Smiling, he promised, “Count on it.” In a week, Leese reasoned, she might be feeling secure enough that he no longer looked like her White Knight. Maybe she’d remain grateful for his help, but without the sexual component.
Or, he accepted, she could want him even more.
He wasn’t entirely sure which he’d prefer. Getting sexually involved with a client would bring its own complications.
But not having her...he didn’t want to think about that yet, even though he knew it’d be best.
“Okay then.” She shoved at his chest until he let her up, then she rolled from the bed, a warm, sleep-rumpled, sexy temptation. “I’ll use the guest room bath and you can have this one.” With a scowl, she warned, “I expect coffee when I emerge.”
Feeling ridiculously content for a man who’d slept chastely with a smoking hot woman, Leese murmured, “Yes, ma’am.” Catalina Nicholson affected him in too many ways. He wanted her. She made him laugh. She wrenched his heart. And he was determined to keep her safe.
Leese left the bed, popped his neck and pondered the coming week. Hopefully it would go by fast...otherwise he’d never make it.
*
WEBB DISMISSED THE housekeeper and carried his coffee out to the sunroom at the back of the house. All around him, the pristine white landscape glittered under a full sun, unmarred by even the footprints of animals. From here he couldn’t see the lake.
But the image glared at him all the same, pounding in his brain like a repeat, flashing photograph. Catalina, standing there in the snow, dressed in black that showed stark against the frozen white ground. No one could miss her, and one look at her face confirmed she’d heard enough. Maybe even everything.
Why the hell had she ventured to the boathouse?
His temples throbbed and he set aside the coffee with a clatter. A different man would punch the wall in frustration, but not him. He was fucking refined.
Jesus.
Catalina’s unaccountable behavior had caused problems before, but nothing like this.
Nothing life-and-death.
Stomach churning, Webb paced the room. He didn’t know what to do. Ms. Silver—Sahara—claimed she hadn’t heard from her man. Probably a lie. Definitely no one else believed it, even if Webb did.
So where was she? Holed up somewhere safe? Still on the streets? Exposed?
“Mr. Coleman is here to see you, sir.”
Fuck, fuck. He was in no mood to talk to anyone, definitely not a shady “bodyguard”—a man Webb knew as competent, but who also walked a very fine line. It was the other side of that line that concerned Webb currently.
Taking a breath, he turned to face Tesh. “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I know.” Tesh came in with his own cup of coffee. Because he’d occasionally worked for Webb, the staff knew him well, always greeting him with respect and consideration.
Pulling out a chair, Tesh asked, “Any news yet?”
“No.” Many times in the past, Tesh had been assigned to keep an eye on Catalina. He was a tough son of a bitch, capable of tackling any problem, deadly when necessary. “I’m worried.”
“She’s your daughter,” Tesh said, discounting the lack of blood relation. He sipped his coffee, gazed out the window at nothing in particular. “I’m going to find her,” he said low. “You can rest easy on that.”
Webb believed him. But would Tesh find her in time? And if he did, what would he do with her...to her? His muscles tensed anew. He had money, he had power. But right now, he felt far too vulnerable.
“Senator Platt wants a meeting.” Tesh stood and pushed in his chair. “Today, noon.” Already on his way out, he said, “Don’t be late.”
It didn’t matter that Tesh had worked for Webb in the past. Right now he was working for the senator, and they both knew that gave him clout.
Webb ended up punching the wall, after all. It hurt like hell and did nothing to alleviate the problem.
Catalina.
Where the hell are you?
*
BODY ARMOR HAD a workout room in the basement that the agents could use to stay in shape. It also had an indoor shooting range. Getting hold of a gun to use for practice might be useful, but she’d tackle that another day.
For now, just getting Leese to the gym had taken an effort.
He’d have preferred to keep her locked up in the penthouse, curtains drawn. But already she felt claustrophobic. She needed to do something, and watching TV wouldn’t cut it.
So she’d convinced Leese to get in a little exercise. She had no idea what she was doing, the machines all looked intimidating, but hey, she could do some jumping jacks or something.
“Where do you want to start?” Leese asked.
“Umm...” She looked around. “Where do you usually start?”
He crossed his arms and gave her a knowing look. “You’re not exactly a gym rat, are you?”
Judging her? For some reason, she didn’t want to be found lacking. “I’m not a fighter like you, but I get by.” She’d occasionally taken lengthy walks.
On sunny days.
With designated trails.
Without hills.
“I’m ready.” Out of necessity, she wore only socks. She’d found workout clothes—yoga pants and a stretchy sports bra—but again, the shoes were too big and she wasn’t about to put boots on with athletic pants.
When two other men entered the room, Leese stared at them until they turned around and left again.
She almost choked on her amusement. Warning off other guys? Nice. Or maybe it was that he didn’t trust them. That gave her pause. “We’re safe in here, right?”
“Wouldn’t have you here if we weren’t.”
Wow, touchy much? She crossed her arms and jutted out a hip. “Okay then, what was with the mean mugging? You scared off those poor guys.”
His gaze went to her exposed midriff, then away.
“What?” she asked. “Am I showing too much skin?”
He stepped into her space. “Did you want to exercise or not?”
“Fine,” she said with a lot of attitude. Tweaking Leese was currently one of her favorite pastimes, maybe because she didn’t have much else to do. “I’ll start on that.” She pointed at a machine that looked easy enough to figure out where her feet and hands went.
“The elliptical, huh?” He eyed the machine, then her. “If you’re not used to it, set it on low resistance. You don’t want to overdo it.”
Just being in a gym was overdoing it, since she’d never ventured into one before. But she wasn’t about to tell him that. “Don’t worry about me. Go do your own thing.”
“I’ll use the heavy bag. Let me know when you need to switch up.”
Switch up? It’d be a wonder if she lasted on one machine for half an hour, much less take on something else.
Luckily the heavy bag was right across from her, so she could easily keep an eye on Leese. With no idea how to change the resistance to low or otherwise, she used the current setting, found it tedious but not too difficult and was more interested in what Leese would do.
First he took off his shoes, then stripped off his shirt.
She almost fell off the machine.
Mouth going dry, she concentrated on pedaling in an even cadence and watched Leese hit the bag.