Page 13 of Stone Rules

“No wonder he looks familiar. He’s probably come into the restaurant before. And what’s the big deal if he hears me?” she asks, eyeing me skeptically as I try to get the pool to swallow me further. “Oh, Charlie, you didn’t.”

I shrug an innocent shoulder under the water, looking up at her with doe eyes. “I may have.”

Her eyes close and she lets out a small sigh. But she doesn’t bother reprimanding me. She never does. She understands me. How I work. Why I do the things I do. And she never ever judges.

“And now you’re avoiding him?” she asks.

“Well, he said he couldn’t work for me if we wereinvolved.” I use air quotes to punctuate the word.

“Sounds like a smart man.” She studies him behind me. “With good taste in women.”

“Ha!” I roll my eyes. “You should see the one he’s fucking at the office.”

Her eyes narrow at him with that protective judgment of an overbearing sister. “Okay. Maybe not so smart.”

I shrug. “He claims he’s not doing her, but I don’t buy it. She’s possessive as hell and a certifiable bitch.”

“Wow. You must have been there a long time if you got to know her that well.”

“I didn’t actually talk to her,” I confess. “Other than checking in when I got there.”

A smile breaks across her face. “Oh,she’sthe possessive one?”

“Shut up.”

She laughs. “I’ve got to go pick up Hailey, but I’ll make the call to Skylar later and tell her what’s going on. Meet me at work tomorrow before my ten o’clock shift and I’ll show you the ropes.”

“Thanks, Pipes. You’re a lifesaver.”

“Okay then” —she starts to walk away— “I’ll see you at work tomorrow, Charlie,” she says loudly, putting extra emphasis on my name.

I splash her before she makes her getaway. Then I look over my shoulder to see that yes, the hot and off-limits P.I. did in fact hear her.

Before I have a chance to see his reaction, I return to my bubble, pushing off the wall and gliding under the water as long as I can before my lungs force me to come up for air. I break into a punishing freestyle stroke so I won’t hear if he tries to get my attention.

A few minutes later, I question why I’m avoiding the guy. I mean he did just give me an earth-shattering orgasm. And he is all kinds of hot. Greek god Adonis hot. Gun strapped to his ankle during sex hot. Mysterious tattoo guy hot.

But hey, I can be friends with a hot guy I’m not sleeping with.Right?

A few weeks. That’s what he said. After that, I’ll have the information I’m paying him for and then—thenwe can have a torrid affair. Gretchen be dammed. I’m already planning all the shit I can put on his desk to make it more satisfying when I sweep it off. Or maybe the credenza. And there’s always the white couch in reception.

“It’s not going to happen.” Masculine words pry me from my fantasy and I realize I’ve completely stopped swimming and am staring directly at Ethan Stone.

Beads of water fall in a steady stream off the ends of his hair, that when weighted down with pool water, makes it appear even darker, longer and more unruly than before.

And his tattoo. Holy hell, it’s sexy. I find myself wanting to trace the outline of it again. With my tongue.

I snap myself out of it. “Uh, what are you doing?”

He looks around the room and then back at me. “Do you mean what am I doing here at the gym that I’ve belonged to for the past three years? Or what am I doing in the pool that I swim laps in every night? Or maybe you mean what am I doing talking to the woman who seduced me mere hours ago? Which is it, Tate?”

I smile. I’ve only known the man for one day, one hour even, but I can already tell his mood by the choice of the name he calls me. “Oh, so you swim?”

“Every day. What—did I fail to mention that earlier?” he asks sarcastically.

He barely talked during our meeting and he definitely didn’t say anything about his personal life. I don’t know thing one about him. That’s normally the way I like it.

Normally.

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