Alexandra couldn’t decide which was more frustrating: when Cane had been ignoring her, or now when he treated her like a buddy. After Malia’s party, there wasn’t any more of that tension between them – well, except for all that sizzling chemistry which was never going to just disappear, Alexandra figured.
Now, they shared meals when at the house; they talked, they even watched movies together. It was all camaraderie, never more no matter the undercurrents of sparks that only erupted from a man and woman who found each other intensely attractive.
He never touched her in a way that would seem inappropriate. They’d never even kissed. But like she told him, it only made things all the more turbulent, for her at least. Being close to him, but never getting the chance to give expression to the hunger raging within her for just a taste of his lips, a caress from his fingers…
Each time she got too close, he pulled away. Gently but firmly. Alexandra knew she could only push so hard before she started to look too desperate. She hated to be that woman; so she tried not to be. Cane had a job to do and she had to respect that. She kept asking herself what her father would think if he knew how she felt about the bodyguard he’d hired for her. Will he call her foolish and irresponsible? Or would he tell her to grab at a great chance at being happy?
Cane could make me happy, Alexandra told herself without a pinch of doubt. It wasn’t just because he was working in a capacity where he had to watch out for her as part of his job. There was just something about him that spelled reliable, considerate, tender and compassionate. He was a good man, Alexandra knew and she wondered why some smart girl hadn’t snatched him up yet.
The thought of Cane being with someone but her made Alexandra feel almost ill. But then she knew it was wise to remind herself that this was just a job to him. Once her father decided she was no more in any real danger, or once Cane found he was bored playing chaperone to the flighty young daughter of a billionaire, would he walk off the scene to something more exciting and challenging?
Oh lord, no, Alexandra thought achingly. Not before she’d got even one chance to taste of true passion with him; to know if the flames that licked within her core for him could burn beyond just her fantasies.
As the days ticked by, Alexandra could see her chance slipping away.
***
She’d gone to see her father and from the way he was talking, he was having no more problems from the Vincent end. The bidding war had been won by an unexpected third party whose unanticipated entry had caught both Duke and Vincent blindsided with the new party’s highly competitive bid. Duke hadn’t been willing to compromise his standards of negotiation and to his surprise, neither had Vincent, who also backed out from the highly aggressive corporate bidding contest for the lucrative franchise.
“So what does that mean? You guys are buddy-buddy now?” Alexandra asked, her heart clutching with perverse dread. What if her father now felt she didn’t need to be so closely watched? There were the other two operatives handling her general security but who didn’t live in the house with her. Would her father decide that was enough and release Cane from his close protection detail?
Alexandra felt ready to faint. And then the thought suddenly struck her…if Cane was no longer her bodyguard, then that would mean he’d have no excuse to not give them a chance. It was some seriously far-fetched logic; after all she wasn’t sure what he really felt about her. Sure, there was all that primal sexual attraction, but what else did she have to keep him with her? He could get released from his bodyguard duties and decide he didn’t want to start something up with her after all.
All that close proximity, having to be pushed together day and night would be enough to create any kind of physical awareness between a man and woman. But once they were no longer forced to be around each other, there was no guarantee that Cane’s interest could stand the test once he was free.
So where did that leave her?
Confused, and maybe a little desperate, thought Alexandra when Cane was driving them away after the customary dinner she’d just had alone with her father at his home; something they did whenever he got back from one of his long business trips and felt they needed to spend ‘quality’ time.
To her relief, the only thing her father had decided to do was relieve the other two security agents, Marcus and Kirk from their post at her gates. But Cane drove them back to her place, Alexandra wondered when the time would come that her father would feel she didn’t need a personal bodyguard, either.
Even Cane seemed a little preoccupied, thought Alexandra as she shot him a sideways glance from beneath her lashes. She felt such raw attraction for him that just looking at him was such a freaking turn on. He had those edgy, dark good looks of those heartthrobs that seemed so popular on the covers of all those romance novels Malia seemed to devour by the dozen. Much like a leading man kind of hotness you’d find in some soul-wrenching romcom or other where the heroine just can’t resist being swept off her feet.