‘I’ve been lied to, as well,’ Nathan told her. ‘Section 7 has fed me a pack of lies since I took this job. They had to ensure Alison’s cover wasn’t blown with As-Wana. She had to provide you with security to authenticate the threats, and I was the man for the job. I’m expendable. I can’t be traced back to them. I don’t matter, and that’s fucking fine by me, but I wouldn’t compromise your safety. I put a fly in the ointment by bringing you here and enlisting Tawanda, Teo, Jazz, and their teams to help me. They didn’t count on me having half a brain and figuring out that something was off. But don’t think for a second that I knew the whole story.’
‘I don’t care about the whole story, because I’ve heard so many, they’re all starting to merge into one big fairytale. I care that you lied to me. I care that you knew my father was alive and you didn’t tell me. I hate you for that!’
‘Good, you should.’
She jerked, turned her head, looked over at him. ‘What?’
‘You should hate me. I want you to.’ He folded his hands behind his head and took a deep breath.
Autumn stared at him, trying to call up a response. He appeared tired. His eyes were dim, with dark shadows underneath. He looked to her, and she shook her head.
‘Your mother’s staying with us tonight, but we need to decide what to do,’ he stated.
‘She can’t stay here! This is supposed to be a safe house. How can this be a safe house if the woman who’s coordinating my kidnap is sleeping under the same roof?’
‘Don’t be too hard on her.’
‘Don’t be too hard on her? What the hell has happened to you? This morning, you wanted to shoot her!’
‘You should calm down.’
‘Calm down? I should calm down? No, I don’t think so.’
She was pacing now, up and down the sand, kicking at it as she went and counting under her breath.
‘She was just following orders. Opening yourself up like that is hard work, Autumn, and even you’ll admit, she’s done a great job at being the hard-nosed bitch she wanted everyone to believe she was.’
‘Nothing’s changed, in my opinion, and I don’t know whether I even believe her, not now, not after she’s kept this from me for so many years.’ She sniffed. ‘And this isn’t just about the hard-nosed bitch act at work. She brought that same persona home with her.’
She stopped walking, and her shoulders shook with the sheer shock of the situation. Her father was alive. He was alive and she still didn’t get to see him. The tears fell thick and fast, and she drooped, ready to hit the sand again. This time he caught her.
*
He drew her into his body and wrapped his arms around her, trying to shield her from everything she was feeling. Her whole being trembled as she cried, and a memory from his past filtered into his mind. He had held someone else the same way, when he’d had to tell her their daughter and granddaughter were dead. He had felt the life drift out of her, her reason for existing floating away from her with every sob. He wouldn’t let that happen to Autumn.
He ran his hands over her hair, trying to comfort her, trying somehow, in some small way, to make her feel better. She drew her head away from his chest and met his eyes.
She looked so vulnerable at that moment, so lost and frightened and unknowing of what to do next. He felt that feeling again, starting in his stomach and moving downwards and upwards all at the same time. Lust? Definitely, but that wasn’t all.
She reached up to his face and traced a finger along his jaw line. He was unable to stop his eyes from closing, thinking about what could happen between them, what shouldn’t happen. He snapped his eyes open and took hold of the hand caressing his face.
‘What?’ Autumn asked.
‘I’m your bodyguard,’ Nathan breathed, trying to substantiate something. He didn’t really know what.
‘I know.’
She pulled at the collar of her dress, undid the button at the back of the neck, then, in one motion, slipped it off her shoulders until it dropped to the ground around her ankles. She kicked it away.
Nathan took another deep breath in. He couldn’t do anything else but look at her. A slight frame, creamy skin, long, lithe legs, and bare breasts, nipples erect.
‘So, here’s my body. Guard it,’ she told him.
*
She needed someone. She needed him, to distract her, to take away the emptiness, to fill her with desire, if nothing else. She wanted to feel wanted. She needed to feel his hands on her, his body next to hers, deep inside her. She saw the want in his eyes, saw what the sight of her naked was doing to him, but still, he held back, breathing deeply, his eyes on her, his thoughts who knew where.
She reached out and ran her hands along the waistband of his pants, then lower, over his hardened groin. He wanted her, that was obvious.
‘Autumn,’ he groaned and took hold of her hands.
‘What?’
‘You don’t know what you’re doing,’ he said.
She began to unfasten the buttons on his shirt. ‘Do you want me to stop?’ she asked, slipping her hands inside.
‘Yes.’
‘Don’t lie to me.’
He shook his head and removed her hands from his chest.
‘No! Don’t you push me away like everyone else!’ She folded her arms across her chest. ‘You’re here. We’re here together, and I suppose—in a rather rough-around-the-edges way—you’re attractive. I know I’m attractive, and I know I’m attractive to