Chapter Twenty-Three
Dean
––––––––
A KNOCK ON THE DOOR. I had been pacing around my room like a caged animal since Arianna left, and I practically leapt out of my skin when I heard someone come looking for me.
I went to the door and opened it an inch or two, and there he was, Arnold, standing on the other side.
“Everything okay?” I asked him. “Did you find Arianna all right?”
“Yes, I did,” he replied. His voice was careful, almost unreadable, and I kept my gaze on his the entire time. I didn’t want to let him get away with anything right now, especially not when it came to the woman I was already becoming so attached to.
“In fact, I’d like to borrow you for the evening,” he told me. “Did you have anything else planned?”
I shook my head at once. What the hell would I have been doing that would override my boss’s demand to spend time with him? It would be a good chance for me to re-establish his trust in me, especially if he’d had some questions about the way things had been going lately. I was sure he was questioning just why I had seemed so nervous when he had come looking for Arianna before, and I needed to wipe all of that doubt out of his mind.
“Not at all,” I replied. “What is it? Something going on?”
“I need a bodyguard for Arianna and I,” he explained. My heart skipped a beat. He was taking her out? There was a part of me, something nagging at the back of my mind, trying to warn me about this – something that didn’t like this, not one little bit, and I wished I could find some way to get in the way of his attempts to romance her. Hell, at least if I was there, I would be able to put myself in the middle of it and stop anything too serious from happening.
“You’re going out together?” I asked, and he nodded. Okay, maybe I could head it off at the pass if I convinced him this was a bad idea. I painted a concerned expression on my face, and did my best to sell it to him.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea, what with everything that’s been happening?” I asked him pointedly. “The Vogons might still be looking for you, and if they can take an inch...”
“That’s why I want one of my best men out there with me,” he replied, his voice clipped and careful. “I know you won’t let anything happen to either of us. Will you, Dean?”
There was something in his voice that told me he wasn’t up for being argued with right now. I nodded.
“Of course not,” I replied, and I meant it. I would protect her, at least. I might not be so bothered about what happened to him, but hey, I could at least pretend for a little while, couldn’t I?
“She’s waiting downstairs,” he told me. “Come on. I don’t want to leave her by herself for too long. She could get into trouble.”
I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to laugh at that or not. It felt pointed, almost, focused – as though he was trying to ease some truth out of me, even though I wasn’t about to give him anything. I followed him down the stairs and towards the living area, wondering what he was playing at.
I reached the living room, and when I saw her standing there, I had to be careful not to give anything away on my face – because fuck, she looked so hot, it was hard for me to think straight. She was wearing a beautiful, deep blue dress that clung to the outlines of her gorgeous curves like it had been made for her, with her hair down over one shoulder. She wasn’t wearing make-up, but she didn’t need to. Her face was striking enough to stand out with none. She glanced at me, and for the briefest moment, our eyes locked – and I knew she could feel it, too. She could feel my want for her, she could feel how badly I wished I could just reach out and touch her and pull her so close to me again – how much it hurt to be standing here, on the other side of the room, pretending like I didn’t have a problem with just acting as their chauffeur for the evening instead of carrying her up to bed and throwing her down and tearing off that dress before she could set foot out the front door.
“Dean is going to be driving us this evening, and providing security,” Arnold told her, and she nodded. I could tell her mind was racing in the exact way mine was in that instant, trying to work out if this was some sort of play from Arnold, something he was using to push us into revealing the truth of our relationship. I had no idea what he was planning to get from this, but he was obviously intending something.
“Thank you,” she told me, her voice warm. She knew how to play the part of the innocent, even though I knew she was anything but. She was a woman, like Rafael had said, who knew exactly where she was in the world and exactly how to handle herself. She knew how to take any situation and bend it to her will. I just wasn’t sure if Arnold had worked it out yet, how much he really bought into the myth she was spinning around herself.
“Of course,” I replied. “Let me pull a car around. I’ll see you in a moment.”
I needed Arnold to believe I had no issue with them being alone together, even though my mind was already racing at the thought of everything he might do to her when he got the chance. I hated the thought of him getting his hands on her, even though I knew I didn’t exactly have any right to her myself. Yes, we’d fucked, but she didn’t strike me as the type for whom that was particularly sacred. I just hadn’t been with a woman in a long enough time that her touch was enough to drive me a little crazy.
I pulled the car around, hoping she was doing her bit to sell this. I was sure Arnold had some idea of what was going on between Arianna and I, and this was his way of making sure both of us understood just what he made of it. He wasn’t about to allow us to get what we wanted here, and maybe he had a point. We should have been staying away from each other, but it was just so damn hard when she looked as good in a dress as she did...
By the time I stopped the car and opened the doors for them, he had his arm around her waist, steering her towards the vehicle and making sure she couldn’t slip out of his grasp. She barely looked at me. I knew it was for the best, the easiest way to keep our tension under wraps, but I longed to feel her gaze meet mine.
I climbed into the front of the car, and found my eyes drawn back to the two people behind me. Just seeing his hands on her like that was enough to spark jealousy in my system. Which was ridiculous, and I knew it – we had only just met, we’d slept together twice, and our lives would be a whole hell of a lot easier if we pretended it had never happened at all. Why was I pushing my luck like this? Why was I acting such a fool with her? I needed to forget we’d ever shared anything. I needed to put her behind me.
Instead of putting myself behind her.
She shuffled to the far edge of the back seat as I pulled out of the driveway and hit the road.
“Where are we going?” I asked Arnold. There were a few places he might have chosen, but I was sure I knew where we were headed. The Schwindels owned a club outside the city, one that was mostly used by people who couldn’t conduct their deals anywhere else. It was fancy enough to impress, and he was going to pull out all the stops tonight to try and convince Arianna that he was the man for her.
I kept glancing at the two of them in the rearview mirror, making sure he wasn’t edging any closer to her. I knew it shouldn’t have mattered to me, but some stupid, primal part of me ached to shove him away from her and tell him that she belonged to me. I could tell, from the small glances I was getting in the mirror from her, that she felt much the same way.