Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77335 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
The others agreed as they took their seats. “You should play that for Ian.”
I shrugged. “Maybe. One day.”
This was what I loved: being surrounded by people who were as passionate as I was about music and who felt it the same way I did as we practiced a difficult piece over and over, getting not just the technical perfection of the notes but the truth behind them.
It was no wonder I lost track of time and the world around me.
It wasn’t until a discordant screech of a false note pierced through the auditorium that I looked up.
Reid was there in the center of the aisle among the plush, red velvet audience seats… watching me.
His face was in shadow, but from the way his arms were crossed in front of him, I knew he was mad.
How had he found me so easily?
Ginnie stood. “Hey, buddy, this is a closed rehearsal.”
Reid didn’t respond.
He just kept his fierce gaze solely on me as he marched down the middle aisle toward the stage.
“Sir,” Ian objected far more forcefully than Ginnie as he stepped to the edge of the stage, hands on hips. “I must ask that you depart. You are interrupting our creative process.”
Reid didn’t even spare him a glance.
When he finally got to the end of the aisle, I thought he would finally break the horrible tension and speak.
Instead, with one powerful jump, he vaulted from the floor straight onto the stage.
Ian staggered back down while Ginnie muttered, “Damn.”
Reid’s stride hardly broke as he stormed across the stage, not stopping until he was directly in front of me.
Gripping the back of my chair with one hand, he bent down so we were eye-to-eye. There was no mistaking the fury in his intense silver eyes.
“You broke my rule, princess.”
CHAPTER 5
REID
“How did you find me?”
I stared down at her beautiful, upturned face. “Let this be a lesson to you, princess. I’ll always find you.”
I was just following orders.
That was what I was telling myself.
This was just me following orders.
Nothing different than when I was in the Corp.
It had nothing to do with the feel of her skin against my palm or the lingering scent of her vanilla perfume on my t-shirt.
And my fury at learning she had disobeyed me was professional agitation.
Yup, purely professional.
As was my driving desire to pull her over my knee, flip up her skirts, and whip her ass for her impertinent disobedience.
Yup, that was professional too.
Even though I knew deep down that I couldn’t—or at least shouldn’t—touch her.
She was my boss’ daughter.
My boss’ innocent daughter.
My charge.
My responsibility.
Mine.
No. Not mine. My job. She was just a job.
A fucking babysitting job.
One that I should have let her go crying to her daddy to get me out of… but not now.
Now, the devil himself couldn’t pry me from her side.
“You need to leave.” Her words would have been so much more convincing if her voice hadn’t shaken, or if she’d actually had the nerve to hold my gaze.
“Do I really need to explain to you the danger you put yourself in with this stunt? It is my job to make sure you don’t become a kidnapping target.”
I was hired because Lucian was worried about all the socialite kidnappings going on… as if his son wasn’t directly responsible for one and indirectly responsible for the other.
Her fingers gripped her cello bow tightly. “Would you please—would you lower your voice? Everyone is staring.”
“I don’t give a flying fat rat’s ass who is staring, Charlotte. Now get your shit and let’s go. Now.”
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind I’d catch hell for speaking to her this way, but at this moment, I didn’t give a damn.
The little brat had outmaneuvered me, and it was my own fucking fault for not taking this seriously. I knew better. As in the military, it wasn’t my job to question my orders, it was my job to follow them.
I had accepted the job as her bodyguard. There was no excuse for not giving it my full attention.
If something had happened to her under my watch…
Her jaw clenched and tears burned behind her beautiful brown eyes at my harsh tone.
“Fine,” she bit out before she slid her chair away from me so she could stand up without actually touching me.
She put her fancy cello into its no-doubt, ridiculously expensive, luxury case, and locked the massive metal latches in place.
A gentleman would have offered to take the case and carry it for her back to the car.
Thankfully, I was not under any such compulsion.
The girl with the purple hair tried to block our path. “You’re not leaving, are you, silver spoon?”
Charlotte kept her face lowered. “It’s for the best. I don’t want to disrupt rehearsal.”
The girl turned to the man who’d tried to confront me earlier. “Ian! Are you just going to stand there?”