Chapter 2

“Yeah, sure.” I got up and walked out of the room. Marek followed. I glanced back as he came through the doorway. Lord…those shoulders filled way more of the opening than mine did. I wasn’t scrawny and I spent several hours a week in close personal contact with my Bowflex, but I didn’t have that level of musculature. Good genes or hours in the gym? It was hard to tell. I gave myself a mental kick. Get your brain on business. He was here to protect the assets of the company, namely me, and that was the extent of it.

The next half an hour was devoted to a brief walk through of my lab, followed by the animal housing area, and then a stroll through the corridors that housed other labs and the admin areas.

“Okay, what now?” I asked as we stood outside my lab.

“You do whatever you usually do for the remainder of the afternoon. What time do you usually go home?”

“Six-ish, it depends on if I’m in the middle of something.”

“Today, I want you done by five fifteen. We need to vary your schedule a bit.”

“What are you going to do for the next four hours?” I shoved my hands in my pockets.

“Speak with Dr. Caldwell about the building security features, read personnel files and make some phone calls. All of it’s background info. I’ll meet you right here at 5:15. If anything happens—phone calls, letters, emails—anything out of the ordinary, call me immediately. I’ll be in the building.” Marek handed me a business card.

I watched him walk back up the hallway. He wore a gray V-neck sweater and dark slacks. Damn if those slacks didn’t hint at a really well-muscled ass. I stared at the ceiling. I needed to get a life.

* * * *

At 5:15 P.M. sharp, Marek stood in the open doorway to my lab. “Are you done?” he asked.

“I guess I’m going to have to be. I have a half dozen more slides I was going to look at but I suppose they can wait.” I turned off my microscope. “Just give me a second to grab my briefcase.” I felt vaguely annoyed at being told when to quit for the day, but on the other hand I wasn’t thrilled with feeling eternally rattled by the things that had been happening either.

“We’ll take your car to your house. I’ll leave mine in the parking lot here until tomorrow.”

I looked at the large black gym bag in his hand, and it suddenly dawned on me that ‘round the clock’ meant he was going to be staying at my house. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. I had a spare room with a bed in it (and a hell of a lot of bookcases too.) Somewhere in the back of my mind I had originally had this thought about jerking off tonight, visualizing what I was sure was an impossible fantasy, but if he was in the next room? Probably not a good plan.

“Problem?” he asked.

“No.”

“Can I have your car keys then?”

I handed them over and went to my desk, picking up the sheaf of data pages I’d printed out earlier. I shoved them into the briefcase and shut it.

“Which door do you usually leave by?”

“The one that goes out into the side parking lot,” I said.

“We’ll go out the front and walk around.”

Damn, this was going to get old real fast. There were those that probably didn’t consider me to be the most cooperative of people to start with. I was capable of being a single-minded obsessive bastard at times, but it was also the reason I had a high paying, sought after position heading a research project at Florence.

As he drove, I decided maybe if I knew a little about him, maybe I would find it easier to have him around nonstop for the next few days. I hoped it was only a few days.

“Have you always done this personal security thing?” I glanced across the car at him.

“No.”

Oh, that was profoundly helpful…Not. I tried again, more pointedly. “So what did you do before?”

“I was an Army Ranger.”

Jesus crap. This guy could probably kill me with his bare hands. I drew a slow breath. Calm down. His current job was protecting me, so maybe having somebody with that kind of background was a good thing. “Um, that’s cool.” It also lowered my already nonexistent chances of Mr. Hard-And-Tight ever having a non-professional interest in me to about the odds of hell freezing over.

“What do you usually do regarding dinner?” Marek asked.