Page 13 of Keeping Astrid

Chapter Seven

Growler attempted to get his body under control. His physical reaction to Astrid Conway was not professional in the slightest.

After the meeting with Ox and the rest of the team the previous day, he’d spent the remainder of his time researching the celebrity chef. He’d put her name in the search engine and the screen filled with links to videos, photos, and numerous news articles. Not to mention a range of cookware. The girl was busy.

Close up, she was even more stunning than her pictures and the distant glimpse he’d gotten of her when he’d seen her at the bar. If the photos he’d seen had been photoshopped, they hadn’t done her justice. Her black hair was glossy. He wanted to reach out and touch it to see if it was as soft as it appeared. There were tiny gold flecks in her eyes, and he wondered if they’d brighten in the throes of passion. Her lips were coated in a shiny pink gloss, tempting him to see if they tasted as good as they looked.

Fuck. Stop. She’s a client. Not a convenient lay.

Growler had stopped indulging in one-night stands when he’d come to the realization he was using women like his mother used alcohol—and not in a healthy way. For a while, his apartment door had been a revolving one with the amount of women he’d let pass through it.

“Here we are.” He stepped to the side to allow Astrid to precede him into the conference room. A hint of vanilla teased his nostrils as she walked past, and he wanted to reach out and grab her, haul her back so that he could sink his nose into the crook of her neck and inhale deeply.

Fuck! Not happening. Hands off.

How many times would he have to remind himself that Astrid was a job?

Maybe he should go out and find someone he could lose himself in—just for one night. No, he didn’t want to fall into that trap again. He would find another way to deal with the inconvenient way his body was reacting to being close to Astrid.

Growler closed the door, noting that Astrid hadn’t moved far into the room. Was she nervous?

Of course, she was nervous. She was in a roomful of people she’d never met to discuss the prospect that she needed a bodyguard because she’d heard a murder.

“Take a seat, Astrid.” Growler came up behind her and went to place his hand on the small of her back but pulled back at the last second. No way was he going to give her any more reasons to be skittish, and an uncalled-for touch was the quickest way for that to happen.

He pulled out her chair for her, and she smiled shyly up at him. “Thank you.”

Along with looking at her pictures on the internet, he’d pulled up some of her cooking videos. Her early ones were fun and full of joy. Even he’d been tempted to try some of the things she’d cooked. He’d only watched two of her shows and had to admit he preferred her earlier videos. With a full production team, not to mention editing, the more recent shows were slick and professional. There was nothing wrong with them. He just preferred the unpolished version of Astrid Conway.

“Growler, you want to take a seat?” Ox queried, a questioning look in his gaze.

Dammit, he didn’t want to give his boss the impression he was starstruck—not a good look for a new job.

“Sure. Sorry.”

“Growler? Isn’t your name Callum” Astrid looked confused, and he couldn’t blame her.

Growler took the seat opposite her and poured two glasses of water, sliding one over to Astrid.

“Growler is my nickname from my time as a SEAL. Callum is my given name. Feel free to use whichever one you’re comfortable with.”

Apart from his mother, who tended to slur it whenever he’d seen her, no one in the past fifteen years had called him anything other than Growler or his Navy rank. Seeing as he was going to hear his given name more often, with Penni and Yolanda using it, why not add another person to the list?

“Hey, Callum, fancy seeing you again!”

A smile quirked the corner of his lips when he heard Penni’s voice, glancing up he spied her on the big screen, sitting in the living room of his former team leader's house. “Hey, Penni, again. All okay?”

Yeah, he really needed to make the effort to go down and visit his former teammates. Maybe he could go this coming weekend, that is, if they weren’t headed out on a mission soon.

“Everything’s good. Got a message from Knox for you.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” He figured it probably aligned with what he was just thinking.

“He says you need to come down and see us.” Penni winked, and Growler chuckled.

Yep, nailed it.

He doubted Knox “Fort” Porter’s demand was quite as polite as Penni made it out to be.

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