I shrugged. “I’m all you’ve got. The team isn’t filled out yet. We’re short-staffed.”
“That’s fine. Is there a way for you to be on full-time?”
“I have to sleep at some point, but I can work something out.”
“Good. We’ll work it out together. Maybe I can hire someone to guard the place at night. The firm I work for uses a company that specializes in night shifts.” He clapped his hands. “Now, to tell Charlotte. She’s a little high-strung about security, but we’ll see.”
I just crossed my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall behind me as he called up to Charlie and waited for her to come out of her room. I almost laughed when she came out carrying Spark, stroking her head like some kind of evil genius.
“You called?”
“We’re going to make Tucker full-time security. We haven’t worked out the kinks yet, but he’ll be here round the clock. Maybe we can even set him up in the room across from yours.”
I watched as her eyes flicked over to me and then back to Gerald. I thought she at least liked me enough to not throw another tantrum, but as her cheeks went red, I wondered.
She surprised us all, though. She shrugged one shoulder and glanced at me once more. “Okay. Whatever works. We’ll have to get a litter box for Spark if Tucker is staying.”
We all stared at her, even as she turned and made her way back to her bedroom. Gerald was the first to break the spell. “She must really like that cat.”
John gave me a cutting look. “I don’t think it’s the cat she likes.”
I flashed him a smile and shrugged. “You don’t have to get self-conscious, John. I’m just here to make sure your wife is safe.”
He stormed off and Gerald gave me an exasperated look. “Could you not push all of his buttons? I need you here to help with Charlotte, but I can’t spend all of my time calming John down.”
“Shouldn’t he be old enough to self-soothe?”
Gerald just gave me a look. “Do you need to go home and get things sorted?”
“I guess I’m moving in, then?” I couldn’t say I was upset about it. The thought of being near Charlie more made parts of me way too happy.
“I think that’s best. You can stay in the room across from hers, so that if anything happens, you’ll be right there. You’ll need to be on her schedule from now on. She’s up at four every morning.”
I winced, but nodded. “I’ll need to go home and get some things taken care of today.”
“Will you be able to come back tonight?”
I nodded. It wasn’t like I had anything else lined up. “Sure.”
“Perfect. We can sort out the details tomorrow.”
I shrugged. As soon as he stepped away, I hurried back upstairs and let myself into Charlie’s room. She was curled up in a chair with Spark on top of her. She looked even smaller than normal.
“Hey.”
She smiled. “Hey.”
“I have to go home and take care of some stuff, but I’ll be back tonight.”
She sat up and held Spark against her chest. “You’re bringing her back—right? She’s so sweet.”
“So, you got past how chunky she is, huh?”
Charlie nodded and sighed. “She’s perfect.”
“I’ll bring her back. She can even stay in here with you, if you want.” It was a purely selfish move. Spark liked to sleep on heads, if given the chance, and she’d keep John away from Charlie. As wrong as it was, I wanted him away from her. Wife or not.
Something mischievous passed through her eyes as she nodded. “I’d like that.”
I grabbed Spark’s crate and gently took her from Charlie. “We’ll be back in a little while. Need anything before we go?”
“Do you think it’s safe? I heard those cops say that they thought it was neighborhood kids.”
I sighed. “Those cops were idiots. I don’t know. You’re safe for now. I’ll walk through the house and around the place before I go, but it’s daylight. Normally, this asshole sneaks around at night. I’ll be back before too long.”
She straightened her shoulders. “Of course. It’s fine. I’ve got makeup work to focus on, so I shouldn’t pay any mind to this stuff, anyway.”
I stared at her for a second and then shook my head. She was confusing. It felt like there were two different people living in her and I wasn’t sure about what was really happening. I had plenty of time to figure it out, though. We were going to be roommates, after all.
I said my goodbyes and left her alone in her room. I had to check on Lauren and Mercer before I came back. Just like Charlie had work to think about, I had the family to think about. I couldn’t spend all of my time thinking about Charlie and how she’d be in my bed. As tempting as the idea was…
Chapter 13
Charlie
Gerald was watching the news in his office, on possibly the loudest volume there was. Every time he flipped to a new channel and there was another story about me or my stalker, he’d cheer just as loud as the TV was blaring. To say he was thrilled about the coverage was a doozy of an understatement. He was getting so much free press from Sam and his latest threat.
Not only had all of the entertainment news guys been covering it, but real local—and some from farther away—news stations were reporting on it. Apparently, it was a big deal. I just wanted it all to go away. I was exhausted.
Somehow, I was supposed to be able to keep up work as normal, not be distracted by a stalker or the newly ever-present Tucker, and still smile pretty on command. It was a lot. Four in the morning came earlier and earlier, it felt like. The meals I was being fed seemed less and less filling, too. I was starving, on top of everything. To a point that I’d had a dream about a cheeseburger.
The shining star in all of it was Spark. She had taken to me. She demanded to sleep in my bed and she hissed at John when he came near me. She was my little bodyguard when my big bodyguard couldn’t be there.
Not that Tucker wasn’t around almost all the time. I would’ve hated it if it was anyone other than Tucker and if we hadn’t come to some sort of truce. He’d stopped poking at me and had started actually being a friend. He kept an eye on me and would sneak me away from everyone for little breaks when Gerald wasn’t watching.
It still wasn’t enough, though. I was running through quicksand. I had to doubt that I’d make it for much longer without some sort of breakdown.
We’d just gotten back from filming the day’s segment and it was time for me to get ready for dinner with John. Gerald was joining us. It was at this downtown place that’d just celebrated being open twenty years. It was more down-home than the places Gerald normally sent me, and I’d looked up their menu earlier in the day and already knew what I was going to order. They had pie. Nothing was stopping me from getting a slice.
I’d already showered, but I was still just sitting in my robe, trying to get up the energy to go see Sharon for my makeup. I was thinking of how nice it would feel to curl up in bed and fall asleep when someone knocked at my door. I knew it was Tucker because everyone else just barged in.
“Come in.”
The door opened and Tucker stepped in, wearing a fitted black button-down shirt, sleeves rolled up, and a nice pair of dark jeans. His normal boots were shined and he’d trimmed his beard to something that looked more reasonable. It was still full, but it made him look dangerous and almost exotic, somehow. His tanned skin came to life against it and he looked even more devastating than normal.
I blinked a few times and felt my cheeks darken. It was torture to my senses to be so close to him all the time. There was something about him that woke up my dormant libido and made my body sing. It was so off limits that it wasn’t even funny, though.
“You don’t look ready.” Tucker stopped just beside the door and his eyes roamed down my body. When his eyes met mine again, they were darker, his jaw clenched.
“I’m exhausted. I just needed a second to recover.” I tucked a pillow into my lap an
d hugged it. “I don’t want to go tonight.”
Tucker came a few steps closer. “I know. You’re the boss, Charlie. If you don’t want to go, just tell them you’re not going.”
I laughed. “You don’t get it. I’m not the boss. I’ve never been the boss.”
“You’re the one making all the money, working your ass off. That makes you the boss. Tell Gerald to fuck off.”
“That’s not how it works.” I shook my head. “I know that’s how it should be, but it’s not. It’ll never be that way.”
The cryptic words seemed to annoy Tucker, but he didn’t say anything else about it. He just took another step towards me and nodded in the direction of the clothes at the end of the bed. “That what you’re wearing?”
I stood up and looked at the white lace that the overlay of the dress was made of. “Yeah.”
“You don’t seem excited. It’s pretty.”
I shrugged. It wasn’t me. It was pretty, but I didn’t like it. It wasn’t my style, but it’d honestly been so long since I’d worn something that I liked that I wasn’t sure what my style really was anymore.
“What’s going on with you, Charlie? You’re in a different world.”
I looked up at him—he was only a few feet away finally—and thought about what it’d be like if I was in my own world. I’d never been brave with the opposite sex, but something about Tucker made me want to pounce on him. In my own world, I’d close the gap between us and beg him to touch me. There’d be no stupid dinner to go to, no requirements, no John. Tucker would want me and I’d let him do whatever he wanted to me.
I closed my eyes as the onslaught of feelings washed over me. It tasted like freedom. Tucker could be a jerk, but being with him would mean freedom for whoever he was with. He was wild and carefree.
“Charlie?”
I opened my eyes and saw that Tucker had moved in even closer. I could smell a light trace of soap and something woodsy that was probably all him. Those green eyes were focused on me with a burning intensity that made me look away.
He’d become a friend, but there was something else there, burning under the surface. It hadn’t been easy to ignore the attraction to him. The more he was around, the more I noticed him. I couldn’t help but notice that he watched me, too.
Feeling all the things I had no business feeling, I tipped my head back and shook it while staring up at the ceiling. “I’m okay.”
His hands lightly rested on my shoulders, but it still made me suck in a sharp breath. “Do you need to rest? I’ll cancel the dinner myself.”
“No—really. It wouldn’t be worth it. Gerald and John would both throw fits.” I forced a smile and moved away from him. I perched myself back on the side of the bed and hugged that same pillow again. I was obviously too tired to have any sense. I knew I couldn’t get that close to Tucker without losing my mind.
“I don’t get why you put up with their shit. Especially John. Why are you married to someone who is such a fucking asshole to you?” Tucker’s voice had gone deeper, and anger showed clearly on his face.
So many words all bunched up in my mouth at once and I realized I was going to tell him the truth. I needed to tell someone. I needed to be able to talk about it. “We’re not actually together.”
Tucker’s eyebrows furrowed. “What do you mean?”
Already, relief was flooding through my body. “We’re not together. Not even a little bit. We never have been. Gerald and his management group thought a Susie Homemaker without a husband was ridiculous, so they brought John in. I’m pretty sure he’s gay.”
“Well, that makes a fuck ton of sense.”
I just shrugged. That secret was out. I could already feel myself eager to tell more. I wanted them all out in the open. That was crazy, though. I couldn’t tell everything.
“You sleep together, though.”
“Yeah. I don’t love that. Since the whole operation got bigger and more people are around all the time, we have to keep up the charade. He sleeps in here and it’s miserable. I hate him. I know that people say you shouldn’t hate and all that, but I fucking hate him.”
Tucker laughed suddenly. “Look at that language, too. Who are you, Charlie Crier-Banks?”
“Just Charlie Crier.”
He reached out and curled my wet hair around his fingers. “Charlie Crier. It works. Well, Charlie Crier, are we skipping this shit tonight?”
I licked my lips and held his gaze. There were dangerous promises in that gaze, ones that I didn’t feel strong enough to walk away from.
A rattle of the doorknob interrupted all of my wild thoughts. “Charlotte! Why is this locked? I need to grab my jacket! Jesus.”
I bit my lip and frowned up at Tucker. I wanted something different, but John was the loud reminder that I had a life that I’d allowed to be set up for me. All the dreams and wishes for Tucker to come along and ravage me were stupid. I stood to lose everything. Not just the pretense of a marriage. Everything.
Tucker, mischief playing in his eyes, tugged at my hair and then winked at me before walking over to the door and opening it. He nodded at John and then looked back at me. “Thanks, cher.”
His accent made me blush every time and that time was no different. He barely got out of the room before John shoved his way in and slammed the bedroom door shut.
I stood up and grabbed my outfit. I wasn’t going to get dressed near him. I was going down to Sharon so she could do my makeup and hair. I didn’t want to be near John.
“What the fuck was that?”
I moved around him and slipped out of the bedroom to find Tucker leaning against his own bedroom door, watching mine. I stood there for a second and then shook some sense into myself. I frowned at him and then hurried away.
Sharon got me ready in record time, thanks to Gerald nipping at her heels. Then I was dressed and we were all riding in the back of a limo, provided by the restaurant, on our way to the event.
I was stuck between Gerald and John, both of them much too close for my comfort, while Tucker drove, his unwavering gaze on me in the rearview mirror. It was obvious that he liked the dress I was wearing. The sides of the skirt were cut pretty high and when I crossed my legs, and his eyes narrowed in on the expanse of thigh that was revealed.
As crude as it was, I could only relate Tucker’s heated gaze to something I’d seen once in a movie. The woman wore vibrating panties at a table with a lot of other people. The whole time, she was fighting off pleasure and trying to avoid letting other people see how turned-on she was. I was that woman, minus the vibrating panties. Tucker’s eyes were like heat pouring straight to my core. I knew I was wet and I felt like I was on the verge of ripping my clothes off and begging him to take me, but I was in debt and barely a whole person. I was more tired than human.
Not to mention, I was sitting in between two men who were about as alluring as toads. Plus, one wrong move and Gerald could take everything away from me. I could wake up homeless because he didn’t like the way I said something. It was that easy.
That should’ve felt like the coldest of the cold showers, but it didn’t. There was something about Tucker that I was too stupid to look away from.
Chapter 14
Tucker
I stood on the outer edge of the booth that Charlie was in, keeping an eye on everything. John and Gerald surrounded her and there was no mistaking the gleam in John’s eyes. He was angry at both of us and he wanted her to suffer. I felt like an ass for posturing for him earlier, but I couldn’t help myself. Something about knowing that she wasn’t with him made me want to claim her myself. It was insanity. I had no business getting in between whatever she was doing, but she wasn’t happy. I couldn’t help wanting to interfere.
Even sitting in the booth, she looked fucking miserable. Her eyes were heavy, the bags under them not all the way hidden. It was ridiculous that Gerald had made her come out. She was barely able to stand on her own, she was so tired. Even knowing she was that tired, though, my body
still responded to hers in a painful way. I wanted to delve into her and find out everything. Mainly, what made her moan.
I forced myself to look away and scan the restaurant. There was no one inside who looked anything other than a couple on their night out. There were a few groups of women huddled together, but besides the excited way they looked over at Charlie, they were completely normal and harmless. She was safe.
Still, I couldn’t relax. Something about the way John kept looking at me and then at Charlie made my back stiffen. Gerald was unaware, his nose buried in his phone, but still he was doing nothing to make Charlie feel any better.
Their drink orders were taken and Charlie ended up with water while Gerald and John both got wine. There was a basket of bread on the table that I watched her eye, but every time she reached for it, John would give her a look and move it farther away. When she extended her arm, prepared to take some from him anyway, Gerald looked up and saw what was happening.
“No bread for you, Charlotte. You’re still looking a little heavier than normal.”
Charlie’s eyes darted to mine and the redness on her face was so different than the normal blush that hit her pretty cheeks when I teased her. Shame was so evident in her actions as she withdrew her hand and tucked both of them in her lap, under the table.
“Did you see the new book cover mock-ups? You look so bloated, Charlotte. It must be all that cake you’ve been sneaking.”
Gerald made a disgruntled sound. “Have you been sneaking more sweets? Charlotte! Do you want to gain all that weight back? God. You can’t make it big if you go back to the same size you were when I first met you.”
“Well. Not the right kind of big,” John snorted and laughed.
I was about to step in and offer to break all of John’s fingers if he kept talking to her like that, but the waitress cut me off. She stepped up to the table with their drinks and then took out her pad to take their order.
Gerald ordered a steak, potatoes, and a large salad. John ordered a lasagna. When it came time for Charlie to order, she hesitated and Gerald took over. “She’ll have a side salad, no dressing. Hold the tomatoes and croutons.”
Black Dog Security- Complete 5-Part Series Page 39