Page 21 of The Bombshell and the Bodyguard
“Why?”
There was a beat before he answered. “He reminded me I’d already put him in charge of another project, and no one else could handle it. It was his specialty.”
“And what’s your specialty.”
“Personal protection.”
“That means being a bodyguard, right?”
“Right, though I rarely take on details anymore.”
“Why not?”
“I spend most of my time these days running the business.”
“Who’s going to do that while you’re gone?”
He shrugged. “It’ll be fine. Viridian Security will survive.”
It didn’t escape my notice that Wilder was giving me short, impersonal answers, as if I was a stranger asking him to share his deepest, darkest secrets without even buying him a drink first.
Oh yeah, this was going to be areallyfun trip if all our conversations were as dry and stilted as this one. He was barely looking at me too, keeping his eyes down on the magazine he’d found onboard.
“You don’t have to do this, you know. I could just stay with Hap and Rachel for a while with some extra security guards until they arrest this guy.”
The jet began rolling down the runway, picking up speed in preparation for takeoff. Wilder finally brought his gaze up to meet mine.
“Yes, I do. Believe me, I wouldn’t be leaving behind my business and my life if it wasn’t completely necessary.”
Ouch.That stung. It was clear Wilder didn’t want to be here. He’d never been interested in spending any time with me, and now he was being forced to. Probably by my big brother.
“Hap made you do this, didn’t he? He guilt-tripped you into it.”
Wilder deigned to hold eye contact with me a moment before answering. “He asked me to, yes.”
“Well I don’t need a babysitter,” I snapped. “And I don’t need your charity.”
His lips twisted in a wry grin. “I’m being paid well enough. And even if I weren’t, I don’t need the money.”
Obviously misreading the source of my irritation, he said, “Don’t worry. They’ll find the guy and put him away. You’ll be back to your friends and boyfriends and your glamorous life soon enough. And I’m sure absence will only make the heart grow fonder where your adoring fans are concerned.”
No doubt he was right about that last part. Absence certainly hadn’t erased my feelings for Wilder. I was just as attracted to him as I’d been when we were teenagers, maybe even more so now that I was a woman, and he was a full-grown man.
“Look on the bright side,” he said. “Maybe you can turn the experience into another hit song and gain even more fans—that is if you can survive the boredom of being alone with me for a week or two.”
He laughed, the bright flash of his teeth against his tanned skin making my heart stutter and my brain fill with song lyrics about unrequited love.
No one had ever beenlessboring than this man. Or less available.
I woke as the plane descended, my ears popping from the change in altitude. We’d been flying for twenty-two hours.
Even from the air it was obvious we weren’t in the United States anymore. The scenery outside the jet’s windows looked tropical.
There were islands dotting a deep blue bay. A large modern-looking city came into view as we reached the mainland.
“Where are we?” I asked, sitting up and stretching.
“I’ll tell you when we’re off the plane,” Wilder said. “I don’t want to say anything until we’re a good distance from any electronic equipment.”
