[4 Seasons 01] Seducing Summer

by Serenity Woods

  He turned and stepped in front of Callie, briefly registering the man’s startled look before he grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back. Quickly, Gene propelled him forward to the nearest wall and slammed him up against it. He pushed the guy’s arm hard up his back and forced his knee between his legs, using his superior height and weight to pin the man there.

  “One twitch of your eyebrow,” Gene said fiercely, “and you’re fucking dead, you understand me?”

  “All right, all right!” The words tumbled from the guy’s mouth where his face was squashed against the brick.

  “Oh my God!” Callie appeared suddenly beside him.

  “Summer,” Gene yelled. “Back off.”

  “It’s Jamie,” she snapped, tugging at his arm. “It’s my ex!”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  For a moment, Callie’s words didn’t register in Gene’s head, and all he could think was that the person he’d pinned to the wall was an enemy, the bastard who’d lain out in detail the cruel, disgusting things he wanted to do when he got his hands on the beautiful woman by his side. Behind him, Ian appeared out of nowhere, ready to help him take him down.

  She tugged his arm again, though, and yelled, “Gene! It’s okay. It’s Jamie. Let him go.”

  Her ex. Shock filtered through him, and he stepped back and let go of the guy’s arm. Both he and Ian hovered, though, the instinct to protect too strong to make them immediately back up.

  Callie pushed between them, looking up at her ex in concern. “Jamie, jeez, I’m so sorry.”

  “What the fuck!” The young guy massaged his shoulder and glared at him. “You’d better explain yourself quick or I’m calling the police.”

  “It’s not his fault,” Callie insisted. She didn’t look at Gene. “Mum’s been getting death threats, and they’ve threatened me, too—he thought you were going to attack me.”

  Jamie’s eyes widened. “Death threats?” he said. “Seriously?”

  “Yeah. It’s a guy she put away ages ago, some kind of psychotic mobster, and he’s threatened her and her family.” She put a hand on his chest. “Don’t worry about it, I’m fine. What are you doing here?”

  While Jamie told her something about a history course he’d been sent on at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Gene glowered, his stomach boiling with shame, rage, and jealousy at their intimate touch. This was the guy who’d slept with someone else while he’d been dating Callie. He’d cheated on her. What a fucking imbecile.

  The two of them spoke quietly as if he and Ian weren’t there, Jamie even turning his back on them, cutting them out of the conversation.

  When Jamie laughed at something Callie said, though, and placed his hand on her arm, Gene saw red and knocked the guy’s arm away.

  Jamie spun around, furious. “Jesus, man! What the fuck do you think you’re doing? I’m her friend.”

  “Some fucking friend.” Gene put both hands on the guy’s chest and shoved him hard enough to make him stumble. “You cheated on her. You come near her again, I’ll shove your teeth down your throat, regardless of whether you’ve anything to do with the death threats.”

  Ian’s hand tightened on his arm. “Gene,” he said urgently.

  Callie’s cheeks had gone scarlet, and for a brief moment Gene thought she was going to tell him to leave her alone with her ex. Nausea rose in his throat, and he ran his free hand through his hair, trying to get his emotions under control.

  Callie’s eyes were cool. But to his surprise, she didn’t tell him to fuck off, as he’d thought she might. Instead, tearing her gaze from his, she turned to Jamie. “You’d better go,” she said. “Sorry about this. It was nice to see you.”

  Jamie backed away, not taking his eyes from Gene’s. Four inches taller, thirty pounds heavier, and a whole lot madder, Gene glared back, and eventually Jamie just rolled his eyes and walked off. Once he was ten feet away, he turned and said, “I’ll call you,” to Callie, glancing at Gene with a final twist to his lips before he disappeared around the corner.

  Gene twitched, but Ian’s hand was still on his arm. He didn’t follow Jamie, but he jerked his arm away, his chest heaving with anger.

  Callie cleared her throat. Ignoring Gene for a moment, she turned to Ian and held out her hand. “I’m very sorry about that. We haven’t met. I’m Callie.”

  “Ian,” he said wryly, and shook her hand. “Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

  She gave a short laugh. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

  “I’ll leave you to it.” Ian’s eyes met Gene’s briefly before he walked away. Gene knew from that look that he’d guessed there was something between them. Well, that was the least of his worries right now.

  His breaths still coming fast, adrenaline continuing to course through his veins, he looked at Callie, who watched Ian walk away before bringing her gaze back to him.

  “Do you still have feelings for him?” he snapped.

  “For Ian?”

  “Don’t be so bloody dense. You know who I mean. Are you still in love with Jamie?”

  She lifted her chin, and her eyes blazed. “Of all people, you have an incredible nerve asking me that after what we’ve shared.”

  His chest heaved. He was so fucking screwed up. He had to tell her the truth or he was going to explode. “Callie…”

  She looked at him, her blue eyes as clear as the water in the harbor behind her. And slowly, like the sun coming out, he realized what she’d said.

  Mum’s been getting death threats, and they’ve threatened me, too—he thought you were going to attack me.

  She understood that he knew about the threats, and that he’d been trying to protect her.

  His jaw dropped.

  “You know,” he whispered.

  She blinked a few times and sucked her bottom lip.

  “You know who I really am,” he said.

  She looked at him for a moment longer. Then she shrugged, her eyes holding a hint of amusement. “Of course I know.”

  He couldn’t have been more baffled if she’d hit him with a frying pan. “What… how…?” He walked backward until luckily his legs met a bench, and he sat heavily. “Did Phoebe tell you?”

  She shook her head.

  “Neve?”

  Another shake.

  “Who, then?”

  “You did.” She came to sit beside him, looking extraordinarily calm, while his heart raced at a million miles an hour.

  He’d told her? “What do you mean?” he demanded. “When?”

  “The first day we met. You had a notepad on your desk. It had some kind of threat assessment of the office.”

  He stared at her. His brain had turned to sludge. “But… I wrote that in shorthand.”

  She gave a sexy little shrug of her shoulders.

  “You can read Teeline?” he said, aghast.

  “And Pitman.” Now she was trying not to laugh. “Sorry.”

  It was funny, but Gene was too upset to laugh with her. He stood and walked up to the railing, gripping hold of it until his knuckles were white.

  Behind him, he heard her soft sigh, her footsteps crossing to him. “Gene?”

  “I can’t believe it.” He kept shaking his head. “You knew. All this time, you knew who I really was. I can’t get my head around it.” He turned to face her, chest heaving. “Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been tying myself up in knots for being unprofessional, for getting involved with you when I should be protecting you. For not telling you the truth. And all this time you knew!” It made him want to howl like a dog left in the car.

  Her smile faded as she saw how distraught he was. “At first,” she admitted, “I wasn’t sure what to think. I didn’t want protection, and I was mad that my mother had organized it without asking me. I presume it was her, anyway.” He gave a sharp nod. She rolled her eyes. “I knew it. I was going to come in the next day and finish it. But…” Her lips curved in an impish smile. “I liked you. I didn’t want you to go.”

  “But…” His hea
d was starting to hurt. “You could have said at any time. You must have known how hard it was for me to leave every night.”

  “Why do you think I didn’t ask you to stay? Or demand to know why you had to leave? I knew you had to go.”

  “I don’t understand why you carried on with it when you didn’t want protection.”

  “I was angry with Mum, but for the first time, I began to understand how serious this was. For her to go to that trouble, for you to keep up the pretense of being my PA… To go to the lengths you have done to keep me safe… I knew it must be serious.”

  He slid his hands into his hair, tugging at the roots. “I still don’t get why you didn’t just tell me. Callie, I’ve been going mad. I’ve been so angry with myself.”

  “I know.” A hint of shame crossed her features. “At first it was fun. I’m embarrassed to say I enjoyed it. I was interested to see what you did, and how you handled it. But the longer I was with you, the less like a game it became. I realized what you were risking, and how you were so torn between being with me and doing your job. I was sure that if I told you I knew you were some kind of bodyguard, you’d tell me you couldn’t do the job anymore. You’d have to get someone else in, because you wouldn’t have been able to carry on doing something you shouldn’t when I was aware of it.”

  He stared at her. She was right. That was exactly what he would have done. He couldn’t have acted as her bodyguard and continued to sleep with her if she’d been aware of what he was doing. Wrangling with his own angst was one thing, being openly dishonorable was another.

  And then he realized she’d been going through exactly the same as him, tying herself into a million knots because she’d wanted to keep him at her side, knowing she should tell him the truth but not wanting to lose him.

  In a second, all his anger and anguish drained away.

  “Well, well,” he said softly. “Aren’t we a pair?”

  She met his gaze. Her lips curved slowly up. “Aren’t we?” Her eyes filled with humor. “You were very impressive the way you handled Jamie.”

  He scratched the back of his neck, embarrassed. “Shit. I’m sorry about that.”

  “Gene, it’s okay. You’ve been protecting me for two weeks. Putting your life on the line for me. Do you not think I appreciate that?” Her eyes were filled with wonder.

  “I…” He felt as bashful as a schoolboy and couldn’t think what to say.

  She took his hand and led him back to the bench. The warm evening sun had dried up the rain, and he could smell the jasmine growing in a pot around a nearby restaurant. Music filtered over to them, some folksy jazz, and his muscles started to let go of some of the tension. She knew now. He didn’t have to make a decision anymore. That, at least, was something, whatever happened now.

  They sat quietly for a while. He didn’t interrupt her thoughts, wanting to let her think.

  “So Ian’s a part of your team?” she asked eventually.

  He nodded. “He works for me.”

  “He works for you? Are you, like, a team leader?”

  “I run the company, Callie. Safe & Secure. It’s my company. I set it up after I left the Army.”

  Her mouth formed an O of surprise. “I didn’t realize that. But… why are you acting as my bodyguard? Why didn’t you send one of your guys to do it?”

  “I saw the file,” he lied. “Your picture. Couldn’t resist.”

  Her eyes appraised him. She wasn’t fooled. But he wasn’t about to give away Phoebe’s secret, not yet.

  “You should know that I’m flying four more operatives up tonight,” he told her. “You’ll have another PPO—that’s personal protection officer—from tomorrow, and Ian and three others will be around to carry out threat assessments and watch from afar.”

  “Why the increased protection?”

  He told her about the new death threat, and the fact that someone was obviously following them. “I was going to tell you who I really was anyway, because from now on we need to take more care of you. Up until now, it was a low to medium threat—I didn’t really believe Kirk was interested in you. But knowing that someone’s following you has changed everything.”

  She glanced around her, scanning the people walking along the waterfront, glancing up at the buildings. “He could be anywhere,” she whispered.

  “I know. That’s why I’m here. I can type at eighty words a minute. But I’m also an ex-soldier, and a personal protection officer. I’m trained in surveillance, in threat recognition and assessment, in first aid, in overt and covert protection, and in offensive and evasive driving. I’m trained to operate under extremes, to prevent, detect, avoid, counter, and combat all threats to the principal. I’m trained in unarmed combat, and in handling ballistics, edged weapons, and explosive devices, and I had to pass high-level physical tests.”

  “Are you trying to turn me on?”

  He gave a short laugh. He was crazy about this woman. She was smart, sexy, funny, and she still seemed into him. Maybe there was hope for them yet. “I told you not to boast, but so that you know I’m not some two-bit cowboy. I’m here to protect you, and whoever’s following you will have to go through me to get to you.”

  They studied each other for a long moment. It was as if a storm had stirred the silt up from a riverbed, but now the storm had subsided, and the silt was gradually settling again, leaving the water bright and clear.

  “What do you want to do now?” she said.

  “Personally or professionally?”

  She smiled. “Both. I think at the moment they’re too closely linked to be separated.”

  “Maybe. I suppose the main question is whether you would like to continue our relationship considering I’ve lied to you for the past two weeks.”

  She rested her elbow on the back of the seat and leaned her head on a hand. “I would.”

  The last dregs of tension left him in a rush, and he let out a long, shaky breath. “Okay. Right. Good.”

  She wrinkled her nose. “So, where from here?”

  “We’ve only got a couple of days left on your tour, and as I said, I’m flying up a team to increase your protection. So for the next few days, I’d like to concentrate on your safety. I want to get you back to Wellington in one piece.”

  She nodded. “Okay,” she whispered.

  He felt a sweep of relief that she was happy to comply. He’d miss her at nights, and would long for the touch of her body against his, but for now it would make things easier for him professionally to concentrate on her protection. “I’m still hopeful the STG will catch Kirk soon, and then it will all be over. You’ll be able to hire a new PA, and then… well… we can concentrate on our personal lives.”

  “I can’t wait.” Her eyes glowed. “I’m crazy about you, Gene. I hope you know that. I think about you all the time.” Her expression turned sultry. “I want you. I miss your hands on me, your mouth on mine. But I’ll wait for you. And I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have protecting me.”

  “Okay. I think we should get you back to the hotel now.”

  “Come on, then.”

  They stood and began walking back. Callie chatted on about the journey to Whangarei and then the Bay of Islands the next day, and Gene half listened, relieved and happy that he hadn’t lost her, and excited to think of the future they might have once all this was over.

  But first he had to eliminate the threat on her life. A seed of unease lodged in his stomach. Kirk and his henchmen were still out there. Someone was still watching Callie. Someone who wanted to do very unpleasant things to her, and who wanted to end her life. This was the most important job he’d ever done. And he just wanted it to be over so he could get on with his life.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The next two days were both exciting and borderline scary for Callie.

  When she’d read Gene’s notepad on the first day he’d come to her office and had realized he was actually an undercover bodyguard, she’d been angry at first, then curious to
see how he would carry out the role when he thought she didn’t know. So she’d observed him discreetly over the past few weeks almost as much as he’d been watching her, she was sure.

  She was well aware how he always scanned a room before he walked into it. How, even after they started sleeping together, his gaze wouldn’t be on her for more than ten seconds before it left her to glance around the room, observing anyone who might have walked in, checking exits, constantly assessing the risks. She was aware how whenever they were out walking, he would cross to the roadside to protect her from anyone in a car. How he always placed his body between her and anyone who came up to speak to her. She’d watched him react to incidents on the road and knew he had lightning-fast reactions. And she’d known that when he left her room at night, it was to work, even though he desperately wanted to stay by her side.

  The fact that they’d become intimate hadn’t stopped his professionalism, whatever he thought. Part of her was still a little resentful at having him there, because it implied she couldn’t take care of herself, and she refused to be intimidated and scared by the bully who was stalking her mother. But equally, she wasn’t stupid. Gene did this for a living, and if he thought the threat was real enough that she needed protection, she wasn’t going to argue with him.

  The morning they left Auckland, Gene introduced her to the four other agents who, with Ian, would be with her at all times from now on in shifts. Julia, the female PPO, was to work with Gene and stay close to Callie at all times, while the other four would work at a distance, two of them travelling ahead to carry out threat assessment prior to their arrival, the other two following behind to provide at-a-distance protection.

  When they stopped at the small city of Whangarei and she visited two stores there, Julia stood outside the manager’s office while she had her appointment, while Gene came in with her each time.

  Now Gene didn’t have to carry out the pretense of being her PA, and Callie could only watch and admire him as he directed his team. He was still warm and a little flirty with her when they were alone, but as soon as Julia was with them he turned strictly professional. No longer did he let Callie get away with anything. He refused to let her go out without either him or Julia glued to her side. His firm gaze brooked no argument when he demanded someone go with her to a shop or even to the bathroom in a restaurant. She’d thought him impressive when he’d acted secretly, but as an overt protection officer he was amazing, and she couldn’t fault him.