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“To the marriage part. All marriage to some sap would accomplish is getting Liz back in your father’s control and in danger of never escaping again.”
“Not with you by her side,” Quaid countered.
Hays shouldn’t have eaten breakfast. He’d have to be by Liz’s side while she married a wealthy cheeseball? He wouldn’t do it. He couldn’t do it. Nobody could ask that of him. It had been horrific enough to keep his distance for fourteen years. Now to be her bodyguard while she married a wussy billionaire? No.
Studying her, he knew … he’d do anything to protect her.
“I’ve got to go,” Quaid said. “Thank you for the information and insight. You two can relax while we brainstorm and get things in place. I’m sorry I can’t give you all the details. Aiden will fill you in when we’re ready to make a move.”
Hays didn’t like that. As a lieutenant and his best friend Jagger their captain, he was in on the planning and details.
“You’re safe there,” Quaid continued before either of them could protest. “The Colevilles are the best people I know, and they take their security very, very seriously. Talk soon.”
The phone disconnected. Elizabeth glanced down. Hays waited, hoping she’d meet his gaze, talk this out with him, promise him she loved him and after all this was over they could be together.
Nothing. She didn’t move.
He should’ve been patient, but instead he tilted her chin up with his fingers, purpose and desire swirling inside of him. “Liz. You do not need to marry some sap.”
“Hays.” She stared deeply into his eyes as if willing him to listen to her, to believe her. “I will do whatever I need to do to take down my father. A fake engagement or even a marriage is a small price to pay.”
His gut churned. Marriage to anyone but him should be out of the question. Yet he could only imagine the lengths she’d go to defeat her father and protect her siblings.
There was a rap on the door.
“Come in,” Hays said.
Easton Walker opened the security door, poked his head in, and grinned. “Hey, you two. I get to show you around the property. Horses or the side-by-side?”
“Can we walk?” Elizabeth asked. “I’ve been dormant too long.”
“Sure. It’ll just take longer.”
“Apparently we have time,” Elizabeth said, not looking at Hays.
Time to waste, but not time to be together.
“Great.”
Easton’s slow cowboy grin directed at Elizabeth didn’t help Hays’s upset stomach or the tightness of his neck. Especially when she returned the charming cowboy’s smile. Hays had rarely felt the stirrings of jealousy, but he felt it now in spades. He didn’t like it.
They exited the house from the front door and walked through a massive barns, stalls filled with bulls and horses. There was a well-stocked home gym and sparring ring at the back of the barn. They exited the barn out the back and walked past corrals used for ‘training.’
“Don’t go anywhere near the bulls,” Easton cautioned. “They’re some of the best bucking bulls in the West, bred and raised to be meaner than snake venom. I should know. I’m the only cowboy who can conquer them.” He winked cockily.
Hays put one hand on his Sig and one hand on Elizabeth’s lower back. “We’ll keep our distance,” he said.
Elizabeth glanced up at him and he thought she might ask him to keep his distance. Instead, she edged a few centimeters closer. Hays’s hand slid to her hip, and he nestled her close to his side.
Any worries and jealousy floated away. Elizabeth close to his side was heaven.
They walked past cabins nestled in the trees. Easton steered clear of a section of cabins, explaining that two of their men’s wives were home with little ones. They were trustworthy but no reason to let anyone superfluous see Elizabeth. Hays cuddled her closer, and she turned her face toward him. It may have been to simply shield her face from a mom looking out her window, but it may have been that she liked being close to him.
Easton pointed out his cabin, a nice two-story rustic-looking home with a front porch complete with rocking chairs.
“Are you married, Easton?” Elizabeth asked.
“Oh, no, ma’am.” Easton winked. “Unless you’re offering.”
