Intensity (22 page)

“What
thing
?”

I buried my head in his neck and mumbled, “Being exclusive. What does that mean?”

His lengthy silence made insecurities I thought buried reappear. “You dumping me, Serena?”

I shot straight up and stared him down. “No,” my voice squawked like a parrot.

“I don’t know, sounds like you don’t want to be my girl.”

If he didn’t have a big-ass grin on his face, I would’ve thought he was serious. “Did you
ask
me to be your girl? ʼCause I don’t remember hearing that.” I tossed him the same expression, upping it with a “What you gonna do about it?” sassy attitude. Take that, smarty pants.

He threw the covers back, pulled on a pair of shorts and dashed out of the room.

What the hell?

Faster than a sixty-second commercial and with both hands behind his back, he plunked down on the bed, bouncing me into his shoulder. His lips a centimeter from mine, but not kissing them, he deposited something in my hand and fisted it closed.

If I wanted to find out what it was, I needed to sit back and look.

Inside my palm, a hand-cut, pink heart made from the decorative notepad I had next to my computer. Written in his handwriting it said…

My hand fixed on his heart, I used an index finger to spell my answer.

Thanks to the ridiculous amount of money Linc agreed to pay me, I’d be able to save a chunk and make substantial payments in the process. His savvy investments in several cities showed a lucrative bottom line. No matter what he said, his record keeping had been impeccable. I expected nothing less. Control freak or not, it wasn’t his style to do anything halfway.

Luck had finally taken a turn in my favor, and I attributed it to Gram’s spirit duking it out for her granddaughter, a vision that had me laughing.
You go, Gram. Show’em who’s boss.

Appointment manager came with a lot more responsibility than I ever thought. My first day began with a crash course in encryption and record-keeping procedures. Linc provided a secure tablet PC and asked that it be kept in his office safe when not used. Without question I agreed. No way I’d want to be the cause of sensitive information falling into the wrong hands. The rest of the week involved the scheduling process for on- and off-site appointments, security arrangements, and gathering information about employee preferences.

He wanted anyone attending an outside event to have a “chaperone,” his term for it. My term: bodyguard. His hypervigilance ignored the fact that each client went through a vetting process better than one completed by the FBI. Security personnel had to be in place, regardless, no arguments. Since Sal coordinated that part, I spent quite a bit of time learning the ins and outs. After the multi-session trainings my head spun from the enormity and the pressure, making sure to dot every
i
and cross each
t
. How the heck had Linc done this for so long without help?

Determined not to let him down, I sought guidance from a trusted source. I entered Mylaynee’s apartment after knocking twice and came to a whiplash stop.

“Uh sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

“I was just leaving.” Jax strolled toward me carrying a thick folder. “Later, Serena,” he said to my back, using a professional rather than sex-laced voice and avoiding eye contact as he exited.

“Come sit down, girl.” Mylaynee patted the cushion that he’d left and tucked her legs up.

I pointed a thumb to the vacant door and complained, “I still can’t believe you’re friends with that jackass.”

She shook her head like a fawning mother does when a child does something naughty, but looks so darn cute doing it. “Aw, but he’s such a McDreamy.”

“Oh, he’s a babe magnet alright and loves stickin’ it to anybody.”

Her head tilted back, and it took her a minute to calm her howling laughter and clear her watering eyes. “Girl, how many times do I have to tell you he gets off on rilin’ you. That’s how he is.”

“Doesn’t matter, I’d love give him a knock-out punch right to his big-ass mouth. Freakin’ jerk.”

She shook her head and wagged her finger at me like I’d done something wrong. “He’s not so bad. Men like him can’t help struttin’ their feathers. Deep,
deep
down though, he’s a good guy, and not a bad one to have on your side.”

“Whatever, I’ll do without, thank you very much. So what’s he want now? You working for him again?”

“Yeah, there’s a case he needs help with.” She picked up a folder from the table, similar to the one Jax had, and flipped through a few pages. “You should give it a try. He pays top dollar.”

“Seriously? You’re kidding, right? I can’t stand being in the same room with him, let alone listen to more of his crap. No way. I don’t care how desperate I get.”

“It’s
fun
,” she emphasized the word, needling me with her elbow. “Change of pace, you know? His company does all kinds a stuff. It’s cool and I love it,” she professed with a wistful, dreamy look. “You might not see me for the next few days. If it takes longer I’ll let you know, okay?”

I nodded, my mind drifting to the trust fund playboy, astonished he was capable of running a multimillion-dollar business. Ranked at the top in the industry, his company had a stellar reputation and happened to include the best-trained professionals around. Go figure.

Mylaynee’s interest in “other” work reminded me of the reason I came here in the first place. Jax shoved aside, I pressed on to more important matters. “I need your advice about the appointments.”

Sex Education 101. Meeting with everyone took quite a bit of time, but the conversations increased my vocabulary a hundredfold, enough to create my own explicit dictionary. The intimate details catalogued in the tablet PC, including likes and dislikes, on- or off-site, work hours, schedule preferences, and on and on. It boggled my mind that Linc had it all memorized. Since I wouldn’t be able to do that and wanted to connect on a personal level, my plan of attack, and one Mylaynee agreed would work well, involved meeting with each employee. After each visit, the mental images and documentation expanded my knowledge base, and described in full detail sexual practices, fetishes, BDSM, and a bunch of other terms never mentioned in the erotica novels I read. Thank goodness for Google. I created a glossary that had at least ten pages, explaining any term I didn’t understand, or was too embarrassed to ask about. Goodness, I never realized sex could be so complex.

I stood outside the last apartment, my stomach twisting in knots. After I knocked, the door flew open, showcasing a five-foot-four pain in the ass in nothing more than a see-through pink teddy.

“What do you want, Sadrena?”

Okay, Gram wherever you are, beam it down, woman, because I need the almighty powers for this one. “You have some time to talk?”

She leaned against the door frame, her face contorted and shriveled up like a prune. “You think you won?”

Gram,
now would be great.

Ignoring her, I pressed on. “If you and Tanya have a few minutes, I’d like to discuss the appointments.”

“I do it
all,
Sad
rena, in bed and out. Maybe you should be the one making an appointment with
me
, so I can school
you
. Oh, wait a minute…” She stood straight and clipped the tablet in my hand, causing me to readjust my grip so it didn’t drop. “We don’t have nursery school around here, so you’ll have to go somewhere
far, far away.” She propped her hand on her hip, long manicured daggers at the ready—to claw my eyes out.

“I’m not going anywhere. You don’t have to like me, but I have a job to do, and it’d be better if you worked
with
me. If not, then you’ll have to take whatever you get.”

Thanks, Gram.

“I
get
plenty and
give
just as good. Ask Linc. He told me about your pathetic attempts to seduce him. We laughed about it in
my
bed. Maybe that would be great conversation for
your
appointment
,
Sadrena. With me.”

Shit. Shit. Shit. She needed a snake named after her, because that hiss—toxic. Her sting paralyzed me, my vision turning pitch black. Woozy, I slapped air before clutching the wall. My confidence disintegrated as an image of the two of them in bed wouldn’t stop replaying in my head.

Her cackling ricocheted through the hall, causing my head to spin all over again. No doubt my continued silence disclosed the internal damage, all the air and fortitude knocked right out of me. Damn it. Anytime she mentioned Linc it made me sick, even now, after all that had happened between
us
. I still hadn’t asked him about her yet, my old insecurities and fear of losing another vital person in my life overtook my actions. A risk I wasn’t willing to take this early in our relationship. The fire in my stomach told me otherwise, since all I wanted to do was bitch-slap her straight to hell. But after the poison she spewed, my jaw locked in place, keeping me from forming a coherent sound.

“Serena, can I see you a minute?”

Behind me appeared a guardian angel and my saving grace, Mylaynee. The stink eye she directed at B.B. promised her own brand of retribution. I drew in a long inhale and then exhaled real slow, settling my nerves a bit. Temporary reinforcements like Mylaynee helped too. Her grinding knuckles in my lower back and clearing throat renewed my focus on the job at hand. When I turned around, a door slammed in my face. Her final answer, I guess.

Great, just freaking great.

“How was your day?” Linc crouched down and inspected my face better than a police officer on DUI patrol. Mannequin mask in place, I chopped and diced with Master Chef proficiency. Performing under his intense scrutiny, however, caused me to sweat bullets. “Dinner will be ready soon. Grilled steak and veggies okay?”

He tugged the knife out of my hand and pointed toward the couch. “Go put your feet up. Read one of your
steamy
books.” His lovey-dovey high-schoolish taunt dared, but also promised an erotic pay-off. “I’ll take care of everything.” He shoved me gently in the right direction, and for once I didn’t argue and ran out to the balcony, hopping onto one of the lounge chairs. My unpleasant thoughts vanished, replaced with sex, sex, and more sex. I loved reading—and
him
.