Page 10 of Twisted Hearts

So much for not appearing threatening.

I held up my hands and took a small step back. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Excuse me?” Her fisted hands flexed as she once again glanced behind me. Nerves. If she was nervous, why was she here? Alone?

I gave her body another quick scan, unable to stop myself from soaking in her curves. She wasn’t dressed for the event inside, and only invited guests were supposed to be on the premises. But her outfit said she wasn’t a reporter either. With my interest piqued and arousal at the sight of her stirring, the unbidden question of if she was wearing underwear or a bra came to the tip of my tongue.

I bit down on it.Now is not the time, asshole.I needed to get laid—that was the problem. Going months without anything but my hand was taking its toll.

“What? Why?”

“For one, you’re a woman alone in an alley, and even though this is a nice hotel, bad things can still happen. For two, only invited guests are allowed on the premises this evening.”

“Right,” she mumbled. “I was invited.”

And not at all dressed in the ball gowns all the other women wore that had to cost thousands? I doubted it.

“Listen, it’s my job to make sure the event runs smoothly and safely. How about we finish this inside.”

For a beat, her eyes raked my face and my chest, dropping lower before shooting back up, and when they did, her cheeks were darker.

Embarrassment? Attraction?

I hoped like hell it was the latter. I let her look her fill while she chewed her bottom lip.

“Are you okay?” I asked, slaking the desire skating down my spine. Goddamn she was gorgeous. Dark red hair twisted and piled on her head, makeup minimal, those large green eyes…like fresh-cut grass in the spring. So damn bright and vivid even as she narrowed them and wariness flickered in her expression.

Her hairstyle said she belonged inside. The rest of her? Not so much. What was shedoingout here?

“Is asking me that in your job description, too?”

“I’m here working security, so yeah, making sure a woman alone is okayisin my job description.” It was also tattooed in my DNA, the reason I became a police officer in the first place. I had an inherent and deep instinct to protect. “Also, seeing a woman who looks like she’s been crying is just something I hate to see. But like I already said, invited guests only tonight.”

She wiped beneath her eyes then and walked closer to me on shaking legs. “And like I said, I was invited.”

The scent of her cigarette still wafted in the air, but now there was also perfume. Coconut, something that reminded me of a tropical vacation and palm trees and too many rum drinks. Women in string bikinis. Tan lines when those bikinis were peeled away.

Which only made me wonder about her. Her tan lines…if she’d have any…

I caught her wiping beneath her eyes again, bringing my attention to the puffiness around them, and I stepped in front of her.

“Were you out here crying?”

She sniffed and dropped her hands. “Iknowthat isn’t in your job description.”

It wasn’t. Neither was envisioning her in a bikini or out of it, or wondering if she was wearing underwear.

“What’s wrong?” I asked more quietly, softly. I wasn’t always a chauvinistic asshole.

My question must have stunned her because her eyes widened and her lips parted. Slowly, she blinked away her surprise, and those green eyes turned to the color of a forest before a storm.

With a smile that was utterly fake, she said, “Nothing. It’s the best day of my life.”

“And that makes you cry?” Why did I care so much about her? Care that she was upset? Or sad, or whatever? I was here to do a job, not have my dick get hard because of a woman I’d probably never see again. Hell, for all I knew, she could have been taken. It was too dark to see if there was a tan line on her naked finger.

“Therapeutic cry,” she said, stepping to the side. “And none of your business.”

I turned, stunned by the way my dick jolted at her voice and attitude. I waited until she passed me then followed her at a distance toward the hotel. I needed to figure out if she belonged, but crowding her personal space seemed rude given her tears.

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