Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116760 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
“You sure? Sometimes I feel like one. I mean, I do have issues with my parents. My mother in particular.”
“For good reason. They’re shitty parents. Your mother in particular.”
For some reason ,that made her smile. Then she giggled.
“Both Hayes and I like you, Bebe. We want to keep you safe. And I happen to think you’re a good person. Smart. Kind. Although you’re not very good at keeping yourself safe, you have a problem staying on task, and you’re a crappy contractor.”
“Hey! I am not!”
He grinned at her. Yep, that grin sent his attractiveness off the charts.
Damn him.
It just wasn’t fair that he kept stealing her breath when she was just a job to him.
A burden to take care of.
“I know I’m not the easiest client. I’m sorry.”
Corbin gave her a strange look. “What do you mean you’re not the easiest client?”
“Well, you probably thought you’d get to stay in a decent place, not a construction zone. With someone who would take all of this seriously, rather than thinking it’s bullshit.”
“I do wish you’d take this seriously,” he replied, placing his hand on her knee. And this time, he didn’t move it away immediately.
Be still her heart.
Please don’t let him see the way he was affecting her.
She wished her acting skills were better. Maybe she should have taken some acting lessons when she was younger like her mother had wanted.
“I know you think the threat isn’t real, but what if it is?” he asked.
“Why would anyone want to harm me, though? I mean, I know there were threats when I was on the show . . . people loved to hate me. But I haven’t been in the public eye for years. So why now? It makes no sense. And even if someone was sending messages about me, who is to say they’d act on them? I’m not . . . I can’t live my life like this. I agreed to you guys guarding me for a month just to put my dad at ease. But I’m not going to live my life scared. I won’t do that anymore.”
“Anymore? What were you scared of before?”
Yeah. That was something she wasn’t going to tell him.
She shook her head.
“All right. I don’t have the right to all your secrets as long as they don’t affect your safety now.”
“They don’t.” Because she knew that he never wanted to see her again.
The asshole had made that very clear.
Suddenly, her stomach started rumbling.
“Right. That’s a sign to get down. And Hayes will be up soon.”
“I should apologize to him, I guess,” she said.
“For eavesdropping? Probably.”
“Well, I was going to apologize for believing he’d think that about me.”
“Hayes will understand. But he won’t be happy about the fact that you hid all night in your bedroom and went without dinner instead of confronting him over what you heard.”
Jeez, when he put it like that, it sounded terrible.
“I’m not good with confrontation,” she admitted.
“A lot of people aren’t. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. But you need to try and trust us if we’re going to take care of you. Yeah?”
Take care of you.
She knew he didn’t mean it . . . he didn’t want to take care of her like that.
And she didn’t need that.
Nope. Not her. She was never going to be involved with a guy again.
Not. Happening.
Yeah, so why were you hoping he’d kiss you just before?
“What the fuck are the two of you doing up there?”
She jumped at the sound of Hayes’ voice. He was leaning out and peering up at them. Her feet slipped out from under her and she might have slid down the roof and off the edge if Corbin hadn’t quickly grabbed her.
Bebe clung to him with a cry of relief.
“Fuck! Be careful, Bebe!” Corbin commanded.
“Me, be careful? What about Hayes? He almost scared me half to death!” Her heart was still racing. “I nearly slid off the roof.”
“You wouldn’t be able to slide off the roof if you weren’t sitting on the damn roof,” Hayes barked. “Don’t you realize how dangerous that is?”
“Well, it never felt dangerous before you two came along,” she replied.
Jeez.
She’d sat up here probably hundreds of times and never had an issue.
“New rule. No coming up here again.” Corbin grasped hold of her chin, turning her face toward his.
“What? You can’t just make up new rules.” And this was her thinking spot. He couldn’t tell her that she couldn’t come up on her own roof.
That was just rude.
“I can. I’m in charge. Therefore, I get to make the rules.”
Hayes cleared his throat.
“We’re in charge,” Corbin amended. “We get to make the rules. And you have to obey them.”
“Yeah? And what happens if I don’t? Are you going to put me in the naughty corner?”
Her mouth went dry at the thought.
But surprisingly, there was no fear. She really was starting to trust him.