Page 14 of Protecting Bianca

My knuckles cracked under the strain of clenching them so tightly. My gut told me Tagert was bad news, and my gut was never wrong. I would have to do my own surveillance on him and make sure he stayed the fuck away from Bianca.

“In that case, I’d like to request that all events be postponed until we have a suspect.”

He batted his hand in the air. “Fine. But you tell Bianca that.”

As I left Towers’ office, I considered what I’d say to Bianca. I’d be straightforward and tell her the truth. I was hired to protect the CEO, and I was just doing my job.

When I turned the corner, I spotted her sitting at her desk, staring at the computer. She wore black-rimmed glasses and was biting the side of her bottom lip, concentrating on her screen.

The look made me smile. Bianca would bite her lip every time she backed up the car or parallel parked. I would make fun of her for it, but would always pull her bottom lip from her straightwhite teeth and kiss it. The urge to do so now was so strong that I found myself pressing my lips together.

She looked up from her computer and released her lip, leaving a mark on her red lipstick where her teeth had been.

“Hi,” she said, her voice soft.

“Hey.”

Neither of us moved, we just stayed perfectly still while something crackled in the air between us.

She was the first to speak. “Is there something you wanted?”

Yes.

“Um. Yeah. I came to tell you that we have to cancel all events for the foreseeable future.”

She blinked and tilted her head. “Are you serious?”

I nodded.

“But I have a big event planned next week. I’ve been planning it for months. I have The New York Times and The Washington Post correspondents attending. Do you know how hard it is to get them there?”

She blew out her breath and pushed her hair back. “Why?”

“Because of that package.”

“Yes. But can’t you do something to protect us without canceling the event?”

“Canceling the event is for everyone’s protection.”

She stared at me. “I just can’t believe I have to cancel.” She dropped her head into her hands and stared at her screen. “What am I going to do now?” she whispered.

She looked up at me with hope in her eyes. “What if the journalists all come here?” Despite the urge to give in to her request, I knew I couldn’t. “It would be difficult to check everyone’s background before the event, and what if someone’s clean, but their intentions are not,” I said.

“I can’t do my job if my team can’t promote this new launch.”

I wanted so badly to make her happy. There had to be another way. Perhaps there was. “Everyone is equipped to work remotely these days. Maybe you could do a virtual launch?”

Her face was blank at first, and then a brilliant smile crept over her lips. If I hadn’t seen it so many times before, it would have blown me over. As it was, I was having a hard time breathing.

“I’ve got an idea.” She started scribbling on the notepad next to her desk and was smiling to herself.

Something inside of me snapped. I knew better. Hell, I’d spent years fighting the feeling, and yet, in this moment when it was just her and me again and she smiled like that, I couldn’t resist.

“What are you doing later?” I asked.

She wrote furiously, and then after a couple of seconds, she looked up. “Sorry, did you say something?”

The words had spilled out of my mouth before, but now that I had time to think about what I’d said, I hesitated. “I was just curious if you still like to play pool.”

---