The Boss Assignment (Rogue Protectors Book 3) by Victoria Paige (summer beach reads .TXT) 📕

croaked when he completed his inspection and stood in front of her, their bodies mere inches apart. He was lost in her crystal blue eyes.

“And you’re mesmerizing.”

“Stop it.” She glanced away.

“Don’t.” He caught her chin and guided it back toward him. He leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose, before brushing her lips lightly with his.

“Oops.” A voice said behind Charly. His friend broke their moment. “I thought I’d given Antonio enough time to get over this transformation. What do you think, Antonio?”

“I’m still picking my jaw up off the floor.” A grin threatened to form on his mouth at the obvious discomfort that Charly was having for being put under the microscope when she was usually on the other end of it. “But I fear Dr. Bennett will expire from embarrassment if we don’t stop talking about her as if she weren’t here.”

“You’ve got that right,” Charly muttered.

“She needs some sun,” Jolene said. “She’s wearing one of my beach ensembles and has a bikini under that.”

Antonio smiled at his friend’s words. “Then we’ll make sure it doesn’t go to waste.”

16

“If I’m sunbathing, then you’re lying in the sun with me,” Charly said.

“Don’t have swimming trunks,” Antonio replied.

Antonio took her past Leblon to a hotel that had a private beach. They walked right in actually, and the staff greeted Antonio like he was a regular. Hell, maybe he even owned the hotel. She knew Andrade Industries’ main business was its pharmaceutical arm, Anriotech, but who knew what else made up its holdings.

The shoreline was flanked by rocky caverns far from public eyes. Three huts were built close to the back of the hotel. They were big enough to hold a small gathering and the one they were led to had a built-in grill. Antonio stepped on the bench and sat on top of the wooden picnic table. He was still wearing his trousers, but at least he discarded his suit coat and his tie was loosened.

Charly pranced in front of the hut, barefoot in the sand, and she couldn’t deny she was enjoying the breeze coming from the ocean. It was a sense of freedom she hadn’t felt since before Carillo kidnapped her.

“Walk with me on the beach,” she called to him.

He scowled at her.

“Come on, Antonio, get that stick out of your ass.” A couple of his bodyguards snickered. Charly hadn’t noticed them before. Apparently, aside from Oscar, there was another vehicle with four security personnel following them at a discreet distance.

Antonio anchored an elbow to his knee, twisted his torso, and looked back at his men. He said something in Portuguese she didn’t quite catch. The men laughed again, but this time more nervously.

“What did you say to them?”

He regarded her with amused eyes. “I said if they don’t stop listening to our conversation then they’ll find out how it feels to have a stick in their ass.”

“You’re horrible.” She looked over Antonio’s shoulder to the two bodyguards, who still looked green around the gills. “He didn’t mean it.”

Antonio chuckled. “Ah, minha querida, you’re bad for my reputation.”

“What?”

“You’re making me soft.”

Charly leaned against the side of the hut. “There’s nothing soft about you.”

Humor crinkled the corner of his eyes. “Is that a compliment?”

“It depends.”

Oh my God, she was flirting.

It must be this whole package of being pampered by Jolene and the romantic setting of the beach, not to mention the indomitable presence of a man who exuded the whole Latin lover vibe. Well, almost, he just had to loosen up a bit.

“I don’t like that look in your eyes, gatinha.” His mouth kicked up at the edges.

“Well.” She walked around the corner and entered the hut, approaching the figure of the man sitting imperiously on the picnic table. A hut flanked by bodyguards made Antonio appear as sinister as a mafia boss enjoying a break from his underworld kingdom, watching the light from the darkness.

Charly had this compulsion to bring him to the light.

She stood in front of him, meeting the glittering dare of his eyes before reaching for his tie. Slowly, deliberately, she undid the knot, slid it off around his neck and tossed it away.

“That’s an expensive tie,” he murmured.

“How much?”

He raised a brow. “You’re going to pay me back with the money in your purse?”

Charly laughed. “I don’t even know how much you put in there.”

“Enough for a ride back to the villa.”

“Cheapskate,” she teased. “I’m worth more than that.”

She started to unbutton the top of his dress shirt. He caught her hands. “Tell me what you want?” His eyes glimmered with heat. Who needed the sun? Charly thought.

“A walk on the beach.” One button open.

“That’s it?”

“Conversation.” Two buttons. “This time you’ll do most of the talking.”

He froze.

“No. No. No. You’re shutting down again.” She lowered her hands and they flew to her hips. “Look. I know whatever this is between us … it’s not going to last.”

Antonio didn’t say anything. His face was impassive, and her chest was caving in at his non-response. But she was beginning to understand him. He didn’t offer false promises just to get her to sleep with him. He didn’t want complicated. He was honest about his attraction to her.

“And I understand that,” she continued. “But I can’t do casual.”

“What’s the use of digging into every sordid detail of our pasts if you say this isn’t going to last?” he bit out. “And this is far from casual. Casual is a one-night stand. I foresee many nights, even weeks with you. That’s not casual.”

“But I want to get to know the man who I’ll let into my bed.”

Antonio grinned and it wasn’t from amusement, more from derision. “We might not even make it to a bed.”

She stared at him. He smirked at her.

They were at a standoff. Did he expect a repeat of last night? Take her up against the wall and fuck her? Or maybe take her down to the floor and wham-bam, it’s over?

He reached out to touch her, but she flinched away.

He