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Thank God he’d been so adamant about maintaining his privacy. After Charlee’s experience with round-the-clock videoing, he doubted she’d appreciate it in their bedroom.

Theirbedroom. A lazy sigh of contentment stretched through him. He turned to Nathan, who expectedly chose to stay with Charlee rather than follow Tony through her sweep.

Jay shifted her tiny frame higher up his torso. “I’ll have Tony go through the employment paperwork with you tomorrow…assuming you’ve agreed to join our team.”

Hands in his pockets, Nathan made a show of scanning the rare Macassar Ebony floors, the diagonal lines of the soaring ceilings, and the expansive open-air rooms behind him. “Depends on the pay.”

“You’re so full of shit. You’ll guard her whether I pay you or not.”

The grin Nathan flashed fell away as soon as it appeared. “To avoid a conflict of interest, you understand part of my job is protecting her from my employer.”

The sweet aroma of her hair infused Jay’s deep breath. “Understood.” And expected.

He hugged her close. They hadn’t severed physical contact since their liaison in the airplane lavatory. It wasn’t her body he was clinging to as much as it was the energy orbiting her. Their attraction, their bond, was an electromagnetic force. If it lost its charge, if she turned away even for a moment, would they lose the progress they’d made? Fuck, he knew it was all in his head, this idea that some magical force field they created warded off his triggers. But something was holding him together, and the way her hand curled around the back of his neck proved, even in sleep, she clung to it, too.

The door opened and Tony emerged. “Clear.” She nodded at Charlee. “Everything she needs is already put away in your closet and bathroom. You should give Faye a raise for her quick turnaround on this assignment.”

While Tony managed the security team, Faye managed the band, the household, and everything else. “I’m giving you both raises. I’ll fund it personally if the guys complain.”

She shifted her weight from foot to foot, her face otherwise blank.

“Thank you, Tony. For today. For everything. I mean it.”

The corners of her mouth lifted up. “My pleasure.” Holding the door, she pulled out her phone and tapped the screen. “I reserved a private shooting lesson at the gun range tomorrow. Seven in the morning was the only time I could rent the range exclusively.”

He cringed. That was only hours away. But he’d rather do early and empty than later and crowded. He nodded.

She followed him and Nathan through the door and positioned her back at the wall near the entrance. “Nathan, your things are set up in the guest room. I’ll show you the way when you’re done here.”

Jay strode through his sitting room and weaved through the clutter of guitars, amps, and mic stands with Nathan on his heels. He used the room as his personal studio, writing music, mixing samples, composing songs about Charlee. Their real studio was twenty feet below and stretched the length of their ranch-style estate.

At the hallway, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. “I’ve got her from here.”

Nathan’s eyebrows dipped over his narrowed glare. “I need to see where she’s sleeping.”

And Jay needed to clear the room of smoke, dope, blow and whatever else he had stashed, including the gear he was sure he’d left on the bathroom counter. Nathan knew about the drug use, but he didn’t need to be reminded of it his first night away from Charlee. “Tony swept the room. And you know where she’s sleeping. In my bed.” He verbalized the last part to set boundaries and roles, and to test the reaction.

As expected, Nathan’s back snapped straight and his hands balled at his sides. He wasn’t ready to leave her side.

“Just let him see.” Her sleepy mumble drifted over his neck and sent a tingle down his spine. “He won’t sleep well if he doesn’t check it out himself.”

Jay looked down into her half-lidded eyes and his heart thumped. He hated that she knew another man so well, but he reminded himself that their closeness kept her alive. “Good morning.”

She squirmed to get down even as her fingers combed through the hair at his nape. “It’s morning?”

He let her feet touch the floor, but didn’t release her. “It’s around two or three.”

In the circle of his arms, she shuffled backward, pulling him along by his belt loop. “Let’s see your room.”

“Our room.” He tried to skirt around her, his guilt over wanting to hide his drug cache squashed by his embarrassment for having it in the first place. “Hang on a second.”

Ignoring him, she spun out of his arms, moving a few feet beyond his reach, beyond the circle they had spent hours joined in. A chill invaded his empty arms. Her eyes widened, locked on his. Did she feel it too?

She probably wasn’t aware of her shoulders curling forward as she rubbed her biceps and scuffed her boots over the white marble floors into the bedroom. Eyes sweeping the white walls, she zigzagged around the white leather couch, the white pine furniture, and the sheet of one-way windows overlooking the pool and grounds. At the foot of the bed, she leaned against one of the massive posts and stared at the expanse of white linen.

Nathan prowled the perimeter of the room and disappeared into the bathroom. Fuck. Jay braced for the impending lecture.

“What do you have against color?” She looked around the room and eyed his black t-shirt, black pants, black Chucks.