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Disconcerted, I went into the walk-in freezer, grabbed a few trays with the choux pastry dough I’d kneaded from scratch a couple of days before, put it on the island workstation. I wasn’t used to all this extra attention. I’d grown used to being alone. Having them here, in my space, watching my every move, well, I felt off-balance to put it mildly.
“This isn’t creepy at all,” I muttered under my breath on my next trip into the freezer for the savory croquembouche fillings I’d planned for the art gallery showing.
Sautéed mushroom chicken, goat cheese with spinach, salmon mousse. I checked off the items I’d made in my head and brought out the containers one or two at a time.
And there they still were, leaning on that same counter. Looking even sexier than last night. Their eyes on me. Like I was their next meal.
How the hell was I supposed to work like this I wondered as I went to the sink and washed my hands, then got to work. Eventually, I dusted the flour from my fingers, crossed my arms and turned to face them.
“You know, boys, I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay while I finish up these pastries. After I’m done, I’ll move on to the desserts. Those are even easier. You don’t have to take this much time out of your day for me.”
Dane held up his hands. “Fine. I’ll go to work myself.”
I frowned. “How come he gets to go to work without a bodyguard and I don’t.”
Leo grinned. “I like your body much better than his.”
The answer made me blush. That was all it took to put all sorts of lurid, naughty thoughts into my head and send waves of need through my body. I was growing tired of fighting all these urges.
I couldn’t take the heat, but I also didn’t have the option to get out of the damned kitchen.
Ten
LEO
Getting Harper to go along with what I wanted was damned near impossible. Not only was she smart, gorgeous, and sexy as hell, she was also stubborn and a pain in my ass. I hadn’t been able to think straight when she’d stood before us in just a fucking towel. My dick had gone hard knowing exactly what was beneath the terry cloth. And she’d been talking, saying she was going to leave. With no blood in my brain, it had been hard to argue with her.
It had been close to impossible to let her put on Dane’s clothes and leave the penthouse, my hands wanting to grab her, toss her over my shoulder and carry her back to my room.
But no. The vixen needed to work. I appreciated and respected that, but there was only one way I was going to allow that. My protection.
Since I couldn’t be in two places at once, I’d called in one of Dane’s security team to take my place, picking him up so he could go to work.
Harper was right. She didn’t need the two of us looming while she kneaded dough and made small, weird little appetizers. And if she gave me a taste of something besides the bite-sized samples, I was content to have her all to myself. Yeah, I was a fucking bastard, but Dane and I wouldn’t share her all the time. With him at the office—at least for a few hours—I spent the time sitting on one of the stools out of the way, working my cell. Checking in with any connection I might have to find out about O’Sullivan. And while I did so, I watched Harper. She was totally in her element. Once I gave her a little room, she settled in. Worked on the meals for the two parties scheduled for tomorrow night. The college-aged woman from the night before—she introduced me to her as Jane—came in with a flat box of weird looking mushrooms and about thirty pounds of raw shrimp. She’d almost dumped the whole thing on the floor when I pulled out my gun, but Harper had scolded me. Of course, that rolled right off me since I wasn’t fucking around with her safety. She could yell at me all she wanted, it only made her sexier.
There weren’t too many people who stood up to me and I had to laugh. At least inwardly so she didn’t yell at me some more. I’d rather her jump me.
Jane didn’t linger. Smart girl, considering I had eighty pounds on her and had a deadly weapon. I’d pegged her right; she’d gone to the specialty market for Harper before heading to her afternoon class, and we were alone once again, Harper back to her work.
The way her hands flew over those shrimp, peeling and slicing them, I’d have cut a finger off. But she had the skill and dexterity for it like I had for my gun. I had to remember not to piss her off when she was working.
“Besides being friends—” Harper began, giving me a quick glance from her work on the shrimp. She was tossing the prepared ones into a large skillet on an industrial stovetop. “—and sharing women, you watch out for each other.”
I wasn’t sure if the blush on her cheeks was from admitting aloud that we’d shared her or if it was from the heat of the burner.
Putting my cell down, I shifted on the stool, put one foot out to brace myself as I rested the other on the low rung. “I watch out for him. I’m the head of his security team.”
She put a head of garlic on a wooden chopping block, smashed it with the heel of her hand, and began peeling cloves.
“Why does he need a whole team? Why any at all?”
As I watched her make a pile of peeled garlic, I responded. “Dane runs a big company. He deals in data security.”
She paused, looked up at me. “I have no idea what that means.”
I smiled, grabbed a bunch of parsley—at least I thought that was what it was—and twirled it around. “Yeah, I don’t much either. The event last night? His client’s daughter is the bride.”
“Oh.”
