To Love and Protect (Must Love Diamonds 4)

“Thank you.”

“Hey, you should come have a drink with us.”

She forced her smile to stay in place, her cheeks about ready to cramp. “Thanks, but I should get back to the reception.”

“Come on, just one drink,” he coaxed with a smile. “Jeff wanted to say hi.”

Then Jeff should’ve come over.

Surprised by the automatic retort, she bit her tongue to keep it inside. He was only being friendly. He’d only ever been friendly, even when they’d gone on their kind-of date last summer.

He reached for her arm, and she couldn’t help an involuntary flinch from his touch. His brow pinched, eyes narrowing in a way that turned her stomach queasy. She took a step back, only to come up against a warm wall at the same time a deep voice sounded in her ear.

“There you are, Bells.”

Shelby froze at the voice, the nickname, and Dev’s thick forearm sliding around her waist while his breath stirred the loose curls softening her up-do. He’d stopped calling her Bells back about the time she turned thirteen.

“I’ve been looking all over for you.”

He had?

She glanced over her shoulder in shock—and the sight of Dev’s stony expression belied his husky, intimate tone. His narrowed gaze didn’t waver from the man opposite them. When she turned back to face Chad’s polite smile, confusion kept her tongue-tied.

“Excuse us.” Dev’s voice rumbled near her ear again. “They’re playing our song.”

What. The. Hell?

He made no move to lead her back to the ballroom, and when Chad gave a slight submissive nod of his head, it suddenly dawned on her what Dev had done. He’d come to rescue her. She was oddly relieved and offended at the same time. The warring emotions piled on top of her confusion.

“It was good to see you, Shelby,” Chad said. “Tell Loyal I said congratulations.”

“Yeah,” she murmured. “I will.”

As he left, her entire being focused on the muscled chest pressed against the bare skin of her back where her bridesmaid’s dress draped down to her waist. Dev’s body heat seeped through the velvet material covering her butt, making her heart race as she struggled to draw an even breath.

The first one she did manage to suck into her tight lungs had her closing her eyes in defeat. Of course he would smell divine. Strong and crisp, with a woodsy hint of outdoors mixed with citrus, there was nothing remotely feminine about the manly scent seducing her senses now.

Before she could do something stupid like lean back against him, or stupider yet like turn into his arms, he slid his hand from around her waist to the small of her back and urged her ahead of him.

Insistently.

Jolted by the juxtaposition of his gentlemanly rescue followed by him literally pushing her along, she frowned and took a breath to protest, but his voice growled in her ear.

“Where the hell is your bodyguard?”

Chapter 7

Dev nearly ran Shelby over when she put on the brakes.

“How am I supposed to know?”

Her annoyed retort spiked his anger enough to override the swift stab of pain in his thigh and knee at their abrupt halt. If she didn’t know where the guy was, she should know better than to go out into the lobby with no one to watch over her. “Damn it, Shelby.”

Jaw clenched, he gripped her elbow and propelled her forward once more. At the ballroom doors, she jerked her arm free and turned left to stalk down the hall, toward the hotel guest rooms. He followed at a slower pace to ease the ache in his leg.

“I’m not sure you understand how this works,” she said while pivoting to face him with a defiant tilt of her chin. “He’s paid to know where I am, not the other way around.”

He wished he could argue that, but she was right. “How often does this guy not know where you are?”