Taking Control (Babysitting a Billionaire #3)

“I can’t believe you had ‘Declan is a prick’ tattooed on your ass.”


At the words, she glanced back over her shoulder. “If the name fits.” It had been on a drunken night out with some of her army buddies. They’d all gone for tattoos, but Jess hadn’t wanted a new one. In fact, she didn’t want the old one, so she’d just changed it a little.

Ignoring the looming man, she pulled on her underwear, her pants, and shirt—most of the buttons were gone, but she tucked it in as well as she could—then sat down to put on her boots. Finally, she picked up her holster and slipped it over her shoulder, fastened the buckles, and felt ready to face him. He hadn’t moved. Still stood there with his hands in his pockets, watching her. She returned the inspection. He must work out—he was ripped—no way would he get a body like that from sitting at a desk all day. Weights she reckoned. He’d certainly picked her up with ease.

But it would take more than a nice body to impress her. A nice body and a stunning face and a huge…

She shook her head and picked up her jacket. Definitely time to get out of there. Pulling her jacket on to cover the gun, she turned back to him. “So, as you don’t need a bodyguard…” Her gaze drifted to the bandage on his arm, proof that he obviously did need a bodyguard. A little twinge of something stabbed her in the gut. Fear? Guilt? But if he didn’t want babysitting, there was nothing she could do about it. She couldn’t force him. “I’ll cancel your account and”—she gave a casual shrug—“that’s it. Lovely seeing you again after all these years. Try not to get shot and maybe we’ll do it again in another ten.” Or maybe not.

He didn’t speak as she strolled across the room. The skin down her spine prickled as she waited for him to say something, anything. She didn’t know what she wanted him to say, but the silence was deafening.

Until she reached the door. As she opened it to leave, he spoke.

“You can tell your boss that I think you were very…nice.”



Ha, so he thought she was nice. Slimy bastard. What right did he have to think she was nice after dumping her unceremoniously all those years ago? Even after a night of trying to put them from her mind, the words still niggled as she entered the office the following morning.

She sort of forgot them as she walked through the big open-plan room that housed the operatives who weren’t out on assignment or who were about to head out. Everyone’s eyes followed her movements. Her gaze snagged on Dave, seated at a desk, arms folded, a smug grin on his face. Her eyes narrowed. If he wasn’t careful, he’d be spending the next six months on the most boring surveillance jobs she could come up with.

Her, vindictive? Hell, yes.

She stalked across the room, stabbed her finger on the elevator button, and tapped her feet on the tiled floor. As the elevator doors opened, someone spoke from behind. “Are you going to show us this tattoo, Jess?”

She turned slowly, headed back the way she had come, halted in front of Steve, who had a cocky grin on his face. “Do you really want to piss off your soon-to-be-boss?” she asked sweetly.

The grin faded, but his eyes still gleamed with amusement. “No, boss.”

“Well, don’t mention tattoos again.”

“Yes, boss.”

She resigned herself to more hazing as she made her way up to Jake’s office; she’d known Dave wouldn’t keep quiet about the comment. There was no one in the outer office and she banged on the door and waited for the muffled come-in. It wasn’t safe to enter Jake’s office these days without knocking first.

But when she opened the door, Jake wasn’t there. Instead Kim, his wife, sat behind his desk, long legs stretched out, her feet resting on the dark mahogany.

She looked positively radiant; marriage to Jake obviously agreed with her. Jess had known Kim for nearly five years now, since Jake had rescued her from her bastard of a husband and given her a job at Knight Securities. She’d always found it hard to relate to women, but Kim and her other best friend Dani were special. Though at this moment she didn’t appear particularly friendly; her mouth was a tight line and she studied Jess through narrowed eyes.

“You have a tattoo, and you didn’t tell me?”

She shrugged. “It never came up in conversation.”

“How come I’ve never seen it?”

“Probably because we’ve never gotten naked together.”

“True.” She pursed her lips. “Has Dani seen it?”

“Yes?”

“So you’ve gotten naked with Dani but not with me?”

“Obviously.” Actually, Dani had been one of the army buddies who’d all gotten tattoos together the night she’d had hers…updated. “Where’s Jake?”