Chapter 5

Five

Roc

Why had I agreed to this job? I let out a guttural sound as I remembered saying yes before I knew there would be a tiny plane involved.

I hated tiny planes. I hated their low ceilings. I hated their impossibly cramped bathrooms. I hated that I was stuck on one with a client who wanted to be anywhere but with me.

“Doesn’t matter,” I husked to myself, my words drowned by the growl of the engines. I’d promised to do Jack a favor and that was what I was going to do, no matter how much I repulsed his stepdaughter.

Harlowe said something I couldn’t catch over the noise of takeoff, and I swiveled my head to see if she was talking to me. It was clear she wasn’t. She averted her gaze and tipped her head back as the plane barreled down the runway and lifted into the air.

Now that the plane was airborne, I released a breath.

I might not be a full-blooded orc, but that didn’t mean I was any less attached to the ground. Orcs were mountain-dwellers, hulking creatures not intended to leave the earth, a fact I was reminded of every time I boarded a metal tube meant to hurtle through the sky.

Three-quarter orc, I reminded myself, as if made a difference to anyone but full orcs who’d always eyed my smaller tusks and less bulky stature with derision. It didn’t make a difference to the pretty human sitting across the aisle. She’d made it clear that she didn’t want me around.

I chanced a peek out the window as we climbed toward the clouds, then I forced myself to keep my gaze inside the plane, crossing my arms over my chest and closing my eyes. There was no one else in the compact cabin but me and Harlowe, so I didn’t need to be on alert, even though it was impossible to fully relax when I was working.

The steady hum of the engines told me that we’d reached cruising altitude, but Harlowe’s voice snapped me from my steady breathing.

“Hey, Grant.” The tone of her voice told me that Grant wasn’t a love interest. “You know I’m on the way to the shoot, right?”

I opened one eye to see her cross one leg over the other and pump her top foot, as she gnawed on her bottom lip and listened with her iPhone pressed to her ear.

“Three seasons?”

Now I opened both eyes and watched her frown and her foot jiggle. Everything about her body language told me that she wasn’t happy with whatever Grant was telling her. A strange, protective sensation washed over me, which wasn’t unusual, considering that I’d been hired to protect her. What was unusual was my overwhelming desire to snatch the phone from her ear and stop this Grant from upsetting my client. Harlowe wasn’t in any kind of physical danger, but my fingers tingled with the desire to shield her from everything.

Not your job, Roc. Stick to what you were hired to do.

Harlowe’s back visibly stiffened as she switched the phone to her other ear. “I can’t make that kind of decision now.” She rubbed her free hand over her forehead as if trying to smooth out invisible wrinkles before she huffed out a breath. “Listen, Grant. We’re heading into some turbulence. I appreciate you negotiating this deal and my answer is—”

Harlowe disconnected the call, powered down her phone and tossed it in the seat beside her. I couldn’t help grinning at her tactic, even though I didn’t want her to know I was amused by her, or that I was listening in on her conversation. When she darted a glance at me, I wiped the smile from my face and cut my gaze out the window.

My skin still buzzed as if there was an active threat, which was insane since we were thousands of feet in the air. No one could get to Harlowe, especially since she’d turned off her phone, so why was I vibrating with rage? Was it because I’d detected a tremble of fear in her voice? Was it because I’d felt her tension as if it were my own? Was it because she was so small and delicate compared to me? Or was it because Harlowe affected me like no one had before, and the thought of her experiencing any distress made me want to hurl something?

I ground my teeth and attempted to banish thoughts of the human from my mind, a near impossibility since she was sitting across from me.

It doesn’t matter. She’s the client. You’re the bodyguard. And she’s Jack’s stepdaughter.

That did it. Besides, Harlowe was a gorgeous Hollywood star, the kind of woman who had hot, hard-bodied men falling at her feet. An orc who was quickly approaching both forty and a dad bod didn’t stand a chance. Not that I would even take a shot at someone like her.

Before I could laugh out loud at the prospect of me with Harlowe, the plane spluttered—then dropped.