Page 47 of Second Chance for Mr. Alden

I ended the call with Gage and crossed over to the couch. I left space between Jess and myself so that I wouldn’t be tempted to pull her into my arms. She had enough on her plate, and me continuing to give her mixed signals didn’t need to be one of them.

“So Gage wants us to hide out in Rhode Island?” she asked.

I nodded and leaned my head back against the sofa to stare at the ceiling.

“What if I had a better idea?” she asked softly.

Not changing the direction of my gaze I asked, “Oh, yeah?”

“I think you should just use me as bait.”

I fixed her with a hard glare. “No fucking way.”

There was no way I’d ever do that. Nothing Jess could say would convince me otherwise. She’d be used as bait over my dead body.

Chapter Ten

Jess

Itucked one leg underneathme and turned to glare at him. “Why the hell not?”

His eyes grew tight with unrestrained anger. “I will not put you in danger.Ever.”

“We were in danger tonight and look—” I ran my hand up and down my body. “I’mfine.”

He gritted his teeth and rasped. “Things could’ve ended very differently if we hadn’t realized it was the jewelry tracking us.”

I grabbed his hand, not missing how his body tensed at my touch. I wasn’t about to let go because he was uncomfortable. “You will protect me. I know you will. And I need this to stop. It’s been a few months of being careful and only a week of any real activity from whoever this is and I’m ready to go out of my mind.”

A pinched, tension filled expression crossed his face. “You hired me to keep you safe, Jess. Using you as bait is not keeping you safe.”

I blinked back the fucking inconvenient tears that threatened to emerge. It stung to hear him say I was just a job. I wanted to hear he kept me safe because he couldn’t live without me. But he’d lived without me for nine years, and that truth hurt.

“We might not have a choice.” I worked hard to keep my voice even.

I was delusional to think there had been moments when he’d softened to me. That maybe he’d wanted me as badly as I wanted him. Maybe he did still want my body, but wanting each other sexually had never been our problem. Tying emotions to the physical acts was the real issue.

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