“Sit tight,” he said and reached across her for the phone on the nightstand. He dialed the front desk and instructed them to cancel her room, because for the remainder of their stay she’d been sharing his. When the concierge asked if anything was wrong, Isaac laid into the guy for the hotel’s crap security then slammed the phone in its cradle.
He gave his head a shake to dislodge the sharp anger clawing him.
“Did they call the police?” she asked.
“No,” he said with a sigh. “Attempted robbery won’t be high on the politsia’s list of priorities. We might not want to get the authorities involved when we’re leaving in a few days. That could piss off some bad people, depending on how deep this goes, and I don’t want the situation to get worse.”
“Worse?” Her tone filled with dismay.
“For now we’ll stay together. Let’s grab your stuff and move you into my room.”
The tawny wings of her eyebrows lifted. “You want me to stay with you?”
“I want you safe. That’s about our only option.”
Her face fell. “I see.” Then she shrugged. “I guess that makes sense.”
When she seemed unsure about the idea, he sighed. The scenario would be a lot harder on him than her. Proving his point, his cock hardened at the idea of her lying in bed next to him. His hands begging him to caress her creamy skin. Her scent on his sheets tormenting him. Her made-for-sex body fraying every thread of restraint he possessed.
Misery. That’s what he had to look forward to all night. Sleepless, restless longing that he couldn’t do anything about. She’d just endured an assault. She needed the security of his presence, knowing he would protect her from anyone who dared to cross him. She didn’t need to know he also had to protect her from himself and the sexual thoughts chasing through his mind.
“Okay, sweetheart. Time to get you out of here. In case they’re stupid enough to come back and try again.”
That got her moving. She rose and went to the bathroom to collect her things. He righted a lamp, straightened a picture frame, and plucked up clothes strewn across the floor from the thieves’ rampage.
God, she must’ve been terrified. Caught completely off-guard, subjected to a rough pat-down and physical threats against her life if she didn’t give them what they wanted. Some colorful Russian phrases flashed in his mind to describe the cowardly bastards who’d attack a small, sweet, unsuspecting woman to serve their greed. Fury frosted his veins while he finished packing her things in her suitcase.
“Ready,” she said, holding a zebra-striped bag against her stomach. He zipped the suitcase, settled his arm around her and took her to his room.
When he held the door open and she walked inside, Mindy felt her limbs go weak with exhaustion. She still wasn’t used to the time difference. The robbers holding her at knifepoint hadn’t helped her ragged state. Although, another reason for her limpness was an overwhelming sense of relief.
With Isaac she felt completely safe, his secure presence a calming wave that washed over her. His signature nautical scent filled the room, grounding her, easing her nerves and fears like the peace that came when standing beside the ocean, sinking her toes into warm sand while the tide swirled around her ankles. A moment of heaven on earth.
He helped her set up in his room, putting her zebra bag on a glass shelf in the bathroom, hanging up her dresses in the mirrored closet, placing her camisoles and bras and panties in the top dresser drawer next to his underwear. The experience was startlingly intimate.
After depositing her empty suitcase on a folding luggage rack near the bed, he faced her and ran a hand through his hair. “If it’s okay, I’m going to take a quick shower. Make yourself at home.”
“Thanks.” She watched him disappear behind the bathroom door that he left ajar. Probably to lessen the distance between them so she didn’t feel shut out or closed off from him. Or so he could hear if there was a commotion in the room if the burglars returned.
The instinct to protect seemed to come naturally to him. She’d watched him prove that at work when he interacted with his sales team. If any of the owners questioned one of his own, he stepped in and shouldered the responsibility. He was good at intuiting people’s needs, taking subtle but swift action to ensure that at the end of the day everyone left the workplace happy, knowing their sales director was on their side.
Someone who always had your back—that was Isaac. True and loyal and protective to the core. Everything she’d always admired and looked for in a man.
The tightness in her chest became less about her nerves and shifted into longing. She wished for some way to cross the professional divide that separated them. The two of them had always worked brilliantly together, and she wondered if that easy balance would shift to a personal level.