“You wanna tell me about this news?”
“Not particularly,” I snap. “And I’m not an expert when it comes to hiring security, but I don’t think you need full novels on the demons chasing your clients in order to protect them. Am I right?”
A hint of a smile lifts his lips and he nods. “Yeah, I’m better at handling them on the blind anyway.”
“Good.” I fold my arms over my chest as a show of strength when beneath this bullshit façade of me being in ‘control’, I am crumbling faster than a sandcastle at high tide.
“You look pretty shaken,” he says.
“You have no idea.” I run my hands up and down my arms. “So how does this work? Because I’m not leaving here without you.”
“That statement usually holds a lot more promise when women say it to me.” He grins, flashing a panty-scorching smile that sends my inhibitions into an uproar.
A hot flush blasts into my cheeks, my response getting caught in the back of my throat. “Yeah, well, this time it’s because I’m afraid I might be killed. Nothing kinky about that, sorry to disappoint you.”
“You’re assuming I like it kinky.”
A rush of heat roars through me, coiling in my belly. “I didn’t mean to say that.”
“You were just gonna keep wondering to yourself?”
“I don’t really see how this is relevant—”
He shrugs. “You made it relevant. I’m just trying to understand why you’d think it in the first place. Do I bring that deviant vibe?”
I lift an eyebrow. “If I’m being honest, then yes.”
His heated gaze takes on a devious glow. “Okay, then.”
I press my fingertips to my temples. “Can we be done with you being a freak in the bedroom? Please? I have bigger things to focus on now.”
“Wow. We’ve moved from kinky to freak.” He nods. “Just one thing.”
I look at him expectantly.
“I’m not only a freak in the bedroom.” A devilish glint makes his eyes glow, and I’m suddenly transported to the epicenter of his very carnal aura, a magical place filled with promises of pleasure, far away from impending death and doom.
Tingles dance all over my skin, like tiny sparks desire igniting under his half-hooded gaze.
This is insane.
I came here for his help and protection, period.
But the pent-up desire has me in a chokehold right now.
Chokehold.
So freaky.
I press the heels of my hands against my eyes, gathering my non-salacious thoughts together. “Look. This is a business arrangement, okay? Nothing more. I am your employer and you’ll be servicing me.” I let out a groan when I see the amused expression on his face. “Ahh! Stop it! You know what I mean!”
“I do. Now I’m just messing with you. Figured you needed a few more laughs, yeah?” His smile fades. “But I’m not taking your money. Savio is paying my bill.”
“I don’t need any handouts.”
“Nobody is saying that.”
“I don’t want him to have any say in how this arrangement will work.” I clasp my hands together. “Whatever happens, I want it kept between us. No reporting back to him, got it? I don’t know what I’m dealing with but I have to make sense of it on my own and right now, I don’t trust anyone beyond my family.” I bite down on my lower lip, sneaking a glance over my shoulder at Uncle Frank.
Most of my family.
He dove to the ground when those shots were fired.
He saved himself, and whatever defense he might have for his actions, he was only thinking about one person during that attack.
I hate thinking anything bad about him because he’s always been so good to us over the years but when push comes to shove, you find out quickly who you can depend on. He may love us, but he’s proven that he loves himself more.
And his freaking car ranks above us, too, evidently.
He bitched and moaned the entire ride into the city about his damn tires and dented rims.
And of course, about how the ride is so much smoother in his Mercedes than it is riding in my BMW.
Both German luxury cars, by the way.
Insert eye roll.
We had Uncle Frank’s car towed to our house from James’s office since it was undriveable, and after what I’d been told, I wasn’t going to waste another second before locating Massimo and hiring him on the spot. So we took an Uber back to my house, jumped into my car, and hauled ass into the city after finding out from Savio that he was at the Y.
Right now, I don’t know which end is up, what to think, or who to believe.
All I do know is that I need help, and Massimo is the guy.
I just have to ignore the delicious packaging and resist the urge to tear it off.
“Okay,” he finally says. “So it looks like you’ve got yourself a bodyguard.”
“Great.” I peer out the window. “So, I guess we’ll just hang around here until you’re done with…whatever?”
“It’s a sports program,” he says. “The sessions usually last an hour.”
“Fine. We’ll wait.”
“Or you could…” he shrugs. “You know. Participate.”
I look at him like he’s just grown a dick out of his forehead. “Participate?”
“Running around, breaking a sweat, laughing a little bit…” He grins. “It could take the edge off.”
I continue to stare because of course he doesn’t know anything about what James just told me. Nobody does. So while I feel like I’m carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, he doesn’t have an inkling at all about how my entire world has just imploded.
“I can’t run in these. They aren’t sneakers.”
He narrows his eyes at my Vans. “Those have rubber soles. They’ll work. And something tells me you can do just about anything you put your mind to…Doc.”
Flecks of gold glow in the depths of his gaze and I cling to them, tiny flickers of light that keep me from being pulled into the abyss of my own troubled and tormented thoughts.
Doc.
I’d longed to have that title for years and now, it seems like a pipe dream at best.
“Okay,” I say, unable to tear my eyes away.
Those glimmers of light are a lifeline and if I so much as blink, I run the risk of being swept out to a very turbulent sea of despair and fear.
“Trust me, this’ll be good for you,” he murmurs against my hair. “Just block everything else out. Let it go for a little while. I’ve got you.”
The heat of his spearmint-scented breath scalds the back of my neck, a shiver scuttling down the slope of my spine in response. I give a quick nod and hurry out of the office, stopping short before I report back to my family. “So, um, you’re going to be staying at the house with us?”
We never finalized that detail, and there are a whole lot of X-rated thoughts looping through my mind right now in anticipation of just that scenario.
“I need eyes on you at all times.” He steps toward me, his hulking, muscular body dwarfing me. “Is that gonna be a problem?”
I give my head a quick shake. “No,” I rasp. “I think that would be best.”