KELL STARED AT THE CLOSED bathroom door and let a frown work across his brow. She was scared. He had seen it in her eyes when she ran from him, had heard it in her voice. But it wasn’t the fear of a woman who sensed physical danger, it was the fear of a woman facing something unknown, something uncertain.
He shook his head, his lips tightening at the memory of her voice when she had begged the senator to take him off the assignment. The cry of a child to its father, a plea for understanding, and evidently the senator hadn’t bothered to heed that cry.
The senator had never heeded her cries though. He had told her to “buck up,” he had encouraged her to dry the tears and work harder. He was proud of her. Confused by her. But in the end, he did as he wanted, not as Emily needed.
SHAKING HIS HEAD, HE STEPPED back from her doorway, closing the door gently behind him as his hands clenched around the silk and lace panties. He had to fight to keep from bringing the soft material to his face, to restrain himself from drawing the scent of peaches and cream into his head. If she thought she was getting them back, she was wrong. But he would see her in them again. And he promised himself he would pull them off with nothing but his teeth and devour the silky sweet flesh they covered.
As he moved through the living room the cell phone at his belt rang demandingly to the tune of AC/DC’s “Hells Bells.” Grinning, he pulled it from the holder, checked the number coming through then flipped it open.
“Good evening, Senator,” he answered.
“What the hell is going on?” the other man snarled into the phone. “You haven’t been alone with her an hour and she called me nearly in tears begging for a replacement. What the hell did you do to her?”
“We’re just getting our ground rules established, Richard,” he assured the senator calmly. “She’s a little upset over it.”
“Don’t try to pull shit over my eyes, son, I’m not a fool.”
“No, you’re not,” Kell answered firmly. “You’re a father answering to your daughter’s anger. If you want me off this assignment I understand that.” Like hell. “But as long as I’m on it, then I’ll protect her as I see fit.”
“Did you hurt her?”
“Do you really need to ask me that question?”
He could hear the silence in the background, he could practically hear the senator’s mind churning.
“Emily is an intelligent, cunning woman. We both know that,” Kell said then. “She twists her bodyguards around her little finger as easily as she would a ribbon. She’s frighteningly brave, as she proved today at the strip club and in the excursions she’s dragged her bodyguards into. I won’t be conned, twisted, or convinced to let her endanger herself needlessly. It will take us a few days to establish the ground rules, but once we do, she’ll settle in fine.”
That was his story and he was sticking to it.
The senator remained silent. Kell followed suit. He checked the patio door locks, then the windows, working his way through the house and into the room he had been assigned.
“She’s a good girl,” the senator finally said softly. “Her feelings are easily hurt. Don’t run roughshod over her, Kell. You could hurt her more than any of the others. She’s always been infatuated with you.”
And strangely enough, the senator had never pushed that infatuation and he had never pushed Kell toward her.
“I don’t run over anyone, Richard. I simply convince them of my way.”
Senator Stanton grunted at the comment. “If she calls me again, I’ll consider her request. Whatever you’re doing, fix it.”
“You promised no interference,” Kell reminded him.
“That was before the woman who’s already halfway in love with you called, nearly in tears, begging for something she’s never begged for before. Fix it, Krieger, and do it gently. Or we’ll have words. And you don’t want that.”
He would prefer to avoid them, but he could handle it.
“That’s your choice, Richard,” he finally answered as politely as he could. “Just let me know when I need to pack and I can be ready to roll. Until then, please refrain from calling to take me to task over your daughter’s anger. It’s detrimental to the assignment and creates a tension neither of us needs.”
“Lieutenant Krieger, you are testing my patience.”
“And you should remember how well I excel at testing everyone’s patience,” he pointed out. “I guess you’ll just have to forgive me for it again.”
“You better hope I do,” he snapped. “Now fix this. And that’s a damned order.”
The call disconnected as Kell shook his head on a wry smile. Dealing with the father might turn out to be more trouble than dealing with the daughter.
He laid the lacy panties on the dresser by the door, turned to the duffel bags, and began to unpack. The weapons went close to the bed, with the holstered back-up weapon strapped to the top of his lace-up work boots and the legs of his jeans covering it.
The Glock he normally carried on his belt was tucked into the bedside table, the automatic rifle and extra ammo pushed beneath the bed.