“I…well…I’m the one here in the hotel, not him.”
“Exactly,” he says. “You’re the one I’m protecting, and I told you I’ll do what is necessary to keep you safe. Unfortunately, the hotel doesn’t have cameras on our floor, which is an important view for me and you. I’ll have to install equipment tomorrow.”
“What if you get caught hacking or installing whatever you want to install?”
“I paid the right people to make sure I don’t.”
“Right,” I say. “Of course you did.”
“I told you,” he adds. “I have a plan. I always have a plan.” He softens his voice. “And that plan looks out for my interests, not his, and my interests, are your interests.”
“I can’t-”
“Know that,” he supplies. “Of course you can’t. Trust takes time.”
“Trust,” I say, my throat going a little dry. “That word is…”
“Is what?” he prods, his green eyes hooded, but somehow probing.
Frighteningly impossible, like he’s frighteningly appealing in too many ways to count, but I settle for a reply of, “Difficult,” and eager to change the subject, I motion to the desk. “What are the other computers for?”
“One of them is for you,” he surprises me by saying. “You’ll have the exact same views. And the third is my personal device.”
I turn to face him. “Why are you including me?”
“I’d tell you that it’s to earn your trust, which wouldn’t be untrue, but safety is about awareness. You need to know who and what is normal and right around you at all times. I’m also going to install an encrypted text message program on your computer and phone that you can use to communicate with me. We can use it to talk, should we need to.” He glances down at me again. “Eventually, maybe you’ll believe it’s really safe to say anything to me through that connection or in person.”
“Doubtful,” I confess.
“I’m persuasive,” he assures me with a wink that would really truly get his eyes gouged out if Alvarez saw it, which tells me there aren’t any cameras I don’t know about. At least, not in here. “Let me grab my clothes and get changed,” he adds, reaching up and loosening his tie. “Feel free to sit down and play around with the security feed.”
“You don’t have to work out with me.”
“I’m working out with you,” he insists, already walking to the suitcase on the bed, where he begins shrugging out of his jacket. “Have you tried out the gym here?”
“Not yet,” I say, leaning against the desk, my hands pressed to the wooden surface while my mouth goes a little dry at the way his white shirt hugs a broad, muscular chest. “I just got here this morning.”
“Considering the size of the private wing we’re in,” he says, flipping open his bag, “I’m surprised there isn’t a treadmill in one of the rooms. I’m sure we can have one delivered.”
“I like the weights in the gym,” I say. “Of course, we’re in a hotel. They might not have much to offer.”
“There’s a great gym a few miles from here,” he says, shutting his case, and tossing a hoodie on top. “If this one doesn’t make the grade, we can go there.” He grabs a stack of clothes and walks into the bathroom directly behind him, but doesn’t shut the door.