Chapter 9
S he was touching him!
She was touching the sexiest, most gorgeous man she’d ever seen. A shiver ran through her body as her skin felt like it was electric. Maya wanted more. She wanted him to wrap himself around her and never let go.
Swaying, she felt herself moving closer to him. It was like he had her under some sort of spell. Realizing what she was doing, she snatched her hand back.
Now she could never wash her hand again.
Idiot.
Taking a deep breath in, she let it out slowly.
“It’s nice to meet you, Maya.”
She nodded without looking up at him. If she tried to glance into that gorgeous face of his she knew that she’d be stumbling over her words and embarrassing herself.
Like she had yesterday.
She’d consoled herself yesterday by saying that she wouldn’t have to see him again.
Who knew he’d turn up in her family home?
And now he was going to be her bodyguard? This was . . . it wasn’t even something that she could make up.
What the heck was she going to do with him? How could he be her bodyguard if she couldn’t even look at him . . . could barely speak to him?
She just had to get out of here. Then maybe she could breathe a bit better. Could think.
“We need to talk about what you’re going to do,” her dad said. “How you will protect my daughter.”
“We can also help you find who is threatening you,” Ink said.
“No, no,” her dad said. “My detectives have that under control. Your focus should be Maya and her protection.”
“Understood,” Ink said. “But if you need our help we are here.”
“Good,” her dad said. “Now, how are you going to protect my daughter?”
“I’ll be staying with her night and day,” Matthieu said. “She won’t be out of my sight at any time. But I will need regular updates into the case.”
“Of course,” one of the other men said. “I’m Marlin. Maya’s older brother. I can keep you up-to-date on what’s going on. You will also need to contact me if anything occurs.”
Matthieu nodded.
Wait.
Did he say that she would stay in his sight at all times? Did that mean he was planning on . . . on living with her?
Oh no.
Why hadn’t she thought this through properly?
Why had she agreed to having him as her bodyguard? This was . . . this wasn’t going to work.
She had to somehow get rid of him. He was a better choice than Vince. But that wasn’t saying much. A venomous spider would be a better choice than Vince.
“I have to get home.” She had to get back to her babies. She had been gone too long and it was making her anxious.
Not to mention that she just couldn’t spend any longer with these people.
“Home? What do you mean you have to get home?” her father demanded.
“My babies. I have to go and check on them.”
“Your babies? Really, Maya. This is more important than your little pet projects,” Kathryn said.
Pet projects?
Her babies weren’t her pet projects. They were her life. She scowled at Kathryn.
“You need to take this seriously, Maya,” her father said.
“I am taking this seriously, which is why I agreed to a bodyguard. But I really have to get home. I . . .” She hesitated, staring at her father. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, Dad. Please be careful.”
She rushed out of there, ignoring several voices that called out to her. Maybe it was wrong or rude, but she just couldn’t stay there anymore.
Getting outside, she headed to her car.
“That’s the last time you do that.”
The voice behind her made her cry out and she jumped into the air. Turning, she found him behind her.
Come on, Maya.
Reach for that shield.
But it just didn’t come. She had no idea why.
He was the kryptonite to her sass.
So instead her gaze went to his chest and stayed there. “What?”
“That’s the last time you run off without me. I’m your bodyguard. That means I need a body to guard. I can’t do that if you’re running away without me.”
“So . . . I . . . um . . . I should . . . runwithyou.”
God.
She was an idiot. Her words were running together in an effort to get them out.
“Yes, you should run with me, Sassy.”
“I’m . . . I’m not . . . I’m not sassy,” she told him.
She couldn’t help but feel a sting of hurt. A lot of people thought she was rude. But that was how she protected herself. If she didn’t allow people close, then they couldn’t leave her or let her down.
But for some reason she didn’t want this man to think she was rude. In fact, it did more than sting, it buried its way in deep.
“Relax,” he told her in that low, soothing voice.
It was like he was wrapping her in a warm blanket, in front of a cozy fire, and feeding her toasted marshmallows.
It was kind of ridiculous and she didn’t know why. But then ridiculous kind of summed up her interactions with him to date.
“It was just a nickname. And it wasn’t meant to have negative connotations.”
No negative connotations?
“It’s not another word for brat?” she asked, actually managing to get her words out for a change.
“Sassiness can be cute and funny as long as it’s not mean or hurtful. And I don’t think you are either of those latter things.”
Oh.
Wow.
Maya didn’t know what to say.
“But I won’t use Sassy again. Not if it hurts you. I don’t want to hurt you, Maya.”
Wow. Again.
She had a feeling she was going to think that a lot about this man. There was a lot of wow about him.
But what really hit her was the fact that he didn’t want to hurt her. It might sound crazy, but the people in that house didn’t care about hurting her.
All they cared about was themselves.
This man was a stranger. And right away he told her that?
Yeah.
Wow.
“It . . . it’s okay. Maybe . . . maybe . . . I overreacted.”
“No. It’s not an overreaction if it causes hurt. I was in the wrong.”
She sucked in a breath.
Do not cry.
How had he pierced her battle armour so easily? It was terrible and kind of scary.
There was a beat of silence.
“Can you look at me?”
Oh no. That wasn’t happening. She shook her head; she was out of words for the moment.
“Hmm. You think at some stage you might be able to look at me and talk to me at the same time?”
Another shake of her head.
He made a low noise of amusement. “Okay, Maya. For the moment we’ll have our conversations with you looking at my chest. Or lower.”
Lower?
What did he mean?
Oh, good Lord. What was she doing? Maya closed her eyes and raised her head frantically as she realized that her gaze had dropped.
She’d been staring at his crotch.
Not consciously. Or, at least, that’s what she told herself. It had been an accident.
She knew she’d gone bright red, her cheeks were hot, and no doubt she resembled a tomato.
“I need to go home.”
“I have my car. I’ll drive home behind you. Don’t lose me.”
“You . . .” she swallowed heavily. Come on, Maya. Get it together. “You’re really going to . . . to stay . . . withme?”
Again, the last two words came out quickly as one.
He was going to think she was an idiot.
She thought she was one. It was bad enough the way she’d acted yesterday, but now he was coming home with her.
“I am,” he said firmly. “We can talk once we get you home since that seems to be important to you. Yes?”
“Yes,” she replied as that urgency returned. “I have to get home.”
“Are you going to be all right to drive?”
Why wouldn’t she be? She was always all right to drive. Who was going to do it for her?
“Of course.”
“Of course,” he repeated for some reason. Then his hand wrapped around hers.
Again.
Why did he keep doing that?
It’s only the second time he’s done it, Maya. It’s not like he’s been suddenly overcome by your beauty and cannot resist touching you.
Overcome by her beauty.
Ha! She was cracking herself up now.
“You’re shaking,” he pointed out.
She was?
Shoot. It was a response to dealing with her family. This always happened. She had to psych herself up first and it took a lot of energy to maintain her shields, to ensure that she didn’t mess up and show any sign of weakness.
Showing weakness in front of her family was a death sentence.
“Just cold,” she explained.
Hey, she got that out without fumbling over her words.
Go her!
“Do you get cold a lot?” he asked, grasping hold of her hand with his other hand as well.
Now he had two hands touching her! This might be more than her system could handle.
System overload.
Abort.
But when she tried to tug her hand free, he just held on. Why wouldn’t he let her go?
Maybe he likes touching you.
She glanced up at the sky.
“Maya? What are you looking for?”
“Flying pigs,” she muttered without thought.
“How does me asking if you get cold often relate to flying pigs?” he asked.
“Um, it doesn’t.”
“So?” he asked.
So what? She moved her gaze to his neck. Wow, look at her getting brave.
His neck was really sexy, though. She didn’t know that a neck could be sexy.
But his was.
It was tanned and strong. You could tell it wasn’t a weak neck. No fat neck for Matthieu. She’d always thought that Vince was kind of lacking in the neck department.
Actually, Vince was lacking in a lot of ways. His neck was really the least of his issues.
“Maya?” he questioned.
“Vince doesn’t have a neck,” she blurted out.
Hey! More words that she didn’t stumble over or run together.
She was starting to get used to him. Thank goodness.
“All right, how does you getting cold, flying pigs, and Vince’s neck all relate to each other?” he asked.
That was a really good question. And one she didn’t have the answer to right now.
“Umm. Ineedtogethome.”
Drat! Just when she thought she had herself together . . . bam! Her words went all crazy.
This was terrible.
“This won’t work!” she cried.
“Hey, calm down. Maya. Calm down.”
She shook her head.
“Close your eyes.”
Whoa.
He hadn’t used that voice before. Up until now, she’d heard him sound calm, concerned, and slightly bewildered.
But never . . . firm.
He was still calm. Still slightly concerned. But definitely firm.
And she couldn’t help but take notice.
Darn it.
How the heck did he do that?
“That’s a good girl.”
You do not like that. No. Nope. You don’t like that at all.