you should have. Full stop.”
“You’re not going to give me a chance to explain myself?”
“No, I am going to give you the chance to explain yourself,” he said, his voice ice cold. “But first, I’m going to explain something to you. You hired me to do a job. And in order to do my job, I need all the relevant information. Without that, things get missed. People get hurt. Now I need you to listen to me very carefully, Cameron. What else haven’t you told me?”
“Nothing.”
His expression didn’t change. He was back to stone-cold bodyguard. Worse than stone-cold bodyguard. His eyes were like razors digging into my soul.
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not lying.”
“I asked you repeatedly if there was anything else I needed to be aware of. You’re a smart woman. You can’t tell me you didn’t realize the fact that your ex has an unauthorized video of the two of you having sex is something I should know.”
I clenched my teeth, my defenses going up at the way he’d phrased that. Not sex tape. He’d specifically said a video of the two of you having sex. Like he needed to emphasize what it was. What I’d done.
“What good would it have done if I had? Given you one more checkmark on the list of reasons my ex is a prick? We already knew that.”
“What else are you hiding?”
“I told you, I’m not hiding anything.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about your workshop?” he asked.
“What about it?” I asked, drawing my eyebrows together. “And how is that even relevant?”
He crossed his arms. “Nicholas had to warn me about the blender.”
“There’s nothing wrong with the blender. It works great.”
“You should probably need a license to operate it.”
“Are you trying to be funny right now?” I asked. “Because I don’t know what this has to do with anything.”
“I’m just realizing how much I don’t know about you.”
“What are you talking about? You know plenty about me.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Do I? I know your work history. I know things that anyone could discover if they did some research. Other than that, all I know are things you accidentally let slip in a moment of weakness, or things you had to tell me because I asked direct questions. Even then you can be evasive.”
“I’m evasive?” I could feel my cheeks flushing and it had nothing to do with the sun. He couldn’t be serious. “That’s rich, coming from you.”
“That’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not the one in danger,” he said. “And because there are some things I can’t tell you.”
I put my hands on my hips. “That’s very convenient, don’t you think? I know you speak Russian and own a six-thousand-dollar custom tailored tux, but I have no idea how or why.”
“It cost four.”
“That’s a good deal, it’s beautiful. And also beside the point. I think your number one skill is question evasion.”
“I told you, I can’t always answer questions.”
“Of course—murky past. Top secret. Things you can’t reveal to anyone or you’d have to kill them.”
“Look, Cameron, you’re my client. And as my client, I thought we had an understanding.”
I knew he was right. I was his client, and I should have told him. But I was at the tail end of a day that had included scary people following me, a trashed office, a high-tech spy gadget, and the continuation of a PR fiasco. And he’d just poked at one of my deepest private insecurities.
Other than my three friends, the only people around me were employees. I was alone.
“Right, your client.”
“Yes.”
“And that’s why you’re here. To do a job.”
His eyes narrowed slightly. He probably sensed danger. And I could have stopped there, but instead, I snapped.
“You didn’t even want this job. You’re supposed to be retired, not shadowing a bitchy CEO in and out of meetings all day.”
“Cameron—”
“And because some psycho broke in to my house, suddenly we’re sleeping together. I’m in the middle of a PR nightmare, my office is trashed, and someone’s trying to either get rid of me or hurt me, or both. And here we are, playing house, watching Food Network in my bedroom and fucking in a hotel closet. We still don’t know who’s behind all this shit, and now the whole thing is fucking complicated.”
“Well, maybe we should have kept it professional.”
His words stung, but I refused to let it show. Fought back those traitorous tears threatening to form in the corners of my eyes. “Apparently so.”
A flash of emotion crossed his face, but it was gone as quickly