7.
VIKRAM
Vikram knew that staying in Cassie’s room was less than ideal, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave her alone. The panic button had worked this time, the chances of someone trying the same ploy again was unlikely, and there was no other way someone could let themselves into her room without a key card, but he couldn’t get past the fact someone had almost gotten her.
When he’d opened his door and seen her running down the hallway with tears on her face, blood on her arm, and panic in her eyes, he’d flown into a rage faster than he ever had before. It had been instantaneous, an immediate tunnel vision to kill the assassin, and nothing could have stopped him.
He had no memory of her asking him not to. No memory but the sound of his blood pumping in his ears and the knife sliding beneath the assassin’s ribcage.
It was the first time he’d had to kill someone in a long time. He’d done it before, of course, but he didn’t normally do jobs where he saw action. It was a lot of sitting in offices and looking intimidating. Opening the doors to cars and spaceships for politicians.
This was the first time he’d been called into someone in immediate danger.
He wasn’t expecting to have gotten so attached.
“You don’t have to do that,” Cassie said, sinking to the floor beside him and taking the cloth from his hand. Their knees knocked together and her fingers brushed against his. “I don’t mind.”
He stood up, almost flinching from the contact, and listened to Ballar’s voice in his head screaming, Never have a personal relationship with a charge. Professionalism and control are the two words you live by.
He was already pushing the boundaries of professionalism by even admitting he thought she was attractive, and it was all about control now he was staying in her room. It wouldn’t be difficult, though. It had been his entire life, training to be a professional. There were beautiful women all over the world, and he’d been around them before—been in bed with them before—Cassie wasn’t going to make him give up everything he’d worked for just because her smile was enough to send a hot flash through him.
He was better than that.
A knock on the door made her jump, and his immediate reaction was to touch her. Just a small touch, just something to comfort her. He held back this time.
“I’ll get it.”
He opened the door with a knife in his hand. It was an employee with a tray and two large bowls of ice cream. It was a man this time—someone who looked more like he was security rather than someone who would be bringing room service to people’s doors. Vikram wouldn’t be surprised if no one had volunteered to bring stuff to Cassie’s room anymore. He’d heard from the police that the original server had been found knocked out in the elevator.
The man handed him the ice cream and the exchange was short. Vikram shut the door and locked it behind him.
Cassie took the bowl hungrily. “Thanks.”
Vikram hadn’t had ice cream for years. It wasn’t something that existed on his home planet, and that was where he spent most of his time when he was off duty. Not that he was off duty very often. Guarding someone was more than a nine-til-five job, and he didn’t often get more than a few hours in an evening to himself when he was off-planet, and those were spent in bars rather than ice cream parlors.
She stayed sat on the floor, and he took the couch. “What’s your favorite flavor?” she asked. “They only had vanilla, but if you could have had anything?”
“Salted caramel,” he answered immediately. “I’ve only had it once. I was off-planet on my first job, guarding a paranoid old woman who was certain someone was after her. She was wrong, of course, but she was rich so they gave her the rookie and told me to look after her. She was lovely. She went to go and visit her grandson and he owned an ice cream parlor. I had just about one of everything, but the salted caramel was my favorite.”
She smiled. “That’s cute. That must be the ideal job.”
“Yeah, it was. Part of me is convinced that she was just desperate for someone to talk to. Her husband had died three months before I was hired.”
“What happened to her?”
“She died. She had a heart attack. It was natural causes, but it was a wake-up call when I went from guarding her to some stuck-up politician who thought having some muscle at his back made him more intimidating.”
“I hope that’s not what you think of me.”
There were so many ways he could have disputed that statement. He wanted to tell her all the ways she was different from the people he’d guarded the past decade, but he kept his thoughts to himself. “It’s definitely not. You’re… just about the opposite of all those people.”
“You don’t think I’m intimidating?” she teased, looking up from her ice cream, a white spot on her chin where it had dripped off her spoon.
He couldn’t resist reaching forward and wiping it off. “You don’t look intimidating, that’s what makes you scarier. You know how to play people.”
Her eyes widened. “That makes me sound so sly.”
“You played those police officers like it was nothing.”
“Oh. Yeah, I guess so. Archie always says it’s better to trick people than aggravate them. You’re more likely to get your way.”
“See. That’s why you’re second chair even though you’re about twenty years younger than everyone at the conference. You can keep your anger in check.”
“You really think so?”
From the soft glow on her cheeks and the quirk to her brow, he realized he might have said something more personal than he’d meant to. “I really think so.”
“That means a lot.” She grinned. “I’m glad you’re here.”
Vikram wasn’t sure he could say the same thing. Cassie was throwing him off balance in every way.
He was out of his depth, and all it did was make him nervous.