You are Mine Read Free

fingers through
her hair. “Not quite,” he reminded her. “Don’t forget that Jae will
be coming along, too.”
    Caroline felt her tension return in full
measure.
    “You’re the one insisting that he comes,”
Brian said after she’d been silent for a while. “I think we’d be
fine with just the two of us.”
    She sighed. “It’s not the fact that he’s
coming; it’s the idea that he’s needed at all. And I know his
coming was my idea. He’s a bodyguard -- he should be guarding
bodies.” After they’d returned from their honeymoon, Brian had
insisted that they hire a bodyguard, and considering how close her
stalker had gotten, she hadn’t tried to dissuade him from his
decision. She’d known she wouldn’t have been able to change his
mind so she didn’t waste time and energy trying.
    “He’s your bodyguard, not mine. I hired him
to protect you when I’m not around.”
    “Yes,” Caroline agreed, “but I want you
protected as well, and there’s no sense in telling me that you can
guard the both of us just fine on your own because it won’t make me
feel any better. I love you just as much as you love me and
Alexander Brickman is a very dangerous man. Now I’m sorry if it
hurts your ego, but I think we can use all the help we can get.
Brickman has an advantage: he’s willing to kill to get what he
wants. He’s already proven that.”
    “And I’m willing to kill to keep you
safe.”
    His voice held no emotion in its
resoluteness and Caroline frowned. What he didn’t say was that he’d
die to save her, but she knew he’d deliberately put himself in
harm’s way if it meant saving her life. “I know that,” she replied
softly. “But you need protection too.”
    “Well, there’s no point in discussing it
anymore; the decision has already been made to bring Jae
along.”
    “My point exactly,” Caroline said and felt
an automatic spurt of triumph go through her. It was short-lived,
however, as the reason for Jae’s presence reasserted itself. “At
any rate --” she was rudely interrupted by a jaw-crackling yawn.
Her own. She scowled because exhaustion had hit her with a sudden
punch. “Oh, excuse me…darn it,” she muttered sleepily. Abruptly it
felt as if her body were carrying at least an extra fifty pounds.
Slumping against Brian, she slurred, “You ha-haveta pro -- (another
huge yawn) “Shoot -- pardon. I’m so sorry.”
    She pressed a soft kiss against his neck in
amends and he began to smooth his hand over her hair soothingly.
“Don’t fight it, baby. Just go to sleep.”
    Caroline burrowed into him some more. “I
will, but you have to promise me that you’ll be careful, Bri…I mean
it would be ridic’lous to take…take…”
    Brian grinned when he felt her go completely
limp against him and when the sound of soft snores reached his
ears; he smiled some more and shook his head. The pregnancy brought
exhaustion quickly and completely, making her fall asleep at the
oddest times and in the oddest places. He’d even found her asleep
on the commode the week before. He kissed her forehead and
chuckled. “Pleasant dreams, sweetheart.” He reached over and turned
off the bedside lamp.
    His amusement was cut short when thoughts of
Alexander Brickman intruded once again. The man had turned out to
be their own personal menace. An amateur photographer, Caroline had
been on one of her Saturday morning jaunts just after they’d
started dating. She had inadvertently taken Brickman’s picture,
and, unbeknownst to them, drawn the man’s obsessive attention.
Brian sighed. Almost since Caroline and he had met, the threat of
Brickman had been hovering over them like an ominous cloud. Wanted
by several law enforcement agencies, the other man had been on the
run for at least a decade.
    Brian supposed that was something they could
be grateful for. If Brickman didn’t have to keep moving so often or
stay in hiding, he might have been successful in kidnapping
Caroline by now. He stared at