Chapter Four

“You’ve been holding out on me!”

I jumped and frowned as I juggled the original first edition Hemingway in my hands. I’d been working through a box of private donations for the Literacy Campaign fund raising auction, but not having a lot of luck. Just couldn’t seem to keep my head in the game. Wonder why?

The answer was actually pretty simple. I kept playing over the twists and turns my life had taken last night. It sure beat authenticating dusty old books. Of course, a week ago, I’d have been in heaven to see this many first editions in one place.

Shaking my head out of the clouds, I glared at Eva Hutchinson, best friend and colleague.

“Don’t you ever knock?”

“Since when do I have to? You usually hear me a mile away. Well?”

Her face shone with the merriment and good humor and she was fairly dancing in her skin. My own was carefully blank as I waited. It didn’t take long, but with Eva, it rarely did.

“There’s a yummmmy man at the front counter who claims to be your boyfriend.”

“One night doesn’t make him my boyfriend.”

I spoke before I thought and mentally smacked myself on the head. Eva had a bit of a lascivious streak and one hint could fuel her for weeks. Until I could decide exactly how much my life was going to change, I hadn’t wanted to tell her anything about my new “friends”.

“Oh, ho! You admit it. You spent the night with him, didn’t you?”

“I so did not. We met at the party I had to go to last night and he drove me home. That’s it, drove me home, walked me to the door, and went on his merry little way. Not so much as a goodnight kiss.”

“Then why is he up front catering to the delusions of dear Miss Carter?”

I looked at her and prayed she was joking. Dear Miss Carter was our boss and a proverbial cat lady. In fact, she favored exotics and had a breeding pair of Bengal cats that were absolutely gorgeous. They even liked me, so they couldn’t be that bad. Cole Reyes was right up her alley.

Speaking of the devil…

“I swear I don’t know why Sasha has kept you such a secret, Cole. This is the book vault and where she spends most of her time. We have a back door with a keypad, and I’ll make sure you get a key so you don’t have to come in the front when you want to visit.”

I gaped through the window of my workroom at the sight of silver-haired Eliza Carter strolling on Cole’s arm as if she didn’t run two miles every morning. For a moment, I felt like I’d fallen into an alternate reality. Eva snickered and turned her back so Miss Carter wouldn’t see her. Me, I was left standing where she could beam me with those cool blue eyes. Yep, there would hell to pay.

“I wasn’t keeping him a secret, Miss Carter, I swear it. Cole and I just met last night.”

I glared at him and ignored the way he smiled at me as well as the answering flip in my belly.

“Now, Sasha, there’s no reason to be modest and hide such a gentleman.”

The chastising tone in her voice told me she wasn’t buying it.

“Miss Eliza, Sasha is perfectly correct. I’m the one who took it upon myself to come drag her off to lunch to further our acquaintance. Our families are friends, but Sasha hasn’t been so kind to me, yet.”

The look Miss Carter gave me was somewhat mollified. It also screamed, “Marry him, now!” What was it about everyone who’d ever been in love wanting to see the rest of us poor fools paired off?

“Well, Sasha is one of our best workers. In fact, she looks a little bit peaked, don’t you think, Eva? She hasn’t had an afternoon off since she started here. I do believe she looks like she could use a bit of a rest. You’ll take care of her for us, won’t you, Cole?”

Honey would have melted in her mouth. I know the look on my face was pure unadulterated horror as Miss Carter let go of Cole’s arm to grab mine and shove me at him.

“I certainly see your point, Miss Eliza. I’ll take her straight home and fix her lunch myself.”

This wasn’t happening. People in my life who care for me don’t shove me at strangers and cheerfully wave good-bye. It does not happen.

Eva ran for my purse and keys, leaned in for a hug, and whispered. “God, he’s got a nice ass.”

I blushed crimson as Cole pretended not to hear. His hearing was more than acute enough for it and we both knew it. Before I had a chance to seriously object, I was standing in the employee parking lot of the library with my purse in hand, and my keys firmly in Cole’s. Who needs subtle when you’ve got Miss Carter?

“Well, that went a little better than planned.”

I blinked up at him as he frowned at the keys. Looking at the parking lot, he finally held up the key ring and hit the panic button. The tiny blue convertible went a little wild with headlights flashing and horn screaming.

“You could have asked.”

“You could have volunteered the information.”

Staring up into his smug face, I gave into the impulse and kicked him in the shin. Stalking toward my car, my little display of temper was ruined when Cole jingled my keys in his hand.

“Remember, you need me, princess.”

“Look, Cole. I have things to do. My life doesn’t center around society just because I stepped up to the plate last night. Now I’ll have to come in on my day off to get caught up. If we send them up to Charleston, it’s going to cost us money for shipping and appraising fees. Money we’d just as soon slink into the literacy campaign. This might have been a lark for you, but I have a job to do and a life to live.”

My temper was well and truly up. It was all I could do not to stalk back to him and poke my finger in his chest to emphasize my point. He raised his hand like he was going to toss me the keys, but stopped, curling his fingers around them, instead. The flirting playboy was gone and in its place stood a man I didn’t know. He was hard. Hard in a way that had nothing to do with physical and everything to do with mental and magical.

“Is that the only car you own?”

“Yes. What’s wrong with it?”

I turned to look at my beloved Boxster and frowned. I’d treated myself to the car when I’d come into the last of my inheritance last year at twenty-five. It was one of the few things I owned that I actually felt proprietary about.

“It’s a convertible.”

“Yeah, that’s part of the fun.”

“It’s not secure. I’ll have a car brought around for you tonight.”

“Why do I need another car?”

“Well, your bodyguards won’t fit in this one, for starters.”

“Bodyguards? I don’t need bodyguards.”

He raised an eloquent eyebrow at me as if to say, “You don’t?”

“Why do I need a bodyguard?”

“Bodyguards, as in more than one. It comes with the territory. You also get a personal assistant, a house, a couple of cars, and an income. Being the leader of our little society does come with perks and is very much a full time job.”

“Fine, move the staff into the house and use the income to keep them all up.”

“I didn’t think you wanted to move from your plantation house, so I haven’t ordered the house opened up.”

He seemed perplexed, caught off-guard by my answer. I had a moment of smug satisfaction before I burst his bubble.

“Oh, I’m not. I like my house just fine.”

“Where you go, they go. It’s not open for negotiation. Can we please move this out of the parking lot? Your coworkers are probably taking bets by now.”

I blinked and looked up. Sure enough, Eva, Kate, and Colleen were staring down from the upper reading rooms. From the looks on their faces, he might not have been too far off on the bets.

“Fine. You can follow me home.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t have a car. Your assistant dropped me off. Her name is Tori, by the way. She’s waiting to meet you at the house. You’ll find she’s more than adequate for your needs. If she doesn’t suit, we’ll find someone who does.”

The entire time he was talking, he was walking toward me. I watched him come with a sense of foreboding until I finally had to turn around to follow his motion. He gently tucked his hand at the small of my back to urge me toward the car. I don’t know why it surprised me to have him open the car door, but it did. I drew the line when he reached to help me with the seatbelt.

“I can do it.”

It sounded grumpy, even to me. Defeat wasn’t something I took lightly, and I knew I was sunk. One rash decision and my life was changed forever. That’s what I got for trying to make a statement. Somewhere in heaven, my parents were laughing at me.

The drive back to my house was mercifully quiet. It’s hard to talk over the roar of wind with the top down. Cole handled the car like he enjoyed the speed and responsiveness of it. Of course, so did I. It was the main reason I’d bought it. I loved the way it begged you to go just a little faster or dart through traffic.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived. Pulling into my oak-lined drive, I had a moment of shock. There were cars parked in front of my house, on the grass, in front of my rose bushes. The drive had gone a good ways to calming my temper, but that threatened to set me off, again.

“Do they not see the driveway?”

Cole glanced at me. I could see he wasn’t following the logic. It was such a man thing.

“The cars. They parked their cars practically on top of my rose bushes. That bed of roses has been there for a hundred years.”

“I’m sure they didn’t want to block the drive, Sasha. Is there somewhere you’d rather they park?”

He guided the car to a stop in front of the walk and I sprang out over the door.

“Yeah, they can park their cars at their own houses.”

He rolled his eyes at me and I turned to head up the walk. The sight of people coming out my front door stopped me cold.

“And why were they in my house, Mr. Reyes?”

“I let them in.”

I turned to the porch to see the woman shouldering between two of the men. Unlike them, she met my gaze squarely. She must have been made of sterner stuff not to run for cover because I could tell that was what the boys wanted to do.

“And why, exactly, did you let them into my house?”

“Because we needed to secure the perimeter and install the security system.”

She looked at me with a perplexed expression. Oh, I’m sure it sounded perfectly logical to her, but it wasn’t her life being shanghaied.

“What security system?”

She looked up and past me, so I turned to face the man who had put it all in motion.

“Mr. Reyes, would you care to explain any of this or are you going to let me eat them?”

“Society frowns on cannibalism.”

“Well, I’m the supreme commander. For me, we’ll make an exception.”

One of the men on the porch laughed, but choked it back when I turned to glare at him. He stood tall and broad shouldered, like a football linebacker. His sandy brown hair was cut close to his head in a conservative haircut that didn’t go with the faded frat jersey he wore.

“What’s your name?”

“Warren, ma’am. Warren Reaves. Glad to be in your service.”

“Okay, he can stay. The rest are fired.”

“No.”

I turned back to Cole and stalked around the car until I was crowding his personal space. “I don’t want them here.”

“Go move your cars around to the back of the house. There’s a barn near the docks where the boats are stored. You can park next to it. Stay on the drive.”

They melted away without a word. On one hand, I’d won an argument. On the other, it wasn’t the argument I’d wanted to win. Before I had a chance to start in on him, though, he unleashed his power to wash over me. Power, so thick and heavy it was like standing on the front edge of a tropical storm, took my breath away. Without warning, my own broke free to push his back so I was standing in my own pressure bubble. The two powers wrapped around each other even as he began to bend over me. I stand five feet seven in bare feet. In my two inch heels, I stood much closer to his six feet, give or take an inch. With the power washing over us, I felt closer to four feet as he crowded into my personal space, but pride made me stand my ground.

“Do. You. Want. To. Die?”

That made me step back and stare at him. Every word was enunciated through clenched teeth. I didn’t have a chance to ask what he meant because he took a step back, too, and just stared at me before elaborating.

“Has it ever occurred to you to ask why we don’t have a member to sit on the voting council? Do you think that no one has wanted the job? The last one was three years ago and it was poison in his coffee that did him in. The one before that was a neat mugging victim. The one before that, a viper tucked into his bed. The one before that…”

I was suddenly getting a very bad feeling about this.

“Stop. I get the point.”

“No, you don’t. I put you in this position. I planted the seed on the drive over last night. Of course, if I’d known you were going to jump right in and stage your own little revolution, I might have kept my mouth shut. But I didn’t know you were that wild at heart. Lord knows, your file didn’t even hint at it. But I did it all. It was my plan that put you in this position, so it’s my job to keep you safe. Safe means letting the people who are qualified to do their jobs, do them. It means you will have a security system. It means there will be guards in the house and on the grounds. It means that Tori will screen your mail and your messages. It means that you will be alive in six months to sit at that table and give the tigers a voice. Do you understand me?”

I guess the gloves had come off, or rather, maybe I was seeing those black stripes on that black coat, after all. Instinct made me ask the question in the back of my mind.

“Who are you so afraid of?”

“Everyone. You’re such a wild card. I wouldn’t put it past the other groups to put out a mark against you. Unfortunately, you’re not safe among our own society, either. You have enemies. People who hated your parents will carry that grudge against you. Worse, people who were aspiring to climb the status ladder will hate you, too. Women who are after the strongest of us will be out to get you, because you’ve just become the most eligible socialite simply on power level, alone. They may not be willing to front an official hit, but they’ll be weak links for anyone who’s willing to buy them a drink and talk to them. There are a handful of people I will trust with your safety and I’m bringing them all here. Your house is big enough to accommodate them. If you’ve got a problem with it, we can open up the house on Grant. It was designed to be easier to defend, but this is where you’re most comfortable. If we put guards in the woods and make sure you never run alone, we should be able to work it out.”

“Were the others in the house on Grant?”

He blinked at me and nodded. “Yeah. It’s one of those big status mansions that sit off the river. Why?”

“Because it didn’t do them any good, did it?”

He saw my point with a reluctant half smile.

“I’ll agree to take the necessary steps to make sure no one gets me, but there have to be limits. I’m a very private person. I bought this place because I love my solitude. I love running in the fields and swimming in the surf. I can’t have everyone under my feet all the time.”

I watched him weigh the options before he sighed.

“You’ll never know we’re here. Think of it this way, it’s free labor on getting the kinks out of this place. You need someone who can put a bit of the sparkle back into it.”

“Someone you recommend?”

My relief was obvious. I should be scared, but I wasn’t. Cole and company would keep me safe. I had a feeling he didn’t understand the meaning of the word failure.

“I know an architect who would love a chance to get his hands on this place from a restorative angle.”

“Really? Who?”

He grinned at me and this time it bled all the way up to his eyes.

“Me.”

“You’re an architect?”

“You sound so surprised. Did you think I ran around escorting ladies for my living?”

I flushed with the realization that I honestly hadn’t thought about what he might be in his day job. Live and learn. I made the resolution not to make any more snap judgments and turned to walk into the house.

“Do what needs to be doing, Cole. I’m going to get that lunch and take a nap.”

“We need to start going over things, Sasha. Can the nap wait?”

Glancing over my shoulder, I frowned at him. “You dragged me out of work for lunch and an afternoon. A nap won’t crimp your style while you get everyone squared away on the way things are going to run around here, now will it?”

His sigh was loud as he followed me into the house. I found a deli tray in the kitchen with sandwiches and a fresh gallon of iced tea. Shaking my head, I looked around at the changes already being done. I walked out onto the back porch with a glass of tea in one hand and a sandwich in the other.

“What are they doing?”

I waved my hand to a small cluster of men who were hanging something in one of the downstairs windows.

“Those are your camera receivers. It’s all wireless. We’re turning that room into our security command center. It was empty, so it was the most likely candidate. I’ve got the guards bunking two to a room upstairs and Tori claimed your guest room. She likes the way you decorate, by the way.”

“Does Tori ever intend to tell me what she likes or is that your job, too?”

It came out catty and snide and actually sounded jealous. Me? Jealous? Nah. But I was. The worst part of it was that he knew it. I could tell from his expression. He let the silence linger for a moment before answering with far too much satisfaction in his tone.

“Tori and I are friends. That’s as far as it goes. We’ve never been interested in each other that way. There will be women who you may need to feel…proprietary…around, but she’s not one of them.”

Proprietary, indeed. Let the man think what he wanted. Just because he fell into the demigod category as far as looks didn’t mean that every woman he met wanted to drag him off by his hair. I didn’t. Really.

Taking a long swallow of my tea, I watched the object of our conversation coming up to the house with Warren. She laughed at something he said and I decided discretion was the better part of valor on this one. Tossing my hair over my shoulder, I headed back into the house. Cole’s whisper was just for me.

“Coward.”

“Don’t you know it?”

Cole’s laughter chased me into the house and I escaped to my last refuge to think about the situation. I hadn’t planned on taking a nap, but as I lay on my bed letting the ceiling fan stir the gentle scent of magnolias in the air, sleep found me, anyway. Of course, I didn’t get to sleep long thanks to the myriad of people trooping around my house. Being used to quiet, every noise jolted me awake until I finally gave up and wandered downstairs. Cole and Tori were working in my library where Tori was setting up shop to run the household. While I was glad not to be responsible for it, it bothered me that I was losing my sanctuary. Maybe opening that big house wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.

And so started my education into political science, Tiger style.