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“Do you need help walking to the door?” I ask.
She sighs. “I’m going to say no. Then pray that’s true.”
I watch her walk away. She doesnotlook back. But I’m guessing she’s picturing the sight behind her.
Chapter4
Linnea
* * *
The shirt looks really good. Crisp. Well-pressed. I can’t see much of it underneath the black jacket and black tie he’s wearing, but I’m having difficulty looking away from it.
Of course, I know why that is.
Because I know that he pressed it himself. And what it’s covering up.
And I can’tunknowthat.
That’s not the kind of thing you forget.
But I also can’t stop thinking about it. Not even for ten minutes, it seems. The images of Jonah completely naked, standing unfazed in front of me, crossing the room, kneeling, helping me up...
Burned. In. My. Memory.
That could be very problematic.
Even more problematic is that when we were introduced when I arrived in the dining room for dinner, he smiled at me, told Torin that we’d already met, then gave me a wink behind my fiancé’s back. Awink. Behind myfiancé’sback.
Jonah seems perfectly at ease. I saw him naked earlier. Now we’re having dinner with my family and Torin’s. That happens to include theking and queenof our country. But he’s acting as if it was no big deal.
That has me almost more rattled than the actual scene upstairs in the guest room. Inhisroom, more accurately. I was inhisbedroom while he was completely naked.
This man is Torin’s bodyguard. And best friend. He’ll be around a lot. Basically constantly. For the rest of my life.
My sigh is internal only, but it’s very real.
The first man I see completely naked—or even partially naked—in real life had to be the guy I’m going to spend as much time with as I will with myhusband.
The husband I’ve known my entire life, who I’ve been sort-of engaged to for a year now, and who hasnevermade me tingle, not even once.
I know how this works. Jonah Greene has been Torin’s bodyguard for the past twelve years. He has essentially pledged to serve in the role for the rest of his life. His life and loyalty belong first and foremost to Cara and its future ruler.
This means that once Torin and I are married, I will be spending time with the first and only man to make me aware that I do have body parts that respond to the opposite sex completely outside of my conscious control.
I honestly hadn’t believed that happened before today.
But it does.
There is, evidently, such a thing as pure lust, after all.
And I feel it for Jonah Greene.
Notfelt. Feel. Currently. Even when he’s dressed.
It’s clearly not about some kind of intellectual connection between us. We’ve barely spoken. It’s not about a friendship or any kind of emotional relationship. We don’t know one another at all.
It’s all chemistry.