Parker loved Naples.It had a very bad rep, sometimes justified.But it was chaotic more than crime-ridden.You quickly learned the areas to avoid, and you also learned to be incredibly vigilant.
As a single woman who wasn’t ugly, Parker got a lot of unwanted attention.Neapolitan men somehow considered a single woman fair game, and she’d learned to walk fast, look straight ahead and never respond to catcalls, whistles, shouts.No looking around, enchanted by the surroundings.Pity, because Naples was so beautiful.
Like right now, the Bay gleaming sapphire and silver, the sky impossibly blue, Vesuvius a blue-gray giant on the horizon.
There was a controlled sort of bedlam in the streets.A lot of people had swarmed out of the buildings along the Bay.This hadn’t been a bad earthquake.But earthquakes were weird, there were aftershocks, and if ithadbeen a bad one, you wouldn’t want to be in a building.
The streets were filled with people, some still scared, some delighted to be alive, some just happy to have had their work interrupted, like being let out of school early.It was so Neapolitan.Some theatrics, some people overreacting, some people wanting to party.
And everyone very loud.
A young man broke into a run, heading straight for them.He was waving at someone behind him and turned around just in time.He took one look at Nikolai and swerved.
Must be nice to be so intimidating that no one bugged you, no one ran into you, no one jostled you.
She wasn’t intimidating at all.No one would mind running her down or brushing her shoulder.She often got unwanted comments and lascivious looks, whistles and shouts, someone trying to cop a feel.It was so tedious.
But not now.Now it was as if she were invisible, surrounded by a force field, and it wasgreat.Nikolai’s size and body language warned everyone off and she didn’t think anyone would dare try to shout out a lewd comment or try to feel her up.Not with Nikolai by her side.
She was actually relaxed walking along the embankment in the hot sunshine.Parker loved Naples but it was a rough city for a single woman.
Another group of loud men was coming toward them, completely absorbed in themselves.They were raucous and not paying attention to where they were going.If she’d been alone, she’d have opted to walk around them or try to cross the street to avoid the tangle of men altogether.
Now…nope.
She sailed ahead on Nikolai’s arm without a care in the world, and sure enough, the group just split and flowed around them and regrouped behind them.Like magic.
She looked up at the blue, blue sky and the blue, blue sea, the sun reflecting off the tiny waves like pinpoint diamonds.To the left the city rose in a dramatic sweep of red and ochre and green buildings, set off by spectacular gardens.Such a delight to be able to enjoy it undisturbed.
“Must be nice being you,” she sighed.Nikolai looked down, head cocked.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.Those guys back there?They’d have run right into me and would have tried to cop a feel while they were at it.The other guy who was running toward us looking behind him?He’d have knocked me down, for sure.”She studied him, tall and broad and strong.A force of nature.“No one’s going to knock down Jack Reacher.”
He gave a half smile.
“Not the first time someone’s called you that,” she guessed.He shook his head.“Must be nice.I have no desire to be a man, but if I did, I’d want to be you.”
He looked down at her and his voice turned husky.“I am infinitely grateful that you are not a man.”
It was definitely a suggestive comment, one of a million she’d received in her lifetime.She’d mastered the art of ignoring or deflecting and hated it.But somehow, his words didn’t strike her as wrong, just sincere.He was happy she wasn’t a man.And she was happy he wasn’t a woman.There wasn’t anything skeevy in his voice or demeanor.He didn’t look smug or sly.Just stating a fact.
And then there was this curious reaction on her part.She didn’t resent his comment.It…pleased her.The mildest flirtation possible, and it pleased her.She was happy to flirt with him.
He was attractive and she was attracted.
Naples was full of beautiful people, and since about fifty percent were male, there was something like a million good-looking men around, and she hadn’t been attracted to one of them in the two years she’d been living here.
She was attracted to Nikolai Garin, which was strange because she knew nothing about him.He could be married for all she knew, though probably not.No ring—she’d checked.Not even a pale strip on his tanned hand.And though Aunt Caroline was no prude, she’d have somehow let Parker know if he was married.
He was a security expert.She had no idea what that entailed, but presumably it entailed a touch of paranoia and violence.Not things that ordinarily attracted her.
But he looked and talked like someone sane and even pleasant.
Parker was used to these types of thoughts.She’d come across almost every type of male unpleasantness that made for a bad companion, no matter how attractive the package.
She had the antenna of a hyena, that could smell carrion meat from a mile away.She could smell a man who was wired wrong.
