Her Prince Charming: An Inspirational Romance (9 page)

I
should have known
those guys would be up to something. Will had taken it too well when I’d called to cancel our plans. They were my closest friends, good guys, loyal to the end.

I wanted them nowhere near Sara. She was too tempting, and they were exactly like me; Not nearly as bad as their reputations suggested and like me they’d be all over a woman like Sara.

Sara was mine. I planned to introduce her to Will and Ryan eventually, but not yet. Not until things were more solid between us. Half the time she acted like she was completely with me. The rest of the time, she looked like she was getting ready to bolt.

“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, aware I sounded annoyed and surly. Will grinned. Ryan raised his dark eyebrows. Great, they were going to be annoying. The three of us were best friends, but in the way of males everywhere, we never missed an opportunity to give each other a hard time. Apparently, it was my turn.

“Looking for you,” Will said, his grin widening further when I glared at him. “Aren’t you going to introduce us to your very attractive friend?”

He winked at Sara. My adrenaline was still high from hitting Tim, my body on alert for any threat to my woman. In my head I knew it was just Will messing with me. I still couldn’t help the growl in the back of my throat. Before I could stop her, Sara reached out her hand.

“I’m Sara Cunningham.”

“Will Logan.” He took her hand in his and shook it. She winced. Irritation flared inside me. I snatched her hand back and examined it.

“Introductions are over. This is Sara. Sara, the silent one is Ryan. You met Will. Now we’re getting ice for your hand.”

Fortunately for my temper, she didn’t protest when I took her uninjured hand and dragged her toward the nearest bar. Yes, I was acting like a Neanderthal. No, I couldn’t help it.

I’d let my woman get in a situation where she had to punch a scumbag to protect herself. I was proud of her for fighting back, but she shouldn’t have had to. I should have been on top of it. I didn’t have time to deal with Will and Ryan. They fell into step on either side of us.

“How did she hurt her hand?” Ryan asked, taking a sidelong look at Sara’s hand.

“Punched a jerk,” I said.

“Where were you?” Ryan’s brow was raised again, partly in curiosity, mostly in censure. I didn’t need it. I knew I was responsible.

“Following him. Too slowly, it turned out.”

“James, I’m okay,” Sara interrupted. “Really. I’ve been wanting to punch Tim for months. If you’d shown up earlier, I’d have missed my chance.”

That was my girl, trying to give me what I needed. I had no doubt Sara had enjoyed hitting that guy, but she shouldn’t have had to. We reached the bar and claimed a row of high-backed stools.

“A bag of ice for the lady’s hand,” I said to the bartender. He nodded and disappeared into the back.

“So you ditched us for a girl,” Will said, shaking his head. To Sara, he said, “What are you doing with James? Why don’t you give me a shot and see what I can do for you?”

To my right I saw Ryan shake his head. Will was the funny one of the three of us. I opened my mouth to tell him to shut up when Sara spoke, her voice caught in a laugh, light and sweet.

“You might want to rethink that offer. I punched the last guy who tried to get me away from James.”

Will winced and pretended to duck his head in fear of her fists. Ryan’s eyes crinkled, the closest he usually came to a smile, and shook his head again.

He knew me well enough to hold back the teasing until I’d at least taken care of Sara’s hand. So did Will, but he was always willing to test my temper if he thought it was worth a laugh.

“Did you leave the guy alive?” Ryan asked, only half kidding. I shrugged.

“Yeah. But he’s not going to look too pretty at his wedding.” Sara tried to hide her giggle. She probably felt bad for laughing about Tim’s broken nose. But then, as I’d already told her, she was a nicer person than me.

“Christie is going to be so mad,” she said. “Even if his nose isn’t broken, he’ll look terrible. He was bleeding everywhere.” At Will and Ryan’s confused look, she said, “Christie is my sister. I’m here for her wedding. Tim is the groom. And James and I met when I was crying into my drink because I didn’t have a date for the wedding. He came to my rescue.”

“I can’t imagine you didn’t have men lined up out the door to take you out,” Will said, dropping his jokester persona for the smooth charm he used on women. He’d better check that with Sara. I’d taken him down before. I’d do it again if I had to. Sara just smiled at him and shook her head.

“I live a quiet life,” she said in explanation. “So, you three are friends? Do you guys work with James?”

“No,” I said, cutting in. “Will owns Southern Pines Construction and Ryan is the Southeastern head of Archer Security. I contract with him on occasion.” Sara looked from Will to Ryan to me.

“Okay. Wow. I know both of those companies. They’re huge. You three are in charge? And you hang out together? Talk about dates being lined up out the door.” She looked at her feet, trying to hide her smile. “I might faint from the concentration of hotness.”

Even Ryan grinned at that. For someone who was shy by nature, Sara was coming out of her shell. I approved of her growing confidence, even though I hated that she was using it to flirt with my friends. The bartender returned with a plastic bag of crushed ice. I thanked him and took it, pressing it gently to Sara’s bruised knuckles.

I knew my friends. They sensed Sara wasn’t one of my interchangeable dates and they weren’t going to leave us alone until they got a feel for her. I might as well settle in and make the best of it.

J
ames held
the bag of ice against my hand with care, conscious that too much pressure would bring me pain. I could tell he was still riled up from the confrontation with Tim and upset that I’d hurt myself. Tim was such a jerk. I couldn’t believe my sister was really going to marry him.

If she’d been a different woman, I’d have told her about Tim, tried to convince her to call it off. Christie wouldn’t care that he was planning to cheat. She’d probably spent the last month personally interviewing for their pool boy—very personally.

James’s free arm came around my waist, pulling me back until I was flush with his chest. Taking a deep breath, I relaxed into him. I didn’t know what kind of cologne he wore, or if that scent was just his soap, but he always smelled so good. He and his friends had changed the subject off me and onto something else. I wasn’t paying attention. Something about vandalism on a construction site.

Our small group drew eyes from all over the resort floor, mostly women checking out the three hot men at the bar. The way James held me, I could barely be seen over his shoulder except by Will, Ryan, and the bartender. That was fine with me. I’d had a little fun joking around with James’s friends, but I only wanted James’s attention.

Funny how being with James gave me the confidence to flirt with Will and Ryan. Normally I wouldn’t be able to work up the nerve to speak to men that attractive, but with James at my side, knowing I was his, I was comfortable. The bartender returned and asked for our order.

“What do you want, sweetheart?” James asked dipping his head to touch his lips to the shell of my ear. I shivered against him.

“Just water, please. Nothing more to drink.”

“Good girl. I don’t want you falling asleep on me.”

He passed my order along to the bartender and went back to his discussion with Will and Ryan. I could have joined in. They weren’t excluding me. But I was happy to be where I was, leaning into James, letting my mind drift over the rest of our evening. Would we go back to James’s cottage? To mine? I wasn’t sure if we’d do the same thing we had the night before and sit outside so prying eyes could see we weren’t up to anything.

While it was frustrating to have to constantly be aware of what our relationship looked like, in a way I was glad James’s reputation had become such an issue. Not just because the problem had brought us together, but because it meant we had to be even more careful about being alone together than we might have been otherwise.

I was attracted to James, more than I’d ever been attracted to any man. And for the first time I was thinking about intimacy before marriage. Not that it hadn’t crossed my mind before, but there’d never been a relationship where it was a serious consideration.

I’d only known James a day and I knew already that my values were going to be tested. Not that James would push me. He’d already proven he understood how I felt. It was my own impulses I had to watch out for. Dropping my head for a moment, I sent a brief prayer to God.

Lord, please help me to remember who I am and what has always been important to me. I care about James and I want to spend more time with him, but I don’t want to lose myself in temptation.

I’d have to keep that prayer in mind. Distracted, I let the men talk and people watched, occasionally contributing to the conversation when I had something to say. In the time it took us to empty our glasses, three sets of women had come up to us and hit on the guys, James included. They didn’t seem to care that he was glued to me. They propositioned him right over my head.

Each time, he politely, yet firmly, pointed out that he was both taken, and not interested. The fourth pair of predatory females was a cut above the others. I didn’t know a lot of beautiful women, but these two were perfection. One a redhead and the other blonde, they were tall, shapely, and exquisitely dressed.

“Well, look who we found,” the redhead said, winding her arm around Will’s waist. Clearly she knew the guys. The blonde winked at James and kissed Ryan on the cheek.

“My favorite troublemakers,” she said. “It’s a good thing Miranda had other plans since you have your hands full,” she said to James. His arm around my waist squeezed tight. I wasn’t sure if it was in possession or reassurance.

“I do,” he answered. “Sara, meet Tina and Jennifer.”

I didn’t have my hands free since one was still on ice and the other was trapped by James’s arm, so I nodded and smiled. To my surprise, both women nodded and smiled back.

“Too bad for us,” Jennifer said from her place beside Will. Giving Will a playful elbow in his gut, she went on, “James is the best of these three.”

“Hey,” Will said in affront. “You’ve never complained before.”

“Not complaining, sweetie. Just pointing out that James is the best catch of the three of you.”

“Because of his business?” I asked, ready to change my cautious approval to dislike if Jennifer was judging James on his bank account.

“Not that, honey. All three of these boys are loaded. But Will is a terminal bachelor. Someday Ryan and James will both settle down, but not Will.”

“So what’s wrong with me? Why is James a better catch than I am?” Ryan asked, not sounding the least bit concerned that he wasn’t at the top of their list. Considering that Tina was pressed up against him, he didn’t seem to have cause for worry. Tina shot him a look that said, ‘Get real.’ Out loud, she said, “You’re a little scary. So serious all the time. And your job isn’t exactly low key.”

“I thought you ran Archer Security?” I asked. Ryan seemed serious, but I wouldn’t have called him scary.

“I do,” he said, a wry smile curving his lips. “But I also handle our more specialized cases.”

“Sometimes they get a little hairy,” Will cut in.

“Oh,” I said.

I could only imagine the kind of jobs Ryan took. I’d heard of Archer Security. They didn’t do pay-by-the-month house alarms. They specialized in elite systems for the wealthiest clients. And they provided personal security for everyone from visiting dignitaries to celebrities with scary stalkers.

I knew about them because one of their people had foiled an assassination attempt on a foreign ambassador a few months before. He’d foiled it by taking the bullet himself. It had been huge in the news. Not only had the Archer team protected their client, they’d tracked down the assassin and handed him over to the police.

I gave Ryan another look. This time, I saw it. Beneath his quiet demeanor was a core of steel. This man would get the job done, no matter what it took. Curious, I asked,

“Was the ambassador’s attempted assassination one of your hairy cases?” I knew he’d know what I was talking about. The assassination attempt had been on every news channel for over a week. Ryan shook his head.

“The ambassador was business as usual. Unfortunate that it hit the news. We like to keep a low profile. News should be about our clients, not our agents.”

“Is the guy who got shot okay? The last I saw, he was in the hospital.”

“He’s back in the field. It was only a shoulder, nothing serious.”

“Good,” I said. Ryan winked at me.

He was good looking, no question. That thick, short, dark hair, his almost black eyes, a lean but powerful build. Still, Tina was right. Not exactly great relationship material. I wouldn’t be comfortable with a man who considered a bullet to the shoulder a minor issue. Not if he was out there facing far more dangerous stuff than just being shot.

The woman who took him on would have to be strong enough to handle his job and laid back enough not to freak out about it. Feeling like poking at James, I leaned my head back and looked up at him.

“Your job isn’t dangerous, is it?” He rubbed his chin against my temple, smiling down at me.

“Not remotely. Stressful sometimes. But not dangerous.”

“Good,” I whispered, forgetting for a moment that we had company. James’s eyes had darkened to a rich green, the color so deep I felt myself falling into them. His eyes were saying something I liked, something warm and hopeful that had my heart racing. A throat cleared. I flushed and looked up to see Ryan studying me with a grave expression.

“That’s what I’m talking about,” Jennifer said, gesturing at James and me.

“All right,” Will said. “Enough of that, James. You’re making us look bad in front of the ladies.” Turning to Tina and Jennifer, he said, “Do you two want to go out and have some fun? It looks like James and Sara are in for the night.”

Both women agreed, and with a few nods and winks, the four of them left the bar. The ice bag on my knuckles was mostly water by this point. I dropped it on the bar beside my empty water glass.

“Do you want to go?” James asked.

“Sure,” I said. “Your friends were nice, but I don’t want to share you anymore.”

His fierce smile was all the answer I needed. With one arm wrapped tightly around my shoulder, James led the way out of the lobby.

“Do you feel like a walk?” he asked.

“That would be nice. But let me stop at my cottage and take off these shoes.”

“Works for me.”