Her rather angry-looking assailant.
Who also happened to be her bodyguard. The one who had told her not to leave the house without him.
“Oh crap,” she muttered, directing her gaze to her feet.
“Oh crap is right,” he said in a low voice, his finger sliding under her chin and pushing her head back. “And you’re going to look at me for this part. You are in a world of trouble. Stay. Here.”
“But—”
“No buts. Stay right here or I swear I’m going to turn you over my knee right here and now.”
“Hey!” Ryan protested. “You can’t talk to her like that, you asshole! Who the fuck do you think you are!”
Oh no he didn’t! He didn’t get to speak to Matthieu like that! She spun back to Ryan. “Who the fuck do you think you are!” She pointed at him. “You’re sitting out here, watching me get changed into my pajamas and touching yourself like a fucking creep.”
“He was doing what?” Matthieu asked in a low voice.
Maya gulped. Uh-oh. She didn’t like that tone of voice from him. Matthieu turned to Ryan who had climbed out of his car. Ryan seemed to shrink back when faced with Matthieu’s wrath.
When she’d first met Ryan, she’d thought he was attractive. He kept himself fit at the gym, he was always dressed well, clean cut, smart. Although he definitely spent too much money on hair product. At times she’d wondered if his hair was even real. It never moved.
At all.
That had sort of freaked her out. And then as she’d gotten to know him, well, he’d become less and less attractive. And now,standing next to Matthieu, well, Ryan kind of faded into the background.
“What were you doing?” Matthieu asked, stepping closer to Ryan.
“You . . . you just stay where you are!” Ryan cried, holding up a hand. “You can’t touch me! I’ll call the cops! I’ll sue!”
“Go ahead and call them,” Matthieu said. “I’m sure that they’ll be very interested in the way that you’ve been stalking the chief of police’s daughter. How you’ve been jacking off while watching her get undressed.”
Oh God.
Yep. She really needed to vomit.
What a fucking creep! How had she kept excusing what he was doing? And how often had he been spying on her like that?
Ryan’s face grew smug. “We all know that her father doesn’t give a shit about her. Like any cop is going to believe that I would be doing that. They’ll take my side over hers. The whole force believes she’s a spoiled brat who lies to get her way.”
Right. Because those were the lies that Vince had spread about her. Lies that Kathryn’s sons had backed up. Because they were all fucking assholes.
“So you thought that you’d take advantage of that?” Matthieu asked in a low, calm-sounding voice.
Ryan started relaxing, taken in by his tone. But Maya wasn’t fooled, she could now see that Matthieu wasn’t as calm as he was pretending to be. His shoulders were too clenched. And he was too still. As though he was conserving energy . . . getting ready to pounce.
Maybe she should stop him. Ryan deserved everything he got . . . but Matthieu didn’t need to end up in jail for murdering him.
“Matthieu,” she whispered, moving closer to him. She dared put her hand on his arm. She tried not to shudder in response. That would be kind of inappropriate.
But, then again, when had any of her feelings toward him been appropriate?
He glanced down at her briefly, then back at Ryan. Then he surprised her by moving his arm across her body to grab her hip. Before putting pressure on it so she had to move until she was standing behind him.
“Stay there,” he said firmly.
She wasn’t sure whether he was talking to her or to Ryan.
Maybe both of them.
