“I could move in with you—”
“That’s not possible, Emily.” Kell’s voice was firm, determined. “We need to maintain the impression that the senator knows nothing about this threat for reasons of security. If you come to D.C. and go into hiding, they’ll suspect.”
She stared back at her nemesis. The bad boy in leather. God, she had to get rid of him. She could already feel her reaction to him blooming once again, heating her body, reminding her of the outrageous dance she had performed for him. Wanton, sexy. Letting the inner slut free hadn’t been hard, and she was terribly afraid there was no way to keep it locked up if she had to actually live with him.
“Emily. You can’t tell anyone why he’s here.” Her father sighed heavily, drawing her gaze back to him. “We have to maintain the secrecy of the information. You have to convince everyone he’s your lover.”
Emily cringed. He had said it again. Her father had said lover in regard to her and a man? Especially this man.
Wide-eyed, filled with shock, she stared back at him.
His lips twitched in sudden amusement. “I’m not that old, little girl,” he told her. “And I’m smart enough to know you likely know what the words mean too.”
Like hell. Geeze, how do you tell your father you’re still a twenty-five-year-old virgin? Especially when he was constantly sending big tall muscular agents and bodyguards to protect her and, hopefully, inhabit her bed?
She knew why he never sent female bodyguards. Just as she knew that each man he had sent had been personally vetted and handpicked as son-in-law potential.
Think, Emily. There has to be an answer here. No way could she live with a man she was dying to get her hands on. Especially this man. A man she had already dubbed the baddest of the bad boys. A man she knew she could never have yet had never been able to stop wanting.
“I could go stay with Aunt Betha,” she said then. “Only the devil himself would dare mess with her.”
Betha Alderman was a Boston lawyer with enough temper to scare even her father.
He was shaking his head. Okay, it wouldn’t be nice to involve Betha.
“You’re serious about this,” she said weakly.
“I’m afraid so, baby,” he said. “But don’t worry, Kell is a professional. This isn’t his first private security job. He’s protected presidents and foreign nationals. I’m sure he can keep up with you.”
Yeah, but how the hell was she supposed to keep up with him? She turned her gaze back to him, fighting to keep from revealing the fact that she had been up close and personal with him in ways she was certain her father would use to force the poor man to the altar.
How was she supposed to get out of this one, now? She couldn’t refuse the protection. Her father would never have planned this if he weren’t genuinely convinced she was in danger.
“I understand.” It was all she could do to push the words past her lips and to paste a friendly smile on her face as she glanced back at Kell Krieger. “If I remember correctly, he eats a lot though. I’ll have to stock up.”
Kell smiled. It wasn’t a smile for the faint of heart, it was pure male challenge, and that glimmer in those emerald eyes wasn’t just amusement, it was heat. Sexual heat. And she was woman enough to shake in her sandals.
“Emily.” Her father drew her gaze back to him. “I want you to promise me you’ll listen to Kell. No running off on your own for the hell of it. No strip clubs or dance clubs. Promise me you’ll let him keep you safe.”
She met his gaze straight on, letting him see the suspicion in her eyes that she could feel rising inside her. She didn’t know as much about the armed services as she probably should, she admitted, but some things weren’t adding up for her.
“Why are Navy SEALs involved in this instead of the Secret Service?” she finally asked as she rose to her feet and walked to the bar that separated the living room from the kitchen, then turned to face him. “I thought SEALs were a strike force.”
“We’re that as well,” Reno answered her. “We have the most experience with the Fuentes cartel, how they strike, and the men they use to strike with. We’re working with the Secret Service in D.C. with your father’s security, and there will be two Secret Service agents assigned as backup here. But this is an investigative operation as well as protection, hence the cover story.”
That made sense. She knew from the few things she had overheard from her father when she was younger that a SEAL team could follow a single investigation for years. It wasn’t a common occurrence, but it happened.
“Since when have I ever lied to you, Emily?” Her father rose from the sofa, a heavy scowl creasing his features as Reno finished his explanation.
“I didn’t say you were lying to me, Daddy.” She lifted her chin defiantly. “But we both know that you never tell me the whole story or the truth about the danger involved. Nine times out of ten you put those stupid bodyguards in my house based on nothing more than rumors and a hope of keeping me from doing whatever it is you’ve heard I’m about to do.”
She saw the surprise flicker in his gaze then. He thought she was so dimwitted that she had no idea what he was doing.
“You like to get into trouble,” he muttered, glancing at the three SEALs with ill-concealed discomfort.
She hated that accusation.
“I don’t get into trouble, Daddy.” Emily kept her voice smooth, even. She didn’t want to fight with him.