Chapter
THREE
She was off limits. He’d been telling himself that for the past year. Every. Fucking. Time.
Every time he saw her in her short little skirts and tight sweaters, her thick blonde hair falling like spun silk down her back. Every time she made a suggestive comment in her honeyed voice, her body almost vibrating with a plea for his response. Every time his guard slipped and he caught himself staring at her round ass or her perfectly shaped lips.
Every time he imagined those lips wrapped around his cock.
Off limits, Knight.
She hadn’t been off limits in his head. There, he’d done a thousand dirty things to her—twisted her hair around his fist, pulled her head back, and devoured her rosebud mouth. Turned her around and spread her over the arm of the sofa to fuck her from behind. Ordered her to spread her legs and finger herself for him. Watched her twist her nipples as he came on her tits.
More than once he’d been tempted to break all his rules and teach her a lesson. Put her over his knee, lift up her skirt, and spank her for being a tease.
She’d been an increasingly painful test of his self-control. Only his dedication to Luke Stone and his family, which would soon officially include Polly Lockhart, prevented Gavin from crossing the line. As Polly’s best friend, Mia was close enough to the family that he’d kept his distance.
Tough to keep his distance when she was this close, though. Close enough that he could smell her sweet, citrusy scent. See the flicker of her tongue as she closed her mouth around a spoonful of ice cream. Her proximity was distracting.
At the bakery he could always sit a few tables away from her. He disliked acknowledging he needed a physical barrier from a seemingly harmless, fairy-like girl, but the more he saw her breasts rounding out her sweaters or her long legs in flower-patterned tights… the less he trusted his restraint.
Even now, his blood was on low simmer. He was trained to read people, to anticipate danger, to let nothing get in the way of keeping his principals safe. Not even his longstanding friendship with Luke had affected his ability to do his job. In some ways, his personal bond to the Stone family had intensified his effectiveness.
Not that he was searching for a justification to start up with the blonde beauty sitting across from him.
“Any public spectators will be restricted from entering the outer ring.” He tapped his pen on the map again. “I’ll be working with local law enforcement to provide a visible presence outside the venue. Has anything changed in the reception floor plan?”
“We added a few more tables to accommodate all the guests.”
“I’ll need to see the seating arrangements. And the entry procedure from parking to the venue is far too long and complicated. I will also be strengthening the parking control measures.”
“Well, the reason for the entry procedure is that guests need to walk from the parking lot to the courtyard,” Mia informed him, a sarcastic bite to her tone. “And Julia Bennett wanted them to enter through a wing of the villa that isn’t usually opened to the public. Like entering the Sistine Chapel through the Vatican museums.”
For Christ’s sake. Gavin barely suppressed a snort.
“That’s the way she described it, anyway,” Mia said.
He glanced at her, gauging that she wasn’t too intimidated by the beautiful and formidable Julia Bennett. The sister of Warren Stone’s late wife, Julia was a force to be reckoned with. Unexpectedly Gavin liked the idea that Mia Donovan could hold her own against the older woman.
“Sistine Chapel or not,” he said. “For security purposes, the route needs to be simplified.”
He took a red pen out of his briefcase and drew a line from the parking lot, up the slope toward the villa.
“The wedding is in two weeks,” Mia said. “Polly assured me you and Luke went over all the details.”
“We did. The situation has changed.”
“How?”
He sensed her curiosity bubbling just beneath the surface. Not surprising. He’d seen her interacting with people at Wild Child plenty of times. She was lively and eager, wanting to know everything about everyone.
“I’ll worry about that part,” he said. “You just need to do what I say.”
She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. Her robe gaped open at the neck, revealing a V of pale skin leading down to her round breasts. He’d noticed them enough times to gauge they were big enough to fit in his hands perfectly. He was tempted to slip his pen into the neckline of her robe and pull it down to expose her cleavage. His groin tightened.
“Is Polly in danger?” she asked.
“I don’t want any guests delayed at the entry point.” He tapped his pen on the map. “I’m allocating two more security officers for access control and five more to patrol the exterior during the ceremony.”
“Great. The guests will love seeing security dudes at a family wedding.”
“They will be dressed appropriately,” Gavin said. “My men know how to blend in at any event. And we will do a thorough sweep of the grounds before anyone arrives.”
“Really.” Mia’s voice held a sudden note of strain.
He looked at her. Concern darkened her green eyes, and her jaw was tense.
“Is Polly in danger?” she repeated.
Tough question. He considered before answering. He didn’t want to lie to her, but he also didn’t want to scare her. And he needed to confine the details to the small circle of people involved in the case.
“When you marry into a family as prominent as the Stones, you expose yourself to a certain level of risk,” he finally said. “But that’s the point of my job. To mitigate the risks. To ensure they never reach the level of actual danger.”
Her forehead was still creased with worry. A sudden, hard need to protect her rose in him. Before he could stop himself, he reached across the table to put his hand over hers.
“No one will get hurt,” he said. “Not on my watch.”
She looked at his hand engulfing hers. If she was reassured, she didn’t say so. Instead, she withdrew her hand from under his and scooped up another spoonful of ice cream.
“And not as long as I do what you say, right?” she asked.
His blood simmered at the thought of her doing what he said. Like turning around and lifting up her skirt to show him her pert little ass. Or getting on her knees to suck his cock.
“Correct.” He turned his attention back to the map. His palm was still warm from the heat of her hand.
She shifted, flicking her long hair over her shoulder. He felt the rustle of her body as if she’d moved against him. Was she wearing underwear?
“I need an updated program and timeline.” He focused on his laptop. “And guest list. I’ve done background checks on all the vendors, but if there have been any changes, I need to know about them now. No one, not even a delivery guy, gets past the gates unless I’ve personally cleared them. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
That “sir” spoken in her honeyed voice made his dick twitch. He shifted his gaze to her. She was watching him with faint amusement.
“You’re really like this, huh?” she asked.
“Like what?”
“This.” She waved her hand around the air in front of him. “All serious and rigid.”
“My job is serious and rigid.”
“Your job.” She rested her chin on her hand and studied him. “What about you?”
He stifled a humorless laugh. A girl like her didn’t need to know anything about him. Didn’t need his polluted life staining her pretty little world.
“What about me?” he finally asked.
“Do you know I’ve never seen you smile? All these months that you’ve been coming into Wild Child, not once have I seen you smile.”
That was almost surprising. With her silly flirting and constant talk about “having fun,” she’d made him smile countless times—to himself, at least.
He looked at her—peaches and cream, golden hair, blinking at him with those big doe eyes. A surprisingly real, easy smile formed on his lips. She stared back at him, surprise flashing in her expression before a responding smile bloomed across her face. Suddenly his world filled with sunlight.
Gavin dropped his smile before he was tempted to just sit there grinning at her like a goon.
“Now you can cross that off your bucket list.” He turned his attention back to the binders.
“You have a really nice smile, Gavin,” Mia remarked. “You should lead with that.”
“Instead of?”
“Instead of this stern Roman emperor thing you’ve got going on.” She rose, picking up her empty bowl of ice cream. “Do you want anything to drink? I can make you my famous caramel-chocolate mochaccino, so you can have a delicious taste of something besides ‘black coffee, no sugar’.”
“No, thank you.”
“What about ice cream? I have chocolate chip or strawberry, but I’m guessing you don’t eat ice cream, do you?”
“I do not.”
She rolled her eyes and snarkily mouthed the words “I do not” as she opened the freezer and took out a carton of chocolate chip. Little brat. Again he had the urge to turn her over his knee and spank her for being sassy. A fantasy he’d jacked off to more than once.
From the corner of his eye, he watched her scoop more ice cream into her bowl. Her robe was pale blue with little flowers, the hem falling to her knees and leaving her smooth calves bare. The knot in the belt was starting to come loose. One tug and he could pull it right off her, see if she wore anything underneath.
Shit. He was getting hard.
Mia closed the freezer and returned to the table with her bowl. She caught his glance and smiled ruefully.
“Late dinner,” she said. “A friend and I went to check out this new bar for happy hour after work, but it turned out to be a dive with dirty tables and warm beer. Needless to say, we cut the evening short.”
Gavin’s shoulders tensed. He disliked the vague term a friend.
“What kind of friend?” he asked.
“Why, Mr. Knight.” Mia ate a spoonful of ice cream, her eyebrows lifting. “Are you asking because you’re a teensy bit jealous that the friend might have been of the male species?”
Irritation scraped his insides. “I am not.”
“The friend was Susan.” Mia sighed, mushing the ice cream with her spoon. “I haven’t had a boyfriend in, like, a year. Just a bunch of college boy dating. Which is totally fun, but predictable, you know?”
“I do not.”
The thought of her dating “a bunch” of horny college boys, however… that made him want to break something.
“Given your penchant for flirting, I’m surprised the boys aren’t lined up at your door,” he said.
“Oh, I get a lot of offers.” She waved her spoon in the air and spoke without conceit, as if she were merely stating a fact. “But none of them are really interesting. I guess it’s okay because I like to go out and have fun, but… I don’t know. A year ago, Polly was at this total dead end, and now look at her with Luke and her business and everything. Our friend Jessica just got engaged, and our other friend Mary moved to New York last month to take a job with a news agency. It kind of sucks when your friends are doing all this cool stuff, and your big news is that you went to a new blues club with Johnny, who’s in his fifth year at San Jose State and wants to be a musician because he’s been playing saxophone for a full week.”
She fell silent, staring at her bowl before looking up at him with a grimace.
“Way to spill my guts, huh?” A pink flush rose to her cheeks. “Sorry. I have no idea where that all came from. So what… you need the reception floor plan or something?”
He stood, pushing his chair back. Mia blinked up at him, her eyes green as a forest. He opened the refrigerator. A pizza box, a few cans of soda, and a jar of peanut butter sat on the shelves.
“Is this usually how your fridge is stocked?” he asked.
“I eat out a lot.”
“And when you’re home, you eat ice cream and other junk.”
Her eyebrows snapped together. “What do you care?”
What did he care? He wasn’t into analyzing his psyche, but over the past year, he’d grown unwillingly fond of Mia Donovan. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, but he’d looked forward to seeing her whenever he went into Wild Child. If she wasn’t there, he’d been disappointed.
In her short skirts and sweaters, twirling a lock of blond hair around her finger, swinging her crossed leg, leaning too close to him at the counter, batting her long eyelashes at him… fuck if he hadn’t started to enjoy that. To enjoy her.
“It’s important that you eat right,” he said.
She rolled her eyes. “Thanks for the advice, Daddy.”
He closed the refrigerator. The “daddy” affected him even more than the “sir” had, spearing him with both heat and steely possessiveness.
“It’s not advice,” he said. “It’s a statement of fact.”
“Let me guess.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder with a scoff. “You live by statements of fact and a rigid routine. You eat the same thing every day, meals carefully calibrated to maximize their nutritional impact, you have a daily workout regimen that you do first thing in the morning, you arrive at work at the exact same time every day, and you follow a strict schedule utterly devoid of surprises.”
She’d hit the mark too close for his comfort. Much as he needed his routine and schedule, he disliked the reminder that she enjoyed ice cream for dinner and spontaneity.
“Surprises are a menace,” he said. “Routine is not.”
“A menace?” She laughed, the sound like little silver bells. “What about surprise parties or presents?”
He shook his head. “Not for me.”
“Really? Why not?”
“You can’t prepare for a surprise,” Gavin said. “You can’t plan or offer input. They come out of nowhere, and you’re forced to react in a way you might not want to. You have no control over a surprise.”
“That’s the point.”
“That’s why I don’t like them.”
She huffed out an exasperated laugh and turned back to her ice cream, crossing her legs in a way that made her robe slide up on her thigh. His gaze went to the golden length of her leg, his hand twitching with the urge to stroke her smooth skin.
Hell if he didn’t want to discover all her surprises.
He forced his gaze back to her face. She watched him with a playful expression, like she knew exactly the effect she had on him. Of course she did, the little minx. She swirled her tongue around the spoon, licking up the ice cream dripping down the handle. Lust snapped through him, the strike of a whip.
“So what makes Control Freak Gavin Knight lose control, hmm?” Mia asked.
“Keep licking the spoon like that and you’ll find out.” His voice was rough, edged with self-restraint.
“You mean like this?” Mia batted her eyelashes at him as she licked her way back to the top of the spoon.
Gavin shook his head, torn between wanting to give her more ice cream or hauling her into his arms and kissing her senseless.
“Brat,” he murmured.
“Spoilsport who doesn’t know surprises are what makes life fun.”
She dropped the spoon back into the bowl and rose to set it in the sink.
Her sweet, vanilla scent filled his head. Her robe gaped open more, exposing the curve of her breast. His blood heated into full boil.
She turned, her gaze colliding with his. A smear of ice cream decorated her upper lip. He wanted to finally taste that rosebud mouth.
He unclenched his hand from the refrigerator door handle and reached for the front of her robe. Her eyes widened. He fisted the material and pulled her closer until a few scant inches separated them.
“You like to tease me, don’t you?” His body tensed at her nearness, his dick pressing against the fly of his trousers.
Her throat rippled with a swallow. Uncertainty flashed in her expression, as if she were suddenly questioning whether it had been a good idea to push him this far.
“Well, you’re just so… hard,” she said. “No man has ever ignored me the way you do. I was just waiting for something to happen.”
He lifted his other hand to cup her chin. “And what did you hope would happen, honey?”
“I guess I just wanted your attention.” She scowled, wrinkling her cute little nose. “Past tense. Wanted. Maybe I don’t like you anymore.”
“I doubt that.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, so now you think you know what I like and don’t like?”
“You like vanilla cupcakes and the color pink. You like boys with curly hair, margaritas, Zumba, and a band called the Riders. Your favorite book is The Secret Garden, your favorite restaurant is Lotus Indian Cuisine, and your favorite movie is The Princess Bride. You like music apps, Dungeness crab, penguins, a show called Curlicue, and the Japanese tea garden in Golden Gate Park. You also like helping your friends and being loyal.”
Mia stared at him. “How do you know all that?”
“A year of noticing you.”
“I thought you barely knew I existed.”
He bit back a laugh. “I know you exist. In fact, you have my full, undivided attention. So now what?”
And what the hell was he getting himself into?