Code Name: Genesis (Jameson Force Security #1)(39)

Cara turns to ask the audience. “Would we?”

A deafening cheer rises, and Joslyn stands from the couch. She smiles across the way, motioning with her hand for me to come join her.

I vow to myself if I get her back in bed, I’m going to spank her ass until it’s red as a fire engine. But for now, I decide to go with the flow. I’d dressed casually in a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, and a blazer, so it’s with confidence I step out into the spotlight. A stagehand quickly mics me up.

I grin at the audience as I throw them a wave. Turning to Joslyn, I lock my eyes on her as I head her way. Moving past Cara I give a small nod of my head, but then my attention returns to Joslyn.

My pace doesn’t slow. I walk right into her, a hand going behind her head and another to her waist. My mouth crashes down on hers, a bit more punishing than necessary, but that’s payback for calling me out here like that. Still, the reward of her tongue slashing against mine as I bend her backward with the force of my kiss is everything.

When I let her up, I vaguely hear Cara say, “Oh wow… now that’s a kiss.”

Joslyn stares with eyes wide with astonishment, but also sizzling with heat. She felt that kiss between her legs if I was a betting man.

As the crowd’s applause starts to die, Joslyn does a quick introduction to Cara and then I’m sitting on the couch next to Joslyn. I toss my arm over the back of the couch and let my fingers graze softly over the bare skin on her upper arm, hiding my satisfied grin when Joslyn shivers in response.

To my surprise—and oddly, my delight because this is just a ruse after all—she shimmies in closer to my body until her side is plastered to me.

“So, Kynan,” Cara drawls from her chair, boldly eyeballing me. “You’re a security professional?”

I give her an incline of my head in acknowledgment. “I own a company called Jameson Force Security and—”

I’m interrupted by Cara audibly swooning and the audience gasping. Confused, I watch Cara, who is fanning herself and staring at Joslyn. “You didn’t tell us he’s British. Oh my God… that accent.”

I don’t even know what to say, but Cara winks at the audience. “Am I right, ladies? Like who wouldn’t fall in love with that voice?”

I’m actually disappointed in myself when a warm flush creeps up my neck. I mean… I’m all for the ladies ogling me or whatever the fuck it is they do, but it’s Joslyn’s tiny giggle from beside me that has me staring down at her. She peeks up through long lashes and just shrugs, her amusement evident.

But I don’t want to waste time or opportunity, since the message we came to convey needs to be said. I smile rakishly at Cara, but my eyes are hard with determination. “Don’t go swooning over me. I’m totally taken by this woman here. Like she said… she hired me to protect her from a particularly cowardly ponce who thinks he can terrorize her.”

It’s here I glare directly into the camera, laying down my challenge. “And if he’s watching, I have a message. If he comes near my fiancée again, he’ll regret it.”

This is so far off script from what Joslyn or Cara was anticipating, and I need to make sure this part of the interview isn’t cut. If he wasn’t provoked by Joslyn before, he will be now.

But that doesn’t seem to be particularly important to Cara. She practically squeals, “Fiancée? You’re engaged. Where’s the ring? When are you going to tie the knot? You must tell us everything.”





CHAPTER 18




Joslyn


“Go get into something comfortable,” Kynan says as we step inside my front door. “Do you want beer or wine?”

“Wine,” I say as we move through the great room. I turn left toward my room, but Kynan goes right into the kitchen since he’s carrying the pizza we’d picked up.

We had talked about going out to dinner with Lynn and Harry, both of whom were with us at The Cara Peterson Show, but I just didn’t have it in me. Perpetrating a ruse I was engaged to my first true love was about the most mentally exhausting thing I’d done in a long time.

It wasn’t so hard letting the lies come forth. The story was pretty straightforward and based so much in truth because of how we reconnected that at least it felt realistic.

The hard part was sitting there with Kynan’s arm around my shoulder, his thumb tenderly rubbing against my shoulder in perhaps a show of being supportive and nurturing. He’d issued a challenge to my stalker when he’d stared right in the camera and threatened him—and Cara and the audience practically swooned.

The worst part was how genuine Kynan sounded. Cara was so taken with his British accent and his alpha-protective charm I barely was asked any other questions during the interview. It became The Kynan McGrath Show, and the man knows how to put on the charm. It seemed so natural and genuine when he told her how deeply he loved me all these years and how he had never been able to move on.

He was smooth when Cara asked him why we’d broken up. He waved it off to youth and stupidity and left it at that.

Kynan kissed me at the end of the segment, then he held my hand the entire way to the dressing room. I didn’t even want to bother getting into my jeans, eager to put the entire thing behind me because let’s face it… he sounded so convincing, my heart was starting to respond. I started wondering… could we have something?