9. Viktoria
9
VIKTORIA
“ M mmmmmmmm ,” I drew out an unrepentant moan, licking the decadent sauce off my fingers. I’d eaten ribs once before—in a five-star restaurant, with a knife and fork—but Lee had snatched the silverware away when I’d tried to pick it up, mumbling something about sacrilege through a mouthful of fries. I’d been mad at first, but the second the succulent meat hit my tongue, I forgot my anger and dove right in. Literally. I could feel that I had sauce on my cheeks, and I didn’t care.
Lee paused with his hamburger halfway to his mouth, goggling as I licked my lips. “I feel like I should be paying admission to this show.” He bit into the oversized sandwich, then chewed. “You realize you’ve got sauce on your ear, right?”
I chuckled and shrugged. Eating out in public like this, in a no-name diner in a no-name town, was surreal. No one but the waitress seemed to pay us any attention, and, for a moment, I felt like someone else. Not the heir to a billion-dollar international corporation working myself to the bone. Not even my father’s daughter, fighting for his approval. I could be anyone to the other patrons. A farmer. A student. Lee’s girlfriend.
Whoa. Back away from the crazy . I’d only just met the man, and he was still a heathen. Except when he wasn’t. He hadn’t acted that way for the past few hours, and I had to admit that back at the start, when he’d been at his worst, I’d been prickly, myself. No, Lee had admitted when he’d been wrong. Treated me with respect, even mid-squabble. He hadn’t even gloated when he had every right. He wasn’t so much a heathen as…a warrior. Obviously, he was a skilled fighter—he’d knocked out the copilot with no trouble at all—but even now, in a relaxed setting, I could see the weight of all the training he carried.
Lee had requested the last booth in the row. He’d put his back to the wall so he could see the whole restaurant and out the window to the street beyond. He kept scanning the diner and out the windows, like he expected a threat to pop out from nowhere.
“I’ve tried to give you space,” he said, “but I have to ask.” His feline eyes settled on me. “Do you know who’s after you? Any reason why someone would want to kidnap you?”
I’d been waiting for the question, but that didn’t mean I had a good answer. “I’m honestly not sure.” I pulled my ribs apart, mostly to give my hands something to do. “It could be anyone. The company, my father especially, is very powerful, and our latest deal hasn’t helped. We’ve netted some enemies along the way.” Dropping the ribs on my plate, I met his serious gaze. “Some of those enemies have good reason to hate us. We’ve stepped on their turf. Put them out of business. Others just want what we’ve got. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to worry about traveling outside of my country.”
Lee’s head canted slightly to the side. “You landed an impressive punch on that copilot.”
Pride filled my chest, but I hid my smile by sucking sauce off my thumb.
“You really rang his bell,” Lee continued. The left side of his mouth twitched. “I’m assuming you’ve had some training defending yourself. What all did it include?”
“I can handle a handgun,” I said, just as the waitress appeared with a pitcher of water. I waited for her to finish refilling our glasses and move to the next table before continuing. “I can’t say I’m anywhere close to the level of an Army sniper, but I can hit the man shape on the paper target. Luckily, I’ve never had to use one outside the shooting range.” I picked up a rib, but didn’t take a bite. “In high school, I had hand-to-hand self-defense training, but I’ve let those skills get rusty.” A shot of embarrassed anger zinged through my veins. “I will be rectifying that when I get home. I should’ve been able to break free and knock him out.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” Lee put his burger down. “I thought you did great. You fought back, giving me time to reach you.” He leaned forward. “I’ve seen people so overcome with fear they practically curl into a ball and cry. But not you.”
My toes curled at the smile spreading across his handsome face, and my heart warmed at his approval. “I can also fence.”
“Really?” Lee grinned, eyes twinkling. “If we’re ever accosted by goons with rapiers, I’m hiding behind you. You can save us.”
Just picturing Lee cowering behind me while I dueled made me laugh so hard, the sound bounced off the windows. The booth across from us, filled with road crew workers still in their neon vests, stopped eating and stared, but I didn’t care. This moment, this venture into town with Lee was something special.
Lee plucked a rib off my plate and saluted me with it.
I stole a French fry from his and swished it a few times like a sword, making his laughter deepen. God, I was coming to crave that sound. My fantasy rekindled, and I imagined this being my life—this or something like it. Something quiet, domestic. Lee could be a policeman, and I’d work as a…a manager at the bank. He’d still protect people, and I’d still handle business, but it would all be on a smaller scale, and we’d be financial equals.
“What’s wrong?” Lee asked, jolting me back to reality.
“Nothing.” I waved a hand to erase the fantasy. The images disappeared, but a residue of emotion remained. Lee was burrowing into my heart, and I didn’t mind one bit. But I knew I should. The real world still existed outside this bubble—Father, our business…my life, in all its desperate hustle. Soon, it would rush in, and my bubble would burst.
Standing on the sidewalk outside the diner, I peered at Lee. “Will you tell me what happened to you?”
He frowned without turning, still scanning the street. “What do you mean?”
Threading my arm through his, I pulled him back toward where we’d parked, near the center of Main Street. The contact made me shiver, but I forced myself to focus. “You mentioned you were an Army Ranger. They’re part of your military’s Special Forces, right?”
He nodded, his muscles tensing under my hold.
“Relax.” I boldly rubbed his bicep. “I’m not going to ask for any dark secrets. I just want to learn more about you.”
Lee didn’t relax, exactly, but his body loosened a bit.
“I know you were a sniper—which sounds badass, by the way—and your teammates called you Puma.” I ticked through the short list of Lee facts I’d gleaned. “But why did you leave? What made you become a bodyguard?”
He snorted. “It wasn’t a life goal, believe me.”
I waited, lifting my face to the breeze. Lee pulled free of my hold and put a small distance between us.
“I don’t talk about why I left.”
Taking a gamble, I remained silent. Verbally prompting Lee to continue might make him feel cornered. I hoped the silence would give him the mental space to decide he was comfortable sharing with me after all. I wanted to learn as much about him as I could.
He inhaled, then exhaled. “I don’t come from a wealthy family,” he began, his voice low and flat. “I had no college fund at my disposal, so I followed my two older brothers’ examples and enlisted right after high school.”
He had my entire focus as we strolled down the street.
“Chance, my oldest brother, became a Navy SEAL. Harris, our middle brother, was a Marine Raider. That’s their Special Forces, like the SEALs or the Rangers.”
“I’m seeing a pattern of overachievers,” I teased, bumping his arm.
Lee’s mouth quirked. “You don’t know the half of it. Turns out, we had an uncle who was an admiral in the Navy.”
“‘Turns out?’” I repeated. “That’s an odd way of putting it. Didn’t you know your uncle?”
He shook his head. “He and our dad were estranged. My brothers and I didn’t even know about him until we found some old letters from him after Dad died.”
I blinked, taken aback. “Have you been in touch with him since then?”
“Not an option,” Lee said. “He passed about four years ago. Chance lives locally so he’s been following up, trying to find out more about him. Not sure what he expects to find. I don’t see much point in digging into the past.”
“Not even your own?” I pressed. “You still haven’t told me your story.”
“Noticed that, did you?” He flashed me a smile, but it looked strained. “I served ten years in the Army, eight of them as a Ranger. I planned on making a career of it, but…” His muscles stiffened. “My last mission went sideways, and that was that.”
My stomach turned. I steered Lee to a wood-and-wrought-iron bench, under the shade of a silver maple. Perching on the edge, I waited for him to sit beside me before asking, “What happened?”
Lee opened his mouth, then closed it again. The small sounds of town life punctuated the air—the low hum of traffic, pedestrians drifting by, and occasional shop bells chiming up and down the street.
Lee’s jaw ticked, and he surveyed the street, studying everything and everyone but me for so long, I realized he wasn’t going to answer. Disappointed, I started to rise, but Lee began speaking again in that low voice. He spoke without inflection and without emotion, like he was reciting a mission report. “As the unit’s dedicated sniper, it was my responsibility to protect my brothers-in-arms as they rescued the hostages we were tasked with saving.” He turned and looked at me, but I didn’t think he saw me at all. “My unit was infiltrating a terrorist cell set up in a warehouse in an urban area. I’d set up a hide on a roof across the street. I was watching the warehouse, so I never turned around. Never saw the men with the pipe bomb loaded with scrap.”
I sucked in air and grasped his forearm.
“They threw it up on the roof,” he continued, his voice even lower. “The AC unit kept me from being torn apart. But I got shrapnel in my right eye.” I studied his eyes. They looked perfectly normal. Gorgeous, even.
“It’s my dominant eye,” Lee said. “The one I relied on to target the enemy. But it no longer has perfect vision, so it no longer meets the standards for an Army sniper.”
He shrugged and seemed to come out of his trance. His voice lightened and he settled his sunglasses back in place. “I didn’t want to learn any other specialty, so I took medical retirement. Boom hired me as a bodyguard, and here we are.”
He stood, and I rose with him, brimming with respect and new understanding.
“Did your unit succeed?” I ached to touch him, but I kept my hands to myself. “Did you rescue the hostages?”
“Yes, ma’am.” A wide grin spread across his handsome face. “A Ranger never fails his comrades. That’s in the creed and everything.”
I laughed as I figured he wanted me to. With every passing minute, he became more and more fascinating.
“We should head back,” he said.
“Not yet.” I didn’t want this magical time in No-Name Town to end. I held up my clasped hands, pantomiming begging. “Please?”
He chuckled. “You look good begging.”
I playfully slapped his arm, and his grin widened. Plucking his phone from his back pocket, he tapped on its face. “Mike says we’re still waiting on the copilot.” He peered up and down the street, then sighed. “I’m not sure what else there is to do here.”
Yes! “What about the theater?” I asked, pointing at the old-fashioned building down the street. “We could see a movie.”
His attention shifted to the movie palace. It looked like a relic from the 1930s.
“I’ve always wanted to go to one of those classic theaters,” I said, hoping Lee might feel the same way. He frowned, reluctant, but he surprised me.
“Fine. We can take a look, but it could be closed down.”
Uncharacteristically, I wanted to clap like a little girl when I spied a teenager in the ticket booth and start times beside the titles.
“I haven’t heard of any of these,” Lee murmured, staring at the list of three movies and hooking his sunglasses into the collar of his shirt.
“Neither have I,” I answered, narrowly refraining from taking his arm again. “But I still want to go in.”
Lee paid for tickets for the movie that’d started a few minutes ago, seeing as the next one didn’t begin for an hour. We entered the third auditorium and found ourselves alone. I adjusted my weight to keep from wobbling as the floor angled downward along the left aisle. A black and white advertisement was playing on the screen, for some old product I’d never heard of. The nostalgic jingle only piqued my excitement.
Following Lee to the center of a random row, I plopped onto the navy-cushioned seat and leaned against the armrest toward Lee. I caught the scent of his soap, strong and heady, and a sudden confession sprang from my lips. “I daydreamed about this when I was a teen. Well, not this, exactly, but…you know. Making out with a boy during a movie.”
A sinful chuckle rumbled against my arm. I felt my nipples harden, and I took a deep breath.
Loud, dramatic music blared from the speakers mounted high on the walls, and the movie began to play.
Lee shifted in his seat, but his hands remained stubbornly by his sides.
I peeked at him out of the corner of my eye, at his thick forearm resting on his thigh. Should I take his hand? Run my nail down his bicep? Would that be enough of a hint that my statement had been an invitation?
He spread his legs, his knee bumping against mine in the process. I waited for him to pull back, but he didn’t. He left his leg there, and I reveled in the contact.
Since when have you been subtle when there’s something you want? I leaned up and laid a hand against his cheek. Soft stubble tickled my palm as I turned him to face me.
“Viktoria,” he growled, placing a hot hand on top of mine. “I’m on a razor’s edge here. I’m not supposed to touch you, and I for damn sure am not allowed to kiss you.”
“Who’s going to know? I promise I won’t tell.” I closed the distance between us and planted a soft kiss on the side of his neck. He shivered, and his fingers spasmed over mine. Emboldened, I traced my tongue along his jawline, lapped at his ear, kissed my way down his neck. He tasted tangy, salty.
“Jesus,” he whispered, his muscles hardening to granite.
“Kiss me, Lee,” I ordered, practically climbing onto his lap. “Or I will kiss you.”
Calloused fingers slid up the back of my neck. Lee grasped my ponytail and jerked my head back. His mouth found the space where my neck met my shoulder, and he gently bit down, hot breath on my skin. Exquisite bliss blacked my vision as he followed up with his tongue.
“More,” I moaned, riding the waves of electricity pulsing inside me.
Winding my ponytail around his palm, he tilted my head one way, then the other, as if to show me he was in control. I allowed it, eager to see what he’d do next.
He didn’t disappoint. Leaning into my space, he maneuvered me to face him, then claimed my mouth. I couldn’t describe it any way but claimed . Oh God, I wanted him. I melted beneath his onslaught, fire coursing through my veins. Lee grunted deeply as his tongue drove inside, dueling with mine, coiling the tension inside me tighter.
I pushed his shirt up roughly and slid my hand underneath the material, cupping the swell of his muscular pec. He groaned and shifted, and I flicked his hard nipple.
“Keep that up,” he muttered, his voice gone hoarse, “and I’ll flick you back.”
I did it again.
His throaty chuckle made me squirm and flick him a third time.
On the screen, a vase shattered, and a bright light caught my eye—not from the screen, but somewhere behind me. Lee stiffened and yanked his hands off me, twisting toward the back of the theater. That light flashed again, and I saw it had come from the doors opening.
Two men strolled down the aisles, one on the right, the other on the left. One found a seat just behind the row Lee and I had claimed, the other took a seat near the front, by the fire exit. I shifted to face the screen again. My heart was pounding, and I fought the urge to giggle. What a rush! We’d almost been caught.
Wait . We’d almost been caught. A cold dose of reality doused the fire of Lee’s kiss. I’d dedicated my entire life to the pursuit of one goal—perfection. To being the perfect daughter, the perfect businesswoman. The perfect negotiator. The perfect everything . I’d never done anything to compromise that. Now, here I was, risking everything for a fumble with a man I’d just met. If those men had come in a few seconds earlier, if they’d been paparazzi, or even just curious, they could have snapped pictures of me and Lee in a compromising position?—
Lee leaned in close and nuzzled my ear.
I stiffened, and I moved to push him away. Lee grabbed my hand roughly and forced something into it. I felt cold metal against my palm, and I froze, needing a second to realize he’d handed me his gun. What the ? —
“Don’t pull the trigger,” he murmured, “unless you absolutely have to.” His breath kissed my ear, shooting electricity straight between my thighs, on top of the fear heightening my senses.
“You have a bullet in the chamber,” he said. “Safety’s already off. Point and shoot only as a last resort.”
Panic washed out the lust, and I swallowed. Shifting to peek behind me, I realized the two men had positioned themselves to cover the exits.