* * *

I stared at that shot while Zeta finally got around to being honest enough to tell me what she’d been after all along. A noose around my neck, and a diamond on her finger! I was only half cognizant when I told her it wasn’t going to happen and hung up. All my attention was focused on Tara’s face in that picture.

I heard the door open behind me but didn’t allow myself to turn and look. I felt her approach in the sudden acceleration of my breathing, the way my pulse picked up speed and just went the fuck off.

She stood off to the side behind me for the longest time before speaking. “I’m sorry.” She didn’t have to say anything more for me to know that she’d overheard. I closed the Mac so she wouldn’t see what I was looking at. “Not your fault.”

She came closer and stood just behind my shoulder and I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. “So she isn’t your girlfriend?” I wondered how much courage it took for the usually reticent girl to ask such a bold question.

We’d opened up to each other some in the last few days sure, but nothing on this level. I knew if I went down this path, followed the tread of this conversation, we’d head into very murky waters. “No, not really. It was easier to say yes than to try to explain what we were.”

Fine, looks like I wasn’t using my head this go around, my dick had decided to take point on this one. She inched closer and I all but jumped up from the chair and hauled ass out of the line of fire. But I couldn’t shake that look from my head, and what it could mean.

Had she seen it? She hadn’t said anything to me about it, but then again why would she? I’m sure she hadn’t meant for anyone to see it, least of all me. Like me she probably had no idea her feelings were so plainly written on her face.

“So, did she break up with you? I hope I’m not to blame.”

“Nothing to break, it was time anyway.” I shouldn’t have said that shit, what the hell are you doing? I knew what the fuck I was doing when she finally got up the nerve to take the seat across from me.

She didn’t say anything else, didn’t even look at me, just sat there running her finger along the edge of the table. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out there was something on her mind. Then she hit me with a whammy, looks like it was my day for getting sideswiped by females. “Did she see the picture?”

“Come again?” Her face was red as a damn campfire and she looked about ten. She forced herself to look up at me and hold my stare. “I asked if she was mad about the picture.” For someone who spent her days in front of the camera with such poise and confidence, she wasn’t looking so sure of herself now.

“Which picture would that be?” Her shoulders hunched in on herself and she pulled at her lip with her teeth. “The one…the one…” She got up and left the room and I sighed in relief thinking that was the end of it, but she was back in less than a minute.

She held her phone out to me and I was surprised to see not me, but her. It was the shot of her looking up at me. Our body language was telling a story that hadn’t yet been written. I was standing close because that’s my job, but there was no mistaking the protective, almost possessive way I towered over her.

Anyone of my team seeing this would know the signs. I hope like fuck they don’t. After years of me riding their ass about being professional on the job, it wouldn’t do for the boss to break his own rules. But I couldn’t leave her hanging out there like that. It was obvious she was embarrassed.

“No, she saw this one.” I flipped open the Mac and logged back in to show her the picture of me staring at her like she was the beginning of a four course meal. She swallowed hard and her eyes flew to mine. I didn’t look away even though I knew I should.

“I didn’t see that one, now I’m not so embarrassed at being caught.”

“Caught doing what exactly Tara?” Oh you’re really fucking playing with fire aren’t you Hunter? I’d put her on the spot and half expected her to turn tail and run, but she didn’t.

Instead I saw some of the woman she kept hidden from the rest of the world. That strong stock farm girl who knew a thing or two about facing down wild animals.

“It’s pretty obvious what I was doing. I didn’t know you had a girlfriend, or whatever you have. It… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make trouble for you.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong no need to beat yourself up. If anything you forced me to take care of something I should’ve a long time ago.”

I thought that that was it when she started to walk away but then I actually saw her gear herself up. She took a deep breath and folded her fists; more like dug her nails into her palms, before turning back to me again. “So, what does it mean? You were looking at me and I was looking at you…”

Could she really be this green? I mean, I’d seen her in action, I knew that she was like two different people when she got in front of the camera, but you’d think after spending more than four years in this fucked up town she’d have lost some of that shine.

“What do you think it means?” She went after that lip again and it was all I could do not to pull it back out with my fingers, or my mouth. Fuck, and the line had finally been crossed.

I’m no hypocrite and I sure as hell don’t lie to myself. I knew once I crossed that line in my head the next step was to make that shit a reality. I’d opened the door and now there was no way to close it again. We were now in balls to the wall, all cards on the table territory.

She looked at me now, pretty much the way the photographer had caught her in that infamous shot. “That we like each other?” She was scared as shit. It didn’t occur to me to wonder why in the moment. I saw it, registered and moved past it.

“This isn’t high school Tara and I just realized I’m done with the casual shit when it comes to my dick. You think long and hard before you say anything else to me about this.” I held my breath as I waited for her next play. I’d give her that much, because only I know what she was in for if she fucked around and let me anywhere near her.

She nodded her head in understanding and clutched at the gold and diamond necklace around her neck before she turned and walked away. I was a little bit surprised to find myself wanting to go after her, but I left it alone…for now. But I knew this wasn’t over, not by a long shot.

I thought you were going to let her make the play? Fuck off! Now I’m arguing with myself. And so it fucking begins, fucking females, always fucking up shit. It didn’t matter how much I castigated her and her whole species in my head, my goose was cooked and I fucking knew it. I suddenly felt like a drowning man in the final throes of death. Fucking sunk!

* * *

That was two days ago and now here we are. Yesterday she’d spent all day locked away from me. It was one of her rare days off and it spared us having to face each other. I busied myself with pointless shit because I couldn’t concentrate on anything worthwhile, the whole time vacillating between telling her to scratch everything that was said, and just forcing her to come to me.

She’d taken me back to that childhood boy who always stood in the shadows watching shit happen. I didn’t like it, didn’t like that what I felt for her made me weak. Then I realized that it wasn’t weakness but fucking fear. I was afraid of what she was going to decide.

And today she’s been busy getting ready for this gala here tonight. She didn’t give me anything when we woke up this morning, but it was the first time she had coffee with me outside on the balcony overlooking the sea.

Cool as fuck this girl. She didn’t even look like she had anything on her mind. Meanwhile my guts were tied in knots and my dick was on a low-grade throb because he didn’t know what the fuck…

I think she wore that tee shirt with nothing under it to fuck with my head though. And she did have a secret smile on her face when she went back inside to get ready for the day. I wish she’d let me the fuck in on what she was thinking, but I played it cool.

She’d spent the day in makeup and with some designer who looked like he was twelve. That’s the only reason I didn’t chuck his ass out a window when he kept putting his hands all over her. That, and the fact that his wife was there, sitting in a chair watching him like a hawk. Pretty much like I was doing.

Now the gala was over and the reporters and photographers were lined up outside like they hadn’t moved since we left them there two hours or so ago, doing the same shit. In short, we hadn’t had time to revisit the conversation of a few days ago so I had no idea what the fuck was going on in her head.

I got her back to the car and just before she got in she looked up at me as I held the door open for her. It was that same fucking look again, but it was her words that sealed her fate. “I’ve thought about it…” She didn’t have to say anything more for me to know what was on her mind, it was written plainly on her face.

I couldn’t say shit because I was suddenly choked up, don’t ask me what the fuck that was about. It wasn’t my first time around pussy for fuck sake. But fuck if this didn’t feel new, like I was embarking on something unknown. I simply nodded my head with a, “get in”, and closed the door behind her once she did.

I kept my eyes on the road as I drove her out to the beach where the little bungalow was hidden behind a hedge of rosebushes and an iron gate that was meant to keep the undesirables out.

I didn’t say anything as I walked her inside and did a walkthrough to make sure we were alone and the place was safe, but the tension was like a cloud wrapped around both of us.

My dick has been hard since I put her in the car and I was holding on to my patience by a thread. But now that we were here, about to take that step, I knew I had to be very careful for both our sakes, how I proceed. I had to be sure that she understood what she was getting into, because I wasn’t kidding when I said I was done with the casual bullshit.