‘I didn’t think I was.’ Aware they were starting to get looks now, Zac forced his shoulders to relax, his mouth to smile. ‘I thought I was being truthful.’
‘Truthful?’ He received his same, forced smile, thrown back at him. ‘Is this the same truth that means I can’t ask about what I’ve seen tonight?’
He hung his head. ‘Touché. I know you have questions and I want to answer them, but …’ He trailed off, his throat closing up as fear, dread and guilt all tightened around him. Was he ready to open that can of worms?
‘You don’t trust me.’
‘That’s not it,’ he shot back. ‘I trust you with my life, Kat.’
She averted her eyes, staring at the band rather than at him. ‘How can I protect that life, if you don’t give me the full facts?’
He could understand her argument, but signatures in pink lipstick, a woman driving the car tonight. It all pointed to the stalker being a female fan. And if that was the case … ‘I don’t know who’s stalking me, Kat.’
She didn’t reply and the silence grew heavy between them, at odds with the surrounding music and laughter. Instead they were stuck in a bubble of distrust and anger, when all he longed to do was tug her back to the dance floor and wrap his arms around her.
‘I’ll make my excuses to Helena and William,’ he said finally, aware the evening was lost.
The bigger question was whether his bodyguard was lost to him, too.
A week or so ago, he’d have jumped at the chance to get someone more experienced. Now he realised he’d been overly paranoid. The person stalking him clearly wasn’t that of his worst nightmare, and his fears had lessened enough to make him selfish. If he had to have a bodyguard, he wanted it to be Kat watching his back, Kat driving him around. Kat sticking to him like glue.
He wanted her in his life, and if this was the only way it was going to happen, then it sucked, really bloody sucked. But he’d accept it over the alternative.
Chapter 11
Kat kept her eyes fixed on the road as she drove Zac back to the hotel. It was Friday; almost a week since the charity function at his parents’ house.
Well, estate.
And were they even his parents? Ever since the visit there, her mind had replayed snippets of conversations, leaving a confused mess of contradictions in their wake.
Brother? That is what we’re calling each other these days, is it? I forget mother’s latest instructions.
And the equally unsettling Acting must be the perfect career choice for you. You always enjoyed being someone you weren’t.
Clearly Zac was carrying around a big, dirty secret. It hurt, both professionally and personally, that he wasn’t prepared to let her in on it. Professionally, because his secret felt like an unexploded bomb hanging over them. One of those frigging IEDs in Afghan. She knew it was there, but she didn’t know if it would explode in their faces and if it did, how much damage it would do.
The thought brought back horrifying flashbacks; deafening bangs, panic, blood, debris … a shudder ran through her. Definitely not the time to be taking a trip down that memory lane. ‘The police think they have a lead on your stalker,’ she said when she thought she had her voice under control.
‘I’m aware.’
Zac sounded clipped and distant. Exactly as he had been all week. It was like the dance, when she’d melted against him – yes, for a moment there, Kat Parker had flipping melted. Anyway, it was like that hadn’t happened.
Get someone else to be my bodyguard so you can be my date. It was like that hadn’t happened, either. And yes, she’d panicked at the idea, both of dating him and of giving up this chance to prove herself. She was starting to think the result though, this awful tension between them, was worse than doing as he’d suggested.
‘You know all about Hannah’s waitress friend, then?’ she prompted, pulling up at a red light and sliding him a look.
He gave her a small, unamused smile. ‘If by that you mean have I been informed that another waitress at the event was annoyed I’d picked Hannah to leave with and not her, then yes.’ When she didn’t say anything, he gave a sharp bark of laughter. ‘Ouch, Ms Parker. I can see the judgement in your eyes from here.’
‘Then you need to get your eyes checked. I’m not judging.’ She focused back on the traffic lights, moving off when they turned green. ‘But okay, I am wondering why a guy like you, a guy who values his privacy, decides to have sex with a waitress he picked up at a party.’
For a long while he didn’t speak. Then he sighed. ‘After Chloe—’
‘The trollop.’
‘Yes.’ Unlike when she’d said that at the party, there was no answering smile. ‘After her, I suppose I was looking for a more honest interaction. Two people clear on what they wanted. Even if it was just sex.’
A glance at his handsome profile and she ached, just a little, for him. While it was clear Chloe hadn’t hurt his heart, she had dented his ego. Perhaps made him re-evaluate his self-worth to an extent that he was reduced to a tacky one-night stand.
She’d not helped either, she thought with a pang of guilt, remembering how he’d taken her comment about how important the assignment was to her. Yep, he wasn’t the only one with secrets that had the potential to blow up in their faces.
‘By the way, I’m out tonight.’
His statement, seemingly coming out of the blue, rocked her back. ‘Okay. Let me know what time to pick you up and where we’re going.’
She was aware of his eyes on her. ‘What happened to Mark?’
‘Mark provides cover when I can’t. Tonight, Debs is at a party so I’m home alone. I might as well work it. Save the favour for another day.’
‘Well, I’m sorry for making you work on a Friday night,’ he said tightly.
‘I didn’t mean it like that.’
‘Like what? That escorting me is a chore? But why wouldn’t it be? I am just a job to you, after all.’ Before she had a chance to reply he added, ‘I’d like to leave at 7.30 p.m. The destination is a club in Berkeley Square.’
Swallowing down her annoyance – a rare feat – she gave him a cool smile. ‘How exciting. Little old me gets to go to a private members’ club.’
‘I suspect you’re used to it, in your line of work.’
There he went again. She waited until they were parked and in the lift on the way to his suite before speaking again. ‘Can we stop all the snide remarks. They’re doing my head in.’
He shrugged his shoulders in an elegant gesture of indifference. ‘I’m doing as you requested. Keeping things professional. Client and bodyguard. Of course, that assumes you still want to be my bodyguard, but as you’re still here I guess this assignment really is important to you.’
There he went again, twisting what she’d said. ‘It is. You’re important to me,’ she added quietly, hoping he would understand the two weren’t mutually exclusive. ‘Clients and bodyguards can be friends, you know. They can like each other. They don’t need to go around with a stick up their arse.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Is that what you want? For us to be friends?’