by Lisa Childs
“Did you find her guy?” Cooper asked as he peered at the monitor over Nikki’s shoulder.
She shrugged. “I don’t know if it’s the same stalker we’ve been dealing with or another one.”
“You think she might have two?”
“It’s possible she could have two stalkers,” Nikki said. Teddie Plummer was in serious peril.
Chapter 21
Manny hadn’t answered her question. He just stared at her. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that. Of course I’m just an assignment to you. I know that.”
He pressed a finger across her lips and murmured, “And people say I talk too much...”
“You?” His finger brushed her lips as she spoke the single word. And she shivered at the sensation.
Manny’s eyes dilated until the brown turned black with desire. “I guess I don’t with you.”
They did things other than talk when they were alone together. They kissed. They made love.
She wanted to do that now. But first she needed to know that she meant something to him.
And finally he told her, “You’re more—much more—than just an assignment to me.”
“So you don’t sleep with every client you protect?” she asked. She’d meant to sound as if she was just teasing him, but her real fear had crept into her voice.
He shook his head. “No. Lars and Dane would have killed me if we did. Our first job was rescuing Lars’s sister. Our second was keeping her safe.”
She smiled. “I understand why Lars would kill you if you slept with his sister. But why Dane?”
“Because he’d fallen for Lars’s sister,” Manny explained. “And yes, Lars did nearly kill Dane.”
“But he and Nikki...” She was his boss’s sister. And she suspected Cooper Payne was more than just a boss to these men. He was a friend, as well.
Manny chuckled. “Yeah, Lars is a big old hypocrite.”
She laughed, too, even as she felt a pang of jealousy at his friendships. She wished she had friends like his, ones she could trust.
“You’re lucky,” she said wistfully, “to have them.”
“Yeah, I am,” he agreed. “But don’t ever tell them I admitted that to you.”
His friendships were unlike anything she knew, not just because he could trust the other men, but also because of how they treated each other. Teddie, growing up with just her mom, had no idea about male relationships—with each other or with her.
Maybe that was why she’d never gotten serious with anyone before. She’d had no idea how romance functioned. She and work had been her mother’s entire focus. Mama had rarely dated, and when she had, she hadn’t brought many of the men home to meet Teddie.
And Teddie hadn’t brought any home to meet Mama. She hadn’t let herself trust or care about anyone enough to keep them around. Until now...
But Manny wasn’t someone she should trust to stick around, either. Once this assignment was complete, he would move on to the next one, which would probably be just as dangerous as this one.
But it seemed to be what he enjoyed doing, he and his friends. Risking their lives for others.
“I don’t understand you,” she admitted.
Manny sighed. “Since meeting you, I don’t understand myself.” He leaned down so his forehead pressed against hers. And he stared into her eyes. “I don’t do this.”
“This?” she asked, her heart pounding frantically at the look in his eyes. The desire and something else, something deeper...
Or was it only her wishful thinking that there was more? Was it just a reflection of what she was feeling for him?
“I don’t get distracted,” he said.
“I’m a distraction?”
“Just like you’re more than an assignment, you’re more than a distraction,” he said. “You’re...”
She waited but he said nothing more. So she prodded, “What? What am I?”
“Everything,” he murmured. Then he kissed her—deeply, passionately. His tongue slid between her lips and stroked over hers.
She reached up and clutched the nape of his neck, holding his head down to hers as she kissed him back. His hair tickled her fingers, making them tingle.
He touched her, too, and she tingled everywhere. He moved his hands from her waist down to her thighs. Then he cupped her butt in his palms and lifted her.
She wrapped her legs around his waist and rocked her hips against the erection straining against the fly of his jeans. Heat flooded her. Her intensity frightened her because she didn’t just want him. She needed him.
She needed him not just to make love to her but also to love her. Because she loved him.
The realization both terrified and thrilled her. She had fallen in love with her bodyguard. And it was both scary to be this open and exhilarating to finally feel this much...
Love.
He carried her to the bedroom. He must have been feeling the same intensity of desire that she was because he undressed her quickly, pulling off her sweater and pushing down her pants until she stood naked before him. But it wasn’t just her body that was bared to him; her heart and soul were, too.
She had never been so vulnerable. How could she have fallen so hard, so fast? But she hadn’t been able to stop herself, hadn’t been able to hold back as she always had. Because this was Manny.
He was special.
As he took off his holster, she took off the rest of his clothes, unclasping his belt and unbuttoning his jeans. When she pulled down the tab of his zipper, his erection burst free, pushing against his boxers. She stroked her hand over him, and he groaned.
“Teddie...” He kissed her again.
Then she was the one groaning as he moved his mouth down to her breasts. He teased her nipples with his lips and his tongue before he moved lower yet, dropping to his knees in front of her. And he made love to her with his mouth.
She cried out as she came. Her knees gave out and she dropped down to the bed. After sheathing himself in latex, he followed her down, moving between her legs. He stroked in and out of her until the tension built inside her again. She dug her nails lightly in his shoulders before moving them down his rippling back to the tight muscles of his butt.
He was so damn perfect. So sexy...
He moved his hand between their bodies and stroked his finger over the most sensitive part of her. And she came again, crying out his name. She might have said more, might have declared her love.
But he kissed her deeply. Then he groaned in her mouth as his body tensed and he came, too. His big body shuddered against hers.
He left her, but only for a few seconds, before he came back and pulled her into his arms. He held her closely, protectively.
She settled her head onto his shoulder and snuggled against him. While she loved this, while she loved him, she wanted her life back. She didn’t want him to be with her because he was paid to be with her or because he’d promised her mother he’d protect her from the stalker.
She wanted the stalker out of her life. Forever.
She knew what she had to do. But she also knew that Manny wasn’t going to like it. She might get her life back, but she wasn’t sure he would be part of it any longer.
* * *
Now Manny knew how Dane had felt when they’d all agreed to let Emilia risk her life to save his. They’d had good intentions then to protect Emilia and rescue Dane. But Dane hadn’t needed rescuing.
Teddie did, though. She needed rescuing from her own crazy scheme.
“This isn’t going to work,” he protested. But nobody listened to him.
Nikki and Teddie talked about self-defense, with Nikki showing her some moves at the end of the conference room. Dane and Lars talked about being invisible, so that the stalker wouldn’t see them protecting Teddie and would att
empt to grab her.
In the past Dane had been good at being invisible, but the stalker had already seen him—and nearly killed him—in those woods around the burned-down cabin.
They weren’t going back to the UP, though. Or staying in River City. They were going to New York. No. Only Teddie was. Or at least that was how it would appear.
He shook his head. “This is crazy!”
Cooper and Cole glanced up from their conversation. And Cooper uttered a sigh of frustration. “We have no choice,” he reminded Manny. His impatience wasn’t with Manny or any member of his team. It was with their client, who refused to let them protect her how they saw fit. “She’ll fire us if we don’t agree.”
Manny couldn’t believe that she had made such a threat. He hadn’t thought she was a prima donna, that she would do anything to get her way. Even risk her life.
Because if she fired them, the stalker would get her for certain, and there would be nobody to rescue her. Manny wouldn’t have quit, though, no matter what she’d said. She would have had to take out a restraining order to stop him from protecting her.
And she still might need to.
“I have already fired you all,” Teddie said, pointing toward the television screen on the wall of the conference room. Breaking news reported that supermodel Teddie Plummer didn’t believe her life was really in danger, and that she’d fired the Payne Protection Agency. She’d called Bernard Setters with the story when Manny had fallen asleep.
So she had already set everything in motion. The stalker and any other kook who’d had an unnatural fascination with her would now think she had no protection.
“What you’ve done is put your life in even more danger than you already were in,” he said. And he was furious with her for doing that. “Why?”
“I want my life back,” she said.
He had been angry and afraid before. Now he was hurt. While he had admitted that she meant everything to him, he obviously meant nothing to her. Just like he had suspected, she wanted her old life back—the penthouse, the publicity, the money and fame.
Despite the size of her place in New York, there was no room in it for him—or in the lifestyle she wanted back so desperately that she was willing to risk her life for it.
* * *
He laughed as he watched the breaking news report. It was bogus. Another trick.
How stupid did she and her precious Payne Protection Agency think he was?
He knew her too well to fall for this trick. He knew how smart she was and, more important, he knew how scared she was. Satisfaction filled him as he remembered her screams when he’d pulled her out of the SUV and into the van. She’d been terrified.
Too terrified and too smart to go out in public with no protection. He had also gotten to know her bodyguard. That guy wasn’t smart, or he wouldn’t have taken a job like his in which he risked his life for other people.
But Teddie wasn’t just a client to him. There was no way Jordan Mannes would quit even if she fired him because the guy was every bit as obsessed with her as he was.
He laughed again as he realized how he could double-cross them both. He would teach that bodyguard for trying to take what was his.
And he would teach Teddie, once and for all, that she belonged to him. And only him.
Chapter 22
When Teddie had first come to New York, she’d been a small-town girl awed and impressed with the big city. Despite all the years she had lived there now, she was still that small-town girl. But she was no longer awed and impressed.
She would always visit it—for the theater and museums and music—but she never wanted to live here again. She didn’t want to model anymore, either. But she took a few gigs just to draw out her stalker. Teddie Plummer returning from her early retirement was big news.
Since her return two weeks ago, nobody had tried to grab her yet. What had happened to her stalker?
Had he finally given up?
She didn’t think so, because as she took her early-morning run, she could feel someone watching her. And she didn’t think it was just the Payne Protection bodyguards who hid in the park. It was someone else.
Her lungs burned from the cold, and her breaths as she panted were white puffs in the air. But it wasn’t just the temperature that was chilling her blood. It was the set of eyes she could feel watching her.
Instead of being scared, though, she felt almost relieved. Finally he would try for her. Finally this would all be over, and she could live her life how she wanted and where she wanted.
But not with whom she wanted.
Manny was angry with her, so angry for forcing him and the Payne Protection Agency to go along with her plan. She doubted that he would forgive her.
Or trust her...
And she wasn’t certain she blamed him. She had acted rashly. But she’d been desperate—desperate to end the danger. She hadn’t realized how dangerous it might get.
She heard footsteps pounding the asphalt path behind her. It could have been another runner. There had been a few other ones who’d passed her despite the early hour and the low temperatures. But she didn’t believe that was the case this time.
He was coming up on her too fast, too purposefully.
And then, before any of her bodyguards could step from their hiding places, he had her. He shoved her to the ground.
Her breath whooshed from her burning lungs as she hit the asphalt trail. Like when she’d jumped from the van, the pavement skinned her flesh, her elbow and her leg this time. And she cried out in pain and surprise.
Manny had warned her that her plan was too dangerous. She should have listened to him. But she could hear nothing now but the labored sounds of her own breathing. And his...
His hand fisted in her hair, pulling her up. Remembering the moves that Nikki had taught her, Teddie struck out with her elbow, sending it back into the man’s chest. Then she turned and reached out for his eyes, clawing at them through the mask he wore.
“You bitch!” he yelled at her. And he raised his fist to strike her.
She closed her eyes and flinched. But the fist never connected. And the hand dropped from her hair. She heard grunts now and the crunch of bones. When she opened her eyes, she saw Manny standing over her assailant. The man lay in the fetal position on the ground.
Other bodyguards rushed from the shadows. Manny must have beaten them all to her.
Nikki helped her up from the ground and anxiously asked, “Are you okay?”
She nodded. When she could speak, she would thank Nikki for teaching her better moves than she’d learned in that self-defense class she’d taken. But even with her new knowledge, she wouldn’t have been able to save herself from her stalker. She’d needed Manny.
But then, she needed Manny for more than protection.
“Do you recognize him?” Cooper asked the question.
And finally she turned toward the guy. Manny must have pulled off his mask. Or maybe she had when she’d clawed at his face. He had scratches on his pale skin. His face was narrow, his cheekbones and chin pointy, like some kind of animal. He looked like one now, the kind that had been caged and was desperate to escape. He wriggled and twisted in Manny’s tight grasp.
She shook her head. “No. I don’t know him.”
“He’s the guy,” Nikki said. “The one who sent you those earlier letters. Herman Miner. He has a police record.”
He was the fan who’d cut out the pictures of her and himself. He was just a fan. Not someone she had known and trusted.
She released her breath in a shuddery sigh of relief. It was over. It was finally over.
Her relief turned to a hard knot of regret as she focused on Manny’s face. He wasn’t relieved. He was still angry, his jaw rigid and lips drawn in a tight line.
It was over—with him.
* * *
>
It wasn’t over.
“He’s not the guy,” Manny insisted even as a police officer loaded the man into the back of a squad car.
Cooper sighed as if he’d already grown tired of arguing with Manny. “He attacked her.”
“He sent those letters,” Nikki added.
“The first ones,” Manny agreed. “You can’t prove he sent those other ones.”
“He attacked her.” Nikki repeated what her brother had said. “He’s already on probation for assault. So he’ll go back to prison for a long time. He won’t be able to hurt her anymore.”
Manny would have been relieved had he actually believed this was the guy. But it wasn’t. “Even you thought she could have two stalkers,” he reminded Nikki.
“Do you want her to have two stalkers?” Nikki asked, and a slightly mocking smile curved her lips.
“Of course not.”
But he didn’t think he had been wrong about the photographer. Manny had been close enough to the stalker—more than once—to recognize the guy’s build. And the photographer looked more the size of the guy who had taken out Dane and Cole than the thinner guy sitting in the back of the police car.
Nikki leaned close and whispered to him, “You don’t need an excuse to stay close to her.”
But he did. Otherwise he would be going back to River City, and Teddie would be staying here—in New York. This was what she’d wanted. She’d told him that already. She wanted her life back.
Maybe Nikki was right, and he was just looking for excuses to hang on to her. He walked over to Teddie sitting in the back of an ambulance. A paramedic cleaned the scrape on her leg and elbow.
The guy had hurt her. No matter if he was the real stalker or not, he deserved to go back to prison for attacking another woman.
“Are you all right?” he asked her.
She flashed him a smile, the same one that had graced so many magazine covers. “Yes. It’s over.”
Her happiness had pain gripping his heart. Sure, she should be thrilled that the stalker was caught. If he was really her stalker...
But was she also thrilled she no longer had any reason to have a bodyguard? Was she happy that she no longer needed him?