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"You are my girlfriend. That makes you vulnerable to kidnapping for ransom."
"That only happens in movies," she quipped, knowing it wasn't true. "Besides you aren't going to pay a million dollars to get me back."
"I would pay whatever was necessary, but it is a moot point as you will not be taken."
"What are you going to do, send Klaus with me to work?" she asked facetiously, not as convinced as he was that simply by dating him she became a potential target for kidnappers. "Your mother would be way more at risk than me."
"She has her own security team."
"I'm glad." Rowan liked Iona Baros and didn't want her hurt in some misguided attempt to extort money out of her son.
"It is good to hear you say that. I thought you might balk at having one assigned to you."
"What? That's not necessary."
"For as long as you remain living here, it is."
"But you never said anything about that last night."
He shrugged, like it should have been obvious.
"Are you telling me that you assign security to all your lovers?"
"No."
"What makes me special?" she demanded.
He turned and headed toward the stairs. "What's in this box? Does it go in the bedroom?"
"Probably." It had come out of her bedroom, but she'd stored things wherever they fit in her small apartment. "Now, answer my question. What makes me special?"
They reached his bedroom suite and he placed the box on the table by the settee in the sitting area. "Staff will unpack your cases. Would you like to go for a swim?"
"Yes." Rowan loved the water and had really missed access to a pool since moving into her apartment with no amenities. "But my bathing suit is in one of the cases."
She tried to remember which one she'd packed her swimsuits in. Rowan had pared down to two suits, when she used to have seven. The rest of her clothes had gone through a similar winnowing. There simply wasn't room in her apartment to store a wardrobe meant for a socialite, only a social worker.
"There are a couple for you to choose from in the drawer already."
"You got me swimsuits?" she asked. "You know I thought you were only buying an outfit for me so I could be comfortable and would spend the night."
"I do not buy clothes to get women into bed with me." He headed into the bedroom and then to the walk-in closet that had conspicuously empty racks.
For her clothes. He was quite literally making space for her in his life.
Touched, Rowan started pulling open drawers, only to find most of them already had an item or two of clothing, all clearly meant for her. Even socks and underwear.
She pulled a pair of lace panties out and dangled them on her finger. "There's almost nothing to these." They were just a triangle of lace and three strings. "I can't believe you had a shopper buy these for me."
"I ordered them."
At her askance look, he shrugged. "I had time between meetings and did not want to get immersed in a report."
"So, you went online and bought me underwear."
Color burnished his cheekbones, but he nodded resolutely.
"You're kind of amazing, you know that?" She hugged him tightly. "Thank you."
