Dangerous Promise (The Protector) Read online

  In minutes, several burly members of the household security staff had arrived to carry a now groaning Vanslyke down to his car, Aura at his side. Seri had gone with them, leaving Dima snoring on the couch. Ewan had said he could stay and find his own way home in the morning.

  “I’ve lost track of the times he’s ended up on my couch,” Ewan told her as they left the media room and went upstairs to get ready for bed. “But I’ve known him for a long time, and despite his tendency to get too drunk at dinner parties, he’s not a bad guy.”

  “I’ll take your word for it.”

  He shot her a grin. “None of them impressed you, did they?”

  “It’s not my place to be impressed or not. But, no. They didn’t. Those people are your friends?”

  “I wouldn’t call them that. They’re donors. Supporters of the cause.” Ewan actually looked caught at his own words, his mouth thinning as though he wished he could take back what he’d said.

  Nina studied him. There wasn’t much point in berating the subject. Ewan was going to keep lobbying against the improvement of the enhancement tech, and she was going to keep protecting him from anyone who decided they wanted to hurt him.

  “You know, if a bro is coming at you with a slasher, it’s shiny fine to get yourself out of the way,” she said.

  “I trusted you,” was Ewan’s reply. “I knew you’d make sure nothing bad happened to me.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  “It wasn’t actually the worst dinner party I ever had.” Ewan, settled in his big, comfortable bed, heard the squeak of Nina shifting on the folding cot.

  He lay on his back, hands folded on his chest, staring into the darkness. His knee ached and he could feel a few tingling bruises beginning on top of the ones that had just started to fade from the day in the garden. He wasn’t going to be a baby about it and complain out loud.

  “I’m not surprised, actually. You run with sphincters, you’re bound to get spattered now and then with shit.”

  He laughed at her wry tone. “So eloquent.”

  “It’s something my dad used to say when I complained about anything I’d chosen to do. He said it about my going into the service, once or twice.” Nina paused, looking contemplative. “I’m glad I remember it.”

  “Did it stop you from complaining?”

  “No. He died,” Nina said, but so matter-of-factly that it didn’t make Ewan feel bad. “And then I stopped complaining.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s hard to lose your parents.”

  “Thanks,” Nina said after a hesitation. “Yes. It was.”

  He knew he should apologize to her about Vanslyke. About the dinner in general. He’d pretended it was about the money, but the truth was that even if Vanslyke or any of the others never again donated a single credit to his efforts, Ewan was going to be fine. His money had started making money long ago. The donors were a way to keep his lobbying in the public eye. It had never really been about the credits.

  The truth was that he’d wanted to put some distance between him and Nina. He wanted to remind himself exactly why he was so determined to do everything he could to restrict any new developments in the enhancement tech, but all he’d managed to do was remind himself that Petro Vanslyke was nobody Ewan wanted to associate with. Out of the whole group, Dima was the only one Ewan really even liked, and their friendship had always been more of a quarterly acquaintanceship than anything real. Once again, Ewan was reminded of how he’d kept himself from forming any kind of real friendships. Of how natural it had felt to fall into that sort of casual ease with Nina, something beyond a sexual attraction. Something deeper.

  He’d asked her if his dinner guests had impressed her and hadn’t been shocked when she said no. She, however, had amazed him. Again. Everything about her since the moment he’d met her had exceeded his expectations, especially those he’d set unnaturally high.

  “Does your knee hurt?” Nina asked now, bringing him back to where they were.

  His bedroom. He in his big bed, alone, she in her small cot across the room. He bent his knee beneath the covers. “It’ll be okay.”

  “I’m glad you trusted me.”

  He didn’t reply at first, not sure what he could say that wouldn’t sound condescending. “You’ve proven to me more than once already that you’re able to do your job.”

  “Do you believe what Aura said? That Vanslyke was just trying to goad me into attacking him?”

  “It’s the sort of thing he’d do,” Ewan said. “Why? Do you think he was doing it for another reason?”

  Nina huffed a soft sigh. “I don’t know him. But I wonder, that’s all. What he thought he’d gain by fighting me, or even more, what he thought would really happen if he attacked you.”

  “He was drunk, and he’s a self-important git. That’s all.” Ewan paused, eyes narrowed even though in the darkness, there was nothing for him to look at. “Do you think it was something else?”

  “It was clumsy enough to be drunken bravado. Sure. People do stupid stuff when they’re drunk. He couldn’t know that it’s impossible to rile me up enough to really lose my temper.”

  “But you don’t think that’s what it was?” Now she had him thinking about it, uncertain. Wary.

  She made another thoughtful sound, and he wished he could see her face. “It’s not my job to trust people.”

  Again, this was the place for an apology, but he found himself unable to make it. Instead, he listened for the sound of Nina’s breathing to slow as she fell into sleep, but all he heard was the steady, unchanging in-out, the same as it had been every other night.

  “You asleep?” he asked finally, softly enough that if she was sleeping he wouldn’t wake her. He should’ve known better. She was trained to wake at the sound of an eyelash dropping to kiss a cheek.

  “No.”

  “Do you ever sleep? Really?”

  A pause. “Of course I sleep. I’m not a robot.” She huffed a sigh, but sounded amused, not irritated.

  “I know that.”

  More silence. Another shifting squeak. Ewan tapped his fingers on his chest.

  “I’ll never get to sleep if you keep doing that,” Nina said. “It’s super annoying.”

  He stopped the tapping. “Tell me about yourself, Nina.”

  “Oh, so it’s my turn to tell stories?”

  “Yes.”

  “What do you want to know?” Nina asked.

  Ewan blinked into the darkness. “Whatever you want to tell me.”

  “You didn’t do your due diligence on me? Oh, wait. You had someone do it for you, huh?”

  “Something like that.” She was right, sort of. Of course she’d been thoroughly vetted before she’d stepped so much as an inch onto his property, but the truth was that he couldn’t recall anything personal about her that he hadn’t learned since she’d arrived. It hadn’t mattered, before.

  He wasn’t sure why it had started to matter, now.

  Maybe because she’d already done her job several times since coming to work for him, and while none of the attacks would’ve killed him, it had been obvious that if the time ever came for her to handle something more serious, she was absolutely capable. Or maybe it was something else he didn’t want to think about. He tapped his fingers on his chest again and heard her soft chuckle. He smiled, imagining the upturn of her lips. The rise and fall of her shoulders. He turned on his side to stare through the darkness to where she would be, making out her silhouette but not much more. It was better that way; he could let her image fill his mind without any chance of her noticing his stare.

  “I grew up in a small town in western Pennsylvania, in Elk County. You heard of it?” she said finally, when he didn’t speak.

  “No.”

  “You should have,” she said. “One of your research facilities is there. Guess you never bothered to visit.”

  He chuffed. “I own thirty-seven research facilities, Nina. You think I ever had time to visit every single one?”

  “You i