She let him pull her to her feet, reminding herself that she was going to let her body enjoy his touch. It wasn’t a betrayal. It was another weapon she could use in this war.

“You look irresistibly rumpled this morning,” he murmured, tilting his head down toward her. “Like someone finally gave you the kind of fuck you needed.”

Her mind was a hot blur of conflicted responses, her body loving the arrogant satisfaction of his tone and her mind deeply resenting it.

Before either could come out victorious, Caleb slipped a hand into the pocket where she’d put her phone and smoothly pulled it out.

He was actually bringing up the screen display when she snatched it back out of his hand.

“What the hell?” she demanded, not having to fake any of her indignation. The bastard thought he had the right to invade her privacy, to look at her phone. “That’s not yours.”

She stuffed the phone back into the pocket, glaring at him, feeling a tremor of fear at the idea of his seeing the email she’d just been writing, which was made up of What the fuck am I doing? repeated about a hundred times.

Her phone was passcode protected, but it didn’t make the fear of his seeing it any less real.

Just the corner of his lips tilted up. “I wanted to see what you were doing. You looked so intense and secretive.”

“Well, next time, ask like a normal person instead of behaving like a presumptuous ass.”

His expression changed again, and he slid a hand down the line of her spine until it was resting on the small of her back. Tilting his head closer to her, he murmured warmly, huskily, “Wouldn’t you like to tell me?”

Torn between more anger and involuntary amusement, she pulled away from him. His instinctive entitlement was absolutely outrageous. “That’s not how a normal person asks either.”

“I bet it would work, though.”

It probably would. He could probably charm or seduce the secrets out of anyone he set his mind to, and she’d have to be very careful to not let it work on her too.

He wasn’t even making a serious attempt right now. He was having fun with her. She could see the glint of humor in his eyes, and something inside her wanted to respond to it.

She smothered that weak little part of herself, though, and remembered why she was here in the first place. “If you want to know something, just ask.”

“What were you doing just now, when I came in?”

She sighed, as if resigning herself to answer him—even though she’d come down here on purpose to tell him this very thing. “I was emailing someone I know. Trying to get some more information on…”

She trailed off strategically.

He obviously knew whom she was referring to. Her fictional ex-lover who’d sent the thugs after her. “Any news?”

She shook her head, letting her shoulders and head slump.

“You know, I could help, if you’d let me.” His voice was different now, nothing playful or teasing about it. It was quiet, thoughtful.

“I already told you that it’s my problem, and I’m going to deal with it.”

“But that’s stupid, and I’m not in the habit of accepting stupidity from people I know aren’t stupid.”

The words were blunt, almost rude, but she realized they were also almost a compliment. He must have a certain amount of respect for her if he expected her to make sensible choices.

She wasn’t here to be sensible, though. At all. “It’s not your problem, Caleb. Stop pushing.”

“I’m not going to stop pushing until you tell me what I want to know.”

In a way, his matter-of-fact stubbornness right now was just as outrageously entitled as his grabbing her phone earlier. And, without the teasing veneer, it was even more likely to work.

She made a frustrated noise, as if in resignation, and rubbed her face briefly with both hands. “Okay, fine. I got involved with the wrong guy. He won’t take no for an answer.”

“Is this the guy who texted in the park, who wouldn’t take no for an answer?”

She thought about using the text he’d seen her receive from Jesse to solidify the lie, but she was afraid her expression back then hadn’t been quite right to pull that off now. “No. That was just a random guy. This other guy is—different.”

“He’s turned dangerous.”

“Yeah.”

“Who is he?”

“I’m not going to tell you that.”

“Why—”

“Because I don’t want you involved. I’m not coming to you for help or anything. I told you that before. I don’t want you dragged in. Things just got out of control. I can get it together again, though.”

“How exactly?” He looked like he believed her—not particularly sympathetic, but like he was curious, like there was a puzzle to solve. “Have you gone to the police?”

“I did at the beginning, but it just made things worse.”

“But that was a direct attack on Sunday night. The police would have to—”

“No police. He’s—he’s connected, and I can’t trust the police.” She’d developed a whole backstory where she could feed him pieces of information that wouldn’t get him anywhere but would give the impression of her being in real danger. She saw Caleb’s expression change as he processed the words.

“Connected.”

“Yeah.”

“You really did get involved with the wrong guy,” he murmured.

“Tell me about it.”

That was all she could tell him right now. Any more would give him too much to work with, and she needed to string him along for at least a couple of weeks.

He stood in front of her, absently rubbing the back of his neck with his hand, obviously thinking through what she’d told him.

“So, you see why I don’t want anyone else dragged into this.”

“Sure, but I also see why you need my help.” He’d evidently made up his mind. “When you go back to your apartment, what’s going to stop him from coming after you again?”

She looked away from him and gave a helpless little shrug, hoped it was convincing.

“So stay here. For a while. My security is top-of-the-line. You’ll be safer here than anywhere else.”

It was exactly what she’d been hoping to hear.

“I can’t stay here indefinitely, Caleb.”

“Why not? It won’t be forever. Just until you can figure out something to do.” His tone was light, persuasive, and there was that glint of clever humor in his eyes again.

She knew what he was thinking. He was thinking that soon she’d cave and tell him all of her secrets, so he could get the answers to this new mystery that had intrigued him. He was pleased with himself for finding a way to snare a woman who refused to let herself get caught.

She had to let him think that, even though it was wrong.

There was no way in hell she would ever tell this man her secrets.

“Okay,” she said, after a long hesitation. “Fine. I’ll stay for now, but it’s not going to be for long.”

“Good.” He glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to get to work, but I’ll be back earlier today.”

“Okay. I’m really sorry about dragging—”

“Don’t apologize again. I pressured you into coming here in the first place, didn’t I?”

“Well, yeah.”

“And I pressured you to stay. So I dragged myself into this. I might be able to help you, if you let me.”

She checked his expression and saw he still wasn’t soft or tender. He did seem to want to help, but it was more like it was a challenge—a chance to prove that he was an equal to some honcho in organized crime.

Men never really outgrew being boys.

—

She spent the day taking it easy, pretending to recover, and making plans. She even said hello to Ralph, the German shepherd. She asked if someone could take her over to her apartment so she could get some of her stuff, and—after phoning Caleb for permission—one of the security team drove her over. At six, she was in the window seat in her room, acting like she was reading. She was mostly just watching for Caleb’s car to return.

For the first time in a long time, she felt something akin to hope. There was no happy ending in this for her. She wasn’t deceived about that. The most she could hope for was a dark sort of victory.