Page 38 of Her Sensual Protector

“Shit.”

“What?” Leo asked.

“Oh, it’s nothing new. Just more roadblocks on one of the schools we’re trying to open in Cambodia. The government’s only happy if they get their beak wet.”

“Is that something you can handle now?”

She shook her head. “It goes to Reggie. Chanlina was just telling me because she still doesn’t feel comfortable talking to men. I’m going to have to send Reggie to Phnom Penh for a month or so, then she can see what a good guy he is.”

She jumped when there was a knock on the door.

“Why don’t you hit the bathroom and I let in the server?” Leo suggested.

It made sense, and she really appreciated it, so she nodded. When she went into the bathroom, she took a good look at herself and laughed. Never had her hair looked so eighties girl-band before. She definitely was sporting sex hair.

She got out her brush and went about taming it. When she was done she looked down at the spot where she had been curled up in front of the toilet this morning and bit her lip. An overwhelming wave of anguish hit her as she thought of her dad. She had to grip the sink to continue to stay standing.

“Are you all right in there?”

“Huh?”

“I thought I heard you cry out. Are you okay, Daisy?”

She looked at herself in the mirror and realized she really wasn’t okay.

12

Leo knocked again and Daisy opened the bathroom door just as he was going to knock once more. She was not the same woman who had gone into the bathroom. Something had happened.

“What’s wrong?”

She just shook her head and moved past him, careful not to touch him. Yep, something was way wrong. Once again she looked like the woman he had walked in on hours ago. This time he was going to get to the bottom of things.

“I’m going to put some clothes on real quick, then we can eat.”

“Okay,” he said slowly. He watched as she grabbed something from her suitcase then went back to the bathroom. This he could understand; after all, he was back in his clothes. In a Muslim country, he wasn’t about to open the door in just his pants, of course he had put on his shirt.

She came back out in yoga pants and a peach sleeveless blouse that fell past her hips. Her expression was stoic.

“I think you need some food.” He sat her down at the small couch in front of the coffee table and whipped off the lids from the food. He hadn’t ordered Western food—it was always such a crapshoot in other countries, it was best to stick with native dishes.

Daisy gave a wan smile even when he unveiled badenjan borani to start.

“Oh Daisy, there must be something really wrong if this isn’t doing it for you. It’s eggplant simmered in tomato sauce with garlic yogurt. I thought this would really turn your crank.”

She let out a half-hearted laugh.

He put the lid back over the dish and sat down beside her. “Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

“It’s Dad,” she whispered.

“Alistair?”

She shook her head. “Ethan. My biological dad. I saw something horrible.”

Ah fuck. She’s seen the video.

“Do you want to tell me?”