“I have conditions,” I finally say.
Suzie claps. “Yeah!”
“I said I have conditions,” I remind her.
“Of course, you do,” she says with a roll of her eyes. The alarm on the outer door beeps. “I’ll start to work on the contract. But for now, you have a visitor.” She wiggles her eyebrows leaving no doubt in my mind who walked into the office.
“Come on, Phoebe. Let’s leave the lovebirds alone.” Phoebe and Suzie hustle out of the room as Aiden strolls in.
“What are you doing here?” Normally, I’d be happy to see him. Hell, my body buzzes with memories of all the delicious things he did to me all weekend. But he’s got his cop face on. “Please, don’t tell me something bad happened.”
“Nothing bad happened.” He walks around my desk, grabs my hands, and pulls me to my feet. “Your greeting sucked,” he mumbles before slamming his mouth on mine. I moan and his tongue invades my mouth.
“No sex in the office,” Suzie yells from the other room.
I pull my mouth away from Aiden and lay my forehead against his chest. “I need an office where Suzie can’t hear every single thing happening.”
He chuckles. “I agree she’s annoying, but I like the idea of you having back-up close in case a client gets out of hand.”
“Love you, too, Aiden,” Suzie shouts. “And I’m not annoying, merely concerned about cleaning up.”
I ignore her. “Anyway, what’s up?”
“Have you forgotten about the person following you on Friday night?”
I kind of have. In my defense, he’s the one who kept my mind off serious stuff by doing dirty things to me all weekend. “No,” I lie. “But what does that have to do with you being here now?”
“We’re going through your cases until we figure out who has motive to follow you.”
“Dude, I don’t need you to protect me.”
He growls. “I’m your man, and I will protect you.”
“What is this? Early nineteenth-century England? Should I pretend to faint and clutch my bosom?” I glare at him. “Maybe I should give up my job and sit at home doing embroidery while you work?”
He sighs as he stares at the ceiling. I can see his lips move as he counts to ten. When he finishes, he lowers his head and looks at me. “I am not trying to take away your independence. I only want you safe.”
I poke him in the chest with my finger. Ouch! Note to self – no poking Aiden’s rock-hard chest. I pull my finger away and cross my arms across my chest. “And I will make sure I’m safe. I can take care of myself, you know. I even have the big girl panties to prove it.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Oh yeah? Maybe I need to make sure you’re wearing your big girl panties.”
“Dude! I already told you. No sex in the office.” At Suzie’s shout, he blushes and takes a step back.
“Suzie Langley, you are a cockblocker!” I yell at her. I wasn’t planning on having sex in the office, but would a little foreplay have hurt anyone? No, it would not.
“You two are as crazy as I remember in high school.” Aiden chuckles. I open my mouth to remind him he didn’t know us in high school. “Nope.” He places a finger over my mouth. “I don’t want to hear it.” Can he read my thoughts now? I narrow my eyes at him. He smirks in response. Oh great, he totally can read my thoughts.
There’s a knock on the door. “Hailey,” Phoebe shouts. “I have your cases from the past six months here. Can I come in?”
“Fine!” I shout back. When she walks in, I give her the stink eye. For someone who is bound and determined to work with me, she sure took Aiden’s side awful quick.
She blushes but keeps on walking, setting the files down on my desk. “No one said you can’t figure out who’s following you yourself, you know,” she says and winks before backing out of the office.
I bite my lip as I contemplate what she said. Damn. She’s right. Just because Aiden wants to go through the files with me, doesn’t mean he’s going to be the one who figures out who’s following me. Assuming someone is following me. I’m not completely convinced. After all, it’s been weeks since the office and my house were ransacked. And who knows if anyone was actually following us on Friday night? I sure didn’t notice anyone.
We spend the next hour going through the cases. When Suzie walks in holding coffees for us, I sigh in relief. My eyes are going cross-eyed from staring at all the reports. I am not the kind of person who can sit in an office all day. Hell, I can barely sit still. Even now my foot is bouncing up and down.
Aiden slams the folder in his hand shut and throws it on top of the pile on my desk. “There’s nothing here.”