Colette spent most of the rest of the day avoiding Tavis entirely. She stayed in her room, only coming out to get food and returning where she worked on her laptop on her bed.
She didn’t need to report to any classes for another few days. She intended to use that time to acclimate herself to the time zone, learn more about Kampala and Uganda, and explore the city a bit.
That last plan was going to be challenging since she didn’t relish the idea of wandering around with a freaking bodyguard, but she’d done it for most of her life, so she would endure it now too.
At least he wasn’t hard on the eyes. The guy was ripped. Extremely good looking. Nothing like the guys she was usually attracted to. Well, maybe that wasn’t true. She often did a double take when she saw buff men like Tavis. She didn’t date them because her father would be horrified.
Hell, maybe she should start dating people like Tavis just to infuriate her father. Or, perhaps the only reason why she found him attractive was because she knew it would infuriate her father. Hard to say.
Colette preferred to dedicate most of her time to her studies. She’d done that for years. Started in early high school. More than a decade ago. About the time her parents began to foist eligible men on her.
They’d gone round and round when she was about sixteen. Them wanting to choose who she dated, her wanting to pick her own boyfriends. In the end, she’d decided it wasn’t worth the hassle and told her parents she wasn’t interested in dating at all. She cared more about her studies.
Even though her love of science started as a means to avoid her parents, she’d developed a strong interest in infectious diseases. None of that was untrue. She would dedicate her life to helping save lives.
As for dating, she’d relented on many occasions to appease her parents, attending functions with whomever they thought was appropriate. Nine times out of ten, she found the men to be incredibly boring, narcissistic, or arrogant. She could smell it on them in the first few minutes, and then would make it clear this was a one-time deal. Keep their hands to themselves.
Oddly, few men were offended by her sharp tongue or the fact that she held them at arm’s length. They saw her as a challenge. What they probably saw more than anything were dollar signs and connections.
It was amazing what men would put up with because they thought it would help their own career ambitions. Somehow, they would ignore her overt attempts to shut down their advances and pursue her anyway.
So, yeah, it was men like Tavis who caught her eye. Was it in defiance or because she actually found them attractive?
She chuckled quietly as she recalled finding him on the couch sound asleep, his computer open to an article on epidemiology. It was sweet in a way. She doubted any previous bodyguard had taken a single moment to pronounce or spell her chosen profession, let alone google it.
She’d even hesitated for a moment, feeling bad about skipping out on him, knowing he would be furious when he awoke to find her gone. It was kind of cruel. After all, he was only doing his job and she tended to spend most of her time ensuring that her protection was miserable while keeping tabs on her.
She had a pattern. She always slipped past every new bodyguard and took off within the first twenty-four hours. It was her way of letting them know she hated having protection following her around and had no intention of making it easy on them.
Tavis had said something that caught her attention though. Something about her being the first person he’d been assigned as a bodyguard. That was odd. What did he mean? Wasn’t guarding people his entire profession?
She hadn’t asked yet, but she would because now she was curious. Didn’t he work for some sort of protection agency?
The scent of food caused her to unfold herself from where she sat cross-legged on the bed, set her laptop aside, and head downstairs.
“Hey.” Tavis smiled at her when she approached tentatively. Why was he smiling? Wasn’t he furious with her? She would be if she were him. “Hungry?” he asked.
“Starving. That smells good. What are you making?”
“Spaghetti. The sauce is my mom’s recipe. I loved it growing up, so I make it pretty often. A huge batch. We can keep it in the freezer in smaller containers and then just boil pasta when we want some.” He glanced at her again. “Do you like red sauce?”
“Adore it. Thank you.” She leaned a hip against the counter. “So you cook in addition to your bodyguard services? My father has never hired me a man who could cook too.”
Tavis chuckled, which made her heart rate pick up. He was a nice guy. Dammit. She should be kind in return. It’s not his fault your father is overprotective, she reminded herself.
“It wasn’t a job requirement as far as I know, but we’ve got to eat, and I didn’t have anything else to do at the moment, so I cooked.” He reached overhead and pulled down two plates, handing them to her. “It’s almost ready.”
She headed toward the table. Damn. The man had made a salad and bread too. The scent in the air was garlic. Enticing. Her stomach grumbled. She’d eaten very little today, snacks mostly.
“I picked up a few bottles of wine and some beer when I was shopping. I wasn’t sure what you might like or even if you were usually a drinker.”
She winced as he set the steaming pot of sauce on the table. “Normally, yes. I like a glass of wine with dinner. But I don’t think I’ve fully recovered from my night of defiance yet,” she informed him.
He chuckled again. “Is that what it was? A night of defiance?”
“Yes. I was pissed. I went out. I did some things. Not super proud of it.”
“Did you feel better afterward?” he asked as he sat across from her.
“Not a bit. I felt hung over. Dehydrated. Headache you would not believe. It was stupid.” It was beyond stupid. He didn’t even know the half of it.
“Okay. So we save the wine for another time.” He pointed at the food. “Go ahead. Dig in. I had no idea if there was anything you don’t eat. Allergies? Food you hate? Please tell me you aren’t vegan or something.”
“Nope. I eat most things. No allergies. Definitely meat.” She reached across and set her hand on his, shocking even herself. “And thank you. I mean it.”
He shrugged. “I had to eat too.”
“Not just for the food but for not lecturing me again. I know I can be a pain in the ass. I’m sorry for being a bratty bitch. Can we start over?”
“Of course.” He gave her an odd smile. Or maybe it was a smirk. “But I’m still keeping the handcuffs nearby just in case you’re lying to me right now.”
She laughed. “I promise not to sneak out in the night.”
“What about the day?” He lifted a brow.
She shook her head. “Not then either. Swear.”
“Good. I know you hate having protection. You’ve made that clear. But you’re stuck with me, so maybe we can declare a truce of some sort.”
“One where you stay here all day and let me go to school without a shadow?” She grinned to make sure it was obvious she knew that wasn’t going to happen.
“Hardly. Nice try. But I can attempt to stay out of your way and not hover so you can do your thing. If you give me the lay of the land for the places you’ll be, I’ll figure out where I can wait unobtrusively for you while still making sure you’re safe.”
“You do realize no one gives a single fuck about me, right? It’s all in my dad’s head.”
He shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. Doesn’t matter. I was hired to protect you, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
She took a bite of spaghetti and moaned around the flavor. “My God, that’s good.”
“Glad you like it.”
“I could get used to this.”
He laughed. “Me cooking? Hate to ruin my image, but my repertoire isn’t very huge.”
“Darn.” She took another bite, wiped her lips, and met his gaze again. “I’m curious. You mentioned earlier that you don’t usually do this sort of job. How did you end up as my protection detail if you aren’t normally a bodyguard?”
“I work for the Holt Agency. Normally we’re hired to find missing people, rescue people, things like that. Not protect people who haven’t been kidnapped yet.” He leaned forward. “And I was hoping you could tell me why I was hired? There must be two dozen agencies that provide protection. Why did your father call mine?”
She winced. Yeah, she’d stepped right into this mess. “Uh, probably because no one will take my father’s calls anymore.”
He chuckled. “Figured that was the case. You’ve burned through a lot of bodyguards, huh?”
She sighed. “Yes. Can’t lie. No offense. I don’t like being followed. I don’t like how people look at me differently when I have some bulky bouncer following me around. I don’t like to stand out. I just want to be a regular person.”
“I get that.”
“It’s hard to know if anyone legitimately likes me. I don’t mean to sound like I’m in middle school, but you have no idea how many grown women will befriend me just to flirt with my sexy bodyguard.”
“So, I’m sexy?”
She rolled her eyes but couldn’t keep from chuckling. “Don’t let it go to your head.” She pointed her fork at his biceps where a tattoo was visible. “Were you in the Navy?”
“Yes. SEALs actually.” He lifted a brow.
She whistled. “Ohhh. So you’re not some dumb bouncer guy.”
“Nope. But I can pretend to be if you’d like.”
She laughed. Out loud. “God, no. Please don’t. The change will be refreshing.”
He set his elbows on the table. “I get why you’d like people to just see you as yourself, so why don’t we go over to the university tomorrow. You can show me around. If I know what your schedule is going to look like, I can figure something out that keeps me sort of hidden at first.”
She swallowed. “You’d do that?”
“Of course.”
She stared at him, taking deep breaths. His expression was intense. Serious. He wasn’t an asshole. He was a good guy who’d been saddled with her. He didn’t want this either.
She shifted her weight when she realized her heart was beating faster. She squeezed her thighs together under the table. Lordy, she was aroused. She didn’t even know how to process that detail. It was foreign to her. Not many men had ever elicited such a reaction from her, and certainly none of her assigned security detail.
She licked her lips. “Thank you,” she murmured.
“Any time.” He pointed at her dinner. “Eat before it gets cold. Then you can show me your schedule. Tomorrow we can do a walk-through.”
They ate in silence until they were finished and then she asked him more questions as they cleaned the kitchen. “How long were you in the Navy?”
“Seventeen years.”
“Why did you get out?”
“Long story. For another time. But I’ve been with the Holt Agency about a year. Started it up with the rest of my team after we were medically discharged.”
“Oh. So this is new to you.”
“Yes. I mean, I’ve been on several missions so far. My last was here in Uganda. I was at the airport about to leave the country when my boss called and dumped you in my lap.” He gave her a goofy grin.
She bumped his hip with hers, though it ended up being more like his thigh since he was so much taller than her. “I deserve that.”
“You do,” he agreed. “Am I going to need the handcuffs?”
She gave him a coy look and shrugged before she could stop herself. “We’ll see.”
His brows shot up high on his forehead.
Her face heated to a hundred degrees. “Please tell me I did not just say that out loud.”
When he laughed this time, something shifted inside her. She really liked that sound. And his playfulness. And how understanding he was being. But she shouldn’t be hitting on him.
He didn’t mention it again, and when they were finished, she retrieved her laptop and sat down at the table with him to go over her schedule.
“How did you become interested in epidemiology?” he asked as she shut the laptop.
She sighed. “It’s kinda lame.”
“Okay. I can listen to lame stories. Will I need coffee to stay awake?”
She laughed. How did he keep making her laugh? “Probably. Or maybe just throw a pity party for me when I’m done.”
“I didn’t get any balloons at the store, but I could probably make party hats out of paper if you want.”
She laughed again and pushed from the table. “Let’s move to the couch.”
He followed her and settled on one end while she sat on the other. She angled herself sideways, leaned her back against the arm of the couch, and drew her legs up under her. “So, my parents are fixated on setting me up with men, a long string of whoever they think is appropriate.”
“For such a debutante as yourself of course,” he teased.
“Exactly.” She rolled her eyes. “I was born into the wrong family. There was a mix-up of some sort with the stork.”
His entire chest shook when he chuckled this time.
“I’ve never fit the mold. I hate being in the spotlight. I hate politics. I hate rich people. I hate money to be honest. All it does is cause problems.”
“So, not only do you not want your new coworkers at the university to know you have a bodyguard, but you don’t want them to think you’re rich either.”
“Right.” She nodded. “They’ll find out if they haven’t already, but I like to buy time. It helps me know who likes me for myself first.”
“Makes sense. Go on. Get back to the epidemiology choice.”
She drew in a breath, staring at him for a few moments. He was sincere. He wanted to know. He hadn’t looked away or picked up his phone to check messages. He hadn’t turned on the television. He wanted to hear what she had to say. Had anyone ever been this legitimately respectful to her?
“Anyway, by the time I was in high school, my mother in particular started trying to fix me up with her friends’ sons. It was embarrassing and humiliating. And I can’t tell you how stuffy those rich white boys are.” She cringed. “Sorry. That sounds crass.”
He shrugged. “It’s okay. I’m not offended.”
“I didn’t want to date any of them. Or anyone else really. So, I buried myself in my schoolwork to keep my parents from bothering me. I realized I loved science and it snowballed from there. At some point in college, I narrowed my emphasis to epidemiology and later refined that to specifically malaria and AIDS.”
“Damn. You must be incredibly smart. I mean I know you are. I read some of your published articles. I’m impressed.”
She cringed. “You read that stuff?”
“Most of it. It was a bit over my head. I’m just a dumb bouncer, ya know,” he teased.
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have stereotyped you. You’re not dumb. Nor are you apparently a bouncer. Though you could be with those biceps. How many hours a day do you work out?”
“Depends.” There was a twinkle in his eyes that made her smile, wondering what he would say next. “If I can trust you not to run, I’ll jog in the mornings and then do some weight training.”
“I guess you could always cuff me to the bed before you leave.” Her face flushed again. Where was she getting these flirty comeback lines?
“If that’s what you want, I’ll be happy to.” He winked. “Watch what you dish out, princess.”
She rolled her head back and groaned. “Could we stop with the princess? Pick another nickname for me. Anything else.”
“I’ll have to think about that,” he mused.