The Men with the Golden Cuffs (Masters and Mercenaries #2)(18)

She shook her head. The last thing she needed was to get more into Lara’s friend’s business. She’d done all right on her own so far. “Thanks, but I can handle it.”

Now his eyes came back up, narrowing. “It’s obvious to me you can’t.”

She was a little offended. He barely knew her, but he was making judgments already? “I didn’t ask your opinion, Mr. Dean. But I’m curious. It’s obvious you can’t stand me. I get that a lot. What exactly is it you don’t like?”

He crowded her just a bit, almost daring her to back away. Serena felt small and a little helpless against him. “I never said I didn’t like you. You’re a beautiful woman.”

“But you don’t seem to like me. You seem to like scaring me.” He wasn’t scaring her now. Fear wasn’t what she felt.

“I did that for your protection. You need to know how vulnerable you really are. You aren’t taking this seriously.”

He said it quietly, as though he actually cared. It brought down her resentment level. It did nothing to bring down her frustration, but still, as she spoke she found herself doing so in a polite, respectful manner. “I don’t understand. I did everything the cops told me to do. I hired a security firm to install an alarm system.”

“It’s not very good.” He’d stopped moving closer, but she felt penned in, as though he’d herded her exactly where he wanted her to go.

Serena refused to give another inch. “How am I supposed to know that? I don’t know anything about this stuff. I paid for it. I know Mojo isn’t a good guard dog, but he was so sweet, I couldn’t let them put him down. And I have a friend who comes over and walks the house and makes sure there’s no one here before I lock myself up for the night.”

“It’s not enough. Unless there’s something you’re not telling me.”

Humiliation washed over her. She knew what he was saying. “If you don’t believe me, you should leave. I’ll be fine on my own. I’m obviously just an attention-seeking whore.”

He grabbed her elbow. “Don’t call yourself that.”

“Why not? It’s what you were thinking. It’s what the cops think.”

He stared at her for the longest time. She stood there feeling ridiculous. Tears threatened. Why, oh why, couldn’t she be tough like Lara and Bridget? They would just spit in this man’s eyes and tell him to go to hell, but Serena stood there.

“You’re really scared, aren’t you? I require the truth.”

“Yes, some man threatened to hurt me. It scares me. But I think you scare me, too.”

His lips curved up. He wasn’t as gorgeous as Adam. There was a starkness to his features that kept him from being beautiful, but when he smiled, his face transformed. “You’re a smart girl. You keep on being scared. And when I said you were beautiful, I meant it. You’re truly lovely, Serena. The only problem is I know not to trust a beautiful woman. Now be a good girl and get ready for bed. I’m going to sleep in the living room.”

He stepped away, leaving her a little breathless—and a whole lot frustrated. She’d finally found a man who thought she was beautiful, and naturally he didn’t trust her.

Adam strode back into her bedroom like he’d done it a thousand times. He looked at Jake. “You taking first watch? One of us needs to fix the window.”

Jake nodded and without another word walked away toward the kitchen.

Adam rubbed his hands together. “Well, sweetheart, it’s just you and me.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Serena asked, pulling her robe tighter.

“It means you’re not sleeping alone tonight.” He tossed his lean body into her comfy chair. It was an overstuffed piece of furniture covered in pink and green flowers. It had been her mother’s, and though it didn’t really go with Serena’s contemporary style, she hadn’t been able to get rid of it. She could still see her mom sitting there, watching over her.

Now Adam Miles made himself comfortable in the chair where Serena read every night. He looked far too masculine for the flowery upholstery, like a sleek jaguar that was stretched out for the night.

“I’ll run a trace on the text tomorrow.” He toed off his loafers and settled into the chair, his longish hair falling over his eyes and making him look years younger.

He was all soft seduction where Jake was one hundred percent alpha male.

“You won’t find anything.” It felt weird to get into bed knowing Adam intended to stay in the room with her. She hadn’t slept with anyone in years. She and Bridget had shared rooms at conventions, but it wasn’t the same. Even that had stopped since Bridget insisted on keeping the room sub-tropical at all times. “Do you need a blanket?”

He closed his eyes. “No. I’m good. Trust me. I’ve slept in far worse places. This is practically heaven.”

“Like where?” The writer inside couldn’t let that go. According to Lara, he was former Special Forces. She would love to hear his stories.

He yawned a little. “Another time, sweetheart. Go to bed. We have a long day tomorrow. You have to meet with Lara to talk about the book launch. You owe three blogs next week, so you should really get those done, and you haven’t sent your editor back your line edits on Their Sweetheart Slave. Oh, and we have to meet with Eve. I scheduled that for the morning.”