“Not as a rule. I was distracted and chose the wrong screwdriver. The other one is in my back pocket. I’ve got this
thingie
in the perfect place and you can get it secure for me if you’re not afraid of heights.”
Amusement and a challenge. “You knew what I meant.” She began her climb up the ladder. It was so secure it didn’t even shake.
“Kitten. No one says
thingie
.”
She loved his voice. His voice could make her forget everything. Even if it was for just a few moments. She had to put her hand on his back and then his shoulder to steady herself as she climbed past him. Pulling the screwdriver from his back pocket seemed more intimate than ever and it was just a tool.
“
Thingie
is acceptable if everyone gets what it means,” she insisted, and slid under his arm so that she could maneuver into position.
She hadn’t thought about how she was going to have to stand, feet on the ladder, her body inside the circle of his arm, stretched up, so that her butt was against his chest. She tried not to be aware of him as she began to twist the screw into the ceiling. It was difficult because his body was hot and the heat moved straight into her like a living flame, heating her blood and putting all kinds of crazy, erotic images in her head.
“I want you to let me into your life,” he said, his voice low. So low she almost didn’t hear him.
Her heart did a little stutter. “I don’t let people into my life.” She tried to be honest. He was so close she could smell him – that clean rain forest scent that took her to another place where there wasn’t danger lurking in every corner.
“I know that, Kitten,” he said. “That’s why I’m asking you to let me in.”
His body was rock hard. Oak tree hard. He was all roped muscle. She could feel his muscles through his thin shirt as she carefully turned the screwdriver.
“Ridley, it’s too dangerous to let anyone in right now.” That was the most she could say, the only warning he would get. “Don’t ask me questions, because I can’t answer them, but not letting anyone into my life is so I know they’re safe.”
That was way too much information. She knew she’d made a mistake by the way his body froze. He wasn’t the kind of man to walk away from a woman in danger. She knew that. Why had she said something so stupid? Was she trying to get him killed?
He mesmerized her. She just blurted things out around him. Let him see who she was. Made her break every rule she had. But really? Asking her to let him into her life? How amazing was that? How many men were that sweet? He made her want to cry and she didn’t cry. She never cried.
Never.
That was a rule too, an unbreakable one.
“I know that too, baby,” he said. “I’m not asking for anything but you to let me in. That’s all. I’ve done dangerous before and I’ll be careful.”
She felt his breath on her neck and she closed her eyes briefly against the tidal wave of need rising. She was so alone. She didn’t have friends. She’d never had a friend. She tightened the screw and handed him the screwdriver. She had no choice but to put her hand on his shoulder as she began the climb down.
“I don’t want you dead.” Catarina didn’t look at him when she said it.
He began screwing in the other side. “I won’t get dead. We’ll work out and I can show you some moves. Have coffee now and then. Sneak in a dinner, even if it’s takeout. I like your company. Truth is, Kitten, I haven’t had much to laugh about in a long time, and you do that for me.”
Her bare feet hit the floor and she rested her forehead on the rung, fists clenched around the ladder, breathing deep. Panic was close. He wasn’t going away. She heard that in his voice. She knew he was persistent in his casual Zen way. He wasn’t walking away from her and leaving her in her mess of a life.
“I don’t know what to do with you, Ridley.”
His laugh was unexpected. Low with a hint of gentleness in it. She felt his laughter move right through her body.
She looked up at him, frowning. “Why is that funny?”
He glanced down at her. “I knew you were going to give me attitude.”
His eyes were laughing, pure gold this time, and her stomach did that peculiar roll so rough that she pressed a hand to it, hard, trying to glare at him. “I was not giving attitude. It was a simple question. What was funny about what I said?”
“You’re the only woman on the face of this earth that would say that and mean it,” he said.
“Do you have any idea how arrogant you are?”
“Honest isn’t the same thing as arrogant, Cat,” he pointed out.
“First, I’m going to bang my head on the wall and then drink the rest of my coffee and then make food. I think you’re making my blood sugar drop to zero. Either that or you’re just making my head crazy. Either way, I need food. You want some?”
“Absolutely. I’m always ready for food. You getting takeout?”
She gave him a look that should have fried him on the spot, but he didn’t seem in the least fazed by it. “Commencing head banging,” she said, and walked over to the wall.
He burst out laughing. “Woman, you bang your head on that wall and I’m coming down off this ladder and you won’t like what happens after that.”
It was a threat, one she didn’t understand, so she ignored it and went straight to the kitchen. She loved her kitchen. The only thing it lacked was a view, but if she wanted a view while she cooked, she could sneak glances at Ridley while he worked. She liked the sound of his laughter, and more, she liked the fact that she could make him laugh.
She didn’t want him there because it was dangerous for him, but still, she wanted him there because she was lonely and needed to laugh with someone. She took a deep breath and let it out. She was careful. Very careful. Rafe hadn’t found her yet, and that just might mean she’d finally figured out how to keep him from finding her. She would never be able to live out in the open, but she was happy and if she let herself have a friend or two, maybe it would work out.
She closed her ears to the voice that told her she was being naïve and it wasn’t fair to put good people in danger. She was so lonely she hurt with every breath she took. She hadn’t realized just how lonely until Malcom had offered her his warehouse. She’d been so suspicious of his motives, but he’d been kind to her when she needed it the most. Kind when she was totally vulnerable. He hadn’t ever once said or done anything to indicate he had a motive beyond that – beyond simple kindness.
She hadn’t known that existed until Malcom had come along. She didn’t know kind people. She didn’t know what to do with them. She found herself smiling as she fixed breakfast, every now and then sneaking a peek at Ridley’s very nice behind encased in snug-fitting blue jeans.
Ridley worked hard and fast, meticulously though, adjusting each camera exactly the way he wanted it, so that every single corner of the warehouse was exposed with the exception of her bedroom and the bathroom. He didn’t talk anymore, leaving her free to concentrate on her cooking. She loved cooking.
That had been one of the few things she’d been allowed to do and she’d poured herself into learning. She’d excelled to the point that eventually Rafe preferred her meals to the ones his chef fixed. He hadn’t ever told her that, but he had fired the chef and one of his men came to her every morning and asked for a list of things she wanted from the grocery store.
She had used the money she saved on a security system to buy a very nice espresso machine yesterday, one of the better ones she could work with to make Ridley his favorite drink. Right now, she wanted espresso with the beignets she’d made to go along with their breakfast.
“Come eat,” she called, without looking up. She was nervous. Really nervous. This was important to her, the one thing besides making coffee she thought she was good at and she wanted Ridley to think she was good at it too.
She didn’t want him to see her nerves. She tried to be casual as if it didn’t matter when she served the Creole red beans under two poached eggs topped with hollandaise sauce. She grilled Andouille sausages and spicy hash browns. The espresso was perfect and the beignets were hot out of the frying oil.
She sat in the chair opposite Ridley’s, so nervous she had to twist her hands together in her lap as he sat down. She watched him though. She couldn’t help it. His eyes moved over the food and came back to her face.
“Kitten.” He breathed his nickname for her.
She had started out hating that name, but now, the way he said it, she loved it.
“You can cook.”
“Well, yes. But you’d better try it. I hope you like spicy.”
He ate several bites of the egg and red beans, his gaze still on her face. “My God, woman, I need to marry you. Who taught you to cook like this? You’re too young to have gone to school for it. Your mom is a cook?”
She closed her eyes and looked down at her hands. It was an innocent question. He liked her food and anyone –
anyone
– would ask the same question.
“My mother never cooked a day in her life,” she blurted out. Her hand actually went to her mouth, pushed against her lips hard. What was wrong with her? That was definitely letting him in. She’d never once said a word to anyone about her mother. Her mother was off limits. Ridley had cast some terrible spell over her and she didn’t know what she was doing or saying around him half the time.
His gaze turned speculative as if he knew the subject was taboo. “So if not your mother, Cat, who? Where? Because this is superb.”
She shrugged and went with the truth. “I spent a lot of time hanging out in the kitchen and the chef was amazing.” She didn’t care if she was misleading him in a small way, making him think she’d had a chef growing up because her mother didn’t cook. “I was fascinated and watched everything he did and how he did it. Eventually he allowed me to help and then sometimes cook the meal. I loved it.”
She pushed the heavy fall of hair from around her face, shoving it back over her shoulder. Heat flared in his eyes, turning them to a molten gold so bright she had to look away again. She managed to pick up her espresso without her hands shaking. She was shaking inside, so that was a particularly good feat.
“You constantly amaze me. I’ve never had a better meal, or better coffee. Looking like you do, I’d think you’d just sit back and let everyone admire you, but no, you work out in the dojo and you’re not there to pick up men.”
She smiled at him. “Newsflash, Ridley, the women at the dojo are there to learn how to defend themselves, not pick up men.”
“Newsflash right back at you, Kitten, most of them are there to pick up men. Have you watched them working out? Malcom has to tell them the same thing over and over. They don’t condition. They don’t practice, they just try to look good and bat their eyelashes. Most of them have all requested private lessons with me.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Here’s another newsflash for you, Ridley. Anyone with eyes can see you’re good at self-defense, the katas and the sparring. So anyone who wants to seriously improve is going to try to score private lessons with you.”
“You didn’t.”
That brought her head up. Her eyes met his and that was a terrible mistake. A really, really bad mistake. Heat moved through her. Not moved. Rushed like a fireball right through her veins and settled low in her body, until her feminine core pulsed with need. She let her breath out and took another sip of espresso.
“I don’t let people into my life. Especially not a man the rest of the world is going to notice.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
She settled back in her chair, frowning at him, lifting her fork to gesture toward him. “Ridley, come on, you’re gorgeous. You’re the kind of man other men step aside for. Women can’t take their eyes off of you. You have scars and tats and you move like sheer poetry. Everyone looks when you walk into a room. You have presence. I can’t be walking around with that. So I’m not going to ask for private lessons even if you’re the best there is. Besides” – she smirked at him – “I can’t afford you.”
Ridley took another bite of the poached eggs covered in hollandaise sauce. She was killing him. She gave him compliments a woman should never give to a man without knowing if he was hers and she did it matter-of-factly, no flirting. She didn’t think she was complimenting him, just stating a fact. All the while she did it, her unruly hair tumbled in sheets of waves like a waterfall. Her face was animated, her amazing cobalt blue eyes, so dark they were brilliant, seemed to hold the key to paradise. A man would want to look into her eyes, watch them change, haze over while he buried himself hard and deep inside of her.
She was sexy without trying. Innocent without knowing she was. Lethal as hell to any man with eyes in his head. And scared out of her mind. Still, he was sitting across from her at her breakfast table, eating the most amazing breakfast of his life, and he was finding his way in. Slowly. Carefully. Feeling his way.
“You don’t need money to get private lessons, Kitten. Your food will always be enough for a fair exchange. Half the time I eat at a diner or out of a box. I’m no cook.”
“What are you? What do you do?”
“Security.” He shrugged, a casual roll of his shoulders. “Work for a company and we get sent out on different types of jobs.”
She frowned at him. He found her frown adorable but refrained from saying so.
“Like the security sitting in an office building looking at computer monitors to make certain no one’s stealing anything? That kind of security? Or the kind that puts you in the path of a bullet because you’re guarding someone else.”
Catarina’s blue eyes moved over his face, and his entire body tightened. Lethal as hell she was. His body was full and hard just from one look under her long sweeping lashes.
“I do install systems once in a while,” he admitted, “but I’ve never actually sat in front of a monitor in an office building.”
She slid her lips over her fork, a completely innocent gesture, but his groin throbbed in response. “So the take-a-bullet-for-someone-else kind of security.”
He shrugged, concentrating on breathing.
She shook her head. “You’re nuts, you know. Taking bullets for other people is just plain nuts. Is that other person worth more than you are? No.” That was firm. She leaned toward him, gesturing with her fork again. “The answer, Ridley, is no. They aren’t. I don’t care how rich they are or how famous. They aren’t more important than you are. You have no business risking your life like that.”