It was his job to disappear into the background, but he didn’t like having to admit that it almost hurt his masculine pride knowing how easy it was for her to tune him out. Especially when he was doing a damned poor job of tuning out one single thing about her. It was more than just how spectacular she looked in her little slip of a dress, or how long her legs were.
Her brain, he was surprised to realize, was at least as alluring as her body. And when she laughed?
Hell. He didn’t know how to deal with the way her laughter moved through him. All he knew was that more than ever, he wanted to make sure nothing frightened or harmed her, just so she could keep laughing like that.
CHAPTER FIVE
How the heck was Suzanne supposed to concentrate with Roman standing guard in the corner, watching her every move?
Every time she lifted her hair from her shoulders, his eyes seemed to graze the bare skin of her neck. Every time she laughed, it was as though he leaned in closer. And every time she shifted in her chair to cross her legs on the other side, she started to feel a little too hot all over.
She’d opened her door this morning to find him standing there looking beyond gorgeous in his dark suit, his crisp white shirt perfectly setting off his tanned skin. Honestly, it had been all she could do not to beg him to come inside and christen the new sheets she’d bought a couple of weeks earlier. The sexy dreams she’d had about him sure didn’t help any.
Of course, she’d kept her composure and made herself launch into her seduction plan. But it hadn’t gotten any easier to rein in her hormones as the hours ticked by.
At the end of her call with a strategic partner in Germany, Jeannie popped her head in. “You’ve been in back-to-back meetings for five hours straight. I’m holding all calls for you for the next ninety minutes.” The executive assistant Suzanne couldn’t live without jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “Get out of here. And don’t come back until you’ve had a little sun and something to eat.”
Suzanne grinned at Jeannie. Anyone who thought the petite woman with the angelic-looking red curls was a meek pushover was a fool. “Aye-aye, Captain.”
Jeannie looked at Roman. “I’m counting on you to hold her to it.”
Roman nodded. “No problem.”
Suzanne shoved away from her desk. Perhaps she shouldn’t be irritated by that overly confident no problem, as if corralling her into behaving would be no sweat. But five hours of trying to get her brain to work straight and her hormones to settle down while he was watching from the corner had tried her patience.
“I’m going for a run.”
She nearly slammed her bathroom door behind her when she went to change into her running gear, but she managed to temper her irritation at the last second. Her plan to fake-seduce Roman into quitting would be no good if she couldn’t even hold her smiles together past lunch. No doubt about it, a good, hard run would help burn off some pent-up energy.
She wished she could reach for her usual T-shirt and shorts, but after a long morning of working to fight her instinctive feminine reaction to Roman, getting him to quit quickly was more of a necessity than ever. Which meant that instead of throwing on a T-shirt and shorts, she had to reach for a bright blue sports bra and matching spandex. She tried to tell herself that compared to the silk dress she’d been wearing, it wasn’t much more revealing. But it was hard to believe it when outfits like these were so not her.
Deep breaths. That was how she was going to get over the tough parts of her plan—with lots of deep breaths and a bottomless well of determination.
She emerged from the bathroom, surprised to see that Roman had changed into running clothes and shoes as well, which must have been in the leather bag he’d brought with him. She’d hoped to make his eyes bug from his head when he saw her in her tiny little running getup, but she was the one who had to work to hide her own reaction.
He’d been incredibly handsome in his dark suit. But in a T-shirt and shorts, with all of his muscles on display, she needed to take plenty more deep breaths. She also needed to work like crazy to stop her drool reflex from going into overdrive.
She gave her head a shake to try to clear the helpless-attraction nonsense from it. “I take it you’re running with me?” She was proud of how normal her voice sounded. Not at all as breathless as she felt just from standing in the same room with him.
“My job is to protect you, no matter what you’re doing.”
“Seriously? You’re planning to be with me every second, no matter what? Nothing is off-limits?”
“Not if it means keeping you safe.”