Page 109 of Cross + Catherine: The Companion

It was sickening, really.

Flicking the knife up and around in her palm with a quick spin of the hilt around her fingertips—a cute little trick her mother taught her when she was fifteen—she had the blade resting against the side of Mack’s throat that his guests couldn’t see. The side that was facing the window, not the people.

Mack stiffened.

His grip on her tightened.

Cece pushed the blade harder against his pulse in his throat. “You will bleed out before an ambulance ever gets here. Now, you know I’m not interested. You know you’re not supposed to touch me. Remove your hands from my body, or I will make sure the heel of my stiletto will be the last thing you see before it crushes your skull.”

The whole time, she managed to keep her voice at a respectable, calm level. She didn’t even let that fake smile of hers fall.

Talent, really.

It all took talent.

Cece heard Mack swallow hard a second before he let her go. A bit too hard, and with a quick shove, but she was quick on her feet. If the asshole meant to surprise her, she was already planning for a move like that.

Again …

Men were predictable.

Cece was quick to hide her blade behind her arm as she turned to face Mack, and his now-confused looking friends. “And this is where our night—and business—ends, Mack. I will let the regina know to take you off her client list.”

“You can’t—”

“I can do whatever I want to do, actually,” Cece said. “What, do you think the regina will replace me with some other poor girl for you to harass and bother? Unlikely. Have a good life. I’m sure I will see you on a new series of Celebrity Rehab in a few years.”

With that, Cece turned away.

Maybe that was the mistake.

Not going in there.

Not letting Mack get too close.

No, turning her back on him.

A hand came to lock around the back of Cece’s neck before she had even taken a second step away. She knew it was Mack, but her flight or fight instinct kicked in hard at the feeling of somebody grabbing her like that.

Nobody touched her that way.

Not without permission.

Finally, those eyes that she had felt watching her from the moment she stepped into the party made their presence known.

Juan.

The only man her mother sent to watch after her when she worked. Her only bodyguard, so to speak.

But he was so much more than that, too.

He was everything to her.

Sometimes, it was confusing. Sometimes, they were on, and they were off. Sometimes, they didn’t know if they were together, or not.

It didn’t matter.

Juan looked after her.