A Steamy Bodyguard Romance Anthology: Just One Look

by Joanne Rock

  “I had no idea he’d be there today, but even if I had, I can’t let him dictate where I go and what I do. I’ve spent too long trying to scavenge up some control over my life to let him scare me into hiding now.” She blinked and seemed to finally pull herself out of her unseeing gaze out the passenger window. “Where are we?”

  He parked the car and stared at her across the console. Surely the Statue of Liberty in the water had to give the answer away, a sight visible despite the low-lying fog on the water.

  “I thought you might appreciate a change of scenery after the last couple of days. How does a walk around Battery Park sound?”

  “Oh. Sure.” She peered around the half-deserted parking lot and Warren acknowledged he needed to be all the more careful in protecting her. She’d been so wrapped up in her thoughts she hadn’t even noticed they were nowhere near her place.

  A few minutes later they were walking along the Hudson River esplanade lined with black wrought-iron railings and dotted with public binocular stations for sightseeing. Patches of ice lingered on the water though the day was warm for March in New York. A gray sky overhead blocked any view of the sun, the moody dull light a permanent condition the past few days.

  She’d pulled her hair into a rubber band on the way over, the long red mass snaking haphazardly over one shoulder. If she wore makeup for her job this morning she’d since scrubbed it off, her skin clean and creamy. He remembered how the freckles on her cheeks tasted, a sudden intense memory from the night before.

  A memory he couldn’t very well act on now when she could be in more danger than she ever guessed.

  “There’s no good way to put this.” He’d been wrestling with how to tell her about his latest findings, but now that she’d had time to decompress after the run-in with Manny he had to fill her in. “The bullet that went through your window three nights ago was definitely fired from the same weapon used to kill John de Milo. I was able to confirm it this morning.”

  She halted in the middle of the sidewalk as if her feet had frozen to the ground. As the color drained from her cheeks he wished he was better with words and could have broken the news a little more smoothly. He stopped beside her, letting a young woman pushing a stroller go past them.

  “What the hell does that mean?” Her words came out in a high-pitched whisper, as if she couldn’t get enough air in her lungs to fuel her normal voice. “I’m next?”

  “No. I’ll make damn certain of that.” He didn’t even want her to think that way. After all she’d lost in the divorce, he couldn’t stand to think she’d lose her independence now.

  Or her life.

  “But after someone took a shot at me, you’re saying the next day the same person committed a murder.” Her eyes took on a wild glint.

  “No.” He took her arms and spoke slowly to ward off the panic. “There’s no way to know the same person fired the gun on both nights. I’m just saying the weapon that fired the shots were the same.”

  An important distinction from a cop’s point of view, but by the roll of Tabitha’s eyes, Warren guessed she was less than impressed. He steered her over to the iron railing out of the way of pedestrian traffic.

  “Great. So maybe one psychotic criminal shot a bullet through my window one night and then his friend—also a psychotic criminal—borrowed the gun and shot someone the next night? Somehow that doesn’t do much to ease my mind.”

  Her breath came in faster gulps and he steered her over to a wooden bench to take a seat before she hyperventilated. He’d been through the same kind of emotional ordeal when he’d been arrested and Warren hadn’t possessed the skills for dealing with it then, either. What could he possibly offer Tabitha besides a promise of protection?

  God knew he didn’t have the emotional resources for any more than that.

  “I can keep you safe.” He knew situations such as this were exactly the reason cops should never get involved with the people they protected. It shifted all the priorities slightly off-center, making the job tougher. “I just need you to consider taking a little time off so we can—”

  “I can’t do that.” She gripped the bench arm and turned her gaze out to the river, where chunks of ice swirled in odd patterns near the esplanade and a few boats made their way into the harbor.

  “It would ensure your safety.” Translation—she damn well had to do it.

  “But since it would compromise my sanity, the tradeoff doesn’t work for me.” She tightened the belt on a long gray overcoat trimmed in gold braid and antique-looking buttons.

  The action accented her slender waist even beneath the bulky coat and he sucked in a breath at the memory of her underneath him the night before. What kind of pervert must he be to think about taking her to bed again when her life could be in danger?

  “So we’ll figure out something else.” He didn’t know how since he couldn’t miss that much work to keep tabs on her during her jobs, but failing wasn’t an option.

  “Do you really think Manny could be involved?” She turned toward him and the wind snapped a strand of red hair free from her rubber band to blow across her cheek.

  The softness of the question—the vulnerability revealed—hit him square in the solar plexus, knocking him back to reassess what he was doing with this woman still dealing with so much crap from her past.

  The moment crystallized for him one important fact. He didn’t want to hurt her, too.

  He took a deep breath and tried to explain.

  “Two of the detectives working the de Milo case went over to talk to him this morning but they didn’t learn much other than that your ex-husband is a neat freak with a home office so organized he was able to produce a copy of the police stolen weapon report from over a year ago in a matter of seconds.”

  He didn’t suggest that could mean Manny had reason to believe the gun would come back to haunt him so he’d kept the paper handy to cover his story that the piece had been reported missing. And it didn’t help that Manny had been planning on suing de Milo for some long-ago deal gone bad when they’d invested in a film that never got made. The police were looking carefully at the picture that was X-rated, but hadn’t ever been cast.

  “Did the police ask where he’d been those nights?”

  A tour group of school children moved past them in a long chain of backpacks and noise.

  “Apparently he was at home with his live-in girlfriend.”

  “How convenient for him that he moved her in the house we used to share.” Tabitha stared down at the water and waited for the old hurts about Evelyn to dig at her. Half a minute must have passed before she realized they didn’t. She might not have forgiven Manny and Evelyn, but she’d done a good job forgetting about them.

  Besides, she had bigger worries to contend with. Such as how was she going to stay alive with a killer possibly stalking her and how would she handle the sizzle factor between her and Warren Vitalis when her life was in shambles?

  “Are you okay, Tabitha?” His hand curled around her shoulder and she wanted to sink into the strength of his arm.

  But they weren’t getting emotionally involved, damn it. And this was putting him in an unfair position since his role as a cop forced him to share news with her that would wrench anyone’s insides out.

  “Fine.” She stepped out of his hold while she still had the strength to do so. “If anything, him having a live-in girlfriend makes him less likely to want to come after me, right? He’s got the house, the money, the cars and a different woman to play his possessive games with, so I would think I’d be sort of a nonfactor in his world at this point.”

  How strange that it pleased her to be so unimportant.

  “What about the girlfriend? Do you think she resents that it took her so long to take your place? Does she have any reason to hate you?”

  Tabitha leaned back with her arms extended and then pulled herself straight again, hands gripping the rail while she considered the question. A ferry pulled out of dock and she thought about how many
times she wished she could float away like that, leaving reality far behind.

  “It’s a well-known fact she and I mixed it up the night I found her playing tongue hockey with my husband when he was supposed to be refilling my champagne glass.” A smile surprised her since it wasn’t normally a fun topic for remembering. “Thank goodness I found out though. Even with being blackballed, it was totally worth it to pour Evelyn’s appletini down the front of her dress.”

  “So you left Manny then. But it sounded to me like she’s only been living in the house for a few weeks. Do you think she could resent that it’s taken so long to move her in? Or that Manny hasn’t married her? I hear she hadn’t made a successful leap to the production side of the business after years as an actress.”

  He leaned on the iron rail and stared off into the distance at the Statue of Liberty barely visible through the cold haze over the water.

  “None of that’s my fault.”

  “I realize that. But she is a redhead. She could be the ‘Red’ of the note you received last night. People aren’t always rational when it comes to affairs of the heart.”

  “You’re telling me? I’m sleeping with a man I only just met and following my instincts for the first time in my whole life when I have no real reason to trust they’ll serve me any better than logic and reason. Oh, did I mention I thought it would be a good idea to take up a new relationship while a psycho is stalking me?” She didn’t want to consider that this might hurt his career. She’d gotten a strange vibe from his colleagues at the murder scene last night. But then, damn it, she’d known going there would be risky. “Trust me, I fully appreciate all the ways people lose their minds when they’re under the influence of pheromones.”

  She needed to get out of here, to give herself a little breathing room, but she was at his mercy for a ride. For protection. Hell, she couldn’t even go back to her apartment now that some lunatic was watching her.

  “You regret getting close to me?”

  “No.” She paused. “I don’t know. Maybe a little. This might sound crazy, but it makes it hard for me not to have anywhere to retreat since I’m staying with you. I’d really like to have my apartment back.”

  How could she respect the boundaries in a no-strings relationship when they were together all the time?

  “What if we stop by your place and pick up a few more things now that we know you’ll be out for longer than we planned?”

  She should just say yes. He’d offered a smart, rational plan.

  “I don’t want to make you late for work.”

  He’d been so accommodating, giving up his lunch hour to pick her up at work and letting her spend the night at his place. But if she wasn’t careful, she’d find herself caring about him.

  “I think a trip over there is justified since I would have needed to follow up on the gunshot through your window anyhow. Come on.”

  What was there about a tall man with a commanding presence holding out his hand to her that ensured a shiver down her spine? His breath formed a white cloud in the cool, hazy air and she realized the thin fog had closed them in a private world even in a busy public domain.

  She took his hand, expecting to follow him toward the car, but he pulled her into him, against him. His long, lean limbs and rock-hard…abs penetrated her consciousness as she stood very still, not wanting to break whatever spell had brought his body in close contact to hers again. She hadn’t had enough time to revel in remembering their night together since she had to be on the set early today to put her body on display. She couldn’t exactly hide her enthusiastic reaction to Warren.

  “Don’t regret this.” He held her gaze for long seconds, his blue eyes hypnotizing her. “I’ve been living on autopilot for so long I forgot what it was like to be this attracted to someone. I don’t want to lose that when I just found it.”

  The warmth of his body was giving her some serious impulses. Her heart thudded long and hard against her ribs.

  “I’m definitely attracted to you, too, but you have to admit my life is a mess. I can’t go home. I want to quit my job. I’m salivating over the cop who may or may not still think I have a murder weapon in my possession.” Her whole world felt out of control. “I’m a mess.”

  She would have stepped away from him but the warmth of the day hovering above the cold river and melting snow made the haze around them the perfect camouflage to hide them from any unseen eyes.

  “I don’t think you have the .38 anymore. And for your information, a little disarray is sexy.” He lifted a strand of hair off her nose to expose her face. “Besides, you’re holding it all together pretty well considering the surprise of getting shot at, spied on and urged out of your home by the police. The week you’ve had would test anyone’s mettle.”

  “I don’t think I am holding it together, Warren, because in spite of the turmoil I still want to drag you back home and undress you. That doesn’t sound like a smart, rational way to handle the situation. That sounds like an immature reaction for a woman with nympho tunnel vision.”

  She could tell she’d surprised him when he tipped his head back and laughed. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized that she’d never heard the sound before.

  “Trust me, we’ll be discussing any and all possibilities of nymphomania in detail at my place over dessert.” His gaze heated and melted her insides. “For now, we’d better clear a few more things out of your apartment before I have to go back to work. Fair enough?”

  He slid an arm around her waist to steer her toward the parking area and Tabitha appreciated the change in direction of their conversation. The promise of another night with Warren chased away some of her cold fears and filled her with sultry want. A psycho might be watching her, but she would still have Warren in her bed to indulge her every pent-up fantasy.

  And she wasn’t letting him out of it for a very long time.

  * * *

  RED WATCHED THE COUPLE dance around each other in the middle of Battery Park as if they were the only ones in the world. As if no one was watching them thanks to Detective Vitalis’s enviable driving skills.

  Little did the good detective know, his behind-the-wheel maneuvers were a waste of time thanks to the wonders of global positioning technology. Slipping a GPS device into Tabitha’s handbag had been ridiculously easy at the studio earlier. As long as she didn’t switch purses or discover the innocuous-looking device, keeping tabs on her would take as much energy as flipping on the computer and checking the link.

  A good thing since Red needed to know where Tabitha was staying in order to be a continued presence in her life. She must not have realized what information she possessed if the police hadn’t made any arrests yet. But the possibility loomed.

  She’d disappointed Red by sleeping with the detective so soon after they’d met. She’d made such a public drama out of the adultery in her marriage, yet she took up with a man she just met almost as soon as she laid eyes on the guy. That seemed hypocritical.

  Possibly a little sleazy.

  Maybe that’s why Red felt compelled to kick things up a notch in this cat-and-mouse game today.

  Walking slowly to the public transportation system while Tabitha and her friend reached their car, Red wondered if Tabitha had any idea how many more pieces her life could fragment into before all was said and done.

  She looked happy for a moment, even if her eyes did glance side to side as she waited for the detective to open the car door. The anxious gesture was telling. And—truth be told—sort of satisfying after all the work Red had gone to lately to make Tabitha aware that she needed to be more careful.

  But her idea of caution was to simply sleep with a cop. Clearly, the bombshell body double had no idea how much worse things were about to get.

  CHAPTER 9

  FROM WHAT WARREN KNEW about stalker mentality, he didn’t think the person following Tabitha would try anything while Warren was around. At least not today.

  He checked the alleyway near her door as they walk
ed alongside her building to make sure she’d be safe. If someone watched the building today, Warren would lose the person on the way back to his place. But Warren took a sort of peace from the fact that the stalker had only made contact through e-mail. In most cases, perpetrators used an ascending scale of harassment with letters and e-mails leading to phone calls and then contact—and only occasionally, violent contact.

  The hair on the back of his neck rose at the thought as he made Tabitha let him walk into the apartment first. He moved through the rooms one by one, turning on lights and checking out the closets, a quick job since there wasn’t much space off the living room save a small kitchen, bathroom and, finally, her bedroom.

  He saved the bedroom for last since it was the farthest from the front entrance. Her bed was draped in dark netting pinned to an Indian-looking silk canopy. Bright pillows in patchwork silk and satin covered the bed, a setting fit for a harem. Or one supersexy redhead.

  He smiled to himself now that he was certain they were alone in the apartment. Heading for the door to shout the all clear, he noticed a collage on the wall by her mirror, a jumble of newspaper clippings. It wasn’t good manners to read whatever she’d posted on her bedroom wall and he wouldn’t have lingered except that in the middle of the collage, someone had written in stark black magic marker:

  Why do you have to make a spectacle of yourself? Remember the old days when you were content to blend in with the scenery?

  Shit.

  The jumble of newspaper clippings weren’t anything she’d posted. Someone had pinned up most of the same articles Warren had read for himself online. These were the most negative articles about her and her divorce. The stalker had broken into her home.

  “Warren?” Tabitha’s voice called to him from the living room.

  “It’s all clear,” he called back, wishing he didn’t have to share this latest bit of news. For a woman who felt as though her privacy had already been violated, discovering her watcher had been here would take a toll. “But someone’s been in the apartment since you packed up last night.”