Page 80 of Joker in the Pack

“And if I move out, he’ll have won. That’s what he wants. So I’m staying.”

“I’ve never met anyone as stubborn as you.”

Nye stomped off, and the front door slammed shut behind him. Marvellous. Now I’d managed to upset the man who’d dropped everything to help me.

“Am I crazy?” I asked the nearest black-clad ninja.

He shrugged, which pretty much gave me my answer.

Should I bow to Nye’s wishes and stay with Maddie? I couldn’t deny the thought of a proper night’s sleep was appealing. I was on the verge of going after him to grovel when he came back carrying a duffle bag.

“What’s that for?”

“I’m staying with you.” He turned to ninja number one. “I need a car out there twenty-four seven. Two men. The locks are getting changed on Thursday, and I want CCTV installed as well.”

The guy saluted. “Consider it done.”

As the men filed out, I was still stuck on the “staying with you” part. “You can’t stay here.”

“Watch me.” He unzipped the hold-all and shook out a sleeping bag.

“But what about work?”

“Babe, the people at work tend to be fairly understanding about this type of thing, seeing as it’s a security company.”

I looked down at the floor. “But I can’t afford to pay.”

He tilted my chin up, forcing me to look at him. “Then it’s a good thing your mate Soph likes shopping, isn’t it?”

“What about your girlfriend? Won’t she get upset if you don’t go home?”

“Girlfriend?”

“Sophie said she went shopping for your girlfriend’s birthday present.”

“Turned out I got her birthday confused with the previous girlfriend’s. We split up over her not-so-birthday dinner.”

I couldn’t help the burst of laughter that escaped. “I’m sorry, I know that shouldn’t be funny, but…” I giggled again.

“I’m just happy you’re smiling.”

His gaze burned into me with the heat of a distant sun, and I looked away, suddenly unable to withstand the intensity.

“I should try to get some sleep,” I muttered.

“Yeah, you should.” He herded me upstairs and made sure my bedroom windows were secure before turning to leave.

“Will you be okay?” I asked. “On the floor, I mean? I’m sorry I don’t have a spare bed, or even a sofa.”

“I’ve slept in worse places, believe me.” He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek, brushing my jaw with his thumb as he did so. The roughness of his stubble contrasted with his soft lips. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

My cheek burned as I went to use the bathroom. I touched where he’d caressed me, expecting to see flames coming from my fingers, but they looked no different from normal. How could that be? My insides had gone nuclear.

Then I caught sight of myself in a shard of mirror as I climbed back into bed, and I groaned. I’d faced my stalker and a crowd of Blackwood’s finest while wearing a pair of Hello Kitty pyjamas. No wonder even the dog had stared at me funny.

If there was an afterlife, my mother would be up there crossing herself, asking what she could have done to make her only daughter just a little bit more normal. I imagined her frown as I lay there on my once-luxurious king-sized mattress. I’d bought it to share with Edward, but now I had a very different man on my mind.

My last thought, as I drifted through the dreamlike limbo between me and oblivion, was that I wished he were lying beside me.

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