Page 20 of Elevating Eve

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he told her, loosening his grip but not letting go. “You’re safe with me. You’llalwaysbe safe with me. I give you my word.”

The wild look in her eyes melted away, giving way to embarrassment. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, dropping Miranda’s application on the desk between them. “I don’t know what came over me.”

He held onto her for a little longer, marveling in how small her wrist felt in his hand. Her work had made her strong, but no amount of heavy lifting could change how petite her bone structure was. “Your fear is perfectly understandable,” he said in that same, calming voice. “If you’ll allow it, I’d like to help you. I know how much you want to be in the lifestyle.”

Eve gulped and looked down at her wrist again. “Yes, please,” she managed in a hoarse whisper.

“But first, I want to know what was going on before I grabbed you. Tell me why you acted like that.”

When at last he let go, she rocketed off the desk and across the room. “I’m sorry,” she muttered again, wrenching the door open. “I need to get back to work.” A moment later, she disappeared from view, leaving nothing but unanswered questions in her wake.

Jonathan couldn’t focus worth a fuck, and he knew it wouldn’t change until he talked to Eve again. Signing the stupid purchase orders without even looking at them, he grabbed the folder and headed downstairs.

It was a few minutes after five,sohopefully she hadn’t already packed it up for the day. The crew usually worked from seven in the morning until four in the afternoon, relying on the Manor’s excellent soundproofing to keep the noise from disturbing guests. But Eve frequently stuck around longer, leaving an hour or two after Lainey and the others.

Questions swirled through his mind as he raced down the first set of stairs and along the second-floor hallway. Had she been looking at the Manor’s application? Is that how she knew exactly which page to flip to?

And her bratty comments about that other woman’s application—what the fuck was that about? Disdain for his job?

No, that couldn’t be it. He’d known her more than seven months now, and the only reaction she’d ever had to his job was lust.

Jealousy then? Admittedly, the thought pleased him a little bit. He’d started to worry that as more time passed since her split with Talley, her interest would start to wane. Before today, she’d been perfectly professional in all of their interactions.

Please let it be jealousy.

As he reached the bottom of the grand staircase, Zach waved him over to the reception desk. The younger man wore his customary vest and bow tie, the latter the same bright green as his eyes. He’d been favoring that one a lot recently; his fiancé, Remy, gave it to him for Christmas, and Zach had always been a hopeless romantic.

“I hear you’ve been rummaging around in the application room,” Zach said, smirking as Jonathan crossed the lobby’s gleaming marble tiles. “You ready to dive back into the fray?”

Jonathan pursed his lips, trying not to smile. “It hasn’t been that long since I had a guest, has it?”

Eyes twinkling with amusement, Zach began clicking away at his laptop. “I’d have to check the reservation calendar for that. My memory doesn’t go back that far.”

Unable to stop it this time, Jonathan smiled. “Okay, okay. You’ve made your point. Consider my break officially over.”

“Glad to hear it, boss.” Zach’s grin was more than a little smug. “Let me know when you pick one, and I’ll send the letter right out.” The man handwrote each and every acceptance letter on ridiculously expensive, custom-made stationary, using an antique fountain pen for his perfect calligraphy. It all seemed a bit over the top when Zach first started working at the Manor, but the guests seemed to love it.

Over the years, he’d learned to trust Zach’s judgement and just roll with it.

“Will do.” Maybe he’d be able to focus on the applications after he cleared the air with Eve. He’d spent a solid hour going through them early this afternoon, without retaining a single word. “Do you know if Eve left yet?”

Zach chuckled. “You’re the second person to ask me that tonight. Pretty sure she’s still out back.”

Brows pulling together, Jonanthan asked, “Who else was looking for her?” Aiden was on vacation in Bali with his wife, Olivia, for the next two weeks. No one else in the Manor had any regular involvement with Eve or the project.

“Camden.”

And least of all Camden. The man almost never took any time off, moving from guest to guest with a carefree, fuckboy glee Jonathan had never experienced, even in his long-ago frat days. He’d agreed to fund his share of the expansion so long as it didn’t interrupt his schedule or disturb his guests, and he hadn’t shown the remotest interest since.

“Hey, you okay?” Zach asked, his usual smirk replaced by a worried little frown.

No, he most certainly was not okay. Whatever Camden was up to, it couldn’t be good. The guy was basically a walking hard-on.

“I’m fine,” he said, stalking back across the lobby.

“So I can see,” Zach muttered, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Jonathan ignored him, looping around the staircase and into the back hallway. Cutting through the currently empty dining room, he pushed through the two-way swinging door into the kitchen.

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