The Perfect Target. Jenna Mills
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The thrill never went away. Sometimes, she still couldn’t believe she’d finally convinced her father to let her live her own life. Eleven years before tragedy had forever changed their family, and in its wake, he’d tightened the net around his family to near unbearable restrictions. But Miranda hadn’t seen Hawk Monroe or any of his men in weeks. And she’d certainly looked. She knew the tricks, knew the small tests to figure out if someone was shadowing her or merely living their own lives.
More than anything, Miranda wanted to live her own life.
At the end of the street stood a trendy boutique, boasting the seaside village’s finest collection of European perfumes. Miranda was tempted to dash inside but didn’t want to waste the hazy morning light. She’d seen a fleet of old, rainbow-colored fishing boats bobbing in the harbor from her hotel window, and—
The all too familiar feeling of dread slammed in from nowhere. She stopped abruptly and sucked in a sharp breath, but the icy fingers at the back of her neck didn’t go away. Slipping her sunglasses back on, she turned slowly, carefully scanning the crowd milling about the bazaar.
Nothing. Nothing out of place, anyway. No one hurriedly ducked into a shop. No one covertly turned away. No one quickly raised a newspaper to cover their face. She was only imagining things, so used to living in a fishbowl that even here, in this small seaside village, she felt the eyes of the world watching.
Posh, she scolded herself. Get a grip. She flat-out wasn’t that important, even if her family was.
Her heart, however, refused to slow. The uncooperative organ kept pounding, spewing adrenaline with every hurried beat. Dismayed, Miranda forced herself to round the corner and head for the ocean. No way would she let paranoia spoil the perfect, storm-washed morning.
Beyond the battered seawall, the glistening blue of the Atlantic stole her breath. The day before, she’d stood in just this spot, staring over the water and imagining what it must have been like for those long-ago Portuguese sailors, who left their familiar worlds behind, in search of something new.
Freedom.
Odd, she thought. Her own quest for freedom had carried her across the very same ocean, but in the opposite direction.
Silently, she thanked God for airplanes.
Through the camera’s lens, she scanned the swelling waves and bobbing fishing boats, over to the palm-lined promenade along the shore, where pigeons flocked and a young couple kissed with what could only be described as desperation. They were wrapped around each other so tightly, not even the breeze could squeeze between them. The man had one hand buried in the woman’s dark brown hair, the other hand securely around her waist. Their mouths moved like a ballet, not overtly sexual, but erotically intimate, as though they were making love right there—
Miranda caught herself. She of all people knew better than to aim a camera at intimate moments. Returning her attention to the harbor, she tried to focus on the weathered fishing boats practically begging to be photographed, and not the unwanted longing yawning through her.
“No, no, no. That’s not right at all.”
The rough-hewn voice rumbled through Miranda, causing her pulse to surge like one of the waves against the seawall. She abandoned the perfect close-up on a battered blue boat and turned. Felt her body tense.
A tall, dark-haired man stood less than a foot away, closer than American manners dictated, invading her personal space in a style common to European men. She’d grown accustomed to the practice, but this man’s nearness kicked her nerves into high gear. Dark sunglasses concealed his eyes, the frames and lenses the color of the whiskers shadowing his jaw. They were the kind worn by rock stars to create that edgy, mysterious persona that drove women wild. In hiding his eyes, he concealed his intent and sent a current streaking through Miranda, as indefinable as it was unsettling.
“I beg your pardon?” she said with a refinement that would have done her perfect older sister proud.
He nodded toward the camera in her hands. “The picture you were about to take. It’s all wrong.”
“Wrong?” She felt her spine stiffen. She may have been a novice when it came to political intrigue, but she knew photography inside out. “How so?”
He slid the sunglasses from his face, revealing eyes as dark and impenetrable as the lenses that had shielded them. A slow smile touched lips too full for a face of sharp angles and hard planes. “Because you’re not in it.”
The breath stalled in her throat. Her heart thudded against her ribs. Not just because of the unexpectedly provocative words, but because of the way he looked at her, like she was the coveted trophy at the end of a long, hard fought battle. She’d never seen a gaze so full of secrets and promises, never seen eyes that dark, like the color of midnight.
Walk away, countless hours of security training commanded. This man wasn’t what he seemed. He watched her way too expectantly; his stance held the same deceptive casualness as the bodyguards who’d followed her around at Wellesley. But instead of finding his nearness threatening, Miranda found herself curious. No one knew her here, she reminded herself. No one lurked in the shadows, ready to hurt her or shame her family.
“I’m not in it?” she repeated with a smile of her own. He was tall, she noted, well over her brother’s six feet. And his hair matched the color of his eyes. “I see myself in the mirror every morning. I hardly need a picture of myself.”
His voice dropped an octave. “Then give it to me.”
This time she did step back. “Now why would I do that?”
His eyes met hers. “So I can remember the way you look standing here, with the sun in your hair and the smile on your face.”
Something inside Miranda turned hot and liquid. Fascination whispered louder. The man’s dark hair and unshaven face lent him an aura of danger, but he spoke like a poet. He was dressed like a tourist, but held a professional-looking briefcase. His swarthy skin hinted at Mediterranean ancestry, but he wore his loose-fitting black shirt and olive slacks like only an American could. He spoke accented English, but used perfect grammar.
“I should be going,” she said, pulling away before she stepped in too deep.
He reached toward her. “Let me take your picture first.”
Miranda went very still. She looked down at her arm, where his warm fingers curled around her wrist. The sight jarred her, of a blatantly masculine hand on her body. For the past few years, if a stranger so much as brushed against her in a crowd, agents or bodyguards emerged from the shadows, alert and ready.
And Miranda had hated it. She’d hated being watched, monitored, hated being denied a normal life because of her family’s notoriety. She hadn’t asked to be born a Carrington. She didn’t care about politics. She had no interest in carrying on the family legacy.
She’d just wanted to live her life, to laugh and dance and even fall down sometimes, without the whole world watching.
Butterfly, her maternal grandfather had called her. The only butterfly in a family of eagles.
Instinct had her covertly scanning the surrounding area, half expecting to see Hawk Monroe running toward her. But just like before, she found only a dazzling fountain spraying toward the pale blue sky, pigeons, street merchants and tourists.
Slowly, the stranger released her. “Bella? Did I say something wrong?”
Bella. There it was. The first clue to the puzzle. Italian. “No,” she said. “You didn’t say anything wrong.”
“Then why do you look so…nervous?”
That got her. She didn’t want to be nervous. She didn’t want to react with paranoia to the very situations she’d come to Europe to experience. “What makes you think I’m nervous?”
“The way you’re standing, like you’re about to take off running. The fact you’ve yet to let me see your eyes.”