by Tara Wyatt
Alexa pushed to her feet and spun to face Zack. “She can make her own decisions, thanks.” God, she’d had enough of other people dictating her life, and she’d be damned if she was going to let Zack start.
“And I’m telling you, this is a bad one.” He leaned forward slightly, taking up some of her space, and a part of her wanted to shove him back, while another wanted to wrap herself around him.
“It’s my choice, Zack, if I want to do this or not. Not yours.” She jabbed a finger into his chest, everything—the fear, the anger, the shock, the confusing tangle of her attraction to Zack—melting together and bursting out of her. “Just because you’re my bodyguard doesn’t mean you get to boss me around and make decisions for me.”
His jaw tightened and his nostrils flared. He glanced down for a brief second to where her finger was still pressed firmly against his chest. His very hard chest. “Actually, it does. It’s my job to protect you, and that means keeping you out of harm’s way. Not letting you walk right the fuck into it. God.” Nostrils flaring again, he rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, tension practically radiating off him.
“What about your rules? Communication and honesty and trust? Was that all bullshit?” When she swore, his eyes narrowed slightly, and he pressed forward the tiniest bit, her finger still jabbed into his chest, her nail bed white from the pressure. “Because what it sounds like to me is that you want to be in control. That I should just do what you want, when you want.” Heat flared in his eyes. Tension, thick and hot, gathered around them, but she wasn’t backing down. She couldn’t, not when her father had done these awful things. Not when she had a chance to try to make it right.
When Zack spoke, it was through clenched teeth. “I’m communicating to you that I honestly believe this is a terrible idea, and I need you to trust me to do my goddamn job.”
She took her finger away and stepped around the chair, getting right in his face. “I thought we were a team.”
“We are.”
“Right, but you’re the captain and I’m a benchwarmer.”
“I need to keep you safe.” His hand came up and curled around her arm, his grip firm but gentle. Something in his eyes shifted, the anger giving way to something softer. Something almost…imploring.
“Zack,” she said, some of the fire going out of her. She found it incredibly hard to think with his hand on her. All she could focus on was the warm, reassuring strength in his touch.
His gaze dropped to her mouth for a second, and then, with a sharp exhale, he took a step back. He dropped his head forward, shaking it as he stared at the floor. Finally, when he looked up, it was at Sean, not her. “And you’re going to let his happen?” he asked Sean, his hands out at his sides.
Instead of answering Zack, Sean looked up at Alexa, his hands clasped between his legs, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Do you want to do it?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Zack scoffed out a frustrated sigh.
“What do you want Alexa to do?” Sean asked the detective, his voice cool and calm in comparison to Zack’s.
Morales shot Zack a pointed look first. “You done?”
Zack took another step back and crossed his arms over his chest. The muscles in his forearms bunched and flexed, and some of Alexa’s anger dissolved into something hotter, sinking through her and settling between her thighs.
“I haven’t heard your plan yet, so probably not,” he said, his voice a little rough.
Morales gestured to the empty chair in front of her desk, silently asking Alexa to sit back down. She did, and even though the chair was solid beneath her, she felt as though she were a boat on a storm-tossed sea, unanchored and rocking violently as she fought against capsizing.
“The way you can help is simple, Alexa. Do you have access to your parents’ house?”
She nodded. “Yes. I see them regularly.”
“Good. What we need you to do is to plant bugs—listening devices—so that we can build a stronger case against your father.”
“With the idea that he goes to prison?” she asked, her stomach swirling sickly. Criminal or not, the betrayal would cost her.
Morales nodded. “Yes. Are you in?”
“Yes. I’m in. I’ll help you.”
She heard a muttered string of curses from Zack.
Morales nodded. “Good. And I think it’s best if you stick with Virtus for your security. Putting a police detail on you would only raise questions, and…” Her voice trailed off, and she shrugged. “Given that your father already had my name, clearly there are people around here who can’t be trusted. I hate to say it, but the fewer cops involved, the safer you are right now.” Her mouth and nose twitched as though she’d just smelled something offensive.
Obviously struggling for control, Zack cleared his throat before speaking. “So how do we play this?” he asked Sean. “You mentioned that if Alexa suddenly hires security, it might tip her father off that she knows something, or at least suspects something, and I agree. It wouldn’t make sense for her to have security around her family if she’s got nothing to be afraid of. When she goes to plant those listening devices, how am I supposed to keep her safe if I don’t even have a valid reason for being there?”
Sean smiled confidently. “This is where the idea I mentioned earlier comes in. You’re right, it doesn’t make sense for you to walk into the Fairfax mansion as Alexa’s bodyguard. No way that wouldn’t set off immediate alarm bells.” Sean paused, glancing from Zack to Alexa. “It’s a bit unorthodox, but given the situation, I think it’s our best option for keeping Alexa safe, and allowing her to help the police with their investigation.”
“What’s your idea?” she asked, sitting forward in her seat.
“Until all of this is resolved, Zack’s not just going to be your bodyguard. He’s going to pretend to be your boyfriend.”
Chapter 9
It was a stunningly simple solution to a complicated problem, Zack had to admit. Pretending that they were a couple gave him a completely reasonable excuse for being around Alexa and for going with her the next time she visited her parents. It allowed him to stay close to her without tipping their hand.
It also gave him the chance to pretend Alexa was his. It gave him an excuse to touch her, to flirt with her, to make her laugh and blush. His entire body hummed just thinking about it. How the fuck he was going to survive that part of the plan…Well, he hadn’t figured that out yet. He’d just have to keep reminding himself that it wasn’t real. It was pretend. To keep her safe. To protect her.
To torment him with a taste of something he couldn’t have. Something that could never be real.
After discussing it with Morales, they’d decided that he’d use a fake last name when he met Alexa’s parents so that it’d be harder to tie him to Virtus and his job as a bodyguard. The less the Golden Brotherhood knew about his real identity, the safer it was for all involved. So, instead of Zack De Luca, bodyguard, he’d be Zack Caruso, bartender.
Hey, at least he wouldn’t struggle with that part.
They’d spent at least an hour in Detective Morales’s office, hashing out the plan—Zack’s new identity, how the listening devices worked and where to place them, and various safety protocols. Alexa would help Morales, and by extension the LAPD and the FBI, with their investigation into the Golden Brotherhood by planting the bugs and keeping Morales apprised of any pertinent information. Meanwhile Virtus would work behind the scenes to keep her safe. Zack would pretend to be her boyfriend in public while acting as her primary bodyguard, and another member of the team would spot them when necessary.
Alexa’s shoulders had looked stiff and tense the entire time, and she’d barely glanced at him, but she hadn’t said anything to indicate she wasn’t okay with pretending to date Zack while she helped with the investigation. Granted, she’d probably been quiet because the map of her whole damn world had just been completely redrawn. He knew he owed her an apology and an explanation for the semi-caveman act
he’d pulled. He kept turning words over in his mind, trying to find the right ones.
Now, back at Sean and Sierra’s after a late lunch and running home to grab several days’ worth of essentials, it was time for another part of the plan.
Believable chemistry. Somehow Zack didn’t think that was going to be a challenge.
“Hi, Dad, it’s me,” she said into her cell phone, and Zack followed her into the house. “So…listen. My house was broken into last night.” She paused as she listened, nodding slightly as she followed Morales’s instructions to behave as naturally as possible, which included calling her father to tell him about the break-in. “No, I’m fine, and they really didn’t take much. It was probably stupid kids…Right, I know. I talked to the landlord about a security system, but…I know. I’m okay, really…No, I don’t want to come home. I’m going to stay with friends for a little while. And…” At this pause she turned and glanced at Zack over her shoulder, biting her lip. “My boyfriend’s here with me too, so I’m fine…Yes, boyfriend. No, you don’t know him…It’s new. The point is, I’m not on my own, okay?…His name’s Zack…No, like I said, not long. I have to go…What? Yes, I filed a police report about the break-in. I really have to go, Dad. I just wanted to let you know what’s going on and that I’m fine…Okay. Yeah. Bye.” She swiped her finger across the screen and ended the call.
He followed Alexa into the living room, dropping both his duffel bag and her suitcase on the floor by the stairs. At the twin dull thuds, she turned, a carefully schooled neutral expression on her face. For several seconds she stared at him. Not angry, not sad, not anything, all emotion hidden. Just waiting and giving him the chance to say something.
Fuck the right words. “Yeah, I know. I was an asshole. I’m sorry.”
She leaned against the wall, arms crossed as she studied him, her lips curving in a tiny smile. “Mmm. I don’t know if I’d say asshole, but…”
“The idea of you putting yourself in a dangerous situation…I get it, Alexa, but I don’t like it. I snapped back there, and I shouldn’t have. You’re right. I don’t get to tell you what to do. I meant what I said earlier, about being a team.” He shoved his hands into the back pockets of his jeans. If he had a hope in hell of getting through this charade unscathed, he’d have to learn to keep his hands to himself as much as possible.
She took a step toward him, her delicate brow furrowed. “So you snapped because I’m putting myself in danger?”
“Yeah.” He sighed heavily and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, his skin suddenly hot and itchy.
“Oh.”
“You thought it was for another reason?”
She nodded, biting her lip as she glanced down. “Because I wasn’t doing what you wanted me to do.”
Unable to help himself, he closed the distance between them and slipped a hand under her chin. Gently, he tilted her face up until her eyes met his. “The idea of you putting yourself in danger…Yeah, I don’t like it, and I didn’t handle it well back there. But I support your choice, okay? So if this is what you want to do, this is what we’ll do. And I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe. I promise.”
Her expression softened. “I thought you might be mad at me for pushing back. I was worried you were upset with me.”
“No. Communication and honesty, remember? Even though I’m pretty much always right,” he said, winking at her, “you’re allowed to disagree with me.” God, she really was too damn sweet.
She shot him a rueful smile. “I guess that’s our first fight as a couple out of the way.”
“Guess so.” Too bad there’d be no makeup sex to follow. There was no makeup sex in pretend relationships.
Pretend. The word ricocheted around his skull, and he tried to hold on to it, but it kept bouncing away.
Stepping away from him, Alexa headed farther into the living room, then plopped down on the couch with her legs out in front of her, toes pointing toward the opposite end. “So…how did we start dating?” she asked, her pretty face drawn with exhaustion. “He’s going to want to meet you, and probably sooner rather than later, which I guess is good for us.”
Zack sat down next to her and pulled her legs into his lap. She let out the tiniest, sweetest gasp when he did, and it was a good thing he’d changed out of his sweatpants and into jeans and a gray hoodie, because just that tiny inhale had blood flowing to his dick.
“Good question,” he said, rubbing a hand lazily over her shin before he remembered that he was supposed to be trying to keep his hands to himself. “Probably not through work, right?”
She thought, scrunching her nose and mouth to one side.
So fucking cute it almost hurt to look at her.
“I don’t go to a lot of bars, and if you’re a bartender, I doubt you spend much time on film sets. Not that I’m acting much anymore.”
“Why is that?”
She shrugged. “It doesn’t make me happy. It doesn’t fulfill me. For the longest time, I did it because it was what was expected of me. I was never allowed to choose my own path.”
“So what makes you happy?”
She smiled, and her entire face lit up, like the sun coming out from behind thick clouds. “Helping people. About a year and a half ago, I volunteered with UNICEF and spent three months in a village in Laos building a school and putting in a water and sanitation system. It was amazing, and I’d love to do something like that again.” She let out a sad little chuckle, shaking her head. “I passed on a movie to do it, and my parents were so mad. Totally worth it, though. Instead of spending three months making a movie, I spent three months building a school.” She reached out and squeezed his arm. “A school, Zack.”
He smiled and laid his hand over hers, his thumb tracing over her knuckles. “That sounds amazing.”
“Helping those kids…God, I just felt like I’d made such a positive difference, you know? It was almost like a high. I do a lot of volunteer work at the Children’s Hospital here in LA now.”
“Hey, maybe that’s where we met,” he said, trying to focus on the story they were concocting and not how soft and small her hand was beneath his.
“Volunteering at the Children’s Hospital?” She paused for a second, considering, laying her head against the back of the couch, snuggling in. And then she smiled. “Yeah. I like that.”
“What do you do there?”
“Mainly just hang out with the kids. Visit with them, read to them, cheer them up and distract them. Play games. Whatever makes them smile. I’m also on the fund-raising committee for the hospital.”
He nodded slowly, and his heart felt too big and too warm for his chest. “I think I’d like to come with you, next time you go. I like kids.”
“Yeah?” Her fingers curled around his bicep, the touch casual and easy. It was ridiculous how natural sitting with her like this felt. How right and not as if they were pretending at all.
At least that’s how he felt. Alexa, on the other hand, was just being her usual sweet self. And he was taking that sweetness and turning it into something it wasn’t.
“Yeah. The gym I train at runs free clinics for local kids who want to come and learn martial arts. I help out sometimes.”
“That’s really sweet,” she said, her thumb tracing circles on his bicep.
Fuck. Now he was blushing. If his blood wasn’t rushing to his dick, it was rushing to his face. Stupid blood.
“It’s fun, and it’s good for the kids. It’s exercise, and it teaches them a little bit about discipline, respect, and hard work. And it’s pretty amazing when they accomplish something they hadn’t been able to do before, knowing that you helped them get there.”
“That sounds really rewarding.”
“It is. I used to volunteer at the SPCA, before I got serious about fighting. Once I started training more, I just didn’t have the time.”
“What did you do there?”
“Whatever they needed, really. Clean cages, walk the dogs, answer the phone. I
miss it sometimes. I love animals, especially dogs. Part of the reason I started volunteering there was because I knew I wasn’t home enough to get a dog of my own, so it was a way for me to get my dog fix in. Sometimes it was hard when the dogs got adopted. I was happy for them, but man, I’d miss them after they were gone.”
She smiled at him, warmth shining in her silvery blue eyes. “Zack De Luca, lover of small children and puppies. I never would’ve guessed.”
“If you tell anyone, I’ll deny every word,” he said, winking at her.
She laughed, and he wanted to close his eyes and bask in that sound. Her laugh wasn’t a high-pitched giggle, but a lower, almost raspy, feminine chuckle, hot and sweet and perfect.
He swallowed thickly, reminding himself that this was just pretend.
Pretend. Pretend. Pretend.
“I hope you don’t mind that I suggested bartender when we were coming up with your undercover ID,” she said, running a finger along her bottom lip in an absentminded move his own fingers itched to repeat. “I thought it might be easier if it was something you knew.”
“I don’t mind. And you’re right, it is easier that way. At least if someone asks me for a Bloody Mary, I know what to do.”
She let out a soft little groan. “God, I could really go for one of those right now.”
“Want me to make you one?”
She thought about it for half a second before shaking her head, her cheeks going pink. “I kinda just want to keep sitting here with you. If that’s okay,” she added hurriedly. “Plus, it’s like two in the afternoon. A bit early for alcohol, don’t you think?”
He shook his head, sending her a smile. “Nah. Bloody Mary’s a lunchtime drink. You’re covered.”
“Man, I bet you got killer tips working the bar.” Her face flushed redder. “I mean…That sounded like…And I didn’t…I just mean that you’re nice to talk to. Sorry. Came out weird. Sorry.”
He couldn’t decide if he should turn up the dial on the flirting or if he should back off because she was clearly embarrassed. But was she embarrassed because it seemed as if she were flirting with him when she wasn’t, or because she had been flirting and was getting just as snarled up in pretending as he was?