The next morning, I stood in the kitchen, against my better judgment.

I was dressed, which made me less comfortable than I usually was in a kitchen, but I figured Jamie and I weren’t on the level where I could waltz around in nothing but boxers while cooking. I’d also decided overnight that I’d be damned if I avoided cooking the whole time I worked this job, regardless of how amusing Jamie would find it.

And thus began my breakfast adventure. Eggs Benedict sounded like a safe choice. People liked to complain about how hard it was to poach eggs and make a good hollandaise sauce, but I tried it once when I was young and have been hooked on making it ever since. It was second nature to me. That was true of breakfast and brunch dishes in general. Anyone who didn’t think breakfast was the best meal of the day was suspicious, in my book.

I found the kitchen to be beyond anything I could have hoped for. It was stocked with so much stuff that I was starting to think the private chef here might indeed have a Michelin star. It felt pretty damn good to make homemade English muffins again.

As expected, the smell of the Canadian bacon sizzling brought the sound of footsteps, and I glanced over my shoulder to see Jamie enter the kitchen, eyes wide and curious as his nose twitched. I felt my heart pound with quiet pride at that. It was one of the perks of cooking as a hobby.

Jamie was clearly in the middle of getting dressed. He was shoeless, his white shirt was untucked, and his lavender tie was crooked. Something about seeing such a clean-cut guy a little sloppy like that made my blood run hotter.

“Now this is something I wasn’t expecting,” he said with a growing smile as he looked me up and down.

I was even more surprised to feel myself resisting the impulse to turn away, and I gave a gruff smile.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting this nice of a kitchen,” I grunted. “Besides, I got restless. You like eggs Benny, right? I’m not above eating a double serving if you don’t.”

“Oh, you’re talking my language,” he said with a longing sigh as he approached.

As soon as he did though, I eyed his tie and couldn’t resist myself.

“Hold still a second,” I said.

I approached him, and he looked surprised when I reached forward and took him by the tie, using it to pull him a little closer to me. I ignored the red in his cheeks as I started fixing his tie, and when he realized what I was doing, he went even redder.

“Sorry. Habit,” I said.

“You don’t strike me as the tie type, but I’ll take all the help I can get. I’m a hot mess in the morning.”

Got that right.

“Wore one every day when I was a detective with the force,” I said. “I don’t miss it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t nitpick a knot.”

As I fixed Jamie’s tie, I couldn’t help but get a whiff of his scent. I smelled warm cinnamon and vanilla, which filled me with a longing I couldn’t explain. We caught each other’s eyes for a moment, and I clenched my jaw. I wanted to lean in and get more of him.

I hurried to finish, then turned away as fast as possible.

“Almost ready,” I said curtly, praying he didn’t see the red in my cheeks. “Take a seat. I’ll get yours to you in a sec.”

Early morning had a way of getting something stuck in your head that you couldn’t get out for the rest of the day. It could make or break the day that way. Or, in my case, it could make you fixate on something unbelievably annoying that made you restless when you were just trying to do your damn job.

That something was Jamie.

Ever since fixing his fucking tie, I hadn’t been able to get that scent off me. It must have gotten on me while we were in the limo on the ride to the office earlier, and now that we were sitting in his office, me in my usual spot, I knew it would still be on me when I went to bed tonight.

Why did that thought make my cock stir?

One thing I always prided myself on was my ability to keep total control over my body. That was part of why I worked out so much and kept myself in peak physical condition. Hell, I didn’t even turn my nose up much at that mindfulness crap if it meant getting a better grip on my own mind. So, it was driving me nuts that I couldn’t stop glancing over at Jamie while he worked.

I kept noticing things about him against my will. The morning sunlight brought out a certain shine in his blond hair that I could get lost in. He fidgeted a lot, and it made me wonder how his mind worked on its own, probably dancing from thought to thought in the blink of an eye. I wondered if he had attention issues in school. But he still had control over himself, and it made me think he’d put a lot of thought into how he carried himself. Maybe all that crap about knowing what it’s like to feel like an outsider wasn’t all just made up. His right pinkie was a little crooked, and I wondered how he’d broken it. And that tie of his kept coming loose as he moved around. I kept wanting to go over there and fix it again, but he always caught it. I even felt his gaze on me a few times.

This was too much.

“Hey,” I said so suddenly that I made him jump as I rose to my feet. “Are you going to be here a while? I need to check in with Susan about some of the security upgrades we discussed.”

“Oh!” he said, blinking a few times. “Um, yeah, I should be fine here.”

“You know how to get me,” I said, tapping my cell phone, and he nodded before watching me go.

I ran a hand over my face. Fuck, this guy was good at getting into my head, and I wasn’t sure if he was even trying.

I stepped into Susan’s office a few minutes later, and she looked up from her computer screen with her usual serious face.

“Breakfast, hmm?” she said, and I rolled my eyes.

“Christ, he told you that fast? Look, I just thought I’d get comfortable with –”

“Oh no, don’t think I’m complaining,” she said with a faint smile that only lasted a moment. “I’m just surprised he let you. He’s usually more standoffish with the help I drag in.”

“Sure,” I brushed off. “Anyway, I told Jamie I was coming to check in with you about the upgrades we discussed, but I know you’ve got a handle on that. What I really wanted to ask was more about this kidnapping situation.”

“Good, I was hoping we’d get a chance to touch base about that between Jamie dragging you around everywhere,” she said as I took a seat across from her.

“Let’s start with the basics. Jamie’s a billionaire, so I can’t imagine he has a shortage of enemies, right?”

“Actually,” she said, raising her eyebrows and leaning back in her chair, “that’s the tricky part. I’ve worked for a few affluent entrepreneurs like him over the years, but I’ve never met one quite as good at making friends as Mr. Davenport. He’s hard to dislike, especially considering what most of his peers are like in comparison.”

“That’s what I was afraid of,” I said, rubbing my chin. “So, nobody?”

“Not nobody,” she said, holding a finger up and pulling something up on her laptop before turning it around to show me a man’s face on what looked like his website. “Meet Barry Atelier. About ten years older than Jamie, net worth somewhere in the millions. He’s an inventor, like Jamie, but he comes from money. That’s made it even more frustrating to Barry that Jamie has been as successful as he has. Do you keep up with the news much?”

“I try not to, but it’s inevitable.”

“So, you’re familiar with the situation in the city of Oakview?”

“Yeah, of course,” I said. “Lead poisoning in the water supply.”

That was the short version of a hell of a crisis. Oakview was a working-class city in upstate New York that privatized its water services not long ago, which resulted in lead pipes leaching into the water supply, poisoning hundreds of thousands of people, especially poorer citizens and children at public schools. It was a disaster, and the city didn’t have the money to fix it.

“If you’ve spent any amount of time around Jamie, you can probably guess that he’s interested in it,” Susan went on. “The man is practically obsessed with water purification. It’s his pet project.”

“He mentioned something to that effect,” I said, nodding.

“Did he mention the eighteen months he spent globetrotting to talk about his water purification systems across the third world?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“No, but that fits his profile pretty well,” I admitted.

I was starting to feel a little guilty for giving him a hard time the day before.

“I don’t say that to brag for him, but just to make it clear that he takes this very seriously,” Susan said. “I’ll spare you the science jargon, but he’s developed a new system he wants to introduce in Oakview.”

“Let me guess, this Barry guy is competing for the contract?” I ventured.

“Exactly,” Susan said. “I don’t know the details; that isn’t my purview. You can ask Mr. Davenport himself if you’re interested. But more relevant to us is the fact that he’s the only closest thing to an enemy on the playing field.”

“Right,” I said, following along. “What’s your opinion?”

“Frankly? I don’t think Barry has it in him,” she said, shaking her head. “He’s an ass, but he doesn’t have a history of this kind of underhandedness. If he’s behind this, it would be unusual for him and a sign that he’s slipping toward a breakdown. No, I think it’s much more likely that we’re dealing with some opportunists. Both Jamie and Barry have been in the news thanks to the bidding for Oakview, and that can attract the wrong kind of attention.”

“So, you think it’s a handful of guys trying to make a quick buck off a billionaire’s ransom?”

“Something like that,” she said. “But I’m still putting out feelers. I’ll keep you posted as soon as we hear anything new.”

“Thanks,” I said, standing up. “It’s not much to work with, but it’s something.”

“I’ve dealt with worse,” she said drearily. “Welcome to the world of entrepreneurs, Damon.”

I chuckled as I nodded and excused myself, deciding it was best to head back to the office and get back to guard duty. As I walked, I mentally went back to the idea of practicing mindfulness. I got a few strong memories to go back to whenever my mind started to wander to Jamie, and I decided I’d practice that in order to stay focused. Easy, right? I could have used the time to plan what kinds of things I could get for Carla to ensure she and her kids have a secure future ahead of them. Those were all good and responsible things to keep my mind occupied.

I stepped back into Jamie’s office to find him staring out the window, sunlight right on his statuesque body in his light gray suit, green eyes fixated outside as he stroked his chin thoughtfully, looking like a painting of some Renaissance thinker. He raised his eyebrows and lit up the room with his smile when I stepped into view.

“Oh, hey! Get everything taken care of?”

His voice carried over the room, affable yet confident.

I gave a tight smile.

Staying focused was going to be easier said than done.