The beauty struggled and kicked in his arms. Luckily, he'd put tape over her mouth and rope around her wrists or he'd have even more trouble. She never came peaceably. It was part of her charm.

Jake tossed her in the back of a company cargo van, padded with blankets, then slammed the door. The look in her eyes sent a stab through him. Dread and desire. Andrea knew it was him. In a way, he was glad. He didn't want to terrify her while protecting her.

Rounding the van and getting into the driver's seat, he locked them in just to be sure. As he started the engine, she yanked off the tape. "You son of a bitch! Who the hell do you think you are?"

She'd be strangling him if it weren't for the hard plastic mesh between the front seats and cargo area. He was safe, but the barrier gave him a clear view into the back. Pity he couldn't get her hands tied behind her back. "Relax, Andrea. There's a threat."

She rolled her soft brown eyes. "Oh, is there? Please! There's always a threat. In case you've lost track, I'm twenty-five not sixteen. You can't just snatch me or invade my dorm room because my dad hires you. This is kidnapping!"

"Your father hires the firm to monitor things for the family. Any time there's a verifiable threat or attempted attack, we take measures. Why are you giving me hell?" He pulled out into traffic.

"Because I'm an adult, and you can't contain me because someone else pays you to. It's illegal and wrong." She looked out at the road over his shoulder. "Where are we going?"

"A safe house. Get comfortable."

Her pretty face frowned. "Before, you just guarded me. At boarding school and college, you invaded my life. Now, you're pulling me away from my life. What happened?"

Maybe he should've blindfolded her? The third degree was worse than her temper. Andrea was smart. She analyzed him and the situation in seconds. "Everything is fine, but this threat is credible, and there's a plan. We need to move you. Trust me this once?" He took the back roads for two reasons. She'd never remember how they got there and if they were being followed he'd find out fast.

She glared at him in the rearview mirror. "I trust you. You'll do whatever Dad pays you to do and treat me like a child. I promise this is the last time. I'm an adult. I have my own company. I can afford my own bodyguard who works for me. Seriously, what if I'd had a guy over?"

He glared back, unable to deny her points. He'd taken her while changing out of her work clothes to a baby-blue, cotton T-shirt. She'd never gotten into the navy lounge pants she'd pulled out of the drawer. "I'd hope the guy would understand your safety is more important than a date."

"You and Dad don't give anyone a chance to understand. You just decide and take over." The anger in her eyes wasn't the same fury as before. This smacked of humiliation. She resented him.

"If it wasn't serious, I'd have let you dress and pack a bag. These people would do anything to get your dad to pay a ransom. You need a permanent bodyguard." She'd always refused that suggestion. Jake had taken the first job with her when she was sixteen and he was twenty-one.

His stepdad had thought it'd be a great match since she'd slipped away from another of Raider's bodyguards. They'd expected Jake to fail but had wanted him to learn. He'd kept her safe and caught her every time she'd tried to run. And somehow, he'd managed to resist her.

Once he'd succeeded, he'd been assigned "Andrea duty" every time the Edington family needed Raider's services. Jake enjoyed the challenge, the view and, finally, the fact that she wasn't a teenager anymore.

"I don't want a full-time guard watching me everywhere I go and monitoring who I see. He'd report back to my dad. Zero privacy. That's why I liked boarding school. They could try to keep tabs on me, but with so many girls, it never worked." She sat back, resigned to the trip.

"If you hired someone, it would make your parents relax. That's all I'm saying." He forced his eyes off her long legs and back on the road.

"That's the other thing. I have my own business now. I have plenty of money. Why does Dad feel the need to baby me like I can't afford you?" She fought the ropes, but no amount of wiggling freed her.

"I'm sure you can. Designer shoes pay well then?"

"They make women feel sexy and men want to have sex. That's the key."

"Sex is the key to shoe sales?" He didn't need to think about sex with her tied up in a van at his mercy. Jake couldn't resist her, not now.

"Absolutely. Not like it's the foot fetish guys buying them. It's just how women look in the heels. How it makes them feel. Men notice it, and it's attractive. And look at me, without even fuzzy slippers. Where the hell are we going? Are we even close?" She contorted to look at her diamond-studded bracelet watch.

"We've got a ways to go," he said.