by Nina Singh
Not to mention, she didn’t want her phone tracked by her ever-resourceful bodyguard.
How had everything gone so horribly out of control? Here she was, trying to make a name for herself as a serious classical musician, and the only thing the world seemed to care about was her love life.
She snorted a humorless laugh. What a joke. She didn’t have any kind of love life.
It vexed her that no one seemed to be talking or writing about her performance or her compositions. The primary subject seemed to be those pictures of her and Adam.
It was time to face an undeniable fact: she’d been woefully, naively unprepared for even the slightest hint of celebrity. It was a reality she had to examine closely and make some decisions about. A life of paparazzi ducking and tabloid features wasn’t the future she’d planned on.
She reached for the paper-wrapped baguette she’d picked up along the way. The one Adam had had delivered to her the other day had been beyond delicious, melting in her mouth. But she found she didn’t quite have an appetite this morning. She didn’t bother to unwrap it.
What a sorry state of affairs. Here she was in Paris on a bright, sunny morning sitting on a park bench with freshly made bread. But she couldn’t even enjoy it.
A shadow suddenly fell over where she sat. Ani didn’t have to look up to guess who it was. “How did you find me?”
He came around the bench and sat down next to her. Even with everything else on her mind, it was hard not to admire the sheer magnetic appeal of the man. Dark stubble covered his square jaw. He was dressed in a tight navy blue T-shirt that accentuated his rock-hard abs. Abs she’d been running her hands over just last night. She had to suck in a breath.
“It’s what I do. Part of the job is knowing how to track people down,” he answered.
“Makes sense.”
“You shouldn’t have wandered off, Ani. You’re in an unfamiliar city. And what the hell were you thinking, turning off your phone?”
“I made sure I wasn’t followed. Well, except by you somehow. But you’re exceptional.”
“Is that some sort of rebuke?”
She merely shrugged.
Adam blew out a deep sigh. “Jeez, Ani. How am I supposed to protect you if I don’t know where you are?”
“I just had to get away, Adam. Surely, you can understand that.” She took a deep breath. “April told me that last email was traced to the Dallas area. So I’m not in any danger from my so-called stalker.”
“Still, what if you’d been recognized? Like last night?”
She grabbed the baguette and took an inelegant bite right off the end, just for something to do. Quite unladylike, as if that mattered at all right now.
“I’m wearing a wide-brimmed sun hat and large, dark sunglasses,” she countered, still chewing yet hardly tasting the bite.
“Did it help?” he asked her. “Getting away on your own?”
“Not really. I’m still trying to figure out why anyone would find me worthy of tabloid fodder. It must have been a slow celebrity-news day.”
He turned to her. Despite everything and all the chaos they found themselves in, Ani couldn’t help but want him to hold her right now. She wanted to feel his arms around her. She wanted to go back to last night, when he’d lifted her up on that pool table. She’d thought about it all night during her sleepless tossing and turning. He’d crept into her dreams. Only in her mind, the evening had gone completely differently. Adam hadn’t pulled out of their embrace abruptly. He hadn’t walked away from her.
“You really don’t see it, do you?” he asked, pulling her out of her musings. “The tabloids are interested in you because you’re alluring and talented. People are drawn to you.”
Was that really how he saw her?
Ani shook her head to clear it. She had to focus. They had more pressing matters at the moment. Her inconvenient attraction to this man had to take a spot on the back burner. For now. She wasn’t naive enough to think she could ignore it for long. Sooner or later, she was going to have to grapple with her feelings for him.
“That isn’t at all what I signed up for,” she admitted. “Mysterious emails. Crowds waiting for me outside venues.”
“Your life was bound to change, kitten. You had to know that.”
She pulled the hat lower on her head, as if she could hide herself from the reality of the world somehow. “I guess I didn’t give it enough thought. I was too focused on the opportunity, the chance to share my music with as many people as possible.”
“It will take some getting used to.”
“If I decide to continue.”
His head snapped up. “You can’t mean you might want to give it up?”
She shrugged. She wasn’t exactly sure what she meant; she just knew she had some thinking to do. “I guess I have some decisions to make.”
“We’ll figure out who’s sending you those emails, Ani. It’s just going to take some time. And you’ve worked so hard to get here.”
He didn’t need to tell her that. Hours of practices since she’d been a little girl. Sleepless nights spent composing after completing all her regular coursework. And now it was all being overshadowed by useless gossip.
“Maybe I’ll just teach. It’s not a bad way to make a living.”
Adam reached for her hand, gave it a squeeze. It was hard not to think about where those hands had been last night: under her shirt, caressing her body... Heat crept along her skin at the memories.
Stop. Just stop.
“Don’t come to any conclusions right now,” he said. “You don’t want to make any rash decisions.”
Ani knew he was right. But the truth of the matter was that she was far more shaken about everything than she wanted to admit.
The only question was, what was she going to do about it?
* * *
Adam knew he had about a hundred other things he should be doing about now. There were several proverbial fires to put out. He had a team of professionals still waiting for an explanation and there were plenty of clients he should probably call.
So it made no sense that he was still sitting here on a bench with Ani almost an hour after finding her. As if they were a normal tourist couple sharing a baguette on a beautiful morning in France.
He felt Ani take a deep breath next to him. “Fame and publicity weren’t supposed to be that large a part of this tour,” she declared, staring off toward the water in the distance. “I haven’t even been asked for an interview by a local television station.”
“That was before you blew everyone away last night.” Including me, he thought, though he figured that part was better left unsaid.
“Moira’s trying to convince me to schedule a press junket either today or tomorrow before we leave. She thinks all this is a hoot, to use her word.”
He broke off another piece of the bread Ani wordlessly offered him and popped it in his mouth. “I take it you’re not a fan of that idea.”
“Absolutely not.”
“You’ll have to let me know ASAP if you change your mind. That kind of event will take a lot of prep.”
“I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Fair enough.”
She chuckled slightly. “Though the kids back at the center would get a kick out of seeing me online.”
“You think about those kids a lot, don’t you?”
A genuine, affectionate smile spread across her lips. “They’re another reason I felt so rattled this morning with all that’s happened.”
“How so?”
The smile faded. “I can’t bear the thought of walking through that center and having a random paparazzi potentially following me. I don’t want strangers peering into my life. Digging into my past.”
“Is your past so sordid?” he teased. He’d known Brant since they were both kids, and by e
xtension knew she’d led a rather sheltered life.
She gave him a playful shove on the shoulder. “No. Of course not. But there’s my mother.”
Adam gave himself a mental thwack on the forehead. How could he have failed to consider how the loss of her mother would play into all of this?
“I don’t want them so much as mentioning her name. Or how we lost her. My father won’t be able to bear it.”
A wave of guilt swelled through his core. He should have never let any of this happen, and he vowed he’d find a way to neutralize it somehow. How often in his lifetime could he let a woman down so completely when he was supposed to be protecting her?
“Maybe the interest will die down,” he tried to reassure her. Though the comment was nothing more than a small fib. Each tour stop would bring more and more attention to her. She was a phenomenon in the making. He had no doubt of that after watching her from the stage last night and observing the audience reaction.
The real question was, was she ready for any of it? He had the feeling she was stronger than she gave herself credit for.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to tell me what I want to hear?” she asked.
“Is it working?”
“Maybe.” She smiled at him, sending a silly jolt of pleasure through his chest. The smile slowly faded. “In the end, it’s all about the music for me.” Ani gave a weary sigh. “What no audience will understand is what the music means to me.” Her eyes narrowed, staring off toward the distance before becoming unfocused.
“What’s it mean, Ani?”
“It’s a connection to my mom. Something we shared, just her and me. I think it’s why I was able to handle her loss so much better than Dad or Brant. Why I didn’t fall apart the way they did after she was gone.”
It explained a lot as to why she was the one left to gather the pieces of her family’s broken hearts after the tragedy. “That was hardly fair,” he told her. “You were just a child.”
She shrugged. “Maybe. But I was lucky to have that piece of her. Every time I began to play, I felt her presence. My brother and father didn’t have anything comparable. I was the lucky one.”
She had no idea how selfless she was to see things that way. “You still had a right to grieve. In your own way.” He was just beginning to understand how wholly she’d been denied that.
Her gaze found him again, her eyebrows drawn together, as if weighing the full impact of his words.
Adam’s phone buzzed in his pocket before either could speak again, pulling them both back to the moment at hand. The damn thing had been going off continually since he’d sat down. He couldn’t afford to avoid it much longer.
“You should really get that, you know,” Ani prompted, then glanced at her own phone where it rested on her lap. “I’m ignoring mine but I’m guessing it’s your team trying to get a hold of you.”
Adam nodded. “Along with a slew of others.”
“Others?”
“Current and potential clients. Not to mention curious friends and various acquaintances who suddenly seem to have found my number.” Interestingly, he hadn’t yet gotten any kind of message from Brant. He groaned internally. Not a conversation he was looking forward to.
Ani cupped a hand to her mouth. “Oh, Adam. I’m so sorry.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
“For being so selfish. I hadn’t even stopped to consider how all of this was affecting you.”
Selfish was the last word he would use to describe her. Especially after the conversation they’d just had. He had wondered why she’d been so upset about the gossip sites and the tabloids. Her reaction had seemed disproportionate somehow. But she’d been worried about everyone but herself. Mainly her father and the kids she taught.
“Don’t worry about me, Ani. You have enough on your mind.”
“But what will you do?”
“Damage control. I can be pretty good at it.” Except for that one fateful time when he hadn’t been. He fought back the bile that threatened to rise up his throat as the memories assaulted him. The smoke, the screaming. The rancid smell of burned metal. And the utter, useless destruction.
Ani hesitated, then finally stood. “I’m guessing we should get back. Moira’s probably ready to panic at my prolonged absence.”
Adam nodded and stood as well. He watched as a small toddler ran after a ball toward the water with his frantic mother chasing him. She caught him just in time. The little boy giggled in his mom’s arms as she carried him back to their picnic blanket.
Adam glanced toward the shine of the water, the rays of the sun lighting up the surface...then at a couple who held hands as they walked along and chatted animatedly.
Those were the images he needed to hold on to. The ones in his mind would only serve to drive him nearly mad if he let them.
* * *
“So, tell me about your team,” Ani prompted as they leisurely walked back to the hotel. It was as if they were both trying to avoid the reality that waited for them.
“What would you like to know? I can tell you I only hire the best. They’re all former special ops or elite law-enforcement officers.”
Ani chewed her lip. There were times like this when Adam was all business. “I don’t mean their professional qualifications. Who are they? April mentioned she has a younger sister.”
“Yeah, she talks about her all the time. April’s putting her through college. Parents were deadbeats who wanted nothing to do with their girls once they hit the ripe old age of eighteen.”
“That’s very commendable of her.”
“She’s a woman of strong character.”
They passed a charming patisserie, the rich scent of roasted coffee beans reaching her on an aromatic wave. It occurred to her she hadn’t had so much as a hint of caffeine yet this morning. Just went to show how distracted she’d been. Any other day that would have been an unacceptable state of affairs.
Her gaze lingered on the doorway.
Adam must have noticed. “Would you like anything? Another baguette or a breakfast crepe, maybe?”
She shook her head. “I’m not hungry. But I could definitely use a cup of coffee.”
He nodded. “Rich and creamy? Or bold and strong?”
“Something in between?”
He ordered for them both when they went into the shop. Un café simple for himself and un café noisette for her, which he told her was a strong espresso-type coffee with a heap of thick cream. The smiling barista handed them to-go cups in mere moments. They continued their walk.
“What about your other team members?” Ani asked, resuming their conversation. She was trying to keep her mind off everything she needed to think about eventually, all the things she had to figure out about who she was and the kind of life she wanted to ultimately lead. Plus, she was genuinely curious. So far, she’d really only gotten to know April, and not very well.
Not to mention, she needed to take her mind off of what Adam had said to her by the river. Had she really not been given a true chance to grieve her very own mother?
“Let’s see,” Adam began. “Tito is former navy. He and his wife welcomed twin girls about two years ago. That was when he decided he was ready for civilian life. So he started working for me. Believe it or not, the hours are better. And I’m a better employer than Uncle Sam in many regards.”
She chuckled at that.
“Raj is going to school part-time. Mechanical engineering major through ROTC. He’s looking to get his MBA. One of the smartest men I’ve ever met.”
Ani took a sip of her drink as she listened. The savory chicory taste blended smoothly with the heavy cream. So much richer than the café au lait she’d been having. She would definitely need to order this again before they were due to leave Paris in a day.
Arriving back in Dallas was going to be a surrea
l experience. It was almost as if she’d be coming home a completely different person. She’d gone from being an unknown to having her image posted on numerous websites all over the world.
And then there was Adam. She couldn’t define what was between them. But she knew for certain she wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about him.
Adam continued, “Finally, there’s Penelope. But we don’t dare call her that. She hates it. Penny just got engaged to her high school sweetheart. She’s excited to be moving into a new house once we get back to the States. I’m sure she’ll invite you to the wedding. Apparently, it’s going to be a huge one. You might not even be the only celebrity there.”
The comment served as a reminder of all that she’d been trying to avoid thinking about.
Adam’s phone hadn’t stopped buzzing and ringing. The latest call had a shadow falling across his face when he looked at the screen. He bit out a sharp curse. The man could swear like...well, a soldier. “I have to take this.”
She watched as he stepped away and spoke into the phone. His mouth grew tighter, a muscle in his jaw twitching each time he listened to whoever was on the other end.
When he clicked off the call and reached her side again, she could almost feel the tension radiating off of him. Tension and anger combined.
“Was it that bad?”
“You don’t need to worry about it, Ani.”
Again with the desire to spare her any upset. She reached for his forearm. “Please, just tell me. It might help to get some of it off your chest.”
“I doubt it. But fine. If you really want to know, that was a client who just recently hired us. He wanted to know if he should maybe rethink the contract he signed with Steele Security. If he could trust me with his new young trophy wife to accompany her to visit her family in a particularly dangerous part of Mexico.”
“Oh, no.”
“The bastard didn’t even want to listen when I told him I didn’t even particularly do fieldwork. That I would only be leading the team.”
“Adam, I’m so sorry. It was no doubt more his insecurity driving that phone call rather than any real concern about you.” Not that the knowledge changed anything.
