4

Four

A COLD SHOWER DIDN’T HELP. Pacing the floor didn’t help. Changing from the sexy underwear to her normal loose cotton pants and overly large T-shirt didn’t help. And listening to Chet Dyson pack, and watching him load his car, sure as hell hadn’t helped.

Because she couldn’t forget one man, a breath of air, and a fear unlike anything she had ever known in her life.

She was more aroused than she could ever remember being. All she could remember was the feel of warm breath between her thighs a millisecond before pleasure pierced her clit and sent vibrations of ecstasy racing through her body.

The Pudgy Prude, as one of her boyfriends once dubbed her, wasn’t entirely without sexual desire. She masturbated, she thought fiercely. She knew how to get off, she knew how to want to be touched, how to imagine being touched, she knew how to touch herself. She just hadn’t particularly cared if any of the men she actually knew got close enough to touch her. But she had always been smart enough to maintain a distance between herself and the type of man that she knew would completely run her over.

Men like her father. Strong, determined, dominant men who enforced their control, supposedly for a woman’s own good. Daughter or wife. For their own peace of mind, such men made certain that the women they loved were smothered beyond hope.

The exact type of man that turned her on the most. Especially the type whose glance assured a woman that he had the soul of a bad boy. A man who could turn the bedroom into an adventure. Men like Kell Krieger and the stranger in the strip joint.

Why was she thinking about Krieger now? It had been so many years since she had seen him that she wondered if she would even recognize him now. She knew her father met with him fairly often and still counted him as a friend. But Kell was the one man her father had never suggested as one of her bodyguards.

Of course, Kell hadn’t been like other men. She had no doubt in her mind he might be more adventurous to a woman than her father deemed necessary.

Unfortunately, Emily craved adventure. And not just in the bedroom. But outside of it. She craved a challenge and she hungered to live. If a man couldn’t provide both, then what good was he?

The men her father sent as potential candidates, aka bodyguards, had never really tempted her. They whined too much. They were too scared of her father to even suggest a little fun, and all they wanted to do was call and ask his permission for the least little bit of adventure.

She rolled her eyes at the thought of it. Sometimes, she wondered if what she craved even existed. A man who was strong inside and out. A man who knew the world wasn’t fair, and knew he had to take responsibility for his part in it. A man who knew there was more to sex than simply the act and that there was more to a woman than breasts and thighs and what lay beyond. A man who accepted the fact that a woman might need adventure as well.

That was what she craved. A man she could trust enough not just to give in to her desires with, but to accept her need to live. A man who, even if he wasn’t there forever, was at least there long enough to care about fulfilling not just the physical desires, but the adventurous ones as well.

Until now, whenever she thought of the perfect lover, Kell’s face had always filled her imagination when she fantasized. Now, a stranger had taken his place.

She was definitely fantasizing now. Much to her own dissatisfaction, because masturbation hadn’t helped. She had tried that the moment she was naked. Despite the orgasm that had rippled through her at the club, her body was still simmering with need when she returned home. Unfamiliar, desperate need.

She knew how to hurt for sex now; unfortunately, Emily knew she was doomed to disappointment. There wasn’t a chance in hell the object of her lust could be allowed into her life. She doubted he would even want to be.

Men like that did not “do” chubby little schoolteachers with no intentions of entering the darker side of life.

Emily didn’t do drugs and had no intentions of trying them. She wasn’t a part of the criminal element, as he surely was, and she had no desire to dance on the fringes of it by becoming involved with someone like that. The need for adventure only went so far.

Now, if she could just convince her body of that, because it wasn’t listening very well. It was definitely interested, even now, hours later.

She paced her living room, following the path of the thick throw rugs that lay between the overstuffed furniture and heavy walnut coffee table. The evening sun glinted off the hardwood floor, and sent warmth blazing through the room as Atlanta’s heat shimmered beyond the patio doors.

Outside, her small courtyard, which was surrounded by a heavy brick wall, looked cool and inviting, but not as peaceful as it had once been. The shade of the ornamental trees and the blooms of summer’s splendor couldn’t quench the lust that filled her. Finally. She couldn’t shake her reaction to today’s events, no more than she could shake her arousal.

For as long as she could remember, her ultimate fantasy image had been the leather-wearing, motorcycle-riding bad boy. That was her weakness. When she was in high school she had watched them from afar, lusted, dreamed of them, but she had known them too well to ever be drawn in by them.

But today, she had almost succumbed.

She twisted her fingers together as she paused at the sliding glass doors that led to the courtyard and frowned at her own blurred image there.

She wasn’t really pretty. She was sort of plain and not the type of girl that the bad boys had ever noticed. Which had suited her fine until now. With her shoulder-length auburn hair, plain blue eyes, and less than slender build, she didn’t exactly draw men to her. There were too many women much prettier than she, and much more exotic. Women who knew their own sexuality and how to please a man. Women who didn’t freak out when a man blew on the sensitive flesh between their thighs.

She had come for a stranger.

When his face had flushed and the heavy lust in his expression had hit her, a second before his breath had rushed over her sex, she had known she had made a horrible mistake. She should have never risked herself that way, her identity, her safety, her father’s reputation.

Her own peace of mind.

She dropped her head against the cool glass of the door, her lips tipping into a grimace of regret. It would have been nice. To touch that hard body, to feel his muscles tensing beneath her fingertips, to feel his hands sliding over her.

He had smelled so clean, so masculine. There hadn’t been a scent of drunkenness or sloth, just clean male. No heavy aftershave or cologne. Just hard, primal male. The type of male that never gave women like her a second look.

It was the lace underwear, the sexy dance, the overwhelmingly sexual nature of the atmosphere that had surrounded him. He hadn’t really been aroused by mousy, pudgy, quiet Emily Stanton. And it was better that way, wasn’t it?

The harsh ringing of her cell phone interrupted her thoughts. Turning to the bar that separated the kitchen from the living room, Emily snatched up the phone, checked the caller ID and answered it quickly, knowing what was coming.

“Hi, Daddy.” She pushed the thought of bad boys to the back of her mind for the man who had cared for her, cherished her. And fought to restrain her.

“Emily, how are you doing, sweetheart?” Affection filled her father’s voice as it came over the line. “Are you busy?”

“Not hardly,” she answered, pushing back her regret that she wasn’t. Hell, it was Friday, she should have a date at least.

“Can you make time for your old man then?” His voice was too serious; the normal good humor and gentle teasing were absent.

Emily frowned. “Are you going to yell at me?”

She hated it when he succumbed to frustration and actually yelled at her. Not that it happened often, but it had happened enough times for her to dread it.

“No yelling,” he promised quietly. “I’m about five minutes from the house. I’m bringing some friends with me. I’ll see you then.”

Friends. That meant bodyguards and more than the one that normally traveled with him.

Emily breathed in carefully. “Are you okay, Daddy?”

“I’m fine, sweetheart.” But her heart clenched at the gentling of his voice. “Just be watching for us. We’ll be there soon.”

Emily disconnected the phone seconds later, staring down at it with a frown as she bit at her lower lip. Thoughts of bad boys and arousal dissipated as worry began to fill her. Her father was worried, worried enough that he wasn’t hiding it from her.

Something was wrong, very wrong.

Five minutes later, barely enough time to change from the slouchy clothes into a pair of white Capris and a dove-gray cotton tank, Emily heard a vehicle pulling into the front drive. Pushing her feet into comfortable sandals, she moved to the door, checking the peephole quickly before opening it for her father.

“Hi, Daddy.” Moving back, she watched as he entered and gave her a quick hug.

He was followed by three tall, hard-bodied men, handsome enough to make a girl pant if she hadn’t been distracted by the fierce frown on her father’s face.

She glanced over the three quickly before closing the door and moving slowly into the living room behind them.

One of the men moved to her sliding door and whipped the heavy shades closed over it before moving to the windows and closing the plastic-backed curtains over them as well.

“Why is he closing my curtains?” She stared at his back. A very fine back. Broad and heavily muscled beneath the white cotton shirt he wore. The broad back tapered to snug jeans. Jeans that did nothing to hide a luscious butt.

“I’m sorry, baby,” her father said softly as she turned to him, seeing the heavy lines in his face, the concern in his light blue eyes.

At fifty-five her father was still a fit, handsome man. He had never remarried after her mother’s death nearly twenty years before, though she was aware he had certain “friendships.”

“What’s wrong?” She kept her attention on him as the other three men began moving through the house. “Look, I know Dyson is pissed. And I know you probably are too. But it was just a little research—”

“Emily, this isn’t about the strip club.” He shook his head, but she could see the flat line of his mouth, and knew she had disappointed him again.

“It wasn’t that big of a deal,” she said. “Dyson just gets really intense over things, ya know?”

“Men have a way of doing that.” He nodded. “Speeding. Flirting your way out of a ticket while he sat beside you. The strip club, the attempted attack at that dance club a few weeks ago. Sweetheart, I have gray hairs from the report Dyson sent me before I landed.”

And why had she ever imagined Dyson wouldn’t do it? They all did it when they finally managed to cave to their fear.

“I was safe.” She shrugged. “The bodyguards are like ticks. They suck the fun out of everything.”

She heard a snort of laughter from one of the men behind her but didn’t turn away from her father to glare at whichever one it was.

“Emily. Sit down with me.” He took one of her hands and led her to the couch while her heart began to race in terror.

He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t yelling at her. And that was scary. He had the same expression on his face that he’d had the night he awakened her to tell her that her mother wasn’t coming back home. That she would never come home again.

“What’s wrong?” She pushed back the instinctive aggression she felt whenever she knew something she didn’t like was about to happen. She knew this expression, knew the look in his eyes.

He sat beside her. “Emily,” he said. “Fuentes is back, sweetheart, and the information we’ve received is that he’s going to attempt to kidnap you again.”

For a moment, darkness nearly overwhelmed her. The scent of rotting vegetation and the stink of unwashed male bodies filled her senses. She had to swallow back the bile and fear, had to force back the overwhelming panic. Shifting memories that weren’t quite memories shadowed her mind. Whimpers of pain, betrayal.

As she stared at her father, fighting back that fear, she wondered where the knowledge of betrayal had come from. How did she know they had been betrayed? What had she seen or heard that she couldn’t remember once the drugs they had pumped into her had worn off.

“You’re certain?” She breathed in deeply, drawing in the fresh scent of vanilla that filled her home.

This was going to be an imposition, no doubt about it. Besides the fact that it was frankly terrifying. She didn’t remember much of the kidnapping, but what she did wasn’t pleasant.

“We’re very certain, Miss Stanton.” Tall, black-haired, eyes as gray as thunderclouds, one of the men stepped forward. “The Fuentes cartel is serious about this as well. They seem to think you may have seen or heard something that could threaten them. In addition, your father is determined to catch the Fuentes mole within the government, and Fuentes has to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”

“Emily, this is Commander Reno Chavez. He’s the SEAL in charge of our protection.”

“Hello, Mr. Chavez.” She gave him a trembling smile. “I hope you’re watching over Daddy well. He can be hard to keep up with.”

The man’s smile was pure sex appeal. “I’m doing my best, ma’am.” He nodded. “He’s more worried about you now.”

“Behind Reno is Lieutenant Commander Clint McIntyre, and coming out of your bedroom,” her father cast the third man a disapproving frown, “you should remember Lieutenant Kell Krieger.”

Emerald-green eyes, predatory and liquid hot, sliced into her as Emily finally gave the man her full attention. She felt the breath leave her chest as shock slammed through her system. Those eyes. Something about them almost held her mesmerized, sent heat curling through her and had her cringing at the thought that he had been in her bedroom.

Where the red lace underwear was thrown over her bed, the panties carrying the scent of her previous arousal. Mortification flamed beneath her cheeks as she fought to cover her embarrassment.

“Mr. McIntyre. Hello, Kell.” She cleared her throat as she fought to swallow past the nerves now rioting through her body.

“Emily. I need you to do me a favor,” her father said then, drawing her attention back to him. “Kell will be staying here with you. He’ll be your personal bodyguard until this investigation I’ve begun is over. I need you to cooperate with him.”

“I always cooperate, Daddy,” she reminded him with a smile. “But I promise, this time, I’ll make an extra effort not to cause him to quit. I’d hate to run a friend off.”

Oh hell. Damn. She was in trouble. Kell, in her home? Sleeping beneath her roof? She could already feel the overwhelming heat that had begun building in intensity between her thighs. This was the wrong time for this. This wasn’t good.

Her father winced. “There’s more to this one, sweetheart. No one can know he’s your bodyguard. You just fired your bodyguard because your lover was jealous of him.”

Oh. Shit.

Her gaze swung back to her father. He was kidding. He had to be kidding.

But he wasn’t. She could see it in his eyes, feel it in the tension emanating from him.

Her eyes swung back to Krieger and she felt the world drop from beneath her. That mocking smile. She had seen it before. Just as she had seen that particular shaggy cut of hair, that hard, muscular body. No sunglasses now. No leather chaps. And he had shaved that rough, day-old growth of beard from his face. But it was him.

Sweet heaven. She had come in his face less than five hours before and now he was going to pretend to be her lover?

He had disguised who he was. He had to have been following her. It was her fantasy lover all along and she had come in his face.

This was so not good. This was the Twilight Zone. She could hear the theme music playing in the back of her mind.

“This isn’t a very good idea.” She tried to fight back her shudder of impending pleasure and doom as she turned back from her father. “Why don’t I just move back home for a while?”

That was the perfect solution. He had been wanting her back in the house ever since she moved out anyway. She could just go home. She would have to cancel some activities she had planned, put aside the research she still had to get into for the new book.

One being the live sex show she had been playing with viewing. But she was sure her agent would give her some extra time for this book. Most of it was research anyway. It wasn’t like she didn’t know what to write. She just didn’t know how to write it.

But her father was shaking his head slowly. Damn, of course it couldn’t be that easy.

“Sweetheart, these people can get to you there as easily as they can here. I’m not even staying at the house. I’m staying in an apartment close to the Capitol instead with my own security detail. This is the only answer.”

Oh no. There had to be another answer. There was never only a single way to do anything. Wasn’t that what she tried to instill in her students, the ability to try new things in different ways. Of course there was an answer to this, she just had to find it.

“I could move in with you—”

“That’s not possible, Emily.” Kell’s voice was firm, determined. “We need to maintain the impression that the senator knows nothing about this threat for reasons of security. If you come to D.C. and go into hiding, they’ll suspect.”

She stared back at her nemesis. The bad boy in leather. God, she had to get rid of him. She could already feel her reaction to him blooming once again, heating her body, reminding her of the outrageous dance she had performed for him. Wanton, sexy. Letting the inner slut free hadn’t been hard, and she was terribly afraid there was no way to keep it locked up if she had to actually live with him.

“Emily. You can’t tell anyone why he’s here.” Her father sighed heavily, drawing her gaze back to him. “We have to maintain the secrecy of the information. You have to convince everyone he’s your lover.”

Emily cringed. He had said it again. Her father had said lover in regard to her and a man? Especially this man.

Wide-eyed, filled with shock, she stared back at him.

His lips twitched in sudden amusement. “I’m not that old, little girl,” he told her. “And I’m smart enough to know you likely know what the words mean too.”

Like hell. Geeze, how do you tell your father you’re still a twenty-five-year-old virgin? Especially when he was constantly sending big tall muscular agents and bodyguards to protect her and, hopefully, inhabit her bed?

She knew why he never sent female bodyguards. Just as she knew that each man he had sent had been personally vetted and handpicked as son-in-law potential.

Think, Emily. There has to be an answer here. No way could she live with a man she was dying to get her hands on. Especially this man. A man she had already dubbed the baddest of the bad boys. A man she knew she could never have yet had never been able to stop wanting.

“I could go stay with Aunt Betha,” she said then. “Only the devil himself would dare mess with her.”

Betha Alderman was a Boston lawyer with enough temper to scare even her father.

He was shaking his head. Okay, it wouldn’t be nice to involve Betha.

“You’re serious about this,” she said weakly.

“I’m afraid so, baby,” he said. “But don’t worry, Kell is a professional. This isn’t his first private security job. He’s protected presidents and foreign nationals. I’m sure he can keep up with you.”

Yeah, but how the hell was she supposed to keep up with him? She turned her gaze back to him, fighting to keep from revealing the fact that she had been up close and personal with him in ways she was certain her father would use to force the poor man to the altar.

How was she supposed to get out of this one, now? She couldn’t refuse the protection. Her father would never have planned this if he weren’t genuinely convinced she was in danger.

“I understand.” It was all she could do to push the words past her lips and to paste a friendly smile on her face as she glanced back at Kell Krieger. “If I remember correctly, he eats a lot though. I’ll have to stock up.”

Kell smiled. It wasn’t a smile for the faint of heart, it was pure male challenge, and that glimmer in those emerald eyes wasn’t just amusement, it was heat. Sexual heat. And she was woman enough to shake in her sandals.

“Emily.” Her father drew her gaze back to him. “I want you to promise me you’ll listen to Kell. No running off on your own for the hell of it. No strip clubs or dance clubs. Promise me you’ll let him keep you safe.”

She met his gaze straight on, letting him see the suspicion in her eyes that she could feel rising inside her. She didn’t know as much about the armed services as she probably should, she admitted, but some things weren’t adding up for her.

“Why are Navy SEALs involved in this instead of the Secret Service?” she finally asked as she rose to her feet and walked to the bar that separated the living room from the kitchen, then turned to face him. “I thought SEALs were a strike force.”

“We’re that as well,” Reno answered her. “We have the most experience with the Fuentes cartel, how they strike, and the men they use to strike with. We’re working with the Secret Service in D.C. with your father’s security, and there will be two Secret Service agents assigned as backup here. But this is an investigative operation as well as protection, hence the cover story.”

That made sense. She knew from the few things she had overheard from her father when she was younger that a SEAL team could follow a single investigation for years. It wasn’t a common occurrence, but it happened.

“Since when have I ever lied to you, Emily?” Her father rose from the sofa, a heavy scowl creasing his features as Reno finished his explanation.

“I didn’t say you were lying to me, Daddy.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “But we both know that you never tell me the whole story or the truth about the danger involved. Nine times out of ten you put those stupid bodyguards in my house based on nothing more than rumors and a hope of keeping me from doing whatever it is you’ve heard I’m about to do.”

She saw the surprise flicker in his gaze then. He thought she was so dimwitted that she had no idea what he was doing.

“You like to get into trouble,” he muttered, glancing at the three SEALs with ill-concealed discomfort.

She hated that accusation.

“I don’t get into trouble, Daddy.” Emily kept her voice smooth, even. She didn’t want to fight with him.

“You give lap dances to strange men,” he bit out. “What do you call that?”

She flushed in embarrassment. “Fun,” she snapped back. “Just think, Daddy, that could have been the son-in-law you’ve been pushing so hard for.”

She clamped her mouth shut the minute the words left her lips. Angry words. Accusations. Dammit, her nerves were just about pushed to their limit and he expected her to keep her mouth shut and just accept his condemnation once again. And he expected her to do it in front of the man assigned to protect her.

She shook her head abruptly, turning her back on him and lifting her hand to forestall the chilling response she knew would cut into her soul.

“You’d have to get off your high horse and give him the time of day first.” The words came anyway. They stabbed into her, causing her to flinch in shame because the man she had given that lap dance for was watching, listening.

She inhaled roughly, blinking back her tears, determined that she wasn’t going to be hurt this time.

“So.” She turned back to him. “How long are you allowing Kell to stay?” She glanced at Kell’s thoughtful expression, striving to keep from meeting his gaze. “Two weeks? Four?”

“As long as he can control you,” he snapped back.

Her lips thinned. “Then you might as well take him with you when you leave, because no man controls me, Daddy. You should have figured that one out on your own by now.”