Close Contact

by Lori Foster

  Would he leave her?

  Yes, she already knew he would. Small-town life was not for him...no matter how much he seemed to enjoy it.

  “It would be fascinating, don’t you think?”

  Catalina leaned forward to confide, “Unfortunately, not all fighters look as hot as our guys.”

  “Some are more average-looking,” Fallon agreed. “Not that they aren’t dedicated, because I think they are.”

  “They just don’t have the necessary genes to rock the ripped bod.” Catalina bobbed her eyebrows.

  Laughing at her expression, Maxi glanced toward the men and... Oh good Lord.

  Her stare drew the attention of the others.

  “If it wasn’t for the boys,” Sahara murmured, “I could take a photo and use that to hard sell the agency.”

  “What woman wouldn’t want to hire one of them?” Fallon asked.

  Catalina groused, “I, for one, prefer that men hire Leese.”

  Sahara lifted her tea glass in a toast. “And yet he’s so popular with my female clients.” Before Catalina could say anything to that, she added, “Not that he’s veered from business since he met you.”

  “Still,” Catalina grumbled.

  Fallon teased her, saying, “You, better than most, know how good he is at protecting a woman.”

  “There’s protecting, and then there’s protecting.”

  Fallon grinned. “Amen to that.”

  Maxi had already learned a little about Leese and Catalina’s romance. It had been strictly taboo, of course, not that rules had dissuaded Catalina. She’d wanted Leese, so she’d gone after him.

  Maxi couldn’t blame her for pushing. Her situation had been so dire that it made sense to grab any happiness she could. In the process of dodging evil, they’d fallen in love.

  Fallon, however, had let Justice do the chasing—and he had, up to and including quitting as her bodyguard while still insisting he’d protect her. He’d figured if the client/bodyguard dynamic made a romance unacceptable, he’d stop being a bodyguard. Luckily it had worked out in the end so that he got to keep the job and the woman.

  Maxi hadn’t understood it at the time, but she recalled now the exchange in Sahara’s office, when Miles had wanted Sahara to understand up front that they shared an “intimate history.”

  Sahara, no dummy, had stated that she knew their situation was unique and assured him he didn’t need to explain further.

  So from the beginning, Miles had wanted more than a business relationship with her...and his boss had agreed.

  It should have embarrassed her, but instead it gave her hope. Miles might never want to live with her, but that didn’t mean things would have to end completely once the assignment was over.

  They could...what? Date? She’d take whatever she could get.

  Glancing toward where the men worked, she heard laughter mixed with the sounds of a pickax hitting the ground and rocks tossed aside. Sunlight glistened on Miles’s shoulders and reflected off his dark hair. She saw him say something to one of the boys, point down the line of posts and laugh at whatever the boy said. Miles gave him a pat on the back and sent him on his way with a shovel.

  Such an amazing, gorgeous, capable, caring man.

  Love was an elusive thing, she knew, there and gone before you could fully appreciate it. She was twice burned and that made her extra cautious. Yet...she had to admit, Miles was unlike any other man she’d known.

  “Funny, isn’t it?” Fallon, too, watched the men. “They have all those muscles and enjoy using them but act as if it’s no big deal.”

  “They take their strength for granted,” Catalina said with a sigh.

  “And use it to advantage.” Fallon smiled. “There’s something very sexy about a strong but gentle and protective guy.”

  Oh, yes, very sexy...and maybe that was what had first drawn her to Miles. She’d gone into that bar looking for a distraction, and the second she’d spotted him, he’d been so casual, smiling back at her as if he didn’t realize he was better-looking, taller, more ripped than other men. He’d been relaxed, interested, and that crooked smile...

  “I plan to live here until, like my grandma, I pass away.” Since no one else knew her thoughts, Maxi realized her comment came entirely out of context.

  Sahara blinked at her. “Well, of course you’ll stay here. It’s not only beautiful, but peaceful, too. Or at least it will be once the threat is resolved. Plus, it’s obvious that you loved your grandmother.” She toyed with her glass, touching one fingertip through the condensation left on the table. “When I inherited the agency, it was like a lifeline, a way to remain attached to Scott even after he’d gone. This is your lifeline to your grandmother.”

  The fact that Sahara got it was both comforting and incredibly sad. “I’m so sorry for your loss.”

  “That’s the thing,” Sahara said. “I’m not convinced that he’s gone. I think I’d know. I’d feel it. But in my heart, I believe Scott is still alive.” Her mouth twisted in a crooked smile. “I can’t say that to the men. I don’t want their pity, and I won’t allow them to think I’m suffering some fanciful female emotion.” With a shrug, she added, “I know what I know.”

  “And you know Scott is still alive?” Maxi asked.

  “Instincts are an amazing thing.” She gestured toward the pasture where muscle flexed and power worked. “They’d all back me up on that. Instincts are the number one quality for a bodyguard, but they refuse to equate instinct with emotion. I, however, think the two are closely related.”

  “That makes sense to me.” Fallon brushed back her inky dark hair. “Caring for someone would hone that instinct, right? So emotions enhance instinct.”

  “Exactly!”

  Cat propped her chin on her fist. “It amazes me that you took over the agency without a hitch, especially considering what you were going through.”

  “It was a good fit,” Sahara said. “Scott was sixteen years older than me. Often when our parents traveled the world, he let me stay behind with him. I loved being at the agency, listening in on all the shoptalk, hearing the different cases and learning about the various contacts. He let me observe and learn and...it was wonderful.”

  Maxi slowly nodded. “It sounds wonderful.”

  Sahara’s usual shark smile softened with the memories. “He’s alive.” She pressed a fist to her chest, near her heart. “I’d know it if he was gone.”

  After giving her a long look, Maxi said, “I believe you.”

  Catalina nodded. “Me, too.”

  “And me,” Fallon said.

  That was when it really hit Maxi. When she lost Miles, she’d be losing these people, too, and God help her, she didn’t want to let any of them go.

  * * *

  SHIRTLESS, SWEAT DRIPPING from his temples, Brand held a deeply embedded post in place while Miles tamped down the dirt around it. He could tell something was bothering Brand, but he didn’t know what. Farther down the fence line, evenly spaced, the men worked in twos placing in the posts.

  He heard a soft laugh and looked up to see the women wandering out of the barn, a trail of cats following them. He liked seeing Maxi so happy and carefree.

  He liked it that she fit in. Hell, even Sahara, who was her polar opposite, was drawn to her.

  That reminded him... “How is it you became Sahara’s ride?”

  Brand shrugged. “She’s always coming to me for the odd favor. Maybe because she’s not my boss, she’s more comfortable with me.”

  More likely, she was hitting on Brand and he was being deliberately obtuse about it. “She looked like she’d been crying.”

  Brand drew a wrist across his forehead. “She was. Not real obvious-like or anything. I can’t imagine her really cutting loose sobbing or anything.”

 
No, Miles couldn’t imagine that either.

  “But the tears were there, sort of hanging on her lashes.” Brand shook his head. “She keeps building up her hopes that her brother isn’t dead.”

  Thoughts aching in tandem with his shoulders, Miles straightened to stretch. “Doesn’t matter what evidence they found. Without a body, she won’t believe it.”

  “Must suck bad to lose someone like that.”

  The maudlin way Brand spoke sharpened Miles’s attention. “They were close.” He swiped up a water bottle and chugged down half while studying his friend. Brand had always been a little more distant than the rest of them. Not unfriendly, but not quite as open. If you needed him, he was there. Today was evidence of that. But he didn’t intrude, and he didn’t invite intrusion either.

  Miles glanced to where Cannon and Armie worked, then to Denver and Stack. Justice chose the job of digging a trench between the posts where the fence would fit into the ground to keep the goats from going under it. Lee helped with that. Billy and Hull took turns pushing the wheelbarrow to the far side of the pond to empty it. The ground there could use some leveling, so it’d work out.

  Goats. Miles shook his head, still having a hard time bending his brain around that one. Maxi had truly set down roots here, and he understood why. Somewhere deep inside himself, he envied her. She’d inherited the type of place that instantly felt more like home than most houses could after a decade.

  Maybe it was the fresh air, or the camaraderie with his friends. Or maybe it was the unending turmoil over Maxi, but Miles heard himself confessing, “I didn’t have a choice but to leave MMA.”

  Brand glanced up, his gaze penetrating.

  Like Maxi, Brand had brown eyes, but that was where the similarities ended. Maxi’s eyes were velvety soft, like melted chocolate. Sometimes nervous, sometimes content. Always a focal point in her face.

  Brand’s were darker, almost black. Often cynical, and currently filled with sharp surprise. It was an uncommon expression for Brand, one that almost made Miles laugh.

  “What do you mean, you didn’t have a choice?”

  It was the first time Miles had brought it up, but now seemed like a good time to talk about it.

  Tapping his head, Miles explained, “One too many concussions. The doctors said I was playing with fire.”

  “Damn, man, I didn’t realize. Hell, I didn’t even know you’d been concussed.”

  He smirked. “Right. What fighter hasn’t?”

  “Yeah, but usually it’s not a big deal.”

  No, it was always a big deal, apparently. Fighters just chose to think otherwise. “I was private about it.” As if it made sense when he knew it didn’t, Miles said, “I wanted to keep fighting.”

  Dropping down to sit, wrists draped over his knees, Brand stared thoughtfully toward the pond. “You’re okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” He sat, too. “But it took me a while to get used to the idea of giving up MMA. I had plans, you know?”

  Brand nodded in understanding. “The title.”

  “Right.” He hesitated, but why not? So he asked, “You?”

  Brand picked a weed, briefly examined it, then crushed it in his fist and tossed it aside. “What fighter doesn’t have that plan?”

  Shrugging one shoulder, Miles said, “Apparently Leese and Justice.”

  “True.” Brand fought a smile. “I always admired Leese for recognizing his limitations.”

  “And for refusing to be second best. He’s a hell of a fighter...”

  “But not championship material,” Brand said. “It was never going to happen and he accepted that.”

  “This job suits him better.” Miles didn’t mind admitting, “I might’ve been a better fighter, but Leese is a better bodyguard. More analytical. He’s in his element.”

  Brand thought about that, then asked, “You like it?”

  “I do.” Miles had to laugh. “What I’ve seen of it, anyway. I’d only had a handful of assignments before Maxi hired me. The others sure as hell weren’t like this.”

  “Dull in comparison?”

  “Definitely.” And they hadn’t had the side benefits of amazing sex.

  “Seems like you two are all cozy here.”

  “Something like that—at least most of the time.” He updated Brand on everything that had happened so far with Maxi, even about her being drugged. Yes, it was a breach of her privacy, but she’d accepted Leese and Justice knowing, so what was one more perspective. He’d take all the help and input he could get.

  Even now, he kept scanning the outlying areas and wondering if someone was there, spying on them, on her.

  “It’s been one giant puzzle, and it pisses me off every time I think of it. But unless I can catch the prick, there’s not much else I can do except keep her safe.”

  They again heard laughter and looked up to see the women coming toward them with canned drinks in hand.

  Brand studied them. “Maxi doesn’t act like a woman who’s been through all that.”

  “She gets shook sometimes, but she’s so damned determined, and so strong, it’s unreal.” He thought about that, then had to add, “Strong, but also really sweet. And...comfortable. To be around, I mean.” He shook his head at that rambling nonsense.

  “She’s sexy, too.”

  “Yeah, there’s that.”

  Brand grinned. “I knew you were serious about her. Hell, we all did.”

  It sucked to have to say it out loud, but he’d already gotten far into it, so... “I’m as serious as she’ll let me be.”

  “Bullshit. If you want her, she’s yours.”

  If only that were true. “She’d already ditched me once before stuff went off the rails here. If it hadn’t, I probably would have never heard from her again. I only did because she wanted to hire a bodyguard and already knew and trusted me.” That required more explanations, so Miles shared the details. It was humiliating to admit he hadn’t known how to get hold of her. “Hell, she’s still resisting, but I’m working on her.”

  “Trust is a good start.”

  He nodded. The sex was smokin’ hot, too, but Miles kept that gem to himself.

  Brand said, “Not that I think you need it given how she looks at you, but good luck.”

  How did Maxi look at him? He glanced at her again. Still a good distance away, they’d stopped to talk to a couple of cats following them.

  Deciding it was time for a different topic, Miles said, “I think you’re wrong about Sahara. I think she singles you out for another reason.”

  “True, but it’s not what all of you are thinking.”

  Miles lifted a brow, waiting. It took a little getting used to, the idea of his hard-nosed, controlling, business-savvy boss going sweet on one of his friends. But hey, he wasn’t one to judge.

  Brand shook his head. “You can stop thinking that right now. Sahara might act interested in me personally, but that’s because I don’t work for her. She likes it that she’s not my boss and can’t tell me what to do.”

  Skeptical, Miles lifted a brow. “You think she actually likes that? I’m pretty sure she enjoys being the boss—always.”

  “Not with me.” He plucked at another weed. “She leans on me a lot, too, but I know that’s just her latest shtick to rope me in.”

  “You think?”

  “Sure. She’s not a woman who takes ‘no’ lightly, so I can see her doing just about anything to get her way. And truthfully, she just might.”

  Miles gave him a look. “Are we talking sex, or you as a bodyguard?”

  Brand snorted and, ignoring the comment about sex, said, “I have to leave MMA.”

  Have to?

  One minute remained, maybe less, before the women reached them. Miles wasn’t sure what to say, so he pull
ed off his sunglasses and asked, “Anything I can do?”

  “No.” Brand got back to his feet. Hands on his hips, he stared out at the land, his shoulders taut, his jaw locked. Right before they lost the privacy, he said quietly, “My mother had a heart attack and it’s...bad. I don’t want to go into it, not now anyway, but I can’t see me leaving the country to fight anytime soon.”

  Miles’s throat went tight. “Jesus, Brand. I’m sorry—”

  “Don’t.” He shook his head. “I feel enough like a prick.”

  That didn’t make any sense. “Why?”

  “We weren’t close. Ever. My aunt raised me like her own after my mother bailed. She only came back into my life because she needs me and I fucking well resent it.”

  Because he seriously had no clue how to respond to that, Miles was almost grateful for the lack of privacy. Yeah, he’d known Brand wasn’t close with either parent, but he’d never realized...

  It struck him that Maxi had come back into his life only because she needed it, but the two scenarios were light-years away from each other. To have his mother do that, and be gone throughout his entire life, would bring resentment to anyone.

  “I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Brand said. “You already have your hands full.”

  “Wrong. I’d be happy to talk about it with you, you know that. Maybe when we have more time?”

  “Maybe.” Brand picked up a rock and, taking a pitcher’s stance, zipped it through the air toward the pond. He missed it by only a few feet. In contrast to the heavy news he’d just unloaded, he said, “This was nice today. I like it here.”

  “Come back anytime.”

  “Yeah, I just might.”

  The ladies reached them then. They were a funny mix, with Maxi wearing that boner-inspiring halter that cradled her breasts, Fallon and Catalina in casual shorts and T-shirts, and Sahara still soft and fresh, despite the heat, in her summery dress.

  Different, yet each of them was special in her own way.

  Maxi edged closer. “I’d hug you,” she said, “if you weren’t covered in sweat.”

  That was just the sort of nonsense he needed to hear to shake off his dark mood. Grinning, Miles warned, “A little sweat won’t hurt you,” and he reached for her.