Free Star Crossed by Emma Holly Page A

Management customized his rooms any way he needed, plus he never had to worry about cooking or clean sheets. The hotel made doing business or entertaining equally convenient.
    Tonight, as he paced the white marble foyer, he wished his surroundings weren’t so impersonal. He looked like a dick living here, like he was too spoiled and helpless to wash his own stinky socks. A.J.’s loft had been a real home, a reflection of who she was: badass, guarded, and no housekeeper. He wondered if she still lived there. He’d revisited the place so many times in his memory he could have walked it blindfolded.
    “Fuck,” he muttered in disgust at his total lack of chillness.
    He’d done the right thing, calling A.J.’s dad’s security firm. Ditto for ascertaining that Parker Hoyt and not his daughter had initiated contact with Galaxy. Maybe insisting he wanted a woman on his team wasn’t subtle, but Luke hadn’t specified her by name. Just because he’d determined she was the only female bodyguard at Hoyt-Sands didn’t mean her father would sense something. At least for now, Luke needed full-time security. A woman fit his lifestyle better, and could be low profile.
    Never mind someone had tried to kill him. An entourage of heavies escorting him to the john would make him look like an idiot.
    He stopped pacing to rub his forehead. Someone had tried to kill him. Despite the stitches in his back, despite the hour he’d spent being grilled by the cops, that fact hadn’t sunken in.
    He found he couldn’t be as worried about the threat as he was by A.J.’s imminent arrival.
    He’d told the front desk to send Parker Hoyt up when he arrived. Ironically, the double rap on the door calmed him. He wiped his palms on his trousers. He was on now. He could handle this the same as he did any scene he shot.
    The hotel suite had a camera and intercom arrangement. Luke checked the screen. The slightly blurry image of the dark-suited man and woman made his heart leap again. That was A.J. out there. Her black hair was pixie short, but her cleanly sculpted features were as he remembered. Jaw tense, she was looking back down the hall, already on alert for danger. She and her dad were nearly the same height. Both were lean, both fit but not musclebound. Apart from her father’s hair being gray, they looked very much alike—right down to the straight-spined manner in which they stood.
    Keep it together , Luke ordered his hammering pulse.
    He opened the door to them.
    “Luke Channing?” Parker Hoyt inquired.
    Luke wasn’t used to being asked. “Yes,” he said. “Please come in.”
    Parker and A.J. both entered.
    “I’m Parker Hoyt,” said her father. “And this is my daughter, Alexandra. People call her A.J.”
    Parker Hoyt watched Luke’s reaction. The attention seemed casual but wasn’t. Maybe Luke’s request for a female guard had sent up red flags, after all.
    “Please call me Luke,” he said. “Would you like to talk in the dining room? I have coffee and bottled drinks in there.”
    He turned to lead them to it before the urge to seek A.J.’s gaze got the best of him.
    He felt her behind him, his back prickling uncontrollably. Was she annoyed to be here? Maybe worried he’d expose their previous intimacy to her father? She couldn’t have forgotten it, could she? Luke didn’t think he flattered himself to categorize the hookup as memorable.
    The dining room was long and narrow, brightened by flower arrangements hotel staff changed daily. A.J. and Parker both accepted bottled water. Luke sat and they did too. Parker Hoyt set a small laptop on the table but didn’t open it.
    A.J. cleared her throat. Because she’d turned to face her father, Luke felt free to look at her. His body clenched. Jesus, she was lovely. That elfin hair really suited her.
    “Before we start,” she said. “I should probably disclose Luke and I have met before.”
    “Is that so?” Her father’s tone was too bland to suggest