Page 2 of When He Protects

Sonofa—

“So, instead of saying you’re a trust fund baby, when I look at you, I see a cop.”

He stared back at her.

“Not a beat cop. I say…maybe a Fed. Not CIA.” Very definite. “You’re rather a bit too big and bold for that crew. They tend to favor agents who don’t stick out too much. And you…you certainly stick out.” Her gaze swept him. “In a good way. At least in my humble opinion.” A delicate clearing of her throat. “I definitely think you’re working undercover.”

Okay. So he’d just been made by a bored socialite. Not the highlight of his career. “That’s funny.” Tyler reached up and tugged on his collar?—

Her hand flew out and caught his. Her body brushed against him, and the sweet, tempting scent of vanilla curled around him. “That’s one of your giveaways,” she quietly informed him. “You can’t keep tugging on the tux’s collar like you’re choking and uncomfortable. Instead, you have to act like you’ve worn this thing a million times. Don’t want to arouse suspicion, do you?”

He could hear the drumming of his heartbeat. The heat of her touch pulsed through his whole body and blasted him with a sudden, shocking wave of lust. Sure, he’d thought she was sexy at first glance. Who the hell wouldn’t? But…

The lust that Tyler felt was like an electric charge to his system. Heating and burning and?—

“Be careful,” she warned him, “or you’ll blow your cover. Because you’re either a Fed…or maybe you’re a bad guy.”

The drumming of his heartbeat got even louder. Too loud. “Why would you think I was the bad guy?”

Her long lashes flickered. Then the wide smile of hers flashed again. Disarming dimples. “Surely, you’ve heard the stories on the news. There have been a string of robberies at high-priced events like this one.” She didn’t let go of his hand. “Granted, the attendees tried to keep things quiet. Not like the ultra-wealthy want to spread word that they were attacked and basically held hostage and forced to give up their valuables?—”

The doors to the ballroom—because, sure, why the hell not? Jorlan had a ballroom in his Miami beachfront mansion—came crashing open before she could finish her sentence. Screams filled the air as six individuals all wearing black burst inside. Masks covered their faces, and their bodies were shielded by bulky black jackets and pants.

“Freeze!” A man’s voice. The guy in the front. A guy holding a very large, black gun. “No one make a move, and you won’t get hurt!”

A gasp came from the gorgeous woman with Tyler. “In armed robberies,” she finished in a whisper as her head jerked toward the masked intruders. “Just like this one.”

Tyler automatically grabbed her and shoved her behind his much bigger body.

And that movement caught the eye of the creep who was clearly the leader. “I saidfreeze!”he bellowed. He rushed straight toward Tyler and aimed the gun at his chest. “Guess you just don’t hear well, do you, buddy? Will a bullet to the chest teach you how to hear better?”

Tyler didn’t really see how it possibly could. Before he could tell the dumbass with the weapon that very thing?—

“No!” Tyler’s mystery brunette jumped in front of him. “Don’t shoot him! He’s a Fed!”

Sonofabitch.

First, he didn’t need her to protect him. His job was to protect the civilians at the party. And second…

Way to blow my cover to hell and back. Thanks so much for that.

“A Fed?” the man in the mask bit out. “You shitting me?”

“I wouldn’t shit a man with a gun pointed at me,” she replied with a delicate sniff. “My boyfriend is a Fed.”

When in the holy hell had he become her boyfriend?

“And you don’t want to shoot a Fed. Robbery is one thing. Killing a federal agent is another beast.” She faced off with the gunman. “He won’t be trouble. Especially not if you, uh, lock us up somewhere. Just get us out of here.” She pointed to the right. Toward a nearby door. The rings on her hand gleamed beneath the light. “Lock us in there, and I’ll make sure my boyfriend is kept in check.”

Kept in check? He’d never beenkept in checkby anyone a day in his life. The very idea was insulting.

But the man in the mask was nodding even as the other wealthy people in their fancy gowns and tuxes were shuddering with fear.

Bodyguards should have been outside to protect these people. Security had been hired by the host. So what in the hell had gone wrong?

Inside job.Wasn’t that what he’d suspected? And there had been one private security agency that had been used in several of the previous attacks.The same agency that is working the door tonight.Like that wasn’t a screaming red flag of guilt.

But he would deal with that agency soon enough. For the moment, his attention was on the prick with the gun. The prick who bobbed his masked head and proclaimed, “Yeah, yeah, we’ll lock his ass up! His ass and your sexy ass.”

---