Dangerous Promise (The Protector)
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE Assess the situation. Protect the client. Eliminate the threat. —Nina Bronson Ewan Donahue looked like the worst kind of trouble. And, despite those broad shoulders, the sleekly perfect slope of his jaw as he turned to glare at her, and that habit he had of tossing his slightly overlong dark hair out of his flashing hazel eyes, he was not the sort of trouble Nina Bronson was going to let herself get into. Not because he was her boss, since technically he was just the guy paying for her services and not the person in charge of her. No, Nina had a lot of other reasons for putting distance between herself and one of the world’s most eligible billionaires, and Donahue himself had already made it clear precisely what he thought about her. He’d looked her dead in the eyes but gripped her hand a few seconds too briefly to keep their greeting polite. As though her skin had burned him. Like there was something distasteful about touching her. She couldn’t be surprised at his reaction
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO He should fire her and demand his money back—it had been an obscene amount of money, even for Ewan, who hadn’t bothered to ask the price of an item or service in at least a decade. The cost of keeping him alive hadn’t mattered to him, but he hadn’t realized the services would come along with such a load of bullshit. Selective sight and hearing, she’d said, as though this was news to him. What Nina didn’t know was that Ewan had funded the research that allowed for those functions in the first place, along with most of the others she could brag about. More than funded; he’d invented and programmed the original tech and enhancement software that had transformed her from a normal, human woman into some kind of super soldier. Not a cyborg, he reminded himself as he used the toilet, his back facing her but with full awareness that she stood close enough to grab him if she wanted to, or that all she had to do was lean in a little bit to see everything nature had blessed him with.
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE Donahue had ordered a special tech crew to come in and clean his bathroom of any residual gas as well as test to see what kind it had been, and he hadn’t resisted at all when Nina had given each of the crew members a complete pat down, one at a time, before she’d let any of them over the front door threshold. They’d come in with their gear and been gone in an hour or so, promising results as soon as possible. Donahue had been very quiet for the rest of the morning, at least with her. The medicinal gel on Nina’s eyes was gooey and disgusting, but it had thoroughly rinsed them free of whatever gas had been coming out of that tube. She’d be coughing a bit for the next few days as her lungs recovered, but she’d refused the inhaler Donahue’s personal doc had offered. Irritated lungs weren’t going to slow her down. If anything, Nina was glad that the first attack had happened so fast and had been so easy to neutralize. She was no stranger to hand-to-hand combat or weaponry enga
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR It had been a long time since there’d been anyone in Ewan’s life who’d felt free enough to give him a hard time the way Nina seemed to feel so free doing. He didn’t count the journalists or social media commentators who viewed him as fair game and tore him apart for everything from his politics to his choice of socks. Or, of course, the various self-appointed social justice groups like the League of Humanity that had made it their goal to wipe him off the face of the earth. He meant just regular people. Like . . . friends. He couldn’t think of the last time he’d been able to trust anyone enough to consider them any more than an acquaintance. Even Dominic Rodriguez, the CFO of Donahue Enterprises, was more of a business associate. Ewan had been to the man’s wedding, sent him gifts at the birth of all his children, set aside money in trust funds for them, even. Still, Ewan couldn’t think of a time when he and Rodriguez had ever joked around or simply hung out socially, not a
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE “We could go ten miles in any direction and never reach the end of your property,” Nina said as they both stepped off the grand front porch of Donahue’s faux Victorian-style mansion and onto the circular gravel driveway. “You really want to run ten miles?” he asked. “I could. No sweat, and by that I mean pretty much literally. The question is, can you?” “I used to be able to, no problem. Now . . . not so sure. For I am old and no longer fit.” He put one arm across his chest to stretch his shoulder. Then the other. Lean muscles rippled. “Old, please, you’re what. Forty?” “Thirty-five,” he said with a frown that meant she’d gotten him. She knew of course exactly how old he was, but she’d wanted to poke at his vanity. He’d changed into a pair of ass-hugging shorts that could kill a girl who wasn’t careful. She thought of his accusation that she’d been flirting with him. He hadn’t been entirely wrong. He probably thought she actually wanted him, though, Nina thought as she eye
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX Ewan knew, of course, all about Nina’s capabilities. He’d been the one to design them, after all. The automatic biofeedback that allowed her to shift more energy into muscles being used for fighting or fleeing. Her body’s ability to slow her breathing while gaining more oxygen from each breath. The way she would be able to go faster, higher, harder just by a few simple shifts in her neurological responses. He hadn’t realized how irritating it would be when she used those enhancements on him. Or how sexy. She’d dropped him like it had meant nothing at all. He’d been on the ground watching her make that super jump into the sky before he had time to blink. Flat on his back with his cock aching and rigid in his shorts. Thank the universe for the tight briefs he wore that had kept his erection in its place. He’d never reacted that way to a threat before. If he were mad or scared or upset about something, the very last thing in the world on his mind was getting laid. Hell, he’d n
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN Donahue had been quiet since yesterday, which was all right with Nina because she didn’t have much to say to him. Nina had used sexual tension as a way to keep clients in line before, but it had always been nothing more than surface. What happened in the garden, her reaction to him in those tense moments after the drone attack, had left her unnerved. Something deep and dark had uncoiled inside her, triggered by his scent and the faint thunder of his heartbeat, the warm brush of his body heat. She was always aroused after the danger had passed, all of her enhanced senses firing on high until the tech returned her to normal, but this had felt different. Undefinable, but undeniable. It rankled a bit that he seemed to be outright ignoring her as though she were no more than a piece of furniture. When her personal comm pinged, she glanced toward him to see if the noise had caught his attention, but he was concentrating on his computer and didn’t even glance her way. Nina stood
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT Having Nina as his constant shadow made it a little harder for Ewan to set up the dinner he’d planned. But what had she said about fighting without her weapons in top shape? Difficult but not impossible? Ewan didn’t have weapons in his arsenal. He had skills, one of which was making things happen. Not that arranging a meal in his own home was anything close to hand-to-hand combat, but he still felt accomplished at pulling it off without her finding out until he took her into the dining room. Her words had stayed with him long after she’d said them. No matter how hard he tried to shove them away, he couldn’t shake the idea that somehow, she was right. That the tech had somehow stolen even more from her than he’d thought possible. Ewan had spent a number of hours going over old records, the ones nobody else had access to after Gray Tuesday. The tech had never been meant to suppress emotions. He could find nothing in his original specs that indicated anything like that had b
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE The blond man in the ridiculously trendy outfit was trying not to show
it, but Nina had infuriated him. She hadn’t put her hands on him or anything like that, but she had put him in his place, and it was not the one he was used to. Nina didn’t give a good onedamn about the daggers shooting from Petro Vanslyke’s eyes, nor did she care about the insults he was dropping. The rest of the guests at Ewan’s dinner party, two women and one other man, weren’t quite as vociferous as Vanslyke about their opinions, but on the other hand, none of them contradicted him. Ewan’s guests were all donors to his campaigns, so it was no shock to her that they were all bigots, nor that he would be interested in keeping them happy so they’d keep funding his lobbying efforts. What surprised her was how much it bothered her, the longer the jabbing went on, that Ewan was not making any attempts at defending her. She didn’t need him to, of course. She hadn’t needed anyone to stand up for her in year
CHAPTER NINE
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 parent
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN Ewan’s kiss overtook Nina harder and faster than any attack with fists or weapons ever had. It stunned her into inaction, only for a second or so, only for the time it took for her heart to beat a few times. To take a breath or two. Then she pulled away to take his face in her hands and stare deeply into his eyes. With her mouth still wet from his kiss, she tried to tell him not to worry. Not to struggle. In the emergency lighting that had come on in the aftermath of the decibel bomb’s blast, he should have been able to see her clearly, but his gaze was clouded. He didn’t know what he was doing, that much was obvious. This was not the time, not the place. Definitely not the man to be kissing her. Yet something in her could not resist brushing her lips over his once more before the security team swarmed in and hauled the attacker off the floor. It was Dima. “Trust me, I’m here, you’re safe,” she said even though she knew Ewan couldn’t hear her. He’d recovered a bit by tha
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE The plan had come together surprisingly well, once he’d gotten it into his head that this was the right thing to do. Nina had been right, she was no strategist, but her vivid imagination had been what started it all off, and Ewan had to admit—it was crazy. But it was going to work. If he survived it, anyway. “You’re sure you’re comfortable?” Nina asked. “Absolutely,” he assured her. “So long as they don’t aim for my head.” She frowned before realizing he was teasing her. Then she ran her hands over his chest, feeling for the lightweight, shockproof vest he’d donned beneath his T-shirt. They’d decided it wouldn’t be suspicious for him to be wearing it, not after all the recent threatening activity. “It fits you well.” Her palms rested on his chest as she looked up at him. He couldn’t feel her touch through the layers of material, and yet a flash of heat flooded him. His memory of the kiss had joined his repeated reimaginings of the other things he kept thinking about. His
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN The drone had arrived right on time, proving to him that someone on his team was selling information or was outright involved with any one of the number of organizations determined to end his life. Nina stepped in front of him, drawing her shockgun from the thigh holster and aiming it at the drone. She fired, because they’d agreed this had to look as real as possible, but missed on purpose. When the drone fired at him, Ewan’s instinct was to duck, to run, but Nina had warned him to stand his ground. He had every faith she would keep him safe, but he had to take the hit in a place where the vest would keep the bullet from causing major damage. If he were running, the hit could get him anywhere. “Stunbullets,” Nina cried. “Stay still!” After that, everything happened so fast Ewan couldn’t keep track. Three hard pops hit him in the vest, knocking him a few steps backward. It did hurt, just as Nina had promised, but worse was the spreading tingle of what felt like electric
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Nina had made her rounds of the cabin and the immediate surrounding property under the pretense of making sure it was safe and secure, and of course she did all that within the first half hour after they arrived. This glimpse into Ewan’s life before the money and the fame fascinated her. She’d given him the all-clear to stay in the kitchen while she looked over the cabin’s small upper level. The peaked roof meant she had to watch her head as she moved through the single bedroom to look out one of the windows tucked into a gable. To say the view was breathtaking felt like a cliché, but was the truth. A vista of forest and fog-shrouded mountains in the distance, a hint of water through the trees, clear blue skies. There couldn’t have been a prettier sight if Ewan had paid to have one installed. The room itself included a cozy double bed with a white iron headboard and covered with a blue and white quilt that looked handmade. A battered wooden dresser with a mirror. A roc
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN The smell of breakfast greeted him as soon as he woke. Even after the stress of the past few days and the long trip from Woodhaven, made longer because of the circuitous route they’d taken to avoid being tracked, Ewan had assumed he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep at all. Now the morning light that shone through the small attic window looked more like the glow of late afternoon. He stretched, scratching, and turned onto his side to look through the glass. It had been a long time since he’d used this cabin, but the view from the window hadn’t changed. He had, though, and maybe not for the better. Swinging his legs over the edge of the bed, he let his toes find the fringes of the rag rug his grandmother had inherited from her great-grandmother. His entire body ached, though dully, nothing sharp or insistent about any of the pains. A dream came back to him. The details were fuzzy and fading rapidly, but he remembered Nina’s smile. The taste of her kiss and the feeling of h
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN They got back from the hike, both sweating but only Ewan seeming winded and sore. Nina had done a check of the house before she let him go in, but he didn’t protest even though he was certain nobody had trespassed while they were out. By the time she came back outside to let him in, night had started to fall. “I’m going to rummage up some dinner,” he said. “I’m sure you’re hungry.” Nina patted her lean belly. “Always. I’m going to do a little workout, if you don’t mind.” “The hike wasn’t enough of one?” He paused, looking her over. She gave a rueful laugh. “It just reminded me how long it’s been since I really did my normal routine. It will only take me about half an hour. Then I can come help you with dinner, if you want.” “You don’t have to. I’ll grab a few of the premade meal packs from the storage cellar.” He lingered in the doorway to watch her for another minute before he ducked inside and grabbed a few of the foil packages from the shelves in the basement. He cou
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Nina had not gone back to reading her book. Instead, she’d moved to the bank of shelving below the living room windows. If everything he’d told her had shocked or upset her, she wasn’t showing it. She was strong in more ways than just physically, Ewan thought, again with admiration. What had been so important and awful was the question she’d asked him. The truth was that he couldn’t afford for her to know it, and he w
ould never allow her to be reset on his behalf, because if anyone was able to link him to the original tech, they would come after him and not merely with death threats. Ewan had never worked directly with torture tech, but he knew how well it could work. They would use it on him and force him to hand over the existing enhancement tech upgrades, and he could not allow that. “I haven’t seen one of these in . . . well, I haven’t ever,” Nina admitted as she bent to look at the wooden cabinet and the record player inside it. She glanced over her shoulder at h
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN She had woken before him to the first pale, cold light of morning streaming through the attic bedroom’s small window. Nina could not remember the last time she’d slept so deeply, or came awake with such disorientation. She’d opened her eyes, dozy and warm, snuggled against Ewan so that she’d been the big spoon, and it had taken her several deep in-and-out breaths before she could figure out where she was . . . and who she was with. If someone had come into the house, breaking in while they slept and creeping up the stairs to assault them in their shared bed beneath the sloping eaves, Nina knew she’d have woken out of whatever depths of sleep she’d sunk into. She would have protected and defended her client as fiercely as necessary, and chances were very good she would have slaughtered any attacker even while she was still half-asleep. Still, guilt pricked at her. The sex in the living room had been fantastic and much needed, since she hadn’t had a good, strong orgasm i
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN “There’s something about watching a man putter in the kitchen,” Nina said as she sipped at a glass of fresh spring water and gave a happy sigh. She lifted the class to look at the clear liquid. “You know what, this is probably teeming with bacteria, and I don’t even care. It tastes so good.” Ewan looked over his shoulder at her. He had a towel slung over the other one and an apron tied around his waist. He smiled. “Not like city water.” “Nope. Reminds me of where I grew up. We had a well. City water tastes flatter, somehow.” Nina looked up from the plate of sliced apples, cheese, crackers, and a few smears of mustard they’d found in the cupboard. She licked some off her finger now and eyed him. “This mustard is amazing. It’s the real stuff. Grainy and tart and tangy, an explosion of flavors on my tongue. Sometimes things taste so good I can hard stand it. A lot of the time, food is sort of bland. But every once in a while there’s some combination of something that trig