Page 66 of Hurry Up And Wait

“I fucking hate you.”

“Right backatcha, man.”

I hung up with a sigh, scrubbing my hand over my face. I shouldn’t be here. Isla needed me, and instead of being there for her, I was here working for the senator, and another man was taking care of her. She had only been back in my life for a handful of days, but that was all I needed to know that it was right.

Not that I loved her. That would come with time, but when I saw her again, things just clicked into place. And then I had to leave on a job and IKE was watching her. Taking care of her. Fuck, I really hoped she wasn’t breaking down in his arms. I might have to kill him.

I dialed IKE’s phone, trying to get through to him, but I just got a message about the phone not being in service right now. How the fuck was it possible that in this day and age, the cell towers weren’t fucking working?

“Everything okay?”

I turned and faced Olivia, forgetting she was here with me. “Uh…yeah,” I smiled. “Just dealing with some issues at work.”

“Do you want to talk about it?”

Her shy smile was tempting. She was so sweet and naive, but no, I did not want to talk about the woman I was currently obsessing over with my fake fiancée. “No, that’s okay.”

She nodded, biting into her lower lip. I wondered if she knew how damn appealing she was? Didn’t she realize that if she just gave herself a chance, she could get any guy out there? Why was she wasting all this on me?

“Did you order?”

“Yeah.”

“We should get something to drink.” I had to move this away fromthe bedroom. I didn’t want her to get any ideas about the way things would be between us. I led her down the hall to the kitchen and opened a bottle of wine. I didn’t really care for it, but she obviously did.

“There you go,” I said, handing her a glass.

“Cheers.”

She held up her glass, clinking mine as she smiled at me. Fuck, I just couldn’t take this. “Why are you really here?”

“What?” she asked, startled by the question.

“You’re a beautiful woman. You’re smart. You have a good education.” Not that she could really do much with it. “Why did you take the senator’s offer?”

Her smile faded as she stared into her wine glass. There was so much I didn’t know about this woman, but if we were going to get through this, I needed to figure her out soon. Knowing your enemy was part of defeating them, and though she wasn’t technically my enemy, she worked for the senator, which meant she was really on his side.

“My parents were pushing for me to marry a man they felt would…give me the best opportunities in life.”

“And you didn’t like him?”

“He was sixty years old,” she said, shooting me a pointed look. “It would have been a great connection for them, which was why when the senator approached me with his offer, I knew it would be even better. Having a politician in your pocket is even better than a rich guy.”

“And you got out of an inconvenient marriage.”

“Look, I like an older guy the same as the next girl, but that was a little too…”

“I get the drift,” I grinned. “And what exactly are you hoping to get out of this?”

“At this point? I would settle for just getting through the contract.” Her eyes softened as she tilted her head at me. “I really didn’t know that you weren’t on board with this. If I had known…” She shook her head.

I couldn’t tell if she was being sincere or not. I really wanted tobelieve that she was—that she had been roped into this because of the senator’s deceit, but the truth was, anyone could put on a show. Hell, I was doing it every day I was here.

“Your father said that you work in private security,” she said, sipping her wine. “What’s that like?”

My father.I really didn’t want the senator mentioned as my father in any capacity, but I was going to have to get used to it for as long as this charade went on.

“It’s a job, like any other. Except, I’m really fucking good at what I do.”