A Bodyguard for Christmas. Donna Young

turned away, not wanting to deal with the contempt that flashed in his eyes. Instead, she studied her surroundings, cringing.

      Roses spattered on the wallpaper all four sides of the room—their image faded until the flowers were no more than red splotches on the walls. The only thing that broke the dizzying monotony was the black lacquered bed and matching nightstand, both scuffed and cigarette scarred.

      “Where are we, anyway?” A shag carpet—crimson and orange-speckled—covered the floor, its traffic pattern worn bald from the door, to the bathroom, to the bed.

      “We’re in downtown D.C.”

      “I must have been out of it quite a while.”

      “Almost two hours.”

      “No wonder I’m dizzy.” On the nightstand, she saw the matches. “The Carltonesque? That’s catchy,” she murmured, suddenly grateful for the scent of her smoke-filled clothes. “Your father never brought me here, that’s for sure. Of course, if I had been his mistress, I would have insisted. Can’t beat a place that comes with a scarlet shag carpet and matching velveteen bedspread.” She plucked at the bedding to prove her point.

      “If you’re trying to convince me, lady, that you’re telling the truth, you’re going about it the wrong way.”

      “I’m not trying to convince you of anything, Jordan.” His attitude, his problem. Not hers.

      He raised an eyebrow.

      “I already told you the truth and I don’t have the energy to defend myself.” The pounding in her head picked up its tempo. “Could I get some aspirin?”

      “I don’t have any.”

      “Then your accusations are going to have to wait five minutes.” Regina sat cross-legged on the bed. She raised her right arm and bent her elbow. She found the pressure point two fingers above her elbow and pressed with her thumb.

      “You have a bump on your head, not on your arm.”

      With her eyes closed, she slowly turned her head from one side to the other. “I know that. But it isn’t the skull that hurts so much as the muscles at the neck that have tightened to fend off the pain,” she explained patiently, before returning to a simple form of meditation breathing.

      “So holding your elbow will heal your neck—”

      “Shh,” she ordered, only to regret the action when another jab of pain hit her head.

      “Are you trying to annoy me?” he snapped.

      “No, but if I’m succeeding, I’ll consider it a bonus. After all, you annoyed me first,” she pointed out.

      “Of all the bloody—”

      “Can you stop yelling? Please?”

      “I wasn’t.” But his voice softened to a dangerous growl.

      She let her hands drop to her lap and sighed. “What I’m trying to do is get rid of my head and neck pain. I need to think clearer. If I try to deal with you right now, my headache will only get worse and that won’t do either of us any good.”

      “So your answer is yoga?”

      “No, my answer is aspirin, but since there isn’t any I have to make do. And this isn’t yoga. It’s acupressure. I read this remedy in a book—”

      “You read it in a book?” His opinion was short, pithy.

      “The concept shouldn’t be much of a reach, even for a slow thinker like you,” she remarked. “Own a bookstore. Surrounded by books. Love books,” she added, then once again closed her eyes and continued the pressure. “Plethora of information, if you can read.”

      Suddenly, she opened one eye again. “You can read, right?”

      “Yes.”

      She grunted, shutting her eyelid once more. “Then you’re lucky. Many can’t.”

      “Let me guess, you’re into causes, too?”

      Regina ignored him. Something that wasn’t easy to do. After a full minute, one she was sure he spent staring at her back, he decided to give her the five minutes.

      Unhurried, he stretched out on the bed behind her.

      His weight threw her back into him. Every time she scooted forward, she’d fall back again. After a few minutes, she gave up.

      “Headache gone?” he asked and folded his arms behind his head. He seemed relaxed, but she wasn’t fooled. The man was angry. Not enraged, but annoyed enough to keep his jaw tight.

      “No.” Regina decided to retreat, if only to give her some space to think. She stood, then walked to the far side of the room—which wasn’t more than five feet—and sat in the straight-back chair. The movement only seemed to increase the pressure in her head.

      She noticed the gray coin box on the headboard. “Does the bed vibrate?”

      He glanced at the box. “It appears so.”

      “Really?” For a brief second, she debated on trying it out, to see if it would help ease her neck ache. But she didn’t have money. When she glanced at Jordan, he shook his head.

      “Fine.”

      “I’ll make a deal with you,” Jordan said, the hard line of his mouth slipped into an easy smile. “I’ll massage your neck while you talk to me about my father’s journal.”

      “It would be easier just to get me some aspirin,” she said, more than a little disgruntled. The last thing she wanted was close proximity right now.

      “Not at this time of night,” Jordan explained. “It’s either the massage or nothing.”

      He moved to the edge of the bed, placed his feet on the floor and opened his knees. “Right here,” he said and pointed in front of him.

      For a moment she was tempted. “No, thanks.”

      “Suit yourself.”

      Instead, she leaned over and placed her forehead in her hands. The throbbing increased until nausea twisted her stomach into knots. She was being truthful; she couldn’t think straight with sledgehammers battering her skull. But it was ridiculous to sit there and let the headache turn into a migraine.

      “This is such a bad decision.” She crossed over and settled into the vee between his thighs. “All right, but just for the record, I wanted you to get me some aspirin.”

      “Just for the record, I wouldn’t trust you not to take off on me as soon as I get you out the door.”

      “I wouldn’t do that,” Regina said softly. “I want to help Chris. The journal implicates him as a terrorist.”

      “You said you looked at the journal. What do you remember reading?”

      “He and at least four others were planning some kind of threat. One that involved killing millions.”

      “Ridiculous. My old man would never have betrayed his country.” His thumbs worked the muscles at the back of her neck, lighting little fires along her nerve endings.

      “Who were the others?”

      “I don’t know,” she answered. “Chris addressed most of them by code names. Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta and Echo. I’m not sure what Chris’s code name was.”

      “Why didn’t you let the authorities know?”

      “His letter told me to trust no one but you. The journal implied his accomplices held positions high in our government. Chris had connections everywhere,” she said, then tilted her head to the side, allowing him more access to the muscles, and nearly groaned when he found a sensitive spot beneath her ear.

      “If that’s the truth, why didn’t he just send the book to me?”