Chapter Twenty
Ivan
Poppy was across the hall,and I was going insane. Wildly insane. I couldn’t think of anything else. When I was alone, I was raging to bury my cock into anything to get rid of the ache she left with me. Cold showers became a normal part of my routine, and they were causing me to be a dick. I should have never accepted this job.
All I did was watch her, and it was causing me to have a permanent boner. It didn’t help that we hadn’t left besides to bring Jane to school. She insisted it was nothing to ride the subway like before—like all of her friends did. But Poppy and I were on the same page. If someone were after Poppy, they would try to get to her in any way possible, including her younger sister. Which meant, the new driver their brothers hired drove us all to school and back twice a day. Poppy insisted she could stay at the house by herself, but I wouldn’t risk it.
Sitting so close to Poppy in the car,inhaling her intoxicating scent, was driving me into an insatiable craze. I called Dimitri after the fourth day and demanded that he loan me his best security guy to bring her to school and back. Dimitri said he would do one better, and I didn’t know what that meant until Jane got home and yelled out, “I donotneed a babysitter at school! What is this?”
I smiled at Poppy across the kitchen island, completely satisfied with myself. Don, Dimitri’s right-hand man, had tailed Jane all day at school. He’d texted me that he didn’t trust her being alone all day, knowing there was a threat out there, and how did I tell that scary ass man no? I didn’t. If he wanted to watch out for Poppy’s younger sister, I wouldn’t be opposed; it was one less thing I had to worry about, and I knew Don couldn’t be bought either. So technically, she was in the second-best hands.
Surprisingly enough, Dimitri didn’t needle me about why I needed security for the daughter of the man I killed… It was all a very fucked up situation that I didn’t even know how I was going to explain it.
Poppy leaned across the counter, which caused her shirt to pull tight across her chest, and all of the blood in my body went right back to the place I’d been trying to will it out of. I couldn’t even escape to take a cold shower. This was easily the stupidest thing I’d ever agreed to.
An irrational part of my brain tried to convince me that if Ijusthad her one more time, I would be able to get her out of my system. Just one more taste, one more touch, one more night… But the rational part of my brain reminded me that I hadonenight already, and it was ruining my life. Twotimes having her? I was a dead man gone. I would never be satisfied again. I would never want anything else. I would be an animal in heat. I had to keep my wits about me. Though I could and would take out her brothers… I didn’t need the extra heat on me. I was sure Poppy was getting suspicious as it was. If they disappeared… I was a real goner, not that I had a chance, but still.
She lifted her brows, waiting for me to answer whatever question I missed.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“Are you out to ruin a teenager's life?” She laughed behind her hand as mischief danced in her eyes.
“With Don?”
She nodded. “She’s never had anyone care about her whereabouts before, and now she’s being tailed in school.”
“She’s fourteen, right?”
When I was fourteen, I’d had the world at my fingertips, and all it did was make me bored. I’d found destructive ways to keep myself company. With fire and explosives, of course. It wasn’t the most productive use of my time, but it was something other than drugs and alcohol.
And violence.
But yet, here I was. A cold-blooded killer, anyway.
“Yes, but she thinks she’s nineteen, I swear.”
“I think it’ll be good for her to have a constant in her life. I’ve noticed your mother hasn’t checked in on you or come to visit. Are you her guardian now?”
These questions weren’t productive. They didn’t help me do my job better. These weren’t thingsIvan theBodyguardneeded to know. These were thingsIvan the mancraved. I was killing myself slowly. My eyes tracked the way she took a sip out of her glass of water and categorized it for later. Every detail, every thing, I wanted to know it.
Poppy looked at everything but me before she answered. “Yeah, she’s pretty upset about her lack of inheritance. I think my father tricked her into signing a prenup. My father was a lot of things, but if there is anything that he absolutely was… He was iron-clad. He made sure everything was tied up and there were never loose ends. He was meticulous in business and his personal life.”
“She’s angry with both of you, then?”
Poppy rolled her eyes. “Oh, I’m sure.”
I nodded, letting the subject go. She chewed her bottom lip as she looked at me. “So, this might be a little strange and maybe it’ll make you uncomfortable… And if you aren’t up for it, maybe Don…”
I held a hand up. “I’m more than capable of doing anything you need of me. Don is so that I can focus on you and not worry about Jane at the same time. Don is not to be hired for your safety— for anything.”
She nodded as she swallowed and then cleared her throat. “Well, I have a date tonight.”
My brain short-circuited. I mean, the brothers had tried to prepare me. They told me I was to be a shadow for her dates, but I thought… I don’t know what I thought, but it was never this. I didn’t want this. Could I even do this?
“It’s not really something I want to do, and it’s more of an obligation, but I will need you to be in attendance. Infact, I’m sure he would probably want to meet you.” She chewed on her bottom lip again. “Maybe not. Maybe we just pretend that you’re someone else tonight, at another table.”
It was the only way I would be able to get through it.
