was gravely serious. “It’s time for you to go,” he stated with no room for argument. Craig looked at him once, something in his eyes told Alyssa that he was trying to assess just whether or not he could take the man beside her in a fight or not. She didn’t know what he had decided on the matter; she just knew that he stiffened his shoulders before giving her one more offsetting look.
“I’ll be seeing you,” he said to her. His voice was deep and laced with something, she wasn’t sure what, but it was something. He didn’t have that same friendly, confident tone. He seemed determined, maybe even a little angry; she didn’t know which because she barely knew the man. She waited until he was out the door before she turned to Shane and smiled.
“Okay, let’s get on with what we need to do.”
“Is he somebody to you, Alyssa?”
“Craig? No,” she shook her head wondering why he cared. He was security, and he was only there as a favor to whoever had asked him to come and apply for the job. “Not that it should matter to you. Now let’s get on with familiarizing you with the store, shall we;” she stepped around him when he showed no signs of moving out of her way. She walked over to the security room door before turning around and realizing he wasn’t right behind her. “Are you coming?” She heard the hint of annoyance in her own tone and she couldn’t figure out why it was there. He had asked a simple question. Why had it bothered her so much?
“This,” she pushed open the door to her security room, “is where you’ll work. I know it’s not much, but we can get a more comfortable chair in here for you, and um…well…” she looked around trying to figure out what would be the best thing to put in the room with him. The only thing she had factored in when she embarked on this journey to find security for her store was the more comfortable chair aspect, maybe a small desk to replace the one that had come with the building when she bought it; otherwise, there wasn’t much she could think of that a security guard would need.
“I’ll fix it up to my specifications,” he said as if rescuing her from the task of trying to figure out what to do with the room. She had at least painted the room. The color was a soft, yet calming blue. She had once heard that blue was peace inspiring and she thought a security room should be just that. If she had gone for the Stark Raving Mad Red color the sales clerk tried to get her to buy she had envisioned the guard would probably go stark raving mad and shoot up her store. No, blue was a sense of peaceful, calming tranquility to give whoever was stuck in that room all day a little slice of beauty and, with hopes, patience.
“I can add a mini fridge,” she said. “That way you can bring sodas or food and eat in here if you get hungry. Just please clean up behind yourself.” She wasn’t a maid and she didn’t have time to play one.
He stepped completely into the small room, making it feel smaller. He wasn’t an overtly tall man. He wasn’t a guy who physically demanded all the space in the room, but somehow this man was definitely demanding space in this room. She felt crowded, not by his body, but by the man himself. It was as if he walked into the place and he owned it, completely possessing it, controlling it in a way that told anybody in his way to quickly get out of it. That was one of the things she first noticed when he walked into her store. When the door swung open and he walked in she felt the heat of his stare before she even looked up to see him. She had been putting a piece back in the case after giving a customer a closer inspection of the delicate necklace. When she did look up she wished she hadn’t. He was just standing there, taking over the space in the store like he owned it to his core. His low cut hair accented a strong jaw line making it look even stronger. His broad shoulders and narrow waist made her want to strip off that black tailored suit jacket, that