“I told you?—”
The warmth that encompassed my waist before returns, but this time his hands clamp down, securing me in place. My bag that he carried drops to the ground, and something inside shatters.
My naivety. Maybe.
“Here, you’re safe. But that attitude? Once we walk through that door, you’re a normal person, Cha Cha. It’s just you and me here. No cameras. No entourage. No games. There are rules, and they’re made to keep you safe. Understand?” He emphasises that last word, squeezing my waist tight.
“I don’t remember having a bodyguard that was so hands on,” I manage.
Lie. I slept with every damn one of them.But I’m not about to fess up to that little morsel. He’ll find that out later.
His laugh is dark, and far too close to my ear. Warm breath brushes my skin in an undeniably intimate caress. “Don’t bullshit me, princess. I know exactly who you are. Who you’ve spent the last years fucking on your team. Who you ignore, and who you toy with. Before I took this job, I did what your stalker does. Can you guess what that means?” his hands squeeze a little more, until his fingers join in the middle.
Oh, hell. I can barely manage my next inhale, and it’s not my lungs that he’s crushing. And it’s not from the pressure. He’sdone his research. The proximity, the restriction, the threat…it’s everything that I crave.
“You watched me. Stalked me,” I breathe.
“Yeah, I stalked you, Cha Cha. You know what I saw?”
I close my eyes as a wave of dizziness hits me. My knees buckle but Drake doesn’t let me fall. He holds me up, though his touch softens. “What did you see?”
His mouth touches the corner of mine. “I saw a girl alone filling the gaping holes in her life when no one else heard what she screamed above the noise of the crowd.”
The warm hands let go, his touch disappearing. I wobble and I stand as cold replaces warmth. Light returns. Drake stands in front of me, my bag in his hand as he opens the door and gestures me forward as though nothing happened between us.
As though he didn’t just give me the most intimate minute or less of my life, and show me that he saw something that no one else in the last years has noticed or acknowledged about my existence. Not even with the entire world watching. Not even when I screamed.
But he sees.
He knows.
“Come on, princess. I’ll show you your room.” Dark eyes are filled with challenge as he watches me.
Waits.
For me to crumble. Fall. Maybe he wants to be the one to catch me.
That’s cute. Maybe he can. Later. Right now? I offer him a different challenge. The one I set every bodyguard I’ve ever had. And in a career like mine? I’ve had a few.
“Ooh, a tour?” I batt my eyelashes in my bodyguard’s direction as I sweep past him, relieved my feet work the way they should and that my emotions remain off my face. “Does it come with a goodnight kiss at the end?”
Drake’s expression is priceless. Apparently my mask is better than his.
The door doesn’t close behind me, and he doesn't follow me inside. I spin in a circle, taking in the heavy exposed beams in the roof, the floor to ceiling window that looks out over a view I can’t see tonight. The house is open plan, huge and stunning. And it smells like…
Him.
I smile as I face him, and it’s genuine. “Your home is beautiful, Drake,” I say softly.
His eyes narrow, as though he's intent on deciphering my newest act.
Good luck with that, Drake Bodyguard.
Not that it matters. He won’t last any longer than the last one.
They never do.
I follow him down the hall when he turns a sharp right, and leads me halfway along. The door taps open when he gives it a gentle nudge, and dims the bright light before I get there.
