Page 8 of Protecting Bianca

3

Bianca

It felt like a train steamed through my veins. It raced along my arteries, causing havoc to my lungs and heart. I inhaled sharply through my nose and let it out slowly as I walked toward him.

Lizzie had warned me that he would be coming today. After giving River hell for hiring him behind my back, I practiced what I would say and how I would say it, but nothing prepared me for the real thing. The moment I saw Jager Payne again, everything I’d felt for him came racing back. There was an electrical current that pulled me toward him. It had always been there.

It was still there now.

He looked older…bigger…and if possible, more handsome than I’d remembered. His broad shoulders filled the gray suit jacket. The twenty-year-old boy had become a man. Regardless, that boy had dumped me, left without so much as a ‘thank you very much’. There was no note to explain why he didn’t want to be with me anymore.

But that was then. It was in the past. I could be mature about this.

Steadying my hand, I raised it as I approached him. “Good to see you, Jager,” I said. There. Exactly as I’d rehearsed it. I even managed to smile.

But it faltered when he stared at the hand and then back at me, blinking several times. After some excruciating seconds, he finally shook it.

“I’m happy to see you, too.” He squeezed my hand and for a moment, I was transported back to college and those stolen moments behind a staircase or in an empty corridor. Jager would interlace our fingers, pull me aside, and steal a kiss before anyone could see us.

It seemed romantic at the time. Years later, I wondered if he was just embarrassed to be with me. Fortunately, my self-esteem bounced back, and I decided it was his loss.

“Well, if there’s anything you need,” I said, trying to remember the exact words from last night, “don’t hesitate to ask.”

I turned to leave, inhaling deeply, when he said, “Actually, I do need something from you.”

My heart stopped. I hadn’t planned on him taking me up on my offer. Turning around, I asked in a steady voice. “Pardon?”

“I’m collecting everyone’s thumbprint for the new scanner I’m installing at the entrance. I’d like to start with yours.”

Why did that sound more sensual than it should? Maybe because it was Jager, and we had history, and he always teased me like that.

I shook the nostalgic fog from my brain. “Not a problem. Where do you want me?”

Jager blinked several times.

Wanting to break the awkwardness, I clarified, “Where are you setting up?”

He looked down the hall and then back at Mr. Towers’ office. “Where would you suggest?”

“Well, some people like to book meetings in the small boardroom, but the large boardroom is rarely used. You can set up there.”

“Thanks.” He nodded and moved past me. He seemed eager to get away.

“Don’t you need me to show you where it is?”

He turned back and replied hastily over his shoulder. “No. I’m good. I’ll see you there in ten minutes.”

Huh.

Shrugging it off, I figured someone must have given him a tour already, so I headed back to my office.

Lizzie and Janis followed shortly afterward.

“So, how are you holding up?” asked Lizzie

I looked up from my laptop and tilted my head. “What do you mean?”

She nodded toward the hall. “You know. With Jager being here.”

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