Pretty Packages (10 page)

Kentucky
started to wish that Giada was a passing fancy for Fabian, too, but for very different reasons. After all, ever since their encounter, she’d been visiting his dreams on the regular. Last night was no exception.

Although
Kentucky
didn’t allow himself to daydream about Giada during his working hours, when he was driving home or flying on a plane somewhere, his mind would wander to those incredible two nights when they made love until the sun came up. If only he hadn’t signed that contract and given his word to guard Fabian for the next six weeks. If only he didn’t have so many fatherless kids counting on him to provide a place of refuge for them.

Pushing all thoughts of Giada away now,
Kentucky
pasted a business smile on his face. Then he forced his powerful legs to move the rest of the way to actually shake the hand of his new employer.

“Nice to meet you,
Kentucky
,” Fabian said, shaking the hand offered to him.

“Nice to meet you, too, sir,”
Kentucky
replied, releasing the man’s hand after a firm shake. “Giada.”

He gave her the briefest of acknowledgements and a polite nod. He wasn’t about to touch any part of her body. Not now. Not ever.

“Hello,
Kentucky
,” Giada replied, giving him a return nod.

“Oh, so you do already know my lady. Giada told me that you did,” Fabian said, making polite conversation.

“Yes, sir, we do. She used to live across the street from my mother,”
Kentucky
replied, digesting the fact that he’d been discussed between the two lovers.

Had Giada been responsible for him getting this job? If so, why? And if Giada now knew about him being a bodyguard to the rich and famous, then she had to also know that he was not as poor as she originally thought.

No need to worry,
Kentucky
told himself.
The man she has now is rich
and
handsome. I’m just rich
. He comforted himself with that thought. It was a great day to be an average-looking guy.

“How
is
that wonderful mother of yours?” Giada asked, drawing
Kentucky
’s attention back to her.

“Mama is fine,”
Kentucky
replied, ignoring the heat that attacked his body as their gazes met again for a longer period of time.

“Good. Well, tell her I asked about her, okay? That I really miss her cooking,” Giada said, giving him a charming smile.

“I will.”
Kentucky
braced himself against that smile. “And how is Mercedes?” he asked, concerning her beloved pet.

“Fine. I wanted to bring her along for the tour, but Fabian didn’t think she’d like the sea. So I had to leave her in a kennel since the regular sitter couldn’t keep her for six whole weeks,” Giada replied with touches of sadness in her eyes.

Kentucky
silently noted the forlorn look in her amber pools at the fact that she’d be so far away from Mercedes for so long. He felt compelled to help her, despite his misgivings.

“If you’re uncomfortable with Mercedes being in a kennel, I could ask Mama to watch her for you,”
Kentucky
offered. “She had grown fond of the little thing when you lived across the street. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind looking after her. Plus, Mama could definitely use the company with me being gone for six whole weeks, too.”

Giada’s eyes lit up with excitement. “Oh, could you,
Kentucky
?” Her voice was just as excited.

“No problem. I’m sure Mama won’t mind at all,”
Kentucky
replied. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Fabian’s frown. He quickly deduced that the man either didn’t like Giada’s pet or didn’t like some other man making her happy. It was probably both.

Promptly returning his attention to his new employer,
Kentucky
said, “I was instructed to call you Fabian, sir. Am I correct on this?”

“Yes.” Fabian smiled, looking satisfied that the subject had been changed. The easy rapport between Giada and
Kentucky
had seemed too unsettling for him. “I prefer to use first names only. And you can also drop the ‘sir’ part since I’m a very informal guy all around. What would you like to be called? By the way, please have a seat.”

“
Kentucky
is fine,” he said, sitting as requested.

Bartley had already sat down and was now shooting covert icy glares at Giada.

Watchful as always,
Kentucky
noticed those glares, too. He understood the manager’s suspicions.

Giada was one of the most determined gold diggers there was. With a mind that could have made her a brilliant lawyer who earned thousands, she chose to use it to con men out of their money instead.

Just sad. Such a waste of brilliance and intelligence.
Kentucky
grieved for the woman Giada could be if she wasn’t so materialistic.

“
Kentucky
is such an odd name for a person. Were you named after the state you were born in?” Fabian asked. “Your slight rural accent suggests that you’re not a native of
Florida
.”

“Something like that.”
Kentucky
issued one of his rare smiles.

Then he went on to share how his Kentucky-bred father was offered a great job in
Florida
when his birth mother was seven-and-a-half months pregnant with him. He talked about how his mother went into premature labor right at the Kentucky/Tennessee line.

“After pulling over to the side of the road, my father delivered me in the backseat of their car,”
Kentucky
continued. “Paramedics came a little while later to drive me and my mother to the nearest hospital, which was in
Tennessee
. Since I was born right at the border, there was some dispute about which state to put on my birth certificate. When Papa couldn’t get them to put
Kentucky
on it due to their rationale of using the state of the hospital I’d been examined in, he decided to name me what he did as an act of defiance.”
Kentucky
chuckled, causing everyone else to laugh, too.

Giada laughed though she’d already heard this story before. Their eyes met and briefly held as they both remembered exactly when and where she’d heard it.

* * * *

Giada suppressed a moan as she remembered the first time she’d heard the story of
Kentucky
’s birth. She also had to catch herself from being mesmerized by the sight of his perfect teeth and the wonderful sound of his deep chuckle. She must have been a fool to ever think he was ugly. Anyone with an uncritical eye could see that he was the other U-word—unique.

“Good thing your parents weren’t born in
Georgia
. Imagine going through school with a name like that,” Fabian said. “You’d have to fight every day.”

Everybody laughed again.

Giada fell a little bit more in love with
Kentucky
’s smile.

“Yes,
Georgia
would have been a hard name to live down,”
Kentucky
replied after the laughter had died down some. “But I was so big as a child that no one dared poke fun at any name I had. By seventh grade, I was five-ten and looked like a full-grown man.”

“Have you stopped growing yet?” Fabian asked with a playful smirk.

“Yes, as far as I know.”
Kentucky
nodded. “Papa grew to be nearly seven feet tall. I’m still just six-four.”

“Wow,” Bartley said, taking a break from scowling at Giada to actively participate in the conversation. “I wonder how big your kids are going to be.”

Kentucky
shrugged. “Who knows? But I do hope my wife fares better than my birth mother did. Giving birth to a ten-pound baby took such a toll on her body that she died soon thereafter. As a result, my father refused to impregnate his second wife, my current mother, for fear that the same thing would happen to her.”

“W . . . Wife?” Giada suddenly blurted out. “You’re married, Kenny?” She released his nickname by mistake as anxiety surged through her veins.

Fabian frowned at her emotional outburst.

Kentucky
gave her a look of disapproval. “No, not yet. I was speaking of my
future
wife.”

Giada instantly relaxed again. “Whew! I thought I had missed out on the best red velvet cake in the South. Your mother said she was going to fix a five-tier one for your wedding day since that was your favorite dessert,” she said, smoothly playing down her unexpected outburst.

“Don’t worry, Giada,”
Kentucky
replied calmly. “You’ll be one of the first people to get an invitation to my wedding. How could I not invite the woman that put her life on the line to help the police catch the thieves that robbed my family home?”

Fabian’s brows rose. “Giada helped
you
in a crisis? I thought it was the other way around.”

“Actually it was both,” Giada replied, doing her best to quell any suspicions her boyfriend had about the true nature of her past relationship with
Kentucky
. “The Joneses put me up for a night when I lost my car and house keys. I, in turn, called the police for them when their home was being robbed while they were away.”

“Yes, Giada’s testimony led to the discovery of a rising crime ring in the area,”
Kentucky
added, causing Fabian to relax further. “My old neighborhood is now safe again because of her act of bravery.”

Fabian smiled adoringly at Giada. “Beautiful, bodacious, and brave. I believe I’ve hit the jackpot with you, baby.” He leaned over and planted a possessive kiss on her lips, clearly staking claim and sending a silent message to his new bodyguard—
Giada is mine!

Giada felt her face grow hot even as she returned that warm smack. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the left side of
Kentucky
’s mouth twitch. His nostrils flared wider. Yet he regained his composure so fast that Giada thought she imagined those sure signs of jealousy.

“No, Fabian, it is me that hit the jackpot with you,” Giada said, tenderly stroking her lover’s face just to see if she could cause
Kentucky
to twitch again.

Nope.
Kentucky
had his guard up this time. He had it up real high.

In the seat beside Giada, Bartley looked as if he wanted to throw up yesterday’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Chapter Nine

I’m not gonna make it
,
Kentucky
thought after he returned to his home later that evening. How was he going to protect Fabian from others when he wanted to kill the man himself?

He’d wanted to bash the man’s head in just for even daring to kiss Giada in front of him. How was he going to survive six long weeks of them kissing and hugging and doing more than that right down the hall from him?

Was
Kentucky
insane? Or trying to be driven insane?

I need to terminate my contract immediately,
Kentucky
decided, ready to save them all a great deal of trouble.