By the time they finished diner and desert he was ready to go, but Latricia had decided to order coffee. Coffee meant they had another thirty minutes of conversation left—conversation that barely touched on business, but completely ignored Valencia. She didn’t seem to mind. She was too busy watching his back to worry about being snubbed from a conversation she wasn’t interested in in the first place; but he did care. It was rude to exclude her and he wanted so much to make that known, but he didn’t. Valencia had to work and he could tell that her work was just as important for her as his work was for him. When they were out in public he would try to make things a little easier for her, but when they weren’t in public all bets would be off because he planned a game of seduction that would bring her to her knees—and he wouldn’t mind if that were literally. He grinned just thinking about the things they could do with each other. She was a pistol in battle and he would bet the house that she would be a wildcat in bed. Before this was over he was going to find out just how wild she could be.
Chapter Four
She had waited for so long for Harrison to come closer to her. His opera had spent so much time in Italy that she had started to wonder if he would ever come back. But he was here now. All of her letters had brought him back home. She could easily follow him in the States without ever leaving a trail. Traveling by car and paying cash for gas was a huge help in masking her habits. Nobody would know who she was, not until he announced their love for each other. She had been all set to let him claim her, but then he showed up with that woman. She didn’t know who she was, only that she had been hanging on to her man’s arm like a dog in heat.
That woman thought she could take her man…well she couldn’t have that. She wouldn’t have that. She would have to teach him a lesson; show him that their love wasn’t negotiable. He was hers. He belonged to her and no other woman. He had to see that. She would make sure he saw that.
She kissed the photograph she had of Harrison. He was standing on the beach in South Florida when the photographer took the picture. He was doing an interview for a magazine, one of those influential men articles, and the picture…oh it was glorious. His khaki pants were a nice neutral shade, and the white, almost silk shirt from what she could tell, was unbuttoned a few buttons down—it was enough to see a hint of his chest. He was so cute and sexy. Her Harrison was all man, and all hers. She just needed to remind him of that. She would send him another gift—something he would never forget.
“Did you sleep well?” Harrison entered the sitting area with nothing more than his jeans covering his body. Valencia forced her eyes not to take in the muscular body of the man in front of her. He was trying to entice her and she couldn’t let that happen. She couldn’t let distraction happen. She reluctantly returned her eyes to the paper in front of her. In reality, all she wanted to do was take in his fine form. The curvature of his muscles mixed with the hard angles of body was worth studying in detail. She exhaled slowly, trying to compel herself not to look at him again.
“I slept fine. You?” She didn’t bother to look up when he sat down in the chair across from her. Looking up would be a mistake. Looking up would put her vision in direct contact with the chest she wanted to run her hands across. She couldn’t go freely into that idea of relationship and bliss. Blissful relationships weren’t in the cards for her. She was who she was. Her life was what it was, and she couldn’t change that. A man didn’t have a place in her world. This man couldn’t have a place in her world.
“Like a baby,” he smiled. “Although unlike a baby I had the advantage of having the most delicious dreams about—”
“Shouldn’t you be getting ready? You have to be at the opera house by nine o’clock.” She knew exactly where he was going with his words and if she could keep him from speaking those words then she would be all the better for it.
“It’s not even five yet,” he refused to move. He refused to grant her at least a smidgen of space. Fine, she couldn’t avoid looking at him forever otherwise he would know she was intentionally trying to keep from looking.
She schooled her expression as she always did. Years of working in the business, training, suffering, had taught her to wear an unreadable mask. She raised her eyes to meet his. She could see the devilish glint in his eyes. “Were you planning to shop for food to fill that refrigerator today or are you planning to eat out again?”
He shrugged. “I’d prefer to get something I can cook for myself. I’m not a fan of eating out, but in business situations it can’t be helped.”
“You have no meetings today,” she returned her gaze to the task in front of her. “Unless you forgot to document something here.”
“No. No meetings. But I don’t know how long I’ll have to be at the house to oversee things. I might be able to get to a grocery store today and I might not. Would having dinner out on me be such a bad thing, Valencia?”
She didn’t miss the hidden meaning behind his words. No, having dinner on him wouldn’t be bad at all. She wouldn’t mind licking her meal off that hardened chest…but she couldn’t go there. She reminded herself of her commitment to keeping this about business. She was the bodyguard and he was the client. There was nothing else to it. There was no wiggle room allowed here.
“I just need to know so I can prepare.” She hid her thoughts well.
“I’d prefer to stay in tonight,” he said. “We can get to know each other better.”
“Harrison—”
“If we’re going to pull off the relationship ruse I need to know more about you.”
“You don’t need to know more about me,” she stated. “You just need to know the me who I’m pretending to be.”
“What if I want to know more?”
“You can’t,” she somberly said before placing the dossier back on the table. She stood to leave and he grabbed her wrist. She looked at him, not with a hint of threat in her eyes, but with sudden recognition of the heat, the volt of electricity and sexual awareness that shot through her like an arrow of steel. No, not now. Not him. She couldn’t; she wouldn’t.
“Why not?” His voice was low and seductive. His thumb traced over the sensitive skin on the inside of her wrist as his eyes held her locked in a seductive death grip.
“Because it’s not important.”
“It is to me,” he stood, towering over her. She looked up into his eyes, feeling the heat coming off his body as he eased closer to her. She told herself to move back. Move before he could do what she knew he was about to do—kiss her. He still held her wrist in his big hand and even though she knew she could easily free herself from his hold, she wasn’t quick to do it.
He placed his free hand on her throat, letting his thumb gently glide down her neck before gently tracing his finger over her collarbone. All the while he held her gaze, studying her reaction—a reaction she kept hidden, but somehow she knew, that he knew he was getting to her. “Take a cold shower, Harrison.” She extracted herself from his hold and put distance between them.
“I already did,” he said. “It didn’t help.”
“Try it again,” she stated flatly as she turned to leave the room.
“Care to join me? It might help.”
She could hear the grin in his voice. She turned, smiled sweetly and said. “I’ll pass.” She turned once more to leave and before she could clear the room she heard him say, “some other time then,” as if he were so sure that time would come. She was in deep trouble here. She hadn’t had this type of reaction, this type of feeling, for a man since Darryl. She had sworn to herself that she wouldn’t let it happen again. She had sworn that she would never allow any man into her world again and for a long time that promise hadn’t been compromised. But now, this man, Harrison Sinclair, was trying to break down her walls, the barriers she constructed to keep her heart safe—and maybe what scared her most is that he was the first man, in years, who had even come close to doing just that. If she didn’t find his stalker and rid him of the headache soon she just migh
t risk everything—and she couldn’t let that happen. She wouldn’t let that happen. Her duty now took on more than just protecting his finely tuned body; it now included finding his stalker and ending her game.
“You know you promised to show me some new techniques for fighting.” Harrison’s deep tone echoed in her room. She knew she should have closed the door.
“When would you like to begin?”
“Today,” he said. “Tonight. Your body, my body…a little one on one.”
“Fine,” she kept her tone neutral even though the thought of being one on one with Harrison’s body had heat rushing through her own body. “After dinner,” she confirmed.
“And before bed,” he grinned before walking away. She might have the market cornered on kicking his butt, but he was by far winning in the leaving her speechless category.
“Get your head on straight, Valencia,” she admonished herself. “He’s just a man. Don’t screw up,” or him for that matter.
Chapter Five
Harrison sat back in the theater chair and thought about this morning, the moment he felt compelled to reach out and touch Valencia. He just couldn’t resist the urge to feel her smooth skin beneath the pads of his fingertips. He was starting to realize that seducing Valencia wasn’t going to be an easy task. She wasn’t completely immune to him. He could tell from the way her pulse quickened underneath the caress of his thumb. She felt something; he was sure of that. But when it came to her stance on business only she was as unyielding as a stone wall. Fortunately, even a stone wall couldn’t stop a man from penetrating the fortress he craved. His problem wasn’t whether or not he would eventually win in his seduction. He was fairly confident that he could. His problem was that he, in such a short time, was starting to think he wanted more than just one night of Valencia straddled his body with him firmly implanted within her warm chamber. He was starting to think he wanted more, a lot more, than just sex, and that scared him.
In all his years he had never been the man to want a long lasting relationship. It wasn’t that he was a male slut. He dated, he had sex, he didn’t exactly fall into bed with any woman, but he never thought he wanted more than the fun of the relationship. When the fun stopped it was time to go. He had seen his dad hang onto an already loveless relationship; and he had seen how his infidelity while trying to keep up appearances had rocked two families to the core. He didn’t want that. Right now, however, he thought he wanted more than fun with Valencia. He wanted to know her, to understand her, to hold her. He wanted to know who she was, what made her so strong and skilled as a fighter. He wanted to know why she became a bodyguard. He wanted to know if she had family, a brother, maybe a sister, or even if her parents were still living. He wanted to know where she went to school, where she had traveled, and what she liked for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
He slapped his hand to his cheek.
“Are you okay?” She looked over at him. She wanted to know if he was okay. Sure he was okay. He was losing his mind with near obsession over this beautiful woman, but he was okay...about as okay as a heart attack. Fortunately for him Latricia had called and she wouldn’t be around until eleven, which meant he could force a noon lunch break and conveniently not come back to the venue afterwards. He didn’t really need to be there right now. He had a stage manager for a reason. But he had invested a lot of himself into this production and being there felt like a necessity for him. He needed to make sure everything went according to plan. He didn’t want any surprises come opening night.
“Yeah,” he mumbled as he realized he had yet to answer her question. “Do you have any siblings? Parents? Husbands?” He shook his head trying to figure out why he cared this much.
She laughed. He loved the sound of her voice when she laughed. She hadn’t done that before, and now he wished she would do it all the time. She was too serious. Even at dinner last night she was on constant vigilance. This obsessed fan wasn’t a real threat. He knew she wasn’t a real threat and he honestly wouldn’t have accepted a bodyguard if the bodyguard hadn’t been so knock down drag out gorgeous. When he first saw her he had all sorts of plans for what he could do with her body. She, of course, was putting a damper on any plans he thought he might have.
“No, to the husbands question; more than one wouldn’t be legal anyway.” She laughed again. “But I’m not married at all, never have been. My parents are both still alive. They live in Hawaii. And I have a brother. His name is Percileo. Everybody calls him Lucky Leo.”
“Yeah?” His eyebrow arched upwards. She laughed again and shook her head.
“Leo’s on the bomb squad. They call him Lucky Leo because he’s one of the best when it comes to diffusing bombs. He’s gone in on some very tough calls and he manages to walk out with all his body parts in tact when nobody thought it would be possible. So, they call him Lucky Leo. I just call him Leo.”
He could tell she was proud of her brother. The adoration in her voice assured him of that. “I have family,” he said. “I guess you know about what my mother and sister did.” He looked at her, studying her face. He was sure she knew. There was no need to elaborate on the details. “I guess with Geneva being my father’s child from an extramarital affair my mother had no issue trying to kill her—ordering the hit herself, just for money. But I’m her son and you would think she would know that killing Geneva would have destroyed me too. But how could she know that?” He shook his head. “My mother was too wrapped up in herself to realize that I cared about Geneva. She’s more of a sister to me as a half sister than my whole blood sister.”
Valencia nodded. “It’s hard to make sense of things sometimes—the bad that happens can never really be explained. We try; but we can’t—not really.”
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “But some good came out of it. Geneva and Drake got closer. They got married. She found happiness after all. I never thought I would want what they have—until now.” He looked at her trying to study her reaction.
“Harrison—”
“I’m early,” Latricia’s voice interrupted whatever Valencia was getting ready to say. Perhaps he didn’t really want to know. Perhaps she would have once again told him that they needed to keep things business only. But if she had he would have been sure to tell her, in no uncertain terms, that he had no intention of doing that—no intention at all.
Harrison stood as Latricia approached them. “I can see that,” he said without any hint of fondness in his voice. He thought he had at least another hour alone with Valencia.
“I thought I could get here and see what you’ve done so far,” she smiled as she wrapped her arms around Harrison’s neck and pulled him in for a hug. He patted one hand between her shoulder blades before managing to wiggle his body out of her grip.
“Maybe we can do lunch, Harrison.” He didn’t miss the implication in her tone and her words that she didn’t want Valencia to accompany them. He had news for her; Valencia had been serious about not letting him out of her sight. While she had exited the bathroom so he could go in peace she had been sure to go in and check the vents and the stalls before leaving him alone. And she had told him if he wasn’t out in a minute she was coming in. He had laughed, but when he wasn’t out in a minute she had come in. Fortunately for him he was in the process of washing his hands so he hadn’t been caught exposed handling his business. The woman took her job too seriously. Normally he would say that was a good thing, but this wasn’t a normal situation. He was not in any real danger. She needed to relax and let her hair down—literally. She had long, beautiful, silky hair and she always had it up in a bun with two decorative hair pins situated on either side. It was beautiful, but she really should wear her hair down more.
“Actually,” he said. “Valencia and I are going to pull out of here at the noon lunch break and go do a little grocery shopping. I need to put some food in that refrigerator, and get something for dinner tonight.”
“We could do dinner,” she hummed in a seductive tone.
“I have
plans,” he sat down and took Valencia’s hand in his, tightening his fingers around hers.
“I see,” she mumbled as she positioned herself in the seat next to him. “Maybe some other time. We do still have business to discuss.”
“Not today,” he stated. He couldn’t imagine what business they still needed to discusses. As far as he knew, he had signed all the papers that needed to be signed, and last night was supposed to be the final business meeting they needed to have.
“Okay. Tell me about what’s going on here.” She waved her hand at the stage setup crew. Was she serious? What did it look like they were doing? He refrained from shaking his head and saying the first thing that came to mind.
“They’re getting everything ready for the background structure. Preproduction is a big process, but everything will be finished in time for next week’s opening.”
“Seems like a lot of work for a show that’s only going to be here for a short time.”
“We like things done right.”
“You should extend your stay here. We wouldn’t mind having this opera in our town for a year or more,” she let the last part of her sentence leave a hint of suggestion that told Harrison she was trying to make it known to him, and to Valencia, that she planned to capture his attention in whatever way necessary.
“No can do,” he stated as he pulled Valencia’s hand up to his lips and kissed the back of her smooth skin. “We have other states to grace with our presence. It’s already set.”
“Unset it,” she said simply.
“I don’t go back on my promises and commitments. I wouldn’t be much of a man if I did that.” And he meant those words in every sense possible. He might not truly be dating Valencia, but he wanted to be. Even though he wasn’t, Latricia didn’t know that he wasn’t and as such she should know that he was a man of honor and integrity. He wouldn’t cheat on his woman, not now, not ever. He was not going to be a younger version of his father.
Seducing the Bodyguard Page 5
