“Very well, then. I agree with your brother, Mr. Andrews. You need protection, but I also get the feeling that you aren’t going to be an easy protectee. You are gay, correct?”
Instantly on guard, Kale sat back and narrowed his gaze. “Yes.”
“Good. That will make it easier to explain the presence of the man I’m assigning to protect you. He’ll be your lover.”
“My lover?”
“Yes. To explain why he’ll be on set with you, you can tell everyone who asks that he’s the jealous sort or that he loves watching you work,” Mr. McCade clarified in a tone that suggested he was already making plans and Kale’s agreement had merely been a formality.
Kale’s thoughts were confirmed when the man picked up the phone handset and asked the secretary to call in someone called Aleksi. Mr. McCade turned his attention back to them with a slight smile that Kale didn’t trust.
“Aleksi will join us in a few minutes. I hope you don’t have a problem with cats.”
* * * *
The last thing Aleksi wanted to do was to babysit another party boy who thought his looks gave him the privilege to treat people like dirt. Then the party boys seemed surprised when some of those people wanted revenge.
His last high-priority job had gone a little off course and had resulted in him spending a few nights in a Russian holding facility, but it hadn’t been his fault. His protectee hadn’t been honest with them and it turned out he was actually a prince from Dubai on the run from a terrorist group wanting to use him as a political prisoner. To say the team sent to kidnap the prince was met with a less than friendly welcome was an understatement. Then the Russian secret police had gotten involved, weapons had been drawn, bombs had gone off and one thing had led to another.
Hence, the time in the holding facility where his hosts had taken turns trying to learn his name and the location of the prince. Aleksi grinned at the memory. He’d made two of the interrogators cry.
Fun times.
The terms of his protection detail had been met and the prince had arrived unmolested, at the top-secret meeting to discuss peace treaties with the United Kingdom and the United States then had traveled home safely with a colleague of Aleksi’s.
Despite everything working out fine, Scott still had his panties in a knot. Something to do with Aleksi not taking care of himself and scaring his friends.
Rubbish!
Scott knew he’d be okay. After all, they’d been trained by the same man—Scott’s brother, Robert.
But since then, all his assignments had been babysitting for stuck-up pretty boys who drove him crazy. If this was another one of those assignments, he’d pay back the company fee and eat the protectee himself.
After reading the text summoning him to Scott’s office to meet his new bestie, Aleksi shoved his phone back into his pocket. He walked to the door, looking over his shoulder at the mountain of plush cushions he’d been sent by the prince as a thank you. “I’ll be back soon.” His inner cat was practically climbing the walls in frustration. He hadn’t even gotten to stretch out and sleep on any of the pretty pillows yet.
Sighing, he left his office and locked the door behind him. His fellow bodyguards and protectors were like his brothers, but one or two of them would jump at the chance to make off with his cushions if they could.
Sneaky bastards.
He jogged down the hall and opened Scott’s door without knocking. The scents of the two new humans in the room hit him and his cat froze. The two men looked similar but the one wearing the plain shirt and jeans was a bit shinier. That was the only way to describe him. Shiny.
“Aleksi,” Scott greeted.
“This better be good, Scott. I had a date with soft and silky.”
The two humans turned around to look at him, their eyes widening. Aleksi wasn’t offended. This happened a lot. He was six foot ten and, because of his animal’s nature, he carried a lot of muscle.
Shiny tilted up his head in surprise. Aleksi caught the flash of annoyance and disgust, even as he scented the male’s arousal. This might turn out to be more interesting than he’d first thought.
Kale almost swallowed his tongue as the man Scott had called for entered the room. The newcomer’s shoulders touched each side of the doorframe and—if he wasn’t mistaken—the guy also had to bend his knees a little to avoid hitting his head on the top.
Wow. He didn’t know who Soft and Silky was but he’d be willing to throw down if he got to keep the man who had just entered the office as the prize.
Kale had always had a thing for muscles and this Aleksi was built like a Thor action figure, complete with golden locks. This was the man who was going to pretend to be his lover?
Why was I reluctant to do this again?
“Because you’re an idiot,” Caleb whispered next to him before elbowing him in the ribs.
Shit, he must have said that aloud.
“Hey, watch it. You know makeup doesn’t cover bruises well.”
“Then stop embarrassing me.” His brother fussed with his tie and apologized to the two other men in the office.
Kale glared. Caleb was so stuffy. “I haven’t done anything!”
“Actually, you
were
talking out loud.” Scott McCade looked amused.
Aleksi was inspecting Kale as if he were an interesting insect.
“As you may have guessed,” Scott continued, “this is Aleksi, and he will be your close protection guard until we uncover who is behind the letters and packages. Aleksi, this is Kale Andrews, a model who has a fan sending him letters and apparently an animal eyeball.”
Aleksi turned back to Scott. Kale breathed a sigh of relief. As hot as the man was, he didn’t like being the main target of that assessing gaze. There was something powerful and dangerous lurking underneath that beautiful surface.
“Human?”
“No, animal, but delivered to a closed set with limited staff’s knowledge.”
They were actually talking about it as if it was an everyday occurrence. Despite his earlier argument that other people had had weird things sent to them in the past, the body part in the mail had seriously wigged him out. He was just glad he hadn’t opened the thing himself.
His phone buzzed and Kale ignored the accusing look his brother sent him. Kale flipped open the leather case to read the message anyway. “Damn, the designer for the new Armani campaign pulled out last minute. Philippe needs me at the shoot within the hour.”
Caleb frowned at him and Kale knew he was winding up for a lecture. He didn’t know what it was between Philippe and his brother but the two men hated each other. “Can’t he call in one of his bunnies? And why isn’t he calling
me
? I’m your agent.”
“Probably because he knows you’ll say no. You know none of his
bunnies
, as you put it, meet the brief. He wants the dark hair, blue eyes, not too slim but not too built, classic look. I meet the criteria without being feminine. His bunnies don’t.” His phone buzzed again. “He says if I can’t come then he loses a whole day as he searches for a new model. I know you don’t like him but c’mon… He could lose his job.”
His brother dragged a hand through his hair and groaned in frustration. “Fine. Go, but take your bodyguard with you. Perhaps it will stop Philippe from groping you.”
Kale bit the inside of his cheek to stop himself from smiling. Little did his brother know that Philippe only flirted and pawed at him when Caleb was there. When he wasn’t, the man treated Kale with nothing but friendly respect.
Instead of saying anything more to Caleb, Kale turned back to Aleksi. He tried to give the man his signature come-hither smile, but his heart was pumping too fast for that look and he know it came across as shy. He was never shy. He posed for photos that people saw all over the world, sometimes in less than a Speedo. He could snap his fingers and have at least a dozen gorgeous men kneeling at his feet, begging him to sleep with them. Kale Andrews was
not
shy.
“Come on then, pretty. Let’s get this over with,” Aleksi said with a sigh, seemingly completely unimpressed.
Chapter Two
Aleksi knew he’d pissed off the pretty man but the comment the man’s brother had made about this Philippe designer pawing at Kale made his cat hiss. No matter how many times he told himself this was simply going to be another job, the same as any other, he couldn’t seem to believe it.
Kale was fascinating. While Scott and Caleb Andrews had signed the protection contracts, Aleksi had watched the man he was going to protect. As the man himself had described, Kale had a classically handsome look with his dark hair and bright blue eyes. Usually Aleksi went for men much bigger, almost as big as himself, because he was afraid he’d break anyone too small. There was something about Kale, though, that drew him. The ten-and-a-half-inch height difference between made an interesting change.
As they drove to the photo shoot, Aleksi decided to figure out how the male model felt about shifters. “Is there a reason you were reluctant to have protection from Shifter Protection Specialists, Inc.?”
Kale, to his credit, picked up on the question Aleksi hadn’t asked straight away.
“I don’t have anything against shifters. I didn’t want all this fuss. It’s just a few letters.”
“And an eyeball,” he added. It concerned him that the human seemed so calm about it all.
The man went a little green “Yes, thank you. I haven’t forgotten.”
“Good, you shouldn’t.”
They pulled into the studio parking structure. Aleksi smiled when Kale huffed and sighed as Aleksi made the man stay in the car until he had scoped the surroundings, checking for any threats.
He noted all the cars around them, looking for anything that stood out. Other than a van taking up two spaces and a Mini Cooper with a small stuffed toy hanging from the tailpipe, nothing seemed out of place in the environment. Aleksi drew in a deep breath. He scented no one close by.
“All clear.” He banged on the roof of the vehicle.
When Kale stepped out of the car and immediately headed for the elevator without so much as a look, Aleksi smiled again. The model could act unaffected, but Aleksi’s nose could tell that Kale had enjoyed watching him do the security sweep. The human kept looking at his biceps too.
“Remember, it’s best that you introduce me as your boyfriend,” Aleksi reiterated.
“I don’t understand why I can’t say you’re my bodyguard.”
“Because then the behavior of whoever is sending you letters may escalate dangerously. We want to catch him, not push him into doing something stupid.” He set a fast pace. There were too many places someone could hide.
Before they entered the elevator, Aleksi peered in first then guided Kale inside while looking back to make sure no one was trying to ambush them from behind. He still didn’t scent anyone on this level of the parking structure, but there were certain agents on the market who could disguise a person’s scent.
“Something stupid?”
Aleksi shrugged. “Some fans become stalkers. Others become criminals and a few have hurt the object of their obsession when they weren’t able to make them do what they imagined.”
As much as he didn’t want to scare his protectee, he understood that Kale needed to know this was serious and not something to be shrugged off because it didn’t fit into his lifestyle.
“I’m not sure I wanted to know that,” Kale commented with a grimace.
“You need to be aware of the danger. If you’re right and this is merely a fan who got carried away and will move on, then I’m sure all this will be cleared up in the next day or two. If I’m right and this is a credible threat, then one way or the other this will end soon.”
A tense silence followed and he started to feel guilty about his honesty. Perhaps his attraction to the model was throwing him off his game.
“That’s okay. I meant what I said at the office. I’ll do what you tell me when it concerns my safety. I keep my word.” Kale stabbed the studio floor button angrily and went quiet.
Aleksi was about to say something when the ding of the elevator doors sounded and, just like that, Kale seemed to shake off the attitude. It was the same way a fighter put on his game face before combat.
“By the way, Mr. McCade insinuated that you were a cat. What kind of cat?”
Grinning, Aleksi ignored Kale’s gaze and kept looking through the decreasing gap as the elevator doors slid closed. “I’m a saber-tooth tiger.”
* * * *
Kale was certain this shoot was going to be his last because he was going to murder the Frenchman. Philippe had wanted him to wear the suits and after an hour or so, that campaign photo list was complete. Somehow, the smooth-talking man managed to convince him to do some test shots for the new fragrance campaign. Kale didn’t mind—it was a great opportunity—but all he could think about was his new hot shifter shadow. The man was distractingly handsome and with Kale wearing a scrap of nude fabric that was somehow supposed to preserve his modesty, that was a problem—a big problem. Kale exited the changing area.
Aleksi was still in the same place as when Kale had gone to change. His bodyguard stood leaning against the wall, looking bored and completely disinterested with the whole fashion-shoot thing. Kale guessed the shifter must be wondering what he’d gotten himself into. No doubt Aleksi was used to protecting important people in high-adrenaline situations.
Kale was still reeling from the revelation that this god of a man was a freaking saber-tooth tiger. The shifter in question must have felt Kale’s gaze on him, because the man looked his way, and Kale swore he saw a flash of the dangerous cat within him. That should have scared Kale, but it only made the blood race in his veins and he couldn’t get enough air. He took a step forward.
Philippe chose that moment to notice he’d come out of the dressing room—and by room, Kale meant a small area marked off with standing Japanese blinds.
“Ah, good. You’re ready. I don’t want makeup for you on this one, so you’ll be fine with just the minimum you’re still wearing from the suit set.”