Page 19 of The Female Warrior & The Charming Gentleman

He smiled at her diligence and bullheadedness. He wished she was on his team at work but more importantly in his personal life. He could find dedicated, talented, and hard-working employees. He’d never found a spicy, mesmerizing, and irresistible woman like Autumn before.

“I’m in my room, Autumn,” he said.

“Good,” she snipped, then she quietly shut her door.

He chuckled.

She was now a couple points ahead in the banter and flirtation battle. He’d let her win any battle.

If only he could win her heart.

Chapter

Seven

Autumn was revvedup as she paced her room, quietly so hopefully no one would hear her, until after two a.m. She was angry at Jarom, angrier at herself, and so drawn to the charming, handsome, exasperating billionaire she wanted to storm into his room and kiss him goodnight like he’d taunted her about.

It was only for a notch on his belt and because no woman turned him down. He was a player and not hiding it one bit, proclaiming it in fact. She’d agreed to them both not being the type to settle down, but it ticked her off that he kept proving she was nothing special to him.

Ooh! Why did he get her goat up so badly? Why did she want him so badly? Sure, he was her celebrity crush, but Jarom was already so much more to her. He was genuine and enticing. She’d met famous people the world over. Many of them were prideful and the exact opposite of their public persona. Jaromwas a million times better than she’d imagined. A very dangerous crush. How could she keep resisting him?

When he’d been so close she could almost taste him and inhale that intoxicating mix of sweet, manly spice, the cologne made just for him, she thought she’d pass out. Then he’d asked her for a goodnight kiss. When her defenses were low. She’d lashed out because she felt … not scared. She couldn’t admit to that. Cornered.

Thankfully he hadn’treallyasked in a sweet, charming way. He’d mocked her, saying since they were both players it should be no big deal.

It was a big deal for her. Kissing him would be the best moments of her entire life.

Not for him. Not even close.

Jerk.

Yet he wasn’t. He was sweet, thoughtful, funny, alluring, and surprisingly uncomplaining and tough. For her, it was a must to have a man be strong. She’d thought of Jarom as her celebrity crush, which was safe. She’d never meet him and know him and he was a confirmed pretty boy. Now she had met him, she felt like she knew him on a deep level, and he was blowing up all her resistance. She’d almost broken his arm and he hadn’t so much as squeaked. Jarom had been in pain, he couldn’t hide that, but he hadn’t bowed forward or cried out. Impressive.

The way he’d handled Easton at their first meeting was also impressive. He was sincere in his praise of the bull rider and one-upping Easton with his kindness. He was all around superior in her mind.

What woman didn’t want a man who was so confident he could praise and compliment other dudes without feeling threatened and without being any less? Jarom blew her mind.

Autumn wasn’t looking for a man. She stood on her own. Always. Even if the billionaire bachelor of the year was asking her to kiss him and was more entrancing in the flesh than she’d let herself daydream about.

She couldn’t give away her heart. She trusted Aiden, Paul, and Nick, but she didn’t fully let her guard down around anyone. She never had. Paul was definitely her closest friend, but with him finding the love of his life they’d grown more distant by necessity. Shay needed to be Paul’s best friend now.

As she thought about Paul and their many conversations on flights or jobs, she remembered times he’d asked her about her childhood or teenage years and she’d never shared much. He knew she’d been abused and forced to hide from her mom’s boyfriends, but that was all. He’d asked her to turn it over to Jesus so often she zoned him out about the subject now.

Had she ever said anything about Jarom to him? She searched and prodded her memory and … Yikes! She almost cried out, but bit down on it and paced quicker, wrapping her arms around herself. Paul had caught her watching an Instagram reel of Jarom donating clothing to refugees from Venezuela, meeting them and bringing smiles to all of their faces with his beautiful charm. She’d thought Paul was focused on a security camera. He’d teased her as they always teased each other. She’d eventually admitted to a crush on the famed playboy philanthropist. Paul had told her Jarom was a charitable Christian and a good man.

Oh, no. She’d pushed that memory away and now what if it came back to bite her?

Jarom and Paul had been leaning close and talking in hushed tones as she greeted Easton. She’d noticed outof the corner of her eye as she’d been unable to take her gaze off of Jarom. She was his security, after all, and he was so nice to look at.

What if Paul had told him about her crush? No. Not Paul. He wouldn’t do that to her. It wasn’t as if she’d sworn him to secrecy, but she hadn’t planned on being assigned to the billionaire heartthrob. Ah, shoot. Now if she asked Paul about it, it would be too telling. He’d probably forgotten anyway.

She forced herself to lay down on the bed and tried to sleep.

At a little before six a.m. she was out in the hallway, pacing. She had on a T-shirt, running tights, socks and shoes, her Sig 380 in her running pocket. She struggled sleeping more than five to six hours; nightmares from her childhood and teenage years almost always woke her. How long would Jarom sleep? She had to stay by his side and wait for him, but she wanted to head outside and run in the cold morning air, or find logs to lift or boulders to throw or something. She needed a workout, needed some energy expended. Hadn’t Paul told her that the Colevilles had a nice home gym and sparring ring somewhere? That would be ideal.

She’d checked her emails and texts earlier. No news yet and the guard, Garrett, was tighter than a drum. They’d learned nothing before they had to turn him over to the authorities because of the explosion.

June, one of Aiden’s tech team, had forwarded Jarom’s emails and texts to Autumn’s phone. She’d had to create a separate folder for them but had seen the stream of texts coming in on his phone, most from feminine friends begging him to call or hang out or saying they missed him. She couldn’t even imagine what she’d read or see if it had been his SnapChat stream. Ugh!

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