Shielding Her Read online

  He might be an irreverent ass with his thoughts centered wholly and unapologetically in the gutter, but he was a sexy beast and it worked for him. And since the few times he had touched her had been both circumspect and without agenda she could take his smiles, and suggestive comments in the way he obviously intended, as harmless flirting. Something he no doubt did with every woman he met, no matter her age or looks.

  She remembered what Rebecca had said about the man when she expressed her doubts about him overseeing her security.

  "Eli is a charming flirt and a rascal, but he is good at his job. Take him seriously only when it comes to your safety. The rest," Rebecca had shrugged and smiled. "Just enjoy it, lord knows you could use a little fun after everything you have been through. He won't take it farther, both because he takes his job seriously, and because he won't want to make anyone uncomfortable."

  Jacob, who had been standing with Linc across the room as they talked snorted his doubt at her words, and Rebecca looked over, met his eyes, and then looked back, and corrected herself. "He won't want to make you uncomfortable, he seems to live for making males with mates uncomfortable by flirting with their females, but he won't make you uncomfortable on purpose. Probably just try to make you smile," she tilted her head in thought then added. "and possibly blush. Just enjoy it, get your flirt on. After living with that cold bastard Stephen for years you could use a little harmless flirting with a sexy beast.

  She was not wrong about that, Margaret thought, her eyes drawn to the hard body leading her to her breakfast. And Rebecca had been right about feeling safe with him. If nothing else the man seemed to have a knack for pulling her out of the sad funk she had been existing in for far too long.

  Eli held out the chair for Margaret and had to swallow a little growl when pushing her seat in caused him to catch the honeysuckle scent of her hair, and underneath that, female. Cool and soft with just a hint of some unnamed spice that had drool pooling in his mouth. He had not been lying when he said he was just trying to get her to relax a little, but that did not mean he was made of stone. Was it necessary for her to smell that good? And how was it possible that her full coverage white bikini top and freshly pressed khaki shorts could be as sexy as the string bikini and cut offs he had been hoping for? How was that fair? She was making zero effort to attract him, and still he was frozen in his place behind her chair like a teenage wolf scenting his first female.

  Until he scented her nervous energy amp up and forced himself out of whatever scent haze she had sent him into. Strange, he could not remember the last time he had reacted this way with a woman, especially one he was not going to fuck. If he ever had.

  He sauntered over to the other side of the table and smiled at her questioning eyes. He shrugged. "You smell like pure sin," he said with a wicked grin and a dip into the southern good old boy accent that obscured the truth of his words behind suggestive flirting. "Wraps around a man and makes him think impure thoughts. Took me a minute to shake it off."

  After a moment she managed to shake off her reaction to his tone and words quick enough to raise her brow and ask cool as you please. "Are you able to handle the food now? Or do you need more time to shake off the effects of my shampoo?"

  "I could eat."

  The uncovering of the food showed several choices for their breakfast on the beach. None of which was fried chicken, but after he dug into his ham and eggs and Margaret her mango stuffed French toast and bacon, all perfectly prepared and somehow still hot, neither of them had room to complain.

  Eli wondered if she would find something to complain about anyway seeing as how she was used to the good life, but Margaret seemed to enjoy her meal as much as he did, and all the while her eyes went to the crashing surf and brightening day around them, as she slowly relaxed while answering his peppering of questions. All with an appreciation he would not have expected from someone born into the life he knew she had.

  "Aren't you supposed to be complaining about something by now? Or have taken the usual four hours getting ready so you could laze the day away?" he snorted in mock outrage. "What kind of stuck up snob are you?"

  Margaret laughed, when she could just have easily taken offense. "You are thinking of my mother," she said smiling at him. "She takes high maintenance to another level entirely. And I was always a disappointment on that score, even before I brought real shame to the family name. But I like to think we are not all just a product of our births." She took another bite of her bacon, eating the salty meat with a delicacy that drew his eyes and raised a questioning brow at him. When her little pink tongue swiped out to capture the shiny grease on her lips he almost groaned aloud. "What about you?" she asked with a small grin, oblivious. "Are your parents actually uptight Yankee yuppies or did your particular apple not fall too far from the proverbial tree?"

  "No clue," Eli answered surprising even himself when he answered her in his regular voice sans accent, and without prevarication. "Never knew my parents. I was raised South of the Mason-Dixon line though, so even my foster parents, varied though they were, had southern roots. Not a Yankee in the bunch. Yuppie or otherwise."

  When she did not give him the usual curious looks, or worse pitying glance and questions he leaned back in his chair and studied her.

  "What?" she asked, cocking her head at him in graceful question. But then the woman seemed to do everything gracefully. "What is that look for?"

  "No questions about my orphan childhood, or pitying looks?"

  She shrugged her delicate shoulder, her eyes serious and clear of guile. "I assumed you would tell me more, or not, as you liked. Though not really my business to know on such a short acquaintance. And I don't think I've ever met a man more comfortable in his own skin. What is to pity in that?"

  He studied her for a longer moment, thinking all the while that she never did or said what he expected from her.

  "Why the animal shelters? From all you have told me, that seemed to be the place you would not bend when you had spent a good part of your life going with the flow?"

  She looked away and he watched the ice come back into her face. He nearly growled again. This time for a different reason. After the morning with the real woman, he was not willing to go back to what he knew was her polite mask. And he almost regretted asking the question. But it had been bugging the shit out of him. From what he had seen in his research the woman had rarely deviated from the life she was expected to live. From all he could tell, besides her friendship with Rebecca, who did not move in the same circles as Margaret’s family, she had never taken a wrong step. But she had refused to budge on this issue. Just as she had when she kept contact with Rebecca, someone he got the feeling neither her parents, or her husband approved of. Why?

  "Don't go all cold on me now Duchess," he growled. His tone harsher than either of them was expecting. "It's just a question. Not an accusation, or a passive aggressive shot at your life choices."

  Margaret laughed at that, a slightly bitter laugh, but there was a real dark humor in the eyes she raised back to his. He relaxed when the cold disappeared behind true curiosity as she looked him over in dawning amazement. "That I believe," she finally said her head tilting with that question in her eyes again. "Do you even have a filter? Or do you really just say whatever you want without thought to what other people think?"

  "What would be the point of that? Besides," he said with another one of those wicked smiles. "It sounds exhausting."

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Margaret followed Eli down a well-worn path through the interior jungle of the island. She had no idea where he was taking her but after the nice breakfast he had arranged and the refreshing understanding that after years of being with a man who you never knew what he was really thinking or planning behind his polite facade, she was suddenly with a man that couldn't be bothered. And that realization managed to break her out of the shell that she had been hiding behind as long as she could remember. The last person she remembered being so free and easy with had been R
ebecca. In Margaret's experience few people were so open and easy to read. Now Eli took it to the next level. And she was quickly starting to realize that he was as far opposite of her soon to be ex-husband as she could hope to find anywhere.

  And that was a dangerous realization, because it only added to his appeal. And by god the man was appealing.

  "Where are you taking me? The beach is that way." She pointed behind them to the warm sands and shifting waves they had just passed. But he just kept walking.

  "Friend of mine is here for his honeymoon. Thought we'd mosey on over and check on how they are doing."

  Margaret scrunched up her face in doubt. "You think your friend will want you interrupting his honeymoon?" She huffed her doubt. "If he is this way, then he is in one of the cabins. He probably arranged one of the private beach cabins for a reason. More likely he'll be entirely displeased with the both of us for intruding."

  Eli laughed. "Well, if he was happy to see me I'd be disappointed."

  Margaret thought about that. "So, you are basically messing with your friend in the hopes of getting a rise out of him?"

  "No," Eli said the tone of his voice over-exaggerated appalled. "Because that would be wrong."

  "Yes," Margaret said trying not to encourage the man by laughing at his antics. "It would be." She could not help but be entertained by Eli Ramsey. She was sure she should be appalled that he seemed to view life as one big play date but...she really wasn't. Of course, she would probably feel differently if she was married to the man. She had wanted children of her own, once upon a time, but that did not mean she wanted to be married to one. Talk about going from one extreme to another.

  Where did that thought come from? The man was her bodyguard, not her date, or even dating prospect. Not to mention she was still legally married to another man. And had already decided she was not likely to get married again after that experience. So, all this inner monologue was moot. As soon as Margaret convinced herself that her thoughts were ridiculous, and she needed to take a page out of Eli's book and live in the now she realized that while she was thinking deep and stupid thoughts about Eli Ramsey her eyes had been glued to the man’s unarguably fine ass. And judging by the way he was looking back at her with a knowing smirk, he had noticed.

  Margaret cleared her throat and was heartily glad that she was not the blushing kind. Normally, she had a feeling that if anyone could make her blush like an untried schoolgirl it would be this man. She looked around them pointedly as she spoke, her voice cool enough that even Eli Ramsey should get the hint to move on. "What are you going to do if they are romping naked on the beach when we get there?"

  For once he took the hint and only smirked without comment, a glint of humor in his eyes before he turned back to the trail. "I'll come back later."

  She blinked at his answer, surprised. "You will?"

  He shrugged but did not bother to look back. "Sure. It's one thing to drive Demon crazy, but I would not want to embarrass the bride by intruding on naked time. But, demon will hear us coming way before we get close enough for that and they won't be frolicking on the beach. At least Clytie will be covered." She almost didn't catch his mumbled, “more's the pity." But she was sure that was what he said. But she was distracted by the name he had said. "Your friends name is Demon?"

  He looked back at her and laughed. "You didn't meet Demon and Clytie when they arrived?"

  "No, and I am fairly sure I would remember meeting someone by that name. But then even before the last of the paying guests left I did not socialize with them." Since he was there, and she had never got a satisfactory answer from Rebecca, and Eli seemed to be the kind of man who always told the truth she asked him something that had been bothering her. "I know Rebecca said they closed the hotel until after the changes could be made to the island, separating the private lands from the hotel and its guests because the baby was coming, but do you think they would have made such aggressive and expensive changes if I had not brought my troubles here?"

  Eli stopped and turned forcing her to stop or run into him on the narrow trail. He studied her face and then seemed to think about his answer. "Do you know what happened to Rebecca? That she was hurt?"

  Since he was being so careful with his words, Margaret reciprocated. "I heard something of it in passing when Becca complained that Griffin was being overprotective. Linc said 'We almost lost you. Let him have his peace of mind.' When I asked about it, she very carefully gave me what I assume from the look in your eyes was a watered-down version of the truth. She said one of the guests caused trouble." Margaret tilted her head and studied the unfamiliar sight of serious face from Eli Ramsey. "It was more than that?"

  Eli chuffed. "Rebecca could have died, and the baby with her."

  His matter of fact words hit her right in the gut. But he was going on even as she sucked in a breath. "It's not something she will want to talk about so my advice is to keep this between us. But to answer your question. No, your trouble is not why Griffin, Linc and Jacob are losing their collective minds over security. Between the attack and the baby coming," he added looking thoughtful. "Rebecca is going to be the first but there are a few more that will follow her, and no pack is going to want their pups around outsiders..." He seemed to be about to continue the thought but stopped there, making Margaret wonder what he would have said that she could not hear.

  Margaret lowered her brows in confusion. "Pack? Pups?" She smiled at him shaking her head. "You certainly have a colorful way of referencing things."

  "Fuck," Eli muttered, shocking her, before he turned and started walking again. Leaving her with even more questions, namely about the acuity of his thought process. But he went on before she could ask. "So, to answer your question. No, the extra security measures are not your fault. Lionsgate would be here, regardless, but you are a tactical consideration, and I have a feeling your ex is going to make more trouble before this is over. Though," he added in a matter of fact voice that belied how the words themselves reassured her as nothing else had before. "Whatever he sends this way will not touch you or Rebecca, so you can stop worrying yourself into sleepless nights." He looked back at her with iron in those usually playful green eyes. "He won't fucking touch either one of you."

  Then he kept walking as if he had not just readjusted her world view. Alright, so the man could be serious when it was important to him, and that her and Rebecca's safety was of paramount importance to him had just been made crystal clear. It added yet another facet to the man that she had to admit she liked, a little too much. Margaret blew out a breath and followed. Maybe she should just stop trying to put him in a comfortable box she could then dismiss? He didn't seem to stay in any of them anyway. And she had to admit the more time she spent around her bodyguard the more confused she got. Was it possible the man was that good looking, had a sense of humor and beneath all that ridiculous flirting and joking, there was substance as well?

  Margaret shrugged off her stupid thoughts, again, and tried to bring her thoughts back to the moment. Where she was supposed to be living. Live in the now, and stop worrying about what had happened, or what would happen. Easier said than done.

  Eli looked back and caught Margaret starring at his ass again, and chuckled. Her eyes flew directly to his face and a light pink blush suffused her creamy skin. He liked that, making her blush. He got the feeling it didn’t happen often.

  It made him wonder how far down that blush would go when he got her naked. With an effort, he forced his attention to the trail in front of him. When did it become when he got her naked? Not even if? He needed to get his mind back in the game, and now.

  His problem was that she defied his first impression expectations with every moment they spent together. He had long since realized that she used that cold as ice persona as a shield, automatically. Making him think she had been doing it for so long it was second nature to her.

  But more and more she came out of that shell of hers and he saw a real woman inside it. One that was not just st
unningly beautiful but had hidden depths. The more he found, the more he realized how much he was still missing. She was a paradox, a puzzle. Born and raised with wealth she was neither the poor little rich girl who expected sympathy or the kind who expected everything their way. She put people before herself. Hell. She put abandoned animals before herself, and she had one sexy fucking laugh. Not to mention the smile when it was real made his dick go hard. But then, she breathed and his dick went hard.

  He liked women, but he would be hard pressed to remember the last time one had affected him the way this one did. He had been one horny little bastard as a teenager but even then, it was girls in general, not one girl that caught his fancy. So, his reaction to Margaret Whitney Baxter was throwing him.

  And it was uncomfortable as fuck to walk around sporting wood in his pants and having to work to keep it hidden from the woman following him. Not to mention if he showed up at Demon and Clytie’s like this Demon was likely to kill him on principle.

  "Talk to me about your work at the shelter," he said thinking boring as it would probably be to hear about petting cats and walking dogs it was likely to bring down his dick to manageable levels at least.

  "What do you want to know?" her quiet voice reached him and reminded him of why her talking might be the wrong way to go. The woman had a cool voice until she loosened up and then even that warmed. And soothed, if he were honest. She had a very soothing voice when she was relaxed and out of the cold zone, as he was starting to think of her cold shield.

  "What did you do at the shelter?"

  "What everyone else did," she said shrugging. "Cleaned out kennels, washed the animals, fed and watered them, cleaned litter boxes, helped with the vet when he needed an extra set of hands in the vet center. Made cold calls to try to get volunteers, money, or donated dog food."