“Are you hungry?” he asked as he headed toward the phone in her kitchen. “I’ll order something for delivery. What do you feel like?”
“I feel like I want a straight fucking answer.”
He gave her that arrogant look she remembered from their “date”—if that disastrous dinner and what happened afterward could even be called that—and wanted to smack him upside the head. Shit. So much for her claims of being a pacifist. One minute in this guy’s company and she really, really wanted to hit something.
She doubted she was the only one to feel the urges he inspired. He even looked like he was about to say something that would really piss her off when the front door chimed.
What the hell was this? Grand fucking Central?
“Stay there,” Ronan said as he headed toward the front door. The only thing that made her not do the opposite of what he said was the memory of her brother’s agitation. He’d been very worried, and whatever was going on, she wasn’t silly enough to discount the seriousness of it. “Good timing,” Ronan said to whoever was at the door. A moment later he walked past her and headed toward the hallway. Just before he stepped out of the room, he turned back. “This is Alex. Do what he says. I’m going for a shower.”
Flabbergasted didn’t even begin to describe how she was feeling at that moment.
She turned to the man, correction, the stranger in her kitchen and wondered what the hell to do now.
Chapter Two
Alex Clements winked at the pretty redhead standing there with her mouth open and tried not to smile too widely. He’d seen that expression before. Only Ronan could inspire such speechless anger. The guy was like a bull in the proverbial china shop. Wherever he went, he left behind a trail of pissed-off women.
Fortunately, Alex prided himself on his ability to charm even the most annoyed of females. Although, working with Ronan on this assignment just might stretch his ability to the limit.
“Is he always like that?”
“Pretty much,” Alex agreed with a smile. He held his hand out. “I’m Alex Clements.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, not bothering to give her name or shake his hand. He quirked an eyebrow at her attitude, but she simply locked her jaw and stared him down. If she knew how much he was aroused by her belligerent behavior, she probably wouldn’t have been so obvious. He wasn’t sure what that said about him, but he’d always enjoyed a challenge. And this lovely, fire-tempered, redheaded beauty was pushing all of his buttons.
He dragged in a deep breath, let it out slowly, and tried to remind himself that he was on an assignment. Granted, it wasn’t his usual type of gig, but he did owe the big guy a favor.
“Did Ronan explain what’s going on?”
She quirked her eyebrow in exactly the same manner he’d done. He couldn’t help but laugh at her style. Goddess, he loved a woman with an attitude.
“I’ll take that as a no,” he said as he leaned against the kitchen counter and tried to hide the fact he was checking her out from head to toe. The woman truly was his type—tall, curvy, stubborn. She was almost his perfect match. Well, except for the being human part. “Look, I don’t have all the facts yet either, but some cop that Ronan knows asked him to look after you. He said something about a serial killer and you maybe being his next victim.”
“Serial killer?” She looked a bit pale, but she managed to stay upright and narrow her eyes at him in anger. Good, right now that emotion would do her more good than fear or hysteria.
“Like I said, I’m not sure of the details, but this cop—your brother?—truly believes you are on this serial killer’s list and wants you to be safe.”
“So he hired me two bodyguards?”
“Well, technically, he only hired Ronan, but I owe the big guy a favor or three, so here I am.”
“What, he didn’t think he could protect little ole me by himself?” She made the question sound like a snarky insult, and Alex had to laugh at her moxie. Hell, there weren’t many people—human or otherwise—on the planet who would deliberately insult Ronan Deeks. She didn’t even flinch when the man himself came back into the kitchen wearing only a towel.
“That’s right, princess. It’s going to take two of us to keep your stubborn little ass out of trouble.”
“Little?” she asked, sounding startled, but then she shook her head slightly as if realizing Ronan’s description of her butt, small or otherwise, wasn’t the most important part of that statement. “What do we know about this serial killer? Did Dave explain why he thinks I’m a target?”