Page 12 of Regally Binding

Suddenly, Strike’s booming voice started again. “You’re acting like you don’t remember what happened. I know what you’re like when you want someone. She’s out of bounds. She’s a bloody princess. We can’t get involved in her life, and I don’t need you bringing your saviour complex because you’re triggered. You owe me for what happened before, so no more of this shit, or both our careers are over.”

Liss itched to find out more, but suddenly, the door handle went down, and she bolted so they wouldn’t catch her eavesdropping.

Bear had history with his clients. Why would her life trigger him? Her attraction for him was undeniable, but he was probably like that with all women.

As she exited the toilet, she heard her name again “Where is Liss?” Strike shouted.

“I’m here,” Liss murmured as she returned to the room. Bear stood at the side, looking anywhere but at her. “What now?”

“We’re taking you somewhere private where we can keep you safe.”

Liss folded her arms and stared Strike down, or at least she would have if he wasn’t nearly two feet taller. “This is my home, and I’m not going anywhere. Besides, I’m working at the pub all day tomorrow, so I’m staying.”

Her skin heated as she caught Bear staring at her. She glowered at him, and he quickly looked away.

“Coward,” she mumbled under her breath.

“Deal with her,” Strike said. “I’ll sort out a safe location.”

Bear pulled up his shoulders as he stepped closer. He was using his bulk to intimidate her.

“Listen,” Bear said, standing close enough for Liss to see a chocolate bar poking out of his suit trousers. He was a modern-day Willy Wonka. “What happened outside is not how we do things. The lack of briefing from your grandma about what this entailed and that everyone knows where you live and work was a risk to you and us, too. We scope out places and know exactly what we’re facing, Felicity.”

Liss attempted to glare him into submission, but her neck ached as she craned to look at him. He was close enough to touch her, and as his dark eyes shone with power, a heat grew between her thighs. She fisted her hands and scowled.

“It was a shitshow that we won’t be repeating. You need a secure place that has more than one exit. You’ll brief us on your life and what information about you might be available besides what we already know.”

Bear had already embarrassed her with his comments about her date and underwear picture. He’d pour more scorn onto her embarrassing lack of social life and abysmal dating experiences. She needed to delete that underwear picture. A thickness filled her throat at the memory of sending it to someone who cared so little about receiving it.

“Are you listening to me?”

“I’m not telling you about my life.” Liss spied her phone on the dining table. She strode towards it. “But I will check my messages.”

Bear was right behind her. His heat was like a wall. Anger radiated off him. There was something satisfying about denying this man and making him lose control. She wasn’t like this with anyone else, yet with him—this virtual stranger—the temptation was too much.

As Liss picked up her phone, a message from an unknown number flashed on the screen.

She gasped, and the phone slipped out of her hand, clattering on the wooden floor.

Isla and Steve looked at her, but only Bear held her wide-eyed stare. Pain radiated through her stomach as if a stranger had reached through the phone and punched her. Liss struggled to pull in a breath.

“Liss?” Isla whispered.

Steve attempted to reach where the phone, now with a cracked screen, lay, but she snapped it up and thrust it at Bear with a shaking hand. “Okay, I’ll do whatever you say.”

Bear rubbed his forehead as he read the screen out loud.

Unknown:Your life is in danger. Give up the princess title, or there will be serious consequences. How do you want to die, Felicity?

Chapter Seven

Bear’s movement filled Liss’s blurring vision as he shouted for his colleague. Strike returned swiftly for a big man whose gait suggested, until now, that he carried himself slowly and purposefully like a killer from a nineties slasher movie. From their grunts and mumbles, the men appeared to be making a plan.

Liss’s legs barely held her up as she stood at the side of her sparse dining area even as Bear instructed her, “You need to pack now. We have a location that we’ve used before.”

Liss swallowed noisily. The temptation to argue was akin to eating a sugared doughnut while being told that you couldn’t lick your lips, but she resisted. Her safety was paramount.

“I’ll call when it’s safe. And I’ll get a car sent around, too,” Strike said to Bear. They weren’t consulting her. The latest punch of adrenaline dissipated into nothing, and exhaustion quickly replaced it. Liss slipped down the wall to collapse on the floor. Strike turned to Isla. “Can you come with me?”

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