by Nika Rhone
Table of Contents
Excerpt
Praise for Nika Rhone
Can’t Help Loving You
Copyright
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Epilogue
A word about the author…
Thank you for purchasing this publication of The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
For a second,
the kiss was as chaste as the first, a pleasant press of lips and nothing else. And then it was so much more. Heat flashed through Rafe’s body as her lips parted. Her teeth tugged on his lower lip until he let her in, her tongue darting in to tease at his, encouraging him to play.
With a groan, Rafe pulled Lillian up against him in a tight embrace, the feel of her in his arms stoking the flames of passion higher and faster. Too high and too fast, some rational part of him cautioned. But months, no years of wanting and not having her had pushed him far beyond the point of good sense. He sank into the kiss with every unfulfilled desire leading the charge, and was greedily satisfied when the response he got from her was just as wild and unrestrained.
He wondered how difficult it would be to get them both to the bed without breaking the kiss when the sound of a throat being cleared sliced through the haze of lust like a bucket of ice water.
Praise for Nika Rhone
“WHAT THE LADY WANTS is a fabulous debut that incorporates great characters, an intriguing story, and deep emotion. A must read.”
~National Bestselling Author Jeannie Moon
~*~
“Debut author Rhone does an excellent job with the dialog and the suspenseful plot. Recommended for romance lovers who like a little humor and a lot of intrigue.”
~Library Journal
~*~
“Once this book is picked up, there is no putting it down! The chemistry between Amelia and Daryl is beyond smoldering. This is a heart-thumping story filled with self-discovery, emotion, tension, suspense and most of all, romance…a page-turner from the first page to the very last!”
~InD’tale
Can’t Help
Loving You
by
Nika Rhone
Boulder Bodyguards Series, Book 3
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely coincidental.
Can’t Help Loving You
COPYRIGHT © 2018 by Nika Rhone
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author or The Wild Rose Press, Inc. except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Contact Information: [email protected]
Cover Art by Kristian Norris
The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
PO Box 708
Adams Basin, NY 14410-0708
Visit us at www.thewildrosepress.com
Publishing History
First Crimson Rose Edition, 2018
Print ISBN 978-1-5092-1999-5
Digital ISBN 978-1-5092-2000-7
Boulder Bodyguards Series, Book 3
Published in the United States of America
Dedication
Believe in yourself, and you will be unstoppable.
Chapter One
“You have got to be kidding.”
Lillian Beaumont stared at the way her poor little Mini Cooper listed to one side like a drunken frat boy after an all-night kegger. She wanted to cry. Or scream. Parking in the very back corner of the lot behind the art gallery where she worked was supposed to keep the car safe from any more parking lot dings and scratches. And she ended up with a flat?
Totally unfair.
Keys clenched in her fist, she walked to the driver’s side for a closer look. It was lucky she was alone in the lot, because the curse that popped out of her mouth was a salty one. Not just a flat. Two. Two freaking flat tires. Perfect. Now she couldn’t call one of her brothers to come change it, because she only had one spare. No fancy business degree needed to know those numbers added up to her being screwed, squared.
So, what to do?
Scrolling through her contacts, Lillian found the number for the garage that had done the bodywork on the Cooper the previous month and crossed her fingers they hadn’t already closed for the day. Especially when it rang half a dozen times before somebody picked up. After she explained the problem, Milo assured her someone would come and get the car on a flatbed, but it might not be for an hour or more. His driver, he apologized, was already out on another service call. And, because it was already so late, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get to work on it tonight at all. Tomorrow was Sunday, so either way, it looked like she wasn’t getting her car back until Monday, earliest.
Not the way she wanted to end the week.
Cursing whatever bad karmic juju she seemed to have attracted lately, Lillian slipped her phone back into her bag and got into the car to push the seat as far back as it would go. The Cooper was small enough to be almost perfect for her petite five-foot-two frame, but she still had to drive with the seat all the way forward. Anyone else would kneecap themself on the steering column if she didn’t adjust it back first. A fact discovered the hard way the first time her twin brother Peter had tried to get in. Of course, he’d been making fun of her new “clown car” at the time, so she hadn’t been too upset to see him limp for a few days.
Checking her watch, Lillian trudged back into the gallery. Bernice glanced up from behind the reception desk, customer-ready smile in place before she realized who had come through the etched glass door. The smile eroded into a pinched look of confusion, her short bob of platinum hair with its signature chunk of purple swaying as she cocked her head. “Forget something?”
Lillian paused in front of the desk. “Oh, if only.” She held out her keys. “There’s a tow truck coming, but it may be a while, so I told them I’d leave the keys with you, if that’s okay?”
“What’s wrong with your car?”
“A double flat.”
Bernice’s mauve lips parted in an O of disbelief. “Shut up, no way!”
Lillian’s smile felt tight on her face. “Only me, right?” She jiggled the keys.
Bernice took them with a nod. “Oh, right. Sure, no problem at all, as long as they come before closing.”
“They should, but if they don’t, just text me and leave the keys in your desk. I’ll get them tomorrow.”
Depositing the key fob in the drawer, Bernice asked, “Want me to call you an Uber?” The phone that was like another appendage was already in her hand.
“I already did, thanks.” But even as she said it, the small worm of suspicion that had been digging into her brain for the past few weeks wriggled its way to the surface and pointed out the golden opportunity that had been dropped in her lap.
Turning, Lillian started to walk into the gallery. No guts, no glory. “Be right back.”
“Wait, where are you going?”
“I need to do som
ething.”
“But…what about your ride?”
Lillian kept walking, saying over her shoulder, “I’ll only be a minute.”
She liked Bernice, she really did. But she’d learned the hard way anything that went in the girl’s ears was bound to come back out again through her mouth at some point. Usually to the wrong person. The one time Lillian vented her annoyance over the way a show for a local artist was handled, she’d been called on the carpet by her boss a few days later about her “unprofessional attitude” in front of the staff. As an assistant manager in his gallery, Felix had opined in his usual bombastic way, he expected more of her than that.
Fair enough. Too bad he didn’t seem to expect more of his other assistant manager, whose mediocre efforts were the reason the show had done so poorly in the first place. But there was something about Roman Reynolds that always caused Felix to turn a blind eye. Time and again he provided subpar performance, and time and again Felix didn’t seem to notice. Or care.
Frustrated didn’t come close to how Lillian felt.
If Roman wanted to half-ass his job, that was fine—if he didn’t affect other people with his half-assedness. But it only took one bad showing to tank a newly emerging talent’s career for good. Roman knew it. He just didn’t seem to care.
Let it go.
Cracking her neck to the side to relieve some of the tension that had been building since she saw the flat tires, Lillian climbed the steel staircase to the hallway that hung like a catwalk above the open concept gallery. As always, she hugged the wall as much as possible without making it obvious. Keeping her eyes straight ahead helped, but a small ball of anxiety always settled in her chest and made it hard to breathe once her feet left solid ground. In the logical part of her brain, she knew the industrial metal railing and cable system wouldn’t collapse and kill her.
Her lizard brain wasn’t buying it.
As Lillian opened the door to the office she shared with Roman, her sigh of relief turned into a muffled squeak of surprise as she nearly walked straight into the person who was walking out. Speak of the devil.
“Roman.” Adopting the bland expression she tried to use whenever they had to deal with one another, Lillian brushed past him, her nose wrinkling at the sharp scent of his cologne.
“I thought you left.”
Typical Roman. Normally he’d wear a thin veil of civility toward her in case there was someone around to notice. But since Felix wasn’t in the building, and they were well above earshot of any customers, it seemed he wouldn’t exert the effort to pretend.
Resisting the urge to say something snarky, she shrugged as she sat at her desk. Without having to pull out the chair. The one she knew she’d pushed in before she’d left a short time ago. “I forgot something.”
Roman stared at her for a long minute, as though trying to intimidate her into saying more. Yeah, right. Lillian had three brothers. She’d been winning staring contests since she was six, with men much more intimidating than Roman and his carefully groomed almost-beard, tousled dark blond hair, and silly hipster glasses. Some women might consider him attractive—it was obvious Bernice did—but Lillian knew the pretty package was no more than a thin veneer wrapped around the unpleasant person lurking inside.
As she’d known he would, Roman broke first.
“I have work to do.” He huffed and walked out of the office, not bothering to close the door.
“That would be a first,” Lillian muttered. She placed her fingertips on the top of her desk. Everything looked undisturbed, but…was the stack of invoices in the in-basket a little messier than she’d left them? Was the smell of his noxious cologne stronger here than it should have been if he’d been sitting at his own desk across the room? Or was she just being paranoid? Maybe she hadn’t pushed her chair in all the way under the desk like she’d thought. She had been in a hurry to leave. And it wasn’t as though there was anything to steal in her desk. Except maybe her client list, which was stored on her tablet, safe from prying, perfidious eyes with their trendy little glasses.
Lillian shook her head in disgust. “He’s making me nutso.”
And yet…that worm of suspicion still twisted in her brain. She’d had an odd feeling about Roman since the first day he’d been hired. It was more than a simple clash of personalities, or work ethics. There was something about him that was…off. Wrong. And it bugged the hell out of her.
When she opened the bottom drawer, Lillian immediately noticed the file folder that wasn’t sitting flush with the rest. One corner jutted up as though it had been shoved back into place with haste. Feeling the first whisper of true unease, she took it out. It was the file for an upcoming showing she was handling. The artist they were showcasing was already something of a big deal in Aspen. It had been a bit of a coup for Lillian to get him to sign with the Landis Gallery, since an equally prestigious gallery in Denver had also been vying for his work.
She flipped through the file. It only took a few pages to know she’d been right. She had a very specific order in which she kept things when she was planning a showing. That anal-retentive attention to detail would have surprised the hell out of her friends, who considered her a bit of a loose cannon when it came to planning and follow-through. And they weren’t wrong. Maybe that was why she was so meticulous when it came to her job. If everything was in its proper place, the less chance she’d screw up.
And things weren’t in their proper place. Not so many that anyone besides her would probably notice the order had been changed, but she was certain. Someone had gone through the file.
Roman was a dead man.
Except…she had no proof. Sagging against the back of the chair, Lillian stared at the file in frustration. If she went to Felix with her suspicions, he would side with Roman. He’d say that as an assistant manager, Roman had every right to refer to a file concerning a gallery event. And it was true.
If that was all he’d been doing. Lillian didn’t believe it for a minute. The man was up to something; she could feel it. She didn’t know what. But she would.
Her ride would be there any minute, if it weren’t already waiting. With fingers that shook with silent rage, she took out her phone and called the one person she not only knew she could share her suspicions with, but who might actually be able to help. Her best friend happened to be married to a man who knew a thing or two about investigating sneaky people. Thea picked up on the third ring.
“Hi, T,” Lillian said, talking fast before she changed her mind. “I was wondering if maybe I could come over tonight and talk to you about something.” Her fingers drummed on top of the file in front of her. “I think I might have a problem.”
****
Houston, we have a problem.
Standing in front of the elevator doors in the lobby of his apartment building, Rafael Delgado wanted to both curse and cheer as the woman he’d spent the last six months doing his best to avoid strode into the lobby through the main doors. A petite little package of dynamite, with short, brown hair and dark chocolate eyes that were sexy as hell, he’d been drawn to Lillian Beaumont from the day he first met her. She probably didn’t even remember it, but the moment had been carved into his brain with alarming clarity.
It wasn’t every day you got a boner the size of Pikes Peak when your friend introduced you to his sister. While standing in a room filled with her entire family. Including her three very large, very overprotective brothers. One of whom carried a gun.
Not one of his best days.
Almost two years later, Rafe was sad to admit he still had the same reaction every time he saw her. Which was why he avoided it whenever possible. Difficult at times, since they now lived in the same building on the outskirts of downtown Boulder, but he made it work.
Usually.
On any other Saturday, Lillian should have been home from her job at that snooty little gallery where she played at working almost an hour ago, riding the elevator straight up from the basement garage. So, what the hell
was she doing strutting into the lobby now in that short little skirt and heels that stopped just short of being fuck-me height, instead of being tucked safe and snug in her top-floor apartment, out of his way?
Damn woman.
“Hi, Rafe.” Lillian greeted him with a smile as she came to stand in front of the elevator doors at his side.
“Hey, Lillian.” He considered punching the button again in the vain hope it would make it appear faster, but decided it would only make him look desperate. He shifted the bag of takeout from one arm to the other, trying to come up with something to say that wouldn’t sound idiotic. “Shouldn’t you be home already?”
Oh, yeah. Smooth.
Lillian quirked her little eyebrow at him. The one with the silver barbell through it that drove him wild every time he saw it, because it made him wonder what else she might have had pierced on her body. Although the answer was probably nothing. She liked to play at being a rebel, the way she played at everything else. But beneath the wild child façade was nothing but wholesome heiress goodness. That didn’t stop him from fantasizing about it, though. Even when he reminded himself who she was and why he shouldn’t be thinking about anything of hers, pierced or not.
He was such a perv.
“I had car trouble,” she said, the small smile that had tipped her lips diminishing.
Like that, his thoughts shifted from lascivious to concerned. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, just a flat. I had to call the garage, and then, well, other stuff came up that took longer than I planned.” She glanced at her watch.
“Late for a date?” Damn, why had he said that?
Pursing those ruby red lips, Lillian replied, “Maybe I am.”
Swallowing hard at the fantasies those luscious lips inspired, Rafe turned and glared at the still-closed elevator doors. “What’s taking so freaking long?” Because if he didn’t get away from Lillian soon, there wasn’t going to be any way he could hide his body’s reaction to her.
Lillian looked at the elevator, then at Rafe, before she reached out, one finger extended, and pushed the call button. There was an immediate ding and the doors slid open.
