Page 9 of Helsing: Demon Slayer
“Mm, maybe a little.” She shifted towards his heat, a sudden intense desire for him to pull her into his side and wrap his big arm around her waist taking her off guard.
He didn’t.
Instead, he turned against the rail and lifted his chin toward the pool. “They’re starting a dance party in a few minutes. It’ll be warmer among everyone else, especially if you dance.”
“Sure,” said Dianne, hoping that her disappointment didn’t sound obvious.
“After you then,” he said, gesturing. He didn’t replace his hand on her back.
As they walked, Dianne’s awareness of the large male next to her bordered on the extreme. She didn’t have to look at him to sense how much space he took up. Or feel the heat he generated. Or smell his musky, woody cologne. On some primal level, she recognized an apex predator. Dangerous, perhaps deadly even, but still she felt safe.
Maybe it was her hypersensitivity that alerted her to a subtle shift in Ryan’s demeanor as they came out onto the pool deck where dozens of people—men, women, and children—already gathered around a crewmember handing out glow sticks.
“Is anything wrong?” she asked.
He looked down at her. She saw his expression change as he did, his narrowed eyes widening and the tightness around his mouth easing. She didn’t think it was because he liked what he saw in her face. Rather, her gut told her that he didn’t want to alarm her.
“Sorry, I get a little antsy around groups of strangers. Hazard of the job.”
“You run into a lot of trouble working for an Albanian businessman? What is he? A mobster?” Dianne laughed at her question. As if Olivia would ever have anything to do with a criminal, let alone marry him and have his baby.
Ryan’s hand came back to Dianne’s waist, stopping her laughter. “You’d be surprised what kind of trouble the Kastriotis attract” was all he said as he encouraged her to the side of the deck.
He stopped in front of a pillar, turning his back and leaning against it. This time, he pulled her into his side as she’d wanted him to do earlier, but it only served to emphasize the tension in his body. His gaze continuously scanned the growing crowd and the crew setting up as a band in the center of the deck between the two pools.
Either something was definitely wrong or he was a delusional paranoid.
Dianne needed to distract herself from her growing uneasiness. “How’d you come to work for my sister and her husband?”
Ryan spoke without looking at her. “I met your sister in the hospital in Prague last summer. She offered me a job after I stepped in to defend her friend Beta from a Russian thug. Got shot for my efforts.”
“Shot?” Dianne’s voice squeaked, her eyes widening.
Ryan looked down at her. “Don’t worry,” he said, smiling a little now. “It’s not the first time. It comes with the territory when you’ve seen combat.”
“You’re ex-military?” Dianne couldn’t keep a slight hint of scorn from her voice. She’d never met anyone who’d taken a career in the military seriously. It seemed like a less-than-optimal career choice.
“Yes, ma’am. Army Ranger. Don’t worry,” he said again as Dianne pulled away from him. “It won’t rub off on you.” He sounded amused, but Dianne also thought she heard a bit of sarcasm, too. “We’re not actually on a date. My mission is to get you safely to Albania, and for that my military training comes in very handy.”
There it was again. Of course, he hadn’t moved on after she’d told him that she wasn’t going anywhere with him. Boy, did it rankle that she was simply amissionfor him. She took a decided couple of steps from the imposing male, who watched her with hooded eyes as she did.
Or maybe what bothers you, girlfriend,said a tiny inner voice, is that this gorgeous male specimen clearly doesn’t think much of you or your friends.
Ryan hadn’t said so in so many words, but Dianne had sensed it when the others showed up in the lounge earlier. His posture. His demeanor. His brooding silence. He thought that they were frivolous, silly women. It didn’t matter that she’d started to view them—and herself most of all—that way too.
Crossing her arms, Dianne turned from The Beast and watched the antics of a group of preteen boys and girls chasing each other with glowing neon wands, their necks ringed with matching electric magenta, luminescent sky blue, and acid yellow. For a brief instant, she wished she could go back in time and have nothing more to hold her attention than whether she could touch her friends with a glowing, flexible plastic stick before they could tag her.
“Would you like some?” Ryan’s question interrupted Dianne’s wallowing reverie.
“What?”
He nodded at the children. “Those chemlights?”
“Oh, I don’t care.” Dianne shrugged and turned back as the trio of crew members in the band began a sound check while the group’s singers stood in front of mic stands watching the drummer and bassist.
Across from where she and Olivia’s guard dog stood, Dianne saw Germaine, Tessa, and Jasmyn enter the pool deck. On Germaine’s right, a black-haired man in a loose, white island shirt and blue island-style pants seemed fixated on her cabinmate’s every word. Tessa and Jasmyn, not far behind, giggled and stumbled among a small group of people that Dianne had seen them with at various events throughout the week. She suspected that they all were imbibing in more than alcohol, though they were certainly doing plenty of drinking.
“Here.”
