and confusing guy.
Not to mention, she’d felt herself losing control. Jo’s starting labor had unnerved her. Ellina didn’t know nothin’ about birthin’ no babies. But she’d gotten control back quickly. Normally something like that wouldn’t distress her, so it had to have been the combination of her interaction with Jude and then the surprise of Jo’s contractions.
Usually it was only two things that made her agitated. Crowds. She had a hard time controlling herself in crowds. And arousal.
And she refused to believe arousal played a factor here. Yes, Jude was good looking, but she’d long ago learned to quash attraction. For everyone involved.
Still, her hasty exit was rude. Then again, what was the proper etiquette for having a bodyguard in your house? Especially one who one minute didn’t want to be there, and the next insisted on staying? Did she show him around her place? Did she tell him to make himself at home?
Or did she just hide until he changed his mind yet again and left?
Of course, he’d changed his mind when money had come up. So he was only staying for the cash.
That didn’t smooth her ruffled ego. Ruffled ego? This was all so silly.
Ellina actually giggled to herself at their whole exchange. Then she giggled even louder. She’d always had a terrible habit of laughing about things that really weren’t funny. She suspected it was because she was always so aware of being controlled. Something had to give.
She moved around her desk, composing herself. Sitting down, she checked the hallway for shifts in the shadows to see if he’d followed her. She noticed nothing and only silence filled her apartment.
Still watching the door, Ellina nibbled her lower lip and debated what to do. She could pay him off to leave, but she knew she likely couldn’t meet the price Maksim would pay. She had plenty of money, but Maksim had demon powers. Money was no issue. And why was she giving up her hard-earned money to get rid of someone she didn’t even want to hire in the first place?
Seemingly, she’d have to suffer with this guy—at least until Jo had the baby, then she’d pressure Maksim to forget this silly idea. Hell, plead if she had to.
So what to do in the meantime?
“Well, the most obvious answer is work,” she muttered to herself. The odd bodyguard could do what odd bodyguards did without her assistance. And she needed to get this chapter done. Today.
She wiggled her computer mouse against her Hello Kitty mouse pad, waiting for her monitor screen to flicker to life, jarred out of sleep mode. The chapter, half-done, stared at her. She forced herself to reread the last words she’d written and get her thoughts back to the next section of her book.
That’s right, Jenny had just found a strange man in her bakery. That was appropriate, wasn’t it?
She glanced back at her door. She wondered why the other job he’d mentioned was more appealing to him. And what had turned him off from the moment they met?
Who cared?
She didn’t.
She turned back to the sentence she’d started, reading it again. And again.
Making an irritated noise low in her throat, she shoved back her chair and stood. She headed to the door, pausing with her fingers on the handle.
She just wanted to know if he was still here, right? It was unnerving not to know. That was probably the reason she couldn’t concentrate. Once she knew that, then she could get back to work. And she should probably tell him to make himself at home. She didn’t have time to entertain him.
Ellina started to push down the handle, but paused again. She had to admit hiding out in here was more appealing. But he was her employee, so she needed to give him some ground rules. She didn’t have a clue what those rules were, but…
“I can’t just leave him standing in the living room. He needs some sort of directions, right?”
Taking a deep breath, she tugged open her door. As soon as she did, a large body loomed in front of her, blocking her from leaving her office.
Ellina yelped and stepped back.
“Are you okay?” Jude stood there, arms crossed over his chest, legs slightly apart.
“What are you doing out here?” she managed to snap, even as her thumping heart stole her breath.
“Guarding you.”
She frowned. So much for being able to tell if he’d followed her down the hall. Clearly he’d been standing here the whole time.
Had he heard her talking to herself? Worse yet, had he heard her laughing? That had to have seemed slightly crazy, at best. She didn’t ask, not sure if she wanted the answer, so instead she asked, “So this is what you are going to do? Just stand around in the hallway all day?”
“And night,” he added, his tone bland.
Her frown deepened. Well, that answered one question. He clearly hadn’t decided to leave again in the last ten minutes.
“Money makes the world go ’round,” she murmured.
“Pardon?”
She ignored his question. “I can’t concentrate knowing that you’re lurking out here.”
“I’m not lurking. I’m guarding.”
“Well, whatever you’re doing, I can’t concentrate. You want to leave. And I want you to leave, so why don’t you just go now. I’ll even tell Maksim you did stay for a while.”
“That would be a lie.”
Ellina gritted her teeth. “My brother is a demon. He enjoys a good sin every now and then. And you can’t tell me that a guy like you cares about a lie every now and then either.”
She tried to read his reaction to that assessment, but aside from a slight tic in his jaw, his expression told her nothing.
“I’ll even pay you to leave.”
Still no reaction. Nothing.
“I don’t need a bodyguard,” she added once she realized he didn’t intend to answer her. “My brother is a bit of an alarmist. An interesting fact, that. Many demons overreact. I’ve even written about it.”
Jude leaned one shoulder against the wall, looking decidedly disinclined to go anywhere. And, frankly, a little bored with her.
So it surprised Ellina when he said, “I’ve read your brother’s report about the incidents that have happened to you. They sound a little suspicious to me. Definitely reasons for concern.”
“Yeah, well, then you’re probably an alarmist too.”
Jude quirked his lips in a gesture that Ellina couldn’t exactly label as a smile. More a smirk. But the curl of his lips hinted at a dimple in his left cheek that had remained hidden until that moment.
“I
