Page 20 of Hunted Hearts
With the box tucked in her arms, Juliette leaned against the bedroom door. Her stare fell on the authentic cotton mat for meditation that she’d picked up in India. But she wasn’t seeing the colorful patterns woven across it.
She could only see those gray sweatpants, hanging low on Theo’s hips, riding just above a ridge of muscle that had her stomach fluttering to a beat she rarely heard.
And thosebare abs. God. His gorgeous, muscular body looked like it was carved out of some primitive mountain right after the world sprouted into creation.
Andhe bought her a present.An expensive one. What mattered even more to her was that it was athoughtfulone.
She braced harder against the door, trying to unscramble her brain. But when she heard the quiet throb of rap music through the door, at a volume much lower than it was before, her insides woke up and thumped to the beat.
Since seeing her bodyguard jumping rope—shirtless, with those ovary-exploding gray sweatpants hugging his abs—she could hardly locate a brain cell in her head and she was pretty sure it had nothing to do with skipping her supplements.
She wondered if he would notice if she just took one more peek at him while he was working out, but then thought better of it.
She had to stop thinking about the new member of her team. The one she never wanted.
The one who bought her supplements to replace the ones he confiscated, as well as a new one to try, and a dispenser to help manage them.
Turning her head, she strained to hear the soft thump of Theo’s feet as he skipped rope, imagining those sculpted muscles tensing and releasing and pushing and pulling—
She swallowed hard and pried her spine off the door. Rushing across the room, she set the box on the bench at the foot of her king-sized bed and pulled out the items one by one. When she set the pill dispenser next to the bottles, she stood back to study the gifts.
Before she could think better about what she was about to do, she had her phone in hand. Rachel’s contact flashed on the screen, and her publicist and good friend answered on the first ring.
Her face filled the screen, glowing from being freshly washed as part of her own evening routine. On days that they weren’t engaged in concerts, they all took the time for self-care.
She smiled. “Hi, Juliette. Everything okay?”
“What do we know about Theo?”
Her question wiped the smile off Rachel’s face. “What’s going on?”
“How much are we paying him? Where did you find him?”
Rachel’s brows pinched. “Henri found him, remember? I’m not sure what we’re paying him, but your safety is worth every penny.”
Somewhere in the confusion of the day, Juliette forgot that her tour manager had hired her bodyguard. But she couldn’t bring herself to call the older gentleman—the time he got off was precious, and she wouldn’t disturb him unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Why, Jules? You’re worrying me.”
She stepped back and flipped the camera to show the items from the box. “Because he bought me supplements to replace mine. They’re not the cheap ones either. And this pill dispenser is so expensive that even I balked at buying it. I figured for that much money, I could open a bottle and dispense my own pills.”
The light tapping sound wasn’t coming from the front room where Theo was jumping rope. In fact, all was silent out there.
The thought of him lounging on the sofa, shirtless, in only those gray sweats, had her mind working through excuses to see for herself.
Maybe he was doing other exercises. Sit-ups. Push-ups.
Her mouth dried out.
“I got some information on the bodyguard.” Rachel drew her attention away from what was—or wasn’t—happening only feet away in her own hotel room.
Rachel’s face glowed under the blue light of a computer screen. “Henri entered Theo’s name into the books. He works for his family’s company, Black Heart Security.”
She rolled the name around in her mind.
“Ooh!” Rachel practically squealed. “The agency is set on a real ranch, though the address isn’t given on the website. There’s also a veterans’ program on site.”
Juliette sank to the edge of the bed and plastered her hand over her face. She’d been rude and uncooperative every step of the way, and Theo was only trying to do his job. A job for his family’s company.
