Page 25 of The Reluctant Wife

I turn away from the window and, walking over to my bed, I throw myself down on it. "This is not the first time I’ve received them. Remember that stalker years ago in Verenza who the local police managed to track down?”

She nods.

“I would have dismissed this as something similar, only this time, the note was left on my pillow in my hotel room."

"Oh, my god!" Her eyes round. "In your hotel room?’

“Which is why Ryot insisted I move hotels to be safe.”

"Ryot?" Her forehead furrows.

"Ryot Davenport. His family owns the Davenport group. He’s loaded, and god knows, he doesn’t need to work for a living, but he’s a former Marine and now, he’s into this body-guarding business. Just my luck that my father trusts him."

"Ryot Davenport?" She seems taken aback. "My friend, June married his brother Knox. And another friend, Skylar married his other brother Nathan."

"Whoa, you know him?"

"Only what I heard from my friends." Her gaze is troubled. She seems like she wants to say something more but is stopping herself from doing so.

"What’s on your mind?" I search her features. "Out with it, Z."

She places the phone back on the counter and switches on the kettle. While it starts to boil, she moves away so the noisedoesn’t intrude on the conversation. "These Davenport men can be quite pushy."

"Tell me about it. The man has been making unilateral decisions on my behalf and informing me after the fact. It’s so annoying and yet"—I shake my head—"I can’t stop myself from admiring him for it. No one has ever ordered me around the way he has. And I find it hot, and for the life of me, I can’t understand why."

She gives me a funny look. "So, you hate him, but you also like him?"

I nod slowly. "I have conflicting feelings for him. It pisses me off when he decides something related to my security arrangement, and I have to fall in line. By the same token, I admire him for the fact that he does what he thinks is right and is not worried about being fired by me or my father. It helps that he doesn’t need the money. I can’t help but wonder if he’s doing it because he needs to feel a sense of responsibility?"

"Responsibility?" She turns back to her kettle and pours the hot water into her cup.

"He went to war out of duty for his country. Now, it seems, he’s transferred that duty to his 'principal.'" I make air quotes with my fingers. "I’m convinced he needs to be on some kind of a mission to feel alive."

"You seem to have spent a lot of time analyzing him…" Her lips curve in a smile.

"Only because the man’s swept into my life and played havoc with his security measures.” I make a face. “Then there’s the fact that I met him at a bar the night before he arrived."

"A bar?" She pauses with the cup halfway to her mouth. "You met him at a bar? Did something happen between the two of you?" She peers into my face.

When my cheeks heat, her jaw drops. "Somethingdidhappen.”

"It was only a kiss," I murmur.

Her eyes gleam. "You guys kissed?"

"So what?"

"So, you’re blushing." She smirks.

I toss my hair over my shoulder. "Fine. So, it was an amazing kiss. But it was before he became my bodyguard. He has since told me,clearly, we can’t be involved, since I'm his principal and it goes against his code of ethics to have any personal relationship with his clients. So"—I pop a shoulder—"can we talk about something else?"

"Sure." She nods. "Why don’t we talk about how you got to a bar? I thought you're not allowed to go to public places because it’s a security risk?"

I burrow further into my pillow. "My previous security team weren’t the smartest. It was easy for me to slip past them.”

She frowns. “Was it worth the risk?”

“If it means having an evening of freedom and experiencing what it means to be ‘normal’”—I make air quotes with my fingers— “then yes, it was worth it.”I also hoped I’d find someone I was truly attracted to—enough to lose my virginity.

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