All He Wants (6 page)

Billy had always flirted with her. Her and every other female in the Tri-State area. She’d always played off his affections as either an annoyance or something that didn’t have any effect on her, even though it did. Unlike random men on the street, she loved when
he
flirted with and teased her. Secretly, she sometimes lingered at her dad’s gym if she knew he was showing up, just for the chance to see him and be on the receiving end of his flirtation. But today… Today, it didn’t feel like their banter was feeding a schoolgirl crush; today it felt like safety. Like security. It felt like
home
.

“H
ow many did you find?” Billy’s shoulders tensed as his fingers gripped his iPhone tighter.

“Three.” Seth answered. “One in the front room. One in the bedroom and one in the bathroom.”

Lowering the device from his ear Billy fisted his opposite hand as he inhaled through his nose. His heart was racing with the rage-inspired adrenaline that he hadn’t felt since the last time he’d been in the ring. He stared at the wall in front of him and fought the urge to put his fist through it even though he knew it wasn’t the plaster’s fault that whoever had broken in had put up cameras. The only thing that stopped him was the fact that the last thing Maxi needed was holes in her walls.

As much as he was trying to stay detached, to treat this like any other job, he couldn’t.

Returning the phone to his ear, he heard himself ask a question that he already knew the answer to, “Are you sure you got them all?”

The line was silent for a moment before Seth responded, “Are you sure you can handle this?”

No
. He wasn’t. He wanted this over. He wanted to stop feeling like someone was kicking his balls and punching him in his gut simultaneously over and over again. And that was only going to happen when they caught whoever was harassing Maxi. Until that happened, he wanted to keep her safely locked up in her room.

This was killing him, and as tough and independent as Maxi was, he saw it was killing her too. She was scared. When they’d first arrived at her apartment, she’d tried to hide how upset she was. But he saw it. He saw it in the way she held her back a little straighter. He saw it in the way she’d made light of the situation even though her voice was tight with stress. He’d seen it in the way her hands trembled when she’d picked up a photo that had fallen over of her and her dad that Billy himself had taken two Christmases ago.

“Marshall?”

“I’m here.”

“The condo is secure and we have twenty-four hour surveillance set up. We have eyes on every entry point. As of now, there are no leads. You need to get some rest. Pace yourself. You’re no good to anyone if you don’t sleep. Eat.”

“I know.”

“Call if you need any anything.”

“Will do,” he assured his boss before disconnecting the call.

Seth was right. He was going to need to sleep and eat. He reminded himself that as long as Maxi was here, she was safe. Even though she’d jokingly said Seth had made her condo as secure as Fort Knox, the truth was, he had. She was safe. So, once she was ready for bed, Billy would try to relax enough to get a few hours of shuteye.

“Who was on the phone?” Her soft voice drifted into the room and cut through his turmoil-filled inner thoughts.

When his eyes lifted and he saw her, his heart caught in his throat. Maxi was wearing a body hugging red dress with a neckline that left little to the imagination. The lipstick that highlighted her perfectly-plump mouth was the exact shade of her dress. Her blue eyes looked even brighter thanks to the dark liner she’d used. Her hair fell loosely around her shoulders in waves. And the black heels she wore made her curvy legs look a mile long.

He stood there in shock. He’d expected to see her in sweats, or better yet pajamas. This was the opposite of sweats.

“What are you wearing?” The question came out much harsher than he’d intended.

“It’s called a dress.” Her brow raised as she answered in a sarcastically pleasant tone before she spun and asked, “Do you like it?”

Hell. Yes.

In all the years that Billy had known Maxi she’d never played games. Unlike his mom, she didn’t manipulate situations for her benefit. She was one of, if not the most, straightforward people he knew. She didn’t fish for compliments, or even appreciate them when they were offered. She didn’t flaunt her pin-up-worthy curves around the guys that were training. Not that they didn’t notice them anyway, under whatever material that was covering them. Every time she walked into the gym, they all drooled like the animals they were. But she never put them on display, or used them to tease and titillate.

Knowing that, he wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt and believe that her actions weren’t meant to torture him. But if that
was
her intent, it damn sure was working. He tried to ignore the caveman instincts the dress inspired. The urge to pick her up, throw her over his shoulder and show her just how much he
liked
it was stronger than almost any other desire he’d ever felt. His mouth watered and his dick twitched to life in his pants.

Damn
. If that was all it took to get him excited, it really had been too long.

“
Why
are you wearing it?” he corrected, ignoring her question as he assumed it had to be rhetorical. What red-blooded man wouldn’t love that dress so much he’d want to tear it off of her?

The small glimmer of light that had been in her eyes before as she spun extinguished. “I have a date.”

“Cancel it,” he managed to grit out between clenched teeth.

The last thing he needed was to have her out in public wearing
that
dress. It would be like waving a red flag in front of a bull. Except in this scenario she was wearing the flag, and the bull was a crazy stalker.

Lifting her chin higher, her shoulders dropped back. The stance pushed her cleavage against the taut crimson fabric, causing the twitch to turn to a throb. “No.” She sidestepped him and walked her fine ass into her kitchen with purposeful strides.

He knew that posture. Knew that tone. Knew that look in her eye. Just like there was no way anyone was going to stop him from being here, there was no way he was going to stop her from going.

“Even if I wanted to,” she began as she opened the fridge and leaned down, “Detective Grover said that I needed to go through my daily routines like everything is normal. So I am.”

Now, instead of wanting to punch the wall, he wanted to punch Grover. But as mad as it made him, he knew Grover was right. In fact, the detective had specifically instructed him to pose as a friend staying with her, not a bodyguard. To act natural in public, not hovering over her. If this creeper went into hiding, they may never find him.

The sooner this was over, the better. Patience had never been a virtue he’d possessed. If he wanted something, he went after it. And most of the time, he got what he wanted. With one exception…and she was standing in front of him wearing a dress that would tempt a monk to sin.

Which, apparently, was how she dressed on dates…not that he would know. He didn’t know anything about her private life. Where she went. Who she went with.

That thought transformed into a revelation. He’d never seen any of the guys she’d dated. And there was no one to ask because none of the guys at the gym had either, including her own father. This was a rare opportunity to do exactly that. Talk about making lemonade out of lemons. He would get to meet one of her mystery men. See her in her dating habitat and not leave her side. She would be safe. No one would lay a hand on her, including her
date
.

“Okay,” he conceded.

Like a Meerkat in the Serengeti, her head popped up and the fridge door shut. “Okay?”

“Okay.”

Her baby blues narrowed. He waited for her to push him more on the subject, but instead she doubled back to her initial question. “Who was on the phone? Was it Grover? Does he have a lead?”

“It was Seth.”

For a split second her face fell, but she quickly masked her disappointment. “Did they find anything in their sweep?”

“They found three cameras.”

Horror registered across her pretty features. “Three?!”

“Yes.” He hated that she had to hear about any of this. All he wanted to do was shield her, protect her from…everything. But, she had a right to know.

“Where?” Her eyes scanned the front room and kitchen. “Where are…or uh…were they?”

“One in the front room. One in the bedroom and one in the bathroom.”

“The bathroom?” Her eyes widened with shock.

“They’re gone now. Seth has our tech guy Nate working on finding where the feed was being sent.”

Her lips pursed and she nodded her head. It was obvious to him that she was trying to be strong, trying to hold back tears. The strength in her vulnerability shredded him.

With renewed determination brimming in her eyes she leveled him with a probing stare. “Are you sure they got them all?”

“Yes.” Even though he’d asked the same question and Seth hadn’t responded, he was confident in his answer. Seth and the men he hired were the best at what they did. Not to mention, Maxi wasn’t just some client. This was personal, and not just to him. She was Jessie’s employee, and Jessie was family. That meant that Maxi was family in Seth’s eyes.

With a shaky breath, Maxi rested her hands on the marble countertop and leaned forward slightly, as if she were bracing herself. Every cell in his body was screaming for him to go pull her into his arms.
He
wanted to be her support.
He
wanted to be the one holding her up.
He
wanted to be the one that she leaned on.

She swallowed hard, inhaled through her nose and blew a breath out of her mouth. It was a technique that he’d seen her use when she was trying to remain calm and not lose it. Sometimes at him.
Most
of the time at him. Over the years, he’d pushed her buttons any chance he got. Not because he was being a dick, just because he wanted a reaction out of her. Any reaction. Even negative attention was attention.

“So there are
no
cameras in here,” she clarified calmly as she stared down at her hands.

“Only the ones that we installed. Cameras with eyes at all the points of entry. There will be someone monitoring the activity day and night.”

“Watching me?!” The horror was back as her eyes flew to his as she pushed off the counter and turned so that she was facing him.

“No. Not you. Just the points of entry. Windows. Doors. That’s it.”

“Are you sure?” Her voice trembled as she looked up at him with total trust and vulnerability.

The ache in his chest expanded and his feet moved without permission. He needed to be closer to her. He’d been doing his best to give her space. He knew that even him being here went against every independent bone in her gorgeous body. He wished he knew how to take all of the fear, worry, and stress from her. Assuring her wouldn’t be enough. His mind raced to try to find the right words to give her some peace.

He was still trying to figure out what to say when Maxi placed both hands on his chest and pushed. Hard.

“Stop it!” she raised her voice.

Since he was six foot two, two hundred and ten pounds of muscle and she stood a hair under five-four and weighed about a buck-twenty soaking wet, her efforts didn’t go far. He remained planted in place.

“Stop what?!” he asked, more defensively than he’d meant to.

Not that she cared. An accusatory finger poked where her palm had just pushed. “Stop walking on eggshells around me. Don’t treat me like some fragile thing that might break. I’m not fragile. I won’t break. Just…be normal.”

In Billy’s life he’d been accused of a lot of things. Being an asshole. Being immature. Being cocky. Being a man-whore. But by far, the thing that he heard the most, usually in the form of a complaint from the fairer sex, was that he said what was on his mind. He didn’t sugarcoat things. He’d never seen the point. Before now, that is.

Now, he was so in his own head and emotions, so scared and angry, so filled with fear and rage, that he wasn’t himself. But as he looked into Maxi’s eyes, he realized that, from the time he’d seen her in Jessie’s office until now, the only moment he’d seen the sparkle in her eyes that he’d grown addicted to—the sparkle that was a window into the fire that burned just below the surface of the always calm, cool and collected Maxi Rizzo—was when he teased her in the hall at SPC after Martin had left. For a few seconds, she was just Maxi and he was just Billy.

In the ring, he was known for reading his opponents. Their body language. Their tells. On the job, he was known for reading potential threats. Their body language. Their tells. In the bedroom, he was known for reading women. Their body language. Their tells.

So how in the world had he missed Maxi’s body language? Maxi’s tells?

Shaking his head slightly, he tried to clear the black cloud that had taken up residence in his head since the second he’d stepped into Seth’s office this afternoon. He needed to put his personal shit aside and be there for Maxi. Not just to protect her physically, but also to give her what she needed emotionally.