Chapter 6

Dexter went to change when he got home and later went down and outside to the pool. He saw her swimming and walked over to the edge, watching her until she noticed him.

“You’re good,” he shouted out.

She swam closer to him. “Why don’t you join me?”

“I don’t have a suit.”

“There’s plenty of new ones in the pool house. They’ve never been worn. Or can’t you swim?” she asked, teasing him.

He turned his head away so as not to see her body under the skimpy bikini she had on.

“I can swim. I just don’t think your father would appreciate me being in there with you. I’ll just go sit down and wait until you’re done.”

“My father’s not here, and I know you’re dying to come in.”

When he still refused, she splashed him, getting him wet. She started laughing.

“You’re wet, so you might as well come in. Come on. No one will know.”

He smiled and figured that he might as well, since he was already wet. So he went into the pool house and found some unopened swimsuits.

He removed his clothes and put one on and headed back outside. He dove into the pool, splashing her, giving her a taste of her own medicine.

He had to admit, it did feel refreshing as he swam from one end to the other. After several laps, he stopped and leaned his back up against the wall. He stayed put, watching her swim toward him.

“You’re good and fast,” she said when she reached him.

“You’re not bad yourself,” he replied, watching the way the water dripped down between her breasts. Realizing he was staring, he turned his head.

“Don’t you own any other bathing suits other than this one?”

She smiled wickedly. Who would have thought that the big, tough bodyguard would be so shy around a woman in a bikini?

“I do, but I like this one. Don’t you like it?” she asked, getting in front of him.

He did look at her, but he kept his eyes on her face. “I like it. It’s just too revealing and is very distracting.”

“Oh, sorry. I could take it off if you want me to.”

He cleared his throat and felt his lower part twitching. He knew she was teasing him, trying to get a rise out of him, and it was working. But he couldn’t let her know that.

“Do what you want. Just remember there are cameras around now, so unless you want others seeing you naked, I suggest you keep it on.”

Narrowing her eyes, she smirked as she stared into his eyes. She knew it was wrong to flirt with him, but she so enjoyed how his face would turn red.

“I suppose you’re right. We wouldn’t want the staff to get a hold of the security tape and see me. Maybe you should have reconsidered putting cameras back here. Oh well. It’s your loss.”

She swam over to the steps and got out. She grabbed a towel and turned to him as she dried herself off. “Dinner will be ready soon, so we should shower and change.”

She deliberately said “we,” and seeing how his body stiffened, she giggled.

“I meant separately, in our own rooms,” she said and walked away and headed into the house.

He took a deep breath when she was gone. His manhood was feeling hard and confined inside his swim trunks. Roxie was making it hard on him, in more ways than one.

Never had he experienced this before around other women. He was always able to control his urges. But he was finding it difficult around her.

But he was a professional and would not allow himself to give in. So he decided the best way to get his mind off of her was to do a few hard laps around the pool.

As he was getting ready to go down to dinner, there was a knock at his door. He had just put on his pants, and with his shirt in hand, he went over and opened it.

Roxie was standing there but walked in without an invite. “Please, come in,” he said with sarcasm.

She turned to smile at him. “I thought we could go down to dinner together,” she said, looking around his room. She chewed on her bottom lip when he opened the door shirtless.

He had a muscular chest, great biceps, and a six-pack that had her mouth watering. She walked over to where his bag full of gear was in full view.

She picked up the handcuffs and looked at him. “I see you’re into kinky stuff.”

He walked over and took them from her. “The things in this bag are not toys.”

She picked up something that looked like a button. “What’s this for?”

Again he took it from her. “It’s a bug, a listening device for putting in small places or under a table.”

She picked up a few other things, and he told her what they were. He figured he might as well. Then she might stop asking questions.

He stuffed everything back into the bag and put his shirt on and cracked a smile when she picked up a pen.

“What does this do? Is it a special weapon? Or does it shoot out poison?” She was so intrigued by all the equipment he had. Some of them looked like everyday items, but they did some weird stuff.

Buttoning up his shirt, he shook his head. “That, Roxie, is just an ordinary pen.”

She smiled at him and giggled.

“Oh,” she said, laying the pen down. “I guess we should go down now for dinner. I’m a little hungry after that swim in the pool. Maybe later we can play a game in the family room.”

Noticing the look he gave her, she gave him a sweet smile. “Relax, I’m not making a move on you. We have many board games—Scrabble and other ones. It will help to pass the time.”

“You do get a kick out of teasing me, don’t you?”

“I sure do,” she said, heading to the dining room.

They had just sat down, and their meal was placed before them, when she heard the sound of heels clicking on the floor, coming in their direction.

Both of them turned their heads when a woman walked in. Dexter recognized the woman as Thomas’s wife.

“Oh good. I’m in time for dinner.”

“I thought you weren’t coming home for another week,” Roxie said, staring at her stepmother.

“I know, but the people I was with are so boring, so I decided to come home early,” she said, sitting down.

“It’s a good thing I did come home. Roxie, what have you been up to? I see you brought someone home with you again.”

Roxie felt her anger building. Claudia was making it sound like she was always bringing strange men into their home when they were gone.

“You know very well father hired a bodyguard. This is Dexter Sinclair.”

Claudia turned to him, smiling.

“Oh yes. Thomas did say he was going to. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Sinclair. I do hope you will be comfortable here, and if there’s anything I can do to make that possible, just let me know.”

He saw the way she used her fingertip to run over the low neckline of her top, doing it for him to notice her cleavage.

She was quite beautiful, with long thick red hair, but he could tell she was not a nice person.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Greene, but I’m very comfortable, so there will be no need to bother you.”

When she wasn’t getting the attention she wanted from him, she snapped at the maid to bring her some dinner and to bring them a bottle of wine.

Roxie smiled to herself and was glad that Dexter wasn’t falling for Claudia’s charm or the way she was trying to seduce him with her actions.

Though she never had any proof, she was sure Claudia was always cheating on her father.

“Thomas has always been so protective of his little princess, but I think he’s overreacting. It’s probably someone just playing games, and he’ll stop on his own.”

“It’s not a game. Someone put a camera in the teddy bear—the one I had in my bedroom—and has been watching me.”

“Oh Roxie, you’re such a drama queen. How do we know it wasn’t you who put the camera there to get attention?”

She looked over at Dexter. “The girl is always wanting attention from her father, and when she doesn’t get it, she makes up things.

“You may very well be wasting your time here. I do not believe she’s in any danger.”

He knew people, and Roxie was not what Claudia was making her out to be, and he didn’t like the way she was talking about her.

He also didn’t like this woman and sensed she was nothing but trouble.

“I believe she is in danger. The camera was put there by someone who knew what they were doing. I’ve only known your stepdaughter for a few days, and I can tell she is an honest person.

“I will protect her until I can find out who’s behind the threats.”

Roxie sat there, listening and watching the look on Claudia’s face. It was a look of pure shock. No one had ever talked to her that way before, or in that tone of voice.

She looked over at him and smiled. He smiled back.

Pushing her plate away, Claudia stood up and grabbed the bottle of wine.

“Tell the maid to bring me up another plate of food to my room, and tell her this time it better be hot,” she snapped, walking out of the room.

“Thank you for sticking up for me.”

“She was way out of line, and I know you are in danger. It’s none of my business, but she appears not to like you very much.”

“Claudia has never liked me, but then again I never liked her either.”

“She’s jealous of you,” he said, feeling sorry for Roxie. “Some women are like that when they marry a man who has children. I don’t think she likes the attention you get from your father.

“She probably feels like you are more important to him than she is.”

“Well, if she ever stayed home more and went with him on his business trips, she might get the attention from him that she wants. He never should have married that bitch. She treats him like shit.”

When they were done eating, they went into the family room, and she took out one of the board games.

After they’d played for a while, she said she was going to bed, and he decided to stay up for a while.

He went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and when he turned around, Claudia was standing there, watching him.

“I just came to get something to drink,” she said, moving slowly toward him. She was wearing a white nightgown, no robe. It clung to her curves. The top was low-cut and was a tad see-through.

He moved out of the way. He knew when a woman was coming on to him. She definitely was, and he wasn’t having any of it. “Don’t let me stop you. I was just leaving.”

She moved in front of him, preventing him from leaving. “If you’re lonely, my bedroom is at the other end of the hallway.”

She placed her hand on his chest. “I get so lonely when my husband is away. I could really use some company.”

He removed her hand from his chest. “You’re a married woman. And even if you weren’t, I’m not interested,” he said and went to walk away but stopped when she called out to him.

He turned to face her and could see how mad she was by the way her face had turned red.

“You’re interested in Roxie. I can tell by the way you look at her.”

“Mrs. Greene, I’m here to do a job and nothing more.”

“Don’t get too attached to Roxie. She is spoken for. She and Joseph Metcalf will be getting married in the near future.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to marry him.”

“She might feel that way right now, but she will marry him. Joseph is a very rich man who always gets what he wants. And what he wants is Roxie.

“My husband has already arranged for the marriage. She may not love the man, but she also knows he can get her father’s business into Paris. It will also benefit her.”

He stared at her. He really disliked this woman. “Oh really? How could it benefit Roxie?”

“When they move to Paris and Thomas has his foot in the door, he will open a business there, and she will be running it.

“There she can make her own designs and make a name for herself in the fashion industry. It’s always been her dream, and we wouldn’t want to stand in her way, now would we?”

“Your husband could always make her partner here.”

“I doubt that’s going to happen. Joseph will be coming to visit her in a couple of weeks, and I suspect they will soon be announcing their engagement.”

“Good night, Mrs. Greene,” he said, walking away. There was something about that woman and this Metcalf guy that didn’t sit right with him.