Hot Ice (A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 7) Read Online Free PDF Page A

control over what she did then, or who went with her, and she’d hated it.
    She wasn’t an idiot, and she knew why she needed this man with her now. But she didn’t like it because it made her uncomfortable. She didn’t like strangers, didn’t do well with them, and it bothered her that she felt so awkward. She spent more time thinking about what she should say, or could say, when all she wanted was to be left alone.
    The worst kinds of hired help when she’d been a child had been the talkers. Those people who wouldn’t stop talking, even when she had her head buried in a book. She just wanted silence, but they thought they had to occupy her at every turn. She was slightly ashamed of herself for being unable to engage with them back then, but those days were long past. She could talk now when she had to, could fake it for the cameras and the public appearances when necessary.
    Garrett Spencer didn’t say a word as he pressed the gas and the car began to move toward Constitution Avenue. She thought she should be happy he didn’t talk to her, but she found it somewhat disconcerting.
    Grace scrolled through her e-mail, intent on focusing on her job and her life and forgetting that she’d just lost a major portion of the control and independence she’d worked so hard for.
    It’s temporary , she told herself. Only temporary.
    And necessary. She had no desire to meet the man who’d held her at gunpoint ever again. She wanted him found, and then she wanted her life back.
    Until then, she had to deal with this dark, silent distraction of a man in the front seat of her daddy’s armored Escalade. Her stomach sank just a little at that notion.
    She’d intended to go to work after her meeting on the Hill with her father, but her bodyguard appeared to have other ideas. When she realized he wasn’t headed for Bethesda, her heartbeat kicked up and she could feel the flush staining her skin. She thought about that copy of her schedule her father had given him and cursed herself for not demanding to see it then and there.
    “Excuse me, but I think you missed the turn.”
    His mirrored gaze flicked up to the rearview, back down again. “I didn’t miss anything. We’re going to your home. You’ll stay there until the event this evening.”
    Shock filled her that he could so easily override her wishes. And then anger swelled inside her. “I beg your pardon? I didn’t agree to that. Turn around now and take me to the lab.”  
    He was silent for a long moment. Then he glanced at her again, a polite smile on his handsome face—though she could see a muscle flexing in his jaw. “Not happening… princess .”
    Grace couldn’t contain her gasp of outrage. Fresh heat flooded her cheeks. “You work for my father, and you will not speak to me with disrespect—or I will have you fired.”
    One eyebrow quirked up as he glanced at her again, and the heat of embarrassment rolled through her. My God, she sounded like a spoiled child. That definitely wasn’t the tone she’d been going for. But she couldn’t help it.  
    She could hear her mother in her ear, her cultured tones dressing down anyone who crossed her. Her mother sounded elegant and refined when she did it. Grace sounded like a hoity-toity bitch.
    Still, she was pissed. Red-hot anger pulsed in her veins. In spite of the coolness of the car, sweat beaded between her breasts, under their curves. Her ears and scalp were hot too.
    “You want to get me fired?” he drawled. “Go for it, cupcake. I don’t think it’ll turn out the way you expect, though. Your father wanted the best—and he got it when my firm got involved. I’m here to stay until the danger is over, whether you like it or not.”
    She sat back and crossed her arms over her breasts. Her heart pounded and her pulse throbbed. She hated confrontation, hated it with a passion—and yet she wanted more than anything to wipe that look off his face.  
    She sniffed in disdain. “Cupcake? Really? Don’t