Page 43 of Her Elusive Cowboy Billionaire

Then, before she knew it, he was gone.

He paced.“I’m sorry.I keep telling myself I shouldn’t be kissing you.You’re under my protection, you work for me, and I need to remember not to take advantage of the situation.”

Guilt assaulted her.For him and for her.“We’re both to blame.I enjoy kissing you, too, and I know better than to do that.Besides that, we need to think of some way to lure this man out of hiding so we can catch him.The only way I can think of is with bait.Me.He knows I’m injured, but he can’t reach me?—”

Chase walked over to her and grabbed her by her upper arms.His face was thunderous.“No!Absolutely not.”

“Why?You’ll keep me safe.”She ran her hands up his dress shirt-clad chest.The smooth silk soft beneath her questing fingers.“You know I’m right.”

He closed his eyes and stilled her hands with his.“No,” he said.

She was getting to him.

He had less conviction in his voice.

“Yes.We’ll move back to my place.It’s easier to get into.You’ll stay there with me, but he won’t know it.He’ll think I’m recuperating at home.I’d like to get a little more healing time here before we do this, and while I do, we can make more permanent plans before we put them in place.”

Chase shook his head.“This is a bad idea.If he’s monitoring the place, he’ll know I’m there.I have to walk in with you.Maybe we can put decoys in there.My people can pretend to be us.”

She stepped back and went to the window, then turned toward him.“You know as well as I do, he’ll know it’s not you.You’re too well known.With me, they might get away with using a decoy, but I still think my way is better.I believe it’s the only way we’ll be able to get him.He’s too smart, Chase.Look at all the years you’ve been looking for him and haven’t found him.Now, we have a real shot at putting him away.You know I’m right.”She put her hands on her hips.“Do you have a better idea?Something that will work?Right now, he’s looking for me.He’s not looking for you…yet.”

He ran his hands over his face.“If I’d had a better idea, we’d already have implemented it.”

She walked back toward him, stopping about a foot away.“You know this has to happen.We can’t move forward until he’s behind bars.”Or dead.I won’t say that out loud, but those are the only two choices.

“All right.I’ll consider it, but not until you are healed.You get your stitches out in another week.While I admit you are doing amazingly well, we’ll let the doctor decide if you’re fit for duty.”

She placed her hands on her hips.“Fit for duty?I’m not in the military, nor do I work for you.I could just go home now and wing it without you.I told you I know how to use a gun, even have a conceal carry permit.I’m good with it.Maybe I’ll get the drop on him before he gets it on me.”

Chase approached her with dark, narrowed eyes and his mouth in a firm line.“You will not place yourself in danger like that.Do you hear me?”

She grinned.“You care.”Meri rose onto her tiptoes and kissed him.“I’ll compromise and wait to see what the doctor says, but we will not tell him about the plan.I’ll simply see if he’ll release me for work.”

He turned and walked to the window, his body shaking.Then he turned back toward her.“You are the most exasperating, irritating woman I’ve ever known.”

“And you are the most arrogant, pig-headed man I’ve ever known.”

He returned his gaze out the window.“If we do this and I say if, you have to follow my instructions to the letter.”Then he rounded on her.“Can you do that?To the letter?”

She wrapped her right arm around her torso.“I can and I will.”She wouldn’t tell him her stomach was roiling, and all she wanted to do was lie on the bed in a fetal position.She must stay strong.They needed to put an end to this terror.

Chase walked over to her, grabbed her upper arms and then gently wrapped his arms around her.“I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

She started to wrap her arms around his neck, but a sharp pain in her left side stopped her.“Oww.”

He immediately stepped back.“I’m sorry.”

Meri pressed a finger into his chest.“Don’t you dare be sorry for holding me.I won’t hear of it.Understand?”

He grinned.“Yes, ma’am.”

Stepping back, she turned and headed for her room, talking to him as she went, her right arm making circles over her head.“I am putting my sling on.My side hurts and I haven’t been using it enough.”

Chase watched her go.How would he keep her safe?From him?

His feelings for her were wrong and more intense than he’d ever felt in his life.Far surpassing his feelings for anyone else, even Paige.How could he let the woman he loved put herself in harm’s way?Another way had to exist.He’d been doing everything he could to get the assailant to come out.He did everything with no bodyguard, from walking around town doing grocery shopping, to sitting in City Park on a bench reading a paper.All of his actions trying to get the man to come after him.But he didn’t.No one so much as looked at him funny.

Meri returned to the living room wearing her sling.She walked over to the sofa and flopped down.“Are we eating in here or in the kitchen or at the table?”