Guarding Kelsey ((Books We Love Romantic Suspense)) (9 page)

Was he some kind of masochist?
Uptown girls and downtown cops didn’t mix.
He knew that first hand.
Rather than lusting after a futile dream, he’d be better off figuring out how to get his runaway hormones under control.

* * *

Kelsey got out of the car and waited by the elevator.
Her
stomach cramped
with painful knots and her mind wasn’t doing much better.
Hell of a day, when the aloof Detective Krieger turned out to be the most calming force in her life.
He didn’t like her, but at least he was honest about it.

“How come you’re living in the City if you have a farm?”

“I’m taking a class this semester at NYU.
Which reminds me, I need to be at the university on Wednesday?
”

He seemed surprised.
Did he think that today’s incident would make her withdraw from the world of the living?
Never again.
Some deranged gunman had already turned her into a virtual shut in.
She wouldn’t allow him to turn her into a paranoid coward as well.

“So what do you do with the farm while you’re here?” Wolf asked.

“I rent
ed
it out to some SUNY colle
ge students for the semester
.
Uncle Daniel nearly had a stroke.
He says I have no business sense.”

Wolf grinned. “He’s probably right.”

She exhaled slowly, trying not to lose her temper at his apparently low opinion of her.
“I am not some air-headed princess looking to live the rest of my life off Daddy’s money.
I don’t need to make a profit off my house just because I can.”

“That’s not what I meant.
Damn, you’re touchy.”

Maybe she was touchy but she'd taken her share of knocks about being rich.
She didn’t need attitude from him as well.
The press had had a field day with her very short-lived marriage.
Carlyle Heir Calls Marriage Quit
s
After Six Months,
the headlines had read.

Her marriage had ended in the first week.
It took six months to get the divorce. Perhaps she shouldn't have hidden the truth.
She’d been too humiliated to let the public know what a naive fool she'd been.
She didn't like to remember that time in her life.
However, the present wasn’t much better. She wondered if Wolf deliberately taunted her to divert her thoughts from her problems.

No, she silently decided.
That would be crediting him with feelings for her.
He had no feelings at all.
The poor guy nearly had a stroke when she threw her arms around him.
He’d tensed like
a
block of granite.
How ironic that the first man to spark her interest in years, had absolutely no interest in her.
Or perhaps not so ironic.
Her bad luck had been consistent lately.

The elevator arrived and the doors slid open.
They rode to the fourteenth floor in an uncomfortable silence.
Martinez was already in her apartment when they walked inside.

“Did you find anything?” Wolf asked his partner.

“Checked it out thoroughly.
No bugs.”

“Well, I’ll sleep well knowing there are no roaches in my apartment,” she said.

Wolf looked at her as if she was an idiot.

“It was a joke.
I knew what he was looking for.”
She shook her head and strode down the hall toward the bathroom.
She might as well give up trying to bridge the gap between them.
Wolf was determined to see her as nothing more than an assignment that he hadn’t wanted to accept.

* * *

Wolf’s gaze remained glued to her sexy rear-end as she strode down the hall.
Willful, stubborn and proud, she refused to heed the danger of her circumstances. He understood the drive to control the fear before it controlled her.
But, she either didn’t care about her own life after her recent tragedies, or she placed way too much faith in his ability to protect her. Both scenarios made his assignment more difficult.
Factor in his unwanted attraction to the woman, and the job became damn near impossible.

“I’ll be there in a minute to help you with that arm,” Wolf called after her as she disappeared into the bathroom.

“I’ll do it myself.”

“Everything’s a friggin’ argument with her,” he grumbled under his breath.

“I heard that, Krieger.”
The bathroom door slammed with a thud.

Martinez started to say something but Wolf cocked his head in warning.
He wasn't in the mood for any of his partner’s sarcasm.
"How many people knew where she'd be?"

"Half the precinct.
O’Brien called in before they left.
Anyone could have found out."

Wolf muttered an oath. "Great.
We have a psychotic gunman, a dirty cop and an irate uncle breathing down are necks.
Not to mention a crazy heiress who refuses to stay put."

A loud thump reverberated against the wall.
"I heard that too, Krieger.”

Wolf pulled Martinez into the kitchen before any more of his conversation could be over heard. "What did the lab boys find out on that doll?"

"Not a thing.
No prints on the knife.
It's interesting though. The doll was manufactured in Egypt and there aren't many places here that sell those kinds of things.
A few coffee shops and import stores in Brooklyn and Jersey City.
O’Brien is checking them out now."

Wolf fumed at the idea of anyone terrorizing a helpless woman.
He thought about the long-legged blonde who managed to make him lose his cool on more than one occasion.
She wasn’t completely helpless.
Her tongue could be lethal weapon.
"Find him, fast.
I'm not sure how much more of her I can take."

Martinez chuckled. "Then why did you tell the captain you are on round the clock guard?”

“She didn’t leave me much choice.”
He would not blow this assignment even if it meant he had to be joined at the hip with her every damn minute of the day.

“Were you hoping to get a commendation for service above and beyond the call of duty?"

Wolf shrugged. "It’s for the hazard pay."

“The two of you in the same apartment is a hazard.
Who's going to protect you from each other?"

Kelsey stormed into the kitchen at gale force, holding a roll of gauze in her hand.
Anger turned her eyes a dazzling shade of cobalt.
Damn, she was sexy when she was ticked off.
"What do you mean,
round the clock
?"

Wolf shook his head. "Are your ears equipped with sonar?"

She put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him slightly away from the wall. She tapped the switch above his head. "It helps if you turn off the intercoms.”

Martinez shrugged. "We must have left them on when we were searching for bugs. I really have to get going.” His partner made a timely, if somewhat cowardly exit and left him alone to deal with her.

Wolf tried to exit the kitchen but Kelsey blocked his path. She tapped her toe impatiently against the tile floor. "What do you mean
round the clock
protection
?
You plan to live here twenty four hours day?”

Even when she drew herself up and stiffened her spine she barely reached as high as his shoulder.
One small push and he could pass her easily.
Instead, he folded his arms across his chest and braced himself for another of her verbal assaults.

"Yes."

“And if I don’t want you here?”

“Well, you can try to make me leave
.
.” He grinned.

She planted her hands on her hips.
“And you don’t think I could?”

“There’
s a bit of a height difference here.”

“Size doesn’t matter.”
Her cheeks flamed when he chuckled at her unintentional double entendre.
“You know what I mean.”

“You couldn’t get me out of the kitchen, let alone the apartment.”

The second the words were out of his mouth, Kelsey did the last thing he expected.
With all the practice of a martial arts expert, she executed a move that caused his legs to buckle and left him on his ass on the hall floor.

Her eyes sparkled triumphantly.
"Now you’re outside the kitchen.
Should we shoot for the condo?"

She had definitely caught him off guard.
He didn’t think she had it in her.
Then again, he had pretty much been broadsided by Kelsey from the very beginning.
His only consolation was that Martinez didn’t catch see the exchange.
"Do you feel better now?"

"No.
I hurt my leg," she complained.

“Not nearly as much as you damaged my pride.”

“Oh, I’m sure your ego is big enough to survive it.
So explain to me why you plan to stay here twenty-four hours a day before I find myself doing it again."

* * *

Kelsey reached out and gave Wolf a hand up.
His calloused fingers felt strangely comforting against hers. The masculine sent of him surrounded her and drew her in. Warmth settled in her lower abdomen.

Temporary insanity.
That was the only explanation for her erotic reactions to this man.
At least, she hoped it was temporary.

She tried to move back and put some much needed distance between them but Wolf retained his hold and pulled her towards the sink.
He took the gauze and began cleaning the abrasions on her arm.

"I don't know where the leak is coming from.
I know it's not me, and I'm almost positive it's not Martinez.
Beyond that, I don't trust anyone.
There will still be another officer here while I sleep but I want everyone who's assigned to know that I'm here."

His caution offered little comfort.
He didn't even trust his own partner one hundred percent. "What makes you think I trust you?"

Wolf wound the gauze around her arm. "You had Father Joseph call me.
You wouldn't talk to anyone else."

Kelsey winced. "That's too tight."
And he was too damned sure of himself.
He was right.
She did trust him, but she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of admitting it.