Startled by such an unexpected reply, her eyes widened and it took her a moment to shake off her shock and respond. “I’m so sorry, Ben,” she breathed, her heart hurting for him.
“Yeah, me, too,” he said gruffly.
He glanced away, but not before she caught a glimpse of a deeper torment and guilt she didn’t fully understand. In the span of just a half an hour, she’d seen a whole different side to Ben, a man with many facets and a past devastated with loss on many levels. Beneath his charming smiles and easy-going nature, there was a wealth of personal pain and secrets he kept to himself, and was very reluctant to share. Not that she could blame him.
She wondered what had happened in Iraq, and how his fiancée had died, but didn’t dare ask.
He started toward the door. “Come on,” he said, sounding tired and worn out, as if she’d put him through an emotional wringer in a very short span of time. “Let’s hit the road. We wouldn’t want you to be late for your date tonight.”
He was back to teasing her, and she smiled, grateful that he hadn’t held her inquisitive questions against her.
Christine was nearly finished getting dressed to leave for her evening out when her cell phone rang. Still in her bedroom with Ben waiting for her out in living room, she dug her Blackberry from her purse. Recognizing the name on the ID display as Craig Crosby, the owner of Envy, she answered the call.
“Hey, Craig,” she said as she padded over to her dresser in her bare feet. She still had a few more things to do before she was completely ready, and they were easy enough to finish while she talked on the phone.
“Hi, Christy.” His greeting was, as always, spoken in a low, husky tone that made her all too aware of his interest in her. “I’m just calling to see if you’re still planning on coming to Envy tonight?”
“Absolutely.” She rummaged through her jewelry box until she found the pair of gold chandelier earrings she wanted to wear with her outfit. “I’m meeting Ronnie and Madison for drinks in about an hour,” she said of her two best friends.
“Great. I’ll make sure to let the bartender know that I’ll be picking up the tab for you and your friends for the evening.”
She pushed one of the French wire earrings into her lobes, then switched the phone to the other ear to repeat the process. The gold, shimmering links brushed her bared shoulders in a cool, sensual caress that made her feel sexy and flirty.
“Craig, that really isn’t necessary.” In fact, she preferred that he didn’t pay for her drinks, because he did it way too often and it was beginning to make her feel a bit awkward.
“I know, but I want to,” he said, dismissing her attempt to refuse his generous offer. “Consider it a perk of being good friends with the owner.”
A friend who’d given her enough signals to let her know he was more than willing to take their amicable relationship to a more personal level—despite the numerous times she’d gently turned down his request to go on a date. The man didn’t give up easily, and even though she’d tried to let him know by her words and actions that she didn’t have any romantic feelings for him, he continued to try to persuade her in little, subtle ways. And his persistence made for an uncomfortable situation for her, considering how essential he’d been in helping her to build her new business.
Keeping things cordial but warm and friendly between them was a fine line that was becoming more difficult for her to straddle.
“You’ve done more than enough for me, Craig,” she said, truly grateful for all his referrals and contacts and the way he’d given her business such a huge boost. “I wouldn’t have half my clientele without your recommendations. You’ve been more effective than any ad I could have placed.”
He chuckled at the compliment. “It’s nothing, Christy. I want to see you succeed. And so far, judging by the comments and feedback I’ve heard around town, you’re creating quite a name for yourself in Chicago as an exceptional event planner.”
Smiling, she slipped a wide gold bracelet onto her wrist. “I’m working on it.” Thanks to him, she was booked for some very upscale events that would put her name and business in front of a lot more influential people.
“In fact, The Big Event is doing so well that you’re making Leanne Baker green with envy.”
Cringing at the mention of her rival’s name, Christine sat down on one of the plush chairs in her room and reached for the pair of black, suede Manolo Blahnick boots she’d left nearby. She’d known Leanne for years since they’d grown up in the same social circles. Christine had learned very quickly that while Leanne had perfected a sugar-sweet persona on the outside, beneath that I-want-to-be-your-best-friend facade lurked a bitter, spiteful woman who had mastered the fine art of back-stabbing or sabotaging anyone who threatened her standing as one of Chicago’s premiere night club event promoters.
Leanne currently had Christine in her evil dwelling sights.
Christine didn’t consider herself, or her flourishing business, a direct threat to Leanne’s chosen profession, but the other woman clearly did. Christine had heard through the ever present grapevine that Leanne resented the fact that Craig had taken Christine under his wings in terms of supplying her with all the right contacts to help build her business, when Leanne had been attempting for years to get Craig’s attention, along with his support—with only a few second-rate referrals to show for her efforts.
“Speaking of Leanne, she’ll be at Envy tonight,” Craig said. “She’s hosting a bachelorette gig at the club.”
“Thanks for the heads up,” she replied ruefully as she pushed her foot into one of the soft suede boots, then zipped up the side all the way to just below her knee. “I’ll be sure to keep my distance.”
He laughed again, obviously amused by the rift and clash of personalities between herself and Leanne. “By the way, since you’ll be at the club tonight I was hoping to steal a few moments alone with you to discuss some of the details for your birthday bash here at Envy.”
His request to meet with her alone caused her to hesitate before answering, because when it was just the two of them, without any one else around, that’s when he poured on all the charm and tried to finagle a date out of her—even if it was in the guise of having a drink together.
Tucking the phone between her ear and shoulder, she pulled on the other heeled boot. Since Craig was hosting her twenty-seventh birthday party at Envy the day after the election, and he was inviting a few high-profile contacts for her to meet, she very well couldn’t tell him no. “Umm, sure.”
“Great,” he said enthusiastically. “I’ll see you tonight, then.”
After saying goodbye, she disconnected the call and sighed, not quite sure what to do about Craig. He really was a nice guy and he’d been a great friend over the past few months, but she had no idea how to handle his growing interest in her, especially when he’d been so integral to making her event planning business such a quick success.
At forty-one years old, not only was Craig much older than her, but she just wasn’t attracted to him in that sort of way.
Most importantly, she wasn’t looking to jump into another serious relationship after what had happened with Jason. She was experiencing her first taste of real freedom and independence, and enjoying both, and she wasn’t ready to give up the life that was finally her own for any man.
Standing, she walked back to the bed and dropped her Blackberry into her purse, then headed over to the vanity and selected a rosy pink lip gloss to use for the evening. Dealing with Craig would be so much simpler and easier if she was casually dating someone, a guy who could accompany her to Envy, and one she could use as a decoy to make Craig believe she was involved with someone else so he wouldn’t continue to ask her out.
She swiped the shimmering gloss across her lips, her mind immediately thinking of the gorgeous, sexy man sitting out in her living room who was all hers for the next three weeks. Sure, he’d been hired as her bodyguard, but she couldn’t think of a better guy to act as her boyfriend,
which would also eliminate him trailing beside her and looking like a security agent, which she hated. As a bonus, they wouldn’t have to pretend that they were attracted to one another—the awareness and desire between them spoke for itself.
She lightly spritzed her neck and shoulders with her favorite vanilla fragrance, then gave her appearance one last check in the long mirror on the wall.
Using Ben to put an end to Craig’s pursuit was the perfect plan. Now she just had to convince her bodyguard to play along.
Figuring he had time to kill while Christine was getting ready, Ben set up his laptop computer on her coffee table in the living room and decided to get a head start on typing up his daily security report, which would then be uploaded to the Delacroix case file for Nathan, or any of Elite’s partners, to review at any time. Today’s report was all basic information so far, mainly outlining his meeting with Nathan, what the assignment entailed, and later he’d follow up with anything interesting or pertinent that happened tonight at Envy.
There was no reason to mention this afternoon’s basketball game where Christine showed off her impressive skills and kicked his ass, or the discussion they’d had at his place about his parents and his fiancée, Kim. None of that mattered in the context of his security report, yet it was the too personal conversations at his place that he couldn’t get out of his head.
Out of the handful of women he’d been with since moving to Chicago a few years ago, he’d never brought any of them to his apartment, and now he knew why—because women were inquisitive, emotional creatures who needed too many explanations on why he lived his life the way he did. They wanted to know about his family and his past and everything else in between, and he’d made it a point since leaving the military to keep his private life private, and that meant keeping his place off limits.
His personal tactics worked well for him and managed to keep his own emotions untouched. He’d purposefully kept his affairs with women brief and all about physical pleasure. He never let them get close enough to care, to ask about his parents, his mother, or the fiancée he hadn’t been able to save from a roadside ambush in Iraq.
Ben scrubbed a hand along his jaw and exhaled a deep breath. Four years after Kim’s death the pain of losing her had dulled, but the guilt had not abated one bit. No, he feared that deep, painful remorse would be something he’d bear on his conscience for the rest of his life.
How was it that in just the span of half an hour Christine had hit on all those hot topics that no other woman had even come close to realizing about him? And why had he given up as much information as he had to Christine? True, he’d kept much of the ugly truths to himself, but she’d still managed to extract way too much out of him.
He had no answers that made sense, and he refused to dwell on that conversation with Christine any longer.
Saving the security report in his Word file, he shut down the laptop computer and leaned back on the wide, comfortable couch. Clasping his hands behind his head, he forced himself to relax and rerouted his thoughts to something more mundane, like the contrast of his basic, barely furnished apartment compared to Christine’s beautifully decorated house.
When they’d arrived at her place, he’d been pleasantly surprised by the modest size of the house in an upscale neighborhood that boasted two story monstrosities and enormous custom built homes. In comparison, Christine’s house was a small three bedroom structure that was perfect for someone who was single and lived alone.
Since he needed to know the exact layout of the place for security reasons, she’d given him a tour of each and every room, as well as showing him the guest bedroom where he’d be staying for the next few weeks. Her master bedroom, he noted, was just down the hall from where he’d be sleeping.
In the two years he’d lived in his apartment he hadn’t bothered to do anything to really make the place his own. To him, it was just a place to eat and sleep and shower, and occasionally on the weekends enjoy a few games on the big screen TV. Christine, on the other hand, had completely transformed her new house in just the few months since moving in. Decorated in neutral tones and accented with brighter shades of deep reds, burnished oranges, and forest greens, the place was warm and inviting in every way, and so opposite of her parent’s lavish home.
He found himself smiling as he recalled the proud way in which she’d told him that she’d bought the place on her own, without her father co-signing on the loan. She’d used part of a trust fund left to her by her grandparents on her mother’s side to make a deposit that would leave her with a monthly payment she could afford, and kept the rest of that money untouched. She was determined to do it all on her own for the first time in her life, without depending on anyone to help her out, and he couldn’t help but be impressed by her fortitude.
“Okay, so I’m not nearly as quick as you when it comes to getting ready,” he heard Christine say. “But I did get a phone call that put me about ten minutes behind schedule, if that counts for anything.”
Ben shifted his gaze from the contemporary framed art that he’d been staring at to the woman walking toward him, looking like a temptress in the purest form of the word. Stunned by the transformation, and unable to help himself because he was a man, after all, he took in her jaw-dropping outfit, along with that sensual gleam in her bluer than blue eyes and the blonde hair that now fell to her shoulders in a sexy, disheveled mass of curls, and felt his mouth go dry and his groin tighten with an unequivocal heated awareness.
He immediately sat up straight before his reaction to her became obvious.
If that teal, off-the-shoulder sweater top molding to her breasts and outlining the enticing curve of her waist and hips wasn’t enough to make a man do a double take, then those black suede knee-high boots with a four inch heel and that thigh-skimming mini-skirt would render a guy brainless.
He knew this because he suddenly couldn’t speak or think beyond imagining her strolling over to him, straddling his lap, and living up to the bad girl image that outfit of hers portrayed.
Good God, he was certain he was going to have to beat back half of the male population at Envy tonight, because somewhere along the way Christine had transformed from a wholesome girl-next-door into a sultry vixen.
As the silence stretched between them, she tipped her head to the side and regarded him with a good amount of amusement. “I take it you like the outfit?”
He shrugged his stiff shoulders and attempted a nonchalant facade, unwilling to admit just how much her ensemble affected him. “It’s okay.”
A half-smile lifted the corner of those glossy pink lips that made him think of sweet cotton candy. “You’re such a liar.”
“And you’re looking for trouble in a short skirt like that,” he retorted bluntly. Not to mention those fuck-me boots you’re wearing.
She looked momentarily taken aback by his reply, and he was grateful that he’d kept the latter part of his comment to himself.
“Trust me, it’s not that short compared to what some of the women wear to Envy,” she said, her hands on her hips and her stance full of sass and attitude. “Besides, that’s what I’ve got you for, to protect me from trouble.”
Knowing just how unruly guys could be when it came to a woman who looked as hot as Christine did tonight, he narrowed his gaze. “You’re not making my job very easy on me, now are you?”
“We’re going to a night club, Ben,” she said with a long-suffering sigh. “This outfit is completely and totally appropriate.”
“And sexy as hell,” he said gruffly, realizing too late that he’d spoken his thoughts out loud.
A confident, Cheshire grin curved her too kissable mouth and her eyes lit up with silent mirth. “Ahhh, so you do like it, then.”
“That was just an impartial observation on my part.”
Her light laughter was infused with delight and too much satisfaction. “Sure it was.”
He didn’t say a word, figuring it was his smartest, safest bet in keeping the rest of his di
gnity intact.
She set her small purse down on a nearby chair. “Look, before we go, I have a huge favor to ask.”
Grateful for the change in topic, he gave her his undivided attention. “Sure. What do you need?”
She started pacing in front of the coffee table, distracting him all over again with the provocative sway of her hips as she walked. “I know having you by my side for the next three weeks isn’t an option,” she began, giving him a smile that didn’t quite erase the nervousness that had suddenly crept into her voice. “If my father hadn’t hired you as my bodyguard, it would have been some other security agent in your place.”
“True enough.” He was beyond curious as to what she was getting at. “What’s the favor, Christine?”
Her pacing came to a halt and she met his gaze. She bit her lower lip anxiously. “Do you think that maybe, possibly, when we’re out in public together I can introduce you as the guy I’m dating?”
He blinked at her, not sure what to make of her unusual request. “You mean, as your boyfriend?”
She nodded, looking relieved that he hadn’t outright refused her. “Sure, that works for me.”
He settled back against the couch cushions, trying to analyze her proposal, but unable to figure out her motive for making such a suggestion. “And just why does that work for you, Christine?” he prompted. “Why the charade?”
Again, she started that restless back and forth walk in front of him. “Two reasons, actually. First, I hate having the typical, obvious security agent walking three feet behind me and looking like a bodyguard.”
A grin twitched the corner of his mouth. “Cramps your style, huh?”
“That’s not how I meant it.” A small frown marred her delicate brows and she shook her head. “I honestly hate the fact that everyone knows that I have a bodyguard, because in the scheme of things I’m just not all that important. The whole set-up just seems so… pretentious, and I don’t like bringing that kind of attention to myself.”
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