by Megan Hart
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY She would get used to waking up next to Ewan, maybe, if they had time for her to become accustomed to it. For now, it had been a surprise every morning for the past week or so. Nina stretched, naked, enjoying the silence of dawn. Ewan snored lightly, and she rolled onto her side to study his face in the first rays of sun slanting through the attic window. Nina had been in places others had called paradise. Idyllic beaches, serene landscapes. She’d never been as content as she was right now. This meant something, this rough and rasping thing between them. Without waking him, she slipped from the bed and went downstairs, still naked but carrying her harness and gear in one hand. Naked, she went outside into the cool late autumn air and went through her daily workout of stretches. She breathed in, breathed out; she gave herself up to the flow of the universe inside and through her. When she’d finished, her muscles ached deliciously, and her upper lip tasted of sweat when sh
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Through the living room windows, Ewan could see the trees changing leaves. If they didn’t leave soon, they’d be snowed in here. Not simply safe. Trapped. Surviving on the stores he’d laid away, never thinking he’d need to use them. Already he was growing tired of synthbeef and pasta, of the quiet, endless days with nothing to occupy him but the books on the shelves . . . and Nina. Everything was making him weary, but he didn’t think he’d ever get tired of her. She was the first woman he’d ever brought to this cabin. The first, too, that he’d spent this much time with. Other relationships had turned sour quickly, often after spending as little as a single weekend together. Yet here they were, weeks and weeks into this, and he looked forward to every minute with her as much as ever. Maybe even more, he thought with a glance toward her. Nina didn’t look up, but she did smile. “You and the staring thing.” “I’m bored,” Ewan said abruptly. At this, she put down her book an
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The trip into town had started off with an argument and an ultimatum, and he wasn’t proud of that. Ewan was far from knowing all of his flaws, but stubborn pride and insistence on having his own way was definitely one of them. He’d grown too used to getting his own way. Money had given Ewan a lot of things, but never a day as perfect as this one had been. Deer Park was indeed a town so small it could barely be called a village. Most of its residents owned property, like him, that included vast expanses of undeveloped land with hidden estates, so although it was small, the town had all the amenities you’d expect wealthy eccentrics to want. He and Nina had spent the day sampling local delicacies and looking in all the tiny shops. They’d also stuffed the buzzbike’s saddlebags with enough supplies to bring something fresh to their current pantry. They’d walked holding hands. They’d kissed over their shared dessert in a cozy little bistro. They’d tossed a few virtual coin
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Nina woke to a ringing in her ears and throbbing pain from half a dozen bruises all over her still naked body. Blakely would definitely not have had a problem kicking her when she was down. She hawked out a metallic taste, her spittle blood-tinged, and ran her tongue along her teeth. One seemed loose, but none were missing. Through the blurry veil of pain, Nina could see Ewan in the chair across from her. His head sagged to his chest. She could see blood dripping from his nose. That was all it took. Gritting her teeth, she tested the restraints Blakely had used to tie her to the chair. She tested, too, the pain where the bastard had hit her. Both eyes would be black. Her nose, definitely broken. Nothing she couldn’t handle. With a slow, deep breath, Nina concentrated on her injuries. Contrary to what at least a couple of the anti-enhancement groups thought, she didn’t have supernatural powers, but she could focus on the parts of her that had been hurt and shift ene
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Ewan heard the voices, one of them belonging to Nina and the other, feminine and familiar but yet unknown. He blinked hard, trying to clear his vision, but everything swam and blurred, and no matter how hard he tried to pull in a breath to clear his head, all he could manage was to let out a soft moan. Slim, strong fingers stroked along his cheek. Settled on his shoulder. Squeezed. He drew strength from the touch. It was Nina. He didn’t have to see her to know it. Time passed. He didn’t know how much, but the next time he struggled to open his eyes, he managed to focus. A chill prickled his skin into gooseflesh. He was naked, a bundle of soft material covering his lap. With a groan, he came fully aware, struggling. Nina was still there, murmuring his name and putting her arm around his shoulders. She looked into his face, cupping his chin until he looked into her eyes. “Shh,” she said. “I’m here. You’re all right. You’re going to be fine. I’m going to take care of y
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Three things happened in the moment after Ewan Donahue destroyed Nina’s faith in him. First, he took several steps toward her with his hands out, as though he meant to touch her, and she moved away the same distance immediately, afraid she would hurt him if he so much as brushed a fingertip across her naked skin. Second, Blakely got to his feet. And third, Nina lost her mind. Blakely, splattered with blood, had eyes only for Ewan. Crosson might have been able to call him off, but she was unconscious, sprawled on the bedroom floor. Despite Crosson’s insults, Blakely was no watchdog. He was an attack dog, and it was clear he intended to take great pleasure in following through on Crosson’s orders. Nina breathed. Tensing, she waited until Blakely was close enough to Ewan that his big fists had closed on Ewan’s upper arms. Then she launched herself at the men, leaping at the last second to land a kick directly to Blakely’s left kidney. It didn’t drop him, but it caught
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX “All I wanted to do was to help my sister. My entire life, we’d been at odds. She was my parents’ favorite. I was their disappointment. But still, she was my sister. Family. When we lost our parents, she was all I had left.” Ewan filled two mugs with steaming water from the electric kettle and added some tea. He pushed one across the table toward Nina, who did not take it. She’d showered and dressed in her usual uniform of black leggings and top, but the harness and belt with her gear was folded neatly on the table in front of her. She would not stand by and allow him to come to harm, she’d told him, but she was no longer in his employ. No longer bound to protect him with everything she had. He was no longer hers. “She’d done such great work, see. Her efforts with conservation. The environment. She was only eight years older than me, but she’d spent so much of her life doing whatever she could to make the world a better place. No wonder my parents preferred her. Thou
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Nina didn’t need to take another assignment. The money she’d made from working for Ewan would last her a good long time, even if she lived a life of extravagance and indulgence for as long as she could, which wouldn’t be very long. She didn’t need to work, but she wanted the distraction. This job had taken her all over the world. Literally. She’d spent twenty-two out of the past twenty-four hours on planes or trains or luxury cars, sitting by the side of one of the wealthiest men on the planet. Roger Germain was easy to get along with. Did as he was told, in regard to his personal safety. Didn’t talk much and therefore, didn’t expect her to have a conversation with him. He let her do her job as needed, which fortunately for both of them, wasn’t really needed. He’d given her a nice bonus, too, along with a stellar review. It didn’t necessarily matter in the long run, not when there were only a few people in the world who were capable of offering the services she cou
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
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For REB, who made me believe in HEA all over again.
CHAPTER ONE
Assess the situation.
Protect the client.
Eliminate the threat.
—Nina Bronson
Ewan Donahue looked like the worst kind of trouble.
And, despite those broad shoulders, the sleekly perfect slope of his jaw as he turned to glare at her, and that habit he had of tossing his slightly overlong dark hair out of his flashing hazel eyes, he was not the sort of trouble Nina Bronson was going to let herself get into.
Not because he was her boss, since technically he was just the guy paying for her services and not the person in charge of her. No, Nina had a lot of other reasons for putting distance between herself and one of the world’s most eligible billionaires, and Donahue himself had already made it clear precisely what he thought about her. He’d looked her dead in the eyes but gripped her hand a few seconds too briefly to keep their greeting polite. As though her skin had burned him.
Like there was something distasteful about touching her.
She couldn’t be surprised at his reaction, could she? After all, the entire world knew how Donahue felt about the enhanced, and he wasn’t the only person who’d ever reacted to her that way. Dealing with prejudice was part of this new life she’d been given, not condemned to. Nina made the effort now to keep her hands from becoming fists, her tone neutral but firm.
“You were given all the specs and requirements before I arrived,” she told him patiently.
Her voice didn’t rise. She kept her expression bland and deliberately nonconfrontational. Even if she were capable of rage, she’d have kept her temper in check. Donahue was a client, and clients, while not always right, at least were supposed to be allowed to think they were.
Her tone was chilly and polite, and she didn’t tack a “sir” onto the end of her sentence, though everyone else who spoke to him did. Nina had arrived at Woodhaven, Donahue’s vast and exceedingly private estate, twenty minutes ago. In that time, Donahue had interacted with exactly a dozen different staff members who’d practically bowed and scraped during the conversations with their employer, while he’d barely seemed to notice the obsequiousness. Or the employees themselves, as a matter of fact, something Nina noticed.
She’d arrived here directly from her last gig without even taking time to head home first, because Donahue had paid double the usual acquisition fees in order to get her there. She wasn’t tired—Nina no longer got tired, really, unless she’d been running on empty for days on end. She was, however, cranky.
“You hired me,” she continued, “for a purpose.”
“Exactly. I hired you.” He jabbed a finger in her direction.
“As I understand it, you did so because of a recent threat to your life that happened last night,” she said, gesturing at the faint scratches on Donahue’s left cheek. “Broken glass from the shattered restaurant window. You’re lucky. It doesn’t look like it’s going to scar.”
Donahue paused and put his hands on his hips. He wore only a pair of loose synthcotton trousers. Bare feet and chest. That head of thick dark hair was rumpled from what Nina assumed must have been a fairly sleepless night. For a man balking so fiercely at compromising his modesty, he sure didn’t seem to be worried about being almost naked in front of her.
“Lucky, too, that nobody else was hurt,” she added.
That seemed to rustle him. “Why do you think you’re here, now? To stop something like that from happening again.”
“I can’t stop anyone from attacking you, Mr. Donahue. I can only make sure that if or when that happens, you’ll be protected.”
In her two-year stint working with ProtectCorps, Nina Bronson had been in charge of more than a dozen senators, CEOs, philanthropic recluses, and once, an actual princess. The princess had been the easiest to deal with. She’d been used to being protected, while the men under Nina’s care had been accustomed to being obeyed. It made a big difference in how they reacted.
Nina had learned the ways of the wealthy and powerful early on in this gig—you let them do what they thought they wanted to do while guiding them toward the safest way for them to do it, and when that failed, you took a bullet for them if you had to. If you were too slow to get them out of the way first, that was. She’d never been too slow, not yet, but then she hadn’t ever taken on a man as bullheadedly stubborn as the one in front of her.
Donahue scowled. “Yeah, well, I’m a hundred percent certain that doesn’t mean you have to follow me into the toilet.”
Nina had been told once by an ex-lover that the specific smile she now gave Donahue could freeze a volcano. Connor had meant it as a compliment, probably because they’d never been more than casual bed partners. Now she warmed the grimace only slightly. “If you’re not going to let me do my job properly, then I’m going to have to subdue you.”
She could put him on his back in seconds, if she had to. Straddle him, maybe, her thighs hugging the jut of his hips as he struggled beneath her. The thought sent a shiver tickling up and down her spine, an unwelcome and unexpected frisson of tension. Her chin lifted as she studied him. She was on the job, not on the prowl, and this man was never, ever going to be an option.
The threat, and it was a threat, not a suggestion, got him to listen. Donahue did a double take. Dark arched eyebrows rose. “You’re kidding. Right?”
Nina’s smile did not change.
Donahue scowled. “Subdue me? What the hell does that mean?”
“Do you really want to find out?”
He tried to stare her down, but she didn’t budge. When he tried to step around her, she stepped, too, so quickly it was as though he were the one getting in her way, not the other way around. He tried again in the opposite direction, but she was faster. She’d always be faster, Nina thought with a certain grim satisfaction but no joy.
“I thought you’d been briefed on how this works. You are not to go anywhere without me. Not to your office, not to the kitchen for a snack. Not to answer the door for pizza delivery—”
“Someone else answers the door,” Donahue said.
Of course they did.
She wanted to laugh, both at his disgruntled look and his sly retort. She might have thought it was his attempt at humor, if he hadn’t been so clearly angry. Nina remained calm. Unruffled, although she hadn’t even been here for an hour, and he’d already obstructed every single one of her instructions.
“I am to be with you at all times,” Nina said. “I made that clear when I arrived. Nothing about that has changed. Nothing about that will change as long as I am employed as your protector. I signed a contract. You signed a contract. There really shouldn’t be anything to argue about.”
Donahue had balked at her moving a cot into his bedroom. She’d explained that her role as protector meant she needed to be there even when he slept, perhaps especially at night when he was likely to be more vulnerable to attacks. Yes, even in his own home where he had installed hundreds of thousands of credits’ worth of security systems, one of which now included her. He’d finally allowed the cot, begrudgingly, but now he was hollering about her following him into the bathroom.
Donahue spoke with his hands. Big hands. Strong. Expressive. The habit would’ve been charming on a man she wasn’t already inclined to dislike.
“This is ridiculous!” His hands painted the picture of his dismay in the air. When he turned to face her, he caught her staring at his fingers. He curled them into fists at his sides.
Tension sprouted betwe
en them that had nothing to do with his lean body or that handsome face. His aggression was a trigger, putting her body and senses on alert. Ready to fight, defend. Protect. Of course, she was supposed to be protecting him, not fighting him, but fortunately for Ewan Donahue, Nina had not only learned to control her reactions, but there were some triggers she simply could no longer respond to. He could try to push her into anger to get a rise out of her, if that was his thing, but it wasn’t going to work.
It hadn’t always been that way. In the first days of her recovery, she’d broken her knuckles throwing punches. Broken other people worse than that. If Donahue knew how brutal Nina was capable of being, he might not be moving so menacingly close to her, she thought, her expression indifferently bland. Her body was ready but controlled. You never knew with men like him. He might get off on the idea of pushing her to the limit.
“I understand, Mr. Donahue. You want your privacy. You’re used to autonomy.”
And telling other people what to do, not being told yourself.
Nina continued, “What you need to understand is that you’ve had a total of fifty-seven confirmed, serious death threats made in the past three and a half weeks. Previously, you’ve had three actual attempts on your life. Two of your former bodyguards were killed protecting you—”
“Enough.” Donahue flinched, his cheeks flushing the faintest hint of red. A brush of heat came off him, subtle but definite. “Yes. I know. I feel like shit about it, thanks so much for reminding me I’m the reason two good men are dead.”