Heart’s Desire: The Bold and the Beautiful

by Amy Andrews

  Taylor understood how stretched the police were and how they didn’t need some celebrity doctor going all diva on them. On one hand, she was happy they didn’t consider her under enough threat to warrant protection. On the other, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t feeling a little vulnerable.

  “How quickly is quickly?”

  Taylor startled. She looked over to find Rick facing them now, his arms folded across the expanse of his chest.

  “We’re hoping in the next couple of days, sir,” the more portly detective answered.

  “Will you keep us up to date?”

  “Of course.”

  ‘I have to go into the studio today,” Taylor said. “I’m taping.”

  “That’s fine, you need to carry on with your normal life as much as possible. We’re just saying, don’t put yourself in harm’s way. Don’t go out unnecessarily. Don’t go shopping or get your hair done or anything that isn’t essential. And when you do go out, maybe take a car or a cab instead of walking? Unless you have someone who can walk with you.”

  Both detectives looked at Rick and Taylor panicked. Rick was leaving today—she didn’t want the police or anyone making him feel obligated. “That’s fine,” she said, bringing their attention back to her. “I’ll make sure I follow your advice.”

  The detectives stood and Taylor saw them to the door. She placed her forehead against the heavy wood as the door clicked shut after them. Now what?

  It was tempting to dissolve back into the state of panicked inertia that had overwhelmed her last night. Or wind the clock back to the point before the phone had rung, when nothing other than Rick had occupied her mind. But this was a new day, the police had everything under control and she was a strong, independent woman.

  She straightened up, squared her shoulders and went to face Rick. He had his back to her, gazing out over the Central Park vista as she approached. Her heart fluttered and she faltered a little at his sheer masculinity. Stop it!

  “So,” she said, forcing herself to sound casual. To act casual. To be casual. “What time is your flight today?”

  She drew even with him and he looked down at her. “In an hour.” He gave her a ghost of a smile.

  Taylor gasped. “Rick! You’re going to miss your flight.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve been thinking I might stay. I am overdue for a vacation, as you pointed out, and there’s just something about a summer in New York City.”

  “No.” Taylor felt her panic build again. She didn’t believe his vacation mumbo jumbo for a second. Rick was needed back in LA—he’d said so just last night. She could imagine the furor that would erupt if he announced he was staying in New York because of her. Brooke would have an attack of apoplexy.

  “I won’t let you stay because of me.”

  “What if I want to stay?” He nudged her arm and gave her a wicked grin. “I could be your walker.”

  “I don’t need a walker and even if I did, I wouldn’t let you fritter away your vacation time waiting on me.”

  “Who said anything about frittering? I fully intend to charge you.”

  Taylor was not going to be drawn in by his banter. “Rick.”

  “No, you’re right,” he conceded. “You can’t afford me.”

  Taylor rolled her eyes before turning her gaze to the window and the trees down below. She felt strangely disconnected from the world outside. As if the events of last night had plucked her from everything that had been real and true and grounding, and isolated her in some surreal bubble floating high above everyone—part of the world, but separate from it too.

  “I want to help. I’m staying.”

  Taylor shut her eyes. No. She didn’t want him to stay. This was her problem and she had a feeling that having Rick around to “help” would only lead to other problems.

  Bigger problems.

  She opened her eyes, kept her gaze trained on the view. “No.”

  “I’m staying,” he repeated. “Here, if you’ll have me.”

  Taylor’s belly dropped. Rick, here? How long would it be until he was in her bed again? For real. And then in her head. In her heart?

  “I don’t need a babysitter,” she said waspishly as her eyes followed a lone bird wheeling in the sky above the park. “You heard the police—it’s safe here.”

  “Don’t look at it as babysitting. Look at it as me being your bodyguard.”

  That was exactly how she was looking at it. Guarding her body all through the long, long nights. And it terrified her.

  “You’re needed in LA, Rick. You said so last night.”

  He turned away from the window, facing her now, his arms still crossed over his chest, T-shirt pulling tight. “And you told me I needed to take a break.” He lifted one shoulder in a half-shrug. “So I’m taking a break.”

  Taylor wanted to argue with him. But he clearly did need some time away from the hustle and bustle of the fashion world. She wanted him to get away from it all, but not because of her and not here in her apartment.

  “Good,” she said, turning to face him square on now. “Book a yacht trip around the Greek Isles. Or, hey, Italy is nice this time of year. Hell, go up to Big Bear. You want to get away, really get away, Rick? Then do it. Don’t use this, use me, as an excuse for a half-ass vacation.”

  “It’s not about where I go,” he insisted, “it’s about the fact that I won’t be going in to work.”

  Taylor shot him a derisive look. “You’ll be on the phone to the office a dozen times a day and you know it.”

  He nodded. “The best of both worlds.”

  “But not a vacation.”

  She watched his face slowly grow serious, the laughter fading. “Taylor.” He unfolded his arms and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. “Any time out of the office is like a vacation and I don’t want to leave you with all this going on. This is a win/win for both of us and I am staying in New York. My mind is already made up. You know what a stubborn guy I can be, right?”

  She did. “Fine,” she huffed, her shoulders sagging into his hands as she conceded defeat.

  “I’ll get my luggage sent over from the hotel.” He grinned again and Taylor shook her head at his cockiness.

  “No.” He may have talked his way into this ridiculous excuse of a vacation in New York but talking himself into her apartment was a bridge too far. She stepped out of his reach and glared at him. “You’re not staying here. You heard the police, this apartment is very secure.”

  He folded his arms again, looking at her as if she were being a petulant child, and Taylor turned up the intensity of her glare.

  “Sure. But I still won’t sleep at night knowing that there’s a guy out there who grabbed you and threatened you. At least if I’m here, I know you’re safe. Besides, it’s July in New York, the height of the tourist season. Hotel rooms are at a premium. My hotel is booked out all week because of some conference, according to the concierge who urged me to do an express check out last night before I left to dine with you. I doubt I’ll find anywhere to stay.”

  Taylor cocked an eyebrow. “I’m sure if you use the Forrester name doors will open.”

  He shook his head. “It doesn’t mean as much here as it does in LA, Taylor, you should know that by now, and full is full. You think I want someone else inconvenienced because I threw my name around?”

  Taylor squirmed beneath the reproach in his gaze. “Of course not.”

  “Well then, it’s settled.”

  “No but—”

  Taylor’s protest was cut off by Rick’s forefinger pressed firmly against her lips. “Let me do this, Taylor, please. I run a fashion house for a living. I don’t often get to do something as manly as playing white knight.”

  Taylor smiled against his finger, she couldn’t help it. She’d never known any of the Forrester men to be insecure about their masculinity—Rick in particular. But it was a nice try.

  “Please,” he murmured and it went straight to heart.

  Taylor turned her
face to the side and his finger slipped to her chin and trailed down her neck before he pulled it away. When she looked back he was smiling at her in that sure way of his and she knew that if she was going to come out of this sane, then he couldn’t have it all his own way. She couldn’t just let him charm her into something with his smile and his self-deprecation without setting up some ground rules. They needed to talk about boundaries.

  “Fine.”

  Rick’s face cracked into a huge grin. “Not so fast there, mister,” she said, hands on her hips. “I’m not agreeing to this until we discuss the rules.”

  “You have rules?”

  Taylor dragged her eyes away from Rick’s enticing biceps, concentrating instead on the white of the bandage circling his forearm. It was important she remembered why he was here—this wasn’t play. Rick had been hurt last night because of her. The thought still made her ill.

  “I do now.”

  He chuckled. “Fine. Let’s have them.”

  “This can’t be some excuse to hook up. What we had was in the past and I’m too old for flings. We live on opposite sides of the country and we both have our own separate lives. So what happened this morning—that can’t happen again.”

  *

  Rick nodded, albeit reluctantly. He knew she was right. Of course she was right. Being in close contact was going to muddy things between them enough. But their kiss had already planted the seeds of an old, familiar craving. He could feel it in his system, waiting to unfurl.

  “That’s what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  Rick took a moment to assess her seriousness. Her back was straight, she had that determined tilt to her chin and she was staring him square in the eye. She looked convincing enough.

  Except he hadn’t forgotten how she’d trembled with need this morning. Did she really think that pretending not to want something made it so?

  If that was the way she wanted to play it.

  “Okay, sure, purely platonic,” he agreed, trying to banish all thoughts of how she’d rubbed herself against him.

  “Good. That means we avoid situations where we might be … tempted.”

  Rick raised an eyebrow as Taylor’s gaze drifted to his mouth. His lips tingled and he suppressed the urge to lick them. He was fairly certain Taylor would take it as a sign he was mocking her. “Like?”

  “No walking around half clothed. No entering each other’s bedrooms. No unnecessary … touching. No sticking to my side twenty-four-seven. I have a book to write and you’re on vacation, so you need to get out and see some sights.”

  Rick nodded, even though he was very familiar with New York and its sights. “Fine. I won’t crowd you. But only as long as when you do go out, I’m with you.”

  Her eyes glittered and Rick could tell that she was chagrined by her sudden lack of freedom, but smart enough to know he was only trying to protect her. She looked utterly conflicted.

  “Deal,” she sighed.

  Rick grinned. “Shall we shake?” He extended his hand and took a step closer to her and almost laughed out loud as she regarded his hand as though it were a rattlesnake. He guessed this was what she meant by no unnecessary touching.

  He waited for propriety to overcome her reticence to touch him but then his cell phone rang and she smiled at him.

  “Saved by the bell,” she murmured.

  Rick laughed at her and reached for his phone.

  Chapter Six

  Rick looked down at the screen and hesitated. His mother. There wasn’t one part of him that wanted to talk to Brooke right now but he would only be putting off the inevitable fight so it was best to get it out of the way.

  He swiped his finger across the screen. “Hi, Mom.” He felt rather than saw Taylor tense beside him and within seconds she was moving away. His eyes followed her as she headed across the large living area to the kitchen.

  “How are you?” Brooke asked.

  “Fine.”

  “You at the airport?” she asked. “Did you arrange for a car to pick you up?”

  Rick watched as Taylor poured herself a coffee. His mother was going to be none too pleased at his news. He turned to face the window.

  “Actually, I’m not coming home. I’m staying on for a little while. Taking a … vacation.”

  “A vacation?” Rick almost laughed at the incredulity in his mother’s voice. “Since when do you take vacations?”

  “Exactly. Probably about time I did, isn’t it?”

  “I suppose. Have you told Eric?”

  “He’s my next call.”

  “So you’ll be staying at your hotel?”

  Rick contemplated lying. It wasn’t as if his mother needed to know he was staying with Taylor. He could just say, I’ll be in and out, get me on my cell. But part of him didn’t want to lie to her, nor did he think he should have to—he was a grown man. His mother’s issues with Taylor were nothing to do with him and were long past due to be resolved. Taylor had moved to the other side of the country—what else did his mother want?

  Screw it. He didn’t need his mother’s permission to sleep over at a friend’s house. “I’ll be staying at Taylor’s apartment.”

  A loud crash in the kitchen had him turning around. Taylor, who had dropped her mug onto the bench, was staring at him open mouthed.

  “At Taylor’s?”

  Rick could hear the foreboding in his mother’s voice but decided to ignore it. “Yes,” he said as he turned back to the view.

  There was a long silence before Brooke finally spoke. “Is this about what happened to Taylor last night? Eric told me about it.”

  “Yes.”

  “But surely the police are handling it?”

  “Yes, they are. But it was a frightening experience and while the guy’s still at large, I don’t want to leave her alone.”

  “She’s a grown woman, Rick.”

  Rick’s jaw tightened. “It’ll just be for a few days.”

  More silence. “You don’t need to do this, Rick. She can hire a security firm.”

  “I know. I want to do it.” He lowered his voice. “She’s vulnerable, Mom.”

  “Oh, I’m sure she is. Lucky you were on hand to rescue her.”

  Rick sighed. “It’s not like that.”

  “Of course it is.”

  Keeping his voice low, Rick insisted, “It’s purely platonic.” Somehow the P word seemed even less convincing saying it to his mother. Despite his deal with Taylor, he knew they would walk a fine line these next few days, living in each other’s space.

  “I worry about you, Rick.”

  Rick’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the phone harder. “Mom, it’s done. I’m staying. I’ll be home when this guy is caught. I’ll talk to you later, goodbye.”

  Rick hit the end button, ignoring the twinge of guilt at hanging up on his mother. But he really didn’t need her jealousy today. He was doing the right thing—it felt right—and that was all that mattered.

  He stuffed his phone back in his pocket and turned to face Taylor, a smile fixed on his face.

  “Mom says hi.”

  *

  Taylor’s heart rate ratcheted off the scale as she and Rick stepped out of her apartment block into another perfect summer’s day. She did this twenty-minute walk to the studio three days a week. She enjoyed it. There was something soothing about the hubbub all around her. But not today. Some lunatic had taken that from her and she felt sick to her stomach. Was he out here somewhere, waiting for her?

  She hated how impotent this sharp edge of fear made her feel.

  “Come on,” Rick murmured in her ear, his lips pressed to her temple, as she froze on the pavement. “It’s fine. I’m here. Breathe.”

  Taylor dragged in a breath. And another one. Then another.

  “Okay now?” he asked.

  She nodded, pushing her sunglasses on to black out her eyes, desperately wishing they could hide all of her.

  “Come on then, let’s walk. It’s a lovely day.”r />
  He palmed the small of her back and applied gentle pressure, propelling Taylor forward. Her movements were stiff and awkward at first and she stuck close to Rick’s side, but before long she was keeping up with his easy stride.

  She was jumpy, though. The rush and hurry on the streets around her, which Taylor usually reveled in, made her nervous as her eyes darted left and right, desperately scanning faces for her attacker. Horns startled her and people brushing past jangled her nerves.

  But eventually, with Rick keeping up a distracting patter and with his solid frame beside her, she started to relax. By the time they reached the studio, she was so grateful he was there, she wanted to enshrine him in gold.

  Rick had changed into a different T-shirt and had a Yankees cap pulled down low on his head. He was planning on doing some exploring while she was working. He looked so damn good.

  “Do you want to come and watch a taping?” she asked, impulsively.

  He smiled at her, clearly delighted by her offer. “I’d love to.”

  “Excellent. Follow me.”

  George, the studio’s doorman, opened the door for her and bade her good morning as she and Rick strode into the building.

  “Do you have a dressing room?” Rick asked as he trailed behind her.

  Taylor smiled. “Yes. That’s where we’re heading now.”

  “Does it have those bulbs that go all the way around the mirror?”

  “Yes.” She laughed as she navigated the corridors.

  “Wow.” He whistled. “That’s when you know you’ve truly made it.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t get too excited, it’s not exactly the Ritz.”

  “Does someone do your makeup?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just like a fashion show, then?”

  “Yes,” Taylor agreed. “Except without the manic quick changes and the inconvenience of hundreds of nearly naked models running around.”

  “Would we call that an inconvenience?” he asked with a grin.

  Taylor rolled her eyes.

  They reached her room and she pushed open the door. It wasn’t much but it was all hers. Something she’d accomplished on her own. Rick whistled again and plonked himself down in her chair, flicking the lights on. “A star is born,” he announced and wiggled his eyebrows at her in the mirror.