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  I wanted to hold her by the shoulders and start shaking her, yell at her it wasn’t my fault. I wanted to tell her this was my job and that I never wanted to betray her trust. But instead what came out of my mouth was—

  “I didn’t mean for it to go this far,” I said, choking on my words.

  Idiot.

  She looked at me like I had just stabbed her right in the heart, and she took a step back from me, her bottom lip shaking. Snow had started to fall, and she looked so beautiful with it dotting her hair and eyelashes, that it amazed me I was still able to think about her like that when she looked so heartbroken over me.

  “That came out wrong,” I said, taking back what I said with a shake of my head. “What I meant was--,”

  “Stop,” she pleaded, and I looked at her helplessly. I couldn’t stop. I needed to explain!

  I opened my mouth but she raised her hand to stop me, shaking her head.

  “Please,” she whispered, and the words died in my throat.

  “I’m tired of this, Spence,” she said. “I’m tired, and I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”

  “You don’t understand, George,” I replied. “I had to do it.”

  “You could’ve explained why!” she cried.

  “It was my job!” I yelled back, stopping myself from reaching for my scalp and pulling my hair out. “I had to lie to you so I could do my job,” I said, hoping she’d understand.

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them again, her eyes hardened, steeling their gaze on me.

  “Sure Spencer,” she quipped, and my heart broke at the lack of emotion in her voice. “I guess being with me was just another part of the job, too, huh?”

  She turned around to walk away and I just stood there, not taking a single step, a single move, to come after her.

  The war couldn’t break the great Spencer Downing, but a girl named Georgiana Pratt sure could.

  Chapter 1

  Spencer

  “Oh my God!! Veronica! Please look over here!” a fan screamed, and I clenched my teeth to keep myself from yelling back at her.

  I braced my feet and pushed against these crazed teenagers who wanted to get near Miss Superstar. I could see Jason at the corner of my eye, standing directly in front of Veronica, and making a path for her towards the studio as we kept her fans at bay. When Veronica finally got inside, she gave a final wave, and Sasha and her new assistant, KC, went with her. The fans immediately dispersed, and I was finally able to breathe.

  I readjusted my suit, grumbling about these crazy ass women, when I felt a hand clap over my shoulder. I looked to my side and Jason grinned at me. I checked his suit and got even more disgruntled because how the fuck did this guy manage to keep his clothes so spick and span after that stampede? Dude’s a miracle worker.

  “How you holding up?” he asked.

  “Barely. I still don’t get why I have to be here when you’re already in charge of protecting your girlfriend,” I grunted, and Jason chuckled.

  “Yeah, that was my fault. I told Chase the security here in TV 5 was a bit lax, so I requested for more guys to be reassigned for this event,” Jason explained. “Sorry about that,” he said, and I waved my hand in the air dismissively.

  “It’s fine. I was just kidding,” A little. “Besides, the free food and cola for a month at the movies makes up for it,” I said, chuckling as I remembered Veronica’s offer to sweeten the deal.

  “Well, my girl got you on that one, didn’t she?” Jason replied, the pride evident in his voice.

  This dude was a goner. He’s so deep in this love pool, he stopped breathing and drowned. It’s kind of pathetic.

  I swear to God, I was never going to go that route. Nope. NO WAY.

  “Okay, lover boy. Let’s dial the fuzzy feelings down a couple of notches, alright? For my stomach’s sake?” I asked, and Jason rolled his eyes.

  “I swear, sometimes I think you’re more of a drama queen than Veronica,” he said.

  “Hey, I just don’t want to cough up what I ate for breakfast, Keyes,” I jested, folding my arms in front of my chest. “Speaking of the drama queen, Chase told me you already popped the question. What did she say? Is she wearing your rock?” I asked.

  Jason’s eyes widened and he turned his head left and right to check if anybody had heard me. He pushed me hard, and we moved over to a secluded corner of the building.

  “Did you have to talk about that right now? Jesus!” Jason cursed, placing his hands on his hips as he fidgeted nervously. I raised my arms up, placating him.

  “I’m sorry! I forgot this isn’t the time or the place,” I answered, mentally kicking myself for asking such a thing in public. “But it’s safe now, so answer the question,” I badgered him.

  “Yes, okay. I finally asked her to marry me the other night, and yes, she said ‘yes’,” Jason answered. I hit him in the back, grinning.

  “Congrats, bro,” I told him, and he smiled.

  “Thanks. You know, I never really thought I’d think about getting married before,” Jason said, and I raised my eyebrow in disbelief. “I’m serious. Back when I was part of the Delta Force, I always focused on making it one day at a time. There was always a high probability of us dying in combat, that I never wanted my family to go through that,” he said, and I nodded in agreement.

  Actually, I had the same mindset back when I was a Marine. My job required me to jump headfirst into danger, and there was always a possibility the mission would be my last. It would’ve been cruel to subject a person to that kind of torture.

  But even after I got discharged, I still wasn’t keen on the idea. I’ve watched my parents try to make things work only to end up being miserable together, and I did not want that kind of life.

  I guess that was where Jason and mine’s mindset differed, or maybe it took a woman like Veronica Langley to make him change his mind about marriage, or falling in love in general.

  Fat chance of that ever happening to me. Even I knew that girls like Veronica were one in a million.

  “Yeah, I’m not too keen on the whole ‘falling in love’ thing, either. I’m alright with having a little fun. Nothing serious,” I said, and Jason furrowed his brows at me and shook his head.

  “You know, Downing, I have a feeling you’re going to change your tune,” Jason retorted, narrowing his eyes at me with a lopsided smirk garnering his face.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, pretending not to know what he was talking about.

  “I’m just going to go ahead and call it now,” Jason declared. “Mark my words, Downing. You’re going to meet somebody special that would make you want to eat your words today,” he stated. I rolled my eyes and pushed him off of me. I was getting tired of this inane conversation.

  “Let’s get back into position. There’s only ten minutes left until your wife-to-be finishes her interview,” I muttered.

  Jason rolled his eyes, and then went back to his position near the door, while I went back to the left of the barricade. I scoffed as Jason’s words replayed in my head. It was fucking ridiculous. There was no way anyone was going to change my mind. There was no way I was going to lose my sanity and fall in love.

  Not a chance in hell.

  Chapter 2

  Georgiana

  “Maybe the reason why people we want to be with don’t end up staying with us,” he said, tears starting to form in his eyes. “Is because there’s someone out there who deserves to be with us, who are a much better person for us,” he said.

  Jake looked up at his ex-girlfriend after he said those words, and Meredith felt like he had stabbed her in the heart.

  “Maybe they never meant to stay, so they did the one thing they had to do,” Jake continued, shutting his eyes tight and trying to endure the pain in his chest.

  “They let us go.”

  “George, what the hell are you doing?”

  I slammed my notebook shut and got up, looking at my brother,
Darcy, innocently. He scowled and crossed his arms in irritation.

  “I’ve been calling your name since five minutes ago. Were you lost in your little world again?” he asked. I pouted at him.

  “No, I was just purposely ignoring you so you’d get annoyed at me,” I fibbed, keeping a straight face. Darcy rolled his eyes, and hit me upside the head before walking out of my room.

  “Dinner’s ready! Get your ass down here, George!” he yelled. I groaned, and slumped over my notes. I didn’t like to be disturbed whenever I was in a writing mood for fear of losing my momentum, but my family never gets it, no matter how many times I told them.

  You would think that being the daughter of two prolific authors of this generation, and they would understand the pains of writer’s block and whatnot, but nope. Once they summoned you, you had to drop everything you were doing and grace them with your presence.

  “Georgiana Elizabeth Pratt, if you’re not sitting in the dinner table in two minutes, we are cancelling your Owl Crate subscription!” my mom shrieked, and I sighed. I got up and closed my bedroom door, and climbed down the stairs towards the dining area where Dad and Darcy were already sitting, and Mom was placing the sushi platter at the center of the table.

  “You know you didn’t have to go that far to get me to come down,” I pouted, taking a seat across from Darcy, who chuckled.

  “Actually, I find Mom’s quirky threats to you very funny. It’s even funnier when I see how effective they are,” Darcy enthused. I crumpled my eyebrows at him as I reached for the pitcher of iced tea.

  “What do you mean quirky threats?” I asked.

  “Most teenagers are threatened with cancelling credit cards, grounding them, no shopping sprees,” Darcy enumerated.

  “Well, that’s because common threats wouldn’t work on your sister,” Dad remarked. “Because for starters, she doesn’t own a credit card, and second, she doesn’t shop unless it’s to buy books. But I wouldn’t consider that shopping,” he said.

  “And grounding her would be more of a reward than a punishment, because all she ever does is stay in her room,” Mom added, looking at me with a sly grin on her face.

  “Well, why don’t you try threatening me to go outside next time?” I bluffed.

  “Maybe I will,” Mom replied. I snorted.

  “Sure, you would,” I countered, my tone drenched heavily with sarcasm. “You and Dad would lose it if I was fifty feet away from home, unless I was at school. You wouldn’t intentionally ask me to go outside even if someone put a gun to your head,” I said.

  “She’s got a point,” Darcy agreed, his mouth a cross between a wince and a grin.

  “Proper parenting methods and punishments aside,” Dad said, looking at each of us sternly, silently commanding us to drop the conversation. “We were actually hoping to discuss another topic with you, Georgiana.”

  I groaned at the use of my complete first name. I didn’t hate the name, “Georgiana”, per se, but it’s just that it’s too old-fashioned and prissy sounding to me. It’s a new millennium and not a lot of women my age are named Georgiana, unless they’re an heiress to a multimillion dollar corporation or something.

  For the record, my parents didn’t name me that way because they wanted to show off the millions they earned from selling their books. They named my brother, Darcy, and I, Georgiana, because my mother was a huge fan of Jane Austen, particularly her book, Pride and Prejudice. Darcy after the male lead, and me after the male lead’s sister. Though if we were to be really specific about the details, Darcy, is Georgiana and her older brother’s last name. The guy’s first name is actually Fitzwilliam, but fortunately for my brother’s sake, my father put his foot down and settled on Darcy, because no offense to the dude or Austen’s taste in names, Fitzwilliam is a sissy name, and would’ve set my brother up for humiliation the rest of his life.

  “Mom, call me ‘George’. Georgiana is too long and doesn’t exactly fit my personality, you know?” I asked grumbling.

  “George is man’s name,” Mom answered primly. “And that is not what we wanted to talk to you about.”

  “Then what is it?” I asked, my annoyance meter quickly filling up.

  “We wanted to talk to you about your college plans,” Dad said.

  “What about it? I’m all set,” I said, shrugging.

  “Your mother and I thought it would be best if you just stayed here at home, and take your courses online,” Dad said very carefully. The expression on his face cautious, like he was watching a lion that was seconds away from taking a chunk out of him.

  I think a vein in my temple burst right then and there.

  Darcy, to his credit, shook his head and muttered, “Oh shit, now they’ve done it,” he squeezed his eyes shut with a wince, bracing himself for my explosion.

  And then I let it rip.

  “What?!” I cried, looking at my parents like they’d lost their minds. “Are you freaking kidding me right now?”

  “Language,” my Mom chided, but I ignored her. Seriously? She was more concerned with my ‘language’ than with my quality of education? And ‘freaking’ wasn’t even a hard-core swear word!

  I took a deep breath, my chest rising, and my abdomen pressing in tightly before I blew the air out slowly, forming my lips in a small ‘O’, and making my cheeks puff out. I did this twice more in an effort to contain myself.

  “Let’s not delude ourselves any further, because we all know what I was going to answer before you even asked the question,” I said, my eyes closed, as I refused to look at my ridiculous parents. “But just for the sake of it, I’m going to go ahead and say it: Why?” I asked, finally opening my eyes to look at them with the tiniest bit of exasperation.

  “You’re father and I just think that there’s no reason for you to be so far away just to attend college. And you said so yourself that everything can be done through the internet these days,” Mother said. I sighed at her poor reasoning. Was that really the best they got?

  “The writing center at UNC has a hell of a lot more comprehensive program than what any writing course online can give me,” I countered.

  “If you’re dead set on going to college, why not just go to the community college downtown?” Dad tried, and I scoffed at him, disgusted.

  “No offense to the community colleges in the world, but I’m still going with my plan,” I said. “Also, community college would mean I’d have to stay here instead of a dorm, and one of my main reasons for going is to gain independence,” I said. From you, I mentally added, but the words didn’t come out loud.

  “But you don’t need to get it all the way in North Carolina!” my mother cried, using the back of her hand to slap the edge of her forehead, and making that ‘woe-is-me’ expression you mostly see in 18th century period movies.

  “Like I said, I applied for a lot of colleges,” –all of them away from here—“And from among those that accepted, I chose the one I thought was best,” –and the farthest.

  “Well, if you’re so dead set on disobeying us, young lady,” Dad said, his eyes glinting in that way they always did when he was about to pull out the ace in his sleeve. “Let’s see how you try and pay for your college tuition,” he declared, folding his arms in front of his chest, his bottom lip jutting out smugly in victory.

  I smirked at him, fully expecting this blow, and opening my mouth to deal my own. “Well then, it’s a good thing I’ve got a full ride scholarship, huh?” I said, effectively wiping the smug look on my parents’ faces.

  “You can’t afford the plane ticket,” Mom blurted out, the desperation clear in her eyes.

  “Already got that covered,” I fired back, rolling my eyes.

  “Regardless, you won’t get our permission,” Dad said, standing up and putting his hands on the table, palms down. “So good luck trying to feed yourself over there.”

  “Irregardless, I’m going,” I said. That was the only hitch in my plan, and I had hoped my parents weren’t cruel enough to cut me
off but, since it’s come to this, I’m just going to have to look for some part-time jobs once I get there. Like hell they would keep me hold up in here.

  “Irregardless isn’t a word,” Mom shrieked.

  “Actually, it is. It’s a conversation ender. You should look it up in Webster’s. It’s under the letter ‘I’,” I countered. I watched patiently as Darcy opened up his phone and did as I asked.

  “She’s got you guys again, Mom,” Darcy said, nodding thoughtfully. I looked over at my parents with a smug smirk on my face. I made a grand show of taking another bite out of my dinner, then wiping my mouth daintily with a napkin, before I stood up to leave, but not without one last parting shot.

  “And you call yourselves writers.”

  Get the Box Set!

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  Delta Protectors Box Set (Book 3)

  DescriptionGet the Box Set!

  Rebecca Hayes has joined Chase’s pack of delta protectors, and her first mission involves protecting two subjects – a budding musician and his daughter. Despite her extensive military training and expertise, even she has to admit guarding two people would be difficult…which is why she’s getting a partner.