playing her. Not that he had any reason to at this point.
Her uncle was the devil. Satan incarnate. He murdered her father. She was furious at Uncle Emilio. It didn’t take a holier-than-thou angel to help.
“I don’t know if I want to be with you,” she said, the lie tasting bitter. God help her, she did want him and felt like the biggest fool for it. “I need to work for a few hours.”
“Let me make sure it’s safe for you to go in first.”
He hopped out and ran inside. She watched him speak to Brenda for a minute, and he came back.
Dutch opened the door for her.
She climbed down from the truck. “I’ll call you when I’m ready to leave.”
“I’m going to park around back and order us some food to be delivered. You must be starved and I’m not leaving you,” he said. Isabel opened her mouth to protest, but he went on, “It’s too dangerous. I stay with you. Got it?”
“Fine,” she said, too tired to argue. She turned and strode inside the gallery.
“How did it go last night?” Brenda asked, rising from her seat, bright-eyed and excited.
“Not as I expected.”
“Oh, really?” Brenda frowned. “I was confident he’d be good in bed and I can tell that he’s really into you. He seems like he’d be a generous lover. What went wrong?”
Isabel shook her head, not wanting to get into it. Not having the strength to say it all out loud. “The timing was off. We didn’t make it to the bed. Then there was Chad. He blew up Dutch’s motorcycle.”
“What?” Brenda rushed around to her. “Chad is a total sicko. He scares me. I bet the cops won’t be able to prove that it was him.”
“Probably not.” She set her purse down on the reception desk. “If you have any free time, I have a ton of stuff to do for my uncle’s event in San Diego and could use your help.”
“Sure, whatever you need.”
A knock came at the back door.
“It’s Dutch,” Isabel said. “I’ll let him in. He’s going to hang around today.”
“Aww. That’s sweet.”
If only her friend knew the ugly, bitter truth. Sweet had nothing to do with it.
Isabel went to the back door and put her hand on the handle. “Dutch?” No such thing as too careful.
“Yeah, it’s me.”
She opened the door for him. Stepping inside, he shoved his badge into his pocket, but kept his gun.
“How am I supposed to explain you’re armed?” she asked.
“You’ve got a dangerous stalker who blew up my bike. That’s explanation enough.”
She turned to go to her office.
“Hey,” he said, taking her wrist softly and a shiver ran through her at his touch.
Slowly he put her palm to his chest over his heart and cupped her face with his other hand, holding her gaze.
She tried to dismiss the way his gentle strength made her body thrum with electricity. The natural closeness that’d built between them, getting stronger each day. But how he made her feel was impossible to ignore. Impossible to deny.
“May I kiss you?” he asked, his voice deep and husky, stirring heat low in her belly.
The sexiest part wasn’t that this gorgeous hunk of a man could have his pick of women and wanted her. It wasn’t the tingles flooding her thighs or her chest tightening with anticipation. It wasn’t even that he seemed unaware of the effect he had on her.
The sexiest, hottest part was that he knew she was vulnerable and emotionally fragile and rather than taking a kiss when he could’ve easily done so, he’d asked.
Because he’d never harm her.
Even in front of his boss and Allison, he stood up for her, sought to protect her, defend her.
So what if it made her a fool. “Yes.”
He pressed his mouth to hers in the barest of touch. Brushed his lips across hers with such fierce tenderness in a whisper of a kiss that sent arousal humming through her body.
“If you can forgive me, if you come with me, I’ll prove to you every day how much I care about you. Not just with words, but with my actions. I swear it.”
A lump formed in her throat and she didn’t know what to say. “I need to think about it.”
He nodded and let her go.
Isabel smoothed down her skirt and walked back to the front. She felt his eyes on her and unlike creepy Chad, she liked the idea of Dutch watching her, wanting her.