been made aware that there may be a stumbling block of sorts. Under normal circumstances,” Victoria went on, “I never make assignments when there are personal connections. Emotions can often get in the way.”
Eva shook her head. “I’m sorry. This is my first time here and I’m fairly confident I don’t know anyone at your agency.”
“Todd Christian.”
Eva’s head turned so quickly toward the woman seated next to her that her neck almost snapped. “Todd Christian?”
Impossible. Even as the word filtered through her, Eva comprehended it was not. Todd had gone straight from college into the military. She’d heard at some point later that he was in some sort of special something but she couldn’t remember what. She had spent the past nine years blocking every single thing about him from her brain. Todd Christian no longer existed as far as Eva was concerned. She had worked extremely hard to make that happen.
Jamie nodded. “He is the perfect choice.”
Eva shook her head. “No. Absolutely not.” She could not—would not—spend one minute much less 24/7 with him. No damned way.
Another of those looks passed between Victoria and her granddaughter.
“Todd thought you might feel that way,” Victoria offered. “Eva, let me just say that I’ve been doing this for a very long time.”
“A seriously long time,” Jamie echoed.
“I do not make a suggestion such as this lightly,” Victoria continued. “I ask that you put your personal feelings aside for a moment before you request an alternate choice. Toward that end, Todd has asked if he might speak with you privately before you make your final decision.”
“He’s here?” Stupid question. He worked here. Of course he would be somewhere on the floor. Eva felt the heat rise in her face and then, just as suddenly, the color drain away, leaving her as weak as a kitten. How could she face him? He was the last person on Earth she wanted to hear about her personal issues.
“With your permission, Jamie and I will wait in my private lobby while the two of you talk for a moment.”
“There must be someone else.” Eva shook her head again. This would never do. “You mentioned an alternate choice.”
Victoria set her hands palms down on her desk and stood. “I pride myself in hiring only the best, Eva. Of course, there are others, but no one who would fit as seamlessly into your world. To make sure you are protected in such a way that the enemy will not simply lay low until that protection ceases, we must ensure they are taken by surprise. The last thing we want is for Robles to step back and wait out your resources. This is the only way to guarantee the outcome you desire in the quickest manner.”
As crazy as it sounded, Eva had to admit that she could see her point. But could she do this? Could she allow him back into her life? Uncertainty and a new kind of fear coiled inside her like a snake ready to strike.
“I’ll speak to him.” Eva took a big breath. “I can at least do that.”
Victoria nodded. “Excellent.”
Jamie patted Eva on the hand and stood. “We’ll give you a few moments, but we’ll be right outside.”
Eva tried to smile but her lips wouldn’t make the transition.
When the door closed behind the two women, Eva stood and smoothed a wrinkle out of her sweater hem. Slow, deep breaths.
The door opened and she turned to face the man who had shattered her heart when she was barely old enough to understand what love was. He’d been a senior, she a freshman. She’d never lived anywhere but at home with her parents and sister until she moved into that college dormitory. Lena had gone to Europe for a year of studies abroad. And Eva had fallen madly, deeply in love with the man who taught her what a real orgasm felt like.
She might have been able to say the thirty-two-year-old man who walked into the room and closed the door behind him hadn’t changed one bit except that would be utterly and completely wrong. He seemed taller somehow, his shoulders even broader. Her gaze moved down his torso, over the ridges hidden behind the crisp blue oxford she knew all too well. The long sleeves ended at his wrists where the wide hands and blunt-tipped fingers that had touched her as if she was all that mattered in this world to him didn’t look as smooth as they once had. Long legs were camouflaged by navy trousers tailored to mold perfectly to the powerful muscles beneath. She blinked and shifted her gaze to the handsome face she’d dreamed of every night for years even after he left her. His face looked the slightest bit leaner, more angular, and there was a small scar on his right cheek. His lips...his pale, pale blue eyes—She shifted her gaze from his face. His brown hair was still more blond than brown and in need of a trim. So many little things had changed and yet her body reacted to his mere presence as if absolutely nothing were different. Fire licked a path along every nerve ending.
His lips—the ones that had instructed her in the true art of kissing—slid into a smile. “Eva... It’s good to see you.”
The hesitation after he said her name told her he was savoring it. Something else she’d yearned for night and day. The sound of his voice, the pull of every syllable he uttered. Chill bumps rose on her skin. The smile...the sound of his voice, his presence in the room even after all these years had the ability to make her nervous. Made her ache for things she couldn’t name.
Eva commanded the butterflies that had come to life in her stomach to go away. She stared directly into those gorgeous eyes of his. “Is it true, what they say? That you can protect me better than anyone else employed at the Colby Agency?”
“You have my word.”
Those four little words—damn him—sent another shiver racing over her too-hot skin. “I’ll need more than your word, Christian.” She refused to call him Todd. She could not. “You see, I learned long ago that your word is of little value.”
“I hurt you, Eva,” he confessed. “You haven’t forgiven me and maybe I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but if you’ll trust me now I swear on my life that I will take care of this for you. Let me do that. Please.”
The idea that she could spend the next few days making him damned miserable held some appeal. “Fine. I trust your boss. She says you’re the man for the job. We’ll see about that.”
“Good.”
She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. “Make sure you remember that once we walk out of this building I am the boss.”
He nodded his agreement, and just like that she jumped right out of the frying pan and into the fire.
West Grace Street Apartments 5:50 p.m.
Eva didn’t want him close. She’d insisted on driving separately to her building. He hadn’t liked it but she’d given him no choice. He’d stayed right on her bumper on the drive from the agency to her address. Rather than warn him about the parking situation, she’d driven into the covered area for tenants and he’d had to fend for himself on the street. When he’d finally found a spot, he’d had to hurry to catch up to her before she reached the building.
Like it or not, that would not happen again. Next time they would be in the same vehicle together.
At the front entrance she entered the code for the door and walked in, letting go of the door as she did. The damned thing almost closed before Todd caught it. She didn’t look back, obviously unconcerned as to whether he made it inside.
He hadn’t really expected her to forgive him—not even after nearly ten years. Not ever, most likely. Under the circumstances he was hoping for some sort of cordiality or at least a temporary truce.
Inside,