“Me too. My Spanish isn’t all that good.” Her words were glib, but there was relief in her tone and the set of her shoulders.
“So, Madison, are you happy on the streets or do you want to work?”
She was more than old enough to work, earn a living so she could support herself eventually.
Her smile dissolved, replaced with a frown as she folded her arms defensively. “I don’t—”
“—Need charity,” I finished for her with a laugh. “I know and I’m not offering you charity. I’m offering you a job. You do know the difference, don’t you?”
“Yeah, I’m not stupid.”
“Didn’t think you were but that chip on your shoulder might affect your ability to think clearly. If you want to work, I’ll find something for you to do while we track down your sister. What can you do?”
“Whatever shit job exists, I’ve done it. Cleaned houses and bathrooms. Flipped burgers. I was even a valet for about two weeks. I’m good at math and I can type really fast.”
I wrote down everything she said and sent an email to my assistant.
“By the time you’re healed enough to work, we should have a few options for you.”
“You and that blond hunk, Terry?” she asked and waggled her eyebrows.
“No, my assistant.”
But her eyes brought a smile to my face as I remembered how hard, how turned on Terry had been on that balcony, and it was all because of me. But that was just a fleeting thought. Jasper would kill us both.
A knock sounded on the door and Madison gasped, but her shoulders immediately relaxed when Sadie walked in carrying four oversized shopping bags. “Good morning girls.”
“Mornin’, Ma. What did you bring me?” I flashed a teasing smile when she rolled her eyes.
“These are for Madison.” She dropped the bags at Madison’s feet, smirking when our guest looked at them like they were toxic waste.
“Kat you need to go into the office. No one has seen Ravager since the fight and rumors are swirling. You need to deal with it.”
Of course, I did. “I thought this was Jasper’s deal?”
“It is, but he’s doing something else right now.” Something more important, which meant this job managing House of Ashby was mine for the foreseeable future.
“Shit. Yeah. All right.” I stood reluctantly and made my way to the bathroom with a grunt. Was it just a few minutes ago I thought how nice it was to work without heels or makeup? Thirty minutes later I had my work bag in one hand, phone and coffee in the other as I said goodbye to Madison and strolled out of the guest house toward my car and came up short.
“Terry. What are you doing here?” He looked irresistible in jeans, a t-shirt and a blazer, leaning against my car like all my wildest teenage fantasies had come true.
He flashed a teasing smile and stood to his full height, shoving his hands deep in his pockets.
“I’m your personal bodyguard until Ravager is found and all the bullshit passes.”
“Is that how it works? Bullshit actually passes?” Not that I was complaining about spending more time with Terry. It would be a particularly unique form of torture, but maybe it would cure me of these lustful images in my head I had of him.
“So, you’re my bodyguard…forever?”
He shrugged. “I guess you’re stuck with me.”
“There are worse people to be stuck with.” I snickered at his words. “Impressive lengths you’ll go to just to get close to me, Stalker.”
His deep laugh bounced off the hot concrete as he held his hand out, waiting impatiently for me to hand over the keys. “Don’t worry, Kitty Kat, you can ignore me the way you always do.”
That pulled an unladylike bark of laughter from deep in my gut. Ignore him, as if I could.
“If I could ignore you, Terry, I’d be a lot less bothered by you.”
Hot and bothered was more like it, but since he didn’t return my feelings there was no way in hell that I’d ever say that out loud.
“So, I bother you,” he asked and slipped behind the steering wheel with a teasing smile that sent a bolt of electricity through my entire body.
“You know you do,” I grumbled and slid into the passenger seat, focusing on my seatbelt rather than the problem of being so physically close to this man but no closer to making him mine.
“Sorry,” he said, not sounding sorry at all.
“Yeah, right,” I snorted and motioned for him to get the car moving. “Come on slow poke, we’re burning daylight.”
Terry barked out a laugh that startled me. “Damn, woman, you sound so much like your old man sometimes I have to look behind me to make sure he’s not looking over my shoulder.”
His words brought a smile to my face. My dad was a son of a bitch most of the time but he was smart as hell when it came to most things. Things, at least, that didn’t involve gambling.
“Thanks. I think.”
“Oh, it’s a definite compliment. Your old man had his flaws, but he was a character and he knew people.”
“Yeah,” I sighed. “He really did. Except for that one fucking blind spot,” I growled, thinking of how often we’d hosted priests and other church elders for dinners, fundraisers and the like.
Terry’s grip tightened on the steering wheel and his jaw muscles clenched so hard I thought I’d be able to hear the grinding of his teeth. He knew what I meant.
“Yeah well, that’s some mighty effective brainwashing they do and it’s fucking difficult to overcome.”
It was. “We managed fine. Eventually.”
His scowl vanished and, in its place, a smile bloomed. “It took us misfits some time, but yeah, we managed to deprogram ourselves.”
Both of us fell silent for a few miles, lost in thought about how our fucked-up childhoods had led us here.
“Now Kat, let’s talk more about how much you’re hot and bothered by me.”
Laughter burst out of me so fast, I snorted. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“It’s all part of my charm, Kitty
