Page 24 of Love Me Reckless

“Kirilee, hey,” Zach says, grinning.

Sawyer’s eyes seem to brighten, sending a zip of heat across my skin.

The hallway suddenly feels very cramped. “Hi,” I manage.

Stu steps into the hallway, beaming at my four guests. “Welcome to Finn River Ranch. I’m Stu Valentine, head of security.”

Both couples shake Stu’s hand, and soon they’re in a deep discussion about the high-level security at the ranch, asking pointed questions. Stu is leading the group in the opposite direction to show them our sophisticated security systems and the main hub where the security team rotates through 8-hour shifts monitoring all of the equipment, video, and drone data.

I need to catch up with Stu so I can steer my guests back to the recreation building when they’re ready, but I can’t seem to tear myself away from Sawyer. “How was your ride?”

“Awesome,” Sawyer says. “How’s your foot?”

I press my lips together to keep my smile from bursting. “Better. Thanks again for the extra bandages. They really helped.”

Sawyer smirks. “Good.”

Though he doesn’t mention his phone number scrawled on the back, I get the feeling he knows that I found it.

“Sawyer just signed on with Finn River Ranch,” Zach says, and grabs Sawyer in a kind of sideways man-tackle slash hug.

My tummy jolts like I’m an airplane experiencing turbulence. “Congratulations. When do you start?”

“October fifteenth.”

“That’s great.” From behind me, Stu’s speech is winding down. “Well, bye.”

He winks. “Bye, princess.”

I glare at him while heat prickles up my neck. Before I say something stupid, I spin on my heel and hurry down the hall.

Though I sense his eyes on me, I don’t dare look back.

Chapter Seven

SAWYER

Zach leadsme out the door, the sun so bright it blinds me for an instant. “What the fuck are you doing?” he says in a low tone.

I give him a look. “What?”

He puts me in a headlock. “Are you trying to get fired before you’ve even started?”

“Nothing happened last night.” I wrestle free and give him a playful shove.

“Then why did she look at you like you hung the fucking moon?” We cross the street to the parking area below the lodge, our bike shoes clicking on the pavement.

“How should I know?”

“She clearly hates that nickname.”

“Princess?” I laugh. “I think she’d like it just fine in the right setting.”That’s it, princess, nice and deep.

His look turns lethal. “You better be kidding.”

I roll my eyes. “Of course I am.” Sort of.

We climb into Zach’s truck. Thanks to Stu, we were granted a one-day guest pass to check out the mountain biking trails andanything else we wanted, like a round of golf or an afternoon of fly fishing with one of the staff guides. Zach and I voted no—neither of us are client material. We could have stayed longer, checked out one of the restaurants, but again, hard no.

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