Bodyguard's Baby Surprise (8 page)

She opened her eyes and his face was close, his head lowered to hers. Anticipating his kiss, she drew in a quick gasp of air.

But he only stared at her—as if looking into her soul. “Are you telling me it's not mine?”

She flinched as the baby kicked her ribs, as if in protest. She couldn't lie to anyone, let alone Nick, and not about this. “I don't—”

The muscle twitched in his cheek as he tightly clenched his jaw. But somehow he managed to ask, “Is there someone else, Annalise?”

Because of him, there had never been anyone else. Even knowing now that he would never return her feelings, she doubted there would ever be anyone else. Like Nick knew everything, he had to know that. So she began, “Of course—”

But then her cell phone rang. At least that hadn't been in her car when they'd stolen it. It was in her purse. She fumbled inside for it, mumbling, “That's him.”

Nick tensed. “Him?”

She nearly laughed at the expression on his face—the utter shock. He thought another man was calling her and that man was the father of her unborn child. Maybe Nick didn't know her as well as she'd thought he did.

She held the phone out to him. “I can't answer it,” she said. “I can't talk to him right now.” Because Gage would hear it in her voice, the fear that hadn't left her since the man had tried to pull her into the backseat of her vehicle. And she didn't want him to worry.

He had enough problems of his own—more than she'd realized.

“What do you want me to do?” Nick asked.

“Talk to him.” He was probably the only one who could. She pressed the green circle to accept the call.

But Nick just stared at her. Maybe she was imagining it, but she thought she saw more than shock in his blue eyes. She thought she saw disappointment. And maybe hurt...

Chapter 7

D
id he know Annalise at all? She had grown up next door to him—from a chubby-cheeked little girl to an awkward adolescent. But when he'd left, he had still been a teen himself. He hadn't been there when she had matured from teenager to woman. He didn't know how many boyfriends she'd had or apparently still had.

He wasn't her boyfriend, though. He'd been only a one-night stand. And this guy...

He must be her boyfriend. So why had she handed Nick the phone? Why did she want him to talk to him?

Was this who'd been threatening her? A jealous boyfriend? An obsessed ex? Maybe this guy had found out about the night she'd spent with Nick, and he'd started stalking her.

If Annalise had been any other woman, he would have considered that option first. But she was Annalise. And he couldn't imagine her with anyone else. He couldn't imagine her with anyone but him.

And he kept imagining that.

Her silky blond hair spread across the pillow as she stared up at him, her face flushed with passion. Her already full lips swollen from his kisses. Her arms and legs clinging to his body as he moved inside her.

“Annalise!” a male voice shouted her name.

And Nick realized who'd called her. “Gage?”

“Nick? What the hell are you doing with Annalise's phone?” her brother asked.

He'd been wondering that himself—until now. Now he realized that Annalise hadn't wanted to worry her brother, and she'd thought she might give away something if she talked to him.

“She's here, of course,” Nick replied.

“At our place?” Gage asked. Then his curse rattled the phone. “I thought she might show up after I sent that email. That's why I called.”

“You've owed her a call for a while,” Nick admonished him. But Gage hadn't wanted to worry Annalise any more than she wanted to worry him now. The Huxtons were like the Paynes in how unselfishly they loved each other.

“Then why did you answer the phone instead of her?” Gage asked, his voice even gruffer than usual with suspicion.

Annalise's face paled, and she shook her head. She wasn't a liar. So she couldn't come up with an excuse on the spot. That was why she'd handed Nick the phone: to lie.

“She's...”

What the hell would Annalise be doing if she'd come up for a regular visit?

“She's cooking,” he said. She had made a habit of coming over to Gage's and cooking for him when he'd worked for the Bureau. Nick had always been invited over, as well. Maybe that was why he hadn't considered that she could have another guy. She'd always had time for her brother.

And him.

She'd never dragged a boyfriend along. Nick's stomach tensed at the thought of Annalise with another man—the way she'd been with him.

How she'd clung to him and moved beneath him.

The way she'd shuddered and screamed as she...

“What's she cooking?” Gage asked wistfully.

Sweat beaded on his upper lip. She was cooking him—scorching him with just the memory of her passion. “I don't know.”

Gage chuckled, and his voice wasn't as rusty-sounding as it had been. “She won't let you in the kitchen?”

“You're the one she doesn't let in the kitchen,” Nick reminded him. Gage had no domestic abilities whatsoever. Their mom had been a real mom—like Penny Payne—who'd enjoyed taking care of her family. Gage never had to fend for himself or starve like Nick had.

Nick knew his way around the kitchen. So Annalise used to let him help. But she'd always stood too close, always touched him too much.

Even her innocent touches—her hand on his back as she leaned around him to grab a utensil, her hip bumping his as she dried the dishes he'd washed—had affected him. Made his body tense and needy.

But he'd denied what he had been feeling for her, had denied that need—until six months ago.

“I wish I was there,” Gage murmured. He missed his sister.

Nick could understand. He'd missed her, too, so badly, the past six months. His gaze moved down her body to the swell of her pregnant belly. He'd had no idea.

“I thought you weren't ready to see her,” Nick said.

Annalise flinched.

Gage's sigh rattled the phone. “I didn't think I was.”

But he was changing his mind. And Nick couldn't have that yet. He couldn't let Gage come home too soon, before he'd had a chance to explain what had happened that night when he'd lost all control.

Hell, it didn't matter what excuse he used. Gage wouldn't understand. He lived by a code, and Nick had violated that code when he'd crossed the line with Annalise.

“Be sure you're ready before you see her,” Nick advised.

Gage sighed again. “You're right. I don't want to worry her.”

And she didn't want to worry him. “So you don't want to talk to her?”

Annalise shook her head, tumbling her blond hair around her thin shoulders. As if worried that he might hand the phone to her, like she had him, she stepped back.

“Not yet,” Gage said. “Just tell her I called, okay?”

“Of course.” He clicked off the phone before Gage could say more—before he could inadvertently make Nick feel worse about keeping so much from him. He should already have told him about that night. And now there was so much more he didn't know—about the danger or the baby.

Nick wasn't sure he knew about the baby, either. So the minute he clicked off the phone, he asked, “Is it mine?”

Hurt flashed in her green eyes. “Of course...”

Of course. She was Annalise. She was too good-hearted, too sweet to have cheated on another man with him. Or was he being a fool, thinking only of the girl she had been instead of the woman she might have become?

He had to know. He had to ask. “Was or is there anyone else?”

Her face flushed, but it wasn't like that night—it wasn't with passion. Maybe embarrassment. Maybe anger. She didn't answer him. She only shook her head.

He reached out and skimmed his fingers over the side of her head, where she'd hit it on the asphalt. “All this—the break-ins, the car thefts—couldn't a jealous ex be behind it?”

He could understand a man not wanting to give her up once he'd had her. It had taken all Nick's willpower to stay away from her the past six months—to avoid going back to Chicago to be with her again.

And again...

She laughed as if the thought was ridiculous. But then, she'd never known how special she was—how beautiful.

Maybe when she looked in the mirror, she still saw that little girl with the chubby cheeks or the adolescent with the pimples. Maybe she didn't see herself the way Nick and every other red-blooded male saw her.

“You can't tell me there was no one else.” Not as beautiful as she was, as sensual. The way she'd made love to him.

Her eyes narrowed. “You think I sleep around?”

“You were trying to make me think your baby might not be mine,” he reminded her. “Why?”

“I—I didn't want to trap you into anything.”

“So you were never going to tell me?” Maybe she wasn't the Annalise he'd thought she was. Maybe she was as selfish and deceptive as his mother had been when she hadn't told Officer Payne that she'd gotten pregnant with his child.

Pain gripped Nick, squeezing his heart in a tight vise. He'd thought Annalise was different. He couldn't trust her any more than he'd been able to trust anyone else.

Her mouth was open as if she was trying to form an answer to his question. Before she could say anything, he shook his head. “I need to check outside,” he said, already heading toward the door, “and make sure nobody followed us.”

Nobody had. He'd made damn certain of that. Being inside with her was more dangerous than anything he'd find outside. She had just hurt him more than anyone else could have.

* * *

Gage stared down at the dark screen of his cell phone. “What the hell's going on?”

He wouldn't have survived to twenty-eight—not with the life he'd led—if he couldn't trust his instincts. And his instincts were telling him something was wrong—really wrong.

It wasn't his current assignment. That couldn't have been any less dangerous than it was. The only threat to the client he had been assigned to protect was in the elderly lady's mind. Probably the onset of Alzheimer's disease. One of his grandmothers had had it. He remembered her paranoia that someone had been stealing her clothes—like anyone else would have wanted to wear the polyester pantsuits that had gone out of style decades before.

Like his grandmother, Mrs. Toliver could have used a nurse, not a bodyguard. He wasn't needed here.

But he suspected he was needed at home—with Annalise. He wasn't surprised that she'd come to see him. He was surprised she hadn't come earlier. And why hadn't she taken his call?

He couldn't believe she hadn't had her phone with her in the kitchen. As a real estate agent and property manager, she said she couldn't afford to miss any calls and lose a client. Why had she missed his call?

And Nick...

He'd been acting strange since Gage had come back. At first he'd just thought he'd surprised him—with being alive and all. Everyone had given Gage up for dead months before.

But Annalise...

She was too optimistic ever to let herself think the worst. Just like she'd always thought she would have a chance with Nick someday. Knowing Nick and how he would never see Annalise as anything but a pest, Gage had told her to give it up. He wished she had listened to him, because now he understood what it was like to love someone and not have that love returned. It hurt like hell. Worse than anything he'd suffered in Afghanistan.

No, it didn't matter where he was. He wasn't safe. Not from those feelings. And he certainly wasn't safe back at the place he was staying with Nick. Someone kept breaking in. Someone was after Nick besides Annalise, for once.

She shouldn't have been there. Shouldn't have been where she might get hurt because of Nick. Gage turned on his cell again and considered hitting Redial. Maybe this time she would answer. But knowing his sister, she wouldn't listen. She never listened to him when it came to Nick.

So he scrolled down to another number and hit that. It was after office hours, but Logan answered right away—almost as if he'd been waiting for Gage's call.

He updated his boss about Mrs. Toliver and concluded, “I'm not needed here.”

“I'll let her family know,” Logan said.

“So I can come home soon?”

“Are you ready?” Logan asked. There was something in his tone, something that had been in Nick's, too. A caution. Everyone had been cautious of him at first—like they thought he might lose it at any second. They had no idea the control he'd had to learn. He wasn't about to lose it. But now—along with the caution—there was an evasiveness. They were keeping something from him.

And he'd had it. He wasn't losing control; he was losing patience. He didn't need protecting.

“What's going on?” he asked. His instincts were right. He was needed at home.

* * *

Annalise's nerves were frayed, and as always when she was nervous, she talked too much. “I could have had someone else drive me.”

She'd wanted to—but Nick had refused with just a shake of his head. He had never been much of a talker, but he'd taken his reticence to another level. Since the night before—since Gage's call—he'd been giving her the silent treatment.

It was going to be a long three-hour drive to Chicago. “I really couldn't postpone the closing,” she said. “It's already been postponed a couple of times because of issues with the property that had to be fixed before the bank would give my client financing.”

He glanced away from the rearview mirror to meet her gaze. “Are you talking about Carla's house?”

“Your mom's?” He'd never called her Mom or Mother. Just Carla. The woman had never been much of a mother, though.

He nodded.

“If I'd sold hers, you would have to be at the closing, too,” she said. That was why she hadn't listed it for sale. She hadn't wanted to see Nick again—unless he'd wanted to see her. But he hadn't even called.

A pang struck her heart, and a little foot struck her ribs. Their baby was active.

“Did you burn it down?” Nick asked—hopefully.

She shook her head. “I rented it.” Which had been unusual.

The tenant had paid an entire year's rent in cash, but she didn't think he had even moved in. He hadn't switched any of the utilities to his name. And the number he'd given her was no longer connected.

Weird.

So many odd things had been happening. The strangest had been Nick making love with her that night six months ago. She had given up hope that he would ever be attracted to her. But she must have caught him in a weak moment.

She would have liked to give herself a similar excuse. But she never needed an excuse to want Nick. Even now.

She couldn't stop staring at him—at his strong hands gripping the steering wheel. She remembered how they had looked moving over her body, cupping her breasts...

Her nipples tightened as she remembered his thumbs sliding over them. His thigh shifted as he pressed on the accelerator, the muscles moving beneath his black pants. And she remembered how they had moved as he'd thrust his hips.

Her body began to throb as desire overwhelmed her. Before, she'd had only her girlish fantasies of what it would be like to make love with Nick, of how it would feel. Now she knew.

Nick wasn't looking at her, though. He was totally focused on the street as he weaved between cars. His attention was divided only when he glanced into the rearview mirror. And he kept doing that.

Annalise's stomach lurched—not from his driving but from fear. Even before he said the words, she knew.