Page 85 of Close Protection

I hesitantly pull away from her and go and fish out a bowl.

After I find one, I fill it with cold water, add some ice cubes, carry it over to Ryan, and tip it over his head.

‘Wake up, asshole,’ I say coldly, my tone dry.

He splutters awake almost instantly and starts fighting the restraints. When he realizes he’s not going anywhere he calms down a little and I take a chair and sit down.

Pulling out my knife, I play with it lazily as I look back to Daphne.

‘Go for it, Miss Green.’

She smiles at Ryan, slowly making her way over. ‘Hi, Ryan. I would introduce myself but I have a feeling you already know who I am so let’s just cut to the chase, yes?’

She gives him a moment to respond, but when he doesn’t, she continues.

‘Why are you here, Mr Moore? What do you want?’

‘I want you, Daphne.’ He smirks.

‘Wrong answer.’ She treads on his foot and he yelps out in pain. ‘Now, let’s try again, shall we? How did you know we were here?’

‘Made an educated guess,’ he spits.

Daphne’s jaw clenches as her nostrils flare slightly before she looks over to me. ‘Pass me your knife, please.’

‘Baby.’

‘Give me the knife, Milosh.’

I think that might just be the sexiest thing that’s ever come out of her mouth.

I hand her the knife without a second thought and sit back, highly turned on by this side of her.

‘Ryan, darling, I’m going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer them. Failure to do so will result in me injuring you further. If you then continue to withhold the answers, I’ll have to get my boyfriend involved. And I assure you, Mr Moore… youreallydon’t want that.’

I know I should be focused right now but when she called me her boyfriend a warm rush flooded through my body.

This is the first time she’s called me that without it being fake and I can’t help but smile. Ryan just happens to look over at me at this exact moment and his face turns an ugly greenish grey.

It dawns on me that he thinks I’m smiling at the possibility of hurting him and not because the sweetest girl just named me her boyfriend, so I probably look like an absolute psychopath to him.

Good.

‘How did you get into the house?’ Daphne probes.

‘With a key.’

‘Where did you get the key?’

‘At your other house.’

She stills. ‘Were you one of the men that ransacked my house?’

He gives her a creepy smile. ‘Yeah, that little cleaner of yours got a nasty tongue on her. But don’t worry, I shut her up in my own way.’

Daphne looks horrified before wiping the smirk off his face with a hefty punch to the jaw.

‘Ow, ow, ow!’ She shakes her hand. ‘I’ve never done that without a boxing glove on before.’