“THREE!”
The abrupt shout startled both of them. Harry was striding across the patio from the direction of the games room.
“What’s the problem, Hades?” Hugo asked, relaxing in his chair again. “This isn’t the time for business.”
“I have to talk to my daughter,” Harry said when he stopped between them. “Alone. I’m sure you understand.”
“Yes,” Hugo said, enjoying some wine before rising. “I’ll give you privacy.” Before he went, he opened a hand to her. “If you’ll permit me, Tess…” Permit him to what? She wasn’t sure but put her hand on his. Just like inside, he pressed his lips to her fingers. “It’s been a pleasure. I look forward to getting to know you better… much better.”
Without giving Harry another glance, Hugo returned to the house.
Harry didn’t bother to sit down, he just loomed there, forcing her to look up at him. “Tess,” he warned. What exactly was his concern? “You don’t want to get mixed up with him.”
“He’s the first person who’s treated me as more than an inconvenience,” she said.
Citing Daire wasn’t an option. Mentioning him in relation to her would be risky. Her father’s role required him to know people, to read people. Tess didn’t want to venture into murky territory… Though, truth be told, everything between them was murky.
“I don’t have time for games.”
“No, you don’t have time for me,” she said, swallowing the last of her wine and standing up. “A conversation is not a game. Sitting around day in, day out, it’s nice to do more than work on ways to be quiet and stay out of everyone’s way. It’s fine, Harry, really. You stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours.”
It was her intention to go back into the house. After two steps, Harry grabbed her arm to pull her back.
“It’s dangerous,” he said, his volume low. “Loyalties are strained at the moment.”
“And you think he might use me against you?” She inhaled. “For something to be leveraged against someone else, it first has to mean something to that person. Mom is dead. It is what it is. I was wrong about you and me, about what we could be. It’s no big deal. I believed something that wasn’t real…” Casting her gaze to the side, she muttered, “which has been a problem for me before.”
“Tess…”
“It’s fine,” she said, peeling his fingers from her arm. “I came downstairs to say that. I shouldn’t have expected anything from you, and I shouldn’t have confronted you in the way that I did. I appreciate what you and your men are doing. This is the safest place for me right now. I’ll do my best to lie low. That doesn’t mean I can be invisible. I still exist. All you have to do is ignore me. I don’t expect gallantry. I know men. I know what men are interested in… It’s my decision whether I give it or not. I promise, I don’t expect you to swoop in and save me. If he threatens to put a knife in me unless you do something, let him put the knife in me. No guilt. No obligation.”
“Will you talk some sense into her?” Harry snapped at the man approaching behind her.
Tess hadn’t seen him and had been too busy talking to sense her Heart joining them.
“Seems fair to me,” Daire said.
She still hadn’t seen him, which was for the best. Her poker face was lousy, and Harry couldn’t know about their feelings for each other. After witnessing how Daire responded to her one conversation with Hugo, she understood that need even more.
“Ridiculous,” Harry said, spinning around to storm back inside.
She breathed out.
“Not,” Daire said, moving in closer. “The answer is you will not give it.”
Typical that he could put a smile on her face. Her Heart was being completely serious, she knew that, there wasn’t a hint of amusement in his words.
Still, Tess smiled and shook her head. “You’re not very good at this not being together thing.”
“There’s not being together and then there’s not being together.”
She frowned at the pool. His body was so close that all she had to do was breathe out and drop her shoulders to make contact. It was risky. But she was learning Daire wasn’t all that averse to taking chances.
“He doesn’t talk to me like I’m an idiot.”
“Neither do I.”
“Yeah, but you treated me like one,” she said, running her fingers over her hair. On a sigh, she switched focus to the wine still on the table. “If I got really crazy drunk and passed out, would you make sure no one violates me?”
“No one else? Sure.” Another smile quirked her lips. That time, there was amusement. “I’ll carry you upstairs, lock the door behind us, help you out of those uncomfortable clothes… Make sure you’re good and relaxed.”
Her pajamas weren’t uncomfortable… would be easy for him to remove though. “A massage would help me relax.”
“There are some areas that’ll need extended attention.”
“I promise to take care of anything you extend for me.”
Swaying back, she loved his steady, sure form, there to hold her up. They just stood there, appreciating each other in silence, probably for too long.
“How can I miss you when you’re standing with me?” she whispered. “I’m lonely and you’re right here.”
“Harry’s not wrong about Three,” Daire said, more professional than before.
It wasn’t right of her to keep reminding him of their connection when they’d both agreed a relationship was off limits.
“You know I don’t want to be with him.”
“He has an agenda.”
“And I’m no good at being invisible.” Taking one step, she put space between them to turn around. “You’re occupied. This is your life. I’m happy for you that you have it back.”
Sort of. Olympus wasn’t at its glorious peak, but they were on the road toward progress at least.
“But you’re lonely.”
“It’s not your fault. I was spoiled with your attention before I knew who you were. I promised not to be selfish. And I’m working on that… You should thank Hugo for distracting me. If all I have is time to think about you…” she said, narrowing the space between them and changing her angle to snag his pinkie with hers. “I’ll drive you nutty.” She dipped closer to catch his attention when it drifted down. “Remember that see-through babydoll? Do you think I’d look good in it by the pool?”
That got his head to come back up fast. “You even think about it…”
She laughed and twirled around to sashay toward the patio door. “As long as my father’s in the house, you don’t have to worry about me flaunting anything…” Pausing on the threshold, she peeked back at him to whisper, “not outside our bedroom anyway.”
Going inside before he could catch up, she continued to the entry living space where Hugo and her father were with Garrick, Boze, and Lowe.
They all turned to her, so she stopped. “What?”
“Just straightening things out,” Hugo said, coming over. “The guys are transferring your things into the master.”
“Excuse me?”
“Only right that you should have the most sumptuous room in the house.”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I like my room.” And the man in it.
“The master is more secure. It’s at the back of the house.”
“The balcony is the largest,” Garrick said. “Are you sure you wouldn’t—”
“Ares will set up proximity detectors,” Harry said. “We have thermal imaging and I’ll have men on it twenty-four seven.”
“I don’t need people watching me twenty-four seven… I do need to shower, you know.”
“There is a private hot tub in the master suite,” Hugo said, linking his fingers between hers. “The men will only monitor outside the room; you have my word.”
He smiled as though to reassure her. From the moment they’d met, she could tell Hugo was confident. That was just fine. Confidence didn’t intimidate her. Danny had confidence in a very up front kind of way. Daire had it too, in a more understated but intense way. Hugo could think he was all any woman could ever want… But he wasn’t enough for her.
“Harry has been sleeping in that room,” she said. “There’s enough space for all of Olympus and then some, I understand.”
“Not enough room for your beauty.” Hugo drew her forward. “Let me show you.”
THE SUITE WAS BEYOND anything Tess had slept in before. It was more than a bedroom. With its own living room, bathroom with steam room and shower probably big enough for everyone in the house to share, Tess could get lost in it. The closet space was more than she’d ever be able to use. Outside the room was a glazed walkway that crossed to a platform supporting a grand piano.
Too much space. The corner of the main bedroom was glazed. Pocket doors opened to the huge balcony complete with its own patio furniture. It overlooked the pool and some of the patio beneath. Gorgeous didn’t begin to describe the cavernous space.
After showing her around, Hugo bid her goodnight and left her alone. There weren’t doors at every aperture of the suite. Tess didn’t feel secure. It didn’t matter that the room was grand or opulent. Lying in the middle of the bed, staring up at the ceiling, she waited for sleep.
But it didn’t come.
Daire would visit. Wouldn’t he? Every night it was his responsibility to do a security check of the building. She waited, listening for him, waiting to feel his presence encroach on her.
It didn’t come either.
At some point she must have fallen asleep because she awoke to the sun streaming in. There were no shadows in the master suite. Only sunlight and heat.
Knowing there was little to hurry for, she took her time enjoying the steam of the shower, thinking about which of her designs to get started on that day.
She didn’t expect to walk into the kitchen to find Hugo juicing fruit.
“Good morning,” he said. “What can I get you?”
“Really?” Tess asked, slipping onto one of the stools. “This is a full-service establishment.”
“Sure is,” he said. “I’ll make you whatever you want for breakfast and then we’re going out.”
“Out?” she asked after he put a glass of juice on the bar beside her. “Where are we going?”
“Wherever you want. You’ve been cooped up for too long. This city has a lot to offer, I wouldn’t want you to miss your chance to enjoy it.”
“Sounds great,” she said. “Unfortunately, I’m no match for the Olympus soldiers.”
“Don’t worry about them, sweetheart.”
He was so focused on his juicing that he didn’t see her brow arch. “Sweetheart” after less than a day was more than a little presumptuous.
“I have a feeling that you have something more specific in mind than whatever I want.”
“Well,” he said, grabbing a cloth to wipe his hands then laying them flat on the counter. “No one ever accused me of not knowing how to have a good time.”
“And somehow you cleared this with Hades?”
Harry wouldn’t object out of parental concern. He was a man in charge; one who preferred there be few variables. Her out in the world was a variable. Their encounters the previous day made it clear that her well-being wasn’t as important to Harry as some may assume it would be to a father. Daire approving it, when he dealt with most daily security matters, that was the biggest surprise.
“Okay,” she said, figuring her father would like her to be out from under his feet for a while. “Show me a good time, Hugo Balfour. What’s Vegas got for me?”