My lips brush over the scar on her clavicle. ‘Mind-blowing sex sounds way more like it. You can keep the dress on. I’m gonna hitch it up around your waist and fuck you on the table in it.’
‘For dessert, you can, but I made dinner reservations for us.’
‘Dinner? Where?’
‘It’s a surprise.’ Gold flecks of amusement glint in those warm eyes.
A semi-normal event like dinner out together is tempting, as long as the paps don’t take over our night. ‘A surprise? How am I meant to protect you if I don’t know where we’re going?’
‘Oh Arch, I don’t doubt you’d manage to protect me if you were a hundred miles away.’
It’s my biggest fear. My worst nightmare, not being here if something happens. It’s probably why I don’t feel as guilty as I should about our relationship, because I get to be with my ward, even in her bed at night.
‘I’ll never be a hundred miles from you,’ I promise, straightening my jacket. ‘Dinner sounds nice. If you think you can control yourself in public.’ I’m only half joking.
The air fizzes. Our mutual attraction is showing no sign of waning. My hand reaches beneath the dress, swiping between her legs. The scrap of lace covering her sex is flimsy enough to be ripped, which is exactly what I plan on doing the second we get back to the house.
She shamelessly grabs my cock through my suit trousers, gripping my erection. ‘More like you’ll need to control yourself. What would the world say if those sneaky paps got a shot of this?’
‘They’d say you’re fucking beautiful and I’m only human,’ I shrug as I bang the front door closed behind us and open the car door for her. ‘I’d probably still get the sack, though.’
.
Libby greetsVictoria with a double-cheek kiss at her penthouse door. I step back before she attempts to offer the same to me. We’re in public and I’m the paid protection, not her friend’s boyfriend, and she’d do well to remember it.
I scan the room behind the women as they complement each other on their fashion choices.
The apartment layout might be familiar, but the crowd of faces is ever changing, although they all emit a similar aura of arrogance, snobbery and entitlement.
I have nothing in common with any of these people.
It’s a miracle Victoria’s so normal, given her family background. So unassuming. The opposite of self-important. She has a heart the size of the Atlantic Ocean and that’s what makes her so fucking beautiful, and even more of an easy target if someone were to try to take advantage. It’s not going to happen. Not on my watch.
I follow Victoria as she walks into a huge living area and a sea of bodies bumping along to a loud disco beat. The scent of excessive aftershave and alcohol hangs in the air.
A champagne fountain offers more drinks than a wedding. We pause at the table while Victoria helps herself to a gin and tonic.
My eyes land on a pair of fucking bronze sculptures. Materialistic crap. They give me the creeps.
That floppy-haired, bent-nosed neanderthal Harrison approaches us, pushing through the crowd of smiling faces until he reaches Victoria. It’s not the sculptures giving me the creeps after all.
Victoria stiffens as she spots him. I step forwards, inserting myself between them before he reaches us.
‘Dog.’ Even though the term is derogatory, Harrison enunciates it with a certain level of begrudging respect this time. In a Ralph Lauren polo shirt and drainpipe designer jeans, he looks every bit the posh twat.
‘I thought I warned you already.’ My voice is dangerously low. In fairness, he’s stayed well away from Victoria at the hospital.
Harrison’s Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he swallows hard. ‘I know. I’ve been working up the courage to apologise for weeks. I’m so sorry about that night.’ He shuffles from one wanky over-priced loafer to the other. ‘I had too much to drink. I didn’t know what I was doing. I never meant to hurt you, V.’
V? Seriously? Do I need to break his legs as well as his nose?
‘You shouldn’t have put your hands on me. There’s no excuse for that.’ Victoria’s head peeps from round my shoulder.
‘Never put your hands on a woman again unless she asks you to, got it?’ I hiss. My chest squares against him, leaving him in no doubt that I’ll cheerfully crush him like a nut in a metal cracker given half the chance.
Harrison tilts his head in her direction. ‘You know, perhaps we could…’
‘No.’ My growl is more beast than dog.
