Captured by the Bodyguard Read online

  Damn it all to hell! She’d fallen in love with Cane.

  Chapter Nine

  Alexandra couldn’t decide which was more frustrating: when Cane had been ignoring her, or now when he treated her like a buddy. After Malia’s party, there wasn’t any more of that tension between them – well, except for all that sizzling chemistry which was never going to just disappear, Alexandra figured.

  Now, they shared meals when at the house; they talked, they even watched movies together. It was all camaraderie, never more no matter the undercurrents of sparks that only erupted from a man and woman who found each other intensely attractive.

  He never touched her in a way that would seem inappropriate. They’d never even kissed. But like she told him, it only made things all the more turbulent, for her at least. Being close to him, but never getting the chance to give expression to the hunger raging within her for just a taste of his lips, a caress from his fingers…

  Each time she got too close, he pulled away. Gently but firmly. Alexandra knew she could only push so hard before she started to look too desperate. She hated to be that woman; so she tried not to be. Cane had a job to do and she had to respect that. She kept asking herself what her father would think if he knew how she felt about the bodyguard he’d hired for her. Will he call her foolish and irresponsible? Or would he tell her to grab at a great chance at being happy?

  Cane could make me happy, Alexandra told herself without a pinch of doubt. It wasn’t just because he was working in a capacity where he had to watch out for her as part of his job. There was just something about him that spelled reliable, considerate, tender and compassionate. He was a good man, Alexandra knew and she wondered why some smart girl hadn’t snatched him up yet.

  The thought of Cane being with someone but her made Alexandra feel almost ill. But then she knew it was wise to remind herself that this was just a job to him. Once her father decided she was no more in any real danger, or once Cane found he was bored playing chaperone to the flighty young daughter of a billionaire, would he walk off the scene to something more exciting and challenging?

  Oh lord, no, Alexandra thought achingly. Not before she’d got even one chance to taste of true passion with him; to know if the flames that licked within her core for him could burn beyond just her fantasies.

  As the days ticked by, Alexandra could see her chance slipping away.

  ***

  She’d gone to see her father and from the way he was talking, he was having no more problems from the Vincent end. The bidding war had been won by an unexpected third party whose unanticipated entry had caught both Duke and Vincent blindsided with the new party’s highly competitive bid. Duke hadn’t been willing to compromise his standards of negotiation and to his surprise, neither had Vincent, who also backed out from the highly aggressive corporate bidding contest for the lucrative franchise.

  “So what does that mean? You guys are buddy-buddy now?” Alexandra asked, her heart clutching with perverse dread. What if her father now felt she didn’t need to be so closely watched? There were the other two operatives handling her general security but who didn’t live in the house with her. Would her father decide that was enough and release Cane from his close protection detail?

  Alexandra felt ready to faint. And then the thought suddenly struck her…if Cane was no longer her bodyguard, then that would mean he’d have no excuse to not give them a chance. It was some seriously far-fetched logic; after all she wasn’t sure what he really felt about her. Sure, there was all that primal sexual attraction, but what else did she have to keep him with her? He could get released from his bodyguard duties and decide he didn’t want to start something up with her after all.

  All that close proximity, having to be pushed together day and night would be enough to create any kind of physical awareness between a man and woman. But once they were no longer forced to be around each other, there was no guarantee that Cane’s interest could stand the test once he was free.

  So where did that leave her?

  Confused, and maybe a little desperate, thought Alexandra when Cane was driving them away after the customary dinner she’d just had alone with her father at his home; something they did whenever he got back from one of his long business trips and felt they needed to spend ‘quality’ time.

  To her relief, the only thing her father had decided to do was relieve the other two security agents, Marcus and Kirk from their post at her gates. But Cane drove them back to her place, Alexandra wondered when the time would come that her father would feel she didn’t need a personal bodyguard, either.

  Even Cane seemed a little preoccupied, thought Alexandra as she shot him a sideways glance from beneath her lashes. She felt such raw attraction for him that just looking at him was such a freaking turn on. He had those edgy, dark good looks of those heartthrobs that seemed so popular on the covers of all those romance novels Malia seemed to devour by the dozen. Much like a leading man kind of hotness you’d find in some soul-wrenching romcom or other where the heroine just can’t resist being swept off her feet.

  Alexandra had her own version of screen-god sexiness right here but he was in no way interested in sweeping her off her feet. This was just a job he had to do and chances were, the moment it ended, Cane Hutchinson the bodyguard would be gone and Alexandra would never even be able to say she got to have a piece of Cane, the man, just once. Enough to make memories that would keep her warm in the lonely nights that would follow after her gorgeous leading man walked off into the sunset – without her.

  Cane said her name softly, and she turned to look at him and found a worried frown on his face. “You’re all quiet. You okay?”

  “I’m fine,” she said hollowly, shaking her head and looking away, out of her window. She’d never felt more alone than in this moment. Being an only child and motherless long before she reached adulthood, Alexandra had never really felt she was lacking that much when it came to the emotional aspect of life. After all her father loved her and she had friends, so she couldn’t say she’d been so affection-deprived or that she’d never had a support system. But now, being with Cane and yet not with him; it was ripping her in half. She’d been so used growing up and getting everything she wanted. Now, for the first time here was something she needed but too bad, she could never have it.

  “No you’re not fine,” Cane told her in a tone so gruff it had her looking his way again sharply. His hands clenched tightly on the wheel, his driving slowing down only slightly on the night-cloaked road as he stared straight ahead. “I know what’s biting you, Alexandra. And only because it’s the same thing sending me right round the bend. This thing. Between us.”

  “Which in essence is nothing, since you’ve been adamant about keeping the whole bodyguard-client thing strictly ‘on the level’ from the start. And trust me, I get it. I’m probably not really your type anyway. I mean, just because we’ve been thrown together this past month or so doesn’t mean it has to go beyond the…”

  Alexandra’s flippant words were cut off as with a smothered curse, Cane brought the car to an abrupt halt. She gulped, hiding her surprise as she glanced his way to find his eyes gleaming with anger at her. The confines of the car felt like they were closing in tight. Cane was mostly always mild-mannered, cool headed, at best genteel. But when he was mad…oh boy, it got the core of each cell in her body pulsing. All at once it was thrilling, scary and arousing. Seeing his green eyes blaze, his face turn into a mask of pissed-off male was the sexiest and most frightening thing ever. She felt breathless, electrified. And yet a strange rebelliousness sprung up from beneath her fear as she lifted her chin defiantly.

  “Why are we stopping?” she asked commandingly.

  He didn’t seem to hear her question, or more probably, chose to ignore it, instead asking her in a deceptively calm voice, “Did you just say something about not being my type? Is that what you think?”

  Alexandra shrugged, surprised that it was that one comment that had stood out for him. “Oh,
I dunno. I mean, well, yeah,” she said defensively. “I just keep having the funny feeling that if we hadn’t met the way we had, you’d never even consider being interested in someone like me. And then being around someone for more than a month and still being able to keep yourself aloof…hmm. For all I know, you probably aren’t into black girls. But then with having to work so close by me all the time, it’s just all about the situation and how it’s forced you to be aware of me the way you say you are.”

  “I see,” he said in that same dangerously soft tone. “And is that how it is for you, Ms. Duke? Is it just all about the ‘situation’? After all, your father is this corporate mogul and only one of the two African-American billionaires in the state. You’ve been more or less raised like a princess all your life; the beautiful only daughter and heiress to the Duke fortune. You’d never have looked twice at some ex-Marine bodyguard who also happens to be white and from a questionable background since hell, I was a fucking orphan and never even knew my real parents before I got adopted. A girl like you would be slumming it by having anything to do with someone like me. Right? Because I’m nowhere as rich or well-placed as the kind of man you’d want to introduce to your friends or even your father as the man you’re with.”

  “You’re so fucking off it’s disgraceful,” Alexandra snapped. “I don’t date just rich guys. After all, I dated Lamar, and he was just some guy I met at a fashion show where he just happened to be working as a waiter while he claimed to be just out of business school and looking for real work. I was dumb enough to fall for his two-faced crap but at least, you can’t dare accuse me of only being interested in men who are on the same social or economic level as me.”

  “Fair enough. But that doesn’t erase the possibility that you’re simply romanticizing the forced-proximity situation you just happen to find yourself in. You know, the proverbial Bodyguard crush. Don’t you think this is all just a little bit too much of a cliché? Because chances are you’ll be regretting it within weeks – no make that minutes – that you finally give in to it. So why even try?”

  “Oh my God you’re such a bastard,” Alexandra breathed, staring at him. “I hate you.”

  “I know,” he said thinly, looking totally unperturbed and just as furious as she did. “And you’ll hate me even more if I cross the line and you end up wishing it didn’t happen. I’m a professional, Alexandra. I was trained not just as a Marine, but in private personal protection. I’ve been in these situations enough times to know how easy it is for the client to feel she’s made a connection. But trust me, daddy’s little princess; maybe you should think a little harder before you decide categorically to fornicate with the help.”

  Smack!

  Without thinking, Alexandra slapped him hard on one cheek. Smack! And then the other. A kind of double face palm where her two hands just worked in tandem long before her brain did.

  Oh shit. She was breathing hard, her palms stinging as much as she was sure his face was right then, and she clenched her fists down at her sides, unable to look away from his rigid profile with his cheek turned away from her.

  “I’m not sure how you would feel I deserved that,” he said softly, menacingly while still looking away from her. “But if the truth makes you turn trigger-happy, then by all means, hit me again.”

  Alexandra didn’t know what to say. It wasn’t all the time that she felt her age, but she did now. She reminded herself that she didn’t really know that much about men or romance or even sex. Lamar had been her first real boyfriend and if truth be told she’d dated him because she’d been going through one of her ‘nonconformist’ phases where she felt she needed to break off from what she’d believed her father expected of her. She’d just moved out of home, started her Master’s and simply, for the first time, felt like she was coming into her own. And even when it came to money, she’d been somewhat independent thanks to the trust fund her mother’s parents had set up when Alexandra was born.

  And yet now for the first time, she’d come in contact with a man so different from what she was used to, a man who drew up the strongest swells of carnal desire within her secret springs and did it without even really trying. And now he was making it sound like something so trope. Sure, there was all that psychological attachment and heightened intimacy bullshit that comes with the bodyguard-client territory, but did he have to spell it out so…so horribly?

  “Go on, Alexandra; let your inner hellcat out,” Cane was saying, finally turning so their eyes met and for the first time, she saw the unmistakable flicker of molten green flame that turned his gaze almost liquid. His body was tense, coiled tight and most probably, aroused and dangerous. Alexandra licked on her parched lips and clenched her hands even tighter, her heart slamming against her chest as she stared into his terrifyingly handsome face with those haunting, shadowed angles and planes.

  Quelling the urge to succumb to the violent pounding of desire echoing beneath her pores, she drew in a shuddery, bracing breath and looked away from him sharply. “Just take me home, Hutchinson. And once it’s morning, I’m calling my dad. I don’t think I feel safe around you anymore; I’ll be requesting someone else to be my handler if my father still feels so hell bent on keeping one around me. I’m getting you replaced, and this time I mean it.”

  She heard Cane’s breath snag, could feel the fury coming off him in waves. She was almost afraid to make eye contact, not wanting to set him off or do anything to propel her hot tears which threatened to fall. Her face was turned firmly to her window as moments later, he started the car and drove them off without another word.

  Chapter Ten

  Oh, damn it all to hell!

  Alexandra rolled out of bed the next morning feeling like she’d been run over by a freight truck. How did one wake up with a hangover if one hadn’t even been drinking the night before?

  She’d tossed and turned all night, wrestling with her pillows, covers and even her nightmares as she tried to get over the agony of how last night had gone.

  Cane. They’d said some really nasty things to each other but once he drove them home, not another word was exchanged. She’d thought he’d try to talk her out of her decision to ask for another bodyguard, but he didn’t. Alexandra felt hurt but realized that maybe he was just as sick of the whole thing as she was. Maybe? No, make that definitely.

  She shoved her hair out of her face as she stretched her aching body. She could hear Cane in the adjoining room, moving about already. She remembered every little thing he’d said yesterday: about her bodyguard crush, and generally about her not even knowing what she wanted because heck, she was a rich brat daddy’s princess spoiled from birth.

  Well, to hell with you, Cane Hutchison, Alexandra fumed as she shoved her legs into some running tights. She gathered her hair in a top knot and finished putting on the gear she’d need for a run in the nearby wooded park. She ran most mornings but in the past month she hadn’t been that regular, content mostly to go to the gym. But for the past few weeks since he’d been assigned as her bodyguard, Cane always came along. She’d enjoyed his company even though they rarely talked. But today, she couldn’t even stand to be in the same house with him not to speak of letting him along as her jogging partner slash minder. As far as she was concerned, he was no longer even her bodyguard. She’d officially divested him of his services last night and once she got back in an hour, she’d call her dad to make her stand.

  But for now, she needed to clear her head. Run off all the negative energy from last night as well as all the angst that had built up since the cluster bomb her life had become when she got assigned a bodyguard.

  For some reason, she found herself tiptoeing out of her room, unwilling to face a confrontation with Cane. If he saw her, he would insist on accompanying her which would be awkward and quite frankly, unwelcome. She still hadn’t forgiven him for talking to her like she wasn’t an adult who knew the difference between a crush and an actual manifestation of feelings for a man who’d made such an intense impact on
her.

  She stepped noiselessly past his room, pausing long enough to hear sounds that told her he was busy in the shower. Good. He needn’t know she was out on her run. She’d be back soon anyway and besides, now that her father had all but confirmed that Vincent the tycoon thug no longer considered her father a rival, then Alexandra had stopped being a target.

  Feeling an almost childish satisfaction in having her way this once, Alexandra smirked as she made her way quietly out of the house, shutting the door just as softly after her.

  ***

  Alexandra had run on that trail countless times.

  As she jogged she felt the rush of adrenalin coursing through her. Her sports halter already had the sensation of cool perspiration contacting her skin. It was early morning with the sound of birds in the trees and the gentle glow of the sun breaking through the clear skies. People normally ran in the park each morning but never more than a few at a time since this was a community just outside the main city. This morning though she seemed to be the only one out this early. As always Alexandra enjoyed the tranquility that came from feeling like you were so close to nature.

  At first she thought nothing of the van driving toward her, barely registering its light blue color or the shadow of the man driving behind the wheel. Her thoughts were all jumbled up and she didn’t even wonder when the van pulled over to the curb just as she neared.

  She watched absent-mindedly and saw the driver, who was wearing a beanie, slam his hands on the steering wheel as if it was the van suddenly choosing to give out. She was still yards away from the vehicle which was parked right where she was soon to jog past. The driver stepped down from the van and walked round to the passenger door.