Wicked Attraction (The Protector) Read online

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY “Villanova’s going to vote in favor.” Ewan clapped his hands together in triumph and came around the side of the desk to kiss Nina’s surprised face. “Turns out that almost everyone at the party who saw you get attacked lent their support to the initiative.” Nina kissed him but then drew back. “I guess I couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome if I’d planned for it.” “Katrinka did ask me again if we’d staged it,” Ewan admitted. “Of course she did.” Nina shook her head and tugged him by the front of his shirt to give him a longer, more thorough kiss. “She’ll think we planned the whole thing no matter what we say, and she won’t care either way, because it got the results she wanted.” Ewan stroked her hair off her forehead and over one shoulder. “Also the results we wanted, baby. This is a good thing. And we’ll figure out who was trying to get to you, and why.” “I’m less concerned about why. It doesn’t matter, really, does it? If someone’s coming after me, I don’t need a hi

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Despite her protests, it hadn’t taken Nina very long at all to pack for the weekend. She’d done a quick bit of research on the place Ewan wanted to take her, and she wasn’t going to need more than a few flowing maxi dresses and some sandals. The resort had individual cabins private enough for nude swimming, if they decided to get in the water—which was sure to be chilly. When she told him so, Ewan chuckled. “There’s a hot tub.” “A hot tub isn’t like swimming in the lake.” Nina settled against the transpo’s synthleather seats and looked out the window as the vehicle prepared to exit the highway it had taken to get to the magrail system. When it had settled into the tracks, waiting for the space in the constantly monitored traffic to allow them entrance, she relaxed. “You want to swim in Lake Erie, we’ll get you into the water. Whatever you want, baby.” “I’m not saying I want to. I’m just . . . saying. It wasn’t so long ago that nobody would have dipped a toe into that

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Ewan stepped back with a low whistle to look her up and down. “Whoa. I’m not sure I can let you out of the house without me when you look as good as that. Someone might take such a liking to what they see, they might just run off with you.” Nina had been nervous about meeting Patrice, but Ewan’s leering appraisal of her forced a laugh out of her, easing the anxiety. “Sure, because I’d let that happen.” Her giggles faded away at the sight of his expression. “You know I wouldn’t. Right? Never mind the near-impossibility of anyone being able to do anything to me that I don’t want them to . . .” “That’s what I’m worried about,” Ewan said. “That you will want them to.” Nina pushed him gently onto the chair in the corner of the bedroom and settled herself onto his lap. Her fingers curled behind his neck. She kissed him, letting him feel her breath on his face as she lingered. She pressed their foreheads together and looked d

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE There’d been so many threats of blackmail, violence, and things that Ewan wouldn’t like should he dare not to respond to the demands that right now, all he could do was laugh and shake his head at the way Jordie had so clearly believed he was scary. Ewan stopped laughing a moment later when a countdown popped up at the bottom of the viddy message. Jordie’s image had frozen for a second or so, but now he started speaking again. The clickable link was still running across the bottom of the message, remaining unobscured by the numbers now ticking rapidly in reverse. “The thing is, Mr. Donahue, I need money. Credits. Cash. Moola, if you will.” Jordie hunched forward again. A little twitchier now. He shifted in his chair. “Because I’m going to work on this project, whether you like it or not. I’m going to make it happen, because I believe in it, and that’s what you always told us to do, Mr. Donahue. Do what we believe in. Right? So in order to do that, obviously, I need

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR The money transferred within seconds of Ewan authorizing it. Jordie’s viddy kept playing with the kid ranting on and on about things, but the moment the transfer was approved, the screen went blank. The comm pinged with an incoming call. “Hey, Mr. Donahue,” Jordie said with a grin, acting for all the world as though nothing was wrong. “Thanks for the credits.” “Jordie, I’m so disappointed in you,” Ewan said in as calm a voice as he could manage. “What are you thinking? Blackmail? What’s going on? This can’t just be about me not approving your work proposal.” Jordie’s expression turned serious. “It is, though.” “Why?” Frustrated, Ewan tapped the screen off to the side, trying to send a message to his security team so they could track Jordie’s location. “Because you’re the only one with the pieces I need, Mr. Donahue. See, it’s like this.” Jordie shifted around in his seat. He wore the same clothes from the viddy message, and the background looked the same. Either he

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Nina had been here before, or a place enough like it that it was instantly familiar even if nothing else was. She couldn’t remember how she’d ended up here, or when or why she’d been in a place like this in the past, but she knew enough to understand that her memories would come back to her eventually. Probably. The blank spot didn’t feel like a permanent loss, but more circumstantial. Injury related, perhaps. The distinct scent of antiseptic that was probably too faint for anyone else to even notice wrinkled her nose. The place smelled like a hospital but looked like a hotel. She lay in a comfortable bed big enough for three of her. Thick pillows, soft sheets. A twitch of the comforter revealed she wore flowered pajamas that she would never have picked out for herself, not even under duress. Of course, Nina hadn’t chosen these pajamas. Someone else had put her in this bed and dressed her this way, and while she wasn’t too weirded out by the idea of someone handling

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX The slight figure with the white-blond hair in the doorway looked determined not to let him in, and Ewan supposed he couldn’t blame Al for being upset at being awoken at this strange hour. He didn’t have time to be polite. He put a hand on the door, forgetting for an instant, stupidly, that Al was as strong and quick to act as Nina and probably as quick to react. He was lucky Al hadn’t put him to the ground. “Please,” Ewan said and took a step back. “It’s about Nina.” Al yawned and blinked. “What about her?” “She went to visit her sister and disappeared. Someone took her. Jordie Dev is involved, somehow. I need you to help me find her, but more than that, to get her back once we do.” Ewan had spent the last few hours working with his team, trying to locate both Jordie and Nina, but so far there’d been little luck. “How’d you figure out where I live?” Al yawned again, looking curious, not angry. Ewan drew in a breath, determined not to lose his temper at Al’s lackadai

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Nina hadn’t been keeping track of the minutes. Her memories of this particular place and circumstance might be borked, but she did recall that being too focused on the time only made it harder to stand the boredom of being locked up. When her stomach rumbled, she ordered a meal through the tablet as Adami had instructed. The menu header said Limone Luxury Health Spa, along with accompanying graphics to prove she was truly exactly where they’d told her she was. The food itself had arrived within the hour on a tray delivered via a small portal in the wall. She’d opened it quickly, but the door on the other side was locked tight, and the portal itself was far too small for her to fit through. Spa food. Fancy, pseudo-healthy options that arrived on plates decorated with edible garnish that did nothing but get in the way. Nothing so gauche as a cheeseburger had been offered, so she settled for a protein patty on a bed of greens, adorned with cheese that claimed to be re

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Ewan’s team had come up with a series of possible locations for Jordie Dev, and therefore Nina, based on information they’d been able to strip from the data stamps on Jordie’s viddy message. Ewan had also gon
e to a different sort of source. Katrinka Dev looked at him now with wide eyes and a thin, grim smile. “I have no idea. I truly don’t. You have to understand, Ewan, Jordie and I have not been . . . close. Not for the past few years.” Katrinka’s hand shook so much the tea in her fancy china cup sloshed a little. She put it down without sipping and clutched her hands together, wet fingers linked tight. She looked haggard. Ewan had considered her more of a friend than an acquaintance, but now he didn’t have much sympathy for her. “Is there anything you can do to help us? Please. I have my team working on tracing the origins and location of his message, but it was encrypted. Your son was very talented with coding, Katrinka. I believe he might have been one of the b

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE “You’ll be all right. Let me take care of that pain for you. Relax. I will make you feel better.” The voice, soothing and somehow metallic, spoke like a person, but Nina knew it belonged to a medtech unit designed to provide solace to patients so injured they weren’t supposed to know they were almost dead. She’d been in this place before, however, and so she blinked away the haze from the drugs that were meant to ease her agony. She couldn’t figure out the source of her pain, but dull aches ran up and down her limbs, and a sharper pain twisted itself at the base of her spine. The left side of her head had been shaved bare, but there didn’t seem to be any wounds there. She wasn’t bound by bandages, didn’t feel any stitches, and could see no bruises. Even so, she hurt in more places than she did not, but she didn’t mind. She preferred the pain. It kept her grounded. Focused. It kept her aware of not only where she was, but who. She didn’t struggle against the needle i

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY The morning sun streaming through the attic’s small windows tells Nina it’s later in the morning than she’d expected. She stretches. Yawns. She’d been dreaming of something that has left her faintly disturbed, but she cannot now recall what the nightmare had been. Beside her, the bed is empty, the sheets cool. She runs a hand over the smooth fabric. Ewan must be downstairs. When she concentrates, she smells the delicious scent of coffee, the real stuff, wafting up from downstairs. When she pulls off the comforter, her naked body reminds Nina of the night before. They’d made love for hours. Remembering that pleasure now, she shivers. Grins. She arches and writhes on the bed, overcome with joy. She is in love, utterly and completely. She’s never been so happy, not ever once in her life. She is going to be in love with this man forever and ever, until they are both wrinkled little apples sitting in rocking chairs on a front porch, watching their great-grandchildren gambol l

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE “You’re excremental at following orders.” Al spat to one side and swiped at the dust clinging to her lips. “Ugh. Spiderwebs. So gross. If I eat a spider, I am charging you extra.” Ewan, breath tight in his throat, shook his head. Jordie had told Al that Nina was being held in this place, in the basement. His team had confirmed it as the last location where Nina’s personal comm had registered. This was where she’d been supposedly meeting her sister. “She has to be in there. She has to.” “I’m sorry.” Allegra’s gaze went soft. “I know how much you were hoping to find her.” “Not just hoping. This is where the kid said she’s supposed to be.” Ewan pounded a fist into his palm and sagged against the basement’s cracked brick wall. He let his forehead rest against the dust and cobwebs, his eyes closed. He cursed low, under his breath, but it didn’t make him feel any better. Beside him, Al sneezed. Once, then twice, and a third time. The white arc from her flashlight swung wil

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO “There, there, dolly, don’t you worry about a thing. You rest up.” The gray-haired woman in the flowered dress looked like a grandmother. She was not Nina’s grandmother, who’d been short and lean, with a head of black hair she wore in a braid down her back to the tops of her thighs. This woman had a kind face, though. She patted Nina’s arm. “You sleep, my dear.” Nina blinked, her eyes focusing on the window. The gray sky outside. The rain coursing down the glass reminded her of something, but she couldn’t think what. “Where . . . am I?” “Oh, don’t you worry about that. You’re here, now. You’re safe.” The elderly woman patted her arm again and bustled around the bed, tucking the blankets tighter. She reached behind Nina’s head to plump the pillows. “You’re going to be all right, don’t you worry about that. You’re going to be just fine.” “What happened to me?” The kind-faced granny paused. Her mouth pursed. She didn’t meet Nina’s gaze. “You were in a bit of an accident

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

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  This book is for the birds outside my window and the fish in the bubbling tank by my desk. Thanks for listening when I need to go over my dialogue using weird accents.

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Come on, beautiful, let’s go. It’s showtime.”

  Nina Bronson didn’t so much as blink at Ewan Donahue’s murmured compliment, even though she had every right to consider it presumptuous. She merely offered him her hand so he could help her get out of the transpo. She didn’t need his assistance, really, not even wearing these extravagantly high heels and the tight crimson dress that showed off curves in places she’d forgotten existed until she’d shimmied into the sleek fabric. She allowed him to take her hand not because she needed him, and not because she wanted him to touch her.

  It was all for show.

  An elaborate charade, with her participation guaranteed by a sum of credits so bountiful it meant she’d never need to work again for the rest of her life. As one of the world’s thirteen remaining “super soldiers,” Nina was forbidden from using her enhancements for any work but private hire. So here she was, once again in the employ of one of the world’s most eligible bachelor billionaires—and for this particular rich and handsome one, the second time around. It was as far from something genuine as you could get, but she’d done worse things for less money. At least this time, the uniform was prettier.

  Ewan had bought her this dress, along with the shoes. He’d paid someone extravagant fees to come to his house and do her hair and makeup, a process which had taken hours because she’d refused any cos-tech upgrades. She’d had enough done to her already. Hundreds of hours of enhancement surgeries had made her faster and stronger, with more stamina than an average person, but she’d never been able to master liquid eyeliner without looking like someone had given her a shiner.

  “Careful,” Ewan warned in a low voice as he assisted her around a patch of uneven brick in the path leading to the hotel’s front steps. “I got you.”

  She wasn’t unsteady on her stilettos. Her enhanced balance was too good for that. Even so, Nina tucked her fingers into the curve of Ewan’s elbow and allowed him to look as though he were leading her into the ballroom. All for show, she thought, playing at being his arm candy all the while knowing that in a millisecond, if needed, she could be ready and at his defense if anyone so much as took a threatening step toward him.

  As soon as they got into the carpeted lobby, she slipped her hand from his arm. He glanced at her, but said nothing. Nina waited patiently while Ewan greeted the couple in front of
them. She smiled at them, but didn’t introduce herself. Not that they asked who she was. Apparently, Ewan Donahue’s date didn’t need to have an identity, since he didn’t bother to give them her name. She’d have been angry, if she’d been his companion and not his bodyguard posing as his date.

  Actually, Nina was angry, a little too much for the circumstances. Only a few weeks ago, Nina had been incapable of feeling intense emotions, either highs or lows. She’d have shrugged all this off as no consequence, but now she seethed until the rush of heat in her cheeks reminded her to calm down. She concentrated on slowing her rushing pulse, cooling her elevated temperature. She uncurled her fingers from the fists she’d made, glancing at Ewan and noticing that he’d seen her do it. Her chin lifted in a silent challenge while she waited for him to say something.

  “Looks like we’re seated toward the back.” Ewan had taken the small place card from the table outside the ballroom doors. He showed her the card. His name glittered on the paper in a fancy, holographic font.

  “Ewan Donahue and guest.” Nina’s voice was thick with sarcasm. “Nice.”

  The touch of his hand on her lower back, her skin bared by the cut of the dress, would have sent shivers tickling up and down her spine if she hadn’t been so closely controlling her body’s reactions. She pressed her lips into a vapid smile she knew he’d hate. His was broad and genuine and knowing, and she hated it for making her remember how that same grin had used to make her feel.