Page 16 of Hunted Hearts
When she gave Theo a reluctant nod and drew the case close so she could unlatch it, a collective sigh expelled from her team looking on with wide eyes.
She opened the case. The velvet lining was pristine, her beloved baby gleaming. Every curve was sacred.
Once she cradled the instrument, she widened her eyes at Theo. “We look with our eyes—not with our hands. Understand?”
His extremely hard-looking lips twitched. Not once but twice, the corner quirking higher with each tic. Like a special operative trying not to smile in enemy territory.
When he leaned in a little too quickly, she drew her instrument close to her chest like a mother shielding her child from a charging bull.
At her reaction, Theo paused for a beat before moving slower. She tilted it for him to examine. He looked over the front and back and tried to peer inside the f-holes.
“You aren’t going to find anything in them,” she told him. “They transmit to the air outside the body of the violin.”
The delicate holes carved into the front were shaped like a lowercasef. They were supposed to be mirror images of each other, but that wasn’t always the case, especially with Italian makers of a certain period.
While Theo dragged his gaze over every inch of her instrument, Juliette flushed with heat. That reaction was ridiculous. It wasn’t as if he was studyingher.
With a nod, he straightened with deliberate slowness. “Mind if I touch the case now?”
She released a sigh. “Go ahead. But don’t touch the bow.”
Damn if her heart didn’t flip at how pleased he looked that she agreed. After a long minute of poking around in her case, he opened the small compartment and pointed at the rectangle inside.
“That’s rosin,” she said.
“Ah.”
One word…spoken in that soft, gruff tone…had a totally new effect on Juliette. She was burning up from head to toe.
Suddenly, this wasn’t just about safety.
It was about her proximity to her muscled bodyguard with gray eyes, shifting and ever watchful.
Her team had gone quiet, like they could sense the charge in the room. Rachel handed her a fresh bottle of water. Chris and Harper started gathering her scattered things.
All the while, her gaze stayed on Theo.
And his never left her.
* * * * *
Theo threw a look at Juliette’s closed door, gauging how much sound would carry between the sitting room and her sleeping area. The hotel was modern, but that didn’t mean his voice wouldn’t carry.
He pulled out his phone and dialed his brothers. They would still be in Lake Tahoe. The douchebags had probably spent the entire day fishing while he was playing bodyguard with aviolinist.
Although he was surprised to find that Juliette wasnotthe meek, mild field mouse he’d expected her to be. The minute she stepped onto that stage and drew her bow across the strings, she turned into a powerhouse.
For someone so slight, she carried herself with an undeniable presence, larger than life and more than worthy of her name in those neon lights.
Juliette.No last name, like she was one of those pop stars with a single name everyone knew.
Colt answered on the third ring, and he answered mid-laugh. “H-h-hey, bro! How’s it going?”
Theo stared at the pale gray wall sporting a modern painting of some tortured blue blob. “Clearly not as well as it’s going for y’all.”
“We just got in from the shore. Beer and dogs over the fire.”
“Great,” he said flatly. His empty stomach growled at the thought of a few roasted hot dogs and a couple of ice-cold ones.
