His face was turned to hers and she scrutinized him.He didn’t look like a jerk, and he was amazingly attractive without being handsome.And he was built.When he’d held her close to his side to cross that dangerous street, he’d felt like warm steel.
If you’d asked her whether she was susceptible to beefcake, Parker would definitely have said no.And yet, here she was.“I’d like that.”
He smiled and by the lines in his face, she could tell he didn’t smile often.
“Great.I’ll walk you to your door.”
She smiled back.“The door’s right there.”She pointed out the window.“Nothing bad is going to happen to me in the five steps from the vehicle to the door.”
But she was talking to empty air because he’d rounded the SUV and was opening her door for her.And, like before, he simply lifted her out and down, releasing her immediately as soon as her feet touched the ground.
He looked around.Her street was quiet, with leafy linden trees.So high up the Vomero they could barely hear the chaos down on the bay.The buildings were all made of stone and at least a hundred years old.“Nice area.”
“It is.I was lucky.”He was looking at her intently and she couldn’t take her eyes off his face.It felt like they were frozen, gazing at each other, until a car went by, the driver honking impatiently at a pedestrian jaywalking.“Though there are impatient drivers up here, too.”
Nick nodded.“I’ll wait until you’re inside the door.”
She checked his face, to see if he was joking, but he was dead serious.If no one was lying in wait in the few steps from the vehicle to the door, it was a sure bet nothing bad could happen on her doorstep.Yet he stood there, stolid, unsmiling, waiting for her to enter her building.To make sure it was done safely.She realized what it meant to be an expert in security.It meant you dealt in situations that were unsecure, unsafe.And he’d probably been in plenty of those places.
She kept her housekeys in an outside pocket of her bag.In a moment, her big heavy front door was open, and she stopped, one foot in, one foot out, and looked back.
Oh God, he was such a magnet for the eyes.Tall, broad, yet lean and athletic, he had such a physical presence.Like he had a gravity of his own, and he was pulling her toward him.She grasped the door lintel to keep from falling toward him.
Again, they gazed at each other without moving.
He definitely messed with her head, and she wasn’t entirely sure if she liked it.
“Well, I’ll um…” Parker gestured toward the elegant, dark lobby behind her.
“Yeah.I’ll wait for the door to close behind you.”
In case a bear was in wait in the lobby.
“Okay.See you later.”
She pulled the heavy door closed and it felt like she’d been cut off from a source of intense energy.
She climbed the stairs to her apartment slowly, because her knees felt weak.
This wasn’t good.Not at all.
Still.
She was going to wear her brand-new turquoise summer dress.
ChapterThree
Nick nearly swallowed his tongue when Parker answered the door.He’d spent an hour walking the waterfront, trying to calm himself down, before going back to his hotel and taking a shower.A cold one.
Until she opened her apartment door, he’d managed to convince himself that he’d had a brain melt, reacting to her so strongly.
He was tired, he’d been working nonstop without a break for almost two years.He’d been working in failed states mostly.Places where women were kept under wraps quite literally.They were poor creatures who scuttled from home to market and back.His professional dealings had been with men who were brutal, understood only the crudest of power.
Nick himself was immune to the men, had a force field around him that protected him.He was a Westerner, was rich, was there usually upon their government’s request, and he himself was strong, was a really good shot, and had been trained in martial arts.No one touched him, though they would have liked to.
Not so for the women.They were screamed at, caned, beaten with sticks and stones.The same for the kids and dogs.He knew he couldn’t intervene, but it sickened him.His time there had felt endless and was certainly sexless.Any woman he had sex with would be killed.Somehow, in the back of his mind, the other sex had become this beaten down group, dressed in sacks, heads and faces covered, objects of pity, certainly not lust.
Parker—whoa.Not a figure of pity, no way.So beautiful you had to work not to stare at her.And so bright, like a shining star.And the author ofThe Smiling People!That book and that documentary had kept him company in many a long, lonely night in terrible places, reminding him that humans could be civilized, too.
