Dammit. She was going to kill her boss. If Sanctuary complained, it wouldn’t just go through her own department, it would also hit the desk of the president and owner of Vanderale. And no one, but no one messed with him over his favorite charity. Except her boss. Dane Vanderale might be the son and potential heir, but he was still answerable to his father, just as she was. And he had no idea she was here. She was trapped and she knew it.
“Don’t you have a female enforcer you can assign to the house?” She fought back her irritation. “Someone who at least has a sense of humor?”
“I have a sense of humor.” He shrugged again. “For example, I find it very amusing that you’re afraid to be alone with me.”
“Afraid?” She smirked. “You have an overrated opinion of your appeal, Mr. Warrant. I just don’t want the aggravation of your hard-on bouncing around my house and invading my privacy. If I wanted that, I would have brought a man with me.”
Yeah, right. She hadn’t had sex in years and wasn’t likely to anytime soon. For some reason, she hadn’t excelled in sexual relationships as easily as she excelled in her job.
She got along with her vibrator much easier than she got along with men.
“Regardless of my opinion or your wants, I’ve been assigned to the house. We don’t have enough enforcers to go around as it is. You’re stuck with me.”
Oh great. She stared at him, pursing her lips in displeasure as she met his gaze. His hot gaze. He watched her like the four-legged lions that patrolled the estate watched dinner being led in. It was nerve-wracking.
“This is not going to work,” she bit out. “This is Friday. I don’t even come in for the next two days.”
He stared back at her silently, as though she hadn’t even spoken. God, she hated it when he did that.
“I need to talk to Jonas,” she insisted. “Now.”
“Not possible. He’s preparing to head back to Washington tonight for meetings this weekend, and he’s currently heading into conference with the Ruling Cabinet. You’ll have to wait until Monday.”
She snapped her teeth together. She wanted to stomp her foot and curse, but hated to give him a reason to be any more amused at her discomfort than he was now. He seemed to delight in throwing her off balance.
“This is not going to work.” She jerked her purse from the corner of the desk. “Not in any way.”
He straightened as she neared the door, all animal grace and sexual confidence. He was dressed in the black enforcer mission outfit, a mini-Uzi strapped to his side, a knife sheathed at one of his thighs and a holstered handgun at the other. He was too tall, too broad, much too sexy and way too dangerous.
“It’s going to work fine. You’ll be perfectly safe,” he assured her as he opened the office door and allowed her to pass.
He made her brush against his body, her shoulder sliding along his chest, the heat of him surrounding her as she moved past him. God, she loved it when he did that. Loved the sense of strength and protective power she could feel surrounding her. That didn’t mean she liked the thought of dealing with it all weekend. She used the time away from him for distance, to push back the attraction and the growing need. How the hell was she supposed to do that with him in her face twenty-four-seven?
“This is so not going to work,” she muttered again as she made her way down the sterile hallways of the underground offices.
“You worry too much.” He followed her too closely.
“You’re not the one stuck with an overgrown male all weekend,” she snorted. “I like my privacy, Mr. Warrant.”
“You’ll survive, Ms. Rodriquez.”
Maybe.
God, she wanted him. Wanted what she knew she couldn’t have, because Ria didn’t do one-night stands. She had learned long ago that they weren’t for her, and she was determined never to be tricked into it again. And Mercury Warrant would never be anything else. Hadn’t his file already stated that he was considered a surviving mate? The woman his heart and soul had chosen for its own had died. Mercury Warrant couldn’t give his heart to another woman, because it was already taken. And Ria knew she couldn’t bear walking away if she gave him the rest of her heart.
CHAPTER 4
“Here’s your bedroom.” Ria pushed the door open to the smaller bedroom the cabin contained. Still, it was large enough for the bed, dresser and small attached bath. Her room was the master suite, with a king-sized bed, full bath and walk-in closet. It wasn’t nearly as large as her bedroom in Johannesburg, but it was adequate for her needs here.
Mercury moved into the room and tossed his duffel bag onto the thick comforter that covered the bed before moving to the large window.
He snapped the shades closed before pulling the heavy curtains over them and moving back into the living room. Ria pressed her lips together in irritation before following him.
He proceeded through the living room, then the kitchen, closing all the shades and pulling the curtains closed on the larger windows.
“Keep them closed,” he told her before heading for her bedroom.
Ria followed silently, biting her tongue, holding back her temper as he did the same there. Fine, she understood the need; after all, if the Supremacists could get lucky enough to kill him, it would be a major feather in the murderer’s cap. Mercury was considered one of the best trackers and enforcers the Breeds possessed. That didn’t mean she had to like it.
Next he pulled a small electronic device from the utility belt at his side and began to go from room to room again. The receiver was one of Vanderale’s and the finest that could be found. So far, there had been no listening device developed that could evade its sensitive electronics. But she didn’t remember it being on the roster of equipment that had been sent to Sanctuary.
“How did you get the R72?” she asked, watching as he ran it along baseboards and around furniture.
“It arrived last month with half a dozen others by special courier from L. Vanderale.” He growled the name. It seemed Mercury had had a run-in with the first Leo around the same time Jonas had. “Which is why Jonas finds it so hard to believe he would consider cutting funding a month later.”
“I don’t make the decisions, I just follow them.” She shrugged.
“Hmm,” he murmured as he moved through the rest of the house before apparently having assured himself that it wasn’t bugged.
He tucked the small receiver back into the special pack attached to his belt before staring back at her, his gaze hooded, his appearance seeming more dangerous in the dim light of the house.
“I have work to do,” she finally sighed. “There are a few groceries in the kitchen and drinks in the fridge. Make yourself at home.”
She turned and headed toward her bedroom.
“You don’t eat dinner?”
Ria halted in the middle of the living room. What was that thread of emotion she heard in his voice? Was it even truly there?
Loneliness?
She turned back to him, seeing more than the man standing so still and silent, his head raised high, his shoulders thrown back. His expression was cool, almost bland, but something in his eyes raged. They were predatory, yet filled with a sadness that pricked at her own heart.
There was something in his eyes that she had always recognized within herself. A need, hunger that no amount of food could ever fill.
For her, it was simply for a place to belong. What it was for Mercury, she had no idea. She knew, though, that the longer she stayed here, the more she felt as though she didn’t want to leave as quickly as she’d thought she would.
Dammit. He was getting to her, and she did not like that.