Secret Seduction

Elle eyed Vanessa speculatively, running a hand over the beige linen table cloth. “I don’t know, you look different somehow.”

“Must be the lighting in here,” Vanessa said, embarrassed to think she had that freshly and well-laid look about her. She picked up her menu. “I’m having the curried chicken salad. How about you guys?”

Elle leaned in closer and narrowed her eyes. “No, it’s not the lighting. Your skin is glowing and you keep glancing off into the distance and smiling as if you have a sweet secret. And when you walked in, your step seemed peppier than usual. You’ve had great sex.”

A waitress brought over a communal bowl of bread-and-butter pickles, the house specialty, and took their orders, but the momentary distraction offered Vanessa no reprieve.

As soon as the waitress left, Julie rubbed her palms together. “Oooh, something juicy’s up with Nessa.”

“Nothing’s up,” Vanessa denied, but her voice was higher than usual, totally giving her away.

Elle’s eyes widened and she chuckled. “Omigosh, you were with a guy last night.”

Apparently it wasn’t going to do her any good to deny it. Vanessa took a deep breath. “Yes, okay, I met a guy last night. But it’s not a big deal. Don’t make anything out of it.”

Julie rested her elbows on the table and propped her chin in her upturned palms. “I want every detail. Since I’m sans boyfriend, I have to live vicariously through you and Elle.”

“There’s nothing much to tell. I think I’ll have the fruit cup as well as the chicken salad.”

Julie and Elle exchanged glances and for one brief moment Vanessa thought they were just going to let the topic drop, but no such luck.

“What’s his name?” Elle asked.

“What’s he do for a living?” Julie quizzed.

“You guys,” Vanessa sighed in exasperation. “It’s nothing. Seriously.”

“Are you going to see him again?”

Pretending she hadn’t heard the question, Vanessa reached for a bread-and-butter pickle and munched on it.

“Come on, Nessa, throw me a crumb,” Julie begged. “I need details. My love life is in the toilet.”

Vanessa chewed the pickle, determined not to make a huge hairy deal of a one-night stand. She didn’t regret it, but neither was she particularly proud of it. She wouldn’t be seeing Tanner again. It had been a glorious, blissful, one-time-only thing. Besides, she didn’t even know the guy’s last name, so that settled it right there.

“How cute is he?” Elle asked, her eyes twinkling.

Vanessa sighed. “You’re not going to let this go are you?”

Julie grinned. “Nope.”

“We met, we danced, we had dinner, we got a hotel room. End of story,” Vanessa said in a rush. She shifted in her seat, looked out past the restaurant to the antique section of the store. “Is that armoire new? I don’t remember seeing it the last time we were here.”

But Julie wasn’t having any of it. “You had a one-night stand?” Her voice was filled with a mixture of shock and admiration. “I’d never have the courage for something like that. Weren’t you scared?”

“Actually,” said Elle who’d broken a few rules in her affair with Dante. “That was probably part of the charm. Right, Vanessa?”

Julie sighed. “Not to me. I love being romanced too much for a one-night fling. With those you don’t get any flowers or chocolates or tickets to a Longhorns game.”

“Sometimes,” Vanessa said, “all you want is someone to help you wash away your troubles.”

Elle sat up straighter and narrowed her eyes. “Is there something you’re not telling us, Vanessa?”

She met her friends’ interested gazes. How could she tell these two women about her secret past? A past she was so ashamed of that even fourteen years later she couldn’t bring herself to talk about it to the two people who meant the most to her in the entire world.

Knowing it was the only way she was going to get out of this conversation, Vanessa forced a grin. “You guys, please don’t read anything into this. It’s cut-and-dried. I just needed to get laid.”

“AMANDA BET ME that you would come,” Texas State Senator Robert Garcia said as he turned the steaks on his backyard grill. He was a little over six feet and narrow of face. His thick salt-and-pepper hair was combed back off his forehead. He flashed the megawatt smile that had helped him get elected. “Now I’m going to have to let her buy new draperies for the living room.”

“That’s what you get for gambling,” Tanner said to his uncle-in-law and took a sip from the beer bottle the senator had pressed into his hand. Was Robert still his uncle-in-law, now that Maria was gone? he wondered.

“Seriously, this is the first time you’ve been to our house since—” Robert snapped off his sentence.

Since Maria died.

The words hung unuttered in the air.

“I had a reason for coming,” Tanner said. “Besides the barbecue.”

Robert closed the grill, hung the tongs from a hook and turned to look at him. “Oh?”

“This job you asked me to do for you.” Tanner put his palms to the back of his head. “I can’t do it.”

“Of course you can. It’s all set. Everything’s been arranged.”

“I’m not talking about the head of security position at Confidential Rejuvenations. I’m talking about being Vanessa Rodriquez’s bodyguard,” he said.

Robert cast a surreptitious look over Tanner’s shoulder. His wife and some of their guests were standing on the other side of the patio admiring the new garden landscaping. Robert leaned in closer and lowered his voice. “What do you mean you can’t do it?”

Tanner drew in a deep breath. How did you tell your late wife’s uncle that you’d slept with the woman he’d hired you to watch? “I just don’t think I’m the best man for the job. I can recommend someone else.”

“Are you kidding? You’re the best bodyguard in the business. You were guarding the governor until—” Robert stopped again.

Until Maria had been killed in a convenience store robbery while Tanner had been out of town on a security detail.

He still hadn’t forgiven himself for not being there when she’d needed him. “This just doesn’t feel right.”

“What do you mean?” Robert kept looking over Tanner’s shoulder, keeping an eye out for his wife. He was definitely keeping something from her.

“Level with me,” Tanner said. “Why are you putting a bodyguard on Dr. Rodriquez?”

“I told you. Carlo Vega was released from prison yesterday. The man is a cold-blooded criminal. I fear he’s going to come after her for putting him away.”

“And she testified against him?”

“Correct.”

“She witnessed him murder a man in a fit of rage, right?”

“Yes. Vega went up on second degree manslaughter.”

“How did all this come about?”

“Look, is this really important? All that matters is that Vanessa stays safe from Vega.”

“You’re sure he’s going to come after her?”

“He threatened her fourteen years ago and now he’s out of prison.”

“That’s just it.” Tanner clenched his jaw. “Why do you care about Vanessa Rodriquez so much that you’d foot the bill for her personal bodyguard?”

“It’s none of your concern.”

Tanner placed a palm to the back of his neck. Maria had loved and admired her uncle Robert. As far as Tanner knew, he was a good man, but something about this whole thing didn’t add up. He swung his gaze around to take in Amanda, the senator’s wife. She was a slender woman, still quite lovely in middle age. Her skin was well pampered. She possessed almond-shaped brown eyes and a short cap of curls highlighted with stylish streaks of red and gold.

“Are you having an affair with her? Is that it? Is Vanessa Rodriquez your lover?” The thought made him sick to his stomach, but he had to ask the question.

“No.” Robert growled. “God, no. Why would you even think that? I love my Amanda. I would never cheat on her.”

Relief coursed through Tanner at the senator’s denial. It was bad enough that Tanner had slept with the woman he was supposed to be guarding, but to know that she was also Robert’s mistress…well that would have been too much for him to handle. “So why the interest in her?”

Robert swallowed. “Let’s walk.”

“Where are you going, honey?” Amanda called out to them.

“To show Tanner the koi pond.” Robert raised a hand. “Could you keep an eye on the steaks?”

“Will do.” She smiled gaily.

They walked toward the back of the senator’s five-acre lot, flush with native trees—pecan, red oak, elm and cedar. The pathway was made of quaint cobblestone, and around the perimeter of the place stood six-foot-high privacy hedges.

“Vanessa is from my hometown,” Robert said when they were out of earshot from the house. “From my old neighborhood. I knew her family, her mother, but Vanessa doesn’t remember me. She wasn’t even born when I left El Paso.”

“Why don’t you want Vanessa to know you hired me to guard her?” Tanner asked.

“Because after what happened with Carlo Vega, I paid for Vanessa’s way to medical school. I felt sorry for the poor kid. She needed a break and I could give it to her, so I did. No one knows about it. Not Amanda, not Vanessa. Only you.”

“Why the secrecy?”

“It’s not an altruistic act if people find out about it, now is it?” Robert asked.

They came to a halt beside the elaborate goldfish pond. It was a fair argument, and Tanner wasn’t sure he believed that explanation, but he let it go. “Whatever your reasons are for wanting to protect Vanessa from this Vega character, I don’t think I’m the right man for the job.”

“Now who’s hiding secrets?”

Startled, Tanner met the senator’s gaze. “What do you mean?”

“It’s not like you to renege on an agreement.”

“I’m not reneging. The truth is I think I might have blown my cover.”

The senator put his hands behind his back and leaned against the trunk of an impressive old oak tree. “What makes you say that?”

“She went to a bar last night. I followed her, but I stood out in the place. She spotted me. She came over. We danced.”

And we did a lot more than that.

“But that’s good,” Robert said.

“How do you figure?” To avoid the senator’s probing glance, Tanner bent to pick up one of the flat red river rocks landscaping the area and skipped it across the pond. It skimmed four times before sinking below the surface.

“She trusted you enough to dance with you. I think that’s a good sign. Vanessa’s pretty cautious.”

Shows how much you know her. From what he’d seen of the sexy Dr. Rodriquez, cautious was not an adjective that popped to mind.

“The fact that you were able to get close to her gives you an edge in guarding her,” the senator said.

You have no idea how close.

Tanner inhaled deeply. “I’m going to be honest with you Robert. I can’t guard Dr. Rodriquez because I’m physically attracted to her.”

Robert made a noise of surprise. “But that’s good, healthy even.”

“You think so? Because I sure don’t.” Tanner chuffed in a breath.

The senator laid a hand on his shoulder. “Maria would want you to move on. You’ve been grieving hard for four years. It’s time to let go. Letting go doesn’t mean you didn’t love her.”

“Yeah, but the first time I’m attracted to anyone since I lost Maria and it’s with someone I’m protecting.”

“It just means you’re not dead below the waist.” Robert tightened his grip on Tanner’s shoulder. “And just because you’re attracted to Vanessa doesn’t mean you have to act on your feelings.”

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