The Texas Bodyguard’s Proposal

by Karen Rose Smith

  She strolled into the living room, glanced at the piano, but instead went to the French doors that led to the small balcony. Out there, she took a bite from the apple, realizing each minute, each hour, each day she spent with Rafe, she felt even closer to him. She’d had bodyguards before. She’d had chauffeurs and handlers. But that had been so different from what she was experiencing now.

  She’d left the door open so that Rafe would know where she’d gone. He stepped outside now and joined her at the railing. He’d changed into jeans and a T-shirt and looked less formal than any other time she’d seen him. His black polo shirt and khaki cargo pants were like a uniform. Now she took a long look at him, liking every bit of what she saw, even the dark shadow of beard on his jawline.

  “You look relaxed,” she said, meaning it.

  “That’s what a good golf cart ride will do,” he joked.

  “Thank you for thinking of it, for taking me out on the golf course. The ride really did help. I don’t feel like I’m going to burst out of my skin anymore.”

  “Good. We wouldn’t want that.”

  Rafe was always so restrained around her. She almost felt like every response was measured. She wanted to force a spontaneous response from him.

  Impulsively, she held the apple out to him and asked, “Would you like a bite?”

  She expected some joke about Adam and Eve, or a retreat on his part. That’s what he usually did if she didn’t do it first.

  But instead of retreating, he leaned forward, clasped her hand under his and took a bite of the apple. The world stopped and then seemed to move in slow motion as Rafe chewed his bite of the apple, his gaze on hers the whole time. Her stomach somersaulted and any coherent thought she possessed vanished. A breeze blew between them, awakening everything about the moment.

  She could inhale the scent of the soap he used when he’d showered. She could practically feel the memory of their last kiss. The recessed lamp above them gave off enough light for her to see the hunger grow in his eyes as he swallowed his bite of the apple and didn’t move an inch. She almost felt as if she were tumbling off a precipice, engaged in a free fall, ready to take off on an exciting new adventure. Rafe’s hand was still over hers, the heat from it increasing.

  He reached for the apple, took it, then set it aside on the balcony ledge. “What do you want, Gabby?” he asked earnestly.

  Boldly she replied, “I want you to kiss me again.”

  “We decided involvement was a mistake.”

  “We didn’t know each other then.”

  “And you think we know each other now?” His tone was a combination of surprise and amusement.

  “I’ve been living with you, driving with you, sneaking out with you the past three days. That’s like three months in real time.”

  Now he did laugh, but his laugh was husky and low. “Women’s logic never ceases to amaze me.”

  “Then maybe you should try it and be amazed all the time.”

  He shook his head and slid his hands under her hair. “This is trouble, Gabby, and you and I both know it.”

  “I know what trouble is, Rafe, and this, whatever this is between you and I, feels different.”

  She thought he might question her about that trouble. She thought he might still back away. But there was color high on his cheeks now and his body was taut. She knew the signs and signals. Not that she was experienced by any means, but she was beginning to know Rafe’s every reaction and this was one she’d learned the last two times he’d kissed her.

  When he was close enough and his lips practically touched hers, he whispered, “What kind of kiss do you like, Gabby? Fast…slow…deep…wet?”

  “I like your kisses, Rafe, however you want to give or take them.”

  His fingers threaded through her hair. “I like a woman who makes some choices.”

  She didn’t know what he was trying to do, what he was trying to find out. But if he wanted her to choose, fine. “Let’s start with slow and see where it goes from there.” Her voice had a coy quality to it and she hoped it would entice him.

  “You don’t know exactly how beautiful you are, do you?” He held her head so she couldn’t move…so she had to look directly into his eyes. “You are the most desirable woman that I have ever met.”

  To his credit he did start the kiss slow.

  Gabby accepted the gentle nibbling at her lips, the brief kisses on the corners. But that wasn’t nearly enough. And that’s what she’d meant when she said they could start slow.

  Her arms slid around his back. She let her hands wander, feeling solid muscle under his shirt. Her touch seemed to push the kiss forward. His lips pressed hard against hers and then opened. She felt the slide of his tongue on her bottom lip and her insides melted until she didn’t know if she could stand. Once he was inside her mouth, she reacted without thinking. She stroked against him, gave a response to every swipe of his tongue and found more freedom than she knew what to do with. It sent her soaring with no boundaries and no timetable for return.

  Her hands were restless on his back as they reached high and low. Her fingers found the edge of his T-shirt and passed under it until she felt his skin.

  Everything about the kiss escalated. He went deeper and wetter. She dragged her nails down his back. Passion broke the barriers of controlled desire, at least on her part. Rafe kept his hands in her hair, on her face, while his mouth told her in a hundred ways how much he wanted her.

  The beeping seemed very far away and didn’t register until he broke away. When he reached his hand into his pocket, she realized he was going for his cell phone.

  She’d thought they were alone…on their own. But they weren’t.

  He slid open the phone, saw the number and then checked his watch. “It’s my mother. She never calls this late. I have to take it.”

  Still reeling from their kiss, still dizzy and off balance, she pulled herself together enough to nod and say, “I understand.”

  She would have slipped inside, but he caught her wrist. “We have to talk.”

  What was there to say about a kiss like that? Thanks, but no thanks? Maybe we can take it to bed later? This is wrong and we shouldn’t even be thinking about the next level?

  She had no idea what Rafe was thinking as he put the phone to his ear. “Hi, Mom. What’s up?”

  As he listened, lines cut deep into his forehead. “You want me to bring crutches tomorrow? What are you going to do about tonight? You are not trying to climb those stairs. All you need to do is break something else in the process. How do you know your ankle isn’t broken?”

  Figuring out what had happened from the conversation, Gabby tugged on Rafe’s elbow.

  He scowled, “Just a minute, Mom.”

  “How badly is your mother hurt?”

  “She fell down the back steps when she was taking the garbage out. It happened about an hour ago and the ankle is swollen now.”

  “It might be broken.”

  “She doesn’t want to think so. She wants me to get her a pair of crutches and take them over tomorrow. She says she can manage for tonight.”

  “That’s ridiculous! She needs help now, not tomorrow.”

  He went back to the phone. “Mom, I’m going to take you to the emergency room.”

  Gabby could hear the loud “No!” without Rafe taking the phone from his ear.

  She tugged on his elbow again. “Listen, I know an orthopedic doctor in the area. One my aunt sees. I saw him, too, when I tripped and fell during a fashion show last year. Let me call him. We can go to his complex and get your mom’s ankle x-rayed.”

  “Are you absolutely crazy? What doctor is going to want to open up his office at eleven o’clock at night?”

  “He’ll do it, Rafe, as a favor to the McCord family. Just explain it to your mom. Tell her we’ll pick her up.”

  “We?”

  “Yes, we. I’m coming along incognito. Knowing you, you won’t want to leave me here alone and you can’t leave your mot
her all alone, either.”

  She saw something flicker in Rafe’s eyes, something that caused him pain. But she didn’t know what it was and now wasn’t the time to ask. She persisted, “If you can make sure we’re not tailed from here, we should be fine. Doctor Christopher’s office is discreet.”

  Rafe relayed everything Gabby had said to his mother. She was still protesting when he told her they’d be there in a half hour to forty-five minutes to pick her up.

  “If you can’t get hold of the doctor, Mom will understand. I’ll take her to the emergency room.”

  “Let me get my phone and I’ll call.” She hurried away, leaving Rafe on the balcony with the apple…leaving temptation behind.

  They’d both been tempted out of themselves and into each other’s arms, she thought. That had been nice. It had plunged her into a dream, an old one that after her escapade with Miko, she’d decided could never come true.

  Reality always overrode dreams.

  When she picked up her cell phone in the bedroom, she went to the address book, found Doctor Christopher’s number and pressed Send. She liked the idea of doing something for someone else. She liked it a lot.

  And she and Rafe?

  Eventually they’d either continue where they’d left off, or they’d ignore the earthmoving kiss.

  The problem was, when the earth moved, the world was never the same again.

  “This is the best thing for you to do,” Gabby assured Lena Balthazar as she stood on one side of the older woman and Rafe stood on the other outside her back door.

  “Make sure the door is locked,” Lena ordered her son, and Gabby had to smile. She was sure no one else could order him around.

  “It’s locked, Mom. I made sure.”

  “This is such a bother,” Lena protested again. “Whoever heard of a doctor coming to his office this time of night.”

  “Honestly, Mrs. Balthazar. It’s not a problem. Dr. Christopher patched up all of the McCord kids when they were growing up. He’s a family friend.”

  “You were paying him though, weren’t you? I won’t let you do that. I pay my own bills.”

  “We’ll make sure he bills your insurance, Mom,” Rafe assured her.

  After they helped her down the last two steps to the backyard, she saw the car. “This isn’t yours,” she said to Rafe.

  “No, it’s not. It’s the car I’m using for Gabby while she’s in Dallas. Come on, let’s get you inside.”

  Once Rafe’s mother was tucked into the backseat of the sedan, Gabby leaned down to her. “Would you like me to ride in the back with you, Mrs. Balthazar?”

  “Call me Lena. We’re getting to know each other better by the minute. I don’t know anyone who would do something like this for me.”

  “I don’t always get a chance to do something nice for someone.”

  “You make money for all those charities. I see your picture in the paper when you do.”

  “That’s not quite the same thing.” Gabby went around the other side of the car and slipped inside, next to Lena. Rafe’s mom winced every once in a while and Gabby knew the ankle must hurt her.

  “Tell me again when Julie will be back,” she said to distract Rafe’s mother.

  “Not until the day after tomorrow. Friday. I couldn’t call her back from her vacation early. Not when they waited so long to take it. If the doctor would just tape up my ankle for me, I know I could get around on it.”

  Rafe peered at Gabby through the rearview mirror and she knew what he was thinking. His mother might have to stay off that foot altogether.

  Since Rafe made sure no one followed them, Lena gave Gabby an odd look once or twice about his method of driving. A short while later, they pulled into the medical complex and went around to the back door, per the instructions the doctor had given Gabby. He was already waiting for them. He was an older gentleman with white hair, a ready smile and twinkling blue eyes.

  He put Lena at ease immediately. “Let’s go back to my office and I’ll examine you. Gabby, why don’t you come along.”

  Fifteen minutes later, after the physician had examined Lena, he sent her to another room where a tech waited. Soon after, Rafe, Gabby and Lena sat in Dr. Christopher’s office with him. He explained, “Fortunately, you didn’t break anything, but you do have a bad sprain. I’ll tape it to keep the swelling down. I want you to ice it for fifteen minutes every hour. But most of all, I want you to stay off it.”

  “But I can’t. I’m alone in my house. I have a job—”

  Gabby interrupted with quiet understanding, “You want to get better as soon as you can, don’t you?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “Rafe can stay with you tonight. I’ll be fine in my suite alone.”

  “No,” was Rafe’s unqualified reply to that.

  Gabby could see she wasn’t going to get anywhere arguing with him, so she quickly came up with another solution. She laid her hand on Lena’s arm. “Rafe is using the adjoining room to my suite. You can take his room and he can sleep on the sofa like he did the first few nights.”

  “But this hotel you’re staying at must cost a terrible amount!” Lena protested.

  “The room is already paid for. We’ll just be rearranging how we’re staying in it. I can call room service in the morning to order any kind of breakfast you want. And maybe, maybe we can get a manicure while you’re there.”

  Lena’s eyes brightened. “A manicure? I haven’t had one of those in years. Julie got me one for my birthday one year.”

  “Well, now’s your chance.”

  “You really can’t go back to the house yet, Mom,” Rafe offered, obviously seeing the merits of what Gabby had proposed. “Your shower’s upstairs. Your bedroom’s upstairs. If you sleep on the couch, your arthritis will be worse. Please consider this.”

  Gabby encouraged, “Let me help you. And let me have a little fun while you’re there. Rafe can tell you, sometimes I get a caged-in feeling that makes me want to explode. If I can share some of the hotel’s niceties with you, that will help.”

  Lena sighed, looked down at her lap and then raised her head. “I can see this is three against one. I’m outnumbered. I suppose we could try it for one night.”

  “Off your foot, Mrs. Balthazar, for at least two to three days,” the doctor reminded her.

  “Julie will be back by then. For now, I’ll stay with you, Gabby. I don’t have any of my things, though.” She appraised Gabby with a smile. “I don’t think I could fit into one of your nightgowns.” Rafe’s mother was pleasantly rounded.

  Gabby smiled. “We’ll stop at your place again and you can tell me what you need. I’ll run in and get it. Or would you rather Rafe did that?”

  “You’d be able to tell exactly what I want.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” he said wryly. “Don’t you think I take direction well?”

  “Sometimes I think you’re color blind. Gabby will be able to find what I need.”

  And Gabby did.

  She also called ahead to the hotel and when they arrived, Joe had a wheelchair waiting.

  Lena held her small suitcase on her lap as Rafe pushed his mom’s chair through the lobby, Gabby walking beside him. A few people in the lobby noticed them because of the wheelchair, but did not recognize Gabby. If they did, they didn’t approach her. With her ponytail, tank top and shorts, she looked like any summer guest might. Security here always did a grand job of keeping out anyone who didn’t belong.

  Upstairs, Lena seemed more comfortable with having Gabby help her get ready in her room. She marveled at the decor. “I feel as if I’m a queen.”

  “Just enjoy it.”

  “I’m going to have to repay you.”

  Gabby considered that, knowing Lena wouldn’t feel comfortable unless she did. “I told you I’m thinking about buying a house near my parents in Italy. When I go home, I’m going to seriously look. I’d love to have one of your afghans to cuddle up with in front of a fireplace. Would you consider making me one
for repayment?”

  “Of course I would! You’ll have to tell me your favorite color.”

  “Blue—any shade of blue.”

  Lena held out her hand. “It’s a deal.”

  Gabby could see Lena took this kind of deal very seriously and Gabby guessed her son would, too. Rafe hadn’t said much after she’d made the offer and she realized she really didn’t know exactly how he felt about his mother sharing the suite.

  We could have all gone to Lena’s house, Gabby supposed. But this could be such a treat for his mother. However, maybe he’d had a different idea.

  There was only one way to find out. She had to ask him.

  Chapter Eight

  A deepening turmoil swirled inside Rafe as he opened the couch again. He thought about his first night on it and how his opinion of Gabby had shifted and changed. The attraction he’d felt when he’d first laid eyes on her had been difficult to shut down. But he had shut it down.

  Until he’d gotten to know her.

  Now each minute with her was a struggle to be professional…to be her bodyguard. With that last kiss, he’d definitely crossed the boundary. He’d let chemistry take over without the thought of consequences. Yet from the moment his mother had called and Gabby had offered her assistance, he’d known any involvement between them had to end.

  They were worlds apart.

  He knew Gabby had something on her mind when she stepped into the living room. The tilt of her head, the set of her shoulders, the uncertainty in her eyes told him she had something to say or ask that was going to be uncomfortable.

  He braced himself as she crossed to him and said, “I should have asked you first.”

  He was trying not to catch the scent of her perfume, not to remember their kiss, not to remember how needing her had seemed more important than anything else in his life.

  When he didn’t respond, she explained further. “I should have asked you if you wanted me to invite your mother to the suite.”

  He shrugged. “If you had asked me, I would have said it’s between you and my mother.”