“What is it?”
She focuses those bright blue eyes on me. “Would you consider giving us another shot?”
She’s earnest and hopeful. I don’t want to cause her hurt. “Ro—”
“Could we go back to how it was?” Her focus on the bodyguard standing some feet away, she lowers her voice. “Not exactly how it was. I would like to want intimacy… and sex… again. I want to have control in the bedroom. Would you help me?”
“You know I would do anything for you.” I wrap my hands around hers and squeeze. That’s how we found ourselves in a fake relationship for months in the first place. “But I can’t be that guy for you.”
“Sorry I asked.” She tugs her hands free, curling in on herself.
“Why did you?” I grasp her elbow, though Tex starts when I do. “What’s going on?”
She placates him with a hand gesture. “Because I want to move on with my life. Alec... what he did... I can’t get close to anyone physically. I can’t trust anyone enough to date them. How am I supposed to move on? All I want to do is put him in the past.”
“So you figure you can tell me what to do and that will give you control?” It would have been a sound idea prior to me realizing Kelsey is the woman I want.
“I could have tied you up,” she says shyly.
My lips twitch. I’m not averse to being tied up by the right woman. Unfortunately for Ro, that’s not her. “Why don’t you ask your bodyguard?”
“Tex?”
“Yeah, Tex. In case you haven’t noticed, he’s paid to be at your command.” I drop my hand to my side as she gives him her attention. “You literally stopped him in his tracks with a hand gesture a minute ago.”
“Because that’s his job. I can’t ask him to…” her voice shrivels up, “have sex with me. He’s a professional bodyguard. He’s a weapon. Not a—”
“He knows your situation well enough that if you laid it all out for him, there’s a good chance he’d be willing to help.” More than willing is my hunch. “He’s already signed an NDA. Even if he says no, he’s not going to say anything about it.”
“I’m not going to do that.”
“You could hire an escort. Same principle, different guy. And then you have your bodyguard there in case anything goes awry.”
“It would be much easier with you.” She sighs. “So much less awkward and weird.”
“Trust me. It’s going to be awkward with anyone the first time. Me included.”
“I’ll think it through some more.” She leans up on tiptoe to hug me. She presses a quick kiss to the side of my mouth.“Thanks for the advice. I knew you’d be the right person to talk to about all this.”
I hug her back. “Any time.”
She lets go and neatens a few strands of hair behind her ear. “I’m going to head back inside.”
“Okay.”
Tex moves as she does, following close behind, past Kelsey who must have followed us out at some point, who is staring at me the same way she did when we talked about Sonatina’s dumb black panties.
“Hey,” Ro says, as friendly and oblivious as can be.
“Hey.” Kelsey’s reply is stonier. Her arms are wrapped around her belly.
Ro and her bodyguard disappear inside the barn.
“You’re kissing her too?”
“She kissed me.” I scratch my jaw. It was a peck on the cheek practically. It wasn’t like Ro was throwing herself at me. A few minutes earlier it would have seemed that way, but that had nothing to do with the ounce of affection in that peck. “It didn’t mean anything.”
“Of course it didn’t.” Her eyes water. She storms toward the house. “It never does when you’re a rock star.”
