Raj stood and put a hand on her shoulder, squeezed. “You don’t want to talk about it. I can respect that—for now. But there may come a time when you have no choice.”
She turned to him then. A sharp stab of emotion pierced him at gut level. Her face was so fresh and young, so innocent. She’d removed all her makeup and stood before him with red-rimmed eyes, the tracks of her tears gleaming in the candlelight.
He wanted to pull her into his arms, tuck her head against his chest and tell her it would be okay. Instead, he kept his arms rigid at his sides.
“Thank you.” She dropped her gaze away, as if she suddenly couldn’t look at him. For some reason, that bothered him. She’d been so fiery earlier, so confrontational. She hadn’t backed down once. This Veronica was too timid, too defeated.
He didn’t like it.
Raj put a finger under her chin, forced her to look at him. Her eyes glistened, but she didn’t cry. He could tell that she was finished with crying. Determined.
“Will you let me help you now?” He phrased it as a question, though as far as he was concerned there was no question.
Her throat moved. “Yes,” she said, her voice uncertain, thready. She repeated it, the word stronger this time.
“A wise decision,” he said.
Her expression hardened, just for a moment. “My staff can’t know.”
He’d already considered that. If someone in her employ was doing these things, it wouldn’t do any good for them to know she had extra security.
“Then we’re back to the original plan,” he said. “Can you do it?”
Her eyes flashed. But she thrust her chin out and gave a firm nod. “If that’s what it takes, yes.”
He grinned at her. That’s the Veronica he’d been looking for. “Then we’ll begin tonight.”
Her eyes dropped, boldly taking in his form. Then she met his gaze again, one eyebrow quirking. “You’re a bit overdressed for the part, considering what I’m wearing.”
His body went from zero to sixty in half a second.
He couldn’t help it, though he was thankful the room was dark enough she couldn’t tell.
“We’ll improvise,” he told her. Because he most certainly wasn’t stripping down to his silk boxers.
She wrapped her arms around herself, once more the vulnerable, helpless innocent. He reminded himself that she was neither of those things, though she was certainly frightened—and with good reason.
He put his hands on her shoulders. “You can trust me utterly, Veronica. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
She let out a shaky sigh. “I know that.”
Suddenly the suite was flooded with light. Veronica brought her hand up and covered her eyes. Raj squinted as he made his way over to the wall and flipped the switch, plunging the room into candlelit darkness again. Then he turned on a couple of lamps while Veronica blew out the candles.
She put her hands on her hips, frowned. “Perhaps we should have kept the candles. More romantic.”
Someone pounded on the door and Veronica jumped, squeaking as she did so.
Raj went and peeked through the hole, then jerked the door open when he saw it was Brady.
“Where is she?”
Raj stepped back. “She’s here.”
Brady burst into the room and rushed to Veronica’s side. Raj watched them carefully as Brady swept her into a bear hug. “I’m so glad you’re well,” he said before he set her down again.
She smoothed a hand over her pajamas. Self-consciously? Probably, since Brady had found her alone here with him and she was clearly dressed for bed. Though how she could think elf pajamas were the least bit suggestive, Raj wasn’t sure.
“I’m fine, Brady.”
Brady shoved a hand through his hair. He was a tall man, though not as tall as Raj, and he’d remained lean throughout the years. Brady’s hair was graying at the temples, but that was the only change Raj had noted since the last time—before tonight—that he’d seen the other man.
Brady threaded his fingers through Veronica’s and brought her hand to his lips. Raj didn’t like the tight pulse of envy that shot through him at the casual gesture.
“I had a call I had to take,” Brady said. “And then the lights went out. I had hoped Raj had you safe, but when I came to your room the first time, you weren’t here.”
“We were, um, elsewhere,” she said, not quite meeting his gaze. “But I’m fine. Raj is a very good bodyguard.”
Brady’s expression was fierce. “I’m glad you think so. Clearly, the one you had tonight was no good.”
She looked angry suddenly. Deliberately, she pulled her hand from Brady’s grip, crossing her arms over her chest. “So you knew about that?”
“I don’t question Raj’s methods,” Brady said. “He’s never failed me.”
Veronica slapped him on the shoulder. It wasn’t hard. It was the kind of slap Raj imagined a sister would give to her annoying brother.
“That’s for not telling me what you were planning,” Veronica said, her brows two angry slashes in her face, though her tone was gentler than Raj had expected it would be.
Brady, however, looked like a puppy who’d peed on the carpet. He knew he wasn’t in big trouble, but he was in trouble nevertheless. And he didn’t like it.
Poor Brady. The way he looked at Veronica, spoke about Veronica—he seemed to want more than her friendship, but he’d decided to be satisfied with what she gave him. Even now he looked at her as if she was the sun and he one of the lucky planets in her orbit.
Typical with women like her, Raj thought sourly. She drew men like flowers drew honeybees.
His mother had been exactly like that before she’d lost her beauty from the drugs and drinking.
Until then, however, she’d managed to keep them both warm and dry by dragging him to stay with her various “boyfriends.”
There’d never been a shortage of men willing to take her in. They’d taken him by extension. Some had ignored him. Others had resented him. And at least one had threatened him.
“I knew you wouldn’t approve,” Brady was saying to her.
“I wouldn’t have,” she admitted. “But Raj has managed to show me the error of my ways.”
Brady’s gaze slewed to him. “Has he?”
Veronica was looking over Brady’s shoulder at him with wide eyes. She gave her head a little shake, as if to warn him. Raj knew what she wanted from him. And he had no problem complying, because the fewer people who knew about the doll, the better.
Raj shrugged. “She was stubborn at first, but I pointed out that if I’d come to kill her, I’d have been able to do so with very little trouble once I’d got rid of her bodyguard.”
Brady heaved a sigh as he turned back to her. “I knew you’d be sensible, Veronica.”
“She is very sensible,” Raj said as Veronica’s cheeks turned pink. No doubt she was remembering how insensible she’d been until she’d discovered the doll. She turned and went to sit on the couch, once more the cool, imperious lady.
An imperious lady in elf pajamas. He had to bite down on the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at the incongruity.
“So