To Love and Protect (Must Love Diamonds 4)

Shelby scoffed. “A proclivity?”

“It means—”

“I know what it means,” she snapped as she pivoted and strode into the room, tossing her coat over a chair on the way. “After nine years of being gone, Dev, you don’t know anything about me.”

“True, but that only proves my point.”

The plush carpet had muffled his footsteps, and she stiffened at the unexpected nearness of his voice behind her. “How so?”

“The last time I saw you nine years ago, you offered yourself to me on a silver platter.”

Her cheeks burned in mortification that he would throw that out there.

Coming up to her dad’s desk, she forced herself to turn around and face Dev while leaning her butt against the edge. She refused to act like a broken-hearted teenager who was ashamed of what she’d done. “I was on my bed, not a platter.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Might as well have been.”

He was still angry about that day. She hadn’t understood his anger then or now. However, she understood hers over his ridiculous Neanderthal act.

Bracing her hands on the edge of the desk, she forced a small smile as her pulse picked up speed. “I assure you, it wasn’t quite so rash and reckless as you might think.”

“The hell it wasn’t.”

“But, Dev, you were just my practice run.”

His dark eyebrows slammed together. “Your what?”

“My practice run,” she repeated, lying through her teeth. “And thank goodness I got things right the second time, because the man I really wanted was more than up for the task.” She tilted her head and added some sugar to her smile.

Judging by his clenched fists and the fire flashing in his dark gaze, he had no trouble figuring out what she meant. If the idiot wasn’t so damn wound up, he’d see right through her lies.

“All right, what’s going on?”

Her dad’s firm voice from the doorway made Shelby jump a good inch. As he and her mom entered the study, she prayed they hadn’t heard her last words. A quick glance eased that worry, and she met Dev’s hard gaze before stepping past him while pulling the note from her back pocket.

“I think I have a stalker.”

Chapter 5

Dev listened while Shelby explained to her parents what had been happening. He interjected when he felt she was downplaying—much to her irritation—but he wasn’t about to let anything get in the way of her safety.

The entire time, the words practice run and man I really wanted kept popping into his head with infuriating frequency. On the one hand they made him want to punch a wall. On the other, he thanked God he hadn’t done anything stupid all those years ago.

Like fall in love with her.

He stiffened at that thought and forced his head back to the conversation. Mark and Janine were both insisting on Shelby having a full-time bodyguard, and Dev was totally on board with that. It was precisely the reason he’d insisted she tell her father right away.

“Looking back, this could be tied to the vandalism at your clinic,” her father said.

“That was months ago.” She frowned. “And nothing’s happened there since then.”

“Because you halted construction,” he argued. “Aren’t you planning to start up again?”

“Mae’s got me on the schedule for end of February, a week after Loyal and Roxanna’s wedding.”

“Then we’ll add security there, too,” Mark stated.

He glanced at Dev as if asking his opinion, and he gave the senator a nod of agreement while shifting to ease the ache in his leg.