The grin never left his face. “Nah. Can I help you, Precious?”
The innuendo in his voice only made her flush a deeper crimson. “Are you ready to go?”
Cashmere stood abruptly and chugged the rest of her coffee.
“You didn’t even offer him any food, Cash. Don’t be rude,” Ivoree said as she stood up and threw her plate away. Cashmere watched with a frown as her sister grabbed her backpack from the counter. “Feel free to eat anything from the kitchen. We have a staff that keeps it fully staffed.”
“I’m good, shorty, but thank you. I ate earlier,” Savio said, patting his flat stomach that Cashmere had no doubt was rippled with abs.
Ivoree shrugged before she looked at Cashmere. “I’ll be home later.”
Even though Cashmere was still irritated that Ivoree was being so nice to Savio, she gave her little sister a hug. “Be safe. I’ll text you and check in a little later. Make sure Twizz is on his job, Vee. No distractions.”
Ivoree gave Cashmere a small smile before she put her hand on Cashmere’s shoulder. “Relax, Sis.”
She didn’t say anything else. Cashmere watched Ivoree turn and walk out of the kitchen to go catch her ride with Twizz. The thought made her uneasy. Ivoree never really had security before because she was never a target, but the deeper Cashmere got in with the council, the more she felt uncomfortable having Ivoree living life without security. Cashmere didn’t want to impede on her sister leading a normal life, but the risk wasn’t worth it anymore. For her peace of mind, she let Marcellus set her up with a bodyguard. She didn’t think it would be some young nigga with hearts in his eyes for Ivoree.
“You ain’t answer my question.”
His deep voice demanded her attention. She turned to face him again, and with a neutral face, she asked her own question once again. “You ready to go?”
Savio chuckled. “Yeah, aight. Play that shit how you want, Precious. Where we headed?”
Thankful that he allowed her to change the subject effectively, she decided to respond to him without an attitude. “I have a few errands to run, and then I have a meeting with a couple of people at a warehouse.”
She purposely remained vague about her plans for the day. Although Savio would see a whole lot and it wouldn’t take him long to see what she did, that didn’t mean he had to know everything. The less he knew, in fact, the better.
He eyed her for a moment and then pulled some keys out of his pocket. “Aight, let’s go.”
Her brows pulled in as she followed him out of the kitchen. “Hold up. You don’t think you’re driving again, do you?”
He stopped so abruptly, she ran into him. Like the night before, he reached out quickly and steadied her. The feel of his hand on her waist caused her to shiver. Frustrated by the way her body reacted to him, she took a step back.
“You gonna have to get used to being a passenger princess, baby. If I’m going to be yo’ bodyguard, then I’m gonna be drivin’.”
“None of my other security drove me around. If I wanted a chauffeur, I would hire one.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Lucky for you, you ain’t gotta hire one ’cause you got me.” He pinched her cheek and then kept walking.
Cashmere’s mouth hung open. The thought of establishing those boundaries early on came crashing back. She moved to catch up with him and grabbed his arm. He turned to face her with his brows raised in question.
“Have you ever been a bodyguard before or even head of security? Because I think you have some things confused. Didn’t Marcellus tell you the job description?”
Savio chuckled as he looked to the side. When his eyes landed back on her, he took a step forward, which caused her to take a step back. “Nah, I never had a job like this before. That a problem?”
Confusion filled Cashmere. Marcellus was serious about his sanction within the council. His job was to keep everyone safe, and all safety concerns went through him. It didn’t make sense to her that he would stick Savio with her if he had no experience. Maybe one of the lil niggas making waves in the streets, sure, buther?
“How the hell did you get the job then?” she asked, ignoring his last question.
Savio smirked. “You don’t think I’m qualified?”
Once again, she crossed her arms over her chest and stood tall. “No, I don’t.”
Savio nodded. “Cell is doing me a solid with this gig, but you should know if I wasn’t qualified to do this job, he wouldn’t have hired me. As far as the details of the job, I already checked in with everyone on the morning shift, made sure they all knew their assignments, checked all the cameras on the property, and called the company to add a couple of more where there are some blind spots. I checked all the cars of the guards and implemented a system that will digitally track everyone coming and going from the property. I emailed out enhanced job descriptions to make sure the team is on point at all times, and I fired two niggas who were slacking on the job last night. That was all before seven this morning. You tell me if I understand the details of the job or not, because from where I’m standing, I went above and beyond, and I haven’t even been here twenty-four hours yet.”
Cashmere stared at him with wide eyes. She almost felt bad for insinuating that he didn’t know the details of the job, because most of the shit he just mentioned she didn’t even know securityhandled. She always looked at them as annoying decorations standing around her property on the off chance someone tried to attack her. Now she knew it was much more than that.
She sighed. “Look, . . . can we just establish some boundaries since we’re going to be around each other a lot?”
