Page 66 of When He Protects

But she could feel tension boiling off him.

He pounded on the neighbor’s door. Not some friendly little rap. More like he was trying to beat the door down.

“Uh, Tyler?” She sent him a nervous smile. “We’re trying to make a good impression, remember? Friendly couple and all that? Maybe don’t try so hard to break down the man’s door.”

His gaze glittered at her. His face was completely impassive, and goosebumps rose on her arms, even though the day was plenty warm.

Something had happened during the course of that phone call. Something that had changed the way Tylerlooked at her. Because the fury in his eyes? It unnerved her. “Tyler…”

The door flew open. A gruff, male voice demanded, “What in the hell is happening out here?”

Her head swung back around. A tall, black-haired bear of a guy stood in the doorway. He pretty muchfilledthe doorway. His shoulders nearly touched the wood on either side of him. His shirt was covered in paint splotches and his jeans were, too. His hazel eyes swept both Esme and Tyler suspiciously.

She shoved up her plate of croissants. “Hi, neighbor.” She tried a bright smile. He did not smile in return. “I’m…”Uh, oh. Was she Esme or Elizabeth? Hadn’t they bounced both names around the previous day? But when the big crowd had been gathered at the grocery store, she was pretty sure Tyler had called her?—

“This ismywife, Esme,” Tyler said, a hint of possession in his voice. “And I’m Tyler. She baked.”

The bear squinted at her. “Baked what?”

“Chocolate chip croissants,” Esme told him with the tiniest bit of pride. She really loved her croissants. The recipe had been passed down from hergrand-mère. The plate was right in front of their neighbor, yet he made no move to take her offering. “We’re, ah, new to the town.” Now she started to ramble. “Clay told me that you were new, too. So I thought it would be great for my husband and I to come and say hello.” He still hadn’t taken the plate. “Hello,” she said.

One dark eyebrow quirked.

“Oh, for shit’s sake,” Tyler fumed. “Step back and act like you’re inviting us in. Let’s get this crap over with. I have other things to do.”

What?

But the other man stepped back. He waved them inside. And Esme realized that…dammit, Clay set me up.Something she could almost admire.

Once they were inside the house, Tyler kicked the door shut behind them. “Any sign of watchers?”

She just stood there, clutching her plate, as her eyes swung between the two men. Two men who were obviously not strangers.

“Nothing out of the ordinary.” Theirneighborcrossed his arms over his impressive chest. “It’s a quiet street. No cars came by last night that shouldn’t be here. As far as I know, the cover is holding, and all is well. Though why in the hell you two are on my doorstep, I have no clue.”

“I was being neighborly,” Esme mumbled. She kept right on holding her croissants. She’d spent so much time carefully preparing them.

“Clay wanted her to meet you. Prick told her to come by and say hello. She goes nowhere without me.” Tyler peeked out a curtain. “You getting the security feed okay over here?”

“Perfectly.” The stranger turned and headed toward the room on the right.

Curious, Esme followed him. She drew up short in the doorway, though, when she saw the massive computer setup inside. Lots of monitors. And on those monitors, she could see lots of images focusing on her safe house. All exterior shots. “You don’t, um…happen to have camerasinthe house, do you?” She looked away from the monitors and found the neighbor’s intent gaze on her. “Because that could be awkward.” In so many ways.

“Outside only,” he assured her.

Great. Provided, of course, she could believe him.

“So whatever you and Tyler are doing—ordid, all nightlong—that’s your business.” His hazel eyes were on Esme’s throat and on the faint mark that she could suddenly feel burning. “But there is undercover work, there is carrying on a pretense…and there is taking the cover way, way too far.”

She slapped down the plate on the desk that waited in the middle of what was…a study? An observation room? Whatever. Esme could feel flames in her cheeks.He didn’t see anything. Stay focused. You are okay. He’s just making judgy comments.

“You’re not usually one to cross a line, Tyler.” The neighbor’s attention had shifted to a glowering Tyler. “This case getting personal for you?”

Say yes.The thought just flew through her mind. She wanted him to say?—

“There is absolutely nothing personal happening between me and Esme.” Tyler looked straight at her as he made that ice-cold announcement. Then his stare flickered toward the neighbor. “Don’t worry about me, buddy. I haven’t been compromised. I will not be. I know how to work a case.”

Esme automatically glanced down at her chest. Just to make sure there wasn’t a knife sticking out of it. But, nope, there wasn’t. It just felt as if Tyler had picked up a knife and stabbed her right in her brittle heart.

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