Page 18 of Mile High Baby
“In general or now?”
“Don’t fuck with me, Victoria. I know fear when I see it.” He nodded toward the phone in my hand.
I sighed. I wanted to be obstinate, but my father hired him to protect us and I shouldn’t make it harder for Alex to do his job. “I think it’s from Pitney.” I held the phone out for him to see the text.
He made that growling sound again. “I’m taking you to your father’s.”
“You can take me there and explain to us what you’re going to do to protect us. But I’m not staying there.”
“Don’t be an idiot.”
Was I being an idiot for insisting on going to my own place? Probably. But I didn’t like feeling like my life wasn’t my own anymore. I needed some normalcy. I needed to be in my own space. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“This isn’t a personality contest. Pitney isn’t playing a game.” He looked at me like I was a petulant child, which only made me angrier.
“I see. So in the bodyguard business you have to be rude, condescending, and insensitive? Something tells me that’s just you. I think I want Ian after all.”
His eyes narrowed. “Because he’s younger and handsome? Do you think he’ll fuck you?”
I laughed, and Alex didn’t like that. He stepped closer to me. Intensity radiated off him. It was heady and exciting. I liked poking his buttons even if I hated it when he poked mine.
“You have a tendency to think you’re saying something to get to me, but you only prove what a misogynistic jerk you are.”
“You knew that yesterday.”
“I did. But yesterday, I thought I’d never have to see or talk to you again. You’d said that, actually. But here you are.”
“Are you being difficult just to fuck with me or are you always like this?”
“I can see now why you have bad luck with women. I’m beginning to think the last woman took your money as payment for having to put up with you.”
“She’s in jail.” His eyes were intense as they once again drifted to my lips. “I could lock you away too.”
There was a shift in the energy between us. The snap of irritation still whipped between us, but instead of repulsing, there was a pull.
“You like to bully women?”
“I’m trying to keep you safe.”
“How can you do that when you don’t like or respect me?”
“I’ve worked for many people I didn’t like or respect.” His words broke the hypnotic pull I felt at the banter.
I stepped away from him. “The sooner this is done, the better.”
“We’re in agreement about that.”
7
Alex
Iwas being an asshole. It was my last line of defense to stop me from pulling Victoria into my arms and kissing those delicious, plump, pink lips. Desire coursed hard through my veins, followed by the revulsion of wanting my friend’s daughter. It made me surly, and I took it out on the source of my frustration, Victoria.
I hated the way she looked at me as she stepped back when I insinuated that I didn’t respect her. I hated it even though that was what I’d wanted to happen. I needed her to put up the wall that I was having a very difficult time keeping between us.
It was time to focus on the task at hand, keeping her and Henry safe from George Pitney. "You need to give me your phone. We need to see if we can figure out where that text came from."
She clutched her phone to her chest. "I'm not going to let you paw your dirty hands through my phone."