I laughed. “It’s the same old me.”
“Yeah, but not exactly. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but you’re different now.”
That wasn’t good. I didn’t want her being quite so astute.
“It’s the same me. You’re just seeing me differently now.”
“Is that so?”
I nodded sagely. “We’ve been in a dating situation together, and now you’re starting to notice my muscles.”
She snorted then. Full on snort-giggle.
The levity I felt when talking to her was a surprise. Why were things so easy now? “I’m sorry, ma’am, did you just snort?”
She clamped her hand over her mouth quickly. “Oh my God.”
I laughed. “No, it’s adorable. Really.” It was like after I let her see me, even a little bit of myself, it was easier to be around her.
She waved a napkin at me. “Stop it. Don’t tease me.”
“Trust me, when I’m teasing you, you’ll know.”
Her eyes went wide and her nostrils flared a little. She cleared her throat, having gotten my meaning. “You’d better go. I have to get ready. I’m going in to work for a few hours.”
“Right. Anyway, I really just wanted to bring you breakfast and make sure that you locked up behind you. Having breakfast with you was a plus I hadn’t planned on, but it was absolutely worth it. And one more thing… Um, do me a favor and get yourself an alarm system or something, okay?”
She blinked at me, owlishly. “I hadn’t really thought about it before. You’re probably right, though. I should have an alarm system.”
“I’m going to call the detective I spoke to last night and just check and see if they have any leads or maybe if they found the guy.” Read... My guys in uniforms were going to follow up with her.
“Thank you, Marcus, but I’m sure they have it handled.”
I said, “I hear you.” But I knew if Stannis Prochenko was coming after her, the police wouldn’t be able to stop him. At least not until it was far too late.
Her gaze softened. “You really are a good guy, huh?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes.”
Never. You are never the good guy. Good thing she doesn’t know who you really are, or she’d run screaming.
And there was no way in hell I was telling her. Prochenko was dangerous. If he sniffed around her at all, she’d end up dead. I’d done this. I brought him to her doorstep, so I needed to fix it.
Or you could stay away. Let them scrub you.
Which meant walking away from her. My immediate visceral disgust at that idea told me which way I was leaning. No fucking way. I’d just tasted her. For the first time in six years, I could feel something. I wasn’t giving that up now.
“So, how about I walk you to work?”
She lifted a brow. “I don’t need you to walk me to work.”
I crossed my arms and stared down at her. “Pardon me if I’m wrong, but weren’t we mugged last night? And don’t you have to still walk that same way to work? Wouldn’t it be better if you walked with someone?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Why have I never noticed that when you speak sense, you’re kind of annoying?”
I grinned. “So, what will it be?”
With an eye roll, she licked the rest of the sugar off her thumb. “Let me finish getting dressed.”
“Excellent.” I did love getting my way.
Chapter 5
Lyra
Why was he being so protective and authoritative? I didn’t usually like authoritative. It got my hackles up.
It’s also incredibly sexy.
Sweet Marcus was easy to backburner. Authoritative Marcus had enough edge to him to make me pulse in places.
Also, when was the last time someone worried about you?
He waited dutifully for me to finish getting dressed and to put all my dishes away, all the while just chatting amiably. Poking around my apartment, but not really poking, just looking. As we walked downstairs and out of the building, he held the door, and then he did the oddest thing.
Well, it was odd to me. But he insisted on walking on the outside of the sidewalk when I tried to do it because I was worried about him. What if Stannis had seen him, gotten a picture, ran it through fucking visual recognition, and knew where to find him?
Stop it. Stannis knows nothing about him. Stannis is after you. He won’t risk taking out a civilian in broad daylight.
Victus was a brutal organization, but the reason they were so hard to infiltrate and take down was because they were secretive. Discreet. If they wanted Marcus dead, they’d have killed him in his bed and made it look like an apparent heart attack. Or a hit and run at night… or a mugging gone wrong. The safest place Marcus could be was out in public. There was safety in having many eyes observing. I needed to relax. My team would deal with this.
Fucking Stannis Prochenko. This was the last thing I wanted to be dealing with. But of course, the Blood Stone mission was coming back to haunt me. I hadn’t exactly dealt with Prochenko then, but I’d dealt with Victus. This had to be related. There was no such thing as coincidence.
Two years ago, we’d broken up a diamond smuggling ring. Victus had been in charge of it. They were using the proceeds to fund criminal activities. We’d gotten several members of Victus. But Prochencko had slipped our net. I had to wonder if he’d seen my face during that operation, and maybe that was why he’d come after me.
“Why are you so tense?” Marcus’s whiskey-hoarse voice broke through my reverie.
I glanced up at him in surprise. How did he notice? I was usually able to project calm, amiable chatter. It was part of the cover.
He continued. “There’s something about the set of your shoulders. You’re tight, and you keep drumming your fingers against your thigh.”
I frowned and looked down at my hands. “I used to play piano. When I’m nervous, I play Bologne in my head.”
He
