And in the mountains, they had a hell of a good chance of being stranded.
Worse—they’d be stranded alone, with no one to stop him from acting on his urge to pull her flush against him and plunder her sweet, full lips.
Ten minutes down the road, data started to flood in, and his phone beeped with emails. The snow fell faster and thicker. He rerouted his GPS, but the first chance to turn south was in forty miles. The weather could make that journey turn into hours.
He wanted to stop and read through some of the information Josiah—and probably Corrine—sent, but he couldn’t stop now.
He uncapped a bottle of water and drank the entire thing. Without thinking, he tossed the empty bottle over the seat. The crinkly sound of the plastic hitting one of the spare sets of chains on the floor made Pippa sit up straight.
She looked around in confusion, her gaze landing on him.
“Ross.”
Whenever he heard her gritty tone—he now knew as a result of her attack—he wanted to snap someone’s neck.
“It’s okay. We’re on the road.”
She blinked at the windshield and then reached for her glasses. Once they were on her face, she said, “I thought it was snowing.”
“Can’t you tell without your glasses?”
“I can see blobs. Colors. That’s about all.”
“Why don’t you get that laser eye surgery?”
“I might someday. I’ve been a little busy the past decade.”
“Busy finding breakthroughs that will change medicine.”
She tucked her chin into the blanket and grew quiet for a long minute. He’d embarrassed her—and it was the cutest damn thing he’d ever seen. He wished the sun was up so he could see her complexion. Did her blood draw to the surface of her skin? Did her flush make her freckles stand out?
“Should it be snowing so much?” she changed the topic.
“Well, it is late fall. That means snow in the mountains, and we’re heading into it. Worse, Josiah just told me they found a newborn calf on the ranch.”
“Oh no.” She brushed that lock of hair away. “You weren’t expecting it to be born now?”
“We don’t calve in fall. We like them to be born when it’s warmer and no chance of them dropping in the snow, like this one did.”
“Will it be okay?” The dash lights reflected off the lenses of her glasses, but he saw her eyes were wide with worry.
He didn’t consciously plan to reach out and touch her arm.
His hand just sort of ended up there.
She stilled under his touch. The wool blanket had a rougher feel than he knew the skin under it would be. Still, she wore several layers as barrier between his flesh and hers.
For the better.
He pulled back and clenched his hand on his thigh. “Do you like working for MIZR?”
Before answering, she unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned over the console to locate something in the back seat. He gritted his teeth at the sight of her round ass in the air.
A second later she dropped into her seat with a bottle of water and the box of blueberry bars. She drank and ate the bar, taking her good old time before answering his question.
When she crumpled the empty wrapper and tucked it into the pocket on the door, she offered him the box.
He waved a hand.
“You don’t like blueberry?”
“I’m good.”
She pulled a second from the box and ate it too. Just when he thought he’d go crazy waiting for her response, she broke the silence. “I love my company. They recruited me when I was in high school.”
“You’re kidding me.”
The note of shyness seeped into her tone. “I won a science competition. And it got some notice.”
“I’m surprised my parents never said anything about it.”
“MIZR granted me a scholarship to attend Yale, to be doubled if I signed a three-year contract with them.”
“So you’re locked in.”
She shook her head. “No. I fulfilled the terms of that contract and stayed on with them.”
“I see.”
“To be honest, Ross, I’d be shocked to learn someone in the lab threatened me. We’re sort of a family. We throw geeky parties roasting marshmallows over Bunsen burners.”
He huffed a laugh. “We did that in high school.”
“Yes, we are just as nerdy as you’d expect scientists working in a lab to be. I don’t know a single person who would want to hurt me.”
He heard the pain echo in her voice, and he got that pang again—the urge to reach out and soothe her. To protect.
To kill for her.
Goddamn, he was in trouble.
* * * * *
When Pippa emerged from the skanky truck stop restroom, a set of wide shoulders loomed up. She shrank with a scream bottled in her throat.
Then instinct kicked in.
Her elbow drew back, and she aimed all her force at the man’s jaw.
The blow connected, and pain shot up her arm.
“What the…?” The man grappled with her, and she aimed another blow, this one for the bridge of his nose.
“Stop! Fucking hell, Pip! It’s me—Ross!” He grabbed her shoulders.
Shock rippled through her. She’d just delivered an elbow strike to her bodyguard. Irritation followed hard on the heels of her shock.
“Why are you lurking outside the bathroom door? You scared the fudge out of me.”
“Don’t you ever swear?”
She gaped at him. “What?”
He rubbed at his jaw. “C’mon, say it, Pippa—you scared the fuck outta me, Ross.” He took her by the arm and led her across the pavement to the truck parked a short distance away. The bright lights and rumble of diesel engines, along with the thickly falling snow, lent a surreal feeling to the night. As if she needed her life to feel like more of a dream.
As soon as they were settled in the locked truck, she drew the blanket over herself.
His green eyes were cast in shadow by his hat. “Are you going to say it or not?”
“No, I’m not.”
“C’mon, Pippa.”
“Are we kids again and you’re trying to pressure me into saying a bad word so we both get in trouble?”
His lips twitched at the corner. “It will make you feel better.”
“Is this some kind of ‘bellow to the world how you’re feeling so you get it off your chest’ moment?”
“Exactly.”
“And you were trained in the psychology of this?”
“Not exactly.”
“Then why do you want me to say the F word?”
He dropped his gaze to her lips. “You don’t have to say it. We’d best get on the road. And to answer your question, I waited for you outside the restroom to make sure you weren’t attacked again.”
Her stomach knotted. “Well…thank you.”
“Doin’ my job.”
“What do you charge for your services anyway? What’s the going rate for a bodyguard?”
“Personal protection officers receive about a thousand bucks a week. But our prices are a bit on the higher end, due to our training and reputation.”
“How did you manage to build your company so quickly?”
“How did you make the discovery of the century?” he turned the tables on her.