10. Rhett
Rhett
A na falls asleep curled up on the wide beige leather seat opposite me on the jet.
I can’t take my eyes off her, and if she knew I was watching her she’d find it creepy as fuck.
Hell, I find it creepy as fuck, but I can’t stop.
It’s not just because she’s stunning; my mind is a lattice of thoughts of her, and it’s becoming an irritating yet addicting fascination.
Her father and Gregory Forbes chat between themselves down the opposite end of the senator’s private jet.
Occasionally I catch Forbes’ eye on me, which sparks my interest on him even more.
Wandering eyes are curious. And curiosity is always sparked by one’s personal secrets and desires.
I have my team looking into him around the clock, but maybe I’ll get a chance myself this weekend now he’s drawn my intrigue.
After another half hour Ana shifts and the blanket falls from her shoulders.
I reach across before I know what I’m doing, fixing it back over her.
I’m taking this damn babysitter job far too literally.
My fingers brush her brown hair while I’m so near.
Everything about her is temptation, crafted just to test me, and the will I thought was unshakable in me has begun to crack.
Oh little bird, you don’t want that wall to come down.
Something tells me she’d survive the rubble, but not the thing that would lay its claim and devour her beyond it.
Ana is not something I can taste and get over. I know that if I got one taste of Anastasia Kinsley, there would be no escaping her.
The senator calls my name and I internally groan. I should be glad for an opportunity to speak to him, analyze him, get close to him and anyone he’s with. But it breaks a peace I haven’t felt in a very long time as I selfishly bask in watching Ana.
I head down to them, taking up a seat beside him.
“I wanted to ask if you’d read over the protocol for the time we’re in California,” the senator asks.
Three times. It wasn’t exactly a meticulous code of instruction.
I have to be close to Ana at all times, of course, but while we’ve only had one plainclothes guard trail us in D.C.
without her knowledge, the senator hired three for her here since the press and the audience for this event will be hungry and demanding.
On top of that, I trust my two men from Xoid more than the senator’s security. They’ll have eyes on us.
“Of course,” I reply.
He offers me a miniature whiskey and a glass with ice. It irritates the fuck out of me, the implication I’d even risk a drop. Five feet or thirty-three thousand feet in the air, I will not drink in Ana’s company.
“No thank you, sir,” I decline politely.
“We have another five hours before we land—consider this time off. I insist.”
There’s no time off. Ana is my twenty-four-fucking-seven priority.
“I don’t drink.”
“At all?” Gregory inquires.
“No.”
Once a year, but semantics.
“I’d like to know how else you cope with the shit and the stress,” the senator chuckles.
I weather the storm instead of drowning it.
That isn’t what they want to hear, so I merely join in with their amusement. So far Senator Kinsley has turned up clean, humble, and harmless. I won’t give him a full badge of innocence just yet. Politicians often have hidden corners of dirt.
“How are you feeling about the debate, sir?” I ask.
I’ve never really paid attention to elections in the past. This is all new and kind of intriguing to me.
He sighs as Gregory smirks. “It’s been a close running—it will be until the very end. I’m prepared and confident, of course, but I have to admit, Sullevan is some competition. I’d be lying if I said I don’t think he can smoke me.”
It makes my lips twitch to hear him speak so casually and, interestingly, so fondly of his competition.
“Are you acquainted with Sullevan?”
“We went to the same university, actually. Not that close, but I remember some great frat parties where we bonded. What are the odds we’d be the last two going head-to-head for presidency twenty years later?”
Improbable odds indeed.
His wife is sleeping another row back. This event requires them all to come for press opportunities.
Meaning Adam Sullevan will be there supporting his father, and I’m not looking forward to seeing him around Ana.
In fact, that’s far too tame of a description for the anger rattling me.
Now I know of their past, I can’t decide if he’s a threat or just a thorn in our side.
What’s her problem is mine. Her fears, her troubles, her minor inconveniences—they’re all mine.
Adam’s an arrogant son of bitch for sure, but he also helped Ana when she was in trouble over the summer.
Which reminds me, I have a hit on my list. I won’t take Isaac Neil’s life and he has Adam to thank for it, for stepping in before he violated my little bird past the limits of my mercy.
But Isaac owes at least a finger, maybe two, depending on how he apologizes, for touching what isn’t his.
“I’m sure Ana will want to make use of the heat over there,” the senator says.
He doesn’t need to mention it. I’ve already been reeling, trying to prepare myself for seeing Ana in a bathing suit as she’s mentioned the beach several times. Fuck , this woman riles me with that image alone like a boy about to see pussy for the first time.
Her father speaks again while I run through deplorable thoughts of his daughter in my mind.
“And I hope she’ll spend some time with Adam. As far as I last knew they were somewhat close, and now she never speaks of him.”
So he doesn’t know just how close they’ve gotten.
That fact never fails to fan an irrational jealousy in me.
I can’t desire Ana. So I take a match to that dark feeling and try to come to terms with another man’s hands on her.
I might even have to witness it right in front of my fucking eyes if she decides to get flirty somewhere the press won’t see.
Or reignite what she had with Adam Sullevan while they’re sleeping in the same building.
Suddenly the torturous cage of my mind is rattling violently at the image of our rooms side by side, hearing him fuck her through the walls, and what if I snap when right now, with the mere taunting illusion, I want to break his damn neck before they can get that far?
I don’t realize my fingers are close to warping the leather that’s likely worth a significant portion of my salary even at Xoid.
“She said they drifted apart and they’re now focused on their studies,” I lie. “I’m sure they’ll relax in Cali.”
It’s clear the senator thinks fondly of Adam.
Maybe he even favors their match. And once again inside me is the bitter acknowledgment of how good he is for her in status and image.
It’s disgraceful of me to be glad things ended.
Though he has some groveling to do for hurting her, and I haven’t forgotten.
The moment we hit the ground I’m fitting my earbud in and on two jobs at once. Ana is damn adorable with her grumpy expression awakening as she fits sunglasses on her face and scowls at my smirk.
“You should be well-rested—you slept like a log,” I comment in the car.
It’s just us, with Gregory and Archibald in the car ahead, and for once I’m not driving.
Ana yawns. “I’m disappointed, actually. I planned to make the journey insufferable for you with no escape.”
She’s a devious little thing.
“You did that by falling asleep.”
Her head lolls against the seat toward me and she pushes her sunglasses on top of her head. “My dad talked your ear off the whole time, didn’t he?”
My grimace must tell all, and she laughs.
“We’re on vacation this weekend. I’ll make it up to you, Agent.”
I wish my dick wouldn’t jerk at the sultry lilt she always uses with that title.
At the hotel, which is likely the most elaborate venue I’ll ever stay in, I lead Ana up to our rooms, which are side by side. Pacing every square inch of hers and deeming it safe, I unlatch her side of the door that connects our rooms.
“What happened to privacy?” Ana protests.
“I haven’t demanded you keep it open, just unlocked.”
“You could walk in anytime! What if I’m naked?”
I do not need that image planted in my head and I’ll certainly need to jerk off in the shower tonight to relieve the pent-up tension she’s surfacing in me. Ana smiles coyly, knowing exactly what she’s doing with her taunting flirtations.
“I promise no surprise visits unless I hear you scream. So be mindful of that when you’re thinking of me tonight.”
Her lips part and I leave her room with a smile of satisfaction. In my own I unlock my side immediately, and as if she was waiting for it, Ana enters seconds later.
“I will not be thinking of you.”
“What will you be thinking of?”
A stunning pink colors her cheeks. “Nothing!”
Call it intuition, call it primal need, but it’s like I can practically taste the lust surfacing in her.
Ana shifts on her feet as if desire is pooling out of her right now and, fuck, the things I would do to her in another time.
Another life. Why has such a stunning, enticing creature been put in my path like she was crafted just to test me?
“Whatever you say, little bird, but my warning still stands. If I hear anything from your lips that I can’t immediately distinguish from you being in trouble, I’m not knocking before I rip open that door.”
Her lips press together, and what I wouldn’t give for her thoughts right now when those hazel eyes spark with a hint of challenge. My cock hardens at the thought of her wanting me to watch as she touches herself. I might very well walk over hot coals for that.
“I’m going down to the bar,” she says.
“Probably a good idea when you’re going to be up for ages after that rest.”
“You should stay and catch up on yours.”
“Not happening. Don’t waste your time suggesting a moment without me again, Miss Kinsley. I’m by your side every second you do or don’t want me to be.”
“Fine.”
“Good.”
She spins back into her room, closing the door. I take a long breath as soon as she’s gone, running a hand through my hair and pacing to the window. It’s going to be a long fucking weekend.