Virginia Kantra - Born To Protect

Frustrated, he stuck his hands deep in his pockets. “Forget the money. Look at where things stand. You’ve got your older brother missing and presumed dead. You’ve got bombs going off in your homeland. You’ve got some sheik guy—”

She crossed her arms across her shielding white lab coat. “Ahmed Kamal of Tamir.”

“Whatever. Some Sheik Kamal trying to claim the kingdom and kidnap your big sister, and your parents are worried sick about you. Don’t you think you ought to take some precautions?”

She lifted her eyebrows. “I have taken precautions. I live in Montana.”

Her dry tone, her unexpected humor, slipped under his guard like a knife. He rubbed his jaw with the back of one hand to wipe off his answering grin. “Your father doesn’t think that’s good enough.”

Christina sighed. “Mr. Dalton, my parents don’t think anything is good enough for their children. I honor them for that. I love them. But I am not going to sacrifice my privacy, compromise my focus and interrupt my work by accepting the services of a completely unnecessary bodyguard. I assure you, I am quite safe here. No one can find me.”

Despite his frustration, he liked the aloof, precise way she had of speaking. Not that he accepted for one minute what she was saying, but she sounded really smart. “I found you,” he pointed out.

“I’m sure you had directions.”

“So will Kamal’s men.”

“Assuming I’m a target. I have only your word for that. And I don’t even know you. For all I know, you could be working for Sheik Ahmed.”

Jack regarded her grimly. “Are you always this pissy?”

Her lips curved. “I’ve been told so. Yes.”

He had a sudden urge to back her up against the counter and bite into that regal, smiling mouth. Hell. He really had been out of action too long. He fished in his back pocket for his wallet, ignoring the slight pull in his shoulder, and tossed his identification onto the table. His gaze dared her to pick it up.

After a moment’s hesitation, she did. Cautious, he thought again, with approval. She looked first at his Texas driver’s license and then at the white plastic card issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Her brows drew together. “‘Senior Chief’? You are U.S. military?”

“Former military. Navy SEAL, retired.” Forced out, he thought. He for damn sure hadn’t quit. Navy SEALs weren’t quitters.

“You are young to be retired.”

Bitterness flooded his mouth. “Medical retirement,” he said evenly.

“Ah.” The soft sound could have signaled anything. Acceptance. Pity. Dismissal.

Jack hated all three.

“I can still function, your highness,” he snapped.

She regarded him steadily. He wondered how much of his rage and desperation he’d given away by that one stupid remark.

“I wasn’t questioning your qualifications, Senior Chief,” she said quietly. “You are obviously able to protect me. Assuming I needed your protection, which I do not.”

“Your father thinks you do.”

“My father is a warm and sentimental man who is still grieving the loss of his only son. It is natural for him to overreact.”

“Yeah? Well, my father is a cold and calculating son of a bitch who wouldn’t waste time or manpower on a dead-end assignment. If he says you need a keeper, then you do.”

Christina recoiled. No one talked to her that way. No one. Her heart was beating way too fast. She felt threatened—by his warning, yes, but even more by his attitude. She was a Sebastiani. She did not need this hard, unshaved stranger to remind her of the world she’d left behind. She did not want him invading her sanctuary.

She met his gaze and almost shuddered at the raw energy that burned in those bitter blue eyes. She should not have to deal with this. She was woefully unequipped to deal with him.

And she could never let him know.

Years of training supported her head and stiffened her spine. “Mr. Dalton, I have made a life and a career quite separate from my family. It is highly unlikely that terrorists are traveling across nine thousand miles and ten time zones to kidnap an inconsequential member of the royal house of Montebello.”

His jaw set. Even through her agitation and the shadow of darkening beard, she noticed it was a very nicely squared jaw.

“And what if you’re wrong?” he demanded. “You’re not inconsequential to your father. What if Kamal decides to use you for leverage in this land dispute?”

“I am not without friends—or defenses. This is Montana. Strangers are noticed here.”

“Nobody noticed me. Or stopped me.”

No one would dare, she thought. He looked dangerous. Alien. His tough, lean physique was more than a match for most university types, even the outdoorsy breed attracted to field sciences in Montana.

And she had no excuse for inspecting his physique. Her cheeks grew warm.

She turned off the gas burners before the combination of their heat and her inattention set fire to the lab. “Perhaps they noticed and decided not to say anything. The other benefit to living in Montana is that people here tend to mind their own business. And if you would go back to yours, I could continue with mine.”

It was a nice line. She was proud of it. Unfortunately, he was less impressed.

He stuck his thumbs through the belt loops of his jeans, the pose emphasizing his blatant masculinity. “What if I decide to make you my business? What are you going to do about it?”

“I have no idea,” she admitted frankly. “You’re too big to ignore. If you are also too rude to leave, I suppose I would call my father and tell him to have you dismissed.”

“Do all the men in your life do what you tell them to, princess?”

There were no other men in her life.

A royal princess—even an “inconsequential” one from a tiny island kingdom like Montebello—had to be careful if she wanted to keep her name and picture out of the tabloids. Christina had long ago accepted that meant no dance club dates or midnight walks or tender dawn partings that could be captured by a telephoto lens. Since coming to America, she had tentatively tried to take part in the safer aspects of university life. But her rank excluded her from the grad students’ beer-and-pizza parties, and her age made her an oddity at the faculty’s wine-and-cheese mixers.

And so she was careful, and safe, and alone.

None of which was any of his business.

She lifted her brows and said, in her mother’s most regal tone, “If they’re smart, they do.”

He nearly smiled, and the heat in her cheeks climbed several degrees. “I must not be very smart then,” he drawled. “Because I just may stick around.”

Dumb, Dalton. Very dumb.

He did not want to work for the major. Princess Cupcake had made it more than clear that she did not want him working for her.

But even as he acknowledged his mistake, Jack punched a number into the motel phone. He listened to the ring, stretching his legs over the ratty print spread on the room’s one double bed. So it was a dive. To a guy who’d stayed in huts in Colombia and tents in Kuwait, these were luxury accommodations.

A woman answered the phone. In the background, Jack could hear a baby fretting. “Hello?”

He settled back against the squeaky headboard, trying to ease his injured shoulder. “Hey, Janey,” he said.

“Jack?” Warmth suffused his sister’s voice. “Jack, how are you? Where are you? Daddy’s been trying to get in touch with you.”

“I’m in Montana. I’m looking into doing a job for him.”

“Oh, Jack.” Real worry vibrated down the line. The major’s “jobs” had hung over their childhood like storm clouds on the Texas horizon. Jack had shrugged and shouldered the job of man of the house, first accepting and later welcoming their father’s frequent absences from home. But Janey was different, he thought with affection. Janey believed in home and family, had married young and borne her adoring husband two kids already. “Is it dangerous?”