“I do not look at her any differently,” Campbell argued.
“Oh hell. Maybe I need to run to my office and get boots on ’cause shit is getting deep in here.”
“Keep your voice down. I’m simply attuned to her in a different way because she’s my client.”
Natalie handed baby Wyatt off to Angela and they discussed baby stuff over the din of his upset.
“You’ve had more than a dozen very good-looking, seriously attractive females for clients and you’ve never looked at any of them the way you are looking at Natalie now. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m just telling you to be careful. I got your back but just remember what the objective is.”
“I won’t forget.”
Clay raised an eyebrow at him and finally moved past him toward his wife. “Baby, it’s late. Let’s get munchkin home, fed, bathed, and to bed so we can catch some shut-eye too. It’s been a long day for all of us and Campbell still has some logistics to work out with Natalie before they can stamp this day done.” Clay took Wyatt from her and put him up on his shoulder, which actually seemed to hit the pause button on his crying. Patting his back, Clay kissed his wife just as she was no doubt going to argue.
“But maybe Natalie would like to come stay with us for a couple days. You know, ’til things calm down.”
Natalie started it. “No, thank you.”
“Hell, no.” Campbell’s answer was a little less on the friendly scale.
And Clay capped it right off. “I don’t think so.”
Angela laughed. “Wow. Talk about being outvoted.”
Natalie tugged her close and hugged her. “I love that you would offer. Adore you for wanting to protect me, but no one for any reason or any threat is running me out of my house. Not gonna happen.” She eyed Campbell. It was a borderline glare but he decided to upsell their working relationship if that helped him sleep at night.
Damn.
Maybe he was turning into a girl since being all in touch with his feelings was coming more naturally.
Natalie looked back at Angela with a super-fake smile plastered on her face. “Campbell and I are going to stick around just a little bit longer to hammer a few things out and then I’ll be safe at my place.”
Angela gave her the pleading face. “But I’m worried about you and I don’t like you being all alone at your place. You don’t even have cameras there.”
“And I don’t want cameras there. Too creepy.”
“Come on, Angela.” Clay patted her back, and baby Wyatt whimpered as if he were gonna let his tears flow again. “Let’s head out of here and maybe we can find some time tomorrow to go to the clinic for a little bit before that fitting you have with…some chick whose name I’ll never remember.”
“Ruskta Bogenskya,” Angela offered up.
“The figure skater?” Campbell asked.
“Yep. She’s getting married, which is all hush-hush, so she hired me to make her wedding gown. She hinted I might have to let it out a little in the middle if you catch my drift.” As if on cue, Angela yawned.
“I’ll be fine. I promise. Nobody is taking me out,” Natalie told her with one more hug.
“Not on my watch,” Campbell finished for her. Angela came over and hugged him fiercely. She was like a sister to him. Made him miss his own sister and he reminded himself again to call her and check up on her and the kids.
Angela walked out and Clay clapped Campbell on the back as he stepped through the doorway. “We’re a phone call away if you need anything.”
Campbell called to his back. “Will you reset the alarm system when you leave so I’ll be notified if anything weird happens while we chat?”
Clay stepped to the box next to the door and input his code to arm the system. “Done.”
Angela waved and they were gone.
Campbell grabbed his office door and shut it.
“Did we need privacy from the rest of the nonexistent tenants? Or are you trying to make sure I can’t escape?”
“Definitely the escape part. You’re flighty and we have some things to cover.”
Electricity sparked the air as soon as they were alone. It arced between them, throwing Campbell for a loop.
Being affected by a woman wasn’t out of the ordinary, but this? What raced beneath his skin? Nothing had ever propelled him toward someone so strongly before nor held him back.
“Sooo…” she started, but she didn’t follow it up with anything other than a nibble to that delicious bottom lip of hers.
Which he could still taste. Like coconut. Her lips tasted like coconut. Deserted on some secluded side of a remote beach sounded pretty good to him at the moment. He took a step forward and her eyes went a bit wide. Stopping, he crossed his arms over his chest as if that could keep him in place.
“This is what we’re going to do.”
She cocked an eyebrow at him but thankfully she didn’t roll her eyes. Nothing made his spanking hand twitch like attitude from the woman he wanted beneath him. On her knees.
Focus.
“Your schedule is going to have to change so we keep whomever is after you off your back. At least until we can get feelers out there to glean some more information.”
“You said ‘glean’.”
Without anything else forthcoming he shook his head. “And?”
“No and. You just surprised me.”
It was almost like a compliment but with her uncanny ability to turn it into a shiv found in a prison rec room.
“What exactly about my schedule is going to have to alter? I have set hours at the clinic I cover—”
“Change them.”
“It’s not that simple.”
“You have a full staff there, do you not?”
“Well, yes, but—”
“Then change them.”
Squinting at him, she crossed her arms, matching his position, but in her case it plumped her breasts up enough he could see a good amount of cleavage he wanted to gather up and—
“Eyes up here, Campbell.” She bent down into his line of sight and sneered at him.
“Sorry. You’re gorgeous and you’re distracting the shit out of me after that kiss earlier.” Great. Bringing up the pink elephant in the room was totally going to keep the convo on track. What were they talking about?
“Uhh… Was that a compliment or not? Sometimes I feel like you’re giving me some kind of tribute but it’s with an edge.”
Campbell snickered. “I was just thinking the same thing about you. Okay, back to the schedule that you’re going to change. What is your schedule now?” Pulling a small pad and pen from his back pocket, he readied himself to take notes. “Days of the week, times, etcetera.”
She stared at the pad and then at him. Then at the ceiling where it looked as if she were contemplating some mathematical equation. “Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday I work eight to six. Wednesday I’m supposed to be off at five and then Friday off at five too.”
Writing it all down, he caught up with her. “Supposedly?”
“I’m normally there fifteen minutes early to get everything open at eight o’clock sharp and I tend to stay later.”
“How much later?”
“’Til everything is done.”
“Gimme a ballpark. And shrugging doesn’t actually count as an answer.”
“Six forty-five. Seven. Depends on how busy we are.”
“Any days later than that?”
“Some, but I really try to get out of there by seven.”
“Why not try to get out of there at six? Especially if you have other people there you pay to be there ’til the clinic closes.” Wasn’t exactly relevant to what they needed to adjust but he was honestly interested.
Composing her thoughts, she rubbed her lips together. “We stay so busy there is almost alwa
ys someone else to help. Someone else who needs a shoulder to cry on or just someone to talk to for a second who understands how freaked out they are. I can’t just bum rush someone out the door because I need to get home to my dog. Not to mention the shit-tons of paperwork we have to fill out due to our government subsidies on top of the reams of crap we have to file being a medical facility.”
She stopped talking but there was something else. “What aren’t you saying?”
When she opened her mouth, nothing came out and she tried again a few seconds later. “I love the clinic. It makes me immeasurably happy. I love what I’m doing, love the people I work with, and seeing the patients grow and change and blossom does it for me in ways I can’t explain. And I’m extremely goal oriented. I use the time I have judiciously and I can get huge amounts done in a day. Don’t sleep much, that’s true. But I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”
“And let me guess. If you tell someone you’re going to do something, then you have to do it. No if, ands, or buts about it. You stay late and get it done. Right?”
“Yes, something like that. Why? Going to give me a hard time about it, hot shot?” She puffed up as if he were dragging her to some heckling party.
“Not unless I want to be a hypocrite. I do the same thing. Been like it all my life. Seriously since I was small. Don’t meet a lot of people who think the same way. Work ethic and all these days. I lucked out when Clay and I were stationed together. He gets it too. And Angela. Interesting how we all ended up in this big small town together.”
“Oh.” She kind of deflated, but in a thoughtful way.
Next he’d be writing her fucking sonnets about birds singing and shit. “So. Schedule. Can you change the hours of the clinic?”
She looked like he’d slapped her.
“I’ll take that face as a resounding no. We’ll take it day by day for right now and adjust your schedule on the fly. You do have someone else there with you for open hours, correct?”
“Well yes, but—”
“Natalie, listen to me. This person who’s after you isn’t messing around. I know you know how serious this is so the last thing I’m going to do is preach at you about being safe.”
“Smart of you.”
“But,” he emphasized, as he took a step closer. “You hired us for a reason, because you trusted us to keep you safe.”
“No. I hired you because I know you. You’re a known factor and I believe you can find this guy. Trusting you has nothing to do with it.”
Yowza. Can you say trigger, boys and girls?
He wondered if her bite was as sharp as her bark.
“The reasoning behind hiring us still boils down to the same thing. You hired me to keep you safe and find the jackass trying to hurt you.” He was a step closer again and didn’t remember moving toward her. What the hell?
“I do think you can find him. I truly believe you can.”
“Then you have to believe I know what I’m doing here. This isn’t my first case. Not even one of my first dozen. I’ve taken on high-profile clients for quite a number of years and I haven’t lost one of them yet.”
“Good track record, but—”
“That’s just it. No buts, Natalie. None. You have to do what needs to be done. And I’m not fucking with your life for shits and grins. I do not get off on making you miserable. It’s not my kink. At all. Which brings up the next point.”
“What your kink is?”
“Uhh…no. The next step in protecting you.”
“Which is?”
“Your new roommate.” He smiled a slow smile and then a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Her realization dawned slowly and then her face fell.
“Lordy, it’s not like I’m not housebroken. You can wipe the horror from your mug.”
The pacing started about two seconds later as she walked away from him and back. “No. Not no but hell no. You are not staying with me.”
“I’m not.”
She paused mid-step. “Oh good, for a minute there I thought you—”
“I’m keeping you safe with 24/7 protection. That’s what we decided would—”
“Who the fuck is we?” She took a couple steps toward him, facing off with him as if she were some kind of royalty. And by New York standards, she probably was.
“Wyatt, Clay, and I decided you—”
“Do not finish that sentence.” She may have actually breathed a bit of fire in his direction.
Dominant women did nothing for him. In the bedroom. Nothing.
But outside it? On a battlefield or in a conference room? Hell yes.
He grabbed her face and lifted her lips to his. Her taste, it was just as good as he remembered the first time. She sighed into his mouth and the weight of her breasts as they hit his chest nearly knocked the wind out of him.
Gorgeous didn’t come close to what she was. How the hell had he missed it before then?
He kissed her again and again, feeling her give in to his needs to brush his lips against her skin. To kiss her mouth, her jaw. To lick her throat with a little bit of teeth thrown in because he wanted to feel her shiver.
Her moan seemed to startle her. “Wait, wait, wait,” Natalie ordered. “We were arguing.”
“Yes we were.” He said it out loud but it was much more for himself. She was his client. That was it. Not some chick he could fuck out of his system and then walk away from at the speed of the word “relationship”.
That word sobered him the hell up and he let her go.
“You’re not staying with me. That is out of the question.”
“No it isn’t.”
“Wanna bet on it?”
“No, because I’m telling you right now you aren’t staying in my home.”
“How easy do you think it is to find your home address?”
She opened her mouth then closed it again. “Hard?”
Yes I am. “Easy. It took me about ten minutes to find your home address. And that wasn’t on any of my super-secret spy websites. That was just dicking around on the internet and going where bad people go to find information to fuck the good people over.”
“Ten minutes? That’s it? But I have an unlisted number.”
“I love that even with your background.” She stiffened. “With your famous family, Ms. Prickly, that you have any naïveté left. It’s cute.”
“I’m not feeling very cute at the moment.”
I disagree. He almost said it but he squashed it with a clearing of his throat instead. What the fuck? They weren’t dating and he wasn’t trying to get into her pants. Much. “But you have your info listed on your utilities. The lease on your condo. On the clinic. It’s not hard to find. And trust me the last thing you want is to be hurt at home. It’s devastating.” He let that sink in for a few seconds while he eyed her mouth. “You need protection. All the time. You will be my only client until we catch the baddy and get you safe.” Strictly professional. Totally. He eyed her mouth again. Almost.
“I don’t even like you.”
“You hurt my feelings.”
She snickered and then tried to cover it up.
“Ha. Made you laugh. See, we’ll be perfect roomies.”
“I’m a horrible roommate. You wouldn’t last two days at my place with my rules.”
“What? The smell of dead bodies from your ex-boyfriends too hard to stomach? Don’t worry. I can handle it. We’ll get some of that fruity flowery spray crap. Cover it right up.”
She glared at him and he put his hands on her shoulders.
“You are super tense.”
“It’s been a rough day and I was nearly run over.” Her smile was full of attitude and he wanted to laugh. And kiss her. Jesus. Instead of leaning forward to kiss her again, he moved toward his desk and ran fingers through his hair.
Mumbling to him
self, he wondered what in the world he was doing.
“I can hear you.”
“Yeah, yeah. Oh and I forgot to tell you.” They really needed to get moving. It was already getting late and he had shit to do before he could take her back home. He strode to his desk to grab a few things he would need being out of the office for a few days. Laptop, mobile hard drive.
“Forgot to tell me what?” She glared at him. He didn’t actually have to look up to see it. He could feel it.
“I have to bring my dog. You’ll love him. His name is Killer.”
Mount Vesuvius had nothing on her temper. “Fuck. No.”
Chapter Six
Natalie
“You’re so cute when you’re angry.” He wrinkled his nose and she thought about racking him again but this time on purpose.
“Don’t patronize me.”
He had the audacity of smiling at her. Smiling! She glared back and tried to rein in her temper. It didn’t go well.
“I’m not patronizing you. I’m being honest.”
“So I’m cute when I’m ready to take your head off from walking in here and deciding you know best?”
“Exactly.”
“No.” That was all she said. Just no.
He waited for a few seconds but she didn’t really have anything left for him. “To me or the dog or both?”
“Both.” Apparently she did have a few things to say. “You’re not staying.”
“Yes I am.”
“No. You’re not. This isn’t what I signed up for.”
“What exactly did you sign up for then?” He didn’t even look up from the shit gathering he had going on.
Not even a glance as she got her mad on. It might have been partially because she was so horny she couldn’t think straight, but focusing on that at the moment sounded like a poor choice.
“I signed up for you to do what I was comfortable with.”
“Are you comfortable with getting mowed down on Second Avenue?”
“Well, no, but—”
“And are you comfortable with someone getting your address, breaking into your condo, and murdering you in your sleep? Or worse?”
Ultimate Surrender: The Surrender Series, Book 2 Page 6
