Page 40 of The Love You Hate
She hangs up, and I’m left with a nagging feeling that someone is still on the line. Swallowing hard, I stare at the screen as the call stays connected and seconds tick on, and I know without a doubt that Presley forgot to dial the code for a secure line. The call should have ended when she hung up.
I should tell Gray hello, but I hang up instead.
****
As soon as I hung up the phone, I didn’t have time to worry about Gray or what he heard, because that’s not even on my radar. Being near Presley is. What she did for me, for Felix, for my entire family was the single most thoughtful, and selfless thing anyone has done. I need to find out exactly what kind of favor she called in first and foremost. I touchdown early in the morning and go straight to the bakery where Ryan greets me at the counter with a big, goofy smile.
“We missed you around here. We missed both of you around here.” Presley rounds the corner, covered in flour and runs into my arms. She smells like soap and cookies. Like salvation and relief. I bury my face in her hair and inhale deeply. I hold her up and close and pull her feet off the ground. When she pulls back there are tears in her eyes. “Everything is still okay?” she asks. Felix is more than okay. When I left it was as if I was looking at a long-forgotten shadow from his past. I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes.
I nod, trying to pull it together because we’re in front of Ryan, but can’t find it in me to care. Kiss her. Kiss her. Claim her as your own. My brain is warring with my heart. Not her lips, intuition whispers. Bending my head down I place a kiss on the hollow of her neck, on top of her hair instead. It’s not enough. I lose my breath along with the rest of my willpower when she lets out a small cry of relief at the brush of my lips. I want to hear her moan, shout my name, and pant at my ear as I’m thrusting inside of her.
“Can I get that coffee then? To go,” a man’s voice breaks the spell from behind us. He’s sitting in a chair.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Ryan says, sloppily pouring a cup and rushing it over to him. I let Presley’s feet touch the ground, as I recognize Gray. There’s no mistaking his looming figure or the look of shock on his face. I’m caught. Maybe. If I can convince him this is part of the act, part of my role in guarding my Principal, this might sway in my favor. His sharklike smile says he’s not going to make it easy.
“Hey man, I’m Nate. Are you new in town?”
Presley tilts her head, curious. “Yeah, you aren’t from around here, are you?” Her gaze flicks between us and I can tell she’s trying desperately to connect the dots. I have no doubt she’ll have questions for me later. I need to play this cool.
Ryan asks if he can get him anything else, but Gray objects, instead staring at Presley and me with a sharp, knowing eye. Her hand still lingers on my chest, and the way she orbits around me tells him more than words ever could. Not only is she claiming me, she’s telling him I’ve claimed her. But I haven’t in all ways, and he needs to know that.
“I’m just passing through,” Gray finally says. “Cute thing you have going on in Gold Hawke, Colorado,” he says, cocking his head. “Are you both from here?” he asks.
“No, no. Transplants,” I answer. “Do you need help getting back on the freeway? It can be a little confusing getting back down there.”
“Sure,” he says, standing with his paper cup. “I parked across the street. Mind helping me make some notes on my map? My GPS doesn’t work here.”
Presley scoffs. “Internet is the worst here.” Well, at least that was one true statement from her.
“Yes,” I agree, pulling out of her grasp. “I’ll be right back,” I tell her, hoping she doesn’t argue to come with me. Her hawklike gaze is keen, though. She nods, wearing a fake smile and wishes Gray a good trip wherever he’s going.
I stay a pace ahead of Gray as we cross the deserted dirt road to the parking lot. I spin to face him. “What the fuck is going on here?” he says, eyes wide. “You confused the fuck out of me with last night’s phone conversation, but that display in there was, well, it was nothing like I’ve ever seen before. We’re Charge Men, not stand-in boyfriends. You better spill it or I will.” Honor the Charge. Another code. Gray has to report everything.
Blowing out a breath, I go with what he’s assumed. “She needed more than a bodyguard, Gray. It looks strange, but I have to pretend to be more. She’s needy and volatile. Well, she’s usually volatile, but she wasn’t while you were here.”
“She was normal while I was here which makes me think you’re the one doing something wrong if you can’t get a handle on her.”
“I have a handle,” I protest, anger rising. “This needs a different approach.” I am using careful words so anyone who hears me doesn’t know what I am talking about.
“No,” he says, shaking his head. “She needs the normal approach, but you deviated and now this is the new normal for your new approach. You got yourself into a mess and need to be reassigned.”
I expected an argument, but I didn’t expect it to escalate to this. “No. I have it under control and I know how she needs to be managed. The only reason she wasn’t trouble for you is because I gave her internet and she was glued to it the entire time. Had it been normal ho-hum days without Wi-Fi, you would have been chasing her all over this town!”
He narrows his eyes, and I can tell he wants to believe me, but can’t. “How much pretending are you doing? Are you fucking her?”
“No!” My hands are in fists by my sides and I work to open them. “I can’t. You know that. The moral code is intact.”
“You looked awful cozy in there. Especially before you knew I was watching. More than cozy, Nate. You looked like you… felt something for her. I’m not sure how that’s possible, though. We both went through the same training.”
“It’s easy to pretend to feel something for a Principal when the protection of their life is your only goal in life. Think about that for a second.”
He’s mulling my words, hand on the handle of his car, and blows out a frustrated breath. “Whatever you say, man. I’m out of here. I’ll report everything because I have to. Good luck with whatever unprofessional games you’re playing. Doubt you’ll be playing them much longer.” He leaves without saying another word, dust from the lot kicking up in his wake. Presley is watching me through the glass door and thankfully I know she’s too far away to be able to hear what was said. She’ll be able to tell enough by body language this wasn’t a simple conversation about directions between strangers. While I’ve never met Gray before, he’s the furthest thing from a stranger. In fact, he belongs to a faction that is filled with the men most similar to me. I stuff my hands in my pockets and cross back to the bakery after Gray is out of view.
Ryan is cleaning Gray’s table and Presley is looking at me through the plexiglass at the counter. “Did he understand?” she asks, gaze boring a hole into me.
“Understand what?” I ask.
“The directions. You were giving him directions, right? It looked like you were having a heated discussion or something.”
