My Bodyguard

by Dana Marton

  She glared back. Like hell he was going to intimidate her.

  “Can you walk, ma’am?” Anita came to help her up.

  Gina and Carly put Cavanaugh on the stretcher and headed for the door. Anita escorted Sam behind them.

  “And now?” Sam asked once the ambulance door was closed behind them.

  “He’ll be in critical care. He can be visited only by one person at a time for one hour each day. For that hour he’ll be sedated. Brant has a doctor at the hospital who will make sure no mishaps occur.”

  “Reese doesn’t think he knows anything about the attack beyond the date.”

  Carly pulled a small bag of doughnuts from her medical case and offered it around. “Being nervous makes me hungry,” she said.

  “We’ve got some good news,” Anita told Sam, grinning.

  “What?” Sam asked.

  “Just after you left, we got a call from a potential new client who was apparently referred to us by Cavanaugh,” Anita said.

  That definitely called for one of Carly’s doughnuts.

  Gina took one, too. “He wants to meet us on his private island early next week to discuss the possibilities of us working for him full-time. He’s offering an exclusive contract, basically.”

  “We can’t do that. We have to stay in business as is and try to attract Tsernyakov.” And they were dangerously close to running out of time.

  “The island is owned by a Russian media mogul. On paper. In reality, he’s never been there. The local rumor is that it’s used by some hotshot from the Russian mob.”

  “So?”

  “The ships we have satellite images of that docked there for the last couple of days are for the most registered to companies we had listed as suspicious for either doing business with or actually belonging to Tsernyakov.”

  The air stopped in Sam’s lungs. “You think this is it?”

  The women nodded. “We did it.”

  They’d been working toward that goal for months, but now that it was here, she could barely believe that they had succeeded.

  They had a date. Plus, they had Cavanaugh in their power. Interrogating him should bring more information, as well. And they had attracted Tsernyakov’s attention, finally, just as they had set out to do. She had done her part, hadn’t failed the others or the mission, or herself. That thought kept her happy all the way to the office where she was distracted by other things.

  Brant, Nick, David and Reese were waiting for them. Sam watched some byplay between the brothers as they stood side by side. David looked a lot smaller and a lot less handsome all of a sudden.

  Reese must have sensed her watching because he turned and looked straight at her. Smiled.

  She felt a responding smile tugging at her lips. Her heart started doing a crazy little dance. She was so far gone it was pitiful.

  She was in love with Reese Moretti.

  She sure hadn’t seen that coming. He didn’t look like his usual confident self, either. He had a goofy expression on his face as he watched her.

  Maybe they would meet again someday, years from now, when both of them were ready. Right. Her luck didn’t work that way and—

  She stopped herself midthought.

  She met Reese, didn’t she?

  Maybe her luck was changing. Or maybe she should take luck into her own two hands. She flashed him a hopeful grin.

  Chapter Twelve

  “You have to leave already?” Sam watched as Reese packed his duffel bag, leaving behind the “lawyer clothes” he had borrowed from his brother.

  They had spent the ride from the office to her apartment in silence, Reese so deep in thought she couldn’t budge him out of it. Maybe he was switching gears, focusing on his next mission.

  “I have the information I needed from the FBI. It gives me the rough location of the people who most likely took my client. My team is already on their way there. I’m flying in tonight.”

  He wore blue jeans and a black T-shirt, the set of his mouth as grim as when he had arrived.

  “I don’t know how to thank you. Without you—”

  He looked at her and his face lightened a fraction. “You would have done just fine. You’re a hell of a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for.”

  She shook her head. If only he knew. She was about to fall into his arms and beg him to stay.

  “About—” She wanted to talk about what had happened between them beyond the mission, but couldn’t find the words. What if he’d forgotten it already? What if it meant nothing to him?

  He stopped what he was doing. “I wasn’t playing with you. I want you to know that. I wish things were different for the both of us.”

  She swallowed.

  He was so gloriously handsome and fierce-looking just now. She stepped closer without meaning to. “Me, too.”

  “You are an extraordinary woman. You don’t have to rush anything.”

  Was that desire in his eyes? “I’m not.” She took another step.

  “When the time is right, when the man is right, it will come naturally.” He scratched an eyebrow and gave her a tight smile. “He’ll be one lucky bastard, that’s for sure.”

  What did he think he was doing, talking about other men? She wasn’t interested in anyone but him.

  “And if I want you?” She couldn’t believe she was brave enough to say that.

  He went still. “You don’t have to settle for me. I can’t give you what you want, the quiet life, the being there with you day in, day out, the security.”

  “Maybe that’s not what I want. Not right now, anyway.”

  He looked surprised. “But that’s how it should be,” he said with conviction.

  “Maybe that’s what you want, then.”

  He paused. “I know what I want. I love my job. My clients need me.”

  “How about what you need?”

  “I’m no longer sure.” He gave her a rueful grin. “Okay, so I’ll reevaluate. It’s not going to happen overnight, though.”

  “I didn’t ask for anything.”

  “Point taken. But I want to give you everything.” He held her gaze. “I want you.”

  His words drummed through her bloodstream. She moved another few inches in his direction. Just a foot or two separated them now. There was so much he didn’t know about her. She owed him the truth, no matter how scared she was of rejection, even if he would walk away when he realized who and what she was.

  “I tell people I don’t remember anything before I came to live on the streets, but I do.”

  The muscles in his face tightened.

  “I remember everything,” she whispered. And all of a sudden she felt the sudden need to talk about it, talk to him about it. That urge caught her off guard. For years she’d done everything possible to block out her past.

  “You want to tell me?” He closed the distance between them and put his arms around her.

  She pressed against his body, the solid strength of him. Then she began to speak and lay her soul bare to him.

  “He can’t hurt you now. None of those things can. You’ve made it through,” he said when she was done. “You are more than the memories of your past.”

  They were sitting on the sofa, Reese holding her in his arms.

  “I know. So are you.” And when he looked at her with questions in his eyes, she said, “Natalie wasn’t your fault.”

  He took a slow breath and swallowed. “Hell, I’ve carried that around so long now, I don’t know if I can let it go.”

  “I’ve been thinking,” she said. “I think it’s okay to remember, but we don’t have to feel guilty. Either of us.”

  “I’ll try.”

  He lifted a hand to caress her face and she tilted her mouth for a kiss. He took it and kissed her with care at first then with heat. Enough heat to melt the memories away.

  “But what we have—It doesn’t work like this,” he said when he pulled away after a long while.

  “What doesn’t?” From where she was s
itting, it had been working just fine.

  “It was a man who broke something in you in some way. Giving your body to another man is not going to heal it. Only you can. In here.” He touched a hand to her heart.

  She thought about that. What was in her heart? It used to be filled with fear. Now it was filled with Reese.

  “That’s not why I wanted to kiss you,” she said.

  He drew up an eyebrow.

  “Reese, I—”

  He put two fingers to her mouth. “Don’t say anything. I’m half in love with you already. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

  Her heart thrilled. “I’ve never known anyone like you.”

  “You don’t need anyone like me.”

  It was her turn to put her eyebrows in action. “Can I decide what I need?”

  “I travel a lot. You’d be alone a lot.”

  “I’m alone all the time now.” He didn’t seem to have a response to that, so she went on. “You know what I learned in the last couple of years? That the planets rarely align to make everything just perfect for reaching everlasting happiness. You have to grab the half chances, the bits and pieces and run with it.” She’d rather have him in her life from time to time than not at all.

  “When did you get so wise?”

  She smiled.

  “I will get out of this business someday, you know,” he added. “This isn’t something anyone can do forever. People who do this job have to be at the top of their game.”

  It wasn’t as if she was ready for marriage and a family at this second, anyway. She wanted to go back to college, she wanted to discover the world and all she had missed in it. She was twenty-two. He was a man worth waiting for.

  “On average, I’m home a week every other month.” He kissed her again.

  “We’ll just have to make the best of it,” she said when they came up for air.

  “But this current job shouldn’t take more than a week or two, now that we have a location.”

  She ran her hand under his shirt.

  He caught it and held it to his heart. “Is this truly what you want?”

  “I want to live. Really live. I want to learn. I want time to figure out what I want from life. But one thing I do know for sure. I do want you to be part of it.”

  He crushed her to him, tight. “How did I get so lucky? I have a condo in Boston. I would love it if you lived there with me.” He looked into her eyes. “I promise to give you lots of space. We’ll take it as slow as you need.” He paused for a grin. “Free lifetime supply of cotton candy.”

  She considered him for a moment. “I want to go to school and I want to work with street kids.”

  “Plenty of colleges in Boston. Plenty of disadvantaged children, too.”

  She closed her eyelids for a few seconds and let herself imagine what that would be like. Real living. Learning. Productive. Making up for the mistakes of the past. Reese in her life. The wonder of it all misted her eyes.

  “Okay, there’s something I haven’t been completely honest about,” he said.

  Her eyes popped open, all her insecurities surfacing in a surge. She was prepared for the worst in a split second, and hated that she had so much practice that her instincts would kick in with the speed of light.

  “When I said I’m half in love with you—” he caressed her jawline with a thumb “—I might have been hanging on to some macho image of myself. Can’t-be-brought-down-with-a-single-look kind of stuff, you know?”

  She shook her head as heat spread from his touch. She had no idea what he was talking about.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m in love with you all the way,” he said.

  She lowered herself to the couch and somehow drew him with her.

  “How do I know when I’m in love? I don’t have any practice at this,” she said.

  “Me, neither. We’ll figure it out. We make a damn good team.”

  “I can’t imagine you not being in my life. Is that love?”

  He grinned. “I’ll take that for starters.”

  “I’ve never felt as alive and happy as I do when I’m with you.”

  He put his arms around her and nuzzled her ear. “Keep going.”

  “I feel like I’ll go mad if I can’t touch you. Or if you don’t touch me.”

  “That’s very, very good.” He touched his lips to hers, gentle and warm, and kissed her until she was so full of love and desire for him that she was bursting with it.

  She realized she was gathered in his lap, in the circle of his arms, but it didn’t feel restrictive, didn’t raise a single alarm. Just the opposite, she felt loved and protected.

  She leaned back and pulled him with her until they were lying side by side. Her couch might have been the most ugly piece of furniture on the island, but it was wide enough for two, an advantage that made up for a slew of sins right now.

  She looked into his gaze, which was filled with love and desire, and thought she could just stay like that forever, have him look at her like that. She was wrong. In a few moments, she wanted more.

  She cupped his face and kissed him. That would satisfy her until the end of time, she thought, but soon she found she was wrong again. Her lips wanted to wander and discover the strong line of his jaw, his cheek, his neck. There she came against a roadblock in the form of his T-shirt.

  “Would you mind taking this off?”

  His gaze burned hers as he did so.

  And all of a sudden her mouth went dry at the proximity of the wide expanse of his chest, the flat muscles, the heat that emanated from him. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him shirtless; they’ve even been in bed like this before. But they were on a mission, focusing—or pretending to be focusing—on other things. There were no more pretenses between them now.

  She lifted a hand to his chest and laid it flat against him, glanced up when he sucked in air with a sharp sound.

  “Not complaining,” he said quickly, but his voice did sound strangled.

  She went back to exploring him, tentatively touching his nipple first with her fingertip then her tongue.

  He rolled onto his back and gave her free rein.

  She was touching him and was aware that it had an effect on him—okay, a strong effect. But what was strange was that it also had an equally strong effect on her. As if the fire in him ran up her arm and into her body to fill it up. Heat waves and tingling. She liked it. Wanted it. But still, she wanted more.

  She loved the strength of the muscles under the soft skin, the smattering of silky hair, the width of his shoulders, the flat plane of his stomach.

  She put a hand to his fly, ready to pop buttons, and undid them one by one, until she could see the stretching cotton briefs. She ran a finger along the waistband.

  “You’d better not touch…um…below that line.” His voice was scratchy. “Give me a moment to recover here.”

  The power she had over him was heady. His self-control—he hadn’t touched her yet—making her fall in love with him all over again.

  “But I can look?” She smiled up at him.

  He groaned. “Okay. Go ahead and look.”

  He lifted his hips so she could tug the jeans down, then helped her get rid of them along with his underwear. He lay before her in his full naked glory, so beautiful it took her breath away.

  And all of a sudden, she wanted to feel his skin against hers, every inch of it. She tugged off her shirt and the bra underneath and reached for her shorts, looked up at him. He fisted his hands and folded them under his head, a fierce concentration on his face.

  She understood what he was doing, why he wasn’t helping. He wanted to make sure this was what she wanted, that she did only as much as she wanted. He gave her complete control of the situation, complete control over his magnificent body.

  She shrugged out of the shorts, feeling shy all of a sudden, snuggling up to him to cover her body against his.

  “You’re beautiful,” he said.

  She burrowed into his heat.<
br />
  “We don’t have to do this. Go any further. If you don’t want—What I mean is, I’ll wait as long as you need. It doesn’t have to be today.”

  “I think I’d die if it isn’t.” The words slipped from her lips.

  He grinned. “Okay. Pretty much, me, too.”

  “We are too young to meet an untimely end like that,” she joked, feeling lighthearted all of a sudden.

  “Go ahead then.” He brought his mouth down for a kiss. “Save us both.”

  And she did.

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-0447-2

  MY BODYGUARD

  Copyright © 2007 by Dana Marton

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  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.

  This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

  ® and TM are trademarks of the publisher. Trademarks indicated with ® are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Canadian Trade Marks Office and in other countries.

  www.eHarlequin.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One Georgetown, Grand Cayman Island, three months later “I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Sam Hanley said, standing by her desk in the middle of Savall, Ltd.’s office on Grand Cayman Island with David, Anita, Gina and Carly around her. “I don’t mind going alone.” Going undercover at a week-long beach party at the closely guarded compound of a known criminal sounded scary, sure, but she was forever falling over her own feet near David Moretti and his mile-wide charisma. If she slipped at Cavanaugh’s, she could mess up everything. It would be better to go alone and be able to focus. “Let’s keep in mind that David is an attorney and has no training for a situation like this,” Brant Law said over the speaker. “Cavanaugh is the only link to Tsernyakov that we’ve been able to turn up. There is no margin for error.” He was patched in via phone, along with Nick Tarasov. Now that they were getting close to their target, the men had stepped back and were careful not to show themselves in