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alive.” Without waiting for an answer, he let himself out.
    Benjamin opened the bag and poured out something that clinked in his hand. “Hardware,” he said, holding up a small ring with a not-so-small diamond. “His and hers.”
    And they didn’t need that , either. “I swore I would never, ever wear that handcuff again.”
    “It goes on your finger.”
    “Very funny. It does the same thing as a handcuff—traps you.”
    He handed one to her and took the much larger gold band for himself. “See if it fits.”
    It did, sliding easily over her knuckle and feeling as heavy as the one she’d finally ditched the day she moved out of the Beacon Hill apartment. Benjamin’s wasn’t going on so easily. He made a face as he tried to push it over a gnarled knuckle.
    “Here, I’ll help,” she said.
    He quickly turned away. “I got it.”
    Great, he was one of those kind of men. “Really? Because it doesn’t look like you do.”
    “I got it.” His voice was taut, telling her that for all his bravado, he hated this situation as much as she did. After a second, he turned back to her, his face dark with frustration. “Guess I’ll need another one. This one won’t fit.”
    She didn’t answer, going into the kitchen and grabbing some dish soap she found on the sink. “Come here,” she called as she poured some on her fingers. “Give me your hand.”
    He came around the counter reluctantly, still working the ring. “My fingers are…big.”
    Big and scarred and big . She glanced up at him, seeing nothing but shame in his rough features and riveting blue eyes. Something in her heart slipped, just like the ring as she eased it over his lubricated knuckle.
    “There you go,” she said.
    He gave it a yank. “It may never come off.”
    “You can use a saw,” she said dryly, walking by him.
    “Kate.”
    She paused, turned, and looked at him, expecting a belated thank-you.
    He swallowed, as if gathering his thoughts. His blue eyes lost all their sharpness for that moment, as he looked earnestly into hers. “I won’t let anyone hurt you. I promise you’re safe.”
    She waited for a retort to pop into her head, but she couldn’t think how to answer, because she believed him, but yet she felt anything but safe right then. Maybe it was the news that the threats were far more terrifying than she’d been led to believe. Maybe it was this whole upside-down arrangement that stole her freedom and control. Or maybe it was this big man with blue eyes and scarred hands that embarrassed him.
    She didn’t know what she felt, but it sure as hell wasn’t safe.

Chapter Four

    Alec was in the kitchen, the room in the villa he’d come to like the best, when Kate came up to the counter and uttered the words he had been dreading the most: “I need to shower.”
    He’d never been a bodyguard before. Except for a few cursory meetings with Gabe Rossi and Luke McBain, who ran a personal-protection company based here at the resort called McBain Security, Alec was totally winging it.
    Starting with what he was supposed to do to ensure her full security while his “wife” showered.
    “There’s a shower and a bathtub the size of a kid’s pool in there.” He pointed to the one and only bedroom, down a short hall next to the living area. “I put your bags by the door.”
    She crossed her arms, leaning against the kitchen counter, still obviously not comfortable with anything—the villa, the situation, the news of how much danger she clearly didn’t know she was in. Before that, she’d been a firecracker, flinging fifty-dollar words like they were her best weapons.
    But after she found out someone really wanted to hurt her? That spark definitely got drenched. So she probably needed a good hot shower and maybe a cry. Women liked to cry in the shower, right?
    Only, she didn’t seem like the weepy type.
    “Where will you be?” she asked.
    “Sitting on the bed or in the chair in the corner, staring at the locked bathroom