Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) (10 page)

BOOK: Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense))
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He lessened the pressure. "Sorry.
Anyway, you can ignore me like you do O’Brien during the day."

He made her sound like a stuck-up snob.
O’Brien ignored her.
She had tried to be polite. "He doesn’t like me. Neither do you.
But you take your job seriously enough to protect me regardless of your feelings."

"I'll bet you didn't lay O’Brien out on his ass."

"You dared me to," she reminded him with a proud smile.

"Where did you learn to do that?"

"Master Kim, my Tae Kwon Do instructor.
Given my past, I thought it was a good idea to learn self-defense.”

Wolf met her gaze.
"Why did you stay six months?"
Sincere compassion tinged his words.

"I didn't.
My father came to the hospital and brought me to New York one week after I was married.
It just took me a while to get around to filing the divorce papers."

“Why?”

“My ex-husband pretty much blamed me for being a selfish, greedy bitch.
It took me a while to believe I wasn’t at fault.”

"You aren’t to blame for someone else’s actions.
The trouble with the world today is that there is no more personal responsibility.”
He finished wrapping the bandage and tied off the end.
"Why did you keep your married name?”

She pulled her arm against her body and flexed the muscle to check the circulation. "It affords me the luxury of anonymity.
I'm not Richard Carlyle's heir anymore.
I'm just Kelsey Winston."

"Aren't you proud of your father's accomplishments?"

"Of course I am," she said defensively. "But they're his accomplishments, not mine.
When I'm gone, I don't want to be remembered for how many society functions I attended.
I want
.
. oh, forget it.
You wouldn't understand."

Kelsey left Wolf standing in the kitchen and went into the study to work on her computer.
He probably wouldn’t believe her if she tried to explain her desire for a simple, normal life.
He saw what everyone else saw when they heard the name Carlyle. Poor little rich girl.
The private schools, the European vacations, the bank account.
No one saw her. She had once allowed a man close enough to know the real person inside and it had been the biggest mistake of her life.

Now, Kelsey Winston was a person known only to herself.
And if she planned to survive this forced captivity with Wolf, she would do wise to remain as such.
The last thing she needed was an attachment to another person who would either leave or stay because of her money.
Especially one more man who would never be able to separate her from the Carlyle name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter
Five

 

Wolf left Kelsey working in the study for close to an hour.
She didn't seem engrossed in her project since more than once she ended up smacking the keyboard in frustration.
Was she angry with herself, him or the situation?

He should enjoy the quiet.
Bask in her introverted silence.
Hell, he should maintain the status quo with the blonde beauty
that
made his hormones rage and his pulse race.
That was what he
should
do.

Never one to leave well enough alone, he joined her in the study.
"Kelsey.
I don't have to be rich to know what it's like to try to live up to a legend."

She slid off the headphones
and turned off the computer. Swiveling in her chair, she turned around to face Wolf as he took a seat.
"I'm not
trying
to live up to a legend.
That's what everyone has such a difficult time understanding.
I'm proud of my father.
But he was driven in a way I could never be.
At least not towards the goal of making more money."

"Then what's the problem?
You are lucky enough to be in a position to do
whatever
you want with your life."

"To what end?
Sooner or later Uncle Daniel won't want to handle managing the property any longer and I'm going to be doing it anyway."

"Then sell it or hire someone else to manage it.
There's a lot of good you can do with that kind of money."

The corners of her mouth lifted.
"Don't let Uncle Daniel hear you say that.
He'd have you horse whipped. Sometimes he thinks he owns it instead of me.
This is rather ironic since he could have.
Dad tried to get him involved but Uncle Daniel was too cautious to invest his own money.
Every time my father went to make an investment his brother tried to talk him out of it."

Kelsey leaned back in the chair and rested feet on the corner of the desk. "Not me, though.
My father used to ask my opinion.
He'd say, 'Kelsey, we could lose it all on this one.'
I didn't care.
It meant I could go to public school, eat at McDonald’s and use the subways like normal people. Only he never lost it."

Wolf shot her a dubious glance. "You're glamorizing what it's like to grow up middle class."

"Am I?
Not any more than you do about being rich."

"It’s a hell of lot easier."

"Ya’ think so?
Try having a brother you've never met because your mother trades off her children in divorce
settlements.
Add a cousin
who resent
s
the hell out of you, but stop
s
by faithfully every month to ask for money. Top it off with having an uncle you love, finding your career choice a major disappointment.
And let's not forget one failed marriage before I was old enough to legally drink and a psychopath who wants me dead.
Would you want to trade places?"

She’d stopped the conversation dead. This was another one of those times when he had no idea what to say. "At least you've got your health."

Kelsey burst out laughing.
"Next you'll be telling me that every cloud has a silver lining.
There must be a book of trite quotations that they give out to men in high school.
Whenever a man doesn't know what to say in a tough situation, he falls back on ridiculous
clichés
."

Wolf found her assessment of the male species amusing. "Do you hear a lot of
clichés
from men, Kelsey?"

"I've heard my share over the years.”
She arched her back and tipped her head.
Even in an
oversized
college t-shirt, she managed to make the simple act of relieving tension, a sensual vision. When she straightened, she caught him staring.
“What about you, Wolf.
Is your name the legend you have to live up to?"

"No.
I imagine most people think I live up to my name quite well," he mused.

"Most of your ex-girlfriends at least," she guessed.

“It’s short for Wolfgang.
My mother was a Mozart fan.”
Although most of his childhood he’d wished she had been a Beatles fan instead.

“You lucked out.”

“How so?” he asked.

“She could have named you Amadeus,” Kelsey pointed out wryly.
“So what’s your story?”

"There's nothing to tell.
My father was a cop too.
Decorated five times in his career.
He was responsible for solving one of the most notorious murder cases of the seventies."

"I imagine he's proud that you followed in his footsteps."

Wolf shrugged.
If his father had been proud, he had never told his son.
“He passed away a few years ago.”

“And your mother?”

“Alive and well.”
And devoting her life to someone else’s family.
She had given up trying with Wolf years ago when she realized he couldn’t be bribed into deserting his father.
And he had stopped letting it hurt him, when he realized she was never coming back.

“And
.
.” Kelsey prodded.

“And what?”

“And why is she such a sore spot with you?”

“Who said she was?” he asked.
Damn! Was he that transparent?

“It’s not what you said.
It’s what you didn’t say.”

"Do you study sociology or psychology?"

"They're related fields. I bet I could tell you a lot about yourself."

Wolf tipped his head and dared her to continue. “Give it your best shot.”

She paused for a second to look him over.
Her eyes sparked with renewed light and humor.
"You're an only child, you keep people at a distance and, unlike most cops you don’t fully trust your partner.
How am I doing?”

“That’s general enough to apply to a lot of people.” Except it applied to him specifically and she seemed to know it.

“Oh, and you don't like to be touched, and I'm not speaking about sexually."

He choked back a cough.
“Where did that brilliant theory come from?”

“You nearly went into apoplexy when I threw my arms around you earlier.”

“I didn't go into apoplexy.
I was retaining a professional distance."
So she wouldn’t notice the unprofessional way his body responded to her touch.

With a soft, husky laugh, she brushed off his denial.
"I was high strung.
I wasn't dead."

Neither was he! But he’d rather let her believe him to be cold and impersonal than admit she made him fiery hot in more ways than one.

"Thank you Sigmund Freud.
Maybe I should just throw myself into analysis, I'm so screwed up."

"You're not screwed up.
More the opposite. You're in the highest stress profession in the country and you remain detached."

Wolf bit back a retort.
If she had any idea how attached he felt, she'd get a good laugh. He couldn't think of anything he would like more at that moment than to have her touch him.

Kelsey misread his silence. "I think I've insulted you.
Can I make it up to you by cooking dinner?"

"I can be bought."

"Tsk, tsk.
Prostituting yourself for a steak dinner. And you, a police officer. What is the world coming to?"

BOOK: Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense))
7.13Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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