The Bodyguard (Book 1 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Twenty-Six

The confused state had now travelled to Mara. She must have not heard right, and tilted her head slightly blinking twice, "Huh?" Her arms dropped to her sides limply.

Nathan ran his fingers halfway through his hair, lowering his head and sighed as he looked back up at her. "I didn't sleep with Jane. Nor have I planned on it." His left brow rose, giving her that look she'd become so familiar with when he was being serious and honest about what he was saying.

Mara swallowed hard, frowning down at the kitchen floor with her fingers curling a grip on the apron. She was now trying to think back to the times that Jane had gone into explicit detail about what she and Nathan had done in the barn.

Had Jane made it all up? She couldn't have. Why would she do that?

The only reason Jane would do such a thing would be the cause of jealousy, or if Jane found out that Mara had been with Nathan intimately. That would get Mara into much worse trouble, with Jane having knowledge of that scandalous piece of information.

Mara's hands covered her face and groaned, "Oh no!"

She pulled back her hands a bit to peer over her widespread fingers with wide eyes on the frowning man by the counter. "Jane knows! Ugh, why hadn't I seen it before?!" she scolded herself, now pacing back and forth in a small line in front of the fridge.

Nathan glanced to the side and then leaned his head forward with his chin tilting towards his chest, "Jane knows what...? And what hadn't you seen before?"

Mara sighed, dropping her arms to her sides and opened her eyes once she paused from her frantic pacing. She bit her lip, glancing Nathan's way, and the man was pulling every fiber in his being together to concentrate extremely hard to not stare at her mouth. The worrisome brunette shook her head, whispering, "About... what happened... between us."

He lowered a brow, "Huh?"

Mara rolled her eyes, her head tilting to the side. "Oh, for Pete's sake! That I slept with you."

The green eyed agent shook his head after a moment and blinked through his frown, "That doesn't make sense. First off, Ben is the only one who knows about that... and second, what does that have to do with Jane and these fabricated sexcapades?"

Mara's mouth pursed to the side, thinking to herself about Nathan having been with her, meant that Nathan wasn't giving Jane the attention she wanted and was promised at the beginning of this trip. And that would mean her cousin's chances with Nathan were slimming.

Mara sighed, shaking her head with a short shrug, "I dunno."

Nathan crossed his arms over his chest and stared at her, concerned. "This doesn't make sense. What are you leaving out?"

He had a feeling there was a bigger piece missing to this weird argument and by the way Mara's blue eyes looked away too quickly, gave Nathan the confirmation that Mara knew something he didn't... and it was just a hunch, but he didn't think she'd tell him even if he ordered her to.

Which he didn't. Or at least he wasn't able to because the swinging door opened and make a cracking noise against the wall it was pushed against. In the doorway stood a fuming, wide eyed Jane whose attention was locked on her cousin before storming into the kitchen.

"You slept with him?!" she cried, standing in the middle of the room with her hands on her hips.

Mara's eyes widened, her lips parting as a voice in her head realized, 'Oh. So it was just jealousy of lack of attention. Well done, Mara.'

The red head's narrowed violet eyes still latched on her cousin and spat, "I can't believe you, Mara! How could you do this to me!?"

Due to her high pitched shouting, it drew more unwanted attention and Rory, Adam, Ben, and Mrs. James were now gathered at the doorway behind Jane with wide eyes and silently switching between the two cousins.