“No worries.” Luisa waved her away.
“Hey Mom.” Chelsea walked towards her building.
“How are you, honey?”
Her mother’s warm tones softened Chelsea’s frustration. The calls were born from love, she had no right to resent them.
“Good. Really good,” she answered. The project is going well.” Chelsea grinned at the security guy who was just unlocking the doors.
“You’re at work already?” Her mother asked.
“Uh huh.” Chelsea ruefully muttered, knowing what was coming.
“But it’s so early. Are you sure you’re getting enough rest?”
Chelsea inwardly sighed. “Mom I’m fine. Truly.” No way was she going to mention last night’s false fire alarm. Her mother would have a fit.
She loved her parents but right now she was glad they were miles away. She needed them to be for a while. After two years of close concern and being wrapped in cotton wool, she needed the space to take things on in her own time and way. “I’m fine Mom. Honestly I am. Trust me.”
“I do. I just—”
“I know.” Of course she understood her mother’s concern—her daughter had nearly died. Her daughter’s life had changed irrevocably. But her daughter, Chelsea, now needed to get on with it. “I’m okay. I’m really okay.”
“Alright.” Her mother’s sigh echoed her own. “You have a good day.”
“I will. You too.”
She would have a good day. She’d focus on her work. She was going to have to work all hours to get it all done. Not that she’d tell her mom that either.
A new city, new job, new apartment. Alone. All challenge. And perfect.
But she wasn’t adding a new man to that list. Definitely not some over-sized, over-confident, doctor with a Superman syndrome. No matter how magnetic he was. She wasn’t even going to think about him again. Not even a little.
She went up to her desk and got planning. An hour later she pinned up the new sketch for her pop-up ‘art’n’eaterie’.
“You really think you can pull it off?” Steve, the other intern, asked as he passed her desk on his way in, one of Luisa’s coffees in his hand.
“Absolutely.” At least, she thought so. Her pop-up pizza project was ‘out there’ and she had to fit it around all her other duties, some of which were definitely of the more menial variety. But as an intern she couldn’t expect to be working on the fun stuff all the time. She had to pull her weight. That was part of the attraction.
“Be awesome if you do,” Steve said.
She nodded. She really wanted to use it as an example for her post-grad research paper. “How’s your project going?” she asked.
“Not as well as I’d like.” Steve parked on the edge of her desk and started talking through his issues.
Chelsea leaned back in her seat and listened, enjoying that he was asking her advice—that he seemed to value her input.
No one here knew the full story of the last two years. She’d briefly mentioned that her limp was the result of an old accident and hid the scarring under long skirts. She’d explained the gap in her studies as time away travelling. That was a small lie, but it meant no one looked at her with wariness or pity in their eyes.
Admittedly she wasn’t exactly wholly independent. She had scholarship funding to help see her through the summer internship, but there was no real ‘special treatment’ in that, it was normal. And she had backing from her family—her father’s friend had secured her the short-term loan of the apartment. But now here, she was alone and on her way. What success she made of this time was up to her.
There was just that one last hurdle to overcome.
She worked late and picked up a carry-out on the way home. She walked quick as she could into the apartment building. There were no ridiculously handsome men out running—to her relief, right?
She flashed the night manager a tight smile and took the elevator to her floor. She ate a little, then got changed and waited until it was after hours and the pool would be empty. Then she tried once more.
Though the water looked warm, Chelsea shivered. The last time she’d dived under it had been late at night. The last time she’d gone in water she’d nearly drowned.
Chapter Four
Xander didn’t get home ’til midnight. He refused to give into temptation and go knock on her door, so he made sure it was too late to be able to. She’d be tucked up in bed now—most likely with her fiancé.
He felt like punching something.
He tensed as his anger doubled. Violence wasn’t his thing—he’d seen enough of it when he was a kid. That he could be feeling violent because of a woman? That really wasn’t right. Why the hell this one woman bugged him so much he didn’t know—but with one look she’d gotten under his skin. Maybe Logan had been right. Maybe he needed a holiday.
This morning she’d run away from him before he’d gotten the answers he wanted. But her eyes had gotten bigger with every second she’d gazed at him. Hell, she’d been drinking him in. Yeah, it was a shot to the ego to have a woman with lips as luscious as hers looking like she wanted to suck up everything he had to give her.
His body had a hell of a lot it wanted to give her.
So where was the fiancé if she was that frustrated? He knew need when he saw it, and she was all but crippled with need. And part of Xander liked to offer help when and where it was needed. He smirked bitterly. Oh he was such the lifesaver? Rescue guy. Physical rescue only. She needed physical.
He stalked into the building. Stay away Xander, stay far, far away.
He glanced at the desk. Terry sat staring at his monitor. The guy didn’t even look up as Xander strode by. So Xander stopped, pivoted and strode back.
“What’s keeping you so glued you don’t even notice when someone walks past your nose?” He walked around the desk so he could see the screen the jerk was fixated on. “Something going on?”
In one black and white square, a lone figure stood by the inky part that was the pool. He tensed. She was there again? In her swimsuit, her pearly legs looking long and too slender. Her fingers tapped some rhythm on the outside of her thigh. He could almost see her talking to herself. Talking herself into it?
She was concentrating hard on the water. He frowned as he watched her take a small step closer to the edge. But she was in no hurry. In fact, he’d say she was reluctant. Terrified?
Fury surged through him. What the hell was she doing up there alone at this hour? He’d worked as a lifeguard at beaches and pools, as summer holiday jobs for years. He’d seen fear and he saw it now. She shouldn’t be trying to teach herself to swim. She might panic and end up in trouble. There was a security camera at the pool but the deep end was deep and she wasn’t all that tall. Not barefoot.
“Always happens like this. She never actually swims.” Terry said, not looking up from the screen.
“Not ever?”
Terry shook his head. “That’s why I didn’t mind letting it slide. She’s only there five, ten minutes tops and then she goes. Never actually gets wet.”
“Not even a toe? Does she put her hand in?”
“Nothing.”
This wasn’t good. He glanced at Terry. The guard was looking a little too keen at the screen for Xander’s liking.
“And she’s always alone?” He ground out the question.
Terry nodded.
Somehow Terry having a secret with the sassy sweetheart bothered him. Did Terry know she was engaged? Did she flirt with all the guys? Was she that much of a tease?
Xander’s blood rebelled at the idea. What was with his instinct? Was it that off?
“It’s against the rules,” he snapped. “You shouldn’t let her. You don’t stop her I’ll report you.”
“What’s gotten into you?” Terry finally tore his gaze away and spun on his chair to look at Xander.
“She clearly has a problem. You want a drowned woman on your watch?”
Terry shifted on his seat. His gaze sliding away from Xander’s. “I was watching over her.”
Xander’s muscles tightened even more. “And how are you going to pull her out quick enough when you’re all the way down here?”
“I know, but…” Terry frowned.
“But what?” Xander growled.
“She’s going to be disappointed.”
And Terry didn’t want to disappoint her? Xander felt even more irritated. “She’ll get over it.”
But Xander felt bad too. Little Miss Blue Eyes was the kind who had all the guys gunning to do things for her. To her.
He glared at Terry. “Go fix it. Tell her she should swim half an hour before closing. Hardly anyone’s there then either. I’ll mind the desk for you.”
Terry stared back at him. “You want me to tell her now?”
“Go.”
Terry did.
Xander stayed in position, eyes fixed to the screen. She was still by the water, rubbing her hands on her upper arms like she was cold. Other than that she was immobile. Frozen.
He saw her spin as Terry came in. She hurriedly reached for her towel. A stupid amount of pleasure surged into his veins when he saw she didn’t look at Terry anything like the way she’d looked at him. But satisfaction turned to discomfort when he saw the impact of Terry’s words on her. Her narrow shoulders slumped, she clutched the towel closer. Even in the grainy images from the security cam he could see the distress cross her face—and the way she then proudly tried to hide it.