Page 12 of Going Down Hard
“I don’t want to.”
She pouted, and for the first time her age entered his mind. “How old are you?”
Her chin jutted out, her eyes narrowed. “I’m legal.”
He laughed. “I know that. How legal?”
“Twenty-five.”
Seven years. Not a huge gap…
Why was he even thinking about their age difference? She was a job. He had to remember that. For now.
“Grab what you need and take a shower. I’ll go down and see if I can beg, borrow or steal some food from our hosts.”
“I thought you weren’t going to leave me alone.”
“You’ll be locked in the bathroom, with the room locked as well. There’s only one way up here, through the kitchen, which means anyone who tried to get to you would have to come past me. Regardless, don’t open the bedroom door to anyone. Not even me. I’ll take the key.”
Sophie gave him a brief nod then went to her bag in the corner. Stone waited while she pulled out clothes and a small toiletries bag. He kept his eyes averted in an effort to not glimpse anything he might obsess over. Like her underwear.
The last thing he needed to think about was what lay beneath her clothes.
On her way to the en suite tucked into the corner of the room, she flashed him a smile, and he held his breath until the door closed between them and the lock clicked into place. Now that there was a solid piece of timber separating them, he could let himself relax.
His muscles ached with the release of tension. He hadn’t realized how tight he’d held himself. He’d never had to control his emotions the way he had in the last hour. His birth name might be Stone, but he was also a stone by nature. Nothing got to him. No situation. No person.
Until now.
Sophie Collins—with her mass of wavy brown hair, slender curves and brutally honest green eyes—had slid right beneath his skin. For the life of him, Stone couldn’t work out how or when.
If he couldn’t lock down his wayward libido, they’d be in for a world of trouble. But he wasn’t fooling himself. It wasn’t only his hormones that were interested in Sophie. And that right there was the crux of his problem.
Under any other circumstances, he’d be all over the pretty singer. She wasn’t his type and yet bare minutes in her presence and he wanted more. Except these weren’t different circumstances, and they were anything but normal,andhe had a job to do.
Keep Sophie safe.
Find the fucker stalking her.
Deliver her home unharmed.
The question was, could he do his job without letting the chemistry between them get in the way…and would he walk away when the job was over?
***
Sophie kept glancing over her shoulder, expecting Stone to come charging down the stairs into the kitchen and drag her back to their room.
“Everything alright?” Karen asked with a frown.
“Oh. Yes.” She smiled. “Sorry. Just a little distracted.”
With a knowing smile, Karen said, “I can understand that. You should talk that man of yours into taking you to the Come Again tonight for the dance auction.” She slid a tray of yummy-looking chocolate chip cookies into the oven.
Sophie would love one of those cookies. She’d also love to get out and see some of the town. Stone had banned her from leaving the room though, so leaving thehousewould definitely be out of the question, but she couldn’t tell Karen that. “Dance auction?”
“People auction themselves off for dances to raise money for town projects. This year it’s going towards the high school. The sports department is in sore need of new equipment,” Karen explained.
“Sounds like a good cause and my kind of fun.” And it did. Well, anything except looking at the walls of her room would be fun right now. Especially when she was supposed to keep her mind—and hands—off Stone.
