Page 6 of Collateral Damage

“So you enjoy being a security guard?”

Why did it chap him so much that she thought he was just a security guard? Not that being a security guard was a bad gig.

He just wanted to impress her. Wanted this woman, whoever she really was, to know that he was so much more than what she might guess. But letting her into his life in any capacity would put her in the sort of danger a woman like this could never dream up.

So for tonight he had to be Whitt the security guard. At least on paper.

“I love what I do.” He skimmed his fingers over hers, tracing the beds of her unpainted nails, paying more attention to her hands than he did to most women’s entire bodies.

This wasn’t like him. Spending time with a woman was always a means to an end. A path that led to a physical release and nothing else.

“But?”

Wade snapped his attention from their hands to her face.

Her fucking gorgeous face. Warm hazel eyes framed by long lashes studied him with an intensity he found in few other people.

The same intensity most people found intimidating in him.

“But sometimes it’s limiting.” It didn’t used to be. What he did was always freeing. No ties to bind him. Nothing holding him back or down.

He could be the wind. Constantly moving. Sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

But never still.

It was the life he knew. The life he understood.

“You don’t seem like the kind of man who would let something like a job limit him.” Her words were surprisingly accusatory, and it was his turn to feel judged.

“What makes you think you know what kind of man I am?”

She smiled. “What makes you think I don’t?”

He should have left. Should have walked out the minute he saw her. Watched her reading the people at the table around her.

Wade should have known she would try to see more than he showed her.

“You are an interesting woman, Carly Smith.” He dragged the fake name out, hoping she would admit the lie and give him the truth.

And for a second he thought she might.

Her almost green eyes lingered on where his hand now held hers as she pulled her lower lip between her teeth.

Wade held his breath. It was something he’d done countless times over the years. A way to focus all his attention on the person in front of him, making absolutely sure he would see everything.

Especially what they didn’t want him to see.

That’s why he didn’t miss the exact second she decided to stick with the lie she told. Tonight she would stay Carly Smith.

Not that he couldn’t learn the truth of who she was anyway.

He wouldn’t though. For her sake.

“No one’s ever called me interesting before.” Her eyes slowly lifted to his.

“I’m sure that’s not the case.” Wade knew damn well many, many people found this woman interesting. Most of them men.

Men who probably also found her quiet, thoughtful nature intimidating as hell.