Why had she been born a Moretti?

The question scrolled through her mind like the banner at the bottom of a television screen blasting that latest news headlines.

It wasn’t the first time she’d asked herself that question. Although, ever since she started her surgical residency, it hadn’t been a frequent mind visitor. Naively, she’d thought because her father hadn’t attempted to contact her, he was finally granting her wish of letting her be Maria Moretti the surgeon, not Maria Moretti only daughter of Giovanni Moretti. An independent woman forging her own path in the world without the specter of her father and his business trailing behind her.

She’d been a fool. How could she have ever thought her father would let her be free of him? Of course, for him, having a surgeon on the payroll would be very handy. Someone who could take care of any medical emergencies without having to alert a hospital or the cops.

Now here she stood in an apartment of a man she’d met twice who was now her bodyguard.

Great. Seriously it was fantastic how quickly her life had gone to shit.

“Can I get you something to drink?”

Maria steeled her spine against the shiver threatening to slither down her spine. Her senses had been on high alert ever since he’d leaned down in the car and whispered in her ear.

One word.

One friggin word was all he said, but the way she’d practically melted into his car seat like ice cream on a hot summer’s day, he may as well have recited a love poem to her.

“Maria? Are you okay?”

A hand waving in front of her face dragged her from the revere she’d fallen into. “I’m fine. And yes, a drink will be good, thank you.”

“Wine, coffee, soda, something stronger?”

It would be so nice to ask if he had a smooth bourbon, one that she could shoot down the back of her throat with a flick of her wrist. Unfortunately she had a six o’clock start which meant losing herself in a bottle of alcohol was out of the question.

“I’ll take a soda, thanks.”

“A soda?” There was no hiding the surprise in Riley’s tone.

“Yes, I’m a surgeon. It wouldn’t look good if I turn up tomorrow morning with a hangover.”

“Fair enough.” Riley indicated to a dark brown leather couch. “Take a seat and I’ll be right back.”

She watched him as he walked away from her. Dressed all in black, he appeared dangerous and lethal. There was no doubt in her mind that he could take down numerous assailants without breaking a sweat.

What was it about ex-Navy SEALs that was so sexy? Was it the allure that they put their lives on the line time after time? Or was it the whole princess needing to be rescued by a prince charging in on his white horse fantasy. Not that she let herself believe she was a princess in a fairytale. Her childhood had showed her first hand that when things go bad, there was no fairy godmother to whisk you to a ball where a handsome prince would save you. She’d saved herself many times, she didn’t need anyone else to do it for her. The one person she hadn’t been able to save was her mom. Mom always pushed Giovanni. He would never be Papa in her mind again. One day she’d come home from school and Mom was nowhere to be seen. The look of menace in her father’s eye had her swallowing the questions she wanted to ask.

At the time she’d convinced herself Mom had somehow escaped the wrath and hold of Giovanni Moretti. Now, with the hindsight and maturity of an adult, she knew her mother wasn’t living her life in safety now. In all likelihood she was resting at the bottom of the Hudson. Or the East river.

Even though her mind was miles away, she still looked in the direction of where Riley had retreated. She was in the room, but she wasn’t. Her mind had retreated to places she normally left locked up tightly. Nothing good came of unlocking those hidden places. The darkness from those memories threatened to suck her into a vortex almost impossible to escape.

“Shit.”

It was the last thing she heard before she let herself fall into the vortex. Maybe there it was safer than the world she currently inhabited.

* * *

Maria had to be dreaming. She was riding the carousel in Central Park, laughing at something the person riding the horse beside her had said. Up and down they went. Holding hands while their other one gripped the golden pole. Her date’s face obscured, pixilated like news documentaries use if they want to keep their interviewee’s identity a secret. Then the pixilation was gone and she was standing by a lake, her mystery man cupping her face.

Happiness filled her. A sensation she wasn’t used to. Happiness had always been an elusive emotion in her life.

Her man lowered his face toward hers. She lifted hers, eager to look her man in the eye.

Riley. Riley was her dream man.

In slow motion the gap between her lips and his narrowed until they were almost touching.

“Maria. Maria, wake up.”

Her eyes snapped open. Reality set in. Her dream forgotten, snatched away before she could know what it felt like to have Riley’s lips on hers.

“No.” Maria practically shouted the word and pulled away from Riley’s hold. She fell back and connected with downy softness. Shaking off the fog of her dream she looked around and found herself lying on a massive bed in a room decorated with pale blue walls and dark mahogany wooden furniture. A room she didn’t recognize. She scrambled to a sitting position.

“Hey, take it easy.” Gentle hands encouraged her to lie down again. “You passed out. You don’t want to move too quickly.”

Laughter bubbled up inside of her. “I passed out? No, I don’t think so.”

“Trust me, you did. One minute you were standing in the living room, the next you were about to hit the floor. Are you sore anywhere? I know you didn’t hit your head when you blacked out because I caught you in time. But in the garage at the hospital, did you hit your head when I pushed you to the ground. Do you remember?”

Oh, she remembered all right. She remembered the glare of headlights heading straight for her. Remembered thinking she needed to move out of the way but couldn’t. A familiar face with a menacing grin driving the car. Remembered the feel of strong arms engulfing her, dragging her to the ground—to safety.

Shit. Riley hadn’t been lying. Someone had been after her.

“I know who was driving the car.”

Riley’s fingers tightened around her shoulders before loosening in the next breath. “What? What do you mean?”

“You asked me if I remembered what happened in the garage. It wasn’t clear to me straight after it happened. I guess my mind needed to process everything it saw. But just then everything played across my mind and I recalled things I hadn’t processed seeing. Like the driver of the car.”

A breath hitched in her chest as Riley’s large, warm, callused hand cupped her cheek. “Who was it? Who was driving the car?”

“It was my dad’s enforcer, Andre. You’re right, Riley. I’m not safe. My father wants me back in the fold.”

Despair pummeled down on her. The life she’d forged for herself was over. As she’d worked out earlier it had all been an illusion. Her father had given her the impression she was free from his grasp, but she never would be. And she couldn’t drag Riley into the mess that was her family.

“I will do everything to keep you safe.”

Maria pulled away from Riley’s touch. “I think it would be best if you took me home.”

“Not happening, Doc.”

“Well I can’t stay here.” She scrambled off the bed and quickly put her hand on the nightstand as a wave of dizziness washed over her.

A hand enclosed around her waist. “You’re not going anywhere. Come on, let’s sit.”

“Not here.” She couldn’t concentrate in a room with a large bed and a sexy guy. Maria couldn’t deny when Riley had wrapped his arm around her, she’d immediately felt protected. Had wanted to lean further into his hold and maybe rest her head on his broad shoulders.

But comforting her wasn’t his job. He was here to protect her, even though she’d emphatically told Tex and Riley she didn’t need a bodyguard. No way did she plan to be all clichéd and fall in love with her bodyguard.

“Okay, let’s go to the kitchen.”

He led her out of the room and down the hallway. He lived in a fairly spacious apartment, in a nice building. From the two rooms she’d seen the place had been updated and had a nice modern feel about it. Apartments like this didn’t come cheap in New York. Guess there was good money in the protecting people business.

The kitchen he led her into was every woman’s dream, if that woman wanted to spend her time cooking and baking up a storm.

Not her. She could cook, not gourmet, but quick easy meals which, with her erratic schedule, were perfect for her.

Riley directed her to a black and chrome stool nestled under the overhang on the kitchen island.

“Take a seat. Now I think I owe you a drink. Your last one ended up on the ground.”

Maria hopped up on the stool, propped her elbows on the white, glittery quartz countertop and rested her chin in her hands. “Why did it end up on the ground?”

“Because I couldn’t hold the drinks and keep you from falling face first into the floor. I figured the drinks were a better casualty than you.”

“Oh.” It was all she could muster, as the slow burn of a blush crept up from her neck and over her face. “Umm, thanks for catching me.”

“My pleasure,” he said as he slid a can of soda across the smooth expanse of the counter toward her.

She grasped the cold can with both hands, fighting to the urge to rub the coolness along her cheeks in an attempt to douse the heat running along her cheekbones.

When Riley sat next to her on another stool, she took a long gulp of her drink. When was the last time a good looking guy had her acting like a teenage girl with a huge crush on the cutest guy in school?

Like, never.

So why was she going to start now? She was a thirty-one year old woman well on her way to becoming an accomplished surgeon.

“I’m guessing from your presence at the hospital that you’ve been tailing me ever since our weekend at Tex’s.”

It sounded far more intimate than it had been. Riley hadn’t stayed at the house, but at a hotel. After their first meeting the day she’d arrived, she’d done her best to keep her distance between them. An impossible task as wherever she turned Riley, or Tex, or Mel were right there with her. Even Baby, Mel’s dog followed her when she went to sit in the yard.

“I wouldn’t call it tailing. I was doing my job.”

“A job I believe I said wasn’t necessary.”

“Again. Car. Parking garage. Need I say more.”

“Fine. But I still think it’s wrong that you’ve been watching me and I didn’t know about it.”

Riley shrugged, clearly unashamed of his and Tex’s underhanded tactics. “That’s the whole point. You weren’t supposed to know. Our plan was to do surveillance. Understand your daily movements. Watch for interactions that appeared to be every day, but could have ulterior motives. Up until the garage incident Tex and I were beginning to think maybe you were right and your father would leave you alone. However, in the bedroom you, by you recognizing who was driving the car, confirmed you aren’t safe.”

Maria gripped the can, the light aluminum denting beneath her fingertips. “What if my father is having me watched as well? What if he knows you and Tex are helping me? That puts targets on all your backs.”

She pushed the stool back, the metal scraping across the tiles, and walked away, heading back down the hallway they’d come down.

Before she’d taken four steps, Riley was beside her, another step he stood in front of her halting her escape.

“Where are you going?”

He’d crossed his arms over his chest again the black long sleeve t-shirt he wore stretched over his bulging biceps. Everything about him screamed protector. She couldn’t let herself fall into his safety net.

“I think, for everyone’s safety, I should go to my father. Hand myself over to him. I’ve been fooling myself to ever think I would be free of the Moretti Mob family.”

“What do you think that will achieve?”

“I don’t know, but it’s got to be better than this.”

“What if it isn’t? Do you think he’s going to welcome you back with open arms?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. But at least if I’m with him I won’t have to look over my shoulder to see if I’m about to be run over by a car or kidnapped.”

“What if he makes you do things you don’t want to do? Makes you go against the Hippocratic Oath you took when you became a doctor?”

Frustration boiled over to anger inside of her and she pushed against his chest. It was like hitting a brick wall. Riley didn’t even flinch. “Get out of my way.”

The next instant she was engulfed in strong arms and her face was buried against Riley’s hard chest. The fight drained out of her and was replaced by tears. She never cried. Tonight, in Riley’s arms she allowed herself to cry.

“Shhh, Doc. We’ll work this out.”

“I just want to be free.” She mumbled the words against his chest.

“I know you do.”

Maria pulled away and looked up at Riley. He was staring down at her. His brown eyes radiated warmth and she wanted to sink into them. Her gaze trailed down over his lips. Their fullness tempted her to taste them.

Would it be so wrong to seek comfort when her life was in such turmoil? Not giving herself a chance to think through how bad an idea it was she rose up on tiptoe and placed her lips against Riley’s.

A quick touch and then she’d disengage herself from his hold and get him to take her to father’s house. At least she would have this memory to hang onto when things got terrible, as she was sure they would with her father.

As she went to pull away from him, Riley tugged her tighter, changed his stance and deepened the kiss, taking full control of it.

Maria sighed and gave herself over to his embrace. If this was what being cherished felt like, she wanted a lifetime of it. Even if it was with her bodyguard. The one person she’d sworn she would stay away from.