Page 23 of Break Me Not

“It's safer for you to be somewhere that's not⁠—”

“I know, it’s just…” She was looking around the room, anywhere but at me. “With the… money, I was going to buy a new place. And I don't want to move twice, so maybe we can pause on that for a moment?”

I didn't like it. Not one bit. But I could tell I was already pushing her too far.

“Then how about after your shift here today I have the team scope out your place?”

My nails dug into my palm. My team—her team—had already scoped out the place. And because of how the apartments were built, it was just too unsafe to help her there. Meaning I would have to find a way to get her out of that place as fast as I could.

She nodded.

“Sure, but there will be a show here tonight,” she said. “It's small, but important to my artists.”

“Okay, no problem.” I stood. “I'll get started outside right away.”

I made a mental note to add more to the team I’d assign to her. I didn't like the idea of this place being swarmed with people. It was just too easy for something to happen to her.

She opened her mouth and closed it.

“Any other orders for me, ma’am?”

Finally, that cute blush covered her face again.

“Just get to work and stop bothering me, okay?”

I left the room forcing a smile on my face, but I felt far more anxious than when I arrived.

Whatever happens, I need to keep her safe.

Liz

This is so inappropriate.

But even knowing that, I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the bead of sweat running down Jax’s slender neck.

I had been working most of the morning, trying to ignore the fact that I had fucked my daughter's best friend and that she was in my gallery, the one place I held dear to me. But it was hard.

Because I had spilled everything that had gone wrong in my life to her. I expected her to meet me with the same judgmental stare as everyone else, but she merely nodded and devised a plan for us.

I still had no idea if I could actually trust her, but my gut was telling me to.

The problem was that I didn’t have the best track record with trusting people.

Another problem is that she looks like that.

I couldn't look away. I'd come out here meaning to just talk to her, but how could I even trust myself near her when I was getting distracted by⁠—

She swallowed deeply, the bead of sweat following the motion. I felt myself get hot.

She and her team were working on the outside of the gallery. She was insistent on installing most of the security features herself, which was surprising to me, though I couldn’t tell if she was trying to show off or really apologize for keeping the truth from me.

Her arms were lifted, and it caused the already short crop top to rise even higher. My eyes locked onto another bead of sweat that ran down her stomach.

“Like what you see?” she asked, pulling me from my trance and looking down at me with an amused smirk. “I could always just remove⁠—”

I held up my hand as she started to tug her shirt up.

The look on her face told me that she was fucking with me, but I had no idea just how far she was willing to go. She had made it very clear that she still wanted me. That she would've paid even more than two million for me.