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I turned around to face Seth, giving my father a nice, polite view of my back, so I could flip Seth and Baker the bird. “I’m not working, Seth. I’m vacationing. It’s very different, as I’m sure you understand but for some evil, unknown reason, you’ve suddenly became infatuated with being a total prick.” I placed my hand on my hip and gave him my best glare. “Why is that, Seth? Baker not keeping you busy enough at home?”
“Hey, now,” Baker piped in. “No need to add me to your dartboard of insults. I’m just sitting here, minding my own business, thinking that Seth is totally hot when he’s in prick-mode.”
I threw up my hands in frustration. It was like they’d suddenly morphed into Dumb and Dumber. They’d gone from my only friends in the world to life-long enemies at record speed. Ever since the night at the club, when we’d been celebrating Baker’s collaring, my life had flown so far off track that I was quickly beginning to suspect it would never be right again.
Our entire satellite office was under lockdown and focused solely on finding the son of a bitch behind the attempted abduction. Which, in turn, led to them thinking I needed twenty-four/seven protection.
I didn’t.
I wouldn’t.
I couldn’t.
Especially since they’d all somehow stumbled their dumb asses onto the idea that Eli would be the best agent for babysitting duty. Absolutely not. Out of the question. If my very life depended on it, I couldn’t have come up with a worse scenario.
Yes, he’d been incredible by saving my ass in the alley and then by insisting on accompanying me to the hospital. The germ sanitizer had been beyond thoughtful. The way he held my hand the entire time and barked orders at everybody else around us, demanding that they do this or do that to ensure my comfort—those were considerate gestures, as well. Not one time during our very few and far between encounters had he been anything other than attentive, flirty, or just flat-out loving. I wasn’t a fool though. I knew there had to be ulterior motives for his niceness. There had to be. I’d done him dirty, really dirty. A man like that didn’t just waltz back into your life, all sins of omission and commission forgiven and forgotten. No, Eli had returned for revenge.
There was no other option.
I glanced around at the poor, naïve imbeciles who loved me. They’d fallen for his charm and thought he had my best interests as his priority. Fools. Sweet men, and I loved them, but they were nothing more than fools.
“If you intend to go on this cruise, Arizona, Eli will be with you as your bodyguard,” my dad said in his very firm, very dad voice. “If you can’t agree to those terms, then you’ll stay home…and Eli will be your bodyguard. Those are your two options. I’m not going to take any chances with your safety, son. It would kill me if something happened to you because of me.” His eyes bore into mine. “You know this, Ari. It would destroy me if I lost you...too.”
Annnnddd, he’d done it—pulled the card. He was using the mother argument against me. When he pulled that bad boy out of the deck, he meant business. Shit. Motherfuck. I had no idea why my mother, his wife, had walked out on us. She’d given birth to me and then simply disappeared. When I was younger, the knowledge that my mother hadn’t wanted me had left me hurt and broken. As I grew older, I stopped caring about the whys or who was to blame. I definitely stopped caring about her. The bottom line of the matter was, and it had taken me years and three different therapists to get to this point, that it wasn’t my fault or my dad’s fault. I understood that. He didn’t. After all these years, he still blamed himself for her sudden disappearance. He either blamed himself or the job.
Seeing my dad like this was my Kryptonite. I was defenseless against him. I felt my last hope of avoiding Eli slipping between my fingers like priceless bits of gold dust.
“Nothing will happen to me on the cruise, Dad,” I whined. Yes, I knew grown men weren’t supposed to whine, but it was my card. “I’m gonna be with friends—lots of friends.” That was a lie, but there was no need to admit to it. Hell, what was I? A professional liar? It had started with Eli, and it looked like I’d never stopped.
“I’m certain I won’t have any problems fitting in with your friends,” an incredibly sexy, incredibly husky, and incredibly too close voice said.
I whirled around to face him, at the same time wondering how in the hell he’d gotten inside my apartment. There was a code! A security code. No, no, no!
