Page 12 of A Whirlwind of Color (The Light to My Darkness 2)

He smiled and looked back up at me. “Everything’s fine, Penny. I just forgot something from your room. I’ll be right back down.”

“I’ll see you at the car then.” I made my way out the doors even though I had no idea what our car looked like. I glanced over my shoulder before the doors closed. James had his hand pressed against the wall and was hunched over slightly. Maybe he wasn’t as broken as I originally thought. Maybe the dark circles under his eyes weren’t caused by me. Maybe it was something else entirely. He looked…ill.

I was about to walk back into the hospital when someone called my name. I turned around just in time to see the man before he threw his arms around me.

“I knew you needed me back,” he said. “Despite what Jen thinks, this is the best position I’ve ever had, and I’m not going anywhere this time.”

Who the hell was this? And who the hell was Jen? “Oh, okay,” I said without hugging him back.

He pulled away. “Sorry. I…let me start over. I’m Ian.” He held out his hand for me to shake. “I am engaged to James’ sister, Jen. You know…your sister-in-law.”

“Ah, got you.” I had met Jen the other day. I think. “So you’re my soon to be brother-in-law.”

“Also the head of your security detail.”

“Security detail? Why on earth do we need a security detail?”

“Well, for starters because it seems like everyone’s out to get you.”

I laughed. “Who? I don’t think I have any enemies. I barely talk enough for someone to realize if they hate me or not.”

“Just trust me when I say that you need us.”

“There’s more than just you?”

“Four of us in total. You had three and then you hired me back.”

“Me?” I thought three security guards wasn’t enough? What kind of paranoid weirdo had I become?

“Yes, you,” James said as he rejoined me, slipping his arm around my waist. He did it like it was the most normal thing in the world. Like he didn’t realize how much his touch accelerated my heartbeat. “Let’s get you home.”

Ian opened up the back door of the car in front of us. A sleek black sedan that probably cost more than my college tuition.

“So we have a security detail?” I asked as I slid into the back seat. And a fancy car that we don’t drive ourselves. I stared at James as he sat down next to me.

“To keep us safe,” he said as he buckled his seatbelt.

“From who?”

“When you’re in the limelight like us, you’d be surprised by how many people are a threat.”

“And why are we in the limelight? Are you like a famous actor or something?” It seemed like the most logical conclusion. He was beautiful. There was no doubt about that. His dark brown eyes and sharp jaw line would make anyone in their right mind weak in the knees. And it really seemed like he was part of some elaborate scheme to make me feel insane. But if that was the case, he probably wasn’t an A-list actor. Maybe he was just starting out in showbiz.

He sighed. “A lot of reasons.”

“Like?”

“I sold my first company for a large sum.” He shrugged. “We donate to a lot of great charities. The way we met didn’t exactly pull me out of the limelight either. It just thrust you into it.”

“You avoided my question about how we met before. Are you going to answer it now?”

“I fell in love with you the moment I saw you.”

His words reverberated through me. I could feel that he was telling the truth. It made our make-believe relationship feel real. “And how did you meet me?”

He smiled. “We bumped into each other in a coffee shop.”

“That hardly sounds like something that would make us need a security detail.”

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