Reckless (Benson Security 1)

He sat back in his chair, needing the space between them. “Self-defence.”

“Oh, in that case, no thanks. I’m covered.” She tucked her hair behind her ear.

“You’re covered?”

“Yep. I know how to take care of myself.”

Oh, this he had to hear. “Okay, Buffy, I’ll bite. What makes you think you’d be any good in a fight?”

“You mean, apart from the fact I managed to knock you unconscious. Not to mention the time I rendered you incapable of speech with a kick to the groin. You’d think those events would have clued you in to the fact that I have skills.”

“You don’t have skills. You have luck. And it was your sister—not you—who knocked me out. As for the knee to my balls, you took me by surprise. I thought we were on the same side at the time.”

Megan barked out a laugh. “The same side? You turned up in my home town with a bunch of thugs intent on kidnapping my sister to hand her over to a maniac. We were never on the same side.”

“I. Was. Under. Cover.”

“Blah, blah, blah. Like being undercover is an excuse for ineptitude. You almost got me killed.”

“You were never anywhere near getting hurt. We agreed on a plan. All you had to do was pretend to be Claire and I would make sure you were freed at some point.”

Megan threw up her hands. “Listen to yourself. That isn’t a plan. That’s just optimism. You said,” she deepened her voice and affected an American accent, “play along and I’ll think of something.” She dropped the accent. “Think of something? Yeah. That was reassuring. Good job I was able to save myself.”

“Yeah, by kicking me in the balls and shooting Durand in the ass.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. I took on two armed, trained men and won. I realise it was a blow to your ego, but you need to get over it. I think this conversation makes it clear why I don’t need self-defence training. I can defend myself just fine. I took Lake’s class in Invertary, my brother made sure we knew what to do growing up and I did two years of judo when I was a kid. I’m. Covered. So how about we spend any training time you have booked going over something I don’t know, like how to use a machine gun.”

Dimitri felt his jaw clench tight. “There is no way I’m letting you anywhere near an automatic weapon.”

Megan leaned across the table, closing the distance between them. “You are not the boss of me.”

“For this job I am.”

“We’re partners. Equal partners.”

“Like hell.”

“Yes. It will be hell.”

He made a strangled noise and threw up his hands as someone cleared their throat. The red haze in front of Dimitri’s eyes cleared enough for him to notice they had the attention of everyone in the restaurant and their waitress was standing beside their table. Fantastic. Talk about how not to keep a low profile.

“Can I get you anything else?” The woman’s eyes were wide as she looked at them.

“Just the bill.” Dimitri tried to smile at her, but his face wouldn’t work with him. “In fact, don’t bother. We’ll pick it up on the way out.” He looked at Megan, who was still fuming. “Let’s go.”

She grabbed her navy blue padded jacket from the back of her chair, thanked the waitress and strode to the front door, her head held high and her gorgeous ass swaying. Dimitri paid the bill, leaving a hefty tip and chased after the annoying woman.

By the time he’d made it outside, Megan was halfway up the street. He jogged after her, dodging the many people who were reading the menus posted outside the restaurants. The infuriating woman had to know he was chasing her and yet she strode on, in the opposite direction to where their car was parked. With her head held high, her fists clenched and her back ramrod straight, it didn’t take a genius to figure out she was still mad at him.

“Wait up.” He grabbed her arm and spun her around.

Her fist came out, but he was prepared for her violent streak. He caught her hands and held them behind her back.

“Let. Go. Of. Me.”

Her eyes flashed pure fire. Her cheeks were flushed and her chest heaved. She was stunning.

“Promise you won’t hit.”