Pierce
“There’s a right way to do things and a wrong way,” Felice said, her voice soft like she was talking down a rabid animal. “And this is the wrong way, Pierce.” Her beautiful green eyes were locked with his, her tone pleading.
The worst part was that Pierce knew she was right. But more than anything in the world, Pierce wanted to break this little bastard’s arm and show him what disrespecting women got you where he came from.
“If you do it, it will bring police reports and scrutiny, neither of which you can afford.” With a huff, Pierce twisted just a tiny bit harder, making the wimpy idiot cry out in pain before finally releasing him. He wanted to clock the kid in the face so badly, he had to force himself to take a step away from the sobbing bitch to keep from doing it. That pretty face of his needed a little rearranging, but sadly, Pierce was not going to be the one to do it.
“All right now, if you don’t mind. Pierce, your job is to protect me from physical threats, not insults.” Her eyes are like fire as she stares him down. “Please apologize.”
“I am sorry, Clay,” Pierce responded, sounding a little robotic. Although it was completely insincere, Clay seemed to take it at face value. Maybe he was just as bad at social cues as he was with everything else.
Clay rubbed his shoulder delicately, a sulky look on his face.
But Felice knew how to handle him. She was like a diplomat, able to get anyone to agree with her, given enough time. “Now, Clay; you know there is no reason to insult me or the ‘help’ as you so brutishly referred to Pierce. He’s a man that works for his bread, just like your father was before he made all of that money. There is no shame in working, and I expect you will treat my employees as you would anyone else.”
Looking slightly ashamed, Clay looked away from Felice but didn’t say anything. Pierce was shocked at the use of cajoling and stern talking-to that she used to turn both of their rages into faint shame. She defused the situation like a bomb technician, and Pierce knew he’d found a woman with an incredible talent. She didn’t yell or curse, even though the man-child in front of her had cheated on her less than a week before.
By the time Clay left, Pierce was filled with a kind of admiration he’d never felt for another human before. Felice was one-of-a-kind. And, holy shit, was she hot.
# # #
Felice
Closing the front door behind her, Felice locked the door and took a deep breath. Well, that was over at least.
But now there was Pierce to deal with.
She turned to face him, ready for a fight. Self-centered jerk was just staring at her like nothing had happened, a blank, almost bored expression on his sexy face. She kind of wanted to strangle him for causing all this trouble then having the nerve to look like he hadn’t done a single thing wrong.
“You know that Clay has the right to press charges if he wants to.” She crossed her arms over her chest as she stared Pierce down. Anger honed his already sharp features, making the muscles in his jaw tense and making those sculpted features even more becoming. Felice wanted to run her hands over that face again, feel his skin under her trembling fingers as she kissed him. Wrapping her arms close…
She had to shake herself to get away from the heated memories of Pierce’s body so close to hers. Turning on her heel, she headed into the kitchen, mostly because she needed some coffee, but also to keep her eyes off of Pierce’s beautiful body for just a few moments.
“I am a wealthy woman in the public eye, Pierce. I can’t have my bodyguard assaulting people for insulting me. I’m constantly insulted. There are entire Reddit and Facebook groups devoted to how much I suck and how I should go die,” she said, putting fresh beans into the coffee grinder. She slammed the lid on a little harder than she meant to in her anger. “Insults aren’t why you’re here.”
Pierce followed her into the kitchen, a silent shadow.
“You’re here to make Clay jealous enough to beg for me to come back to him. There is a lot of money on the line here, and I refuse to lose this bet.” When Felice turned back to Pierce, she saw his mouth twisted in surprise. “Did I not tell you about the bet?”
The blank look in his pretty, chocolate eyes was answer enough.
“Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I need Clay to come back to me, and I need to remember that you are here for that and that alone. Okay?” The coffee began to brew, filling her white-on-white kitchen with the beautiful scent. There were only two things in the world that made Felice happy: the color white and the scent of freshly-brewed coffee. And that made her kitchen one of her favorite places in the whole world. Paula, the maid who looked after her home, had a way with keeping the whites as white as possible, no matter what Felice spilled or tracked into the house. She was a blessing.
“I’m sorry, Felice,” Pierce said, looking sincere. “I don’t know what came over me.” Looking a bit like a puppy that was just kicked by an owner, Pierce disappeared up the stairs and into “his” room, closing the door behind him with a click.
Felice watched him leave, enjoying the view, reliving the scene at the front door again in her mind. “It was sort of hot the way he jumped to my defense like I was a lady and he was my knight in shining armor.” But that sort of behavior couldn’t continue. Pierce wasn’t her knight, and his possessiveness was a little weird. They barely knew each other!
Sighing, Felice poured some of the coffee into her favorite mug and poured in some cream. The milk swirled into her coffee like clouds, lightning the black brew until it was just the perfect shade of mocha brown. Just like Pierce’s eyes.
Frowning, Felice pushed that thought away, taking a big sip of her brew. “No, I have to keep my eye on the prize. And the prize is not Pierce. It’s Clay. I can’t let Pierce, no matter how pretty his eyes are or how amazing his ass looks in that suit, get in the way of my mission.”
And with that, Felice settled down in front of the TV. For a few moments, she wanted to forget Clay, forget the sexy man just upstairs, and forget the demands of her mother and her show. And some mindless TV was the perfect cure.