The Mogul and the Muscle: A Bluewater Billionaires Romantic Comedy(18)

Me: Now who’s being creepy? He’s not sleeping here.

Luna: Why not?

Me: He declared my home security adequate.

Emily: So what does that mean?

Me: It means I have a bodyguard when I’m not in Bluewater.

Luna: What’s he like?

Me: Enormous.

Daisy: OH SNAP. I bet he has major Big Dick Energy.

I rolled my eyes, but mostly because she was right. Not that I was going to admit it to them.

Me: He’s tall and huge and looks like he could snap a guy in half. But he dresses nice.

Me: Also, he can cook. Don’t ask me how I know.

Me: But it involves walking in on Nicholas and Inda fucking in my kitchen.

Emily: NO

Luna: That’s not sanitary, but wow.

Daisy: Go big chef man!

Me: I can’t even be mad. At least someone in this house is getting laid.

Emily: Aw, sweetie.

Me: I’m glad I’ve already decided I’m never dating again. Because I’m pretty sure Jude would be the world’s biggest cockblocker.

Daisy: I’m calling it right now. You’re definitely boinking your bodyguard.

Me: I’m definitely not.

Daisy: I don’t mean now, but eventually you will. When it happens, you have to tell me so I can gloat.

Me: How about no.

Luna: No you won’t boink him, or no you won’t tell Daisy?

Me: Both.

Luna: That doesn’t make any sense.

Me: It doesn’t need to. I’m closed for business. Only the battery-powered may enter my lady temple.

Luna: Approve of calling it your lady temple!

Me: I thought you’d like that.

I paused and looked out over the water as it sparkled in the moonlight. I wasn’t good at admitting when I was wrong. It felt like weakness. But maybe—just maybe—Emily had a teeny tiny point about needing personal security. At least until we were sure I wasn’t being targeted.

Me: Thanks for having my back, jerks. I love you guys.





Despite my insistence that it hadn’t been a big deal, I’d been acutely aware of my surroundings in the parking garage ever since the attempted-mugging-or-possibly-worse. My designated spot was near the elevator, so I didn’t have far to walk. But I’d started waiting to get out of my car until I was certain no one was lurking around a corner.

Brandy had suggested having my driver, Joe, start taking me to and from the office. She managed his schedule, making sure he was available to me during the day for my many offsite meetings and trips to our manufacturing or testing facilities. He wasn’t exactly security, but it would mean I’d never be alone in the parking garage. But I’d deemed that unnecessary.

I turned off the engine and checked around me. There weren’t many cars here yet. I was always among the first to arrive in the morning and last to leave at night.

It was possible I worked too much.

But I didn’t have much else going on in my life, so putting in fourteen-hour workdays didn’t feel like a hardship. I loved my job. I loved this company and the direction I was taking it. I loved that I was in a position to guide Spencer into a new era.

I was making a difference in people’s lives. When Milton Spencer had brought me in, this company had been on the verge of collapse. A dinosaur struggling to breathe in a world with a rapidly changing atmospheric chemistry. I’d pulled it into the next century, focusing on innovation, and poured resources into research and development.

It was paying off. Spencer Aeronautics was thriving. Instead of morale-killing rounds of layoffs, I’d saved jobs and hired hundreds of new employees. I insisted on paying well, providing good benefits, and making it easy for working parents to juggle their work and home lives.

If I was confident about one thing in my life, it was what I did here.

The mostly-empty parking garage was quiet, so I opened my door, clutching the pepper spray I hadn’t admitted to my friends I now carried.

“Morning.”

Whipping around, I pointed the pepper spray in the direction of the voice.

The corner of Jude’s mouth twitched, like he was trying not to smile. “Nice reflexes.”

“Don’t scare me like that.” I tucked the pepper spray into my purse. “I could have sprayed you.”

He shrugged, like it wouldn’t have mattered to him if I’d burned his eyes. He had a black backpack slung over one shoulder and was once again dressed in a crisp button-down shirt and slacks.

It was a good look on him.

“How long have you been here?”

“I arrived a few minutes before you.”

“Is that a coincidence, or are you psychic? I didn’t tell you when I’d be in.”

“Emily texted me when you left home,” he said. “And we can talk about schedules upstairs.”

I wanted to argue with him. It was like an instinct I could barely control. But I had hired him, and it did make sense to coordinate our schedules in the comfort of my office, rather than standing here in the parking garage.

Still, I narrowed my eyes. I didn’t want him thinking he’d scored points on me this early in the day. “I have a few things to take care of, then I can meet with you after my eight-thirty rundown with Brandy.”

He acquiesced with a small nod.

I pretended to ignore him as he fell in step behind me and followed me into the elevator. My skin tingled at his presence, like he emitted biological radiation that warmed me from the inside. It was both comforting and disconcerting.