***
“I’m not staying here,” Rachel said. She’d been sitting in John’s kitchen, enjoying a hot cup of tea with Patty, when John walked into the room. He’d had a shower, changed his clothes, and come up with his silliest idea yet.
At exactly ten o’clock at night, he’d told her she was staying at his house. Not for the night, not even for the week. But for the next month, or until whatever mess he’d made was sorted out. And what annoyed her the most was that he hadn’t even asked if it was okay. He’d told her. He didn’t want to know what she thought about staying in his house or if she had other things she needed to do. His decision wasn’t open for discussion.
Patty had wisely left them to their conversation. After John’s first earth shattering announcement, Rachel wished she’d gone straight home from the Christmas play instead of waiting to see if he was all right.
“You don’t have a choice.” John sat at the table opposite her, frowning something fierce.
If he thought he could intimidate her with his macho-man tactics, he was wrong. “Of course I have a choice. I have a life that involves more than these four walls. I will not hide inside while the rest of the world celebrates Christmas.”
“You don’t have to hide inside. You can do whatever you want, but I can’t risk letting you go home each afternoon on your own.”
“Fine. Ask one of your bodyguards to stay with me. My apartment isn’t big, but I’ve got a spare bed. They could drive with me to work each morning.”
“You’re safer here.”
Rachel felt like stamping her foot. “I don’t want to stay here.”
John’s mouth set into a grim line. “It’s better than being kidnapped.”
“What are you talking about? No one wants to kidnap me.” She thought about the bullet graze on his arm, the temperature that he’d been given antibiotics for. “You’re delusional. You need to go to bed.”
“I am not delusional.”
“Don’t tell me this is payback for making you see a doctor? It’s just as well Tank and Tanner have some common sense between their ears. If you hadn’t gone to the hospital, you could have been a lot worse than you are now.”
John dropped his head to his hands. “What did I do to deserve you in my life?”
Rachel snorted. “Nowhere in my contract does it state that I have to live here. And if someone’s trying to kidnap me, then they’d better be worried. I’ve done self-defense classes and I know how to use a frying pan.”
“A what?”
“A frying pan,” Rachel said slowly in case his brain was having a hard time keeping up with their conversation. “You know. A metal pan with a handle that you use for frying food.”
“I know what a frying pan is. What has it got to do with being kidnapped?”
Rachel sighed. “You’d know if you got hit over the head with one.”
John tilted his head to the side. “You’re crazy.”
“If you think that intelligent observation is going to change my mind about staying here, you’re wrong.” She picked up her mug and took it across to the kitchen counter. “In case I don’t see you before Christmas, enjoy your vacation.”
She opened the dishwasher and stacked her mug inside. “If you haven’t already bought Bella a Christmas present, she was hoping Santa might bring her a puppy. But with what’s happening in your life, I’d say it was the last thing you need.”
Rachel turned toward the kitchen door and stopped. John was standing in the doorway with his arms planted either side of the frame.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“There’s no point squinting your eyes at me like a ninja turtle. And don’t get any ideas about using your karate moves on me. I was a Navy SEAL. I know how to protect myself.”
Rachel walked up to him and poked him in the stomach with her finger. Okay, so he had tight abs, but that didn’t mean she believed him. “You got punched in the face and shot in the arm. I’d say your defensive moves are a bit rusty.”
“Really?”
Rachel didn’t like the way he was looking at her. She squared her shoulders and waited to see what he’d do next.
When he didn’t move, she started to go through her list of vulnerable parts on the human body. She could poke him in the eyes, nose and throat, but she didn’t want to hurt him too much. That took out the groin and knees as well. She could always karate chop his arm where the bullet had scraped his skin, but that would be mean. That only left his stomach, and she knew how hard those muscles were.
His smile was enough to make her wish she’d been born bad.
“It’s not as easy as it looks, is it?”
John had no idea what he’d just unleashed. There were lots of ways to be bad, and some of them didn’t involve a whole lot of physical violence. In fact, some of them just required a steady hand and a devious mind. Rachel pulled her bad girl out and decided to work with what she had.
She stepped closer and John’s smile disappeared.
Instead of a short, sharp jab to his abdomen, she ran her hands across his shoulders and down his chest. She stopped at the buttons in front of her nose. “Some people find these types of situations really easy to deal with.”
John swallowed. “They do?”
Rachel nodded and took half a step forward. It was amazing what that small step did for her confidence. She could see John’s pulse jump in the base of his throat, hear his breathing speed up and match her own quick breath.
Before she lost track of why she was standing hip-to-hip with her boss, her hands moved again, stroking John’s chest through his shirt, creating havoc with both their heartbeats.
Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea.
“Rachel?”
She lifted her face to his, focused on what she was about to do.
“Unless you want me to kiss you, I’d suggest we stop this now…” When she didn’t move, he dipped his head close.
Just before their lips touched, she moved her hands to his ribs and started tickling him. He jumped backward, banged his arm on the doorframe, and said a word that Mrs. Daniels wouldn’t like.
“You really are crazy,” he said as she slipped past him and ran for the front door.
“Takes one to know one,” Rachel said over her shoulder as she threw the door open. “Tell Bella I’ll see her on Monday.” She turned to run outside and ended up plastered against a hard male chest.
A pair of vice-like hands lifted her back inside. “Everything okay in here, boss?”
Rachel blinked a few times before she figured out what had happened. “Tank?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Making sure you don’t go home.”
She stepped away from him and threw her arms in the air. “I don’t believe this. You can’t make me stay in this house.”
John kept his gaze focused on her. “I’ve already spoken with the local police, the FBI, and the CIA. They want you to stay here.”
Tank put his hand on the door handle. “I’ll leave you alone. If you need me, I’ll be outside.” He shut the front door and left Rachel with one less escape route.
She looked at John. His half-amused smile reminded her of a cat who knew a bowl of cream wasn’t far away. “You can get that smile off your face, John Fletcher. There’ll be no repeat of our up close and snuggly moment. I was trying to get away from you, not kiss you senseless.”
He sighed. “I’m getting too old for this.”
“For the first time tonight you’re actually making sense.”
“You think so?”
Rachel tilted her nose in the air. “I know so.”
He took a step forward. “Really? So how do you account for the blush on your face?”
Rachel put her hands to her cheeks and felt the heat of her bad girl actions. “It’s warm inside, that’s all. Now if you’ve finished annoying me for one night, I’m going to bed.”
John raised his eyebro
ws.
“Alone, so don’t get any funny ideas.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it. If we were sleeping together, I’d have to tie you to the bedposts to make sure you didn’t strangle me during the night.”
Rachel always knew she had an over-active imagination, but the pictures inside her head were way too x-rated for even a bad girl. She ignored the wave of heat hitting her face and turned toward the stairs. “I’ll sleep in the same room that I did last time.”
John didn’t move or say anything.
She looked over her shoulder as she walked up the stairs. John’s heated gaze followed each step she took. Rachel smiled. She wasn’t much of a bad girl, but it looked as though John appreciated her efforts.