I pay the bill, practically dragging my girlfriend out of the restaurant in my desperation to get beneath that dress.
‘Thank you.’ The kiss she presses to my cheek is chaste, but the fevered temperature of her lips don’t lie. My heart hammers in my chest. Blood pulses below. The scent of her skin inches from mine is intoxicating. It would be so easy to capture her mouth with mine.
As we step out of the restaurant into the chill night air, a camera flashes to our right. Fucking paps. ‘Head down. Hang on to my arm and I’ll get you back to the car asap,’ I instruct, switching out of boyfriend mode and instantly into my role as her bodyguard.
‘Victoria! Victoria! What are your plans for after graduation?’ the pap shouts. She doesn’t look up.
It takes less than a minute to hurry back to the car, across the cobblestones of the Royal Mile.
‘Sneaky bastards,’ I fume, conscious Victoria’s kiss on my cheek may have been captured by that photographer. What if it ends up on the front pages and Ryan and Sasha see it?
‘I kissed my bodyguard on the cheek,’ she shrugs. ‘It could have been a lot worse.’
She’s right, but we’re playing with fire. Knowing it and experiencing it first-hand is very different. I was a millisecond away from forgetting where we were and who we are.
I pull up close to Victoria’s house in her allocated parking spot, uneasiness lingering in my gut.
‘It’s okay.’ Her hand reaches for my thigh again.
The air hums, but this time it’s not with lust. Something feels off. I scan the perimeter, every hair on my neck standing to attention.
‘Did you leave the bedroom light on?’
‘No. It was light when we left. I didn’t put it on at all.’ Her head whips up to where a dim glow radiates from behind the drawn curtains.
I grab the weapon I keep in the dash, running my thumb over the safety.
‘Archie? You set the alarm, right?’ Fear cracks in her voice.
Cold shame washes over me. Distracted by Victoria’s hand on my cock, I managed the unthinkable and forgot to set the fucking brand-new upgraded alarm system I personally insisted was installed.
This is the precise reason security detail should never sleep with their wards.
‘No.’ My admission kills me, but my mental self-loathing will have to wait until I’ve secured the house.
I’m caught between a rock and a hard place. I can’t leave Victoria out here alone, but I can’t bring her into the house either.
The front door is intact. No sign of a forced entry. Maybe she did leave the bedroom light on?
No. My gut never lies.
And it’s telling me someone is here. Or at least was.
‘Get your keys out of your bag and stay behind me. We’re going in, okay?’ She’s safer with me than out here alone and unprotected.
Victoria offers a short, sharp nod.
With her sheltered behind my back, we enter the house. Tiny scratches on the pink paintwork of the front door indicate the lock has been picked.
Adrenaline pumps furiously through my chest, but the gun doesn’t waver a millimetre in my hand, poised and ready, just in case.
It’s silent inside. We climb the stairs and I check each floor until we get to the top. The bedroom door’s ajar, which is odd as I distinctly remember Victoria closing it.
Nudging it open with my knee, I scan every inch of the room.
There’s nobody here.
But there was.
