Master Unchained (Stealth Guardians Book 2) (3 page)

Poppy gave a soft laugh, one Tessa was only too familiar with: it always surfaced when Poppy was attracted to somebody. And who wouldn’t be attracted to Hamish MacGregor? But she wouldn’t let a handsome face and a toned physique sway her in her conviction not to accept help from a criminal.

“Mr. Mac—”

“And you must be Miss Wallace,” Hamish interrupted, stepping around the desk and offering his hand.

Short of being rude, Tessa felt obliged to shake his hand. “Yes. But as I just told my campaign manager, I don’t need a bodyguard.”

Hamish lifted one side of his mouth. “From the little I heard, it sounded more like you don’t want to be protected by one of Mr. Faldo’s goons.”

She stiffened. Just how much of her conversation with Poppy had he overheard? “Well, since we’re being blunt: I can’t be associated with Mr. Faldo’s… uh… operation.”

He scrutinized her now, looking her up and down. “I’m not in Mr. Faldo’s employ, if that’s what troubles you.”

“Maybe not on a regular basis, but he’s footing the bill,” she protested. And that meant she’d still be beholden to him in one way or another.

Hamish lifted an eyebrow. “I believe there’s been a little misunderstanding. Mr. Faldo is only arranging my services. He’s not paying for them.”

She stared at Poppy, who nodded. “I thought I told you that I approached the Foodworkers’ Union and got them to cover the expense.”

Embarrassment swept through Tessa. “Oh. Why didn’t you… I… uh…”

“Guess I forgot. I’m juggling way too many things right now,” Poppy answered and looked at her watch. “Speaking of juggling, I’ve got a meeting with a reporter. Gotta go.” She marched to the door. “Nice meeting you, Hamish.”

“Poppy… That still doesn’t mean I can accept…” But Poppy was already gone, leaving her alone with the handsome stranger.

This was never going to work. She couldn’t accept this man as her bodyguard. How would she go about her work with him hovering over her? Besides, weren’t bodyguards supposed to blend into the background? There was no chance in hell that Hamish MacGregor would ever be able to enter a room without being noticed. On the contrary, all eyes would be on him.

She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Mr. MacGregor—”

“Hamish,” he corrected immediately, a soft rumbling sound in his voice that sent her off kilter.

“Hamish, I don’t think this is going to work.”

~ ~ ~

What had Cinead said?
Good through and through?
Not likely! Tessa Wallace was combative, stubborn, and made for sin. The kind of sin that left you sweaty and panting. The kind of sin he’d sworn off. What had Cinead been thinking, assigning him to this battle-ready, high-strung beauty with long dark brown hair and gorgeous lavender eyes?

“You won’t be able to blend in,” she now said.

Hamish frowned. “Blend in?”

“Everybody will wonder who you are, and I don’t want anybody to know I have a bodyguard. It’s bad enough that I need one.”

He shrugged. “That’s why you’ll tell them I’m your boyfriend.”

Panic flashed in her eyes. “What?”

“We discussed that it would be best if I posed as your boyfriend to avoid questions. It will arouse less suspicion.”

She swallowed visibly. “We?”

“My superiors and I. We know what we’re doing.” Even though Hamish didn’t agree with Cinead’s order. However, the fact that his charge was objecting to the idea, made him involuntarily see the advantages of such an arrangement.

Tessa shook her head. “Nobody will believe it.”

“Then we’ll just have to make it look believable.” At the thought of what that might entail, he felt a jolt of adrenaline rush through his veins. Instantly, he pushed the images from his mind. He wasn’t going to make the same mistake his best friend Aiden had made when he’d fallen for his charge Leila. Even though in Aiden’s case it had all turned out fine, Hamish knew from his own experience that not everybody was that lucky.

Hamish cleared his throat. “Let’s go over the details.”

“Details?” Tessa croaked and stared at him like a deer that found itself in the path of a speeding car.

Clearly she liked the idea of a pretend-boyfriend as little as he did. Not that either of them had a choice in the matter. She’d just have to come to terms with it like he had.

“Yes, the quicker we hash out the details, the more smoothly this will go down.”

“Mr. MacGregor—”

“Tessa, you’ll have to call me Hamish, or nobody will buy that I’m your boyfriend.”

He noticed her nervously rub her hand on her pencil skirt, which accentuated her slim waist and long legs. “Hamish, I’m really not sure how this is going to work. I don’t know you and you don’t know me. There are going to be hundreds of occasions where we can trip each other up.”

“We’ve thought of that, of course.” Or rather, Cinead had. “That’s why it’ll be best for everybody to think that we only just started dating. How about a couple of weeks ago? That way we don’t have to know much about each other.”

“True,” she conceded, “but aren’t you supposed to protect me all the time?”

“Yes. So?”

She sighed as if annoyed that he didn’t immediately know what she was referring to. “I wouldn’t be seeing a guy that frequently if I’d just started dating him. It’s not realistic.”

“It is, if you’re totally into him.”

“But—”

He stepped closer so only a foot of space separated them. “Have you never been completely enamored with a man, even though you only just met him?” A flicker in her eyes told him that she’d had that experience previously. “Well, then you’ll just have to recall what it felt like and act accordingly. And I’ll do the same and pretend I can’t bear to be without you. As long as people see us acting like a couple who can’t keep their hands off each other, they won’t question why I’m not leaving your side.”

At least that was the plan. A plan where so many things could go wrong. A harmless touch could lead to something more. A pretend-kiss could kindle a flame that might be hard to put out again. It was better not to go down that road.

“Once the threat is over, we’ll have a very public breakup, and everything will go back to how it was.” There would be no emotional involvement, and the physical intimacy they’d have to show in the presence of others would only be a well-crafted performance.

“And how do we know when the threat is over?”

He hadn’t expected her to ask this question and had no canned answer to it. No answer he could give her anyway. He and his fellow Stealth Guardians would be the ones to assess whether the threat hanging over her had vanished, once her unknown enemy realized that she was no easy target.

“Let that be my problem. You just concentrate on this election. Now I need a copy of your schedule for the next week, including all business and private meetings. I’ll need to make sure the venues are safe and conduct background checks on the participants before I can approve your attendance at any event.”

“Approve?” She glared at him. “You can’t be serious.”

He tilted his head to the side. “Do I look like I’m joking?”

“No, you look like you’re about to be fired,” Tessa grunted, her hands on her hips, her eyes spewing venom. “I decide which events I attend, not you!”

“Wrong.”

“Consider yourself relieved of your duty, Mr. MacGregor!”

“You can’t do that.”

“I can and I will. I’m not dealing with an overpowering chauvinist prick who thinks he can order me around.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Would you prefer your father finding out what danger you’re in and have
him
curb your freedom instead?”

Her mouth opened. “How the f—”

“Whoa, what a nasty word for such a pretty mouth.” And she did have a pretty mouth, though at present he didn’t appreciate the defiant words coming from it. “I did my homework. And one thing you like even less than having to put up with a bodyguard is having your father find out you’re in danger.”

She let out an annoyed breath. “You’re wrong. I’d rather deal with my father than have to pretend you’re my boyfriend.”

He gave her a tight smile. “And here I thought you were a good daughter who didn’t want to aggravate her father’s heart condition.”

Caught in her bluff, she glared at him. For several seconds an internal struggle appeared to rage in her. Her chest heaved, her hands clenched, and her shoulders stiffened. Silence stretched between them.

Then she finally gave him an answer. “I can’t wait for the day we break up.”

“The feeling is mutual.” He turned on his heel and stalked to the door. “I’ll see myself out. I’ll get your schedule from your campaign manager.”

After all, there might be events that Tessa didn’t feel he should accompany her to, and Poppy was less likely to leave anything off.

“I’ll be back when you’re ready to leave City Hall.”

4

Hamish stormed into the men’s room—which luckily was empty—and charged into one of the three stalls, slamming the metal door behind him so hard that the entire structure rattled.

“What was all that about?”

He whirled around and found himself face-to-face with Enya, who materialized right in front of him.

“What was what?” he growled. For a moment he’d forgotten that Enya had accompanied him to the initial meeting with his charge—though she had remained invisible the entire time just as Cinead had requested.

Dressed in black shorts and a red, rather tight top, her long blond hair braided and pinned around her head, a casual observer would have never guessed what a magnificent warrior she was—fearless and lethal. Both with her hands and her sharp tongue.

Enya crossed her arms over her chest and slanted him a
don’t-bullshit-me
look. “Interesting approach you’re taking with your new charge, buddy. Hope it works out.”

“You’re my second, so don’t question my authority.” As the sentinel, the lead guardian on the assignment, he was the one who gave the orders. Enya was his backup.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” she replied. Her tone said otherwise, however, he had no intention of justifying his actions.

How could Cinead have been so wrong in his assessment of Tessa Wallace? The emissarius who’d claimed she was
good through and through
should have his head examined. Tessa was anything but. She was combative and head-strong. “She’s a piece of work, that woman,” he ground out.

“Because she didn’t fall to your feet and say ‘Yes, sir!’ to everything you said?” Enya put her finger to her lips in a mock-contemplative gesture. “Hmm. Makes sense.”

“What’s your fucking problem?”

Enya shrugged. “I have no problem. Because I don’t let my emotions get the better of me.”

“Neither do I!” Though Tessa’s opposition to his suggestions had riled him up. In a purely professional way, of course.

“My bad.”

And now Enya was getting on his nerves by making more out of the situation than there was, turning a molehill into Mount Everest. “Don’t apologize if you don’t mean it.”

“You really don’t get it, do you?” she asked, shaking her head, her gaze a little softer now.

“Get what?”

She jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “A woman running for mayor isn’t gonna be a pushover. Making her comply with certain rules so you can keep her safe will take some finesse. I always thought you of all people had a boatload of that at your fingertips.”

“Guess I’m fresh out of finesse.”

At that, she chuckled, a sweet sound that reminded him of why he’d always seen and treated her like a younger sister, even though she was practically the same age as he.

“You’d better stock up on it then, because you’ll need her cooperation if this whole fake boyfriend-girlfriend scenario is supposed to work. There’s only so much I can do in the shadows.”

He lifted his hand, stopping her. He knew his duties. “I don’t need anybody telling me what I’m supposed to do. Which brings me to your duties.” It was best to deflect from him now. Enya had already stirred up too much shit for one morning.

“Don’t worry, I know what to do,” she said almost bored. “I’ll be staying in her office, checking out her visitors and the staff that’s coming in and out. I won’t leave her side until it’s time for you to take over.”

“If she makes any appointments or agrees to any events without putting them on the calendar or notifying her campaign manager or me, I’ll need to know.”

“Understood. But do you honestly think she’d try to sneak past you?”

“She didn’t exactly like the idea of me accompanying her to every event.”

Enya rolled her eyes. “She’s not stupid. She knows that if she wants to be safe, she needs to stick with you. She’ll just have to get used to the idea. She strikes me as an independent woman who’s not used to asking for permission. Put yourself in her shoes for a moment. Would you like it if some stranger suddenly showed up and said you couldn’t do this or that and would need to run every decision about your whereabouts by them? Answer: no, you wouldn’t like it at all.”

He grunted, but he knew Enya was right.

“So why don’t you make it a little easier on her?”

“How?”

“Don’t provoke her. She’ll only fight back like a caged tigress.”

Enya’s last words conjured up an image of Tessa dressed in a slinky outfit charging at him and tossing him on a bed, mounting him, mauling him...

Fuck!

He ran a shaky hand through his hair. He hadn’t had fantasies like that in a long time. Not since his ill-fated almost-union with Olivia—a woman the demons had manipulated to get to him. And he’d fallen for it, for her. Hard. But it had all been a lie. A lie that had nearly killed him. Was it then a surprise that whenever he saw a woman who stirred any kind of feelings in him, he lashed out in anger, hoping to drive her away before he made the same mistake again? Before he got emotionally involved and let those emotions cloud his decisions.

“… and maybe a box of chocolates. Those always work wonders. Every woman loves them,” Enya said.

“What?” How long had he zoned out?