I smirk, trailing my gaze over her pink stained cheeks to her lips that she licks. “I’m taking you on that hike tomorrow.”
“Hike?” Her gaze, unfocused, snaps back to meet mine. “What hi—oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.” I straightened. “Your songs are done, right?”
She nods. “I finished the last one this afternoon. It’s not perfect, and I need to tweak it with equipment, but… the bones are there.”
“Good. I’m glad you aren’t sitting around, stressing yourself stupid out here, Cha Cha.” I soften my voice to take the edge off my words.
“Me too,” she whispers. Cha Cha slides off her stool, heading away from the kitchen. A few steps from the hallway entrance, she turns back to me. “Tuck me in after I clean up?”
My mouth dries, and I nod. “I’ll be around.” I let her get a few steps further away. “Princess.”
She half turns back, already lost in the shadow. “Drake?”
“I’ll tell you if anything comes through.”
She sways into the light, enough for me to see the smile that changes her face. “I trust you.”
Then she’s gone, and I’m left with a raging hard on and a fantasy I’ll play out with her against the wall of the spare bedroom she’s slept in for the past week. Hell, I thoughtwe’d never hit this point. The flirting ceased once she started songwriting, and I let her be, knowing it’s what she needed.
Being around her is enough, but aching there constantly, unable to touch…that’s a different form of torture. She stopped asking for goodnight kisses then. I slept across the hall from her after the second night I spent on the spare bedroom floor, my hand tangled in hers. Knowing she still wants me is more than I can ask.
Now I just have to accept that when we’re done, she’ll move onto the next bodyguard while I’ll still crave her. Hell, I’m as bad as any of her tame sasaeng, for fuck’s sake. Here she is in my house…fucking her is the worst idea possible. But I won’t say no, and I’ll make sure she remembers tonight.
Forever.
CHAPTER TEN
CHA CHA
Drake is intimidating beyond belief. I’ve spent the last week talking myself into avoiding the man who watches me even when I think I’ve managed to find a place where he can’t see me. But then that’s his job, and every time I turn around, there he is. It’s become a game between us: where can I hide in his house that he can’t find me?
Answer: nowhere.
By the end of the week, I’m okay with that. Drake is far more attentive than any of my previous bodyguards, actually earning the title. When I write, he’s there, somewhere in a corner of the room. Not impinging on my space, just present. And after a while, I’m used to him. He stopped training me once I started to sing and I get the impression that he…
Listens.
A huge part of me likes that. Loves it, even. That might be an ego trip, but I don’t think so. The sense that he’s there leaves me desperate to turn to him for more. The first night he didn’t stay in my room, I lay awake, trying to make out the shape of themountains in the darkness beyond. But the moon was dark that night, and all I could see was the outline of the trees just outside my window. The concept of crawling into his bed was terrifying.
Now? I bite my lip as I wash my face and brush my hair back, letting it tumble freely over my shoulders. Now, I want to strip bare and slide beneath the covers of his bed, just to see what he’ll do.
Probably turf me right back into my own, and go back to watching me, sans pet name. He’s still intimidating as hell. I’m simply ready to risk that wrath now.
Or desperate enough.
“Ready for bed, princess?” Drake rests one arm against the doorframe above his head. His black t-shirt rides up, exposing hard, defined musculature.
The innuendo in his words is not lost on me.
I place my brush carefully on the stone benchtop, tugging at the hem of my top. I’d meant to change out of the latex pants before he found me, but I’d been lost daydreaming about him and run out of time.
That’s one of the things I love about Drake. He refuses to work to anyone else’s schedule, including mine. That he gave me time to play around with my songs was a gift, one I never get with my home or rented apartments stuffed with people who shouldn’t be there but are anyway.
One I won’t squander.
I raise my chin. “I’m ready.”
