Protecting Her

“Fine. Let me tell Fred. I want to talk to the people at the lab anyway.”

“How come?”

“I plan to fuck you, and since it wouldn’t be right to do so while I’m protecting you, I need to remove the threat.”

“I never said I was going to sleep with you,” she objects.

“You will.”

Chapter 9

Catriona

“Are you okay?” Carrie asks me.

I drop my pen down, finally finished with making my notes. Notes that took me way too long to put together. Gabe was throwing me off. My mind kept drifting back to what we had done earlier. I break myself from those thoughts, knowing they’ve cost me enough time today. “We had a breakthrough. I’m more than okay.”

“You don’t seem excited as you normally do about these breakthroughs.”

“I’ll be excited when we nail down the serum.” I am getting close. I can feel it. I wonder if once I get it and release the information if the threat that is hanging over my head would go away. It was the only thing I can think of why someone would want to hurt me.

I’ve spent hours trying to wrack my brain on any possible suspects but haven’t come up with anything. It has to be connected to my work. What if they don’t want to hurt me but kidnap me? Either way I think they’d want the serum complete. They just want it for themselves to sell.

“You’ll get it.” I push my notes towards her so she can add them into the computer system.

“How did the date go? I forgot to ask.” She wiggles her eyebrows at me.

“It didn’t. I had to go to a safe house. They only let me go home to grab some things before they whisked me away to safety.” I’m not exactly sure that I would consider being holed up in a house with Gabe safe. Maybe from danger but not from any of these feelings we’re having toward one another.

“Oh shit. Do they think the threat is that serious?”

“I don’t know, to be honest.” I shrug one shoulder. “Either way, I’m doing it to be safe. This isn’t just about me. This serum could save so many lives, and I’m close to getting it done. That’s what truly matters.” It’s not that I don’t think someone else could get it done. I’m sure they could, but it would take them more time. Each day without it could cost lives. Ones that I’m not willing to spare. It’s why I’ve been working nonstop to get this done.

“You can’t think of it like that. This is your life too.” She looks at me like I’m crazy.

“That’s why I’m staying at the safe house. Everything is protected.” Except my body from Gabe. Heat rushes through me thinking about this morning. The way his mouth felt against mine. When he palmed my breast, I’d felt an ache for him to squeeze hard, wanting him to pull at my nipples. Those were thoughts I never had before he came into my life.

“Your cheeks are turning red.”

“It’s hot in here.” I turn around to face the other way, trying to get myself together.

“It’s 68 degrees. It’s always 68 degrees because 68 is the perfect temperature. So you say.”

“It is. If we didn’t have to wear lab coats then we could bump it up to 70. More importantly, you should always keep the temperature above 64 and below 77 for a safe and well-balanced indoor temperature. You just need to find your own medium in between there.”

“Right.” Carrie snorts a laugh. “Now that you have failed to distract me with that, do you want to tell me why you were blushing?” Damn. I turn back around to face her.

“One of the bodyguards has made it clear he would like to sleep with me when his assignment is over.” See, that wasn’t so hard. Sex is natural. There is no reason to blush about it. Still, my face warms once again because you can’t really control it.

Carrie’s whole face lights up with excitement. “Is he hot?”

“How hot he is would be a matter of opinion. What I think is hot and what you think is hot might be two different things.” I instantly think about his thighs and broad shoulders. I was drawn to his size.

“Stop giving me your scientific mumbo jumbo and answer the question.”

“He’s rugged. I’m not sure he’s what most would consider classic hot, but to me—”

“You want to bang his brains out. Don’t you?”

I think I do. All day my mind kept drifting back to that kiss. The things he made me feel. When his mouth was on mine, my brain shut down. There wasn’t all this noise anymore. It was only him and me, our bodies doing what came naturally. Both of us allowed our natural instincts to take over.

“His kiss led me to believe that it would be enjoyable.”