Page 26 of Beau

He pushed to his feet. “It’s what you didn’t say,” he murmured. Beau gathered the comforter and the pillow and stepped past Aurelie, where she sat on the floor, frowning up at him.

“But—” She pushed to her knees.

“Goodnight, Miss Anderson.” He practically raced for the door, grabbed the knob and twisted. When it didn’t open, he remembered he’d engaged the deadbolt. He flipped the lever, yanked open the door and bolted through. “Lock the door,” he threw over his shoulder, refusing to look back at the woman who had his cock so hard he was sure he’d be awake all night with blue balls.

Better that than to make love to the pretty client with hair he’d run his fingers through. He knew he shouldn’t have kissed her when she’d fallen asleep while he’d smoothed out her tangles. Since kissing her on the dance floor, he couldn’t resist kissing her again.

Kissing was relatively harmless.

Making love to her took harmless to an entirely different level. Her father, the senator, might sic his lawyers on him for breach of contract or whatever he could get to stick. He’d have him up on some felony charges for taking advantage of his daughter.

Her father wasn’t the worst of it. He couldn’t make love to Aurelie. Most likely, she’d be angry when she found out he wasn’t just a guy who’d randomly followed her out onto that boardwalk. She’d be livid when she discovered he hadn’t been completely truthful with her.

No woman loved a liar.

He could argue that he hadn’t actually lied to her.

She wouldn’t buy it. Lying by omission was still lying.

He tossed the comforter on the hallway floor, dropped the pillow on top of it and paced. He was too wound up to sleep and too hard to sit.

Part of him wanted Aurelie to open the door and beg him to come back in, to take her into his arms and screw the rules, screw the truth and screw her.

What he wanted to do warred with what he knew was the right thing to do.

For the love of gumbo, he had sisters. He’d kill a man who took advantage of one of his sisters by leaving out a key piece of information that would help her decide whether he was honorable or a low-life scumbag unworthy of her trust.

Beau wished he hadn’t agreed to keep the nature of his assignment a secret from Aurelie. Then again, if she’d known he was a paid employee of her father’s, she would have had nothing to do with him other than letting him do his job.

They could have avoided this awkward exchange entirely. She’d have been happy to sleep in his room with him out in the hallway, to begin with. He wouldn’t be pacing that hallway with a hard-on so hard he could drive nails with it.

By the twentieth pass going end to end in the hallway, his pulse had almost returned to normal.

Aurelie hadn’t opened the door, for which Beau was both thankful and disappointed. It was just as well. His cock was not nearly as hard. He was able to sit on the comforter with his back to the wall without any discomfort, but sleep eluded him until the wee hours of the morning.

He must have nodded off at some point.

The sound of a door’s hinges creaking jerked Beau awake. He was on his feet in a flash, his focus on the door behind which Aurelie Anderson slept.

Only the door that opened wasn’t his, but another further down the hall, past Romeo’s.

Valentin Vachon emerged dressed in a tank top, jogging shorts and running shoes. When he spotted Beau, he frowned. “Lock yourself out?”

Beau shook his head. “On guard duty,” he whispered.

Valentin’s eyes widened. “I thought I heard something last night.”

“Yeah,” Beau said. “We came in near midnight.”

“I had my noise-canceling earbuds in, listening to white noise. Whoever said living in the country was quiet and peaceful didn’t live in southern Louisiana. The damned frogs, crickets and cicadas are every bit as loud as traffic on the LA freeways.”

Beau grinned. “True. Good thing I prefer it to traffic.”

“I take it you ran into trouble last night.”

Beau nodded. “She was attacked at the fundraiser, and her house was ransacked. I had to find a safe place to stash her until I can arrange for a safe house.”

Valentin nodded. “I’m headed out for my morning run. I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”