I Just Need You - J. Nathan Page 0,46

of my ceiling that he’d repositioned earlier. He reached up and adjusted it back into place so it captured my room once again. He turned back to the door and, without another word, walked out.

The door clicked ominously behind him, piercing a dagger-sized hole in my already fragile heart.

Tristan

“Dude, what the fuck?”

I stopped short as soon as I stepped out of Kresley’s room, not expecting to find Briggs waiting in the hallway, cross-armed and glaring at me.

“What?” I gritted.

“You and the client,” he explained. “Rule number one.”

“Don’t fucking tell me rule number one,” I growled. “I created it.”

“Just stating the obvious,” he said.

He clearly didn’t know his place. I was the fucking boss! Why had Marco sent him? He was immature, a pain in the ass, and the least professional employee we had.

Fuck.

Look at me talking about not acting professional when I just slept with the client. “I stay in her room at night,” I clipped.

He pegged me with accusatory eyes.

“What?” I spat, pissed he was there. Pissed I’d fallen asleep. Pissed I’d had a nightmare in front of her again. Pissed I’d walked out on her the way I had. Pissed he was throwing my own God damned rule in my face!

“I saw you before you repositioned the camera and gave me a view of the ceiling,” Briggs explained, his lips twitching.

My eyes narrowed as my anger flared to life. “What the fuck were you doing looking in her room?”

“You weren’t answering your phone. And I wanted to be sure she was okay,” he said. “But looks like you were making sure she was just fine.”

My head fell back against the hallway wall, knowing what Marco and I drilled into our employees’ heads. Rule number one. You don’t fuck or fuck over your client. I thought I could handle it. I thought I was different and could make it work. I thought I could convince Marco I could have feelings for Kresley and still protect her. But I’d fallen asleep. Twice. Not to mention given her a front row seat to my nightmares. Twice. I clearly hadn’t been thinking with the head I should’ve been thinking with. “Marco’s gonna kill me.”

“Yup,” he agreed.

“Fuuuuuck.”

Seconds felt like hours as my brain spun. I had absolutely no idea what I was gonna do to fix any of it.

“You know…” Briggs began. “I don’t see why we have to burden Marco with this. He’s got his own shit to deal with. And it’s not like it’s gonna happen again.”

I looked at him, as if my entire partnership with Marco—and everything we’d built—depended on Briggs keeping his big mouth shut and believing me. “It’s not. It was a mistake.”

“Good.” Briggs turned and walked toward Marco’s room where he’d be staying while Marco was gone. “I’m going to bed.”

I stood alone in the hallway, contemplating what the hell to do. I couldn’t get the feel of Kresley out of my head. She was three parts fragile and one part fierce. She was everything I needed to soften my hardened heart. But none of this was about me. I was there to keep her safe. And that wouldn’t happen if I got too close. Despite everything I’d admitted to her earlier, nothing should’ve happened between us, especially under these circumstances. I knew better.

Maybe in a different time.

A different lifetime.

I turned to my room just as her door flew open.

Begrudgingly, I shifted my gaze to look at her, knowing what I’d find wouldn’t be pleasant.

She glared at me. “It was a mistake?”

My eyes raked over her pajamas, knowing she’d just thrown them on since I’d left her naked in her bed. God. She looked so pretty and vulnerable. Like the girl I’d held in my arms for the last few hours. The girl I’d made love to. The girl I wanted to tell my secrets to. It killed me that I knew what she felt like. And tasted like. I shook off those thoughts and didn’t say anything. Because nothing I said could justify my behavior.

“Is that really how you feel?” she asked, her lips in a tight line.

I didn’t respond.

Disappointment filled her eyes. “So, this is how it’s gonna be? After everything that was said, we’re gonna go back to how things were with us hating each other? Really?”

I had so much shit flooding my brain that anything that came out of my mouth was bound to piss her off even more than she already was.

“Coward.” She spun away from me with disgust in her tone