3
Riggs
After two days as his bodyguard, I was ready to throttle my principal my own damn self.
I was also covered in more sweat and filth than I’d been on my worst day ever in Afghanistan.
The duchess, meanwhile, seemed as pristine as the moment we’d landed, of course—and unfairly fucking gorgeous, not that that mattered. But then again, he hadn’t been the one schlepping all of the supplies on and off buses, up and down half-broken stairs, and into a stifling storage room at the back of the small medical building where we’d be spending the next month of our lives.
No, that privilege had been all mine ever since he’d brilliantly pulled the “grandfather card” on me. It was a card he’d been slapping down at least once an hour since we’d left Tennessee.
“Grandfather would be upset if I got a hernia.”
“Pretty sure my grandfather wouldn’t want me coming home after only a day because I strained my back hauling boxes around.”
“I would hate for you to get in trouble with your boss if I slipped and fell into that rocky ditch.”
“I wonder what my grandfather would think about a former Marine who was afraid of a little physical labor.”
That had been the straw that had broken the camel’s back, as I’m sure he’d intended. You didn’t throw down a challenge to someone’s service branch like that. It just wasn’t done.
Besides, hauling his shit kept my hands too busy to throttle the fucker… or to kiss him. And that was becoming more and more necessary as this interminable day wore on. I had thought being a jerk to him at his grandfather’s house would have helped me keep my distance from him. It would be easier not to be tempted by the beautiful, successful man if he hated me.
But instead of being an asshole back to me, he was an enticing kind of passive-aggressive. He acted like he was sweet as pie while he pursed his lips in false disappointment for having to force me to do all the grunt work.
The doctor was diabolical. And it only made me want him more. I’d watched him at the gala. The adorable way he joked with the bartender and the kind manner he had with the locals were enough to attract my notice even before I’d discovered he was my principal on this job.
But he was off-limits, so I needed to shut my attraction to him down and shove it away if I wanted to stay on my boss’s good side.
As I re-entered the main room of the clinic, I heard Carter’s cultured voice speaking to Eriko, the man who’d welcomed us to the Doctors Across Continents facility in the rural town of Gelada. “No, no, getting here on our own was no problem! Mr. Riggs—oh, and please make sure you call him Mr. Riggs, because he really enjoys that—that man is never happier than when he’s useful. Carrying things is literally his favorite activity! Many a time I’ve tried to encourage him, ‘Mr. Riggs, please put down the box! That’s too heavy!’ but he simply refuses. ‘I’m enjoying myself too much, Dr. Rogers!’ he’ll say, and then he’ll pick up more boxes. So by all means, if you have heavy things to be moved, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
Eriko murmured a reply I couldn’t hear over the gritting of my teeth, and Carter laughed lightly.
“Oh, no. He’s not really my manservant, per se. More like a man who serves as… my assistant. And of course he’ll be happy to help transport any patients who can’t get here on their own! I daresay he’d enjoy the challenge. A few more notches on his heavy-things-I’ve-carried belt! He’s good for the physical tasks, not so much the…” He glanced up at me innocently when my boots made a sound on the floor. “Oh, speaking of the devil. Mr. Riggs, I was just telling Eriko that you’d love to help retrieve any invalid patients who need help getting to the center. Isn’t that right?”
The look on his face begged for a solid love tap from my fist. But at the same time, the look in his eyes—teasing, intensely intelligent, just like he’d been at the bar that night at the Licking-Nuthatch Gala—made me want to tap… other parts of him. Parts that would land me in serious trouble with Champ or possibly on the unemployment line, if my distraction didn’t land us in danger first.
I could not afford to like this guy.
“I think it makes more sense to stay here and assist you, Doctor. Remember the problems you’ve been having with your…” I glanced at Eriko with a grimace. “Digestion? I’d hate to leave you alone in case it comes roaring back.”
Carter’s eyes narrowed the slightest bit. I’d made up the part about the digestion problems.
Or, okay, I hadn’t made them up so much as transferred them from me to him.