The Bodyguard And The Bridesmaid

I’m not going to let anything happen to her and I’m not going to screw up.”

“Maybe not intentionally, but—”

“Hey, come on, Mike,” Sean cut in as he retrieved a candy bar from his pocket and began unwrapping it. “Clea’s got better taste. Why would she fall for this guy when she can have me?”

Ryan swiped the candy from Sean’s fingers, grateful for something to wrap his fist around. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that if I were you, big brother.”

“She turned down your proposal, remember?” Sean teased.

“Haven’t you heard, women often change their minds. She’ll change hers.”

“Right,” Sean quipped, giving him a disgusted look and reclaiming his half-eaten chocolate bar. “I got a hundred bucks that says the lady turns you down flat—again.”

“You’re on,” Ryan told him. “Let’s see your green.”

Sean reached into his wallet and pulled out two fifties. He slapped them on the desk. “What about you, Mike? You want a piece of this?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” He threw a crisp hundred-dollar bill onto the desk. “I’m with Sean. I say Clea tosses you out on your can.”

Ryan dropped his own C-note onto the stack. “Six months from now when I slip a wedding ring on Clea’s finger, I’ll be back to collect that.”

A chill chased its way down Clea’s spine. She spun around, unable to shake the feeling that she was being watched. Clenching and unclenching the strap of her evening bag, she glanced at the faces of the people around her. Normal faces. Just people in a crowd. And not one of them seemed to be the least bit interested in her.

It’s just nerves, Clea told herself. No doubt brought on by working too many hours and not getting enough sleep. In fact, she should be at home now, making it an early night—not standing on a Chicago street comer in a crush of people waiting for the theater doors to open. She should never have agreed to accompany the Donatellis on this dinner-and-theater outing. Especially not after receiving that last phone call.

Clea shuddered, recalling that eerie whispered voice at the other end of the phone line a short while ago.

“You looked so beautiful today. I liked that red dress you were wearing. I wish I could see you right now. I need to see you. I want to be with you tonight. I want to—”

Stop it, Clea ordered herself, fighting against the panic bubbling inside her as she remembered the letters, the sound of that menacing voice telling her all the despicable things he wanted to do to her. No one was watching her. She was just edgy, she told herself, drawing in a calming breath and releasing it. Nerves. That’s all it was. She had been running on overload for too long. Who wouldn’t be a little tense under the same circumstances?

Of course, spying Ryan Fitzpatrick in the restaurant tonight hadn’t helped. She frowned as she considered the unlikely meeting. The third time in as many weeks that the man had turned up in the same place where she was. Ever since that day at the wedding....

The wedding. Clea squeezed her eyes shut, mortified every time she thought of his behavior at the reception and, even worse, her own shameful response to him. For a brief moment when he kissed her, sanity had deserted her. She had been unable to resist the warmth of his arms around her, the feel of his mouth moving seductively, expertly over hers. Color climbed her cheeks as she recalled how she had melted into the kiss.

It didn’t matter that her loss of control had been only momentary or that no one else seemed to have noticed. Ryan had noticed. She’d seen it in the deep blue of his eyes when she’d jerked free of his embrace. And it had still been there in the satisfied curve of his lips when she’d stomped off.

How could she have been so foolish? She knew Ryan Fitzpatrick’s type—the easy charmers who turned a girl’s head with sweet talk and empty promises. She knew the type, and she had no desire to become involved with him or anyone like him. She had learned the hard way just how expensive and painful a relationship with a man like him could be. She still bore the scars to prove it. And she didn’t care if he did kiss like a champ and made her heart stutter with just a look. She had no intention of becoming involved with him.

Suddenly she stiffened, feeling that uneasy prickle at the base of her neck again. She hugged her arms about herself and slowly turned around. She scanned the faces in the crowd again, not even sure who or what she expected to find. Her gaze skipped over face after face—some young, some old. Just people. Strangers waiting, as she was, to see the play. No one face, no one person stood out as anything but normal.

Frustrated, Clea shifted her gaze across the street. She narrowed her eyes at the sight of a dark-haired man leaning against a building. He seemed familiar, she thought. Then he turned his head and looked right at her. For a split second, their eyes met.

Ryan? Someone walked in front of him, blocking her view. And when the man had passed, he was gone. So what if it is Ryan? The man’s a security detective for pity’s sake. He’s probably working on a case.

“Oh, look. I think they’re about to open the doors,” the woman next to her said.

Dismissing Ryan from her thoughts, Clea cut a glance to the glass doors of the theater entrance where a uniformed employee stood fitting a key into the lock.

“About time,” someone grumbled.

The crowd stirred as the doors opened. Clea braced herself against the gentle nudge of bodies and murmured apologies as they made their way slowly toward the theater doorway. Wishing again that she had declined the Donatellis’ invitation, she realized that she hadn’t even seen Maggie or James since they had all left the restaurant. They must be at the front of the line waiting for her and their other guests, she decided. An errant strand escaped her upswept hairstyle, and Clea tucked it into place as she inched forward with the others.

A warm breath tickled the back of her neck, sending a chill down Clea’s spine. Heart pounding, she started to turn around when the crowd shot forward again.

“I’ve been wanting to touch you all evening.”

Fear tightened her throat, paralyzing her for long seconds, at the sound of that voice. She tried to whip around, but found herself trapped, unable to move amid the crush of bodies pushing her toward the theater entrance. Panic raced through her. “Please. I need to get through,” Clea choked out the words and shoved at the man in front of her, struggling to break free.

“You’ll have to wait your turn like the rest of us, sister,” somebody snapped.

“You don’t understand, I have to—”

“You can’t escape. I’ll never let you go.”

The blood in her veins turned to ice as he began telling her what he wanted in that throaty whisper. She started to shove again, but a hand reached from behind her and fingers closed tightly around her breast.

Clea screamed, a bloodcurdling cry of outrage and fear that echoed in her ears. She whipped around, her elbows striking against chests, shoulders and arms. Heedless of the grunts and protests her frantic movements incited, she stared into a sea of strange faces. “Who are you?” she demanded, hating the note of hysteria climbing in her voice. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Who are you yelling at?” an elderly gentleman asked.

She registered the cap of snow-white hair gleaming in the evening light. “Someone...someone just said something to me.” She couldn’t bring herself to admit that the monster had also touched her.

“Harry, did you say something to the young lady?” the woman beside him asked.

“Not me.” He eyed her as though he thought she were ill.

“Then it must have been someone else,” Clea insisted as people began to step around them. “You must have seen him. A man. He was standing right behind me.”

The couple looked at one another and shook their heads. “Sorry. Didn’t notice anyone in particular. Hard to with this kind of crowd.” Draping his arm protectively around the shoulder of the woman beside him, he said, “Come on, Josie. We want to see the play.”

“But wait—”

“Clea.” Ryan shouldered his way to her side. “What is it? What happened?”

Relief flooded through her at the sight of him. “There was a man. He—”

“It’s all right,” he said, pulling her into his arms. He stroked her back, made soothing sounds, then slowly steered her away from the dwindling crowd.

“Clea! Ryan!”

Margaret Donatelli rushed over to them. “What’s going on?”

Clea stepped out of Ryan’s arms and went to her friend. “He was here, Maggie. At the theater.”

“Who?” Margaret asked.

“The...the man who’s been sending me the letters and calling me.”