Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) (7 page)

She didn't give him an argument.
Instead she nodded for him to continue.

"If you absolutely have to go somewhere, try to give O’Brien or myself a day’s notice so we can arrange back-up while you're out."

“Then consider yourself on notice.
I need to use the library tomorrow.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

She sighed. "Is that it?"

"Almost.
When you go to sleep at night leave the door to your room opened."

Her eyes widened.
She speared a piece of cucumber with her fork using such force Wolf was sure she imagined his face on it. "Why?"

"So I can hear what's going on."

"Do you need to know if I snore?"

"You might not be aware of this, but there are other ways into an apartment besides the front door.
There are ventilation shafts, a sliding glass door to your balcony, fire escapes.
I can't be watching them all in an apartment this size."

"We're fourteen floors up."

"It's been done from higher."

"All right.
I'll leave the door opened," she agreed reluctantly. "Anything else?"

"Yes.
I think you should have your locks changed."

"The only people who have keys are family."

"All the same, I think you should consider it."

She nodded.
"All right.
I’ll consider it."

* * *

Kelsey turned her attention back to dinner.
She couldn't work up any enthusiasm to eat and in the end, she gave up.
As she started to clear away her plate she noticed Wolf eyeing her food.

“Are you going to eat that?” he asked.

She shrugged her shoulders and pushed the plate in front of him.
He didn't even have the decency to look embarrassed.
He picked up her fork and began eating.
The way he attacked the food, she wondered if the man had eaten in the last week.

Wolf sent her a boyish grin.
"I don't suppose you have any bread?"
Flecks of gold danced in his eyes.
He took a fiendish delight in annoying her.

"Perhaps you'd like a nice
Chardonnay
to accompany your meal?"

"No.
Cappuccino and a raspberry torte will be fine."

With a groan of exasperation, she stormed into the kitchen. The man hadn’t been content with ruining her dinner, he ate it as well.
How was she going to survive the long nights with a disagreeable, overbearing, opinionated
.
. and thoroughly sexy man living under her
roof?
Damn!
She needed to have her head examined.
Handsome is as handsome does
her father used to say.
So far, the distracting detective had
done nothing but annoy the hell
out of her.

She folded her arms on the
butcher-block
counter and rested her head down with a moan.
At times like this, she missed her father so much.
Whenever life became overwhelming she could count on him to cheer her up.
God must have needed an angel because Kelsey could find no other reason why her father's life would have been cut short in such a tragic way.
For one tiny second she thought she felt his hand on her shoulder.

Her fantasy ended when the pressure on her shoulder became stronger.
A breath caught in her throat, muffling her startled cry.
She straightened and whirled around.
It took her a few seconds to realize she was in no danger.
At least, no physical danger.
The man definitely posed a threat to her peace of mind.

"Are you okay?" Wolf asked.

"I'm fine," she gasped as she tried to get her breathing back to normal.
The numbness of panic gave way to an uneasy relief.

"Thank you for dinner."

"Help yourself to anything in the refrigerator.
If you are the only thing standing between me and death, I'd prefer you didn't pass out from hunger."
Guilt washed over her from her ungracious offer.
Her uncle was right.
The man was here to protect her, whether he liked her or not.

When he returned to the seat by the door, she experienced an odd sense of disappointment.
Did she really expect him to entertain her?
She’d lived on her own for a while and she had come to enjoy, even prefer the solitude.
So why did she have this sudden urge for company.
Not just any company, his company.
And why did she feel slighted that he had no interest in hers?
Perhaps her next research project should focus on why women were such fools when it came to men.
She could start with herself as a case study.

* * *

At eleven o’clock Wolf made another sweep through the penthouse.
The silence unnerved him.
No television, no stereo, not even the hum of a computer broke the stillness.
Had he unintentionally put Kelsey off of using anything in her home?
When he had told her that
two sets of ears listening was better than one,
he hadn’t meant for her to take him so literally.

As he entered the living room this round, he found her fast asleep on the sofa.
Research books piled on the coffee table blocked his view of her face.
He moved closer to get a better look.
In sleep she had a sense of peace that sadly deserted her in a conscious state.

The light scent of her perfume lingered in the air.
Damn she was beautiful!
Even in her worn fleece outfit and black rimmed glasses resting on the bridge of her nose, she out-classed any woman he’d known.
She’d curled around a thick
textbook
on abnormal psychology.
Hell of a thing to be snuggling up with, he thought.
Although he wouldn’t mind having her wrapped around him like that.

He groaned.
His thoughts were way out of line.
She was a job to him, nothing more.
They might live in the same city but they came from two different worlds.

He needed to get his mind off her killer curves and back on the psychotic killer.
Bad enough he was responsible for her safety.
Even when he’d focused, he’d managed to let one person down.
He would be damned if he would allow himself to be distracted and screw up again.

Chapter
Four

After being led on the biggest run around since the New York City Marathon, Kelsey finally managed to get out of her apartment for a few hours to use the public library. Knowing that the precautions were for her benefit didn’t make he
r confinement any easier
.
Especially being confined to the house with a man who could make her heart flutter with desire and her blood boil in anger, all in the space of ten minutes.

She tried to tune out his presence, but damn, he was a hard man to ignore.
More than once she’d found her gaze lingering on him when he made his periodic walks through the condo.
He didn’t like her.
He didn’t want his current assignment of protecting her.
Yet he remained more cautious and alert than his daytime counterpart.
He made her feel safe. A surprise, since she rarely relaxed while alone with a man.
He also made her feel things she didn’t want to feel.
Erotic stirrings, deep inside that she had thought long dead.

Stop wasting your time thinking about him!

She had work to do and she might not get another chance like this for a while.
Officer O’Brian stood to the side of the desk and dogged her every step, until she felt like the criminal instead of the protected witness.

She took her pad and pencil to the reference section and jotted down the periodicals she needed.
While the librarian went to retrieve the information, Kelsey returned to the medical text she'd been reading.
On top of the large reference book, she found a folded slip of paper.
Her curiosity got the better of her and she read the note.

The air was sucked out of the room.
Her knees went weak. This was not some forgotten bit of research from the last person to use the book.
Somebody left that note for her.
Left it in the few minutes that she'd been away from the desk.
He
knew that she would be using the public library today.

A lump formed in her throat, threatening to choke her. Her eyes scanned the room.
Standing on the upper level near the railing she noticed a shadowy figure. She couldn’t make out the man’s face but she had the eerie feeling he was staring at her.
He raised his arm towards her.

Without thinking, she turned and ran through the emergency fire exit, setting off the alarms.
The shrill noise caused her heart to skip a beat.
With no destination in mind, she darted between the people, pushing her way
through
crowds as if the devil himself was following.
Some angry pedestrians cursed her and one shoved her into a building.
She scraped the bare skin of her arm against the rough bricks.

A pain shot through her, but she kept moving.
She ran on pure fear and adrenalin.
Her pace began to slow but her heart still raced. When she feared her legs might give out, she paused for a break.
Her gaze darted frantically around the area, every person seemed like a threat.
She had to start moving again.
But where?
How?
She couldn't take the trains or a taxi because she'd left her purse at the library.
She had no money or credit cards.

Deep cleansing breaths helped restore some of her failed reason.
The familiar skyscrapers of Rockefeller Center registered in her brain.
Nestled between the walls of glass and steel stood a bastion of hope. Gathering the last of her strength, she headed for the one place she felt she might be safe.

* * *

“What do you mean, you lost her?” Wolf thundered into the receiver.
He didn’t appreciate being awakened at noon after working the night shift.
To learn that a veteran police officer couldn’t manage to keep one helpless heiress in his sight intensified his anger.
“What happened?”

“I don’t know,”
O’Brian
said. “One second she was there and the next she bolted out the fire doors without warning.”