Secret Seduction (7 page)

“Yes, Doctor,” Tanner said, injecting his voice with more than a measure of sarcasm.

She ignored the dig. “First you’re at Emilio’s and now you’re working at the same place I am. Were you following me on Friday night? When you took this job, did you decide to case all the doctors? Are we suspects?”

The woman got straight to the point. She was a sharp cookie. Tanner hated lying, but he knew it was necessary. Robert had been adamant. He didn’t want Vanessa knowing he’d been assigned to guard her.

“I was doing some freelance security work for Emilio,” Tanner said, surprised at how easily the fib rolled off his tongue.

“Still,” she said, her eyes narrowing, “it’s pretty coincidental.”

“How do I know you weren’t following me?” he asked, turning the tables on her.

Confusion replaced the suspicion in her eyes. “Excuse me?” She sounded annoyed.

He stuck his hands in his pockets to keep from touching her, which was all Tanner wanted to do. Palm his hands over her skin. Hook two fingers under her chin to raise her face up for a kiss. “I was here on Friday afternoon for a meeting with Covey and Butler. How do I know you didn’t see me, take a liking to me and then follow me to Emilio’s?”

Her delicate nostrils flared indignantly and it was all he could do to keep from smiling. “That’s an insulting suggestion.”

“My point exactly.”

Her gaze was steady, but he saw a flicker of doubt in her chocolate-brown eyes. She didn’t apologize. He understood. An apology could look like a weakness. She took a seat behind her desk and said, “Let’s get this over with. Just tell me what you need from me.”

Tanner pushed aside the gouge of frustration digging deep into his gut. The truth was he didn’t know what he needed from her. Hell, he didn’t want to need anything from her.

But he did.

He wanted her to smile at him the way she had on Friday night. He wanted to dance with her again. And he wanted to feel the way she’d made him feel. Alive again and fully masculine for the first time in four years.

His job was to protect her, and losing control of his thoughts and his libido was no way to accomplish that goal. She’d set things on a professional keel insisting they call each other by their last names.

She wasn’t looking back and neither should he. Yes, she had spectacular breasts and one of the sweetest asses he’d ever held in the palm of his hand, but they weren’t worth jeopardizing his career over.

Or her life.

From here on out, he told himself, everything that happened between them was strictly business.

HE’D SEEN HER NAKED.

Vanessa couldn’t get past the fact. Not only naked, but he’d seen her in a few compromising positions. If word got out that she’d diddled the new head of security…

The word is not going to get out, she assured herself. No one at Confidential Rejuvenations had to know Tanner was her late-night lover.

Not even Elle and Julie.

He was sitting across the desk from her, a black spiral notepad in one hand, a ballpoint pen in the other. He wasn’t doing anything the least bit sexy, and yet she found everything about him incredibly compelling, from the muted scent of his woodsy cologne to his long, broad fingers, to the measured expression in his intelligent blue eyes.

The gaze he sent her was not provocative and yet she felt mightily provoked.

His mouth was pressed into a straight noncommittal line. He wasn’t giving anything away, and yet her nipples tightened as she remembered what his hot lips felt like.

Nervously she picked up the necklace dangling from the desk lamp and ran it through her fingers like a rosary. The necklace was the only thing she had left of her old life, of the girl she used to be. She kept it around because it calmed her somehow. Made her feel that if she could survive her past, she could survive anything. She remembered stringing it with her mother. One of the last happy times they’d shared together before her mother had married her stepfather. Somehow along the way, the bracelet had come to symbolize Vanessa’s hopes and dreams. A desire to find happiness again by becoming a doctor.

She’d gotten her wish, made her dreams come true, but she always felt as if she’d never quite escaped her past.

Tanner clicked his pen. “Your legal name is Vanessa Delores Rodriquez, is that correct?”

The question startled her. It was her name now. Once upon a time she’d been someone else, possessed a different name. She waited too long to answer, she could see it by the accusatory expression clouding his eyes. She had to tread carefully, the man was sharp.

“How can my legal name possibly assist you in providing this hospital with a safe working environment?” she asked coolly.

“Just want to dot all the i’s and cross all the t’s.” Tanner smiled at last, as if trying to get her to relax. The sight of his upturned mouth unraveled her more completely than his question.

She nodded, put down the beaded necklace and picked up a paper clip from her desk, unbending the little trombone shape until it broke into two pieces.

“Vanessa,” he said and then hesitated.

She swept the paper clip pieces into the trash can with the flat side of her hand. “Yes?”

“If I’d known your last name, if I’d had your phone number, I would have called you.”

She held up her hand. “Please. I want to forget Friday night ever happened. I suggest you do the same.”

His smile disappeared and his pupils constricted. “I can’t forget.”

“You have to.”

“I don’t want to.”

She felt a warm, melty sensation near her heart, which had been frozen for years. Vanessa swallowed. Stop this, she berated herself.

And yet, she couldn’t seem to stop spinning fantasies about the man. Silly, because she felt sure if he knew who she really was, he wouldn’t want anything to do with her.

She had to change the subject and fast, before she did something totally stupid like tell him she couldn’t forget him, either. “So how come you ended up here if you were on Governor Perry’s detail? Isn’t Confidential Rejuvenations a bit of a comedown from the governor’s mansion?”

“That’s personal.”

She met his challenging gaze. “Oh, so you can ask me personal questions but I can’t ask them of you?”

“I like to keep my private life undercover.”

Undercover.

The was no mistaking the innuendo in his voice or the sultry look in his eyes as he raked them over her. Her heart rate kicked up a notch. She looked away, flicked at imaginary lint on the sleeve of her gray tweed suit. Vanessa lifted her eyebrows and tried her best to look unaffected by his searing glance. “Let’s get down to brass tacks, shall we? I have work to do.”

He jerked his head in agreement. “Tell me about your daily routine and current safety habits.”

“I lock my doors and windows, if that’s what you mean.”

“That’s good.”

“I carry condoms.” She couldn’t resist adding that and immediately wished she could have bitten off her tongue.

He arched one eyebrow. “Do you have a security system in your home?”

“I do.”

“Your car?”

“Yes.”

“Do you ever leave or arrive at work late at night?”

“I’m a resident. I’m on call. Of course I come and go at all hours of the day and night.”

The word come seemed to hang in the air like a tantalizing aroma.

“During your comings and goings have you ever noticed anything out of the ordinary?”

“Could you be more specific?”

He shifted in his seat. “On Friday night someone slashed all the tires of the cars in the employee parking lot. To get away with the crime, the perpetrator disabled the security camera in that area.”

“You know where I was on Friday night.”

His smile was brief but slightly smug. “I’m not accusing you of sabotaging the cameras or slicing car tires. I just wanted to know if you saw anything.”

If he knew who she was and where she came from, he’d probably accuse her of sabotaging the cameras and slicing the tires. “Sorry.” She shrugged. “I can’t help you with that.”

He flipped back a few pages in his notebook. “How about three weeks ago? Someone pilfered a crate of medical supplies from central supply. Again, the security cameras had been disabled.”

“Maybe it’s one of the security guards. Have you considered that?” she asked.

“I’m investigating all possibilities.”

“Have you checked for fingerprints?”

“Are you trying to tell me how to do my job, Doctor?”

“Just offering suggestions.”

“The culprit wore gloves.”

“You think the same person is responsible for all the things that have been happening?”

“I don’t assume anything.” He held her gaze, looking at her as if she were holding out on him, as if she knew something and was simply refusing to come clean. She’d seen that look before, in the eyes of the cops fourteen years ago.

An unexpected shiver ran up her spine. “Look,” she said, “I’d like to help. I really would. But I haven’t seen anything out of the ordinary.”

He got to his feet.

Vanessa sighed in relief and stood up, as well.

“You’ll keep me informed if you do see anything suspicious.” He said it as a statement, not a question.

“Yes, absolutely.”

He walked to her window, looked out and then pulled the cord on the blinds, dousing the sunlight.

She blinked against the sudden darkness. “What are you doing?”

“Surveillance.”

“Of my office?”

“Seeing how vulnerable you are.”

“Excuse me?” The shiver was back, skating coldly over each vertebra. Vanessa crossed her arms and hugged herself.

He drew the drapes, further snuffing out the light. “We don’t know what this mischief maker is capable of. Things could escalate.”

“Meaning…”

He gestured toward the window. “Your desk is in the direct line of fire if someone were to take up a rifle on the knoll behind the doctors’ offices.”

Real fear hit her then and she thought of Carlo Vega. The man was capable of anything. Even hiring a hit man to take her out after fourteen years. He’d sworn revenge. “You have a dark perspective of the world,” she said.

No darker than your own.

“Comes with the job description.” He ambled back across the room, took hold of her heavy mahogany desk and pushed it as if he was moving Lincoln Logs.

Vanessa tapped her foot. “Now what are you doing?”

“Moving you out of the line of fire.”

“This is silly,” she said, even as the fear filled up her stomach. “No one is going to try to shoot me from the grassy knoll.”

He wasn’t listening. He was busy positioning her desk in a more secure location kitty-corner along the wall on the same side as the window. Now, with the wall to her back and the window to her left, she could see both the front door and out the window, but someone lurking about outside would not be able to see her.

“As an added bonus it’s also feng shui,” he said. “You’re never supposed to have your back to the door the way you had it positioned.”

“What would you know about feng shui?” she teased.

“My wi—” He broke off and then said, “I’m a lot more feng shui savvy than I look.”

She could have sworn he was going to say “my wife,” but she let it go. He didn’t wear a wedding band and he’d told her he was single over medium-rare steaks on Friday night. She’d chosen to believe him. Perhaps he was divorced or widowed, but she wasn’t going to ask. He had his secrets. She had hers. It wasn’t as if she was going to sleep with him again.

Silence fell.

They stared at each other and Vanessa felt the now-familiar sexual tug that pulled at her every time she met his heated stare.

“Thank you for rearranging my furniture,” she said.

Tanner looked surprised at her politeness, quirked half a grin. “Just doing my job.”

“Are we through here?”

He took her chair, which was still in the middle of the room, and spun it into place behind the desk. “I want you to know that I’m going to be around a lot.”

She had to admit she was both relieved and concerned to hear this. Relieved because she was truly afraid of Carlo Vega, concerned because the thought of having Tanner around excited her far more than it should. What was the matter with her? She wasn’t given to flights of fantasy, yet every time she looked at him she found herself imagining things she had no business imagining.

“If you need anything, Vanessa, anything at all. Even if you just need someone to talk to or—”

“I know where the security office is,” she said, cutting him off. She had a sudden longing to tell him everything and that scared her almost as much as the threat of Carlo Vega’s henchman creeping along the grassy knoll behind her office.

“I’ll leave you to your work.” He stuck out a hand.

Reflex had her reaching out to take it.

Big mistake.