She Who Dares, Wins by Candace Havens Page A

with me, and my pop had some kind of angina attack.”
    â€œIs he doing okay?”
    Katie pursed her lips. “The doctors want him to change his diet, which is going to be difficult with the way my mom cooks. She’s hard-core Italian, but it sounds like she’s adjusting. I can’t believe she found me here.”
    â€œNo matter how far we go, we can never get away from our moms. Mine calls every three days like clockwork. She worries I’m not eating right and sends a giant box of food each month, most of which I end up leaving in the faculty lounge at school because I could never eat it all.”
    â€œSo, what’s next on the agenda?” She reached for a towel from the basket and wrapped it around her neck.“Do you need to get back to the lab, since you left early?”
    â€œDinner. I don’t know about you, but after that workout I’m starving.”
    Katie could most definitely eat. She’d skipped lunch and had only half a muffin with Mac in the cafeteria earlier in the day.
    â€œI hope you don’t mind, but I took the liberty of ordering in room service.” He glanced at his watch. “We have about an hour before it arrives, just enough time to get cleaned up.”
    The man was just full of surprises.
    â€œWhen did you do that?”
    â€œWhile you were changing to come downstairs,” he answered.
    Katie’s eyebrow rose. Still, it would be easier to keep an eye on him in her room, and she did have that huge dining area in the suite. There was no harm in sharing a meal in her room, and it was safer than a restaurant, where she’d constantly have to search for suspicious behavior.
    â€œFine.”
    He gave her a wicked smile.
    Yes, the man was most definitely dangerous.

7
    A T THE DINING TABLE in her suite, Mac watched as Katie eyed the last roll in the breadbasket. Knowing how hard she worked out, he’d bet she was thinking about how many miles it would take to run it off. As far as he was concerned, she didn’t need to worry about it. The woman was perfect, from her perky breasts to her slim legs that made her look much taller than her five-foot-three frame. Several times during their workout he’d had to think about cold showers and complex equations to keep his pants from tenting.
    In the shower afterward, she filled his mind. More than anything he wanted her with him, the warm water sluicing over their bodies as he pounded her against the glass wall.
    Cold showers. Complex equations.
    He forced himself to think about the two things so he could bring himself under control. At least he had the table to hide the tent this time.
    This randy teen behavior wasn’t like him. Boners like this hadn’t happened since his crush on Mrs. Sullivan, his eighth-grade environmental science teacher. Ah,Mrs. Sullivan and her sweater sets. He hadn’t thought of her in years.
    Mac’s plan to throw his bodyguard off-kilter had worked so far. She’d relaxed during their meal. Steering the conversation to music and movies, he’d discovered they liked many of the same things. Though she certainly had a propensity for violent films. Katie’s choices were more along the line of psychotics on killing sprees. Unusual, since she’d been a cop for so many years.
    That was the thing about her. She constantly surprised him. On the outside she was a beautiful pint-size pixie, but there was an innate toughness about her. Growing up with the two brothers she’d talked about probably had something to do with that, but there was more. He’d guess she’d been born with a tough shell, one that would be difficult to crack.
    While he wouldn’t manipulate her, he knew he had to keep her off guard. Otherwise, she would never give him a chance.
    â€œYou should take it.” He motioned to the roll. “That way I can eat the rest of the trifle without feeling guilty.” She smiled up at him as if he’d given her