Basically, she was the type of woman any man would be happy to have by his side.
Which is why I found it so baffling that she didn’t have a man in her life. On the other hand, I couldn’t deny being happy about this as well. I kept waiting with baited breath for the moment when I would have to follow her on a date. I got headaches just thinking about how I would possibly be able to maintain my masquerade of indifference; I knew that if I ever saw her with another man, I would lose my shit. My professional façade would be broken beyond repair and my job would be at stake—and I really didn’t want to let Speaker Finley down in any way.
So each day I spent with Natalie, I pretended to turn over a new leaf. I knew she was confused by the abrupt changes she’d witnessed in me, especially since I had been so bold and brash before. And although I knew she questioned how I had turned over such a new leaf, she never bothered to mention it out loud. So, I knew she was keeping up her professional façade too.
That didn’t stop me from wondering if she ever thought about that night we had spent together in Turkey though. Fuck she was hot.
I had relived that night so many times that I could practically replay it in my head like a movie—which is exactly what happened at least once every time I was around her.
If I didn’t manage to screw up on the job, I would likely explode one day from how badly I wanted Natalie Finley. Something about her made me feel like a teenage boy all over again, enslaved to my hormones.
What had I gotten myself into?
CHAPTER 7
Natalie
I had been the one to tell Colt that things needed to stay strictly professional between us, and as the days passed, controlling my less-than-professional thoughts about him had started to feel like one of the hardest things I’d ever done in my life. Every time I saw those muscular arms and luscious lips of his, I wanted to feel them all over my body again.
Occasionally, I would catch the way he looked at me, and hoped he felt the same as I did. But whenever I thought I saw a meaningful look in his eyes when he gazed at me, he’d abruptly turn away, leaving me wondering if I had imagined the whole thing.
It was unsettling how he had changed so drastically after his flirtations with me in the library that day my father had delivered the news he’d be working for us. He had wasted no time in reminding me of that passionate night we’d spent together in Turkey, and had seemed to have all the confidence in the world about us reliving that night. Now, however, it sometimes seemed like he didn’t remember that night at all. His indifference toward me made me wonder if something had happened to change the way he felt about me.
Had seeing me in an everyday setting turned him off? Made him no longer think of me as attractive? Had he been fooled by my tight dress and makeup in Turkey, only to find out that the beautiful sexy woman he had encountered back then had only been an illusion?
Had he just been drunk when I first met him?
It drove me crazy trying to figure out why Colt no longer seemed remotely attracted to me. Not to mention, it was giving my self-esteem quite a beating.
My dating history wasn’t extensive, but I always contributed that to the fact that my life was so busy. Plus, so much of my time was spent with my father that there just wasn’t much room left for dating. The way Colt was treating me though, now made me wonder if I just wasn’t all that appealing to men. While I had been blaming my busy schedule for my lack of a love-life, I now worried that it was really because I couldn’t hold anyone’s interest for a significant amount of time.
I found myself growing more and more nervous each time Colt was around—my heart breaking a little more each time he seemed to consciously avoid getting too close to me.
I wanted to ask him flat out if there was a problem, but I just couldn’t work up the nerve. So I stay
ed quiet in my agony, growing more and more depressed along the way.
I tried to tell myself that maybe it was a good thing that Colt no longer wanted me, because it gave me more time to study and keep my mind on-track. But it was useless. I was falling for Colt more and more each time I saw him—attracted to more than just his looks. It was his mannerisms, his quiet-strength, the respect and admiration he showed toward my father…
All the while, he just continued to look past me, as if I was merely a job he had landed but didn’t honestly want any more.
I was just the means of keeping food on his table.
* * *
There was a tentative knock on my bedroom door and I didn’t need to be psychic to know it was Colt.
Dad had gone out for the day to a meeting which he insisted would be brief and therefore he wouldn’t need me to accompany him.
“You can stay here, darling,” he had said. “I know I’ve been asking so much from you lately, but you have your own stuff going on. Stay in and study, and then get some rest. I’ll be back before you know it. I’ll tell Colt to stick around the house just in case you need to go somewhere.”
I knew Colt wasn’t there just to escort me though. He practically camped out at our house every day, especially on days when I was home alone. He had become the eternal look-out, making sure there was no suspicious activity happening anywhere near our home.
“Yeah?” I said glancing to my closed bedroom door.
“Just letting you know I’m ready whenever you are,” Colt’s voice sounded through the door.
I sighed, pulling on my sports bra and then reaching for my yoga shorts. Although I should have been studying, I had decided to go out to a yoga class instead, figuring it would refresh my mind so that when I got back home, I would have better focus for studying.