"I've never heard anyone refer to Alec Sullivan as p.i.s.sy before," Roman commented dryly as the elevator doors opened and they headed through the lobby to catch a cab to her office. "Never heard anyone live to tell about it, at least."

"My brother works really hard at projecting that intimidating image," she said, "but the truth is that underneath it all, he's a p.u.s.s.ycat."

"p.u.s.s.ycat?" She could tell Roman was trying not to laugh. "If you say so."

"Trust me, Alec might do the tough player act to perfection, but when he finally falls in love one day, he's going to turn to absolute mush. And it's going to be awesome to watch his downfall."

Roman finally let his own grin loose. "I know plenty of people who would pay good money to see that."

He was so handsome when he smiled that just sitting next to him in the taxi made all her girl parts flip around inside. Honestly, if he hadn't been a bodyguard foisted on her against her will, she'd be jumping him six ways to Sunday. Especially given her extremely long dry spell. A woman had needs, after all. A couple of times in the past she'd hooked up with a guy she knew from another company at a conference for a quick fix. Today, the thought of it made her scrunch up her nose. She didn't want anyone else. She wanted Ro- G.o.d. No.

Soon, if she played her cards right, Roman would be resigning his position with her. And then she would be all alone again, with no one to wait outside her front door every morning. No one to laugh with about her brothers. No one with muscles to sneak glimpses of throughout the day. No one to tease by wearing the s.e.xy dresses and heels her cousins had filled her closets with over the years. No one to tell her to grab some dinner instead of heading straight into her next meeting. No one to go running with her when she needed to shake off a morning of intense work. No one to put his arms around her when she needed just that.

Okay, so maybe his leaving didn't sound quite as good when she looked at things in that light. Nonetheless, she already knew all the reasons she needed to soldier on. Not only because she didn't need a bodyguard and couldn't let her brothers win, but also because Suzanne made it a point to keep her relationships with men neat and tidy, nice and calm-the polar opposite of her parents' destructive relationship.

But Roman pushed b.u.t.tons in Suzanne that no other man had pushed before. He made her feel things she'd never felt before. So she couldn't let him stay. Couldn't take the risk of losing control of her emotions the way her mother and father had with each other. Which meant it was time to gear up for her seductress act again.

When it came to brainstorming software or new digital security plans, she couldn't turn her brain off. But trying to figure out what to say or do to be "s.e.xy" made her mind go completely blank.

She would have laughed at herself if she hadn't been so irritated by her own inept.i.tude. But before she could either laugh-or groan-her phone rang. She pulled it out of her bag, and though she didn't recognize the number, she picked up anyway. There was no response on the other end.

She already knew how this was going to play out for the next several hours, d.a.m.n it. One call would turn into a hundred or more. No one would ever be on the other end, and there wouldn't be any messages either. Unfortunately, even her fastest tracer software hadn't yet had any success, because the numbers were generated from all over the world. Once she had a few more business items checked off of her to-do list, she'd definitely be putting more effort into digging into the junk calls and server attacks.

But though she already had turned the phone from ringtone to vibrate, she couldn't put it away or turn it off. Not when someone at her company-or one of her family members-might legitimately be trying to reach her at the same time that the barrage of fake calls was coming in.

"This is what your brothers were talking about, isn't it?" Roman said in a dark voice.

She'd been so hopeful that this wouldn't happen while he was still around. But since her phone was currently buzzing like crazy, she simply told him, "It's irritating, but it isn't dangerous." She knew she sounded defensive, but she didn't want him to think a bunch of phone calls all coming one after another from random numbers meant she needed a bodyguard.

"Stalking often starts out as an irritation before it escalates." There was no hint of laughter left in his voice from their earlier conversation. "Especially when the target doesn't respond the way the stalker wants her to."

She didn't bother to hold back an eye roll. "I don't have a stalker. I told you, my business is highly compet.i.tive. And not everyone plays by the same rules."

"You would never play by these rules."

"No," she agreed. "And it's not just because I'm a woman."

"I never said anything about your gender. I'm talking about the fact that you've created a company that's the envy of everyone in the tech world. I'm talking about who you are."

The way he said that made her pause. It sounded as though he thought he'd already figured her out. And she liked the thought of Roman understanding her-the real her-way too much.

"Just because I walk the straight and narrow with my business doesn't mean I'm nave about the ones who like to skirt the line between right and wrong. They don't frighten me. Their tactics are just another challenge to work through."

"How are you working through this one?"

She didn't love the answer she was about to give, but because it was the honest one, she gave it anyway. "I've been so busy with the new product that I haven't given it much attention yet."

"And now that the product launch is rolling along?"

"If it becomes a bigger problem, I'll make it a priority."

"How big a problem does it need to become to get on your priority list, Suzanne?"

His words were deceptively calm and soft-spoken. But she knew better, had learned a long time ago, while growing up as the only female in a house full of males, how to read between a man's lines.

"I know your job is to look around every corner for the worst," she said in just as deceptively placid a voice, when in truth she was bristling, "but until I find some evidence that I'm in personal danger, I'm going to keep my priorities where they are."

"What if the evidence of a problem comes in the form of a knife or a bullet?"

She couldn't contain her shock. "You're kidding, right?"

"I wish I was."

"My servers and phone are the only things that have been attacked. Why on earth do you think someone would come after me personally when that's not how these guys work?"

"You tell me. After all, you're the one who is building one of the world's best digital security companies. I'm just doing the same thing here from my end. Doing whatever I can to make sure you stay physically safe and sound, no matter what."

It was way too early in the morning for this conversation, especially when she hadn't had nearly enough sleep last night. Because she'd been having s.e.xy and romantic dreams about Roman. Thankfully, the taxi pulled up to her office building a moment later.

Still, as they walked inside in silence, she couldn't deny that his pointed questioning had gotten under her skin in a way her brothers' constant nagging over the issue hadn't. With Alec, Harry, and Drake, she'd been able to reason that they were being hypersensitive because they felt they needed to look after her.

But though they'd filled Roman's head with their worries, he did protect people for a living. And did it well, if Alec had been willing to trust him with her. Which meant that Roman must have a finely tuned radar for danger.

Danger that he seemed to think was real.

She shook her head, forcing the annoying thoughts away. She didn't have time for this today. Or any day, frankly. Thank G.o.d for her six thirty meeting and all the other work she had to do until that evening, so that she couldn't stew.

One thing was for sure, she couldn't pull off the whole be-s.e.xy-to-tempt-Roman-into-resigning act right now. Nope, today it was going to take all of her energy to ignore the doubts he'd planted in her head.

And to forget the feelings about Roman she had begun to have, whether she wanted to or not, especially while he was standing guard over her not ten feet away all day long.

Roman knew Suzanne was upset with him for making her look at the hard truth of her situation. She was one of the most innately positive people he'd ever met. He hated to chip away at her faith in human nature. But he also couldn't let her keep her head in the sand. Not if it meant she might end up getting hurt.

Her morning was a repeat of the day before, with one meeting bleeding into the next. The only difference was the way her phone continued to buzz. She gave it to her a.s.sistant and asked Jeannie to monitor the calls in case something important came up amid the junk calls.

Five hours later, her phone finally stopped ringing. And that was right when his started-with a string of text messages from one of the underground personal investigators he'd contacted last night.

Instead of going to bed after taking Suzanne home the previous evening, Roman had put out feelers to get backgrounds on the people he'd met at the Sullivan Security offices and at Rosa and Drake's place. He'd also looked up Suzanne's top compet.i.tors and had sent their names to his contacts, as well.

Pulling out his phone, he read the texts not once, but twice.

d.a.m.n it. Why hadn't Suzanne told him about this?

He knew she didn't want him there, but she'd seemed so genuine. He understood that women lied, but after spending time with her, he'd wanted to believe she was different.

His jaw clenched tighter and tighter as he waited for her to conclude her current meeting. As soon as she was off the conference call and Jeannie popped in to let her know that she was going to hold any further calls until mid-afternoon so that Suzanne could get some lunch, Roman moved out of his position in the back corner of her office.

"I'd like to speak with you about something I just learned."

Her hand was on the back of her neck, working to rub out the kinks from doing so many back-to-back meetings. He had to shove away the urge to rub it for her as she said, "What now?"

For the past five hours, she'd been unfailingly polite to everyone she worked with, even when a few people weren't delivering the results she was looking for. She had a knack for being encouraging, yet firm, without the temper tantrums some CEOs were famous for. But he knew he was pushing all her b.u.t.tons simply by being here.

Too bad for her that he was going to be pushing those b.u.t.tons even harder after what he'd found out.

"Seems you left out an important piece of information this morning when we were talking about why someone might go after you personally."

She looked so confused it was almost comical. Except that nothing about her situation was funny. Not if she was in danger.

"Left something out?" She spun her chair around so that she was facing him. "What are you talking about?"

"Craig Boylan."

Her eyes grew big, a beat before her face colored slightly. Obviously, she knew why he was asking her about that guy specifically. A beat behind surprise came anger. "You're snooping into my personal life now?"

"I'm not snooping," he clarified. "Doing backgrounds on the people you work with is part of my job."

"A job I never asked you to do."

Though he couldn't argue that point, he still needed to know more. "Tell me about your a.s.sociation with Mr. Boylan."

"Craig is harmless," she said with a wave of her hand.

Roman moved another step closer. "Craig is the co-founder of CP Systems, one of Sullivan Security's top compet.i.tors." He paused to make sure she understood just how bad it was that she had deliberately kept this information from him. "And an ex."

But she didn't look even the slightest bit guilty. In fact, all he got from her was another eye roll. "I wouldn't call someone I only slept with a couple of times an ex."

Jealousy slapped him upside the head before he was prepared to slap it back. "He might not agree."

"Of course he does. It didn't mean any more to him than it did to me. We were at a conference. We had a little too much to drink. One thing led to another. In the morning, we went our separate ways."

She was so off the cuff about it, as if she hadn't given the interlude another thought since it happened. Whereas Roman knew the guy had to be still pining for her. Who wouldn't be?

"You were together more than once."

Finally, she got up out of her chair to come at him. Close enough for him to see that her pupils had dilated slightly. "I can't believe you're grilling me for the details," she shot at him. "If I didn't know better, I'd think you were jealous."

She was wearing another outfit today that should be illegal-a s.e.xy dress that cupped her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and waist and fluttered around her thighs, with fire-red heels that were the cherry on top of the s.e.xy outfit. She was always breathtakingly beautiful, but when her eyes were spitting fire like this, he was hard-pressed not to give in to the answering fire leaping inside him.

Nonetheless, he couldn't let her know that she was dead on the money about jealousy eating away at him. He had no right to care that she'd slept with someone else. He wasn't her boyfriend. Wasn't anything but the paid help. Unfortunately, those hard, cold facts weren't doing a d.a.m.ned thing to douse his feelings.

Deliberately ignoring her comment, in as measured a voice as he could manage with her scent drawing him in even deeper, he said, "You wouldn't impede anyone else here in doing their job." From her reaction to hearing the guy's name, he now realized she truly didn't think she had been keeping anything from him in the taxi that morning when he'd asked about who might be a personal threat. She truly thought this guy she'd had a two-night stand with was harmless. If there was any chance at all that he wasn't, Roman needed to know. "Help me do mine."

"I can already tell you that you're barking up the wrong tree, but so you don't feel like I've left one single thing out, the second-and last-time Craig and I had s.e.x, we were at SecureCon." He could feel the bravado behind her words, the way she was trying to act so tough about sleeping with some guy she had no emotional connection with. But Roman knew firsthand how empty that could leave you. "Since he hadn't made a big deal about the first time we hooked up, I decided to give him another whirl."

In her fury, she'd moved close enough that her chest was now pressed against his. He could feel how soft she was, how perfect. Sweet Lord, he'd known this job was going to be hard, but he'd had no idea how difficult things could get.

"Is that enough detail for you," she said, "or do you need positions too?"

Visions. .h.i.t him-hard-of Suzanne naked and entwined with some other guy. Those pictures in his head twisted his gut into knots, even as he could barely look away from her full, red lips. Lips he was barely holding himself back from tasting.

Devouring.

"I've got what I need now," he gritted out past a jaw clenched brutally tight. Roman couldn't believe he had spent twenty years honing his control, only to have one beautiful, brilliant woman unravel it as easily as she would a ball of yarn.

"Well, that's good to hear," she said with no small measure of sarcasm. "Let me know if you change your mind, and I'll be happy to walk you through every single thing we did during our two nights together."

As far as Roman could see, Suzanne didn't believe much in fighting-she usually leaned toward calm and rational to make her point when she was working. But when she finally decided to get into the ring, she was sc.r.a.ppy. His respect for her rose another notch even as jealousy continued to hit him low and hard in the gut from her well-aimed jab.

Right now, however, he needed to clear the red haze from his brain so that he could make a plan to keep Suzanne safe for a couple of hours while he went to put the fear of G.o.d into Craig.

And yet, in the moment, he didn't see how he could possibly do anything but erase that final inch between them, how he could stop himself from dragging her all the way into his arms and crushing her mouth beneath his.

He almost had his hands on her-was this close to kissing her-when a knock sounded at the door. She bounded out of his almost-embrace at the same moment he forced himself to take a step back.

They were both surprised to hear Harry's voice. "Hey, Suz. Can I come in?"

He watched as Suzanne worked to pull herself together so that she could open the door for her brother without looking as if she'd been on the verge of making out with her bodyguard.

"Of course you can." She pasted on a smile and opened her arms. "What a nice surprise."

Harry returned her hug, but frowned as he pulled away and took a closer look at her outfit. He seemed to be especially surprised by her shoes. "You look..." He shook his head as if he couldn't quite believe his eyes. "I've never seen you wearing such..."

"These clothes have been hanging in my closet forever!"

"Sorry." Harry seemed to realize that he'd upset her. "You look really nice, sis. Just a little fancier than usual." When her expression barely softened, he wisely stopped digging himself deeper. "I was hoping you might be able to squeeze me in for lunch. Any chance of that?"

Finally, she gave him a smile. "I'd love it." Her smile faded again as she turned back to Roman. "You can trust me to have a meal alone with my brother, right?"

"You bet. I'm going to step out while you two eat." He looked at Harry. "It would be great if you'd stay with Suzanne until I return."

Her mouth set into a hard-but still gorgeous-line. "I don't need a constant babysitter."

"I didn't only come to eat," Harry said, obviously working to smooth things over with the sister he adored. "I also wanted to get your thoughts on some new research I've been trying to figure out how to best present to my students. You always seem to have a knack for getting inside their heads."

Looking slightly appeased by the fact that her brother was looking for her advice, she put her arm through Harry's and walked away from Roman without a second glance.

CHAPTER NINE.