Read Online In Enemy Hands by Michelle Perry - Free Book Online Page B

Or maybe she should’ve stayed in her room and prayed Dante would be gone by the time she came out. She didn’t know what to think, or what to feel.
    Dante’s eyes were on her and, although physically he was several feet away, his gaze felt like a touch.
    Her father turned to smile at her. “Good morning, sweetheart.”
    “Good morning. You guys save me anything to eat?” she managed.
    “What would you like?” Nick asked.
    For my hands to quit shaking
, she thought, but replied, “Um, I think I’ll just get some cereal. Anybody need anything while I’m up?”
    They both shook their heads and she fled into the kitchen. While she poured herself a bowl of Raisin Bran, Dante came through the doorway, juggling a couple of plates and his coffee cup.
    “Here, give me those.” She took the dishes from his hands and stacked them in the sink. “You didn’t have to mess with that. I would’ve gotten them, or one of the maids—”
    “I’m a big boy. I can clean up after myself,” he said with a slow smile that made her heart flutter. She hurriedly turned away to retrieve a carton of milk from the refrigerator.
    He cleared his throat and said, “Look, Nadia … about last night …”
    Her stomach pitched at the serious tone of his voice. Here it was. He wasn’t any different after all. Nadia slammed the carton on the counter and closed her eyes.
    “So, I guess you’re leaving. Today? Right now?”
    “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” he said, and cupped her shoulders with his big hands. Nadia tensed when he bent to kiss the top of her head. “Your father offered me a job.”
    “What?” she asked, hardly daring to breathe.
    “He wanted to know if I’d be your bodyguard.”
    “What did you tell him?” The thought of being around Dante, day in and day out, was as exhilarating as it was terrifying.
    He laughed, that deep, sexy laugh of his that sounded like the rumble of thunder. “What do you want me to tell him?”
    “Say yes,” she blurted. “Say you’re not going to Indiana.”
    “Okay, I’m not going to Indiana.”
    “Easy as that?”
    “Easy as that.”
    He released her, and she poured milk over her cereal. Then she laughed.
    “What?” Dante asked, smiling.
    “You’re going to protect me?”
    “That’s the plan.”
    She tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear and smiled up at him. “So, who’s going to protect you from me?”
    Who indeed?
Dante thought a few hours later when Nadia skipped down the front steps in a pair of short, faded cutoffs and a yellow bikini top. Standing outside the barracks, Dante struggled to ignore her and listen to Nick Branson explain the guard rotation.
    Despite his best efforts, his gaze sought her out over Nick’s shoulder. Nadia gave him a secretive smile before taking a sip from the glass in her hand. She strutted over to the carport where Waynie was watching Ronnie check the oil in the Hummer. Nadia leaned into the big man and whispered something. Waynie gaped at her and vehemently shook his head.
    She set her glass on the Hummer’s hood and clasped her hands together in a pleading gesture. Ronnie scowled and snatched the glass away, rubbing the Hummer with the tail of his T-shirt. Waynie shot her a beleaguered look and shook his head again. Dante turned his attention back to Branson, wondering what she was planning.
    He didn’t have to wait long to find out. Waynie jogged over to them.
    “Mr. B,” he said breathlessly. “I’ve messed up my computer again. Do you think you could help me fix it?”
    “Do you mean right now?” Branson asked, lifting an eyebrow.
    Waynie shifted and tugged at his scraggly red beard. “Well, yeah, if you’re not too busy. As soon as you can anyway. I’ve got a paper due in Sociology Monday, and there’s an online poker tournament in a couple of hours that I’d like to get in on.”
    A paper due? Dante didn’t know what surprised him more: that the burly redhead knew how to use a computer, or