Protecting His Assets (12 page)

“I didn’t say he wasn’t a creeper, but looking at women’s clothes doesn’t necessarily make him
my
creeper.”

Nolan was right. The guy could have been looking at something for his girlfriend and gotten embarrassed when he realized she’d noticed him.

She still felt like there was more to it than that, but she couldn’t go after the guy now. He was probably already long gone anyway, and her job was to stick with Nolan. Besides, as suspicious as he’d seemed, something about this guy being Nolan’s stalker didn’t feel right.

“Are you absolutely certain you haven’t seen a woman?” she asked.

He blew out an impatient breath. “This again? What woman in particular should I have noticed?”

“Long nose, long black hair. I’m almost positive I saw her last night outside the restaurant.” She paused as something came back to her. That hadn’t been the only time. “She was also in your office building yesterday afternoon. I remember seeing her in the elevator.”

“There are about as many black-haired women in New York as there are brown-haired men, but to be fair, I don’t think I know anybody by that description,” he said, surprisingly calm.

She lowered her voice and dared a little more. “Are you sure you haven’t ended any relationships recently? With anyone at all?”

For the first time, he didn’t rail at her for bringing up the crazy old girlfriend theory, but the look in his face was pinched. “Contrary to what the rags might say, I don’t make a habit of being careless—at least not anymore. The women I date understand that my business comes first and that I’m not interested in putting the time and energy into a long-term relationship. They’re just as career-oriented and only want to relieve some of the stress that comes with a high-powered job, have some fun.”

Her lips compressed, and she nodded. “It sounds very…convenient for everyone.”

“You probably wouldn’t understand.”

She crossed her arms. “You’re right, I’m no high-powered executive. Just a lowly bodyguard who couldn’t possibly relate to her betters.”

His forehead creased in a frown and he shook his head. “That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you meant. Let’s just get back to the point.” She glanced over at the store window. “If you still believe that none of the women you’ve been with could have misunderstood your intentions, then who am I to—”

His posture tightened suddenly.

“What is it?” she asked.

He opened his mouth, then shook his head. “Probably nothing.”

April wanted to hit him. He saw the look on her face and said, “Okay, okay. There was an incident with a woman last year in Antigua. A journalist. She fixated on me and used her reporter credentials to follow me to a business convention there. She tried sneaking into my hotel room one night, and I had to call security to have her removed.”

“Did you sleep with her?”

“We had dinner before I found out she was a reporter, and there may have been a couple of after-dinner drinks involved,” he admitted with a grimace. “Trust me, if I’d known what she was beforehand, I wouldn’t have gone near her with a ten-foot pole.”

“Why didn’t you say anything about this earlier?”

“There wasn’t much more to it than that, and it was over a year ago. Besides, there’s been no sign of her since then, and she was definitely a blonde.”

April filed the information away. “Women change their hair color all the time. I’m going to look into it,” she warned him. “I want to find out where this journalist is now, and what she’s been up to.”

His jaw clenched, but he still hadn’t told her again to back off. They were making progress.

Finally, he nodded. “All right. Her name was Victoria or Veronica something. Ash, I think. Veronica Ash. She was with the
Times
, but I think after the incident at the hotel…I don’t know if the paper dropped her or she just went somewhere else.”

Of course he barely remembered the woman’s name. Just like he would be unlikely to remember hers a year from now if she let herself be stupid enough to fall for his charm. April took out her phone and recorded the information.

“What about the guy at the window?” he asked.

“I’m going to find them both, and then we’ll see,” she said. Adrenaline surged. At least she had something to go on. She smiled.

“Excuse me, miss? Sir? Is there anything that I can show you today?”

April had almost forgotten where they were. She turned to face a stunning salesclerk who happened to be modelling the exact outfit that was being displayed on the mannequin beside her—and it looked better on the clerk, too. “No,” she said just as Nolan said, “Yes, we need a dress.”

She spun around to face him. “What?”

“Give us a minute,” he said to the salesclerk, as if she would just wait at attention until he decided he was ready for her…which she probably would. From the sparkle in her eyes, she’d either recognized him or she was plotting ways to slip him her number.

Maybe both.

He gave April one of those appraising looks that was both appreciative and calculating at the same time. “I have an event to go to this evening. I assume we’ll still be stuck with one another, so you’ll have to come with me.”

That wasn’t remotely how she’d always imagined being asked on a date, but of course, he hadn’t been talking about a date.

“Since you’re trying to dress me again, I assume it’s not a tractor pull. What kind of event are we talking about?”

He paused, and his features tightened almost imperceptibly. “It’s a charity event that my mother has organized to raise money for the Suicide Hotline…in memory of my father.”

His expression told her all that she needed to know about how much he wasn’t looking forward to it. “If this thing is tonight, haven’t you already asked someone to be your date?”

He shook his head. “There wasn’t anyone I wanted to go with before now.”

“And you think taking your bodyguard will be romantic?”

“I think taking my bodyguard will kill two birds with one stone. I won’t have to explain to a date why there’s a shadow accompanying us, and I won’t have to deal with my mother throwing eligible women at me all night either.”

That’s right, his mother had been playing matchmaker. “What makes you think I don’t already have something appropriate?” Granted, she had no idea where any of her dresses were. After moving back home, all the things she hadn’t thought she would need for a while had gone into storage to save space in her father’s tiny house in Brooklyn.

He smiled and turned to the salesclerk, who had unobtrusively, but curiously, been watching. “Find us something in black.” The woman smiled and moved away to do just that.

“I don’t need a dress,” April insisted. “I assume there will be security at this event. I can wear a suit and blend in with the rest of the standard detail.”

He took her hand and leaned in close enough to whisper in her ear. “If something happens, you’ll beat yourself up if you’re not right there, right by my side.” His voice caressed her with the same softness and promise as his fingers did her wrist.

She cleared her throat. “Fine, I’ll go. But this isn’t a date, so I don’t need a dress.”

“Maybe not, but it needs to look like a date,” he insisted. “Besides, you can’t dance if you don’t wear a dress.”

“Dresses and dancing aren’t part of my job description,” she said stubbornly.

“You know, just to make it feel real, I should have asked you properly.” He lifted her fingers to his mouth. Her breath caught when he stopped less than an inch from touching her and looked into her eyes. Her heart raced. “I’m a little rusty at this,” he murmured. “I haven’t asked a woman out on a date in a long time.”

She snorted. “You can’t expect me to believe that.”

“Sadly, it’s true. I’m not saying I don’t get dates, but…”
He doesn’t have to ask.

“This isn’t necessary.” She started to pull back again, but he twined his fingers with hers and laid his warm, supple mouth on her knuckles. She froze, holding her breath and her body, and…everything.

“April Porter—” Her name came from his lips like velvet, like he savored the feel and taste of it. “Would you honor me with your company this evening?”

She opened her mouth, but before she could answer, he turned her hand over and pressed a kiss in the sensitive middle of her open palm. She groaned silently and pulled back, closing her hand into a tight fist as if she could keep the feel of him right there.

She cleared her throat. “I already said I would go.”

“Because it’s your job, or because you want to dance with me so badly?” His mouth twitched with devilment. She wondered if he’d ever been sincere for longer than a heartbeat.

She couldn’t help but smile back. “I’ll go because you asked so elegantly.”

The pretty clerk came back then, and April agreed to try on a few dresses. “But
if
I get something, I’ll be paying for it myself,” she said to Nolan sternly.

He shrugged and followed her to the back of the store. Here, too, there were comfortable chairs for those stuck waiting, and Nolan crashed into one with the look of a person who’d just realized he hadn’t slept in over twenty-four hours.

She entered the changing room just as he laid his head back and closed his eyes. She tried on three of the black dresses without feeling much excitement about any of them one way or the other, even though the salesclerk had done a good job estimating her size. The last dress wasn’t actually black. It was a deep cobalt blue. It slid over her curves like it was made for her, and it brought out the color of her eyes.

She took it off and pulled on her suit pants and shirt before folding the garment over her arm. She opened the door. The saleswoman threw a bemused glance at the big man sleeping in the chair. “Out like a light,” she whispered. “I’ve had a few husbands doze off after an hour or so waiting for their wives to make a decision, but never in less than five minutes.”

“It’s been a long few days,” April explained. She handed over the dress. “I’ll take this one.”

“I was hoping you would say that,” she said with a satisfied smile. “I know it isn’t black, but I took a chance because the cut is fantastic.” As the woman went up front to wrap it, April allowed herself to look at Nolan. The kink in his hair beckoned, and she was reaching out to run her fingers through it when she realized what she was doing and stopped herself.

“Not sleeping,” he said. She gasped and stepped back. He hadn’t moved a muscle, but his eyes had opened and his stare was focused and intent. Her stomach fluttered with anticipation, and she wished she had put her suit jacket back on again. “Just resting my eyes.”

She braced herself, waiting for him to say something inappropriate or teasing, but he didn’t. Finally, she looked away first. “I’ll just finish getting dressed and then we can leave.”

He nodded, still not moving. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that he was still watching her.

Suddenly, the sound of a cell phone ringing filled the space between them. She instinctively patted her pocket, but it wasn’t hers. Nolan pulled his phone out and glanced at the display before answering it. “Hi,” he said with a devastating smile that made April want to sink into the floor. “When did you get back from France?”

She turned and went back into the changing room to put on her jacket. His voice lowered to a soft, intimate murmur that she wished she couldn’t hear…but she did.

She couldn’t help but listen to the one-sided bits and pieces of a conversation that sounded very much like a man reassuring his lover that everything was all right. “Meredith, it’s nothing. Of course I’m being careful…yes…no…I promise…soon then.”

It was impossible to miss the affection he had for the person on the other end of the line…
Meredith
. But last night he’d been with Jennifer, and then he’d kissed
her
.

Part of her had begun to think that maybe the news rags had been exaggerating when they painted Nolan as a womanizing playboy, but obviously she’d been wrong. Falling into bed with him and becoming just another of the women he kept dangling around would be an even worse mistake than falling for Jeremy had been. At least with Jeremy, there’d been no way for her to know in advance the games he was playing with her. But now, all the signs and warnings were there, and if she ended up another notch on Steve Nolan’s belt, it would be all her own fault.

She waited until she was sure he’d hung up the phone before she came back out of the changing room.

“I, ah, don’t think I need a dress after all,” she said, focused on buttoning her jacket. “If you still require protection this evening, my original plan to stand watch from the sidelines will be more than adequate.”

He stopped her when she tried to breeze past him, slipping his hand to the back of her neck so she had to look up at him. She was mortified to realize that even now she wanted to lean into his touch, lift her mouth for his kiss.

“Meredith is just a friend. A good friend, but nothing more.”

She set her jaw. “It doesn’t matter. This is just business, remember?”

“Buy the dress, April.”

He made her first name sound like an order. She set her jaw, but she bought the dress to keep from making a scene in front of the salesclerk. When they left the store, both of them carrying garment bags this time, April scoured the area for the man she’d spotted earlier.

“Do you see anything?” Nolan asked as they got to the car. He stood back and let her do a walk-around.

Her throat tightened as she got to the rear passenger side of the vehicle. “Besides your slashed tire, you mean?”

Chapter Seven

T
he replacement bodyguard hung up the phone. “Sir, Ms. Porter has had your car towed to the address of the garage you gave her, and the insurance company will be dropping off a rental for your use shortly.”

A half-full glass of scotch in his hand, he turned away from the window and walked back to his desk without acknowledging the guy.

After examining Steve’s car for further damage, April had immediately called both the police and her agency. Ten minutes later, a car had pulled up, and John the replacement bodyguard here had brought him back to his apartment while she stayed behind to deal with the cops.

He circled his glass on the oak, leaving behind a ring of moisture. “If you have to stick around, I’d prefer it if you waited outside.” He was wound up, feeling provoked, powerless, and hostile, and he shouldn’t take it out on this guy.

If April had been there, she would have arched those delicate eyebrows that hid so much stubbornness and stayed right where she was anyway, but this guy only shrugged and nodded. “If you need anything, that’s where I’ll be.”

He didn’t resent April’s presence as his bodyguard anymore. In fact, he trusted her—up to a point, at least. He couldn’t trust her with his personal life, but he trusted her dedication to her job. She wanted to find out who was stalking him. To that end, she’d been working nonstop since the moment she walked into his office yesterday morning, and she was still working.

If only he didn’t want her so badly, he might be able to appreciate her efforts and get back to work himself, but he hadn’t been able to focus.

It’s just because she’s an anomaly. A beautiful, stubborn, intriguing anomaly.

Getting her into a dress and bringing her to an event like the gala tonight among all the people he knew would help him see that she was no different than any other woman. With the attention on her as his date, once the cameras flashed and the champagne flowed, she would seek to extend her fifteen minutes of fame, just like they all did, and that would help him get her out of his system.

He turned his attention to the destruction of his apartment. The cleaners had been in and done a good job clearing the majority of the mess, but there was still a lot to go through.

He’d been able to confirm that there really wasn’t anything missing except for a box of photos from his bedroom and a gold ring that had been his father’s. Grace had asked him for photos a few weeks ago to use at the memorial service tonight, so he couldn’t be sure if those had actually been stolen or if she’d simply come to get them and forgot to mention it. He’d wanted no part of anything to do with their father, so he may have blocked out the day she stopped by. He made a mental note to call home and ask. If nothing else, his mother and Grace deserved to know what was going on. He doubted that any of this would spill over onto them, but he should warn them to be careful nevertheless.

After two hours with nothing to do but assess his every acquaintance as a possible suspect, he was climbing the walls. He decided to go to the club and had just grabbed his bag when there was a knock at the door.

He knew it was April from the three quick, sharp raps against the wood-paneled surface. Precise. Decisive. Unflinching.

He opened the door. She’d changed into tight jeans and a tailored leather jacket that looked much more her style than yesterday’s ugly suit. In fact, he couldn’t take his eyes off her legs and ass as she pushed past him into his foyer.

“Why is John out here?” she asked, frowning fiercely.

“Because I didn’t want him inside.”

“He can’t assist you from the other side of a locked door.”

“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t need his assistance,” he snapped. His temper had reached the boiling point. “You’re here now anyway, so it makes no difference to anyone what he can or can’t do.”

“I know how the stalker got past security and up to your apartment last night.”

That wasn’t what he’d been expecting. “Did he slip in with another resident?”

She shook her head, the exhilaration of her breakthrough shining from her eyes. Some of his irritation bled away just watching her. “He took the stairs. I checked. There are no cameras in the stairwell, and the emergency door on the main level exits off the side of the building into the alley.”

He frowned. “Sure, but the door automatically locks when closed, and only opens from the inside.”

“Yes, but it wouldn’t take much to come into the building some other time of day and slip a piece of paper into the mechanism to keep it from latching. The security guards wouldn’t necessarily have noticed it because the door would still close, and there’d be no way to tell that the lock wasn’t engaged unless they physically checked. I’m betting your stalker took a gamble that the security guards weren’t that industrious.”

“That explains the how then, but still not the why or the who.”

Her face was flushed with animation. He found himself transfixed, fascinated by her exhilaration. She grinned. “But I think I know the who, as well.”

He stopped. “Really?”

She nodded. “The same guy from the store this morning.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I just talked to Doug downstairs. He showed me the building’s surveillance tapes. From seven thirty to eight thirty yesterday morning, when many of the building’s residents are leaving to go to work for the day, the cameras picked up a man standing just outside the front doors, watching people leave as if he was waiting for someone in particular. The picture’s a little grainy, but it’s the same guy, I’m sure of it.”

“And you think he was waiting for me?” Steve had left for the gym at around six that morning and had gone straight to the office afterward, so he would have missed the guy. “If he was loitering there for so long, why didn’t the security guard notice? They should have gone out and got him moving along, or at least asked him what he was doing there.”

“He stood just out of view of the front doors but probably didn’t realize he was on camera. Besides, your morning guard is apparently a really friendly guy. He likes to stand out from behind the security desk to say hello to all the residents, so he wasn’t watching the screens and obviously didn’t notice.”

Yeah, Billy loved to chat. He knew who to discuss last night’s hockey game with and who’d be up for a rousing discussion about politics. He even talked to Mrs. Tobin from the tenth floor about her knitting projects. “Okay, but who is he?”

She frowned. “That we don’t know yet. But I’m going to send the surveillance image to my friend at the FBI, and I’ve already stopped by the station to finalize the police reports from last night’s incident and this morning’s slashed tire. They have a copy of the tapes now, too, and I gave them a description of the man I saw. I also gave them the other notes. They’ll see what they can come up with and be in touch.”

She was brimming with accomplishment and optimism, but he wasn’t about to hold his breath that the police or FBI would have anything to report. They were still trying to figure out if the man who’d embezzled millions of his family’s money was actually dead or alive. No, if anyone might solve this thing, it was going to be April Porter. Surprisingly, he believed in her more than he’d believed in anything else since his father’s suicide.

“I assume we can’t do anything about it for the time being?”

She shook her head. “Not until I get a hit on this guy’s identity, but I’m hopeful that we’ll have something before the end of the day.”

He should be grateful, but he found himself unreasonably hoping that didn’t happen, at least not until after the charity gala. He had a feeling April was going to disappear from his life as soon as her assignment was over, and he realized he wanted at least one opportunity to dance with her before it happened. “Then I’m going to the club.” He hefted his pack over his shoulder. “Are you coming?”

She looked taken aback, as if she hadn’t noticed the gym bag in the excitement of her breakthrough. “Oh. Yes, sure.”

They left the apartment, but Nolan bypassed the elevators.

Her gaze narrowed. “Why are we taking the stairs?”

He shrugged. “It’s good exercise, right?”

Since she’d avoided the elevator on the way up to this floor, she knew exactly how good the exercise was, but she wasn’t about to tell him that.

He pushed open the door and started down.

“Whoever broke into your building came up the stairs,” she reminded him.

“Well, we’ve got to catch this guy sometime, right?” He pushed through the heavy fire door.

“If you insist on this course, then at least let me go first to make sure the way is clear.”

“Can you honestly say that you think someone’s lying in wait for me on the tenth floor landing?” He pointed to the emptiness ahead of them, his voice bouncing off the concrete walls.

“Did
you
think your place was going to get trashed?” she asked, even though she was pretty sure everything was fine. After all, she’d been up those stairs not ten minutes ago and encountered absolutely nobody. “Didn’t you promise to be the perfect body for me to guard just last night?”

He laughed and swept his arm out with a flourish. “You’re right, I did. Please protect me from the stairwell dust bunnies.”

She stepped ahead of him. He may still be giving her grief, but some of his indignation had faded at least.

Four floors later, with eleven still to go, she broke down and asked, “What’s the real reason you didn’t want to take the elevator?”

“Getting tired?” He grinned. They descended side by side. She could have insisted he stay behind her, but she didn’t press her luck. “Like I said, it’s good exercise.”

She narrowed her gaze. “And it has nothing to do with my…issues with elevators?”

“I may have noticed that you didn’t seem particularly comfortable.” His awareness surprised her. It had been her experience that people like Steve Nolan, who’d been born to expect others to pay attention to
them
, rarely returned the favor. But he was proving to be very different from what she’d expected, in a lot of ways.

“It’s not that I’m afraid or anything,” she said.

“I never assumed that was the case.” He didn’t sound patronizing, and she let out a long breath.

She was being overly paranoid about the germs thing. It wasn’t like her father even wanted her by his side, anyway. But she still had hope that he would change his mind, and when he finally asked for her, if she’d caught something and didn’t realize it, or was sick and couldn’t go to him…

She swallowed the sudden lump in her throat, and she swallowed the urge to explain her fears to Nolan.

She didn’t say anything the rest of the way down the stairs.

T
hey took her car since he still didn’t have a rental, but Steve didn’t mind. She drove with as much competence as she did everything else, and he liked watching her. He liked that she could probably kick his ass, and that she had no problem telling him off, too. He liked that she had enough confidence to choose a blue dress, even though he’d suggested a black one. He liked her independence, her intelligence, her grit, and fire. The stiff and professional bodyguard he’d first met was still there, but now it was just another facet of a puzzle he was becoming desperate to solve.

All these years, he’d been trying to give his family back the kind of life that had been ripped from them when his father died. If he continued the way he was going—the way he’d always planned—Optimus Inc. would go global before the end of the year. He’d probably be engaged to a socialite just as fast. His mother would reclaim her place at the country club, and his sister would have her pick of rich, successful young men. He could be the man that his father had failed to be.

It should have been enough. He looked at April Porter. Why wasn’t it enough for him now?

At the club, they split up to change. Leo was waiting for him in the ring when he came out onto the floor, bouncing on the balls of his feet with a hard look on his face.

“We’ve got to stop doing this after you’ve had a bad day.” Steve groaned.

“Come on, tough guy. You can handle it.”

He grinned and got in the ring.

April was waiting for him when he finished his sparring match, and both he and Leo climbed down. She’d dressed in her gym attire with a pair of gloves tied by the laces over one shoulder and a towel over the other, but his fierce protector was in full bodyguard mode, sticking close with her eyes peeled for danger.

“Not bad.” Leo clapped him on the shoulder. “I think you almost gave me a bruise this time.” He had miles of experience and was just razzing Steve. “See you on Monday?” he called.

“I’ll let you know.” He started stripping off his gloves.

As Leo headed for the locker room, Steve tossed the gloves on the bench and collapsed there, draping his towel over the back of his neck.

“The two of you are pretty evenly matched,” April offered.

“No matter how many hours I put in, I can’t get a leg up on him.” He shook his head, taking deep breaths. “I thought I finally had him on that last move, but he danced out of the way like he saw me coming a mile away.”

“That’s because he did,” she said.

He looked up at her. She stood at attention beside him, looking so gorgeous he could barely hold himself back. All he wanted to do was throw her down on the canvas and do wicked things to her with his hands and his tongue.

“It’s not your speed or your strength that’s the problem.”

He hadn’t been able to get the taste of her out of his mind. Every little thing she did made him want to kiss her again. She chewed her bottom lip right now and he was
this close
to pulling her down onto his lap. “David can always take down Goliath with just one shot, as long as it’s the right shot. But you’re so eager to throw as many punches as you can, you’re never going to have the right shot.”

He’d actually gotten similar advice before. “But he’s relentless. There’s no time to hold back and wait for an opening that will never come. I’ve got to get in there and make my own opening.”

She shook her head. “Boxing isn’t about who can be the most aggressive.” There was a dark look in her eyes as she said it, as if the tip had conjured a memory for her.