“I’m taking her home. I’ll feed her,” the surly man next to me voices to his brother, and the look between them is like a silent conversation that none of us are a part of.

“I want to argue, but I think I would like to go home, thanks anyway, Flynn.” And the moment I am not fighting against Forrest, I can see the worried look on Felisha’s face. “I’m fine, just need some air and my bed, exhaustion is hitting.” I know it’s more than that, but I don’t want to voice that I’m about to have a meltdown and shed some tears… again.

“Let’s go.” Forrest is up out of his chair and helping me to my feet before I have second thoughts. He’s probably shocked that I didn’t argue with him.

Ashton stands, and I lean over the table to shake his hand and thank him for all he is doing. Because at the end of the day, he doesn’t know me, yet he is willing to help me anyway.

As we leave the boardroom, Forrest stops me. “Just wait here for a few seconds, I forgot something.”

In the start of a brain-fog state, I just do as he tells me, and he is back before long, and we continue walking to the elevator.

“What did you forget?” I ask him as the doors close and we are in the elevator alone.

“To make sure Ashton understood you are off limits, and if he lets anything happen to you, I’ll hunt him down myself and kill him.” The words roll off Forrest’s tongue, so matter of fact, like he is ordering a coffee.

My mouth drops open, but I can’t even speak, so I don’t.

And the silence between us stays that way the whole drive home.

Who is this man, and why do I think that was the hottest thing I’ve ever heard?

I escape to my room as soon as we get home to give myself time to just go over everything that happened tonight.

I have so many questions, and they aren’t about what Ashton told me, and I find that bizarre in itself.

I sit on the edge of my bed with my childhood stuffed bear dressed like a Queen’s Guard—well, it was the queen then, and now he would be a King’s Guard. He is old and worn, and no one knows I still have him because he only ever comes out when I feel this unsettled. My dad bought him for me on the second day we were in London and doing some of the tourist things as a family before he started work and we didn’t see him very often.