Five years ago, at twenty-six, Jake had left the army to take over the family business, a multinational company involving everything from property development to gold mining in South America.
One of the first things he’d done was invest a percentage of the profits in setting up a security company. He knew a load of people—many of them friends—who’d left the army and found it hard to adjust to civilian life. The company provided them with a good job and prospects. It also gave Jake an interest when he got bored with the more mundane aspects of his other businesses.
He’d just returned from New York and was eager to see Kim. She was changing. He sensed it. She’d been different at the party, and it hadn’t only been her appearance.
“Where’s Kim?” he asked Margie. “Can you tell her I want to see her in my office?”
“She’s down in the gym. With Steve. Shall I call her?”
He went still. Was that a look of malicious enjoyment in his assistant’s eyes? Yeah, he definitely hadn’t hidden his feelings. In all likelihood, the only person in the building unaware of how he felt was Kim herself.
But shit, she’d looked seriously hot the other night. He couldn’t blame other men for looking at her. That didn’t mean he had to like it or put up with it.
And it was definitely time to find out what the hell was going on with Steve.
“Never mind,” he said to his assistant. “I’ll go down there myself.”
He took the private elevator from the top floor of the building down to the basement, where the gym and shooting range were located. He expected his operatives to stay in peak condition, and this was where Kim spent most of her spare time.
Jake understood her need to feel strong, to learn how to protect herself. And he knew she wanted to work the more dangerous jobs. But bodyguards had to be willing to take a bullet for the people they protected, and no way would he allow Kim that option.
He also knew that what she feared most was loss of control, something she carried from her wreck of a marriage. That bastard had hurt her physically, but it was her powerlessness that she’d hated the most. She needed to feel in charge of her life, but unfortunately, Jake had inherited his father’s controlling nature.
Kim would just have to accept that he had her best interests at heart.
Somehow, he had to make her realize that she loved him and that loving him was safe. That he wouldn’t hurt her. But first, he had to make her see him as a man. Because she seemed to have blanked that piece of information from her mind. Instead, he was her friend.
He was beginning to hate that word.
After coming to a halt outside the door to the gym, he peered in through the glass panels and every muscle in his body locked. Kim was there all right. Dressed in gray sweats and some sort of sports top that left her midriff bare. His eyes were drawn to the smooth, flat expanse of flesh. There wasn’t an ounce of surplus fat on her.
She wasn’t alone. Steve stood opposite her, also in sweats, but with a white T-shirt on top. He was laughing at something Kim said, and Jake’s eyes narrowed.
Kim moved suddenly. Her leg swiped out and knocked Steve’s from under him. He laughed again and grabbed her shoulders so they fell together onto the exercise mat, Steve’s body half covering hers, and she chuckled as well.
Jake took a deep breath to calm the fury that rose up inside him.
Mine.
The word echoed through his mind as he pushed open the swinging doors and stepped into the room.
He stood in silence, waiting for the giggling couple to realize he was there. It took at least ten seconds, and his fury mounted. Steve saw him first. His laughter cut off abruptly, his eyes widening. He made a move to stand, but Kim clung to his arm.
“Kim,” Steve murmured.
“What?”
“Er…” He nodded toward Jake, and she finally, at long last, noticed him.
For a second, Kim’s face lit up, and she gave him a wide smile. Then she must have spotted his far-from-happy expression, and she pushed herself free and scrambled to her feet. She tugged at the top, settling it in place, then hitched up the sweatpants hanging almost off her hips, showing her belly button and far too much skin.
“Is something the matter?” she asked.
It was amazing. She had no fucking clue.
Steve seemed more attuned, however. He got to his feet and shifted awkwardly. Jake stared him in the eye until he glanced away.
“Boss,” he muttered. “We were practicing some moves.”
“Really?”
Steve squirmed a little more.
“Steve offered to show me how to do a lotus sweep kick,” Kim added into the silence.
Jake employed a trainer who came in regularly to teach a mixture of martial arts, and all the operatives were expected to be proficient. Kim was one of the best, and he was betting she didn’t need any tutoring in the maneuver.
Jake toed off his shoes, then shrugged out of his jacket and dropped it on the floor. “Perhaps Steve and I can demonstrate it for you,” he said silkily.
Steve definitely looked alarmed now.
Good.
It might teach him to keep his hands off what belonged to Jake.