by Amy Andrews
He’d been the consummate professional and that had been a nice change. A man talking to her as if she had a brain and an opinion that mattered and who dealt with all her little niggles and foibles with patience and efficiency was a rare find. He hadn’t been condescending. He hadn’t humoured her. He’d been straight up. Yes or no or I’ll get back to you.
But, sheesh, would it seriously be that repugnant to spend a few days in her company?
‘Yes, but you’re on this boat,’ she said. Ava walked slowly towards him. She had to make him understand just how last night had shaken her. ‘I feel safe with you, Blake.’ She pulled up in front of him, standing close enough to reach out and touch him, far enough away not to freak him out. ‘If this guy...this person...does happen to find me...if he tried to harm me...or snatch me...’
Ava shuddered just thinking about it. She didn’t like knowing there was someone out there who wanted to hurt her. And she was more than happy to lie low until they were caught.
‘Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t go down without a fight. I’d kick and scream like a madwoman. But a little extra protection never goes astray, right?’
Blake gaped at the fairy dust she was snorting. The woman didn’t have a clue. ‘Are you crazy? I only have one leg. If he snatches you, I’m going to be next to useless. My days of running fast are long gone.’
Ava blinked at him and looked at his legs. She’d noticed him limping occasionally but had just figured he’d injured himself somehow. ‘You...do?’
‘You didn’t know?’ He lifted the jeans on his left leg to reveal the titanium skeleton of his artificial limb. ‘Why do you think I limp?’ he demanded.
She looked at it askance, as if it were some unsightly blemish. He supposed someone who made a living out of defining physical beauty would be uncomfortable when confronted with physical imperfection. And then she looked at him with something akin to pity in her eyes and ice froze in his veins.
‘Not so pretty, huh?’ he taunted as he let the fabric drop back down.
Ava felt awful. She hadn’t realised. Her cheeks pinked up—he must think her terribly self-involved. Not only had he pulled her to the ground last night, but he’d also given up his bed for her. Both actions completely without regard for his own safety or needs.
‘How’d it happen?’ she asked, searching his face.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ he growled.
It mattered to her. ‘Did it happen when you were deployed?’
Blake glared at her for a moment before answering. ‘Yes.’
Ava didn’t know what to say without sounding trite or macabre. She settled for, ‘I’m sorry,’ but even that sounded inadequate. ‘I had no idea.’
Blake dismissed her apology with an annoyed wave of his hand. ‘It’s not your fault,’ he said.
‘That doesn’t mean I can’t be sorry it happened.’
Blake was taken aback by the quiet conviction in her voice. So many people said sorry as if it was the standard platitude expected of them. Ava sounded as if she really meant it. ‘Thank you,’ he said. ‘But clearly, I’m not the type of protection you need.’
Ava frowned. ‘Are you kidding? You’re a war hero.’
He snorted. ‘I’m not a hero.’ He was so sick of the way that was bandied around. ‘I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.’
‘You get blown up and live to tell the tale? That’s pretty heroic if you ask me.’
‘Nah. That just makes me lucky.’ Unlike his brother-in-law.
Ava didn’t believe that for a moment. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the resilience it must have taken to recover from something so life-altering. ‘Well, it’ll do me,’ she said.
Blake was just about over her stubborn insistence. Time to stop being Mr Nice Guy. ‘No,’ he said, turning away from her to stare out of the window above the sink. Case closed.
Ava was even more convinced now that Blake Walker was her man. But how did she get through to him when his resistance seemed impenetrable? She stared at the set of his shoulders casting around for something...anything.
In desperation an idea came to her and she threw it down like the last card she knew it was. ‘I noticed yesterday when I was researching your sister’s charity that they don’t have a high-profile patron?’
His back stiffened noticeably and Ava felt a moment of triumph. Ah, that got his attention. Joanna. He’d reacted the same way yesterday when she’d asked who Joanna was.
His sister was the chink in Blake’s armour.
Blake turned around slowly and glared at her and she was even more convinced.
‘So?’ he said, his voice dropping dangerously low.
She shrugged. ‘Every successful charity needs a patron. A big name. Take me with you until the police give me the all-clear and I’ll do it. I’ll become their patron. I’ll attend every event and fund-raiser, I’ll represent their interests, speak on their behalf, I’ll work tirelessly.’
Blake was once again left speechless by Ava’s impulsive offer. Joanna would be over the moon to have a woman of Ava’s stature on board. ‘Let me get this straight,’ he clarified. ‘For a few nights on this boat you’re going to not only give a million pounds to my sister’s charity but commit to being its patron?’
Ava nodded. ‘Yes.’
Blake shook his head incredulously. ‘Why? If you’re really concerned about your safety, it’d be much cheaper and a lot less work for you to hire a professional bodyguard.’
‘I’m not afraid of hard work, particularly in the name of a good cause,’ she said, stepping in a little closer to him, to try and convey how strongly she felt. ‘And I can afford it. As for the professional, I don’t need one. I just need to lie low. But I also need to feel safe while I’m doing it and you, as we’ve already established, make me feel safe. I can’t put a price on that.’
Blake still couldn’t wrap his head around it all. ‘I think you have more money than brains.’
Ava smiled at him then as she sensed him weakening. ‘Please, Blake. If not for me, then do it for Joanna.’
Blake shook his head at her as soft lips curved up in perfect unison, nothing haughty about them now. Clearly she thought she had him all figured out. And certainly she’d found his soft underbelly. She’d made him an offer he couldn’t refuse—and she knew it.
But if she thought she could just crook her finger at him and he’d come running, then she could think again. ‘Does anyone ever say no to you, Ava?’
Ava let herself smile a little bigger. Was that resignation? ‘I do believe you’ve said no to me several times this morning already.’
FIVE
Blake opened his mouth to tell her no one more time—Joanna or no Joanna—but her phone interrupted them and she turned away, heading back to the lounge chair where she’d left it.
‘Crap,’ she muttered as she recognised her mother’s number on the screen. She did not want to have to deal with her now but, she knew from experience, her mother was best kept on a tight leash. ‘I’m sorry, it’s my mother,’ she apologised to Blake.
Blake gestured with his hands for her to take it then turned back to the sink and his contemplation of London to give them some privacy. Except that was kind of hard in the confines of the boat with her standing just a couple of metres away.
To say Ava sounded strained was an understatement. Even with his back to her he could pick up the tension laced through her words. He hadn’t realised how much he’d learned about the subtleties of her voice in three months, which was surprising considering Ava’s mother seemed to be doing most of the talking.
He didn’t hear Ava say once she was okay or retell the events of last night so from that he had to assume her mother hadn’t asked. Ava seemed to be asking her not to do something, her request becoming less and less polite.
Her mother was going to the press?
There didn’t even seem to be a goodbye; he just heard Ava’s phone clatter onto the dining table.
When he turned around she was staring out of the window currently flooding in sunlight, her back erect, her messy ponytail even now begging him to pull it out.
‘You okay?’ he asked.
She turned around slowly and the look on her face was in stark contrast to her self-assurance just prior to the phone call. She looked a lot like she had last night—vulnerable.
‘I’m fine,’ she dismissed, her voice weary. She lifted a hand and absently rubbed the muscles in her neck. The action caused all sorts of interesting movement inside her shirt. His shirt.
Blake kept his gaze firmly trained on her face—he was used to doing that. ‘You know, you could have told your mother where you were.’
Ava gave a soft snort. ‘Ah...no. She’s the last person I would tell.’
Hmm. Interesting. ‘I take it you two don’t get along?’
‘You could say that,’ Ava said dryly.
‘Doesn’t she approve of you being a model?’
Ava gave a harsh laugh. ‘Oh, no, she approves, all right. She’s one of the original pageant queens. The same old story, never quite made it herself so lived out her glory through me. Put me in my first baby competition when I was a month old.’
Blake blinked at the bitterness in her tone. ‘Let me guess—you won?’
Ava smiled despite the slight derision in his voice. ‘I won every one I ever entered until I was two and my father put his foot down and insisted that I have a normal life.’
‘But you got back into it later?’
‘After Dad died, we were in a lot of debt. Mum worked really hard doing two jobs to keep the house payments going and then I won a nationwide search for the newest young model and...’
Blake nodded. ‘You hit the big time.’
‘Yes.’
He frowned. ‘So...you two disagreed about the direction of your career?’
‘No. Mum hired an agent for me. An old school friend of hers...Paul. He managed every aspect of my career, for those first three years. My jobs, my money, my image. I depended on him for everything—it was him, me and Mum against the world.’
Blake still wasn’t sure what the issue was. ‘That’s...bad?’
‘It is when he’s embezzling your money behind your back and sleeping with your mother, screwing with her head so even when his treachery was discovered she stood by him, defending him in court, imploring me to give him a second chance, then leaving the country with him and my money, marrying him and leaving me, at seventeen, to fend for myself.’
A cold fist pushed up under Blake’s diaphragm and he took two steps towards her. How could a mother abandon her teenage daughter like that? ‘She chose him over you?’
Ava’s lips twisted. It had been a long time since she’d let herself revisit how betrayed, how vulnerable, she’d felt. Dwelling on the past wasn’t her thing. But it had been a most unusual twelve hours.
‘Yes. She did. “You’re going to be all right, darling,” she said. “You’re young and beautiful with contracts lined up out the door thanks to Paul,” she said. “I need to be loved too,” she said.’
Blake rocked his head from side to side as tension crept into his traps. He finally understood what Ava had meant last night when she’d said she’d learned early not to trust. She’d been betrayed by two people closest to her—no wonder she was a control freak.
‘What happened?’
‘They were divorced four years later. Mum came home trying to ingratiate herself but I’d already hired Reggie, who taught me three very important things—trust nobody, always control your own money and your agent is not your friend.’
Blake made a mental note to apologise to Reggie if they ever met again. He’d obviously armed Ava well in the years since her betrayal. Maybe a little too well.
It was a difficult concept for him to wrap his head around. Blake’s family were big and loud and intrusive and totally in each other’s business and that had been hard to take when all he’d wanted to do was hide away and lick his wounds.
But he’d never doubted for a minute that they had his back.
‘Our relationship is...strained,’ Ava said, her hand dropping from her neck.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘You should be able to trust family.’
Ava couldn’t agree more but sadly, for some people, that wasn’t possible. ‘Don’t be sorry,’ she said. ‘Just take me with you.’
She sounded so utterly defeated and Blake knew there was no way he could deny her when clearly, despite being surrounded by people, she was pretty much alone in the world. She didn’t even have family to lean on, for crying out loud. Her father dead. Her mother abandoning her in favour of her agent.
Her don’t screw with me act was just that—an act.
She needed someone she could trust and it looked as if it was going to be him.
A decision that would no doubt come back and bite him hard on the arse.
‘Patron, huh?’
It took a second for the meaning of Blake’s words to sink in. A spark of hope spluttered to life inside Ava’s chest. ‘Is that...a yes?’
Blake nodded, her caution so uncharacteristic it only added to his conviction. ‘That’s a yes.’
Ava felt a rush of relief flow through her veins so hot and hard it was dizzying. She smiled as tension leached from her muscles. Then suddenly, feeling light, feeling that everything was going to be all right, she laughed. Then she gave into temptation, crossing the short distance between them and throwing herself against his chest, her arms around his neck.
‘Thank you, thank you,’ she said, hugging him hard.
Blake sucked in a breath as the full length of her pressed into the full length of him and he liked how she fitted perfectly. Her ponytail swung a little in his direct vision and he wasn’t sure he could survive a few days with it screaming pull me out, pull me out.
He shut his eyes. Safe haven, man. You’re her safe haven.
‘Okay, okay. No touchy-feely stuff,’ he said, prising her off him, setting her back, but then somewhere out on the street a loud bang cracked the air and she practically leapt back into his arms.
Blake’s hands automatically slid onto her waist. ‘Hey, it’s okay,’ he said after a moment or two, the frantic beat of her heart thudding against the wall of his chest as her hands clasped his T-shirt. ‘It’s just a car backfiring.’
Ava barely heard him over the whoosh of her pulse through her ears but she understood from his non-verbals—his calm, solid presence—that there was no imminent threat. ‘Sorry.’ She grimaced as she pulled away shakily. ‘I’m going to be jumpy for a while.’
Her freckles were standing out again amidst the sudden pallor of her face, the tiny graze on her cheek looking more macabre as Blake’s hands slid to her elbows. ‘It’s fine,’ he said, squeezing her gently.
‘Thank you,’ she murmured, her voice thready.
Blake nodded, his gaze drifting to her mouth before pulling back again. Not going there. He took two steps away, putting some distance between them.
‘I have conditions,’ he said.
It took Ava a few seconds to shake the feeling that the boat had rocked beneath her. And as her mouth tingled she knew it wasn’t just from the fright. She cleared her throat.
‘Conditions?’
Blake nodded. ‘Yes. Two.’
Ava regarded him steadily for a moment. ‘Okay then, let’s hear them.’
He held up one finger. ‘No one knows our
location. Not Reggie. Not your PA. Not any of your gal pals. You’re supposed to be totally incognito and I’m supposed to be having a peaceful holiday. I don’t want it turned into a three-ring circus when someone lets it leak to the paparazzi.’
Ava nodded. She was happy with that—she didn’t want her location broadcast either, which was why she hadn’t told her mother. ‘Fine. I’ll let Reggie know we’re going away for a few days and—’
‘No,’ Blake interrupted. ‘He knows how to get hold of you. He doesn’t need to know you’re leaving town.’
‘I suppose not.’ Ava frowned at him; his indigo eyes were shuttered. ‘You don’t like him much, do you?’
Blake gave a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. He liked him a lot better now he knew some more about the man. ‘The question is do I trust him? And I don’t.’
Anyone who was willing to put Ava’s career ahead of her protection didn’t have her best interests at heart as far as he was concerned. It might make him a great agent but it didn’t say a lot for him as a human being.
Ava gave Blake a half-smile. She knew that Reggie came across as utterly money-grubbing but that was why she’d hired him. Her career was the most important thing to Reggie and he was exactly who she’d needed in her corner after sleazoid Paul.
Reggie was all about the business. ‘He’s the only person I do trust.’
In this industry where she trusted no one—she put her faith in Reggie’s instincts and his ball-breaking rep. He wouldn’t rat her out because he took his client confidentiality seriously—it was his calling card.
Blake thought it was sad that the only person Ava trusted had perpetuated her mistrust of others. ‘Well, let’s agree to differ on that one,’ Blake said.
Ava allowed her smile to become full blown. ‘I have a feeling that’s going to happen a bit,’ she murmured.
Blake grunted. So did he. Her smile reached out between them, making her mouth even more appealing, and for a moment he forgot that she’d bribed her way into his life—into his much coveted peaceful holiday. When she looked down her nose at him all haughty it was easy to remember that she was a spoiled prima donna who liked getting her way.