Sweet Temptation: A Players Rockstar Romance (Players, Book 3)

Summer just looked at me.
“Right,” she said. “How about in the kitchen? I was just going to make some tea.” She turned to lead the way… and my eyes drifted down, over her curves in the silk robe.
So sue me, she was gorgeous. And it was my job to notice… well, everything.
“Dibs,” Andre muttered behind me.
I turned and leveled him with a hard look. “Inappropriate.”
He tore his gaze from Summer’s ass and met my eyes. And whatever he saw on my face made him smirk.
“Go check out the yard,” I growled, quietly. “Make sure everything looks secure out there.”
“Right. Sorry, it’s the whiskey.” He reached for the door.
“And, Andre? If you don’t find anything… just stay out there until I say otherwise.”
The smirk spread. “Sure, boss.” He pulled up the flashlight app on his phone and beamed it out into the dark as he went outside.
I locked the door behind him.
I wasn’t totally sure if he wanted dibs on the woman or on the job. Or both.
But either way, he could fuck right off.

Chapter Four
Ronan
Summer was getting things out of her cupboards as I slipped off my leather jacket and crossed the living room toward her.
The remnants of a party were scattered throughout the room.
Half-empty cocktail glasses, beer bottles, a feather boa on the floor. The counter that partially separated the living room from the kitchen, which would’ve maybe been a breakfast bar, had been converted into an actual bar, the lower cabinets stocked with liquor bottles.
I pulled out a stool at the bar, draping my jacket over the back and sitting down to face her. If I didn’t hover, maybe a little less chance I’d come across as intimidating. Or annoying.
Summer glanced at me as I sat down, but didn’t seem to really see me.
“So,” I asked her gently, “you alright?”
“Getting there. Would you like some tea?”
“Thank you, but it’s not necessary. Really.”
“I’m making some either way. Decaf. Do you like mint? Lemon ginger? Vanilla?” She tried to smile but it felt forced.
Obviously, she’d been woken up by the attempted break-in and she was shaken. Who wouldn’t be? But she was definitely trying to treat me like a guest rather than a security professional.
I’d been treated this way before.
My presence often made people uncomfortable. Usually the people who needed my services the most were the ones who didn’t want to need me.
Or who hadn’t yet accepted that they did need me.
She seemed determined to serve me something, so I said, “Mint sounds fine.”
She filled the kettle with water, filled the little mesh basket in the glass teapot with tea leaves. The dark robe she was wearing had a pale pattern of pink flowers on it. Looked expensive. It ended mid-thigh… She had fantastic, toned legs, bare feet.
She wasn’t wearing any jewelry. No wedding ring.
Not that I was looking. I just noticed things.
“Would you like something to eat?” she offered.
“No, thank you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Really, it’s too late for me. Thank you.”
“Sugar?” She looked directly at me, her pale-blue eyes holding mine.
“Please.”
I watched as she got out the sugar and brought it over to the bar where I was sitting. Then she looked at me again. She smoothed her hands over her hair, then tightened the sash of her robe. Now that she was waiting for the water to boil, she didn’t seem to know what to do with herself.
She exhaled. “I’m trying not to freak out. Is it obvious?”
I chose my words carefully, aware that she was possibly looking to me, a stranger, to make her feel safe in her own home. It was a difficult, uncomfortable position for anyone to be in. But beyond that… something told me this woman wasn’t accustomed to being victimized. Or asking for help just to get through the night.
“It’s normal to feel like you don’t know what to feel when this kind of thing happens,” I said. “It can take a while to process. It’s also normal to feel a whole lot of things at once. Scared. Angry. Confused.”
“Is that obvious, too?” Again, she tried to smile, but fell short.
“Professional observation.”
“Well, it definitely feels like the universe ripped its cosmic rug out from under my feet. My night ended with a nice little party with friends, a hot shower… a creep climbing onto my balcony…”
“What did the police have to say about it?” I asked, trying to steer her away from that, to the action that had been taken.
“Not much. They mostly asked questions.”
“And if you’re tired of questions right now, I understand.” Brody had mentioned a possible ongoing situation, which meant he was thinking about hiring one of my guys to beef up her security; that meant the more information I had for a security assessment, the better. But it definitely wouldn’t hurt right now to sit back and not press. Put her in a position of control. Give her the choice. “If you want to talk about what happened… Sometimes it helps to go over it while it’s still fresh.”
The water boiled in the kettle. Summer went to fill the teapot. She seemed to be considering what I’d said.
“Okay,” she said, bringing the teapot over to the bar. Then she took a deep breath. “I was sleeping and something woke me up. I wasn’t sure what it was. I thought someone was in the house. A friend of mine, I mean. I’d had friends over tonight, and I was kind of half-asleep. I thought maybe one of them had stayed over. But I guess I knew that wasn’t true. I just had a weird feeling.” She met my eyes briefly. “I can’t explain it. It was just a feeling that something was wrong.”
“Sometimes feelings are there to tell you things you can’t otherwise know. Instincts.”
“Yeah,” she said softly. “So I came downstairs and looked around. And then I saw him out there, through the window.” She pointed into the glass sunroom off the back of the living room.
I could see right into it from my seat at the bar;