Passion, Vows & Babies: Body Language (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  Text copyright ©2017 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Rochelle Paige Popovic and Elle Christensen. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Passion, Vows & Babies remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Rochelle Paige Popovic and Elle Christensen, or their affiliates or licensors.

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  Body Language

  A Yeah, Baby and Body & Soul Crossover

  Rochelle Paige

  Contents

  Dear Reader,

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Also by Rochelle Paige

  About the Author

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to the Passion, Vows & Babies Kindle World! In this combination of my Passion & Vows and Yeah, Baby series, we’ll bring you new books by some truly amazing authors. From sexy stories of married couples fighting against outside forces to keep their happily ever after, to unexpected pregnancies that lead to forever afters… the Passion, Vows & Babies world is full of over the top alphas, sassy heroines, insta-love, wedding bells, and growing families. Although the wide cast of characters in both series have managed to find love, there’s plenty more out there who could use Passion, Vows & Babies in their lives—like the couple in this story!

  For more about the world, stop by the Passion, Vows & Babies website: http://www.fionadavenport.com/kindle-worlds/.

  Happy reading!

  Fiona Davenport

  (Elle Christensen & Rochelle Paige)

  Chapter 1

  Jessa

  Mid-way through answering the phone, I stopped and stared as Roman Thatcher pushed through the glass doors leading into the reception area where I worked. I felt the heat in my cheeks as they pinkened, which wasn’t a surprise considering how my heart raced at the sight of the man I’d been crushing on ever since he’d been hired a month ago. I should have been used to being surrounded by hot, alpha males since pretty much every guy Xander Gray, my boss, hired fit that description to a T.

  Roman took that hotness to a whole new level—at least as far as I was concerned. He commanded attention when he walked into a room, and it wasn’t just because he was six-foot three inches with lean muscles. He had piercing blue eyes that appeared to catalog every detail around him in a split-second. His dark hair was about an inch overdue for a cut, and he only bothered to shave on days when he had a meeting with a new client. It was the only concession he made, though, because I’d never seen him bother with a suit like the other guys did when they were trying to impress a bigwig because there was a lucrative security contract at stake. Except for today, when he showed up in a three-piece, black suit that looked like it’d been tailored for his body and stole the breath right out of my lungs.

  The buzzing in my ear finally pulled me out of my stupor, and I realized that I hadn’t gotten past saying “good morning” to the caller who’d just hung up. Staring at Roman might have been my favorite new pastime, but it was also heck on my concentration. “Darn it,” I muttered to myself.

  Roman stopped in front of my desk to stare down at me. “Everything okay, beautiful?”

  “Uh huh.”

  He tilted his head to the side, studying my face with laser focus. “You sure?”

  “Uh huh,” I repeated because actual words were beyond my ability at the moment.

  “Thatcher, my office. Now,” Xander barked out from behind me, startling me since I hadn’t heard him open the door. I jumped in my chair, swiveling around to look at him as I let out a little yelp. Mid-turn, my elbow smacked into a pile of folders on the corner of my desk and knocked them onto the floor. Scrambling out of my chair, I knelt down to pick them up and barely stopped myself from falling over when I lifted my head and realized I was eye-level with Roman’s pants seam and could see his hard length pressing against it.

  I quickly dropped my gaze, the blush in my cheeks turning into an inferno, and swallowed nervously when he bent down to help me with the mess I’d made. “I’ve got it,” I whispered.

  “I’m not gonna walk past without helping you.”

  “Uh huh,” I breathed out. Again.

  “Those the folders I asked you for yesterday, Jessa?” Xander asked.

  I tore my gaze away from Roman and nodded at my boss.

  “Bring those files in with you, Roman,” he ordered, turning on his heel and leaving us alone.

  Roman tugged the lone file I’d picked up out of my hand, added it to the stack he already had, and then helped me to my feet. His masculine scent wrapped around me, turning my legs to jelly. I dropped down into my chair and stared at his butt when he turned to follow after Xander.

  “Thank you,” I finally managed to squeak out as the door shut behind his broad back.

  “Hey, Jessa,” Calista called out to me softly. I turned to find her looking at me with a teasing look in her eyes. “You want to work out with me tonight? Run through some more self-defense moves? Give you a little boost of confidence, so maybe you’ll do something about those looks you keep giving the new guy?”

  “Yeah, that would be great,” I agreed. Calista meant well, but it didn’t matter how many lessons she gave me, I’d never get the nerve up to flirt with Roman. I was too shy to ever make the first move with anyone; let alone a guy who was so far out of my league that it wasn’t even funny.

  That wasn’t the reason why I’d asked her for help, but I’d avoided telling anyone about what was going on. I knew that if I talked to Calista about it, she’d fill Xander in on the story because he wasn’t just the boss to her—he was her doting husband. But they had their own things going on with their beautiful two-month-old baby, and I didn’t want to be a bother at a time when they should be focused on their family.

  Besides which, my situation wasn’t anything to panic about. I’d received a couple of notes that weren’t signed. And one weird voicemail message that I wasn’t too sure about. Plus, there was a middle of the night hang up on my cell last night. It wasn’t anything to worry about, or at least that’s how I’d tried to rationalize it.

  At first, I thought that maybe I had a secret admirer, and for a brief moment, I’d hoped that it was Roman. But then reality had set in, and I knew it couldn’t be him because he was the kind of guy who’d take the direct approach with a woman he was interested in dating. I’d gotten hints here and there that maybe he was kind of, sort of attracted to me, but nothing had come of it so I was sure it was just wishful thinking.

  Forcing a smile on to my face, I tried for a change of topic to get the focus off me before I blurted out the jumbled mess of thoughts swirling around my brain. “No Madison this morning?”

  Calista had only started back to work for a few hours a day a couple of weeks ago, and she always brought the baby in with her. She and Xander weren’t ready to send her to daycare, and neither of them liked the idea of hiring a nanny. Considering his experiences in the Secret Service and hers with the CIA, I couldn’t really blame them. They’d seen too much to trust strangers with their baby—not even with the kind of background checks they could pull.

  “Margaret came over to the house to watch her for me this morning. Xander has a meeting offsite, so I’m goi
ng to hang around and play boss while he’s gone,” Calista explained.

  “It isn’t playing when you really are one of the bosses,” I pointed out. And it wasn’t like any of the guys gave her a hard time because she’d more than proven herself to them when she’d shot a client’s stalker after taking a bullet in the shoulder. “Why am I not surprised that my grandmother is putting her retirement to good use? Sneaking in all those baby cuddles while I’m not around to steal Madison away from her.”

  “We’re lucky that she’s back from Europe and available to help out.”

  “Lucky, my foot,” I mumbled. “I’m willing to bet she planned it that way.”

  “That’s not a bet I’d take,” Calista laughed. The two women had gotten to know each other fairly well after my grandmother had recovered from her appendectomy and spent a couple of months training me as her replacement before she retired as Xander’s assistant. She was the only person who’d been allowed to babysit Madison so far—on the night she’d turned six-weeks old, so Xander and Calista could have a night out. Since I’d moved in with my grandmother to be closer to work, it meant I’d gotten to spend some time with the baby, too. But only a little.

  “She’s greedy when it comes to Madison. I think she let me hold her for a grand total of maybe fifteen minutes when we watched her for you guys.”

  “My baby girl might be my favorite topic in the world, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to forget about our workout session tonight,” Calista warned. “Or—”

  She was cut off by the ringing of the phone. “Saved by the bell,” I mumbled as I grabbed for it. Without Roman around to distract me, I was able to get my full greeting out and give a new client directions to our office without sounding like a bumbling idiot. If only I could figure out how to manage that when he was around.

  Chapter 2

  Roman

  “I thought for sure she’d gotten over her nervousness and settled in a little, but I swear that girl has been jumpier lately than when she first started here,” Xander muttered, shaking his head as I settled into the chair across his desk from him.

  I leaned forward in my seat, narrowing my eyes at him as I growled, “She isn’t that bad.”

  He held up his hands in a sign of surrender. “No need to jump to her defense, Thatcher. It’s not like I’m going to fire Jessa. She’s part of the Gray Security family.”

  I relaxed again and flashed him a sly smile. “Plus, Calista would kick your ass if you did.”

  “She’d be the only one who might succeed in that endeavor,” he snorted. “But we both know you’d be the first to try.”

  I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow in question, acting like I didn’t understand the implication. I’d never been one to overly share personal information, and my time in the Army had only sharpened that instinct. It didn’t deter Xander, though.

  “Try and deny it all you want, but the bigger they are...the harder they fall.”

  I sank back in my chair and shook my head. “Like you can talk. You’re an inch taller than me.”

  “You’re not going to hear me denying that I fell hard for my woman. I think you’ll find there’s no shame in that.” He lifted a folder off the top of the pile I’d brought into the office with me, and rifled through it. “If you’re going to stay on here permanently, then you might want to man up.”

  I ignored the jab at my pride, knowing damn well that he was just trying to get a rise out of me so I’d admit to my interest in Jessa. Instead, I focused on the purpose of our meeting this morning—my one-month performance review. “If I stay on? Does that mean you’re not sure about your decision yet?”

  “Nah, the one-month trial run was a formality more than anything else. I knew you were qualified before I interviewed you, and you’ve fit in well with the team since you’ve been here. The position is yours for as long as you want it.”

  I felt a deep sense of relief that had more to do with the woman sitting in the receptionist’s chair than knowing I got to keep the job that I’d come to enjoy so much. If things hadn’t worked out with Xander, then I’d either have to hunt for another position in Atlanta or take the one I’d been offered in Chicago, working for an Army buddy of mine who’d started up his own security company several years ago. It was something I’d seriously considered, but my preference had been to stay in my hometown because it was familiar. Now it was to stay close to Jessa—as much of a pussy as it made me since I hadn’t even asked her out on a date yet.

  Damn, my reaction to her had knocked me for a loop when I first saw her the day I’d come in for my interview. The tiny blonde packed a punch to my libido. When she blinked up at me with those innocent brown eyes, blushing like she had a direct line to the filthy thoughts running through my brain about her, I’d wanted nothing more than to skip my interview, toss her over my shoulder, and take her back to my new apartment. Since she’d barely been able to stammer out a hello and I hadn’t wanted to scare the shit out of her, I reigned in my caveman impulses and swore to take it slow with her. But I hadn’t considered that I’d make virtually no progress at all in a month’s time.

  “I’ll take it.”

  “Good,” Xander clipped out. “We have a potential new client coming in at ten o’clock who I’d like you to meet with. I have a meeting I need to head to, but Calista will be here if any issues pop up.”

  “Will do.”

  He lifted up a manila envelope to hand it to me. “Jessa must have gotten this mixed up with the folders I needed.”

  I glanced down and noticed that it was addressed to her and already slit open at one end. Xander tilted the envelope as he handed it to me, and the contents spilled onto his desk. When what I was seeing registered, my entire world tipped on its axis.

  “What the fuck?” I growled, snatching the photos off his desk. My blood pressure rose as I looked through them. They seemed innocent enough at first glance since they were shots of her going about her day but I didn’t like the idea of some guy taking pictures of Jessa when she didn’t know about it. Or even if she did.

  One was of her crossing the street in front of the office. Another was of her sitting in the coffee shop down the street. A third was of her opening the front door to the house she shared with her grandmother. They were all taken from a distance, and they’d come to the office in an envelope addressed to her without a return address or postage.

  Worst of all, there was a note on the back of the photo taken where she lived. It said that the sender was keeping his eye on her. “She’s got a stalker.”

  I shoved the picture with the note at Xander so he could see what it said. “Fuck, you’re right. She does,” he agreed. “I don’t like that he knows where she lives and works.”

  “It pisses me the fuck off,” I growled.

  He picked the envelope up for a closer look. “Handwritten and addressed to Jessa. No postage and no return address. You know what that means.”

  “He’s been in this building. Maybe even our offices.”

  “Possibly even dropped it on her desk himself,” Xander added.

  “Fucking A,” I gritted out, pacing back and forth while I tried to pull myself together. Every protective inside me had risen to the surface. This wasn’t some random client were talking about. It was Jessa. My woman.

  I paused in front of him when Xander grabbed his phone and punched in a number. “Get me a copy of the security tapes for the last few days. The street, entrance, elevators, hallway in front of my office, front reception area, mail room,” he rattled off. “Everything you’ve got and I want them on my desk as fast as fucking possible.”

  “I’ll want to see them, too,” I told him after he hung up.

  He nodded. “Consider it done. Forget the new client meeting you were going to take. I want Jessa’s case to be your top priority.”

  As if there was ever any question about it. Xander could have tried to assign another employee to her, and it wouldn’t have made the least bit of difference to me. I’d
have just quit and taken care of her on my own. Her safety was my responsibility. “Of fucking course.”

  “That’s what I thought,” he chuckled drily.

  “You’ll want around the clock coverage on her, so I’ll assign a couple of teams to you as well.”

  “Just one,” I corrected him. “We have a lot on our plates here already, and it would stretch our resources too thin.”

  “Still able to use logic while your heart is involved. That right there is why there wasn’t a question about you working here permanently.”

  I barely noticed the compliment; my mind focused on building a plan to keep Jessa safe. “I’m going to take her up to a cabin I own in Kentucky, and I’ll reach out to a guy I knew in the Army who has his own firm up in Chicago to ask him to send a team down as well.”

  “It sucks that she’s got a stalker, but it’s not altogether horrible since it finally lit a much-needed fire under your ass.”

  “Shut the fuck up,” I muttered as I stormed out of his office and headed straight for my woman. With her in danger, I couldn’t give her any more time before I made my move.

  Chapter 3

  Jessa

  The door to Xander’s office flew open, and I jerked in my chair, sending it rolling backwards. In the short time it took me to put my feet on the ground to stop myself before I banged into the wall, Roman had crossed over to me. With an arm wrapped around my waist, my feet lifted right back off the floor when he picked me up until we were nose to nose. “Grab your things. We’re leaving.”