‘What’s there to smile about?’ he asks, both annoyed and perplexed.
He doesn’t need to know I’m thinking about Rose remembering the way she complimented my cursing, my mind slipping to last night, and how she’d enjoyed the other ways I’d used my tongue. I’d devoured her as she’d writhed between my face and the velvet chair, taking her pleasure, taking all I had to give. She’d crawled over to me then, her movements as sinuous as my shirt was wrinkled, her fingers at my shirt, my belt, feeding my cock between her legs. And as my tongue traced the rise and fall of her breasts, the pointed tips, she’d stripped the day from me, kissed away my dread. Scoured my thoughts of what might’ve been. Of what is.
Am I three times lucky? Or three times almost dead?
She’d taken me on a slow ride to heaven as I’d realised I’d never ever feel her enough, be inside her deep enough, be enough for her in this or any other life.
Rhett’s voice brings me back to the moment all at once. The helicopter.
‘You could’ve been killed.’
‘So, you heard.’
‘Some head of security I would be if I hadn’t. Do you think the lads don’t report back to me?’
‘I want you to double the security of the house.’ My answer takes the conversation in another direction but not as a diversion. It’s more a gut reaction.
‘Okay.’ He sits straighter in his chair. ‘But fuck the house. You need close personal protection because some fucker is trying to do you in.’
‘Maybe.’
‘Corporate or personal, d’you reckon?’
‘I’ll leave that discovery to you.’
‘Thank the fucking Lord.’ He smiles like the devil himself, his voice like the action of rubbing his hands together. ‘Want to tell me why? I mean, it’s not like I haven’t been telling you to pull your head out of your arse for months, but why the change of heart?’
Because I have something to lose now. Because these no longer feel like coincidences. ‘A precaution,’ I answer instead. ‘I want someone watching Rose, too.’
‘Ha, that last one might be problematic. She’d take to close personal protection like a dog losing its balls, I assume?’
‘I’ll talk to her about it.’ Or not. ‘We could keep it remote for now.’
‘A tail you mean?’
His tone isn’t lost on me. ‘I want her protected, not watched.’
‘Yeah, sure. Because those aren’t the same.’ He pauses, the look he sends my way almost penetrating. ‘Is there something you’re not telling me?’
My gaze slides to the window and the expanse of blue beyond. ‘It’s just a feeling I have.’ A sense of foreboding, I suppose. A sense that all is not well.
‘That’s hardly surprising, given what’s happened to you lately. Normal people might even seek some counselling.’
The look I send him could best be described as withering. I don’t need help. How I feel is not superstition, and I’m not at all sure it’s suspicion, either. Could it be a fear of fragility, rooted in how I’m still keeping the truth from her?
I twist my laptop to face me, opening up a new email.
‘Fine. Don’t answer. I’m just the hired help, after all.’
‘Just do it, Rhett. Please.’ As my gaze flicks his way, his expression reflects his surprise.
‘Yeah, no problem. But we’re upping your security, yeah? Because, I tell you, these midnight meanders through the marina aren’t gonna do you any good.’
I consider it as I type out an email to the head of my legal team to schedule an appointment for reasons both private and personal.
Security for me has been, up until now, concentrated on securing my estate, my property, and my information, not close personal protection.
Of course, I’m mindful of those who might like to exact revenge for business decisions that have affected them, events that they may deem unjust or unfair. And there have been threats. But no action. And in Monaco, I’ve always felt safe. I’ve required close personal protection only while travelling and only ever as a precaution. But it seems all of that should change.
I have someone now I don’t want to lose.
Someone I would like not to cause any more pain.
Any more pain than I have to.
I close my laptop and look up as I answer, ‘Yes, I think we should.’
43
Rose
‘I got you one of those disgustingly healthy green juice things, and protein bowl.’
I push the door closed with my butt, sliding the key card to Remy’s office into