“Fair enough. But that doesn’t erase the possibility that you’re simply romanticizing the forced-proximity situation you just happen to find yourself in. You know, the proverbial Bodyguard crush. Don’t you think this is all just a little bit too much of a cliché? Because chances are you’ll be regretting it within weeks – no make that minutes – that you finally give in to it. So why even try?”
“Oh my God you’re such a bastard,” Alexandra breathed, staring at him. “I hate you.”
“I know,” he said thinly, looking totally unperturbed and just as furious as she did. “And you’ll hate me even more if I cross the line and you end up wishing it didn’t happen. I’m a professional, Alexandra. I was trained not just as a Marine, but in private personal protection. I’ve been in these situations enough times to know how easy it is for the client to feel she’s made a connection. But trust me, daddy’s little princess; maybe you should think a little harder before you decide categorically to fornicate with the help.”
Smack!
Without thinking, Alexandra slapped him hard on one cheek. Smack! And then the other. A kind of double face palm where her two hands just worked in tandem long before her brain did.
Oh shit. She was breathing hard, her palms stinging as much as she was sure his face was right then, and she clenched her fists down at her sides, unable to look away from his rigid profile with his cheek turned away from her.
“I’m not sure how you would feel I deserved that,” he said softly, menacingly while still looking away from her. “But if the truth makes you turn trigger-happy, then by all means, hit me again.”
Alexandra didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t all the time that she felt her age, but she did now. She reminded herself that she didn’t really know that much about men or romance or even sex. Lamar had been her first real boyfriend and if truth be told she’d dated him because she’d been going through one of her ‘nonconformist’ phases where she felt she needed to break off from what she’d believed her father expected of her. She’d just moved out of home, started her Master’s and simply, for the first time, felt like she was coming into her own. And even when it came to money, she’d been somewhat independent thanks to the trust fund her mother’s parents had set up when Alexandra was born.
And yet now for the first time, she’d come in contact with a man so different from what she was used to, a man who drew up the strongest swells of carnal desire within her secret springs and did it without even really trying. And now he was making it sound like something so trope. Sure, there was all that psychological attachment and heightened intimacy bullshit that comes with the bodyguard-client territory, but did he have to spell it out so…so horribly?
“Go on, Alexandra; let your inner hellcat out,” Cane was saying, finally turning so their eyes met and for the first time, she saw the unmistakable flicker of molten green flame that turned his gaze almost liquid. His body was tense, coiled tight and most probably, aroused and dangerous. Alexandra licked on her parched lips and clenched her hands even tighter, her heart slamming against her chest as she stared into his terrifyingly handsome face with those haunting, shadowed angles and planes.
Quelling the urge to succumb to the violent pounding of desire echoing beneath her pores, she drew in a shuddery, bracing breath and looked away from him sharply. “Just take me home, Hutchinson. And once it’s morning, I’m calling my dad. I don’t think I feel safe around you anymore; I’ll be requesting someone else to be my handler if my father still feels so hell bent on keeping one around me. I’m getting you replaced, and this time I mean it.”
She heard Cane’s breath snag, could feel the fury coming off him in waves. She was almost afraid to make eye contact, not wanting to set him off or do anything to propel her hot tears which threatened to fall. Her face was turned firmly to her window as moments later, he started the car and drove them off without another word.
Chapter Ten
Oh, damn it all to hell!
Alexandra rolled out of bed the next morning feeling like she’d been run over by a freight truck. How did one wake up with a hangover if one hadn’t even been drinking the night before?
She’d tossed and turned all night, wrestling with her pillows, covers and even her nightmares as she tried to get over the agony of how last night had gone.
Cane. They’d said some really nasty things to each other but once he drove them home, not another word was exchanged. She’d thought he’d try to talk her out of her decision to ask for another bodyguard, but he didn’t. Alexandra felt hurt but realized that maybe he was just as sick of the whole thing as she was. Maybe? No, make that definitely.