Man of the House: A Dark Bad Boy Romance(32)

“Cox?” I shook my head. “I haven’t seen him.”

“Did you notice all the extra security?”

“What?” I did see some extra guys up at the house, but it hadn’t really occurred to me what that meant.

“Emily, please. I need to show you something. It’s important.”

His mention of security grabbed my attention. Under other circumstances, I probably would have blown him off and ignored him completely, but I could see something important was going on. Reluctantly, I got out of the pool and grabbed my towel, wrapping it around myself.

He was sitting on the chair next to mine, facing me. He had some papers in his hands that looked like they were written by a serial killer. They used that cheesy cut up thing where each letter was cut from a different magazine or some crap like that.

“We got this one today,” he said, showing me the paper.

I frowned, shaking my head as I read it. “What’s it mean?”

“I don’t know. But it specifically mentions that you’re in danger.”

“Is this connected with the dog?”

“Probably,” he admitted. “There’s more.”

“What?”

“I got this one after we . . . “ he trailed off. “You know. In the bath.”

“Yeah,” I said and took the paper from him.

I felt a cold dread in my stomach as I read the note. I had to read it a few times before the weight of it really settled in.

“What does this mean?” I asked him softly.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It means that someone knows something, or maybe they think they know.”

“Who sent these?”

“I don’t know that, either.”

“You got this after we had sex,” I said slowly.

He nodded, his eyes sad. “Right after. Cox called me into his office.”

It hit me then and I nearly wanted to cry. It seemed so obvious, but how could I have possibly seen this happening? Suddenly all of my brooding and anger felt stupid and childish, like I was some spoiled brat. From my perspective, he had been a complete * and had used me. But this new information told me a different story.

“Do you get it now?” he asked.

“This is why you wanted to talk last night,” I said.

“Right. I thought . . . “ He shook his head. “I wanted to protect you. I tried to explain.”

“But I ran off.”

“Yeah, well. I can’t blame you.”

“I thought you were just tossing me aside.”

“No,” he said. “I’d never do that.”

“Never?”

“Maybe to others. Maybe in the past. But I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“This is serious, Carter.” I handed the paper back to him. “Someone is threatening me.”

“I know. That’s why I had Cox double security again. And he’s supposed to be with you.”

“I don’t see him near here.”

He nodded gravely, looking away. “I’m aware of that.”

“What are we going to do?”

“We should back away,” he said softly, looking at me.

Before I could answer, there was a buzzing sound in the distance. Carter perked up and looked around, his eyes wide. The buzzing wasn’t too loud or too near, but it was distinct enough that we could both hear it clearly.

“What’s that?” I asked him.

“Drone.”

“One of ours?”

He shook his head. “Can’t say.”

“What should we do?”

“Come on, follow me.”

He stood up and took my hand, dragging me along with him. We walked quickly, nearly at a run, as the buzz got louder. He took me over to the pool-house, a little shed not too far away. He threw open the door and dragged me inside, throwing the door shut behind us as he pressed me up against a wall, his arms wrapped around me.

My breath came fast and ragged. At some point during our escape, my towel had fallen off, and I was pressed against him wearing just my bikini top and bottom. His suit was wet from my body where I was held against him. The sound of the buzzing slowly receded, and we never actually saw the drone.

He slowly looked toward me, and it became intensely apparent that we were pressed closed together in a dark, private space, both of us breathing deeply. We had just dodged something, though neither of us knew what it was, but the specter of danger was still hot in the air.

More than that, the memory of his body in the Turkish bath was still fresh in my mind. The hurt I felt the night before was still there as well, but it wasn’t so bad now that I understood what he was trying to do. Maybe he hadn’t gone about it very well, but he did have my best interest in mind at least.

“Seems that we always find ourselves in these situations,” he said softly.

“What situation is that?”

“Compromising.”

I stared at him for a second, my mouth hanging open, until he kissed me.

It was stupid, so damn stupid, and we both knew it. We had just ran into a pool-house together because we were afraid of some malicious and evil force that was out to get us. We didn’t even know if that buzz was a good drone or a bad one, and more likely than not it was a good one. Still, we clearly both were afraid of whoever wrote the notes, and we both knew that we shouldn’t be anywhere near each other.