Chapter Eight #2
Liam settled back in his chair and extended his jean-clad legs under the table until he was framing Devon’s calves with a shin on either side.
She could feel his warmth right through the denim and the large muscles flexed against her, drawing all of her attention to the solidity of them.
For some reason, it sent chills up both of her legs.
She hid a shiver under the guise of sipping her tea, but she knew Carter would feel it regardless.
She wished he’d remove his hand from her neck.
She didn’t want to correct his behavior in front of Liam any more than was necessary. It wouldn’t do for this to become—
“Devon, really! Are you going to let this … this …”
Devon’s eyes snapped up, freezing whatever disparagement was forthcoming from Carter’s lips with her look alone.
She reached up and brushed away his hand with annoyance.
“Be very careful what you say, Carter,” she warned him icily.
“You know how I feel about that. Will you please give him the smart phone?”
Carter shifted narrowed eyes from Liam to Devon and back again.
Devon saw his nose twitch tellingly and it was all she could do to suppress a growl of dominance to kick his ass back in line where it damn well belonged.
How dare he! Sniffing around to see if she and Liam were combining scents!
As if that would have anything to do with the matter!
If Carter thought that taking a human lover would lead to her falling under the influence of that human, well, then he didn’t know a damn thing about her.
After so many years. It was all she could do to see straight, she was so incensed.
Beneath the table, she felt Liam’s legs press against hers, a covert sort of hug that brought her attention back to him with a start. He had a lazy expression on his face, his lips quirked up on one side.
And just like that her anger was gone. She didn’t understand why, but his amusement over the entire exchange knocked her temper off at the knees.
Suddenly she felt relieved, as though finally there was something she could allow someone else to worry about for her.
Liam was doing exactly what she had hired him to do. What she had hoped he could do.
He was helping her breathe. He could have easily turned this into a pissing contest with Carter, and Carter was clearly willing despite his age and supposed maturity. But Liam had no desire to prove who was in charge.
He already knew who was in charge.
Apparently, Carter caught up with that understanding a few seconds later when he grumbled, “At least allow me a few hours to back things up and remove my personal business from it.”
“Of course. No one is out to disturb your privacy, Carter,” she said easily, though she could feel the fleeting tension in Liam against her legs. “Turn it over to Liam by five. I’m sure he only means to secure it.”
“Whatever makes you safer, Devon,” Spencer said stiffly before he pecked her on the cheek again and left the room.
Liam watched the small demonstration of affection with dark, brooding eyes.
He decided instantly that he didn’t like Spencer behaving so familiarly with Devon.
He hardly thought Devon was the type of woman to be so casually affectionate with her employees.
She placed definitive boundaries on those in her sphere, pigeonholing them into certain behaviors and acceptable interactions, and she made it quickly clear what she expected from an individual.
She had certainly made it clear to Liam that she was breaking all rules where he was concerned, and it hardly even fazed her.
From the start she had scattered personal boundaries between them to the four winds.
“You have a talent for that, don’t you?” he asked, picking up his coffee cup. His headache had faded already, only a dull throb in the back of his neck remaining. He stretched out the small kinks that yet remained as he spoke.
“For what?”
“Taking care of multiple problems in one fell swoop. You got me that smart phone, avoided Spencer meeting a horrible death at my hands, and got him out of the room posthaste.” He grinned devilishly. “I’m impressed.”
“Really, Liam,” she scolded sternly. But he saw her hide her smile behind her teacup and her amusement was sparkling in her eyes. “I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed being in the middle of a pissing contest.” She was serious now. “I’d like it if you and Carter could find a way to be civil.”
“You might help me out with that by telling me if Carter Spencer is a Morphate.”
Her movements quieted noticeably, a single fingertip touching the edge of her cup thoughtfully. “Why? What difference would that make to you?”
“It means I will know what to shoot him with if he turns out to be a threat to you.” Liam held up a hand to stay her automatic protest. “I’m not making snap judgments, trust me.
I will do a great deal of research on everybody who comes anywhere near you.
Equal opportunity suspicion, I promise.” He laid his hand over his heart and aimed that troublesome smile at her again.
Devon sighed a soft laugh, resisting an urge to throw something at him because he so easily confused her feelings.
“Tell me who in this house is Morphate and who is human, Devon. I’ll have Colin leave a list of names with you and you can return it to me later. ”
“I don’t know if I like this request, Liam,” she said with a dark frown. “It seems so …”
“What it is, Devon, is caution and logic. I’m not going to pussyfoot around your hang-ups with racism.
Morphates can only be killed with irradiated mercury and I want to know how to kill your maid, your butler, and your damn poodle before the day is out.
You understand? Anything that can hurt you, I have to know how to hurt first. It’s as simple as that.
And if you’re worried about that pompous ass you call a secretary, you damn well ought to be, because he is high on my list already. ”
“Just because he is being careless with his smart phone doesn’t give you cause to suspect him! Or is it because he’s careless and a Morphate?”
“I suspect him because I was standing next to him in a room with at least five others when I learned enough about you to find plenty of opportunity in which to kill you.” He ticked examples off on his fingertips.
“I know you’re going to Milan in October.
That you’ll be attending the runways in Paris for the new fashions.
Oh, and you’re giving a charity speech at the Crescent Foundation Ball in November.
Screw the smart phone, Devon. The idiot is blabbing your private schedule from here to Timbuktu because he’s a thoughtless, bragging piece of shit who makes himself sound better than he is just because he’s riding your sexy little coattails. ”
Devon had visibly paled, her bottle green gaze turning quickly contrite. “I see,” she said softly. “I hadn’t realized. I apologize.”
“Stop apologizing. All I’m saying is it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.
As soon as possible. I know it generally sucks when you trust someone and that person makes mistakes, but your life is in danger, Devon.
Mistakes cannot be forgiven right now, and they cannot be ignored as potential threats in disguise.
“Someone is making it easy for your enemies to find you. You were out of the house for barely three hours this most recent night you were attacked. I know we weren’t followed by any conventional means, so how did an assassin find you so easily?
Unless they knew your schedule in advance, I can’t figure it out.
And as sharp as their senses are, Morphates can’t track without following a path.
We would’ve seen them. You would have seen them.
Sensed them.” He sighed heavily. “I’m going to have your phone lines secured.
You ought to use landlines only. It’s easier than you think to trace cell calls.
Keep the cell with you always though. Even in the house.
You never know when you might need it and I want you to get in the habit. ”
“This is impossible!” Devon jerked herself out of her chair, her hands slamming down on the tabletop.
China bounced and clattered as she flung herself away, marching over to the windows so she could look outside.
“I can handle inconvenience, Liam, but they will win this war if I become paralyzed by fear.”
“Not paralyzed. Cautious,” Liam corrected as he quickly came up behind her.
His large hands engulfed her shoulders, sending warmth up over her neck and down her arms until she shivered.
She felt his face gently nuzzling the top of her head and she forced herself to resist the urge to lean back into his strength.
She had a long, dangerous road ahead of herself, and she couldn’t afford to depend on anyone.
Especially not a human. He’d already risked death once thanks to her overconfident behavior.
“My freedom is being destroyed, and it will only get worse,” she whispered, her pain tightening Liam’s insides like wet leather left in the sun. “Whoever is targeting me is only the first to know about these weapons. Imagine when other Morphates begin to find out what I’ve done.”
Liam sighed, long and low, knowing she was probably right.
He couldn’t resist the urge to pull her back against himself, one of his arms crossing her chest from shoulder to shoulder.
She reached up to clasp his forearm, accepting his comfort though she wouldn’t look away from the view outside the windows.
“Believe me, we’re going to make it clear to your enemies that you are off-limits. Once you make a mark on them, everyone else will think three times before facing you down. Then, after the weapons enter mainstream production, there will be nothing they can do about it.”