Page 21 of Second Chance for Mr. Alden

I strode from Jess’s room like the flames of a fire nipped at my heels. If I’d stayed a moment longer, I’d have found myself moving toward her instead of the door. A growl forced its way past my lips as I paused in the hallway at the top of the staircase. Seeing her in only her underwear had my control ready to snap.

My attraction to Jess was as strong now as it’d been when we first met. It was ripping my insides to shreds to keep my hands to myself, to let her believe that I didn’t want her. I’d have thought in nine years my desire for her would have died down to a simmer, not continued into a raging inferno.

I rubbed at my forehead, my hair brushing against the back of my knuckles each time I moved. The strands were longer than I typically liked. I needed a haircut, but with guarding Jess, I rarely had free time.

“What’s going on?” Gage asked the minute I hit the bottom stair.

I threw my thumb out in the direction of the kitchen. Once inside I started to make myself a sandwich. I lifted a piece of bread toward Gage in a silent offer to make him one.

He shook his head and leaned against the marble island to wait for my reply. I made my sandwich as I thought about what to tell him.

“Apparently, Lexi and Jess never lost touch after she and I did.”

“No shit.” His surprise was as apparent as mine.

I took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. I’d been pissed when I figured it out. And more so when I thought it was Jess who’d initiated the contact. “Lexi reached out to her after we broke up.”

“No fucking way.” Gage was one of the few people who knew why I’d really broken up with Jess. “I’m kind of surprised.”

I grunted. “I’m not.”

“Why?”

I shrugged. “Lexi idolized her. Anytime Jess was around back then, Lexi was two steps behind us. She was vulnerable after our parents died and Jess... she treated Lexi like a human being. Not like someone who needed to be pitied.”

Jess had come into our lives three months after our parents died from a freak car accident. Three months of me trying to reorient myself to civilian life after seven years as a Marine and caring for a fifteen-year-old. I went from defending my country to making sure my sister went to high school and did her homework.

Jess had been a ray of fucking sunshine in our never-ending days of gray.

“What are you going to do?”

I shrugged. “Nothing. Once we figure out who’s after Jess everything will go back to normal.”

“Dude, stop lying to yourself.” He raised an eyebrow. “You’re just going to make this harder. Why do you think that after we find out who’s after Jess it’s going to make it easier to let her go a second time?”

I stubbornly stayed silent.

“Things are going to change.”

“It won’t.” I dropped my head back to stare at the ceiling. What I’d said to Jess in her room was the truth. I’d never have stood by knowing she was in danger.

I opened my mouth and quickly snapped it shut. The reality of being with her day in and day out for the past four months had been excruciating. I kept my distance until a few weeks ago. After our time at Jaxon’s it was harder to keep that separation from the job and my emotions.

“If you’re not careful, you’re going to lose your heart to her again.” Gage raised an eyebrow, daring me to contradict him.

The sound of the doorbell peeled through the first floor.

I tensed. “Did Jess say anything about a visitor?”

Gage shook his head. “Let me call the security booth.”

I cautiously peered out one of the windows that flanked the front door. A young woman in a purple uniform and hair in a high ponytail, stood there with a smile on her face. I opened the door, with less caution than before, thinking she was unlikely to be armed or dangerous.

Peering out behind her, I noticed a delivery truck in the same colors.

“Hello, sir. I have a delivery for Jessamine Sulton.” She was even younger than I’d guessed at first glance, no more than seventeen or eighteen.

“Can I ask who it’s from?” I blocked the door, not moving to take the box.

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