Reaching for my cellphone, I set the timer for exactly thirty minutes.
“Okay, Natalie. Buckle down,” I said out loud, resettling into my seat. I picked up my book and started reading again, determined to force the material to stay in my head this time.
Yet, my concentration was broken once again when the voices of my father and his visitor drew nearer. I closed my eyes in frustration, wondering why on earth they were so loud. Their laughter rang through the corridors, as did their heavy footsteps. I glanced to the door of the library, wondering if they were coming to see me. From the sound of their jovial banter though, whatever they were talking about didn’t seem serious at all. So if they were coming to bother me, they were doing it for no reason, which was uncharacteristic of my father since he knew I desperately needed time to study.
My father appeared first, poking his head through the doorway. “Natalie, sweetheart, I hope you aren’t too busy,” he said.
“Just studying,” I said, stating the obvious. “Why? What’s going on?”
“There’s someone I’d like to introduce you to. Or re-introduce you to, rather.”
Having captured my full attention now, I watched as he waved his hand, beckoning someone forward.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
“Honey, this is Colt Jackson, the security personnel who helped lead us to safety in Turkey after that bomb went off. Do you remember him?”
My father’s words continued after this, but I could no longer hear him. I was too stunned that Colt, the handsome stranger from Turkey who’d had a one-night-stand with me and then potentially saved my life, was standing in my home.
A deep flush rose over my face and I prayed my father and Colt didn’t notice it.
Just like I hoped the thoughts running through my mind weren’t being hinted at on my face as I recalled the feel of Colt’s smooth and muscular body beneath and on top of mine…
His hands and lips and all the rest of him.
I clenched my teeth. At that moment, I realized my father must have asked me something, judging from the way he stared at me.
“Uhm…what?”
“Natalie,” he said, in a reprimanding tone.
“I’m sorry—can you just repeat that, please?”
“I said—I’m thinking about hiring Colt for our security team. He’s perfect for the job. He is a former army ranger. I’d feel a lot safer if I knew someone like him was watching out for us.” I blinked rapidly, still trying to wrap my mind around what was happening. “When I found out he was back in the States, I insisted he come meet with me so I could offer him a job,” Dad continued. “Wouldn’t it be great for him to join our team?”
The telephone from my dad’s office rang just in time, saving me from having to respond. “Be right back,” he said. He winked at me. “In the meantime, Natalie, make Colt feel at home. Convince him to work for us!”
When Dad turned his back and darted down the hall, Colt looked right at me and smirked, and then he winked, mimicking my father.
I continued to sit, dumbfounded. The book I’d been attempting to study slid out of my lap and onto the floor.
“So we meet again,” Colt said, moving farther into the library. With his hands nonchalantly in his pockets, he looked around, taking in the scenery. “Nice place you and your father have here. Big…I bet you know all sorts of ways to sneak boys in without Daddy knowing, don’t you?”
Colt was standing right in front of me now, looking down and continuing to give me that cocky and over-confident smirk of his. He was just as good-looking as ever, causing me to remember that I was in yoga clothes and my hair tied sloppily on top of my head, I didn’t look at all like the vixen he had seen upon first meeting me.
“Maybe you’ll give me a private tour once your daddy is done showing me around?” he asked.
Annoyance rose through my shock at the blatantly sexual insinuations Colt dared to make while my father was literally around the corner.
“Excuse me?” I said, incredulously.
Colt’s expression turned into one of mock-innocence. “What?”
“You did this on purpose, didn’t you? Coming here. You knew I was here.”
Colt gave a low whistle. “Mighty high opinion you have of yourself.”
My face flushed again. “I-I didn’t mean it like that, I—”