Seducing the Bodyguard (17 page)

Valencia sat quietly waiting for Harrison to exit the detective’s office. There were more questions to be answered and after her turn with the overly friendly man, it was Harrison’s turn to go in the closed door room for a recount of recent events. She couldn’t stop thinking about Latricia and Harrison. That hussy had come out of the hotel room with a “we had sex,” grin on her face, and when she went back inside herself Harrison was still shirtless. Two hours and he was still walking around with his bare chest out for all to see. She was furious, although she didn’t know why she allowed herself to care so much. Whether he had sex with Latricia or not wasn’t her concern. She was just his bodyguard. No two second relationship was worth doing a weak job. She needed to keep her head in the game and out of her heart.

He had wanted to talk with her. He had told her as much right before she abruptly changed the subject. “We’ve been summoned to the police station,” she told him. She got the call while she sat waiting in the hallway for Latricia and Harrison to finish doing whatever it was they were doing. She quickly told him to get ready because they were needed there as soon as possible. In reality, she could have waited an hour. There wasn’t a rush. There were just a few details that needed to be attended to. She knew she could have waited until after Harrison said whatever it was he needed to say, but she didn’t wait because she didn’t want to talk about it. She wanted to get the working relationship back on track; back to where it was before she let her guard down; back to where it should be—business and nothing more.

She could avoid the conversation in the hotel. She could avoid the conversation in the police station. But she couldn’t avoid the conversation sitting inside the SUV in the parking garage. Harrison refused to start the engine and move until he said what he needed to say. In other words, whether she wanted to listen to him or not he didn’t care; he was going to make sure she listened to him.

“Time,” he said. He needed time to think about what had happened that night. He needed time to process how he felt. Her heart just couldn’t give him that because she knew that at the end of his trial period he would realize he couldn’t handle who she was, what she was.

“No,” she said. “I am who I am, Harrison. I’ll always be the woman you don’t know if you can handle.”

“Valencia,” he tried to take her hand in his and she retracted it so fast he didn’t have access.

“Your show is over here in two weeks. I’m paid up through that time, but after that I really think you should take on another bodyguard. This is serious and you need to take it seriously.”

“What if I want you to stay on?”

“I need to get back to my home. I can recommend somebody for you—male or female is up to you. I do know a few good bodyguards on the mainland here.”

She looked at him, seriously contemplating his position. He might think he wanted to be with her now. He might think he couldn’t let go, but she knew he could. “Time and space is all you need. Some fabulously wonderful woman who has never seen the world I’ve seen will come along and she’ll be perfect for you. But I’m not that woman. I can’t change who I am, or what I’ve been and even if I could, I wouldn’t. This is my life, Harrison, and clearly you don’t belong in my world. I wish you did, but you don’t.” She took a deep breath to steady her voice. She really wished he could fit in her world, and that she could fit in his. She really wished they could make it work, but it was clear to her now that they couldn’t. It hurt—a lot, but she had to end it now. She had to walk away now because walking away later would only destroy her.

“Please give me some time?”

“Time won’t make a difference, Harrison. I’ll always be the me that is me; not the me that you want me to be. It’s okay. We tried, but our worlds are just too different to mesh.” She forced a smile. “Business—two weeks that’s all I want this to be is business. After that, please, if not for yourself, then for your family, take on another bodyguard.”

“It’s not about the money. It’s about my heart and I just can’t. I should have never let it go as far as it did. That was unprofessionally stupid of me and I’m sorry for that. I know really good people. One is an ex Navy Seal. And then there’s Rose Cummings, she worked with some major celebrities and other high risk personnel. If she’s available I’ll give you the reference for her. She’s in high demand so things are on an “as recommended” basis for her. I know you’ll be safe with either one of them.”

“And if neither one is available, then what? Will you stay and guard my body or do I have to go back out there alone.”

She took a deep breath and looked at him. She knew she should walk away clean, but she couldn’t leave him on his own. He wouldn’t take on anybody else, and with the threat from his stalker becoming stronger he could end up dead. She didn’t want that to happen. “Let’s give it the two weeks and see.”

“We’ll renegotiate,” he said. “Good, something to look forward to.”

“I’m not making you any promises.”

“I’m making me a promise, and you,” he said seriously. “By the end of two weeks I will show you why I’m a man worth your time, your love, your heart. I will fix this.” She wasn’t sure he could. She would always remember the look on his face; the words he uttered in that room and beyond. She would always remember that he looked ashamed of her, disgusted by her…she couldn’t forget that.

The moment they stepped inside the hotel room she felt the need for a long, hot shower. She needed something to ease her tired mind and body. She would have loved one of Harrison’s famous massages, but she knew where that might lead. She needed to distance her heart from him because in two weeks she was going home. She would find the best bodyguard for him before she left, but there was no doubt in her mind that she needed to be apart from this man.

He thought he wanted her now; but how long would that last? Maybe until he saw her in action again, or until he remembered who, or what, she had been all those years ago—not really so long ago actually. No. It couldn’t work between them. She just needed to walk away, to let him go and to let her heart mend again. “Next time,” she whispered while letting the cascading water embrace her naked body. “Next time you’ll be smarter, Valencia. Next time you won’t fall in love.” Next time she would be sure not to even entertain the idea of happily ever after when she knew it didn’t exist, not for people like her anyway. Unless she married somebody within her world she would never be able to have love. There was always JJ. She knew her father would welcome the union. JJ himself seemed to take interest in her as more than the friendly-family bond they had. He never broached the subject, maybe because he knew she wasn’t ready…and on some level neither of them seriously thought of being more—at least she didn’t think so. But JJ was Japanese and there was honor in his blood. His father was dead now so there wasn’t anybody holding him back from taking a non pure bloodline Japanese wife. To solidify their two families he would marry her if her father presented the idea to him.

She didn’t want JJ on that level. She didn’t want to marry at all now. But she knew staying single wasn’t a real option. At some point she would have to take over their family and she would have to produce a child to carry on once she was gone. Leo could do the same, but there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that her father intended to leave the position to her, and not Leo. Leo didn’t really want it. He was happy as he was, and completely happy to shuck all the responsibility on that level. He loved the family; would die for it, but his heart wasn’t into taking over.

She dried her body before spreading an essential oil laced body cream over her delicate skin. It wasn’t until she exited the bathroom that an eerie feeling hit her. Harrison was quiet—too quiet. She slipped on her stiletto boots over her dark blue jeans and she went scouring the room for him. When she reached the door she saw a note tacked to the peephole. “Valencia, I want you to stay. I went to get a surprise for you. I’ll be back soon.” And then he signed his name with a heart beneath it. She was pissed, not only at herself for getting lost in the shower and not hearing him when he left, but at him for leaving in the first place. “Idiot,” she snapped as she ran down the hall and took the first elevator down to the garage. His vehicle was still parked, so he hadn’t left the hotel…at least that’s what she thought until she saw his car keys on the ground close to the back tire.

She felt blood pumping through her veins with a vengeance. She cursed, angry that she might lose this one. “No way,” she told herself. There was no way she was going to lose him—not like this. She could walk away at the end of the day, but she couldn’t walk away knowing he died because of her mistake.

She raced back up to the room and pulled a small device from her dresser drawer. She flipped on a switch and watched the blue screen spring to life. Fortunately for her Harrison still hadn’t listened when she told him to pay closer attention to things because if he had he would have noticed his watch was a slightly different shade of brown. She couldn’t find an exact match and she had banked on his lack of attention to details that weren’t opera related to mask the tracking device she had stuck him with. She had hoped she would never have to use it, but since Harrison hadn’t been taking things seriously she didn’t want to take a chance on him sneaking out and her not being able to find him. With this device she was going to go get him, wherever he was. Whoever had taken him better make their peace with God because this time she wasn’t going to leave an enemy alive. Harrison would have peace, even if she had to kill to give it to him.

Chapter Twelve

H
arrison blinked in confusion. The last thing he remembered was standing in front of his rental getting ready to get in and go for a drive. He wanted to get something special for Valencia and he had the perfect idea of what it would be. He figured he could run out, pick up a nice pair of emerald and diamond earrings for her and be back before she even realized he was gone…well, maybe not that quickly, but at least before she could launch an all out search effort. He felt a sharp prick in his neck and after that everything went black. Now he was flat on his back with his hands and ankles bound to the metal railings of what he imagined was somebody’s idea of a bed. The mattress beneath him felt more like a board of solid wood than an actual mattress.

He was probably going to die and the only thing he could think of was that he had done a piss poor job of making things right with Valencia. He couldn’t even really remember why he was angry. Okay, so she looked as if she would kill the man, but she hadn’t killed him; that had to count for something. He couldn’t, or at least he shouldn’t, fault the woman for doing her job and trying to protect him.

He tugged at the ropes that bound his arms spread wide above his head. When he didn’t feel any release he used his leg muscles to tug at the ones wrapped around his ankles. “Stuck,” he groaned. There was no way he was getting out of this on his own. A new set of curiosity laced thoughts hit him. Who on God’s green earth had done this to him? It couldn’t have been his stalker. If it was her then she had help. He was two hundred five pounds and there was no way a little woman could move him by herself. He contemplated the validity of his own thoughts. Valencia was the smallest woman he had met in both height and weight and she could kick his behind in two seconds flat without even breaking a sweat.

He had seen Valencia in action, when she wasn’t pulling her punches, and he knew she could have seriously hurt him had she wanted to. When she was fighting JJ she didn’t hold anything back. There were a few moments when he felt his heart nearly lurch out of his chest watching the sword fight between the two. When JJ knocked her into a wall and then pounced on her with the sword he thought the man might actually kill her, but she evaded and survived. Even though she lost the fight at the end game she held her own masterfully. She was a little woman and if she could do all that in pint sized form then maybe his stalker could manage to drag him into a vehicle and tie him to a bed without help. He wanted to see who this woman was…if it was a woman. In this day and age it could be some deranged man for all he knew. In either case he wanted to know who was after him. He wanted the ropes to come off and he wanted a chance to defend himself. Lord knows he would fight to the death before he let anybody do anything to his body that he didn’t want done.

“Hey!” He yelled in anger and frustration. “Get in here and show yourself. Man up and stop cowering behind the other side of that wall!” Maybe baiting his attacker wasn’t a good thing, but he was angry and he wanted to know just who, or what, he was preparing himself to fight. He should have listened to Valencia and paid more attention to his surroundings. No, scratch that; he should have never left that room without her. She had told him to take this seriously and that one action, leaving without his protection detail, showed just how seriously he wasn’t taking things. He just wanted to buy her something nice to apologize for being such an idiot. He couldn’t surprise her with a gift if she was attached to his hip while he was buying it.

He heard the door lock turn and then the handle, followed by squeaking hinges. “WD-40,” he said. “You definitely need some of that.” He couldn’t see the person yet, but that didn’t stop him from voicing his opinion without reservation. For all he knew the person could have been coming in with a gun in hand or an axe like in that movie he saw all those years ago. Good Lord he hoped this wasn’t one of those type of situations.