Flawlessly Executed (Dark Horse Guardians Book 3) by Ava Armstrong Read Free Book Online

very talkative with me.” Lara confessed, “But then we’ve been working on projects together and I think he feels comfortable now. It takes a while for him to open up.”
     
     
    ~ Ben ~
    As they sat in the living room, Ben ran through his boring day at the university. He casually mentioned the mysterious phone message delivered by the nefarious Lucy Adams.
    “What mysterious phone message?” Lara perked up.
    “Well, you remember that photograph I grabbed out of your hand in my bedroom.” Ben danced around the subject.
    “Yes, the one with Abby in it?” Lara’s face took on a look of distraction as she flipped through an architectural magazine. Ben steeled himself. He was waiting for her green eyes to flash with a tinge of jealousy. But she was cool and distant.
    She finally asked him a question, “So, what happened? What was the phone message?”
    Ben felt he had to tell her everything. “She’s going to be working at the university. She teaches in Boston right now, but has a job offer here.”
    Lara yawned and tossed the magazine aside. She was lounging on the sofa, looking relaxed and a bit tired. She turned the television on, and replied, “That’s nice. You’ll be working at the university with an old friend.”
    Ben thought she was certainly taking this in stride. He had never seen Lara so calm and collected. He expected a stronger reaction. For some reason, he felt he needed to explain that Abby was someone from thirteen years ago. And, more importantly, confirm that he had no intention of spending lots of time with her.
    “Lara, you do understand there’s nothing between us now.”
    But she didn’t seem to hear him; she was now distracted by something on television.
    Not looking at him, Lara murmured, “I suppose you’ll be seeing her from time to time at the university. That makes sense. I never thought there was anything between you. No need to explain.”
    As he sat on the couch and put his arm around her, Lara stood up and started to walk out of the room. Yawning, she announced, “I’m going to take a shower and go to bed. I’m really exhausted tonight.”
    Ben sat motionless and watched as she strolled down the hallway to the master bedroom area. He heard the shower running and longed to go in there and ask her what she did with his wife. Usually riddled with anxiety and peppering him with questions bordering on paranoia, tonight Lara was laid back to the point of not seeming to care .
    An hour passed and she did not come back to the living room. In fact, she had gone to bed and was sound asleep when he entered the bedroom. What just happened? She walked out of the room, took a shower, and forgot to kiss him goodnight. He was hurt, not only by the lack of a goodnight kiss, but by the fact that she gave the bungalow to Hawk.
    He knew if the roles were reversed and it was an old flame working with Lara, he’d lose it. He already had. In the past, he assumed things about Eliot Stone and Eric Henderson and yes, even Hawk. He hated the hyper-sensitivity he experienced when guys got too close to Lara. He didn’t want to hurt her that way but it was as if he couldn’t stop himself. Another guy getting too close to her was one of the only things that really set him off. He wasn’t finished talking with Lara about her relationship with Hawk, but if he even brought it up it lately it would cause her to bristle.
    Now he was beginning to wonder if there was even a jealous bone in her body. His old girlfriend was going to start working at the university and all it elicited from Lara was a yawn? Maybe she was so wrapped up in her grief about Eliot, she wasn’t focused on him and his past girlfriend. But there was a distance between them that hadn’t been there before. He wanted to assume it was the extra burden of work she had taken on at the firm, but he remembered her saying how Hawk confided in her. Maybe she was confiding in him, too. The two seemed inseparable lately.
    He curled up on the