“Of course it is.” She opened the door for him. “Good night.”
Again, he couldn’t help but admire her fiery personality. “Good night, Suzanne. I’ll be waiting outside in the morning.”
She didn’t reply, simply shot fire at him from her eyes, then slammed the door shut in his face.
Roman wouldn’t be surprised if her cousin Ian, the billionaire Seattle businessman who owned the building, got some heat from Suzanne tonight for renting Roman the apartment next door. But for all her grumbling, he knew she had to appreciate her family. He sure as hell would have if he’d grown up with anyone watching out for him the way they were watching out for her.
He wouldn’t let Alec, Harry, or Drake down.
Roman had begun by making sure Suzanne got home safely. He’d continue by keeping his mind out of the gutter…and his hands off her.
No matter what.
CHAPTER THREE
Suzanne was good at ignoring distractions.
Scratch that. She was a master at it. Complete and utter focus was what made her so good at coding. She never let her plans be swayed. If she wanted the new software that she was creating to work, she made it happen, no matter how many hours she needed to put in at her computer.
But her big goal for today didn’t have anything to do with code. Instead, she was aiming to get rid of her bodyguard as quickly as possible. Not only because the entire idea of having a bodyguard was ridiculous—but also because it was going to be damned hard to concentrate on everything she needed to get done with Roman standing guard over her, looking way too tall, dark, and handsome for her peace of mind.
She’d been up late the previous night thinking through her best plan of attack. Working to convince her brothers that they were being ridiculous was obviously a dead end. And Roman had already proved that he was tough and smart enough to deal with her anger and frustration, so there was no point in wasting her time and energy storming around like a brat.
So, what was the one thing that would guarantee Roman’s resignation?
She’d nearly paced a hole in her living room rug trying to figure out the answer. And also to burn off her irritation at having been attracted to him. Every time she thought about her drooly reaction when he’d first walked into the gallery, she grew more angry at herself.
Around two in the morning, she’d fallen into a fitful sleep, only to dream of him the second she let her brain go. Her dreams had revolved around hot, sweaty, impressively acrobatic sex, and she’d awakened with a jolt to her six a.m. alarm, even more irritated than she’d been the night before.
Of all the guys to feel a spark with—of all the guys to have sexy dreams about—how could she have picked him?
She was stepping into the shower when the solution to her problem hit her like a lightning bolt, the way so many answers did when warm water was spraying over her. Given that Roman seemed close to her brothers, he had to know they would kill him for trying anything with her. So while she might not be able to scare her bodyguard away with reason or anger, she suddenly realized she had one great big thing in her corner.
Sex.
Suzanne knew she wasn’t the most normal woman in the world, given that her workaholic tendencies meant she didn’t have much time for dating. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t recognize attraction when it flared in a man’s eyes. Last night at the gallery, she was positive she hadn’t been the only one feeling sparks. Roman had too.
Not once in her life had she used her feminine wiles to get something. Her brain had always been her best tool. But drastic times called for drastic measures. As drastic as making the bodyguard she’d never wanted in the first place so uncomfortable with the sexual pull between them that he’d have no choice but to quit.
Once Roman was gone, she had no concerns whatsoever about being able to make any replacement bodyguards her brothers sent in run with their tails between their legs within hours of meeting her. Very few people could have pulled off what Roman had last night, when he’d got to her with his speech about how her brothers cared so much about her.
Feeling much better now that she had a workable game plan, Suzanne stepped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around herself, and opened her closet. She wasn’t particularly into clothes, but when her cousins Lori and Mia came to visit from San Francisco and Seattle, they always dragged her away from the office and into the city’s best boutiques. It wasn’t enough for her to keep them company while they shopped, however. They also insisted that she try on and buy the expensive dresses and heels they handpicked for her. Early on, she’d learned that it was easier to humor them than to bother insisting she didn’t need the new clothes. Despite the fact that her standard work outfit consisted of dark jeans and T-shirts, because of her cousins, she had a lot of really nice outfits when she needed them. And the truth was that the pretty dresses and shoes that they’d browbeaten her into purchasing had come in handy many times during the past five years at all the family weddings and baby showers.