Page 27 of Strip Search

“No. I came straight to you.”

“I’ll handle it. Hurry back out there before tongues start wagging more than they already have. Cover up that mark on your face first though,” Dallas adds as I open the office door.

I hope like hell Dallas figures out a solution, and quick. If Roxy really is underage and word gets out, the club can get shut down. We’re too close for that to happen yet. I can feel it. As much as I hate to admit it, that means, I have to trust whatever he does with Roxy.

Chapter Twelve

Cole

This entire situationkeeps getting worse.

Torturing myself bypretendingI’m interested in ‘Harmony’ is the easy part. Too easy. And that is the problem. Every touch. Every flirty interaction has me craving her more.

I was so fucking stupid to settle on this plan and think that I would be able to ignore reality.

Especially after today. I know she walked away thinking I wasn’t serious about the fact that I was asking her out on a date. But we also needed to talk about the change in plans as far as this case goes. Clearly, I’m shit at relationships, because I probably should have discussed work, at work. And left lunch for us to enjoy each other’s company.

Tonight, we agreed to leave the club together, in an effort to keep up this ruse. We made sure that every key player, including Lola, saw us leave and we’ve got to go the extra mile to seal the deal because someone’s checking up on us, too.

Thanks to a tip from Cody when I left the club, it appears that someone’s following us, so I’m leading her away from her apartment and back to my place instead. There I know we’ll be safe.

The entire car ride, we’ve played the part, unsure of how much our follower can see. Gentle touches. Flirty laughs. God, I even leaned over and kissed her at a red light.

Twenty-five minutes of pure torture.

As soon as my truck is tucked securely in the garage, Cody texts to let me know that our follower has driven off and that the house is secure. I let out a sigh of relief and look over at Molly in the passenger seat. She went silent on me about five minutes ago, but I was so focused on getting us here safely that I didn’t notice she’s fallen asleep on me.

I shouldn’t sit here and watch her sleep. I shouldn’t be admiring the beauty that is simply Molly. Even under the skimpy clothes and caked on makeup that she’s currently hiding behind to play a role. She’s breathtaking.

Regardless of how hard I want to deny it...this woman owns a piece of my heart.

It wasn’t always this way though. I tried. So, fucking hard, to keep her at arm’s length. It was easy to do at first. Especially when I thought Cody might have the tiniest bit of interest in her. Spoiler alert...turns out Cody had no interest in Molly and had zero trouble putting her in the friend zone.

I should have taken a lesson from Cody and done the same. Shutting off any and all feelings. Something that, back in my Marine days, was much easier to do.

Somewhere along the line though, things changed. I realized what was right in front of me all along.

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