Since I Fell For You(26)
She didn’t bother to hold back an eye roll. “I don’t have a stalker. I told you, my business is highly competitive. And not everyone plays by the same rules.”
“You would never play by these rules.”
“No,” she agreed. “And it’s not just because I’m a woman.”
“I never said anything about your gender. I’m talking about the fact that you’ve created a company that’s the envy of everyone in the tech world. I’m talking about who you are.”
The way he said that made her pause. It sounded as though he thought he’d already figured her out. And she liked the thought of Roman understanding her—the real her—way too much.
“Just because I walk the straight and narrow with my business doesn’t mean I’m naïve about the ones who like to skirt the line between right and wrong. They don’t frighten me. Their tactics are just another challenge to work through.”
“How are you working through this one?”
She didn’t love the answer she was about to give, but because it was the honest one, she gave it anyway. “I’ve been so busy with the new product that I haven’t given it much attention yet.”
“And now that the product launch is rolling along?”
“If it becomes a bigger problem, I’ll make it a priority.”
“How big a problem does it need to become to get on your priority list, Suzanne?”
His words were deceptively calm and soft-spoken. But she knew better, had learned a long time ago, while growing up as the only female in a house full of males, how to read between a man’s lines.
“I know your job is to look around every corner for the worst,” she said in just as deceptively placid a voice, when in truth she was bristling, “but until I find some evidence that I’m in personal danger, I’m going to keep my priorities where they are.”
“What if the evidence of a problem comes in the form of a knife or a bullet?”
She couldn’t contain her shock. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I wish I was.”
“My servers and phone are the only things that have been attacked. Why on earth do you think someone would come after me personally when that’s not how these guys work?”
“You tell me. After all, you’re the one who is building one of the world’s best digital security companies. I’m just doing the same thing here from my end. Doing whatever I can to make sure you stay physically safe and sound, no matter what.”
It was way too early in the morning for this conversation, especially when she hadn’t had nearly enough sleep last night. Because she’d been having sexy and romantic dreams about Roman. Thankfully, the taxi pulled up to her office building a moment later.
Still, as they walked inside in silence, she couldn’t deny that his pointed questioning had gotten under her skin in a way her brothers’ constant nagging over the issue hadn’t. With Alec, Harry, and Drake, she’d been able to reason that they were being hypersensitive because they felt they needed to look after her.
But though they’d filled Roman’s head with their worries, he did protect people for a living. And did it well, if Alec had been willing to trust him with her. Which meant that Roman must have a finely tuned radar for danger.
Danger that he seemed to think was real.
She shook her head, forcing the annoying thoughts away. She didn’t have time for this today. Or any day, frankly. Thank God for her six thirty meeting and all the other work she had to do until that evening, so that she couldn’t stew.
One thing was for sure, she couldn’t pull off the whole be-sexy-to-tempt-Roman-into-resigning act right now. Nope, today it was going to take all of her energy to ignore the doubts he’d planted in her head.
And to forget the feelings about Roman she had begun to have, whether she wanted to or not, especially while he was standing guard over her not ten feet away all day long.
* * *
Roman knew Suzanne was upset with him for making her look at the hard truth of her situation. She was one of the most innately positive people he’d ever met. He hated to chip away at her faith in human nature. But he also couldn’t let her keep her head in the sand. Not if it meant she might end up getting hurt.
Her morning was a repeat of the day before, with one meeting bleeding into the next. The only difference was the way her phone continued to buzz. She gave it to her assistant and asked Jeannie to monitor the calls in case something important came up amid the junk calls.
Five hours later, her phone finally stopped ringing. And that was right when his started—with a string of text messages from one of the underground personal investigators he’d contacted last night.