Chapter 17

Seventeen

Roc

This wasn’t going to work.

I’d thought I could push aside my feelings and do my job, but all I could think about as I looked at Harlowe was seeing her standing in the shower, water droplets streaming in rivulets down her naked body. Even before I’d burst in on her showering, my mind had been distracted by thoughts of her that I’d never had with other clients. Could I protect a client who drove me to the edge of sanity and left me teetering on the precipice?

I jerked myself back from the mental cliff and dropped my gaze to my food. This had to work. I’d given Jack my word. He was my oldest human friend and the one who’d given me my start in the security business. I couldn’t let him down no matter how challenging it was to be around Harlowe.

You’re a professional, I reminded myself. I may not have encountered a client who stoked my desire as much as Harlowe did, but I’d had my fair share of clients make my job a challenge. There was the porn actress who’d insisted on sunbathing naked and insisted on me standing watch over her while she did it. Then there had been a dominatrix who’d pranced around her house in little more than thigh-high boots and a black teddy. But none of them had provoked anything in me.

They didn’t have the spark that Harlowe did or the girl-next-door appeal. It was because Harlowe didn’t try to seduce me that made her so enticing.

I managed to shove a few crispy fries in my mouth, going through the motions of chewing while barely registering the taste. Harlowe had said she didn’t want another bodyguard, but that was because she didn’t understand the storm of emotions taking place within me. She didn’t know how long I’d been a virtual recluse, and she didn’t know how hard I was fighting the urge to touch her, hold her, taste her. And I didn’t know how long I could suppress my primal instincts.

“Roc?”

Her voice seemed far away as my name drifted through the air and hung between us. I lifted my head to meet her gaze. Her brow was wrinkled, and her head angled to one side.

“Earth to Roc.”

I gave my head a brief shake. “Yes?”

She laughed and mirrored my head shake. “I wanted to know if I could steal one of your fries, but I’m thinking I could have sneaked it without you noticing.”

I eked out a smile as I slid my Styrofoam container closer to her. “You could have, but help yourself.”

She plucked a long, dangly fry from my pile and bit off half. “I’m surprised you aren’t hungrier.” She motioned to her almost empty container. “I was ravenous.”

“I had a piece of pie at the diner while I was waiting for our burgers.”

She snagged another fry and waved it at me like a pointer. “Dessert first? I like your style.”

Harlowe devoured the fry and then stood from the bed, crossed to the vanity, and poured herself more wine. How had I not noticed her drain her first glass while mine was untouched?

Maybe she was right. Maybe I did need to relax. Maybe wine was just what I needed to stop obsessing about my feelings for my client. I took a swig of the white wine and almost gasped. Maybe not this wine.

“Yeah, it’s not great.” Harlowe grinned at me as she returned to the bed and sat down with her legs crossed again. “But the more you drink, the less you notice.”

I made a face at my glass. “I do not think there is enough in the bottle to make me not notice how bad it is.”

“You’re funny.” She peered at me over the lip of her glass as she took a sip. “I don’t think I remember you being funny.”

Harlowe’s hair draped over one shoulder, droplets of water slowly trailing onto her white T-shirt and making it even more transparent. I forced my gaze to stay locked on her eyes, the dark blue of them like deep, ocean water. “I’m surprised you remember much about me.”

She rocked back and let her knees come up so she could wrap her arms around them with her wine glass still in one hand. “How could I forget my dad’s best friend who was also a smoking hot orc?”

My heart thrummed and unwanted excitement danced across my skin. “You should not say that.”

“Why? It’s true.” She drained the last of her wine in a single gulp. “You were always hot. I knew that even when I was thirteen.”

I bit back a groan at the reminder that she’d been a teenager when she’d first met me. Maybe if I imagined her as the shy, gangly kid she’d been then, it would be easier to fight my attraction to her. But as I took in the actress in front of me, there were almost no traces of the kid with braces who’d avoided me.

Harlowe wasn’t that kid anymore. She didn’t look like her, she didn’t act like her, she didn’t talk like her. She was a woman in every sense of the word, and she was too much of a temptation.

“It’s crazy that you haven’t changed.” Her teasing tone was gone as she studied my face.

I wanted to tell her that I had changed and that I wasn’t the hard-bodied orc I’d once been, but another part of me didn’t want to draw her attention to the fact that I was now more dad bod than hard bod. I got the sense that she didn’t care about superficial Hollywood standards and wouldn’t welcome body shaming, even if it was about myself.

“I know orcs don’t age as quickly as humans do, but I feel like time has stood still for you while it’s flown by for me.” She reached out one hand and stroked a finger down my cheek. “It’s like you waited for me to catch up.”

My body stiffened as she scorched a seam of heat down my skin. I should stop the conversation and stop her from touching me, but I didn’t do either. “Why did you need to catch up?”

Her eyes were glazed as they slid to my lips, lingering there as she nibbled her own bottom lip. “You were too old for me then, but you’re not now.”

My jaw was so tight I could barely grit out the words. “I am still older than you by the same number of years.”

She shrugged one shoulder, the motion not much more than a twitch. “But it doesn’t matter anymore. I’m in my twenties. I’m not a kid. I’m a woman. Don’t you see?”

My throat was too dry to make a sound, and my body was too rigid to move, but I felt myself stumbling, slipping, falling. I did see—much more than I should.

Harlowe continued to run her finger along my face, even as I remained frozen. “I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but after the day we’ve had, why not, right?” She leaned forward so that her lips brushed my ear. “I’ve always had a crush on you, Roc. A lot about me might have changed over the years, but not that.”

Then she pulled back a fraction, met my gaze for a beat, threaded one hand in my hair, and pulled me into a kiss.