Chapter 18
Chapter eighteen
Carter
“I’m leaving Nash here with the final vehicle to take you home,” I say into my phone to Kelsey as I take in the windowed walls of the arena in Berlin from the backseat of the black SUV.
Our hotel is over two miles away, and there is no way I’m leaving her here to get home by herself.
The fact that she doesn’t even argue but instead gives a tired “okay” before hanging up suggests she’s even more exhausted than I am.
The last forty-eight hours have been some of the most stressful in my life, which is saying something, considering I’ve been deployed in active combat zones.
The news about Bennie’s possible reappearance in Amsterdam was like a bucket of cold water poured over us, and any lingering thoughts I had about where the night could go were instantly pushed aside to focus on the business at hand.
After reviewing each of the tapes, Kelsey and I were called to Jaxon’s suite to loop him in.
It was a brief meeting where we updated Jaxon and his team on our findings, Kelsey laying out her reasoning behind why she decided not to pursue the individual any further.
I backed her fully and tried not to flinch when she sent a surprised look my way.
Jaxon was quiet but considerate as we laid out his options, and ultimately went with our recommendation to limit his movements outside of his hotel suite and the concert venue.
Everyone was on high alert during the concert the next night, and even Jaxon seemed a bit tense during the show.
The crowd in Amsterdam hadn’t seemed to notice, though Kelsey and I both noted it during our time in the security booth.
Kelsey’s team had added an additional security camera at each of the entrances, and her computer screens had been full of the various feeds, her entire focus on being a second set of eyes.
Fortunately, the venue in Amsterdam is one of the most intelligent arenas in the world, so plugging into their pre-existing systems made everything slightly easier.
The next morning, Kelsey climbed into one of the buses taking the crew to Berlin, offering me a small smile and wave that I interpreted to mean she was as unhappy about our time apart as I was.
There’s an air of unfinished business that, though shoved to the background for now, has been hovering between us since our date in Amsterdam.
No, not a date. Though maybe a date? Do you have to know it’s a date ahead of time for it to be a date?
I stayed behind with Jaxon’s security team, accompanying him to a TV interview before boarding the private jet for our flight to Berlin.
We’d had ten minutes to drop off our bags at the hotel before heading over to the venue for the security meeting and sound check.
Thank goodness for Gail and the logistics team handling check-in—all I had to do was grab my key from her.
Kelsey wasn’t so lucky. The buses encountered icy roads on their drive, so they arrived two hours late, literally pulling up to the venue at the same time we did.
Fortunately, the forty-five semitrucks with the sets and equipment had left the last venue immediately after the show was torn down, so they made it before the storm.
Since they arrived, everything has felt like a chaotic rush.
I let out an involuntary sigh, and Mikayla’s eyes meet mine from where she’s driving.
“I feel you. It’s been a long fucking day.”
“A long fucking few days,” I respond, running my hands through my hair as I try to work away the headache forming at my temples.
Eddie grunts his agreement from the front seat as we turn off the road that runs along the Spree River, and I try not to be annoyed that he asked me to come back with him to discuss one of the agents on his team.
Eddie leads the secondary CPO team for Jaxon—the counterpart to Weston’s team.
I’d wanted to put it off until tomorrow so I could stay with Kelsey, but he’d made it seem urgent, so here I am, heading back to our fancy hotel to discuss personnel while Nash makes sure the woman I can’t stop thinking about makes it back safely.
When we arrive, Eddie and I grab a couple of seats at a small table in a secluded corner in the hotel’s lobby.
I try to push aside the thoughts of Kelsey and focus on Eddie’s words.
He explains that one of his protection officers, Leo, has been struggling with the crowds recently.
He’s either not in the right position or is too slow to move if someone is coming toward Jaxon.
It hasn’t escalated into anything major, but I can tell Eddie’s concerned it will.
Leo has been with the team for almost as long as I have, but he’s never been with as high-profile a client as Jaxon.
None of us have, except Kevin. Though Hailey Moore’s concerts didn’t sell out as quickly as Jaxon’s Forever Starts Here Tour did, so it might just be impossible to be as high-profile as Jaxon.
“I think he might do better on one of the other teams. One that spends less time guarding Jaxon in high-traffic situations,” Eddie concludes.
It’s a tough call. I’ve worked with Leo before, and he’s solid, but I also know just how important it is that the entire Mitchell Security team is performing their best. We don’t have room for any mistakes.
Maybe I should ask Kelsey what she thinks.
I squash the thought. Of course I can’t ask Kelsey for advice.
We may be friends now, or fuck, something more if I have a say in the matter, but this is the line I can’t cross—at least until after one of us is awarded Jaxon’s long-term security contract.
So, even if Kelsey wasn’t on her way back with Nash—
“Nash!” I say, startling Eddie with my outburst.
“What?”
“Leo can switch teams with Nash. It’ll be good for Nash to get some different exposure, plus it resolves a possible situation we’ve got going on in their team.”
Eddie raises an eyebrow, but I wave away his questioning look. I don’t need one more person knowing about Nash’s crush on his teammate.
“I’ll talk to them about it tomorrow,” I say. “Nash has been on pre-site duty rather than moving with Jaxon directly, so Leo will still have some exposure to Jaxon and the fans but won’t be dealing with the same level of crowds.”
Eddie nods his agreement, and we chat for a few more minutes about how things are going with his team and his family back home.
He has two daughters in middle school, and I guess his wife is about to ship them both off to boarding school.
For some reason I don’t exactly understand, he finds the whole situation endlessly hilarious.
My gaze continually slips away from Eddie to the revolving door at the entrance, silently willing a woman with wild blonde hair to walk through.
When I realize I’ve yawned twice and completely lost the thread of the conversation, I say goodnight to Eddie and head to bed.
I ride the elevator to the eleventh floor in silence, my mind fully on the woman who has somehow crept into every corner of my thoughts, turning even the hectic moments into ones filled with her.
It takes all my self-control not to text Nash to confirm all is well, but I know Kelsey would take it as an insult to her ability to take care of herself. I swipe into my room and head for the shower, fighting the urge to reach out and make sure she’s safe, even though my heart keeps demanding it.
Between the stress and the constant thoughts of Kelsey, my body is on edge.
As I step into the shower, the hot water cascades over my tense muscles, offering a momentary respite from the chaos of the day.
But even as the steam rises around me, my thoughts drift inexorably to Kelsey.
Her intelligence, her quick wit, the way her eyes light up when she knows she’s right—it all comes flooding in in vivid detail.
I close my eyes, letting the water run down my face, and I imagine her here with me, water droplets clinging to her curves, her lips parting as I pull her close. My hand moves lower, gripping myself as I picture running my fingers through her damp hair, tasting the water on her neck.
I stroke faster, lost in the fantasy of Kelsey’s body pressed against mine. Giving my imagination free rein, I lift her up, pinning her to the shower wall as she wraps her legs around my waist. I can almost hear her breathy moans, feel her nails digging into my back.
I lean my forearm against the cool tile, my hand working faster as the fantasy intensifies.
In my mind, Kelsey’s lips crash against mine, hungry and insistent.
I lift her higher, angling her hips just right as I slide into her warmth.
The water pounds down around us as we move together, our bodies slick and urgent.
My breath comes in ragged gasps, echoing off the shower walls.
I picture Kelsey’s face, flushed with desire, her blue eyes locked on mine as she nears her peak.
The imagined sound of her climax pushes me over the edge.
I come with a muffled groan, my body shuddering as waves of pleasure wash over me.
As the last aftershocks fade, I let the hot water rinse away the evidence of my release.
Guilt and longing war within me as I shut off the shower and step out, wrapping my towel around my waist. I start brushing my teeth, using the two minutes to look myself in the eye and remind my body of all the reasons it should stop fantasizing about Kelsey Harper.
Or the one reason. The one and only reason: we both need to win this contract, and we can’t both win.
Though that’s starting to seem like a flimsy excuse.
I pull open the door to the bathroom, a puff of steam escaping as I make my way to my bed. A beep to my right pulls my attention to the door, and I pause, unsure what to do as the door to my room opens, revealing a backlit figure.