. The comfort, the simple luxury, and soft beauty was her to a T. It even smelled delicious. Like her. He had only taken one step inside to feel at home. He felt more comfortable in these surroundings than he did in his own empty house.

  She was home. Wherever she was was his home. This apartment proved that to him.

  In the kitchen he found an automatic coffee pot that was already brewing. He took a seat at the L-shaped counter and waited to see when he could jump into the shower without disrupting her schedule. He knew there were two bathrooms, but wasn’t sure how the hot-water flow worked. He didn’t want to take all the hot water—she would not look favorably on that.

  Jenna walked out of her bedroom not much later in a silky, though loose, champagne-colored tank top and matching briefs. The edges around her neck and legs were black lace. She wore an equally silky half bathrobe that swirled around her body as she moved, her head bowed over her phone.

  She glanced up at him when she neared the kitchen. Panic crossed her face and her step faltered. With visible effort, she smoothed her expression and completed the walk into the kitchen.

  He believed her when she’d said she didn’t bring people over. The look of pure terror on her face when he sat down on her couch was proof of that. That she was allowing him in, though, meant she was close to giving in to her feelings.

  “Don emailed,” Jenna said. “The groundbreaking has been moved back two weeks. It seems the PR firm wants to make a bigger event out of it.”

  Her eyes snagged on his bare chest. A beautiful flush spread across her face. “I thought we’d made a rule about clothes in Colorado,” she muttered as she poured two cups of coffee.

  “Sorry, I was just wondering about showers?”

  “What about them?”

  “You are beautiful, Jenna.”

  Jenna’s face erupted in a flush again, deeper than before. She absentmindedly smoothed her hair and looked down bashfully. With an insecure smile she said, “Thanks.”

  She was so bare here. So relaxed. So open and herself, without any worries or stress. He’d never seen her so lovely. If he wasn’t already over the moon about her, he would fall in love all over again.

  “Uh…I have a shower in my bathroom, so you are free to set up the spare bathroom as yours. Just, you know, toilet seat down, keep the pee in the toilet, clean up after yourself—housebroken rules. Erika comes here and I don’t want her thinking I’m a pig, even if she’d know it was you.”

  “Understood.” He’d learned to be tidy from his father, school, and any number of screaming drill sergeants. Being housebroken was easy, and he was glad to see she shared the sentiment. “What about hot water?”

  She looked confused. “What about it?”

  “If we shower at the same time, or if I flush a toilet, will your shower go cold?”

  Jenna laughed, a beautifully pitched sound. “No, we are okay on that front. I won’t freak out on you or anything.

  “I have a photo shoot today,” she said. “That’ll suck, but…” She shrugged and sipped her coffee, eyes veering to his chest again. She looked away quickly and padded over to the sliding glass door. She pulled back the curtains to let the sunlight in.

  Josh admired her sculpted butt as he took a sip of his coffee. His gaze dipped to the mug. “Jesus, this coffee is delicious.”

  Jenna turned back with a small smile. “Columbian, handpicked. It’s a special brew. Expensive but worth it. Well. I have to get ready.”

  Jenna left the living room quickly, keeping her eyes away from Josh’s perfect form sitting on the barstool like he’d been sitting there all his life. It was disconcerting. And arousing.

  She heard the shower going as she started her daily routine. The morning chat was nice with Josh; a good way to wake up. She didn’t care if she walked in a half-hour late because of it.

  She dressed in a smart, tailored suit that she hoped would make the cut for the photo shoot. All Don had said was suit, not color or style or anything relevant. The photographer would have detailed instructions and something already in mind, so if her suit wasn’t it, then she would be wearing whatever they put her into. Unless it was sleazy.

  Josh was showered and dressed in a pair of loose-fitting slacks and a shirt and tie when she walked back into the living room. She doubted Erika would have such an ea
sy time getting Jax to dress appropriately. At least she and Josh didn’t have to fight about this.

  “Nice suit,” he said as she came into the kitchen. “I was going to make breakfast but there was nothing to make it with.” He was accusing her of not eating, but it came across light and indifferent. He was learning her tricks, the dog.

  “I usually just have a coffee on the way to work.” She rinsed her coffee cup and placed it into the dishwasher.

  “Huh.”

  “You can grab something after you drop me in, how’s that?”

  “We’ll order in. I noticed the extensive stack of takeout menus this morning.”

  “I don’t have time. I need to get to the office.”

  “I meant we’ll order in from the office.” He sounded patient but firm.

  On second thought, she would rather argue about clothing than half the things they disagreed about. “Josh, I really can’t have my life dominated by you. I won’t change everything about me because you have opinions about how I should live.”

  “Wanting you to eat enough to sustain your body weight isn’t just my opinion on how to live your life. I am simply reminding you that in order to stay alive, you must eat.”

  “I am not eating three big meals a day.”

  “Fine, maybe not big meals, but you will eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner. A snack or two wouldn’t go amiss, either.”

  “I won’t discuss this anymore. Mind your own business.”

  “I am.”

  “Bothering me about eating isn’t minding your own business.”

  “Yes, it is. You are my business. I am minding you.” His face was straight, but he had that damn twinkle in his eyes. He was obviously mocking her again, but making it impossible to retaliate.

  He was one of the more infuriating people she knew.

  After a cab ride to the office, they passed a narrow-eyed Jimmy on the way through the lobby. Josh pushed in too close and put a hand to Jenna’s back.

  “Don’t rub it in,” she whispered as she smiled a greeting.

  “Why not? Look at him. His face is nearly purple. They should’ve been trained to be in better control.”

  “They are security guards, Josh. They are trained to scare people away, not guard Buckingham Palace.”

  “They don’t do that well, either.”

  Jenna threw her hands up.

  Once in her office, she sat at her desk and prepared to lose herself in work. The red light of the voicemail glared at her. It was the project manager for Jax’s house.

  Frustrated with how behind this would make her, she pulled up the plans for Jax’s house.

  “Is that for Jax?” Josh asked from the corner of the office, scrutinizing menus for breakfast.

  She must’ve been muttering.

  “Yes. The freaking woman in charge of overseeing it is completely useless. She has questions on even the simplest of things.”

  “Maybe I can help? I don’t know much about building houses, but if it is just overseeing, I think I can figure it out.”

  “Oh, would you? That would really help me out. It’s really easy stuff, like now she is asking if she should have the lawn mowed. I mean, really? She’s calling me about mowing a lawn?”

  “I think I can handle it.”

  “Great. C’mere and I’ll show you what I’m going for. Please.”

  Jenna spent the next half-hour going over the various plans. He nodded at intervals but otherwise listened silently, watching her hands and the plans as she explained. When she was done she looked at him with raised brows.

  “Got it. Most of it. I’ll figure out the rest,” he said, his eyes still on the plans.

  Jenna sighed happily and went back to her work.

  The day passed in a blur. It seemed that as soon as she had one problem resolved, another cropped up. With the groundbreaking now two weeks away, it meant they had more time, but not much more. There were half a dozen small issues that needed to be resolved before then, which wasn’t much, but each thing took time, and they were in short supply of that.

  Erika and Mike were in and out of her office all day, asking for help or advice with various things, trying to reason out the few issues that Jenna was stumped on. Though there was less arguing with the three of them than there would have been with six, they were still cut down by half and having a hard time getting everything done. Don said he would bring in a couple of clerks, which would help, but right now the team was all cranky, bitter, and way overworked.

  Two hours before she had to leave for the photo shoot, Josh wandered in with lunch. He set it on the corner of her desk unobtrusively, but didn’t walk away.

  “Josh, I’ll get to it. I am right in the middle of something here.”

  “I fired that project manager.”

  That got her attention. Jenna straightened up and wiped the tired out of her eyes. “Explain. Please.”

  “She was useless, like you said. So I fired her.”

  Josh hadn’t really grasped her expectation of a desirable explanation. “I don’t really have the time to do it myself, though, Josh, so now I need to find someone else. In the future, please run those things by me.”

  “I will oversee the work.”

  “Except you are in New York. It is hard to oversee when you can’t visibly see.”

  “I have a friend of sorts who is a building inspector. I hired him to visibly oversee and report back. He will also help with inspection.”

  Jenna studied Josh for a moment. He wasn’t incompetent in anything else he did, but he didn’t know how to build things. On the other hand, it was his friend’s house, so she couldn’t imagine he would do anything to sabotage it, but he might think he had everything down pat, only to have her come in and realize he was doing everything ass-backward.

  Back and forth she went, making a list of pros and cons in her head. Josh stood as close to attention as she could imagine. He met her eyes calmly, not defensively, and waited for her decision.

  While he had just made some big decisions without asking her, he knew she was in charge, and would stand by whatever she said as the final stamp of approval, even if it was to berate him. That finally tipped things in his favor. She could work with that. She would be checking in periodically anyway, so she would catch anything that had gone awry.

  “Okay, fine. Please note, inspectors do most things by the book. That is not always the best way. If he tries to cut corners, I want to be notified. I also want you to run big decisions by me. I’ll be checking in, but I won’t always be happy, upbeat, or in a good mood. I won’t always approve of how you are doing things. It isn’t personal, so don’t take offense. If you have questions, any questions, big or small, I want you to ask them. I may think you are being an idiot for asking, and I may very well tell you so, but ask anyway. I’m not easy to work with, so…sorry in advance.”

  Josh’s eyes were twinkling again, but his expression was hidden behind his stony façade. “I have seen how you work, and I can say, without a doubt, you are never happy, upbeat, or in a good mood.”

  “Ass,” she muttered as she looked down at her desk and tried not to smile. “All right, go to it.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “And please don’t call me ‘sir.’”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Or ma’am.”

  “Yes, horrible bitch.”

  Jenna shook her head as Josh wandered away, taking out his phone. She took a second to eat a nibble before getting back to it.

  A while later, as she was straightening herself up to leave for the photo shoot, Josh came back in with a list in his hand.

  “Do you have a second, Jenna?” he asked professionally.

  “Yup.” She wasn’t as professional.

  “Henry, the inspector friend, had a chance to check out the house. He has a list of things that are not up to code.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes. She hated inspectors. “Lemme see.”

  It was a big list. Some things were nitpicky and
could easily be worked around. Some, though, were structural and dangerous. Jax deserved better than a patch job—especially since Erika was probably going to move in with him eventually.

  That gave Jenna pause. “Do you think Jax and Erika will eventually get married?”

  Josh’s eyes widened slightly. “Why?”

  The way he said it, like she had peeked in his drawers and was accusing him of wrongdoing because of something she’d found, gave her nervous goosebumps. “Surely he isn’t already planning to propose? They’ve only known each other for a couple of weeks.”

  Josh shrugged but didn’t say anything. He was uncomfortable, though.

  “Men are such dummies.” She exhaled, hating all the huge changes that were coming down the pipeline. Was a quiet life so hard?

  Knowing that Erika was just as dumb, and would probably say yes, she said, “Right, what do you think about tearing the whole thing down and building from scratch? Think Jax will freak out?”

  “I think that is a little too much for a reward.”

  “Well, it might as well be a wedding present, huh? I know what Erika’s dream house is supposed to look like, so I might as well incorporate some of that. Such a pain in my ass, those two. Get a demolition team out there and tear the whole thing down. I want it done within two weeks, start to finish, everything cleared away. That is more than enough time.”

  “But all Jax’s things…?”

  “Oh yeah. Damn. Okay, get a moving crew. Move only things Jax can’t part with, including closet items. Everything else should be donated or tossed, receipts saved for donated items. I don’t care where it goes. Once done, and that should be done by the end of the weekend with a good crew, get the demolition team set up. Two weeks, start to finish. The teams will say it can’t be done and try to push for longer. Don’t let them. They will then say they can do it, but they have to push something else aside, bla-bla-bla, and it will cost ya. Don’t take it. Tell them to do it, or you’ll find someone else. Two weeks. More than enough time. Got it?”

  “You are planning on buying him new furniture?”