Protecting His Assets

by J. K. Coi

  “Nolan!” the man called out. He sounded frantic and desperate, and a desperate man wasn’t someone she wanted anywhere near her client.

  She grabbed Nolan’s forearm. “Come on!” A crowd gathered even as trench coat man was taken down, and she yanked Nolan out of the fray, nudging him in front of her as she directed them out of the museum. Even at the main doors, she could hear the man still yelling after them.

  “Where are we going?” Nolan snapped.

  “John and his crew can handle things back there. You’re my responsibility, and I have to get you out of here.”

  He tugged back. “What about my mother?”

  April tapped the mic in her ear and asked Nora, who quickly filled her in. “My guy is still with her. She’s absolutely safe.” She turned back to him and added, “And the assailant is already in custody. My boss is in cooperation with the police—already en route—and we’ll have some answers as soon as possible.”

  They reached the car. Obviously, there was a different driver waiting for them because John was inside the museum, but she recognized him, and so she pushed Nolan into the backseat while he returned to the driver’s side door.

  “If the situation is in hand, why are we leaving? I need to find out who that is and why the hell he’s been attacking me.”

  She followed Nolan into the car and shut the door. “Drive,” she called and tapped on the glass separating the front and back seats. “I’m sorry, but we’re staying out of the way. I can’t take the chance that this incident might have been a setup.”

  He frowned and glanced out the window. The city lights on the other side were softened by the tinted glass. “You think this could have been a diversion, so yet another attacker could get close to me?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t actually think that’s what was going on. But it wouldn’t be the first time, and standard procedure dictates that in the case of a threat to your safety, I get you out immediately, no matter what.”

  He sighed and collapsed back into the seat. She’d been expecting more of an argument. “Nolan?”

  He glanced up and shook his head. “I understand. You’re right. I just hope I didn’t make your job any harder. I guess I can wait a few more hours to get those answers.”

  She settled into the soft leather beside him. She let out a sigh and put a hand on his arm. “That was the first time I’ve had to evacuate one of my charges from a compromised location,” she admitted. The adrenaline still had her revved up, and she didn’t know what to do about it. “No matter how much training you get, you can never really know how you’re going to react when a situation like that actually happens. I think it’s a good thing I found out with you.”

  His frown only deepened. He took her hand and interlaced their fingers together. “I don’t know if I like the idea of you being in more situations like that.”

  She tensed and looked down at their joined hands for a long moment. Unable to speak above a whisper, she said, “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that sounded suspiciously like—”

  “Like someone who cares about you,” he finished.

  She sucked in a hiss as he cupped her cheek and bent to kiss her, stealing her breath away along with all the carefully constructed safeguards she’d put in place to keep from falling for him completely.

  Her heart was thumping so hard she could hear the echo of it in her ears, feel it all the way down to her toes. His mouth opened over hers, hot and daring and wild. Growing up the way she had, she was no stranger to guys who liked to think they were dangerous. But none of them had been as dangerous as Steve Nolan. And it wasn’t his muscles or his attitude—of which he had plenty of both. No, it was what he represented: ambition, power, success. All the things she would never have, all the things that would propel him further away from her over time.

  Which is exactly why she’d put those safeguards in place.

  And it was exactly the reason they were always destined to fail.

  He pulled her across the seat onto his lap. Her skirt rode up to the tops of her thighs but she didn’t care. That only made it easier to throw her leg over his so she was straddling him. It might already be too late for her to come out of this thing at the end of it with her heart intact, but that didn’t mean she was going to walk out on the experience altogether. It was too late for that, too.

  “Where’s your microphone?” he asked in a low voice.

  She blinked. The mic? Why did he—

  “Can they hear us? Do you want them to hear us? Because I could go either way, but I assume…”

  Oh. Heat flooded her cheeks. She leaned back enough to reach into the bodice of her dress and remove the small watch battery-shaped mic pinned to the lacy strap of her bra while he watched with a look that said he was eager to get in there himself. She dropped it into her clutch.

  “The earpiece?” he asked, pushing the hair back behind her ear, making her blush.

  She shook her head. “I can’t take that off until you’re safely back at home with guards posted at the entrances, but I’m not getting any chatter over the line. We’re quiet on the channel unless there’s a reason not to be.”

  He nodded and reached for her again. If she’d thought his kiss was devastating to her senses before, now he shattered her. She curled her arms around his neck and held on tight, shuddering as his hands worked up to the knot in her hair, and his tongue swept her mouth.

  She tipped her head slightly. “Don’t,” she whispered. “Not here.” They still had to leave this car and make it to his apartment. She knew it was only an illusion of control, the semblance of propriety, but…

  He seemed to understand and left her hair alone. “Jesus, you taste good,” he murmured, licking her lips like she was his favorite flavor of ice cream cone. “Like cinnamon and honey and sex.”

  His hands moved down her back until he spread them over the round cheeks of her ass.

  “And just how do I taste like sex?” she asked. Now she was imagining how she could taste like sex. It would involve slipping down to her knees between his legs, pulling his zipper down and freeing his cock so she could run her tongue up and down the length of him before sucking him hard and taking him as deep into her mouth as he would fit. Then, afterward, he’d pull her back up to kiss her, and—

  “You’re warm and wet and sweet, and you suck on my tongue like you never want to let me go.” He kissed her again, and when he drew away she followed with a whimper. “Sex, baby. Pure sex. And I can’t get enough of it.”

  She clenched her eyes shut with a groan and let her head fall back. She arched her hips, trying to press her core against him. His lips found the pulse point thrumming madly in her neck, making her gasp with delight, and he slid his hands up her legs from her knees. He found the lace trim at the top of her stockings first and traced it all the way around.

  Slowly. Oh so slowly.

  Her brain turned to mush when he got to the inside of her thighs, only to make his way back to the clasps of her garters. He flicked them off and kept running his hands up right under the hem of her dress, over her thighs and hips until they circled her waist.

  When his finger slipped beneath the string of her thong against her tailbone and followed it down the crack of her ass, she gasped. And when he dipped into the moist heat between her spread legs from behind, she whimpered.

  His mouth marked a trail along the cord of her neck, and he tugged both the straps of her dress and her bra off her shoulder to get access to more skin.

  She bit her lip to keep from grinding against his fingers. Propriety? What was that? In the back of her mind—way in the back—a voice told her this was not the place to relinquish control. As if to prove it, the car slowed. She swore as she tore her mouth from his. Her pussy pulsed with need. Her breathing was ragged and short.

  She glanced out the window. They’d turned onto his street. “We’ll be pulling into your building very shortly,” she murmured.

  He dragged a thumb across her sensitive, b
ruised lips. “Stay with me tonight,” he said.

  She nodded. “I’d planned—”

  “Not because you think you should be there,” he clarified, “but because you want to be naked with me all night long.”

  His focused, direct look reminded her that this was a man who made his own destiny, who was used to getting exactly what he wanted. The fact that he wanted her—at least for right now—was heady stuff, but it wasn’t the reason why she was going to say yes.

  She pulled the strap back up over her shoulder and smoothed her hair before leaning over to kiss him once more. April was going to say yes because she wanted to. It didn’t get any plainer or simpler than that.

  The car came to a stop. She started to pull back and climb off his lap, but his big hand on the back of her neck kept her close.

  “If you stay, I promise to make you scream.” He pulled her bottom lip between his teeth playfully.

  A sizzle spread through her. Of all her worries, that definitely wasn’t it. “A boxer needs to constantly work on his stamina. The way I see it, you asked for a trainer, and I have an obligation to do my very best to put you through your paces,” she teased.

  Chapter Ten

  She straightened her clothes and smoothed her hair to make sure no telling strands had escaped, and by the time the car door opened and he helped her out, there was no sign of the siren that had melted over his fingers and squirmed on his lap. The indomitable Ms. Porter had returned, even if the ugly suit had not.

  He hid a smile as she nodded to the driver. He liked the stiff, professional Ms. Porter, especially now that he knew the Amazon was close at hand beneath the surface.

  “Hey, Tony. Are we good?” she asked the bodyguard waiting for them in the parking garage. The guy was beefy, with a thick, furrowed brow and a definite bulge in his jacket. He was already holding open the empty elevator, presumably because they hadn’t wanted to risk randomly pushing the button with Steve standing there, only to have it open with a gunman waiting to shoot him down.

  He shook his head. Was this really the way he’d started to think? Would he be looking for crazed psychos at every street corner now, too?

  Tony nodded, giving Steve a once-over. “Nora has cleared your apartment. No word yet as to the identity of the assailant. John went with the officers who transported the guy to the station, but there’s an investigator questioning some of the guests at the museum.”

  “What about Mrs. Nolan?” she said.

  “She’s been escorted home, and two of our guys are going to stick around outside for the night to keep an eye on things. I understand her daughter is in residence as well, and she has been inquired after. All is well, but she’s been asking questions.”

  “Great. We’ll make sure to talk to her first thing in the morning. Thanks so much for your assistance tonight,” she said with a friendly smile. The tight ball in Steve’s chest relaxed a little. He hadn’t realized how worried he’d been about his family until April had made certain to inquire after them. “I guess you’re free to go on home. Tell Pete I’m sorry to have kept you out so late on date night.”

  Tony chuckled and motioned for them to enter the elevator as he said, “I promised to make my Fettuccine Alfredo tomorrow as a compromise, so he’s not complaining.”

  As the elevator door closed, Tony tipped his chin down and murmured something. Steve was fairly certain it was a heads-up to whoever would be waiting for them at the penthouse level.

  “You seem to know Tony pretty well,” he said.

  He wondered if she’d shrug off his question, like she’d done every other time he’d shown a hint of interest in her personal life.

  “Not really. I haven’t been with the company long, but I knew Tony’s partner when I was in training for the FBI. Pete just graduated actually. He got a position in the Virginia office, and he and Tony are going to be moving there in a few weeks. We celebrated last weekend.”

  She sounded completely genuine in her happiness for the couple, but if he’d been in her place, he probably would have felt at least a little melancholy. “You would be celebrating your new post by now, too, if you hadn’t left the program, wouldn’t you?”

  She shrugged. “Then it’s definitely better that I left. Even assuming I’d have passed the final tests, there’s no guarantee I would have been assigned to an office in the area. And whether or not Dad wants me around right now, I need to be close by…just in case.”

  Not since that first night sitting on the floor of his wrecked kitchen when she’d told him about her dad’s gym had she willingly shared any part of herself with him—and God knew, he’d tried to get her to open up. Not her past, or her present. Not her fears, or her dreams. And yet, he’d discovered things on his own just by watching her and by her own omissions. She’d probably hate to know that.

  April was perhaps the most aloof person he’d ever met, but in spite of her stubborn walls, he kept finding reasons to admire her. She’d lost her mother as a child, but it hadn’t become a crutch. She loved her father and feared for his health. She’d willingly given up her dream of working with the FBI to care for him. She could be happy for her friends’ successes even when she felt like she’d been left behind. And she’d approached her assignment to a disrespectful smart-ass with dignity and grace. She was not only beautiful, talented, and whip-smart, but also a class act.

  When his future had been ripped away by the death of his father, he’d reacted by going through an angry, two-year long rebellion of drinking, partying, and every other vice he could think of before realizing what April had known instinctively: that life wasn’t fair and the only way to take control of it was to accept that and just rely on yourself.

  The elevator stopped, and the two of them walked out into the hallway. A woman stood at his doorway and stepped forward. “Mr. Nolan, I’m Nora Shapiro of S & S Security,” she said, shaking his hand and sending April a friendly smile. “I wanted to be here in person to bring you up to date on the situation as it currently stands.”

  He nodded and motioned for the front door. “Why don’t you come inside, then?”

  She shook her head. “This won’t take long, so I’ll be brief and leave you to the rest of your evening.” She clasped her hands. “The person who approached you at the museum this evening has been identified as Edward Fielding, the son of Justin Fielding.”

  A chill ran down his spine. The frantic, desperate-looking guy who’d confronted him this evening couldn’t have been any older than Steve himself. He’d known Justin Fielding had a son, but none of his investigators had ever been able to locate the family. They’d disappeared along with him and hadn’t turned up again, even after news of the car crash.

  “Where’s his father?” he demanded.

  April stepped closer and took his hand, as if to soothe his ruffled feathers. He noticed Nora noticing the gesture, but neither of them said anything about it. Steve, because he was enjoying her touch and didn’t want her to realize what she was doing and let go; and Nora, probably because she didn’t want to make April feel uncomfortable.

  “The police haven’t finished their interrogation, but we’re on top of the situation and will keep you advised as soon as we know more,” Nora said.

  Justin Fielding had stolen from his family and destroyed his father. He’d escaped justice all this time while Steve’s family had been shamed and blackballed for years afterward. Now that Steve had finally started to put the pieces of their lives back together, the bastard’s son thought he could finish what his father started? Fuck that.

  “I want to be there.” His clenched teeth sent pain spiking through his jaw.

  The two women shared a telling look. Obviously, they thought that was going to be a bad idea, and maybe they were right. He didn’t know if he’d be able to keep his cool if faced with anyone named Fielding, but he didn’t much care. “I want answers, and I’m not going to leave it up to the cops to get them. They’ve spent ten years doing absolutely nothing with this investi
gation. I have no confidence that even with this guy in their custody, they’ll be of any use.”

  “Police procedure prohibits the public from interrogating a witness, but I’ll make some calls in the morning, and we’ll see what we can do,” April said, squeezing his hand. This time she did realize what she was doing and quickly pulled away. He wanted to reach out and snatch her hand back, but didn’t.

  “I know a few guys at the station,” she said. “Maybe I can pull some strings and at least get us in the same room with him for a minute or two.”

  Nora stepped aside and moved toward the elevator. “Everything’s under control for now. It’s getting late, but I should have an agent available to relieve you in about an hour,” she said to April.

  April blushed and pointedly did not look at Steve.

  “Send your people home. I think it’s safe to say that your company’s protection services are no longer required,” he said. “The guy’s in custody, and I know who he is, if not what he wants. But that’s only a matter of time. Ms. Porter’s assignment is officially over, don’t you agree?”

  The woman looked back and forth between him and April. Finally, she nodded. “I understand we will need Mr. Harrison to sign off on the contract to make it official, but I suppose you’re right.”

  April visibly relaxed, and he realized just how much she’d been bothered by the idea of spending the night while “on the job.” He was glad it wouldn’t be an issue because he wanted nothing between them tonight…nothing at all.

  Ms. Shapiro smiled. “I’ve got some other situations to check on, and a husband to retrieve from the police station, so I’ll be going. Email me a report in the morning,” she said to April.

  April’s cheeks were still delightfully pink by the time the elevator door closed on her boss’s carefully blank expression, but in every other respect, she’d gone into Ms. Porter mode again, standing very straight and stiff at his side.

  Had she changed her mind? It was one thing to get carried away by the shadowed intimacy of the car when his mouth was making her whimper and his fingers delved into her wet warmth, and quite another to stick to that same decision in the cold light of an apartment building hallway after a face-to-face with her boss.