Page 31 of Criminally Yours

CHAPTER 13

Millie

Acouple of hours later, after a nap and a shower and wearing fresh clothes, she could function.

Liss chatted with her before heading to the home office to sort out Bodyguard Corp paperwork. Stal was sent home to rest and be with Jenny, although he’d insisted he was available to help with intel. Bear and Cameron were on jobs.

A bang sounded in her corridor. She peeked out her doorway, but there was nothing there. She didn’t want to close the door in case Strike passed.

“Talk about messed up,” she muttered, running her fingers through her hair and pulling at the knots.

The way Strike had cared for Stal reminded her of the old him, but with an authority he’d not had when he was young. He had been the goofy guy on the rugby team, not the captain. She was drawn to reading about men who dominated their women, but who had a heart, too.

Millie’s fingers drifted over the barely cracked book spines on Liss’s bookshelf. Her safe space was in the cream pages of a paperback. The most significant moments in herlife were accompanied by book boyfriends and memories of the words spoken by fictional men.

Her hand lingered on a spicy bodyguard book. She was drawn to it like she was drawn to Strike. A man with a bare chest stared at her from the cover. She imagined men like this when alone in her apartment, her vibrator in hand, but now she’d met a collection of real bodyguards, the hero on the cover was too polished.

He wasn’t Strike.

Strike cleared his throat.

“Fuck.” Millie dropped her book and swung around to confront him. “How do you do that? You’re such a stealthy bastard.”

Her words dried up quickly. Strike leaned against the doorway, the sleeves of his Henley pushed up to the elbows and his arms folded. There was no way his biceps throbbed, and yet it was like they were beckoning her closer with each flex.

His eyebrow popped as he glanced at the book on the floor. She snatched it up, heat filling her cheeks as she realised Strike was accidentally recreating the pose on the front.

“Is that a bodyguard book?”

“It’s not mine.”

“He looks more like he’s in a boy band than a guy who spends his nights protecting his clients or his days sitting in his car, waiting to be called on by a politician.”

“It’s a romance book, not a biography.” She didn’t need another person in her life lecturing her. “I’m taking it to Cornwall. And this one, too,” she said, grabbing a book from the shelf.

He stepped closer. The scent of oranges and musk surrounded her.

Don’t breathe him in.

He took the second book from her hand, turning it over. “Erotic stories to recreate with your partner,” he said, reading the back. Of all the books to pick up in panic. “Our trip to Cornwall isn’t that kind of trip, Mixie.”

The lightness in his tease was too familiar. “The bodyguards in books are always up for an adventure.” She cursed herself as soon as she said it. She was attracted to the little of Caleb left in him as well as the brute who’d threatened to toss her in his car.

“They’ve not experienced the things I have.” He shrugged. “And they’re probably not as militant about keeping things tidy and orderly. The guys call me robot when they think I can’t hear.”

Millie returned to the bookshelf. The rest of Liss’s book collection included closed-door romances and thrillers, and although she loved many genres, she needed spice to relax.

“I volunteered with army vets during my counsellor training,” she said. “Some of them saw things that left them screaming in their sleep.” She glanced at him over her shoulder. “Do you scream in your sleep, Strike?”

He closed his eyes. “No. If I sleep, I don’t scream.”

“If you sleep?” At his silence, she continued pressing. “Why don’t you sleep? What about scars? There’s none on your arms.”

He stepped closer. “I don’t like thinking about those days. I have all kinds of scars, physical and emotional. I try not to be grumpy like they say I am, but I want to keep everyone safe. Sometimes I must make demands, being the boss.”

“How do you relax? Because you can’t sustain that intensity all the time.”

“I don’t relax. I exercise when I need to… It doesn’t matter. Thank you for listening to Stal earlier. He wouldn’t have shared anything with me or the team if you hadn’t.”