He caught up with her in two long strides, opening the door and stepping inside first to make sure all was peaceful. She followed him in. Jake did a quick check of the rooms, then returned to her with a smile. “Good night.” He was about to add “Chloe”, but after all that had happened, he didn’t want to act as if they were that familiar, even though his lips had become very familiar with hers. At the thought, heat raced up his face.
Her eyes didn’t waver from his. “Good night, Jake.”
He watched her walk away, then he locked up the house before going to his apartment over the garage.
After taking a few minutes to collect himself, he picked up his cell phone to call Tyler. Earlier, his boss had told him that he would want a full report that evening on how the event had gone since it would be Jake’s first event as a bodyguard.
After barely saying hello, Tyler asked how it had gone.
“Couldn’t have gone better. The guests behaved themselves, and Ms. Ross debuted a new song which the crowd loved.” Why had he added that? It was completely irrelevant.
“Glad to hear it went well, Jake. Anything else to report?”
Jake flashed to the kiss in the elevator. Should he tell him? There was no reason to. And if Tyler knew about it he would definitely pull Jake off of this job. Besides, Tyler would never find out about it. Unless Chloe reported it. Would she do that? He hoped not. “Uh, no. Nothing else to report.”
“Good job, Jake. I knew you were the right man for the job.”
Which made Jake realize that if someone else had been assigned to Chloe he would never have met her. But maybe that would be a good thing, because the more he was around her, the more she filled his every thought.
Chapter Eighteen
Chloe woke early the next morning feeling good about the debut of her new song. The crowd had loved it. Stretching her arms above her head, she thought about all that she had to get done that day. She had so much to do, but at that moment she felt restless, like she had energy she needed to burn off.
I should work out. The thought came to her out of the blue and it was quickly followed by the hope that Jake would be there. Remembering their kiss from the night before—the one he had initiated—brought a broad smile to her face.
Slow down, girl. Don’t take it for what it wasn’t. Remember how he immediately apologized like he knew it had been a big mistake. And don’t forget. He works for you. You’re not dating the man.
But in her heart of hearts, she was too much of a romantic to let it go that easily. Men just didn’t kiss her and then walk away.
She threw back the covers and leapt out of bed, then searched for her workout clothes. She had to really dig through her dresser to find them—it had been a long time since she’d worn them. When she finally found them, she put them on, and after lacing up her shoes, she went to the kitchen to fill a water bottle with ice cold water. As she strolled to her home gym, she kept an eye out for Jake, but didn’t see him. It was early, the time she thought he typically worked out. He was probably already in the gym working up a sweat. She imagined what that would look like and felt heat burn a trail up her cheeks.
A few moments later she arrived. She leaned toward the closed door and listened but heard nothing. Huh. Maybe he wasn’t in there yet. Lips tugging down into a frown, she pulled the door open and stepped across the threshold. Empty. Could he not be coming that morning? Tempted to forget the whole thing, she straightened her shoulders and strode into the room. She really needed to take better care of herself and daily exercise would go a long way towards making that happen.
She did a few warm-up stretches, then stepped onto the treadmill. She stared at the screen, trying to figure out which buttons to push when she heard a familiar voice from behind her.
“Need some help with that?” Jake asked.
Startled, Chloe let out a gasp and spun around. “Oh.” And there he was, hot as ever, wearing his workout clothes, his biceps bulging from under his short-sleeved t-shirt. Tearing her eyes away from him, she focused back on the treadmill controls. “I, uh, I think I’ve got it.” She pushed a few buttons and the treadmill belt started moving.
Jake chuckled. “Been a long time?”
Self-conscious about the real reason she was there, she glanced at him with a smile. “Kind of.”
He nodded, then walked toward the free weights on the other side of the room. “Let me know if you need any help.”
She watched him go, torn between wanting him to be there to help her and wanting to show she needed no help at all.
Jake started doing biceps curls, his gaze slipping toward Chloe. What was she doing there? In all the time he’d been her bodyguard she hadn’t come to the gym once, especially at the time he was there. And she’d told him she never used it. So, was this appearance planned to coincide with his arrival? If so, it certainly had to have something to do with the kiss he’d stolen from her.
The memory of those luscious lips pressing against his—okay, maybe her lips hadn’t pressed against his so much as not resisted his pressing—filled him with an unexpected desire to kiss her again.
Shame washed over him. He had no right—zero—to kiss her. Last night or in the future. And it was completely wrong of him to even think about it. She was his client. Not some woman he’d taken on a date. He had to stow those thoughts in a deep part of his brain. Plus, for all he knew, she was dating Ethan Marsh, which only made his kissing her unprovoked that much worse.
“Can you help me?” Chloe called out, yanking Jake out of his thoughts.
He lifted his head to see what she was doing and saw her trying to adjust one of the arms on the weight machine. He set down the free weights and went to her side, forcing away any and all memories of that kiss.
When Jake stopped beside her, Chloe turned to him. He was standing so close—well, not close enough to kiss, and really, not close enough to touch, but still, she felt drawn to him in a way she hadn’t before he’d kissed her. Well, she had found him attractive since the moment she’d seen him, but she’d been so focused on getting him to like her that she hadn’t really considered how she felt about him. But now that a barrier had been breached, he was suddenly all she thought about.
“What are you trying to do?” he asked.
She pointed to the arm-thingie on the weight machine. “It won’t go back. What am I doing wrong?”
One side of Jake’s mouth tugged upward, then he reached past her and lifted some sort of large pin. Once it was out of the way, he was able to adjust the arm to where Chloe wanted it, and then he dropped the pin back in place.
Feeling a little embarrassed that she hadn’t figured that out on her own, she chuckled self-consciously. “Guess I need to use this more so I get familiar with it.”
Jake smiled graciously. “No worries. We all have to learn at some point.”
“Thank you.”
Smiling, he nodded, then he turned and strode back to the free weights. Trying to ignore him, which was difficult now that she was so aware of him, Chloe started using the weight machine. The way the machine was positioned put Chloe’s back to Jake, but that was a good thing because she was able to concentrate on her workout, such as it was. After ten minutes sweat was trickling down her back. Okay, time to move on. She got up from the weight machine and went toward the elliptical, taking a peek at Jake. He was completely ignoring her like his workout was all that he cared about.