Chapter Nineteen
LUCIEN TENSED UNTIL EVERY RIDGE OF his abdominals stood out.
So helpful of him not to put on a shirt. So,sonice of him to distract me with a sudden orgasm when I didn’t stand a hope in hell of surviving this.
I ignored the call, trying to figure out how not to die. “Dillon is—”
Immediately, the phone flashed with another attempt.
Dillon wouldn’t stop.
I knew that from prior experience. Whenever I’d gone offline and forced him to track me down using my sporadic use of my credit cards, I’d get a painful scolding whenever he caught me.
Usually, I’d accept his call, put it on speaker, and tuck the phone under a pillow, so I didn’t have to subject myself to the full volume of my bodyguard’s wrath.
Technically I was his boss, yet somehow, I always came away feeling like his little sister. A badly behaved, runaway little sister who had to grovel to a very angry, very big brother so he wouldn’t maim her.
Exhaling heavily, I held up my phone and showed it to Lucien. “This is a cellphone.”
“I know what a goddamn cellphone is! What I want to know is why a man named Dillon is calling you incessantly on it. Is there something you haven’t told me?” Fury sparked in his abyssally dark eyes. “Are youwithsomeone?”
There were alotof things I hadn’t told him.
Only a few hours ago, we’d been in Cinderkeep and keeping my secrets was easy. Not that they were secrets but...how had this unravelled so fast?
Tossing me off his lap, he shot to his feet and raked both hands through his hair. “Who the fuck is Dillon?!”
“Keep your voice down.” I threw a look at the door just as my phone vibrated and shivered, becoming as angry as Lucien.
My chest ached as I tried to salvage the meagre trust he’d finally given me. “Dillon is...my bodyguard.”
“Yourbodyguard?” His eyes widened as he dropped his hands in disbelief. “Since when do you have a bodyguard?”
I stayed as calm as I could. “Since I was born.”
“What?”
“Dillon is my third bodyguard since I was a child. My parents—”
“Why?” He cut me off with a growl. “Whywould you need a bodyguard?”
I frowned, not understanding the question. Why else did someone pay to be watched and stalked all the time? “To protect me, of course.” I shrugged, flinching as the call dropped off only for a new one to begin. God, how many times would Dillon try and how badly would he make me pay when I finally answered?
“To protect you?” Lucien went fatally still. “What...from me?” His eyes smouldered, burning through the faint scarlet ringing his normally black pupils. “Because of what I just did? Because I somehow set the wall on fire and melted the tap?”
“Tap? What tap?”
He choked on a snarl. “Do you need protecting because there’s something about me that’s...wrong?”
His tone, his fear...it launched me to my feet.
Everything inside me wanted to hug him. To prove that regardless if it was him or a freak accident, I wasn’t afraid of him. I might not know his favourite colour or food or song but...I knewhim.
I knew he wouldn’t hurt me...or at least, not intentionally.
“Dillon has guarded me since I was twelve. He’s trying to get hold of me because I’ve been missing for almost seven weeks and his literal job description is to keep me safe. I’ve done a terrible job in the past of letting him do that, so that’s why he’s calling so much. He won’t stop until I answer but...he’s just a friend and nothing more. You don’t have to—”
“Tell him you’re mine.” The snarl tore out of him, dousing me in goosebumps. “Tell him you’re not going anywhere. I forbid it.”
