Page 5 of Less

I climb into the SUV without another word.

But as the door shuts behind me, I feel it.

That familiar awareness.

The one I used to feel every time he walked into a room.

Less slides into the front passenger seat. He exchanges some words with the driver.

Even without looking at him, I know exactly where he is.

Three years ago Alessio Figueroa broke my heart.

Now he’s supposed to protect me.

I turn my head to the window and slide on my sunglasses.

Everything inside me is telling me to run away.

To protect myself.

But I can’t.

I have to be professional about this.

“Miss Perkins, Mr. Carter hopes you’ll join him and his guests for dinner after the concert,” Debra says, passing me a bottle of water.

I smile noncommittally.

“Any changes to Miss Perkins' plans will have to go through me first,” Less interrupts, and I narrow my eyes at him.

“Dinner will be lovely, Debra. Thank Mr. Carter for the invitation,” I say immediately after his objection.

He frowns at me, and I swear I feel sparks ignite.

Score one for Amanda.

No matter what, I can’t afford to allow any leftover emotions I might have for an old boyfriend to complicate this job.

“Fantastic, I’ll let the staff know to add one more place setting,” Debra says, and begins typing out a message on her cell phone.

“Two,” Less says. “Where she goes, I go.”

And that, right there, is the problem.

Chapter 2

Less

Three years.

Three goddamn years.

And the second Amanda Perkins steps off that jet, it feels like someone drove a knife straight through my chest.

I wish I could tell her about that mission—the violence, the death, the fucking toll it took on me.

How I felt unclean afterwards. Unworthy of someone like her.