Thankfully, Isaac helped her crack the shell, and she ate the delicious meat within the claws and tail. As the evening and the endless courses dragged on, her jet lag proved to be her downfall, no matter much she’d slept in that day. She could barely keep herself in the conversation, regardless of whether or not she understood a word of their discourse.
Truly, she’d tried to remain engaged. But more than once she caught herself forcing her eyes open. Too much food and alcohol, combined with abject boredom, plus exhaustion, equaled a bad combination.
The next thing she knew, she felt Isaac’s hand skimming across her knee and dipping between her thighs. Hello. That would wake any woman up from a sound sleep.
Sitting up straight, she shoved his hand away. Not because she didn’t want him to touch her, but they were in front of clients.
Suddenly off balance as she pushed at her, her elbow hit her drink and knocked it over toward the waiter approaching the table. The young man scooted back to avoid getting drenched and the three drinks on his tray tumbled onto the table, spilling everywhere.
“Oh, geez.” Mindy scrambled to contain the deluge, stealing everyone’s napkins to dam up the flood.
The waiter apologized profusely, even though she’d caused the debacle. He whipped a towel from his waist and steered the liquid over the outer edge of the table so it dripped on the floor and not his patrons.
Isaac tugged her gently. “Mindy, sit down. Relax and let the man do his job.”
“But—”
He sent her a firm look that cut off her protest.
A mop and bucket and six towels later, the waiter had wiped clean all evidence of her clumsiness and refreshed their drinks. Still, lingering embarrassment scalded her insides. She couldn’t believe she’d been so careless, falling asleep and then causing a catastrophe, in front of the men she’d traveled thousands of miles to impress. Not exactly a shining example of Soren Security’s professionalism.
All she had left was her pitch for the new SOS security technology. One of the owners, Adam Soren, had teamed up with the tech department to create and ingenious device. House in a thumb drive that a person could carry discreetly at all times, the technology encrypted within—when plugged into a USB port—sent an emergency SOS signal to a computer at their headquarters. As soon as the computer registered the location via a GPS satellite tracking system, a special bodyguard team was notified and dispatched to ensure the safety of the user. It provided a subtle yet effective tool for certain clients, when other measures of protection were unavailable.
Now, if only she could enter the conversation happening around her to pitch the device and Soren Security’s technical capabilities beyond providing physical bodyguards for protection.
Then in a blinding whirl, a very metrosexual male swooped down beside her. She blinked at the unexpected addition to their meeting. His bad cologne permeated her senses, reminding her of passing through the men’s underwear section of a department store, where salespeople spritzed an innocent passerby with hideous musk.
The young man flicked up his collar like an 80s American icon, casting off his awful scent. She held her hand against her mouth, pretending to cough.
“I’m Marcus Markov.” He held out his hand with great importance as if he was the Prince of England, and she should bow down in amazement.
She shook his hand. “Hi, my name is Mindy Sanders.”
From there he wedged himself next to her and spilled his life story, the trials and tribulations of a poor little rich boy. After another hour, he finally paused for breath long enough for her to discuss business, the whole reason they were all meeting tonight at this introductory dinner meeting.
“I hear your family is looking to partner with our company for bodyguards and extra security detail.” That seemed like a good start to a business-focused conversation.
Marcus polished off his drink with a flourish. “It’s a hard way to live, you know?” He gave a world weary sigh. “The cameras flashing in your face day and night. Tabloids following you everywhere. But, eh, you get used to it after twenty four years.”
Marcus struck her as a very young twenty four year old. And clearly absorbed with how the bodyguards would help him personally, versus ensuring the safety of the company as a whole. “Have you heard about our new security technology?” she asked.
He rubbed his chin. “Yes, the SOS device. That has me intrigued. I wonder how we can benefit from your technology. I’ve tried to bring Papa into the twenty-first century, but he is set in his ways. He relies on a physical presence for security. I try to explain there’s a whole digital world that can work better than the old methods.”
At least he wasn’t as dumb and useless as he’d first appeared.
“Tell me more about this SOS tracker you have,” he invited.
Mindy launched into an animated portrayal of all the ways the device could increase security on all levels of the Markov’s empire. Riveted, Marcus lingered on her every word. Finally she felt her confidence returning.
“This device, you have it with you? I’d like to see it, test it for myself.”
“Sure,” she said brightly, reaching for her purse. She rummaged and them rampaged through her purse searching for the thumb drive.
Then it struck her. She’d packed the darn thing in her suitcase—her lost suitcase. She froze in mortification. How could she have pulled such a stupid move? God, as if this scenario couldn’t get any worse. Yet it had.
“I’m sorry, I left it in my luggage.”
Marcus’s face fell and he looked almost annoyed. “Well. That’s a shame.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered it brusquely. “Excuse me,” he said to everyone at the table, “I have to take this call.”
He didn’t return. She glanced around and saw that the other men, including Isaac, appeared to be wrapping up for the evening. She’d accomplished nothing. Absolutely nothing. What a supreme failure.
The men made plans to meet again the next night to discuss more information and a possible deal. Isaac seemed pleased as they left the restaurant and entered their chauffeured car. On the way back to the hotel, he brought her up to speed on the discussions he’d had in Russian with the other three Markovs. He’d made very good progress toward the sale.
She sat quietly, nodding at the appropriate moments, congratulating him on how well he’d done. While she inwardly berated herself for adding nothing of value whatsoever.
Depressed, she dodged raindrops into the lobby and they took the elevator to their floor. He paused outside her door. “Everything okay?” he asked with concern in his voice.
“Fine,” she said. “Like I proved earlier, I’m just really tired.”
“Remember, I’m just on the other side of this wall. If you need anything,” he said, pointing at the barrier separating them, “I mean anything, knock. I’ll answer.”
“Thanks.”
After she shut her door, she heard his door close, and she found herself on the other side of the wall from where she wanted to be—next to Isaac. She walked further into her room then realized she hadn’t left the light on or any light on for that matter. The only illumination came from streetlights below, adding a dim gloominess to the space.
Suddenly, a meaty hand clamped over her mouth. She tried to scream but couldn’t. She struggled. A second man approached her with menace. “Tell us where it is.”
Frantic, she shook her head. The muscular jerk holding her hostage wrenched her neck, and she squealed in protest.
The man before her sporting a thin moustache, wearing a crimson beret, sneered at her. “All we want is the device. Give it to us, and we’ll let you go.”
“I don’t know what you want,” she said in a pleading voice. Then she realized what they meant. Oh, God. They wanted the SOS device, the thumb drive…and it was packed far away from her in some lost and found storage facility. “I don’t have it.”
As her captor dropped his beefy hand, the mustached man backhanded he
r across the face. “You know where it is. Tell me now, or I’ll dispose of you.”
The stinging in her cheek was nothing compared to her potential outcome as a slain woman dumped into a trash bin in a foreign country where she knew no one. Using the moment to her advantage, she screamed, “ISAAC!”
Within two second, she heard a fist beating at her door. “Mindy, are you okay? Answer me, honey.”
Without regard, her captor flung her against the wall. Her head hit hard, and she slumped down. The two escaped out the window to the fire escape.
Holding her head, she whimpered, “Isaac?”
A second later, the door crashed in. “Mindy?”
“I’m here.”
“Oh, God.” He crouched beside her, brushing her hair from her red cheek. “Oh, hell. What happened?” It took him three seconds to figure it out. He glared at the window where her curtains blustered. “Those sons of bitches.”
Isaac lunged for the open window and swooped down the fire escape after them. But they had too much of a head start on him. He watched them escape down the alleyway, knowing he had two choices. Go after them. Or go to Mindy.
Without knowledge of how Russian authorities worked, having only lived in the country the first six years of his life, he chose Mindy. He climbed back up the fire escape and crawled through her open window.
“Oh.” She flinched, hunching against the wall.
“It’s okay, sweetheart. It’s me, Isaac. They can’t hurt you now.”
Approaching her on the floor, he scooped her into his arms and held her. His heart broke as she curled against him for protection against an enemy he couldn’t slay.
“C’mon honey. Let’s go to my room.”
Her pale face contorted as grasped at his collar. “What if they come back?”
“It won’t matter once we get you to my room.”
“Wh-what about my things?” Her gaze darted around to the mess those men had created. “They’ll come back. I know they will. They’ll destroy everything.”
Considering the recent incident, he could understand her attachment to the few familiar items that gave her comfort, via her carryon. “It’s okay, sweetheart. I’ll get your things. From now on, you’ll stay in my room. With me.”
Chapter 4
Clearly in shock, Mindy looked around her room as if the shadows would come alive and strike her. He needed to reassure her before he uprooted her from the space. “Sit down, sweetheart. You’re shaking.”
Though she took a step toward the bed, her hands seemed unable to let go of his shirt.
Clutching her tight, he moved with her to the edge of the mattress and sat down with her. He smoothed a hand down her hair, loose and tangled from the encounter with the thieves. “You’ll be all right. Take a deep breath.”
The air she inhaled sounded like a cross between a gasp and a sob.
It wrung his heart. “Did they say what they wanted? Why they were here? Could you understand them at all?”
Slowly she lifted her shell-shocked gaze to him. He hated seeing fear in those innocent pastel eyes. “They wanted the security device.”
“The SOS thumb drive?”
As she nodded, a tear shook loose from her lashes.
“How the hell would anyone else know about it?” he muttered more to himself than to her.
Two reasons struck him. Either the Markovs were shady and they wanted to steal the technology instead of paying for it. Or a rival with a grudge had learned of their security alliance and planned to one-up the Markovs by getting their hands on the device first. A third possibility left a bad taste in his mouth—a personal connection higher up in the Markov crew was stabbing them in the back and using a vulnerable woman as a means to an end. Possibly one of the men who’d been at the table tonight.
Come to think of it, Marcus had been talking with Mindy much of the night until she revealed she didn’t have the device on her. Soon after, he’d left the table to take a phone call. To take one—or to make one updating a third party to look for the device in her room?
This deal concerned him more by the minute. Except his family had vouched for the Markovs, had put Isaac in touch with them. While his extended family had its share of spats and disagreements, they were a tight group. No one would set Isaac up like this. Not knowingly, anyway.
“Sit tight,” he said and reached across her for the phone on the nightstand. He dialed the front desk and instructed them to cancel her room, because for the remainder of their stay she’d been sharing his. When the concierge asked if anything was wrong, Isaac laid into the guy for the hotel’s crap security then slammed the phone in its cradle.
He gave his head a shake to dislodge the sharp anger clawing him.
“Did they call the police?” she asked.
“No,” he said with a sigh. “Attempted robbery won’t be high on the politsia’s list of priorities. We might not want to get the authorities involved when we’re leaving in a few days. That could piss off some bad people, depending on how deep this goes, and I don’t want the situation to get worse.”
“Worse?” Her tone filled with dismay.
“For now we’ll stay together. Let’s grab your stuff and move you into my room.”
The tawny wings of her eyebrows lifted. “You want me to stay with you?”
“I want you safe. That’s about our only option.”
Her face fell. “I see.” Then she shrugged. “I guess that makes sense.”
When she seemed unsure about the idea, he sighed. The scenario would be a lot harder on him than her. Proving his point, his cock hardened at the idea of her lying in bed next to him. His hands begging him to caress her creamy skin. Her scent on his sheets tormenting him. Her made-for-sex body fraying every thread of restraint he possessed.
Misery. That’s what he had to look forward to all night. Sleepless, restless longing that he couldn’t do anything about. She’d just endured an assault. She needed the security of his presence, knowing he would protect her from anyone who dared to cross him. She didn’t need to know he also had to protect her from himself and the sexual thoughts chasing through his mind.
“Okay, sweetheart. Time to get you out of here. In case they’re stupid enough to come back and try again.”
That got her moving. She rose and went to the bathroom to collect her things. He righted a lamp, straightened a picture frame, and plucked up clothes strewn across the floor from the thieves’ rampage.
God, she must’ve been terrified. Caught completely off-guard, subjected to a rough pat-down and physical threats against her life if she didn’t give them what they wanted. Some colorful Russian phrases flashed in his mind to describe the cowardly bastards who’d attack a small, sweet, unsuspecting woman to serve their greed. Fury frosted his veins while he finished packing her things in her suitcase.
“Ready,” she said, holding a zebra-striped bag against her stomach. He zipped the suitcase, settled his arm around her and took her to his room.
When he held the door open and she walked inside, Mindy felt her limbs go weak with exhaustion. She still wasn’t used to the time difference. The robbers holding her at knifepoint hadn’t helped her ragged state. Although, another reason for her limpness was an overwhelming sense of relief.
With Isaac she felt completely safe, his secure presence a calming wave that washed over her. His signature nautical scent filled the room, grounding her, easing her nerves and fears like the peace that came when standing beside the ocean, sinking her toes into warm sand while the tide swirled around her ankles. A moment of heaven on earth.
He helped her set up in his room, putting her zebra bag on a glass shelf in the bathroom, hanging up her dresses in the mirrored closet, placing her camisoles and bras and panties in the top dresser drawer next to his underwear. The experience was startlingly intimate.
After depositing her empty suitcase on a folding luggage rack near the bed, he faced her and ran a hand through his hair. “If it’s okay, I’m going to take
a quick shower. Make yourself at home.”
“Thanks.” She watched him disappear behind the bathroom door that he left ajar. Probably to lessen the distance between them so she didn’t feel shut out or closed off from him. Or so he could hear if there was a commotion in the room if the burglars returned.
The instinct to protect seemed to come naturally to him. She’d watched him prove that at work when he interacted with his sales team. If any of the owners questioned one of his own, he stepped in and shouldered the responsibility. He was good at intuiting people’s needs, taking subtle but swift action to ensure that at the end of the day everyone left the workplace happy, knowing their sales director was on their side.
Someone who always had your back—that was Isaac. True and loyal and protective to the core. Everything she’d always admired and looked for in a man.
The tightness in her chest became less about her nerves and shifted into longing. She wished for some way to cross the professional divide that separated them. The two of them had always worked brilliantly together, and she wondered if that easy balance would shift to a personal level.
Tired and worn raw by everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours, she ached to be held by him. To know the strength of his arms around her, secure and cared for by a man she trusted and adored. Holding her close while kissing her lips in a slow, soft exploration. Stroking his broad hands over her body. Parting her thighs and settling his hips against hers.
Sucking in a sharp breath, she heard the shower shut off. She rushed to the top dresser drawer to retrieve a cami to sleep in, wanting to avoid any awkward moments half undressed. Except she couldn’t figure out a way to undo the long row of buttons down her back without help. “Dang it.”
Isaac whipped open the door and a swirl of steam followed him. “What happened? What’s wrong?”
Bedded by Her Bodyguard (Billionaire Bodyguard Series) Page 4
