by Tee O'Fallon
Green eyes as dark and furious as she’d ever seen them glared at Crystal. His lips pressed together tightly. The only part of his body moving at all was his jaw as it repeatedly clenched and unclenched.
“Dayne?” She extricated her arm from Crystal’s claws and went to him. “What on earth is she talking about?”
The room went absolutely silent. Even the orchestra stopped playing, which was just as well since everyone on the dance floor had stopped dancing to witness the unfolding drama.
“Why ask me? I’m only a dirty little street urchin.” Undisguised challenge lit his eyes, and the anger radiating off his body was hotter than a furnace.
“Crystal?” She turned to the other woman. “Let’s go and discuss whatever this is about in private.”
Ignoring the suggestion, Crystal crossed her arms, plumping up her barely concealed breasts. “This man stole a valuable family heirloom from me. You should toss him out on his ass. Better yet, call the police.” Two security officers materialized from the shadows. Large, hulking brutes, although Dayne could probably flatten them with one hand tied behind his back.
Slowly, she turned to face Dayne. This had to be a mistake.
His voice was low and controlled. “It’s your party.”
He’s testing me, but why?
Clearly, something had transpired between Dayne and Crystal. Knowing Dayne, she couldn’t imagine him having anything to do with someone like her.
Lily’s words came back to her in a flash: You, brother dear would probably still be in jail. The story he didn’t want told.
Kat fisted her hands. Something deep inside her brain snapped as loudly as a dry twig. Crystal is lying. The truth of it flared as brightly as the chandelier over their heads.
This was her party, and she wasn’t about to let the likes of Crystal Lockwood ruin it, and she certainly wasn’t about to let that creature dishonor a man she’d come to respect and admire as much as her own father. She stalked toward Crystal, her breasts heaving as she reined in the urge to do what she really wanted. Slap the woman’s face. Kat had never liked her. No one did. Only her father’s wealth and notoriety had protected her all these years. In reality, Crystal was the lowlife, and it was high time someone told her so.
Protocol be damned.
“This man”—she pointed to Dayne—“has more honor in a single hair on his head than you have in your entire body.” Her voice shook but she was on a roll. Not even the shocked look on everyone’s faces deterred her in the slightest. Not even Colin’s. “Everyone knows you’re nothing but a sniveling, lying, spoiled brat who’ll do anything to get attention.”
Crystal’s jaw dropped.
A few snickers floated around the room, followed by Penny’s voice. “You tell her,” then Elaina’s. “It’s about time someone told that bitch off.”
From the corner of her eye, Kat noticed a few cell phones held high to capture the moment. Her mother would be appalled, but it was too late to stop this train from speeding down the track.
“Well, I never!” Crystal parked her hands on her hips, and in doing so, one of her distended nipples popped out from the edge of her dress.
Kat smiled sweetly. “Well now you have.” Most of the guests who’d been standing near Crystal had wisely stepped away.
“Kat,” Dayne warned. “You don’t have to do this.”
“No, I really do. Pardon me,” she said to a nearby guest, “may I borrow this?” She reached for their champagne flute and tossed the contents in Crystal’s face.
The other woman’s head dipped, taking in the pale-gold liquid dripping down her cleavage, darkening the edges of her dress. “How dare you!” she sputtered then lunged for Kat, screaming, “Why you—”
Dayne’s arm shot out. He flattened his palm dead center in Crystal’s chest, shoving her back. Only the guests standing directly behind her prevented Crystal from falling off her four-inch stilettos.
Cell phone flashes popped in her peripheral vision. Sorry, Mother. This was bound to make the front page of several high-profile newspapers.
Colin shoved through the crowd. “Katrina, have you lost your mind?”
“Actually, I’m only just regaining it.” And it felt darned good.
Dayne had insinuated himself between her and Crystal, who’d begun readjusting her breasts and practically begging for support from those around her. To no avail, Kat was gratified to see.
His eyes danced with amusement and his lips quirked. He canted his head to Crystal. “What do you want me to do with her?”
“Nothing.” She grinned. “This time, I’ve got this.” Her grin spread as he flashed her a brilliant white smile. She raised her arm and snapped her fingers. The two security officers rushed in.
“Please escort this…woman from the premises. Put her in whatever conveyance she arrived in—cab, Uber, bicycle, broomstick—and be sure to put it on my tab.”
“Yes, ma’am,” one of the guards answered, then both men grabbed Crystal’s upper arms and dragged her backward to the elevators.
More cell phones flashed. Half the room applauded and cheered. Kat ignored them all, preferring instead to bask in the glow of Dayne’s warm gaze and brilliant smile.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Holy hellfire.
When Katrina Vandenburg stepped outside her comfort zone, she really stepped outside. More like, leaped a thousand miles beyond the perimeter.
He wanted to applaud and cheer. To beat his chest with his fists and roar. He was too stunned to do a thing but watch as the look of exhilaration diminished in her eyes. She was realizing what she’d done. For me.
The hell of it was, he’d never been more turned on in his life. It was better than any aphrodisiac. Kissing her in front of everyone was tempting, but there was only so much decorum a girl could ditch in one night.
“Buy you a drink?” Without waiting for a response, he signaled to a waiter. She definitely needed a drink. A good stiff one.
She nodded. “Thanks, sailor.”
“Scotch for the lady,” he said to the waiter. “Make it that fifty-year-old QE2 coronation Chivas.”
“Right away, sir.” The waiter disappeared.
“Oh boy.” She took a deep breath as the hired photographers aimed their cameras at them.
“Yeah. Oh boy.” He couldn’t stop grinning.
His friends always had his back. They’d do anything for him. No one had ever done something like this for him. This would make the headlines of every paper in the city. She had to know that, and she’d done it anyway. One of the richest women in the country—if not the world—had stuck up for him. Without any explanation. Pride didn’t begin to describe it. Pride for her and for the incredible woman she was. Her faith in him nearly sent him to his knees.
The gossip around them grew louder, and he had to lean in to be heard. “Thank you for defending my honor,” he said against her ear.
“Someone had to.”
He held back a laugh. “I’ve never had a woman do that before.” That was the truth.
The waiter arrived with her glass of Chivas. She downed half of it, then handed him the glass. He downed the rest, setting the glass on another passing waiter’s tray.
“Better?” he asked. A very pretty blush tinged her pale cheeks.
“Much.” She took a fortifying breath. “I would very much like to dance with you, but first, protocol dictates I say something.”
“Protocol, hmm.” He massaged his chin with his thumb and forefinger, struggling hard not to, again, grin like a total idiot.
“Excuse me for a moment.” She winked then turned to address the crowd. “Ladies and gentlemen, please forgive the interruption. My behavior was inexcusable.”
“No, dear. Hers was,” Betty Graham interrupted. “You only did what every last one of us has wanted to do for years. So here’s
to you.” Betty raised her glass, as did everyone else with a champagne flute, wineglass, or tumbler.
More people applauded. More cameras flashed.
Dayne held out his hand to whisk her away to the dance floor before her adrenaline wore off. The moment her slim fingers contacted with his palm, electricity shot to every cell in his body, sending all kinds of inappropriate thoughts to his brain.
Amethyst eyes sparkled. Eyes he could stare into all night. Which was the stupidest thing he could possibly do. If dancing was the only way he could hold her in his arms again, he’d take that and live for the moment.
The orchestra had begun playing again. He didn’t know what kind of music it was and didn’t care. Dancing had never been his forte. Tonight, he’d wing it.
“Kat!” Colin blocked their path. “You need to apologize to Crystal.”
“Not a chance in hell.” Still holding Dayne’s hand, she pushed past Colin.
Over his shoulder, Dayne watched the man’s eyes narrow to slits. He couldn’t help what he did next and shot the asshole a sly grin that said it all. She’s mine. For tonight, anyway.
When they reached the center of the dance floor, she placed her hand on his shoulder. He tucked her against him and rested his other hand at the small of her back—her very sexy, very bare back. He trailed his fingers lower, to the slight curve of her buttocks. Her body trembled, and her lips parted.
Man, I’m in trouble here.
He swung her into a slow, easy waltz. Thank you, Mrs. Evans. The teacher who’d taught all the teenage boys in his class how to dance right before senior prom.
“To coin a cliché,” Kat said, “you dance divinely.”
“Liar.” He nuzzled his chin against the silky curls artfully arranged atop her head and breathed in her scent. “I dance adequately, and you know it.”
She laughed, a sound that went straight to his groin. One little laugh and the instinct to kiss her turned into a full-blown, flat-out craving. When she pressed her head to his chest, he thought he’d die and go straight to Heaven, bypassing the stairway to Hell where, as a teenager, he always assumed he’d wind up.
Being near her always left him supercharged. Leonardo DiCaprio had nothin’ on him. Tonight, he was king of the world.
They danced in silence and in perfect rhythm, as if they’d always been meant to do this. Three songs went by before the need to have the answer to his burning question got the better of him. “Why?” he said huskily in her ear.
She lifted her head from his chest. “Why, what?”
“Why did you do that? You must have broken every rule of decorum and protocol in the book.”
“It needed to be done,” she said simply, but there had to be more to it.
With two fingers, he tipped up her chin. “And?”
“And”—she locked eyes with his—“I meant every word I said. You are more honorable and courageous than anyone else in this room.”
His heart beat faster. He’d thought he was in deep trouble before, but now… I’m in deep-as-a-diamond-mine kind of trouble.
Now he understood what the more was. When he’d signed on for this bodyguard gig, he never expected to fall for her. Katrina Vandenburg. Who’d have figured? She was turning out to be the most wonderful woman he could possibly imagine.
“Don’t you want to ask me something?” He still couldn’t believe she hadn’t pumped him for information. Then again, hadn’t she shown him many times over that she was anything but what he’d pegged her for?
Her glossy pink lips twitched. “No.”
He snorted. “Liar.”
She gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Of course I want to know. But it doesn’t matter to me. Whatever happened between you and Crystal Lockwood is your business. I figured if, and when, you wanted to tell me, you would. If not, I don’t need to know.”
He stared into her eyes, searching for insincerity, knowing there wasn’t an insincere bone in her body. She was telling the absolute truth. Kat trusted him. Completely and unconditionally. That only made him want to tell her everything.
He maneuvered them to the edge of the dance floor where there were fewer couples. What he was about to say was for her ears, and hers only.
“When I was eighteen, Crystal’s Lamborghini broke down outside my parents’ hardware store. She’d gotten lost and wound up in Newark, of all places. I fixed her car and after that, she started coming around the store. Not because she cared. Because she wanted me on her arm and in her bed.”
He waited for Kat to ask the next obvious question. When she didn’t, he answered it for her.
“I never had anything to do with her, but I couldn’t stop her from hanging around the shop. She was a walking, talking ad for poison control. Toxic didn’t begin to describe her, and I did everything possible to avoid her.”
Kat frowned. “Knowing Crystal, she didn’t like that.”
“Nope.” His gut tightened. “The next thing I knew, Newark detectives showed up to arrest me. Crystal had filed a police report saying I stole her diamond tennis bracelet, an heirloom her grandmother had given her on her eighteenth birthday. She came from a wealthy family. I came from the streets.”
Kat’s frown deepened. “So the police took her word against yours.”
“They did. At first, anyway. I was about to be sentenced in criminal court. Lucky for me, the lead detective on the case was a crafty old sonofabitch and figured out Crystal’s game. Turned out she’d sold the bracelet to feed her cocaine habit. When her parents asked what happened to the bracelet, she needed a scapegoat. Me.”
“I take it you didn’t go to jail.”
“No. The detective threatened to arrest Crystal for filing a false police report if she didn’t admit to her lies. Eventually, she came clean. I figure she was humiliated by the police then incurred the wrath of her family for losing granny’s diamonds. The worst part was that my parents almost lost their store.”
“Why?”
“Lawyers. We went through three because they all thought I was a lost cause, and no lawyer wants a reputation for losing cases. They only stuck around long enough to suck my parents’ bank account dry. My folks had difficulty stocking their shelves and their reputation was dragged through the mud by what happened.”
“That’s awful.” Anger flashed in Kat’s eyes. “Your parents almost lost their livelihood and you almost went to jail for a crime you didn’t commit.”
The tug on Dayne’s heart was totally unfamiliar to him. “Don’t be angry for us. The store survived, and during all the legal proceedings I got hooked on law enforcement. That’s what led me down the rosy path to Quantico.”
“Are you saying I should forgive Crystal for what she did to you and your family?” Her look turned skeptical. “I think that ship has sailed.”
“I agree.” He nodded solemnly. “How do you feel about everything that happened tonight?”
“Honestly?” She let out a tiny huff. “Exhilarated. And guilty. My mother would have been shocked at my behavior.” She giggled, an altogether feminine sound. “Perhaps it was time someone put Crystal in her place, but she really was only crying for attention.”
“Maybe.” Then again, her cry to the police had nearly stolen his freedom. Sympathy from him would be a long time coming, if ever. “You’re kind for saying that.” One of the kindest people he knew. He winked. “Your mother would be pleased.”
“I hope so.” The sadness in her eyes told him how much she missed having her parents in her life.
The stalwart determination not to let anything more happen between them was in dire jeopardy of being blown to hell. Because dancing with her only worsened the growing ache in his heart and his head. Because holding Kat in his arms this way…
Would never be enough.
…
Kat stood near the ballroom doors, saying goodbye to
her guests. From his tactical position twenty feet away, she noted Dayne alternating his focus between his conversation with Charlie Worthington and Max Rocher, and her.
She shook a few hands, said a few words, occasionally glancing at Dayne and trying not to relive every moment of dancing in his arms.
The warmth of his hard body against hers. His fingers skimming her bare back, scorching her skin and reminding her of things she shouldn’t think about. She’d wanted to press her lips to his strong neck then lick and suck on his skin, tasting him like a yummy dessert.
Betty Graham landed a quick kiss on her cheek, knocking her out of her stupor. “Thank you for a most entertaining evening.”
“It will be difficult to top this one.” Senator Graham dropped a kindly peck on her other cheek.
“I’ll do my best. Hopefully, with a little more decorum next time.”
“Nonsense.” Betty waved her hand in her typically dismissive gesture. “You were perfect as always.”
Just thinking about tomorrow’s society page headlines made her nauseous.
Charity Ball or Cat Fight?
Billionairess Gone Wild!
She pressed a hand to her forehead. Her mother would have a fit, but it was far too late to take anything back now.
After a few more guests departed, she yawned and made her way through the thinning crowd to Dayne. Seeing her approach, he said something to the other men and headed toward her.
“Are you ready to blow this joint?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He grinned.
They collected her wrap then headed to the elevators. Several other couples joined them. Dayne stood on the opposite side of the elevator, watching her intensely, as if he wanted to eat her up.
I wish.
The doors opened, and they made their way to the exit. Dayne stepped outside and signaled to her driver. The white limo pulled up to the stairs. Seemingly satisfied there were no threats, he motioned for her to join him.