“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he added as his gaze lingered on her. “And I’ll be back with answers.” The wheels of the chair screeched as he pushed back away from her.
His words registered and made her vision go completely red. “Hell, no.” She shot upright and glared at him.
He’d risen out of the chair. He blinked. Frowned down at her. “Excuse me?”
“I’m your bodyguard.”
His half-smile came again. A little too smug. Correction, a lot too smug. “Yes, of course, I am thrilled that you agreed to the position.”
Was he being deliberately difficult? She was sure he was. “No. You missed the point. I’m your bodyguard. That means I guard your body.”
“That does sound like the definition…”
Had he just smothered a laugh? His eyes were gleaming. Gleaming—when he’d nearly been attacked hours before. “It also means…” Ella added doggedly. “That wherever you go, I go. What you do, I do.”
Now his brows lowered. and his eyes stopped gleaming. The smugness vanished. “That’s not going to be possible.”
It was her turn to smile. “Oh, but I’m afraid it is possible. In fact, you are not leaving this house without me. If you try, then I’ll call Eric. I’ll tell him what you’ve done. I’ll turn over the information that you just discovered to him and to the police.”
“You would not.”
“Try me.” A dare.
He gaped at her. “But I told my boss you could be trusted!”
He had? Good to know. Very good. “Then you take me with you. You trust me to do my job and keep you safe. This makes two attacks on you. First the break-in that occurred in Asheville. Now the near mugging or kidnapping or whatever it was here.” A third attack could come at any time. She had to be prepared. “I can’t risk you.” Whoops. There had been way too much emotion in her last sentence. She gave a little ahem as she cleared her throat and said, “My job is to protect you, so risks aren’t allowed.” Better. Much better. Less emotional.
But his expression had turned Sphinx-like. “I’m not so sure the two incidents are related.”
Had she just heard correctly? “Excuse me?”
“I’ll do recon work on this guy, see what I can learn, then we’ll get back to the body-guard situation and figuring out what happened in Asheville.”
He acted as if he’d just settled something. Deluded man. “No.”
He swallowed. “No?”
“If you’re going after this jerk, I’m going with you. If you try to leave me behind, I will—”
“Are you seriously threatening to tattle on me, Ella?” Her name sounded like a caress on his lips. “I expected more.”
Oh, no. He had not. “Did you?” She slid closer to him. Her hand rose and pressed to his chest. Right over his heart.
His body was hard. Tight with tension.
“I expected more, too,” she said softly as she tipped back her head. “You know, like you not lying to me. You not tricking me. And generally, you not making me feel like a fool for two years.”
He winced. “Getting past that isn’t going to be easy, is it?”
“You think?”
His gaze dropped down to her hand. “The meeting with my would-be attacker could be dangerous.”
“Like I don’t know how to handle danger.” Why the hell did you want me as your bodyguard if—
His stare slowly lifted. “You’ll stay with me, every moment?”
“Thought we already covered that when we discussed the whole bodyguard job.” He’d been the one to be so adamant about the twenty-four, seven detail. “Yes, I’ll stay with you.”
Antony’s expression didn’t alter. “Fine. But you go by my orders. Once I see what we’re dealing with, things might get rough.”
“I can handle rough.”
His eyes held hers. “So can I.”
She realized he felt way too warm. And had her fingers just stroked him? Hell, no. She snatched her hand back. “Let’s go. The sooner we get this perp, the better.” Ella strode for the door.
“You really hate taking this case with me, don’t you?” Quiet. Almost…sad.
She glanced back at him.
“Is it the case you hate,” Antony asked, “or is it me?” He seemed to hold his breath as he waited for a response.
“I don’t hate you.” An immediate answer. Her feelings for him were complex, all scrambled up, but one thing was for certain. She did not hate Antony Kyle.
“Thank you. That’s something, at least.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.” His stare held hers. “It’s everything.”
***
She didn’t know him. Not at all. If you’d asked Ella just two months ago, she would have said that she knew everything about Antony Kyle. She knew his habits, inside and out. She knew his favorite TV shows. Knew his favorite foods. Knew what drove him crazy. Knew what made him grin.
They’d worked closely together. Day in and day out. She’d trusted him. Admired him. Been falling in love with him.
Then…boom. Everything had been blown away. Literally. A video had been uploaded to social media—and that video had changed her life. In the short clip, a limo had exploded. It had flipped into the air as the flames raged, and in the background, Antony had been seen racing toward the fire.
She’d been terrified when she watched the video. Antony had supposedly gone away on a trip for Shark. He shouldn’t have been in any danger, but that video—God, that video had gutted her.
She’d gotten him on the phone, but he’d claimed the explosion hadn’t been about him. She hadn’t believed his explanation. It had sounded hollow to her ears. Of course, the explosion had been about him. The man was worth billions. To Ella, it had been obvious that someone was after him. She was his head of security; it was her job to protect him. Ella had high-tailed it down to Atlanta because—this was Antony. But when she’d finally gotten close to him…
The evidence had piled up. She’d started digging—covertly—and the more information she’d turned up, the more she’d realized that Antony had been living a lie.
She shot a quick glance at him as he drove the SUV.
I don’t even recognize him anymore.
It wasn’t just the secrets he’d kept from her. She was noting physical differences. Small things that told her what an incredible actor he must really be. Now that he had told her the truth about his spy job, it was as if he’d decided to drop some of the masking that he used. His posture was different. More confident. Stronger. His voice even seemed deeper, harder, rougher.
When they’d driven from the house, Antony had left his glasses behind. He’d switched to contacts. Such a simple change, but it had altered his appearance. Made him look less like the sexy nerd she enjoyed so much and more like the dangerous spy he actually was. His hair was tousled because he’d been running his fingers through it, and a faint line of stubble skirted along his jaw. Antony had always been clean-shaven in the past, but now just that little bit of stubble had him looking rugged. The black jacket he wore stretched over his wide shoulders and muscled arms. His jeans were faded and ragged. All of the little changes added up. They made him seem different.