Zenith in Love (Zenith Series #5) - Leanne Davis Page 0,3

he was good for and with her sister. Was it any wonder she felt such… what? Acrimony around him? If she did, he deserved it. She evil-eyed him with suspicion. What if he remained so critical of Kathy that she could never just be herself?

Kayla resented that she understood Kathy’s attraction to Jim. Each word he said was inspirational. Personalized for you. For your own good. For your improvement and happiness and growth. It was so easy to fall under his spell.

Sometimes, Kayla had to blink a lot and remind herself, no! It was just Jim.

Jim who criticized her opinions and used them against her.

Jim could have been a cult leader with a whole damn congregation full of unsuspecting sheep. But Kayla knew Jim was one of the most upstanding people she ever met. His puritanical judgment of others aside, he’d never deliberately try to influence people in a demigod persona. Yet he was that good.

But what shamed her was this: she couldn’t help finding him a bit sensual. She could almost feel him when he spoke, like a groupie might experience with her stepdad, Rob, when he sang. Her friends often claimed that Rob seemed to sing right to them and not to the masses, which he actually did. That’s the gift that Jim had in his orations.

At a freaking church sermon? Kayla became so uncomfortably intense that she preferred not to come for that reason alone, although there were others.

She didn’t like seeing Jim in any other light than the freaking annoying one she saw away from the church. His intellectual smirk enraged her when he dared direct it her way.

Kayla remembered they were on the exact same plane, and on even ground.

Jim was not better than her and he should not be marrying her little sister. Both things could be and were true.

“Is Kathy around?”

“Nope. Just me, Pastor.”

He restrained the usual eye rolling. Be better. Be like Kathy. Not like Kayla.

“Do you know where she is?”

“Yes.” Kayla smirked and lounged in the doorway. He tried to keep his gaze glued to her face but her damn shirt was way too small. A tank top that stopped inches from the band of her pajamas pants and dipped down into the pert shadow of her breasts. She wore a bulky robe over her so it was… wow. Kind of sexy to have the bulky, uniform robe over the tiny, nothing shirt. And all that skin. So much soft, pale skin. He’d—

Stop. Now.

“Can you tell me where she is then?” He gritted his teeth.

“Hanging with Eric.”

“Hanging with Eric?” He rolled his eyes. Eric was the huge, muscle-bound, new security director and Kathy’s personal bodyguard.

“You know Eric, right? Big, muscular, hot… steaming hot… bodyguard type? Him.” She smiled sweetly as her voice all but climaxed. “You know, Kathy’s bodyguard.” She said body like sugar addicts might say chocolate.

“Yes.” He kept his tone tight, ignoring her innuendoes. Eric had recently been added to Kathy’s security details. Due to the rabid fans of her stepdad’s rock band, Zenith, Kathy, as well as all her sisters, had guards on her twenty-four/seven. Something he detested for its intrusion but tolerated for her. “I know him. What are they doing?”

“I don’t know. I tried to get Rob to put that big hunk of hotness on me. But he refused, rightly so. I’d have no doubt seduced him. So… I guess Kathy gets all the fun.”

“Kathy doesn’t even like him.”

“No… but she sure as hell has eyes, Pastor.” Kayla smiled and then slammed the front door shut.

Jim sighed. He checked Kathy’s apartment, which was on her parents’ land. They had a secure compound on acreage out in the woods. There was an electrified fence surrounding it and full security in cameras and people.

He’d gone to the main house to start thinking Kathy might be hanging out with her parents. She did that often. Something he admired and knew was a good thing. How normal families interacted. But it also made him slightly claustrophobic. Intrusive. He couldn’t get comfortable with it. He needed to learn more about it. What kind of father or husband could he expect to be if he couldn’t hug and hang out casually with his wife’s family?

Right now, it was as foreign as skydiving to him and just as intimidating and scary.

He regretted that fact, but there was no denying it.

Or that Kayla’s stupid outfit and body were still etched in his mind’s eye. He had to try and squash it before it became