As much as he could, he only wanted to give Gwen the truth.
He cut through the city, taking the path that Chance knew would get him to her apartment long before the cabbie arrived. His fingers were tight around the wheel. He’d gone into that club, he’d tracked her there when her apartment had been empty, and he’d been so pissed when he saw her slammed against that prick on the dance floor. Her movements had been pure sex, and the dumb-ass with her had been holding her tightly.
He’d looked at them and thought…
The fuck, no. When Gwen leaves, she’s only leaving with me.
He wasn’t going to wreck things with her again.
He cut through the falling snow and was soon at Gwen’s place. He parked his car, turned up the collar on his coat, and headed toward her building. He propped his back against the bricks there, standing in the shadows, as he surveyed the scene. No one else was out. No neighbors. This area was far too isolated for his peace of mind. Especially if Ethan Barclay really was trying to hunt Gwen.
He kept his hands shoved into his pockets. He’d have to play this one very carefully with Gwen…if he messed up again, there was no way she would let him get close.
The cab turned onto the street. He could see its lights clearly. The wheels slowed in front of Gwen’s building. The back door opened and Gwen slid out. Before she’d even reached the sidewalk, the cabbie had already left.
Gwen headed straight for her apartment building. She didn’t even look his way. There were too many places to hide on that street. Too much darkness. He stepped forward, ready to call out to her but—
She reached for the door to her building. Even as she pulled it open, someone else was shoving it back toward her. Someone was shoving Gwen back and knocking her to the ground.
Chance flew toward them, yelling Gwen’s name. He could make out a figure in black—black pants, black shirt, black ski mask. A big guy who was crouched over Gwen. She was fighting the fellow, punching at him.
The hell, no.
The attacker glanced up just as Chance threw a punch right at the bastard. The man flew back, slamming into the ground. Chance immediately reached for Gwen. He pulled Gwen to her feet. “Baby, are you okay?”
He heard the thud of retreating footsteps. Chance looked to the right and saw the guy racing away into the night.
“He’s got my bag!” Gwen said. “He took it—”
Swearing, Chance gave chase. He rushed after the bastard, his legs pistoning fast. He could see the jerk up ahead, nearing a parked van and—
The van’s lights flashed on right then and the engine growled to life. Sonofabitch—a getaway car! The side of the van flew open and the guy in black leapt inside.
In the next instant, the van came careening straight for Chance.
“Run, Chance!” Gwen’s scream—and that scream was coming from just a few feet away. He looked over his shoulder and saw her standing in the middle of the street. The van’s lights were on him, on her, and, dammit, that van was rushing far too fast toward them.
He ran—to her. Chance grabbed Gwen and they leapt out of the road and flew toward the sidewalk. They hit the ground and he made sure to take the force of the impact, and then they were rolling, spinning away from the street as the van roared past them.
He could smell burning rubber and exhaust. He could hear the van’s growling engine. And when he looked up, Chance saw the back of the van and its glowing red tail-lights. The vehicle screeched down the road and made a hard right turn at the intersection.
Chance sure as shit hoped Lex had just seen what went down. Lex had better tail that van and catch that jerk.
“Are you hurt?” Gwen whispered.
He looked back down at her. They were under a street light and the glow fell on them. Her eyes looked even bigger than before. Her lips were parted. Such red, full lips. Lips that he thought about far too much.
But then, he thought of Gwen too much. Beautiful, perfect Gwen. Gwen with her wide eyes, her delicate nose, and those cheeks that looked as if they were made of glass. Gwen’s body was all sensual curves—curves that drove him out of his head and made him itch to touch her.
Except…she wasn’t for him. That was what he’d thought, anyway. Too good. A woman like her would shatter if he touched her.
Only she wasn’t shattering just then.
“Are you hurt?” Gwen asked again.
Hell, that was supposed to be his line. He shook his head.
“Good,” she whispered. “I’m so glad. I-I was worried—”
He kissed her. Maybe it was because of the adrenaline. Maybe it was because of the desire that he was so sick of holding in check around her. Maybe the why didn’t matter.
Chance let go of his control. His mouth crashed onto hers. Onto those full, make-me-beg lips. His tongue thrust into her mouth and he tasted her the way he’d been dying to for so long.
The lust he felt for her filled him. His cock stretched, aching to sink into her. And he kept kissing her, right there on the ground, with the snow falling around them. He kissed her hard. He kissed her deep. He kissed her the way he wanted to fuck her.
And he knew that they’d just crossed a line, a point of no return.
Gwen Hawthorne was going to be his, and anyone who tried to take her from him, anyone who tried to hurt her…he would fucking destroy.
Chapter Two
“It was a mugging, Chance. Just a mugging. Unfortunately, those happen in D.C., just like they happen in plenty of other big cities.” Gwen was proud of the fact that her voice sounded all nice and normal. Especially considering how very far from normal she actually felt.
They were in her apartment. The cops had already come and left—the uniformed officer hadn’t seemed overly optimistic that her attacker would be caught.
And while the fresh-faced cop had jotted down notes, Chance had glared at the guy. If looks could kill…
“You don’t know that it was just a mugging,” Chance argued. “We can’t be sure of that.” He was currently stalking in front of her couch.
He was sexy when he stalked. All tall, dark, and menacing.
He’s even sexier when he kisses me.
She still couldn’t believe that had happened. He’d kissed her on the street, with the snow all around them. And he’d wanted her. No way had she missed that too-telling sign. It would have been nearly impossible to miss the huge swell of his arousal pressing into her.
“The cops should patrol your neighborhood. Keep guards on you.”
That was the last thing she wanted. She’d already spent too many years being under guard, or rather, under the too watchful eyes of her father’s security team.
Speaking of her father… “You’re not going to tell him, are you? You aren’t planning to tell my father about the mugging?”
He stopped pacing. “You were attacked. The guy was waiting at your place—”
“You heard the cop! He thought the guy was probably just casing the neighborhood. I was the unlucky one who happened to be here, at the wrong time.”
A muscle flexed in his jaw. “What would have happened if I hadn’t been here?”
“H-he would have taken my purse and left.”
He shook his head. “You really believe that?”
No. Yes. She didn’t know. Gwen rose to her feet. Closed the distance between them. “Why were you here?” He’d burst out of the darkness like an avenging angel.
His eyelids flickered. “I couldn’t let things end like that between us. I needed to…to talk with you.”
“So you followed me home?”
“No, I beat you home. And that’s how I know that jerk was waiting inside the building—he was waiting for you.”
Goosebumps rose on her arms.
Chance’s gaze slid toward her door. The door she’d triple locked. “He got away with your keys. I’ll get my men to change the locks here first thing. And the locks at your gallery. You told the cop that there weren’t any credit cards in your bag,
but are you sure about that?”
“I only had a little cash in my bag. Nothing more.” Her shoulders straightened. “And I don’t need your guys coming to fix my locks. I know how to hire a locksmith. I can easily take care of that on my own.”
Silence. His gaze swung back to her. Oh, my, but that stare of his glittered with intensity. “Has anything else like this happened to you recently?”
Gwen forced herself to keep holding his stare. “Has someone mugged me, you mean? No, this is a first—”
His hand lifted and curled around her arm. At that touch, her heartbeat instantly went into a double-time beat.
“Has anyone given you trouble? Have you noticed anyone following you?”
She jerked a bit at his questions.
“Gwen?”
Her eyes narrowed on him. “You have your own PI business now.”
He stared back at her. “It’s a bodyguard business. We specialize in high-end protection. The discrete, save-your-ass variety. But we do occasionally handle…other types of security cases.”
He’d saved her ass tonight. She sucked in a deep breath, one that seemed to chill her lungs. “Has my father been to see you?”
“What does he have to do with anything?”
“He wants me protected.” No, that wasn’t quite true. “He wants me in a cage. So the world can’t hurt me. And so I can’t see the world.” He was still touching her, and she was far too conscious of his touch. “It’s because of Ethan, isn’t it? My dad is still worried about him.”
“Ethan’s a sick bastard.”
Her stomach knotted. “Ethan can’t get close to me. I have a restraining order against him, remember? Besides, he’s not after me. I know that’s what my father thinks, but he’s wrong. I haven’t seen or heard from the guy in six months. Not since…”
Silence. The kind of silence that she hated.
But maybe she needed to say these words. “Not since you burst into my bedroom and beat the hell out of him.” Talk about a memory that had been permanently seared into her brain.
* * *
He tossed the ski mask onto his bed. That bastard had come out of nowhere. Had the asshole been hiding in the dark? Waiting for Gwen?
Only he’d gotten to play the hero. Rushing to the rescue.
And Gwen…Gwen had no clue that the guy was as twisted as they came.
He marched toward his desk. Keyed up the computer. Gwen’s purse was on the floor beside his chair, and he kicked it out of the way. He hadn’t cared about the purse, but it gave him a good cover. If she’d called the cops, they would just think he’d been mugging her. They wouldn’t know what he’d really been doing.
No one would know. After all, he was very good at this type of work. An expert.
He typed in his password. Got the system linked and up and running and…
The feed slipped right up on his screen. He smiled when he saw the interior of Gwen’s apartment. But that smile froze on his lips when he realized that Gwen Hawthorne wasn’t alone.
Fucking bastard.
This was really going to mess up the plans that had been put in place.
* * *
Gwen shook her head. Her thick, blonde hair slid over her shoulders. “That’s not exactly a scene that a girl can forget.” She swallowed. “I had to pull you off him.”
His hands had clenched into fists. Hell. Chance forced his body to relax. Ethan wasn’t there. Gwen was safe.
That one night was etched in his memory. The night his self-control had broken. He’d already told Gwen all about Ethan’s past by that point. Her father had been the one to give Chance that particular dirty job. He’d had to break the news to her. Chance had stood there while pain and horror flashed across Gwen’s face.
After that, she’d broken up with Ethan Barclay. Kicked the guy’s ass out of her life.
Chance had gone to Gwen’s apartment that fateful night. Gwen had been hurting—because of me—and he’d just wanted to take her pain away. But he hadn’t. Gwen hadn’t wanted him there. She’d told him to leave, that she had to be alone. Chance had roamed the city and then found himself back at her apartment, staring up at the window. He’d hated for her to be in pain. Hated the thought of her tears.
Then he’d seen Ethan’s car parked near the corner of her street. His instincts had gone into overdrive and he’d found himself racing to her building.
“Why did you come back that night?” Gwen asked him now.
He rolled his shoulders, trying to push away tension that just wouldn’t vanish. “I knew you were hurting, and I didn’t want you to be alone. I was coming back to…talk. And then I saw his car.” His breath eased out. “I was at your front door when I heard you scream.” He’d broken that damn door and rushed inside. Gone straight to the bedroom. He’d kicked in that door, too, and when he’d see Gwen in bed and that bastard Ethan looming over her…
“I’d never seen you like that.” Now her voice was soft. Her eyes slid over his face. “You just…erupted. I had to pull you off him.”
Because he’d wanted to destroy the bastard. “He broke into your home.”
She nodded. “I sure didn’t invite the guy back. After what you’d told me, did you believe for a second that I had?”
With her scream ringing in his ears, he hadn’t exactly been thinking straight. Just feeling. Following a primitive instinct to protect.
“Ethan said he came here that night to talk with me. Because I’d been ignoring his phone calls. He wanted to tell me the truth about his past.”
Fuck that. “The truth is that he’s a criminal. A bastard who beat his ex-girlfriend up so badly that she wound up in the hospital. I wasn’t going to let him do that to you.” A simple fact. “I wasn’t—”
“You were doing your job. Protecting the boss’s daughter. That was your thing, right? Your assignment. To eliminate all possible threats.”
It had been one hell of a lot more than an assignment.
“I can’t help but wonder…are you doing your job now, too?”
If he said that her father had come to his office, Chance had no doubt that she would kick him out of her home right then. He didn’t want that to happen and he also didn’t want to lie to her. So, very carefully, he said, “I will do anything necessary to protect you. Always. From any threat.” He held her gaze. “Now I think you’re the one who needs to start sharing your secrets. That man tonight…was that the first time you’ve had an encounter like that? Is something else going on? Is—”
She paced toward her window. Stared out. “I’ve gotten…phone calls, okay? Late night phone calls from numbers that I don’t recognize. Numbers that I can’t trace. The callers would never say anything. Just silence. I turned the phones off but…” One shoulder lifted and fell. “When I’d turn them back on, there would be dozens of messages. Messages made of nothing but silence and the occasional whisper that I couldn’t even understand.” She looked back at him. “It was probably just some kids playing games, but it made me nervous, so I got a new number.”
He waited.
“I got a new number a few times,” she confessed. “But…but I haven’t seen anyone. No one has been in my house or at my gallery.” The gallery…her gallery. The place she’d built from the ground up. She didn’t just showcase her work there. She showed the work of up and coming artists. She gave them a chance to shine in D.C. She loved that damn gallery. But lately…I’ve been nervous there. I hate to work alone at the gallery late at night. My spine tingles and I wonder…am I really alone? Gwen cleared her throat. “I just…I’ve had some kids prank calling me.” She rubbed her arms. “I can’t go running for help every time my phone rings.”
He crossed to her side. Stood close, but didn’t touch her. His control was already a near thing and one touch might push him over the line. “You can run to me any time you want.”
He heard her breath catch. “Months pass,” she whispered, “and I don’t see you. Now, suddenly, you’re back in my life?”
/> “You’re the one who told me to leave.” Shit. He hadn’t meant to say those words. But they were right there. Right between them. When he’d burst into her apartment, when he’d put Ethan in the hospital, she’d stared at him as if Chance had been a stranger.
Stay away from me. Her desperate whisper had haunted him for too many nights.
Until he couldn’t stay away any longer.
“I was kind of in the middle of a break down right then. My ex had just broken into my apartment and you’d gone all crazy bad-ass fighter on me. Things like that will shake up a woman.” She licked her lips. “I…missed you.”
Because he’d been her confidant. For years. Her father hadn’t let many people get close to Gwen, and when Chance came on board, Gwen had gravitated toward him. She’d been living at her father’s place back then, and they’d shared late-night dinners. They’d gone for early morning runs. He’d gotten used to her being the first person he saw when he woke up in the morning, and the last sight he had before bed.
And she got beneath my skin.
Then things had changed. One night…on Christmas Eve, he’d been weak. He’d almost given in to his need for Gwen. Too late, he’d pulled back, but he’d hurt her.
Gwen had moved out of her father’s house. A few months later, she’d fucked that bastard Ethan. And she’d seen Chance for the man he really was.
Stay away from me.
Now she reached out. Her fingers skimmed along his jaw.
Did she have any clue how long he’d wanted her touch? How he’d dreamed about her? Dreamed of the things he wanted to do to her? “I got tired of staying away,” he told her, his voice close to a growl.
She inched closer to him. “You’re not working for my father anymore. So that whole…not crossing the work line doesn’t apply any longer, right?”
Dangerous To Love Page 131
