by Cindy Dees
When she’d asked him to help her out with her baby plan, she hadn’t known him like she did now. Candace had said he was “cool” and “knew the score.” And fool that she was, she’d believed her stepsister. Candace said he was the kind of guy who would scratch your back if you scratched his. Except he’d decided that he wanted to scratch her back literally, and he’d been furious when Silver refused to enter into a real relationship with him.
She’d been crystal clear in her requirements, and he’d agreed to them up front. It was only later that he’d tried to change the rules of the game on her. She could smell a gold digger at a hundred paces, and he was double-dog, big time after a piece of her fame and fortune.
She sipped at a club soda in silence while Austin took his time finishing the cake.
With a satisfied sound, he laid down his fork. “For what it’s worth, I did my best to avoid provoking Bubba this afternoon. Not that I didn’t want to deck him. He really is a deserving jerk. But you were already upset, and I didn’t want to make it any worse for you.”
Austin had been worried about her feelings? That was a first for the men in her life. Most of the people who surrounded her were takers, always asking what she could do for them, not the other way around. Unfamiliar warmth suffused her at his consideration.
Her gaze faltered as he looked back at her steadily. Good Lord. He’d see right through her to the ridiculous crush she was fast developing on him. Abashed, she mumbled awkwardly, “Call him Bubba to his face and he’ll deck you.”
Austin let out a snort that spoke volumes. “He can try to lay a hand on me, but he’ll fail. Besides, Bubba’s a far sight better than the other names I’ve come up with for him. Wanna hear a few?”
“No,” she laughed. Frankly, Bubba fit him just fine. She dared not voice the opinion aloud, though. After all, Bub—Mark—was supposed to be her boyfriend.
“What can I say to convince you to fire him?” Austin asked seriously.
“Nothing. I’m not going to fire him.”
“Why the hell not?” Austin sounded ready to get all worked up again.
She laid her napkin beside her plate and stood up. Stars dusted the sky overhead, and the silence was deep and dark around her. She wandered over to the edge of the pool. On impulse, she kicked off her shoes and sat down on the rough granite coping, dangling her feet in the inviting water.
“Wanna go for a swim?” Austin asked.
“I don’t have a bathing suit.”
A chuckle. “Don’t let that stop you. You were right. This is a perfect spot for skinny-dipping.”
The old Silver—or rather the young Silver—would’ve taken him up on that dare in a second. She missed that girl. She’d lived life with gusto and hadn’t second-guessed her decisions, hadn’t lived in fear of paparazzi or headlines. She’d done what made her feel good. Over the years, she’d learned to have a care for hurting other people with her impulses, and that was probably a good thing. But somewhere along the way, all the fun had been ground right out of her. Darn it, she wanted some of it back before her fortieth birthday snuck up on her in shades of gray and boring.
She stared at Austin in one last second of indecision. And then she grinned at him…and slid into the water.
Its pleasantly cool embrace felt amazing against her skin. The spontaneity of it felt even better. She hadn’t done anything remotely like this in years. Her skirt floated around her like a pink lily pad. She submerged, dragging it down with her until it was a sodden mess around her legs.
She’d done it. She’d taken back a tiny piece of herself. And she had Austin Dearing to thank for it. He challenged her like no man she’d met in a very long time. Challenged her to do more. To be more.
She saw a dark shape looming by the edge of the pool and surfaced for air, laughing, pushing her seaweed-hair out of her face. “Come on in. The water’s great.”
He scowled. “Unlike some people, I don’t jump into swimming pools fully clothed.”
She grinned up at him. “Then take off your clothes and go for that skinny-dip.”
He stared down at her for several endless, heart-stopping seconds. Then he stunned her by saying evenly, “All right.”
She gaped up at him. He was going to strip and jump in with her? Ho. Lee. Cow.
All of a sudden she felt in way over her head, and she wasn’t talking about the swimming pool.
Chapter 6
This is madness. But in spite of his misgivings, Austin’s fingers moved to the hem of his shirt. He stripped the soft cotton off over his head.
It’s totally unprofessional. The bare night air felt cool on his skin. Liberating. He was completely out of line to get in the pool with her. He reached for his belt buckle.
But who would see? It was just the two of them up here on top of one of the tallest buildings in the city. There wasn’t a sight line anywhere for a sniper to get an angle on her. She was safe. They both were. He started to push his pants down his muscular thighs.
She gasped.
One corner of his mouth curled in amusement. She didn’t know yet that he had on Lycra biking shorts beneath his pants. Interesting that she didn’t ask him to stop, though. A bit of the old wild child peeking through her newly pious and mature exterior, perhaps? He liked the hint of daring in her. She wore it well.
He particularly liked throwing her off balance. She was less…guarded…when she wasn’t on familiar ground. It was good for her. She was entirely too predictable and bland in this persona her family—specifically her father—had forced on her. While the rebellious, twenty-two-year-old diva no doubt would’ve driven him crazy, he would almost prefer that version of Silver to the strangled version of her that remained.
Fame sure had done a number on her. It seemed to have driven all the spontaneity out of her. She took no risks lest a cameraman jump out of the nearest potted palm and capture her humiliation for all the world to see. A need to challenge her, to shake her up, coursed through him. Being with her was like being around a puppy that didn’t know how to play. It was sad and somehow not natural. A desire to teach her how to chase her tail again overcame him. And hell, he wouldn’t mind chasing her tail, either.
Jumping into a swimming pool with their clothes on was a good start on waking her playful side. Except his cell phone, earpieces, gun and various other gadgets were all in his pockets. It was easier to just strip off his clothes, the contents of his pockets intact.
He knifed cleanly into the water. He hadn’t been swimming in several years—it wasn’t a favored pastime in the remote parts of Afghanistan. Not to mention water was too scarce over there for anyone to even contemplate swimming in giant vats of it. He stroked toward the far end of the pool, relishing the slide of water over his skin, the muffling silence and weight of it. Damn, he’d forgotten how much he loved to swim.
The water was cool but did little to dissipate the heat that woman stirred up in him. She’d be irritating if she weren’t so damned interesting. And sexy. And funny. And…cute. She sure was a little thing, all sparkly and bright, like a shiny new coin. Her name fit her.
He surfaced beside her. “You gonna just hang onto the edge or are you coming swimming with me?”
She laughed and took off for the far end of the pool. He caught up and passed her easily. Not only was he trained to swim for hours on end in rough oceans but that dress of hers added serious drag to her hydrodynamics. She ought to take it off—
Slow down, there. No trying to get the client to strip. Although she’d look hot in just her bra and panties. Stop that!
She reached the far end and surfaced beside him, panting. “Man, you’re fast. Are you some sort of Navy SEAL or something?”
He grinned. “Something like that.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I’m part of an Army unit called Special Operations Detachment Delta. We specialize in urban counterterrorism, surveillance, indigenous recruitment and liaison work, establishing and running intelligence networks…�
�� Her eyes had glazed over somewhere around the word surveillance. He amended, “Would it be clearer if I just said I do scary stuff involving guns?”
“Much.”
She gazed up at him with something akin to awe gleaming in her ethereal eyes. For the first time, he understood how his men could enjoy the groupies who chased after them with this combination of admiration and adoration. It almost made a guy feel like a hero.
Except he knew what a real hero was. They were forged and tested and proven on the battlefield. Under fire and in the face of death. He’d been privileged to serve with more than a few of them.
At a loss for what to say to her, he mumbled, “I can’t believe you jumped into the pool in that dress.”
“I never liked it anyway. I was happy to ruin it.”
“It’s not so bad. You look nice in it.”
She huffed. “Let’s just say it’s not me, okay?”
“How so?”
“It’s too…pink. Too frilly.”
“You’re not exactly an old lady.”
“I’m not a little girl, either.”
He grinned at her. “As a man, may I say—with gratitude—that’s an absolutely true statement.”
He thought he caught her cheeks reddening as she dived under and swam away from him. He knocked out a mile or so in laps while she mostly floated on her back and stayed out of his way, smiling up at the stars. He wondered as he pulled strongly through the water what put that dreamy expression on her face. It was the kind of look a guy would love to put on a woman’s face. The kind of look he’d love to put on her face.
High up above Las Vegas like this and isolated behind the thick glass panels that made up the walls of the courtyard, most of the city’s noise stayed well below. Of course, with his busted eardrum, he wasn’t hearing all that well anyway. At least not in his left ear. Only a faint ringing came from it right now. The doctor said the tinnitus ought to clear up and the hearing recover. Eventually. Maybe.
He ground his teeth together and swam harder. He hated words like eventually and maybe. He wanted to be in control of his life, dammit! It was hell waiting around like this to see if his ear healed up well enough for him to go back to his unit or not. If not…
He forced himself to finish the thought. If not, his career was over.
It was Silver who climbed out of the pool first, pale silk clinging revealingly to her body. He probably shouldn’t have looked, but he did. Had there been any question about her having a dancer’s body, fit and toned and sleek, that dress erased any doubts.
He tore his gaze away, climbed out of the pool and went inside to towel off and change into dry clothes. He grabbed a couple towels and his largest T-shirt and handed them to Silver, shivering in a chaise lounge by the pool.
She stared at the garment for a moment. “Aren’t we going back to my place to get some of my clothes?”
“Not a chance. Anyone who’s out to hurt you will have your apartment staked out.”
She sighed and took the sloppy T-shirt. “Can we at least go shopping tomorrow?”
“As long as we don’t go to any of your usual stores.”
She nodded, a fearful look back on her face. Damn. He said, “Why don’t you go take a hot shower? The blue tint to your lips does nothing for your coloring.”
Laughing, she disappeared into one of the guest bathrooms.
While she was showering, he ordered up a pot of hot chocolate. It arrived just as the blow-dryer in the bathroom cut off. Good timing.
In short order, he installed her on one of the matching leather couches in the living room with a cup of steaming cocoa. When she was settled in, her bare feet tucked beneath her and all but purring in contentment, he succumbed to envy of his T-shirt and how it rubbed intimately against her rosy body.
“So, Silver, why did your father hire me? Why does he think you’re in danger?”
She frowned. “According to you, someone shot at me today. Doesn’t that say it all?”
“Harold hired me before that. Why did he think you were in danger a week ago?”
Her normally expressive features shut down, taking on a stubborn cast. Before she could refuse to talk or, more likely, lie to him, he commented, “I’m as close to a priest or a lawyer as you can get without me actually being one. Nothing you say to me will go any farther than this room, I swear. But to do my job, I have to know what’s going on.”
She studied him for a long time, obviously weighing what to tell him. Finally, she said quietly, “You know my sister was murdered, right?”
“Affirmative. That’s not exactly breaking news since the story has been splashed all over the tabloids for weeks now.”
Silver nodded. “When it became obvious there’d been foul play, my father and the police initially tried to keep that out of the news. But that didn’t last long. And then the threats started—”
She broke off as if she’d said too much.
“What threats?” he asked quickly.
A sigh. Then, “The usual for rich, powerful men. Vague, anonymous threats. Some crazy guy claiming the Rothchilds wronged his family and vowing revenge.”
“Who’s investigating this threat?” Austin asked.
She shrugged. “Natalie knows about it. Problem is it could be practically anyone. Do you have any idea how many people my family has walked on or over to get to where it is today? Las Vegas doesn’t exactly have the most savory past…particularly the casino industry. Back in the day, it was a rough business.”
“What exactly is this person threatening to do?”
“To kill every member of my family one-by-one. He didn’t specify how. “
“Has anybody else been shot at or had any attempts made on their lives?”
“My sister, Natalie, was ambushed and nearly shot. But her attacker turned out to be her fiancé’s crazy aunt and not Candace’s killer.”
“Is this crazy aunt in police custody?”
“She’s undergoing psychiatric treatment in a facility right now. The police and her doctors say she’s not a danger to anyone anymore.”
Austin frowned. “Is today the first time you were shot at?”
“Shot at? Yes.”
“But…” he prompted.
She continued reluctantly, “But there’ve been a couple other incidents in the past few weeks. Nothing this serious, though. My car’s been sideswiped, and the brakes failed—but you knew that. My apartment was ransacked—”
Austin cut her off. “Anything taken?”
She shuddered over her hot chocolate. “Yes. Some of my sexiest underwear.”
A frisson of apprehension and possessive fury rippled down his spine. The would-be killer was a pervert, too? That was never a good combination. But it did help explain why Silver and her sister were the first targets. It also gave him a better idea of what kinds of attacks to expect. This assailant would try to isolate Silver. Terrorize her before he killed her. Maybe sexually assault her, which involved restraint and imprisonment. The guy would want her to suffer before she died. It also told Austin this guy was capable of long-term planning and complex organization. This was no garden-variety stalker.
“I’m afraid that until this guy is caught, you and I are going to be spending a whole lot of time together,” he said quietly.
Her eyes went wide, but he didn’t know how to interpret the expression. Hopefully, that was pleasure at the idea of being with him and not dismay.
A cell phone vibrating on the coffee table startled them both. Silver started to reach for it, but Austin said quickly, “I’ll get it.”
“It could be Mark.”
He replied grimly, “Then I’ll definitely get it.”
“No!” Silver retorted sharply. “You’d be rude to him!” She looked at the face of her phone, and the color drained from her face. As much as he wanted to snatch that phone away from her, he restrained himself. What in the hell did she see in that cretin, anyway?
“Hi, Mark. How are—”
&n
bsp; The guy had obviously cut her off. Austin heard shouting as she held the phone slightly away from her ear. His urge to grab the phone and tell the guy where to go grew even stronger.
When the jerk eventually paused for breath, Silver interjected hastily, “I’m so glad to know you’re all right. I was worried about you.”
That sent Austin’s eyebrows up. She hadn’t acted worried that he’d seen. She hadn’t even attempted to call the guy. If anything, she’d acted relieved not to have to deal with the bastard for a while.
She did sound sincere, though, when she said she’d been worried about Sampson. Although Austin couldn’t for the life of him figure out why. She must just be a soft touch when it came to undeserving sons of bitches. No wonder she was throwing out interested vibes in his direction, then.
And what was up with that if she was so involved with this Sampson character? Something was definitely off in this relationship of hers. Did she actually perceive him like Sampson? A down on his luck bastard in need of being thrown a bone in the love department? It tasted bitter in his mouth to think that she might actually include him in the same class of man as Mark Sampson.
More screaming emanated from her cell phone before she managed to interject, “How about tomorrow morning? Saul’s giving me a tour of the Grand Theater stage at ten—”
That was as far as she got, because Austin snatched the phone out of her hands. Unceremoniously, he cut off the call without a single word of explanation.
“What did you go and do that for?” she exclaimed. “Now he’ll be really mad!”
He growled back at her, “What part of no one is to know where you are didn’t you get?”
“He’s my bodyguard, for goodness’ sake—”
“He’s not fit to guard a smelly Dumpster full of week-old trash,” Austin snapped. “I’m your bodyguard, now. I’m responsible for your life, and you’ll follow my instructions and no one else’s from here on out. Got it?”
That earned a glare out of her. Ignoring her, he powered down her phone, which gave a trilling note of warning and went black.