I would choose the words:sexually frustratedandfucking complicated.But let’s go withexcited. It’ll cause the least amount of friction right now.
“That’s one word for it,” I say and finish off the rest of my drink in one gulp. “What’s the actual reasoning behind this?” I gesture at Farrow with my empty glass. The whole security teamhas good intentions, and I understand that a lot weighs into bodyguard switches.
I can’t just demandsomeone new like an entitled bastard. All the bodyguards work together, and they’repeople.Not plastic action figures. I respect them enough to trust their choices.
And it’s not like they knew I used to picture Farrow on his knees.
It’s not like they’lleverknow that.
“The usual,” Akara says, “we take into account the location of where you live.”A townhouse in Philly. “Your lifestyle.”On-the-go.“Other security variables, and then we match you.”
“So it’s Bodyguard Grindr without the sex,” I quip and try to ignore Farrow, but my eyes involuntarily flit to him.
Farrow raises his brows at me in a self-satisfied wave.
I want to groan and smile. My features, I’m sure, teeter between the two.
“We’re not going to promote it like that, but sure…basically,” Akara says.
“Basically,” Farrow interjects, “Lily wanted me to be your bodyguard.” Lily is my mom.
Akara zeroes in on Farrow with an intense but padlocked look. I can only assume that Farrow wasn’t supposed to give me that much information.
He even adds, “Word-for-word, she said,Farrow is the best.”
“Bullshit,” I tell him. “My mom would cross her heart and hope to die before sayinganyonewas better than Garth.” Her first ever bodyguard. I’d never seen her so emotional over anyone’s departure than when he retired.
Farrow rotates his apple for another spot to bite. “Then she broke a kindergarten oath for me.” His matter-of-fact voice is deep and rough, but audibly sensual. Like gravel tied in silk.
My muscles heat from head-to-toe. “Wow,” I say, my tone too tight. My head is somewhere else entirely. On this situation.
Our new reality.
Him.
Farrow lowers his apple, and my cheekbones must sharpen because his brown eyes brush my most distinct feature.
I seize his gaze, and in our sudden quiet, a thick tension brews. Both of our lives are going to change from this transfer, and there’s anunknownfactor.
I can’t even conceptualize what Farrow as my bodyguard looks like. I sense Akara glancing between us. Gauging how well we’re getting along. But hisanswer is as good as mine.
And I have no answer.
I have no idea what it’s like even cultivating a new relationship with a bodyguard. I’ve had the same one for practically twenty-two years.
Farrow tosses his apple core in a nearby trashcan. Then he drops his knee off the stool, his shoulders noticeably loosened unlike my squared ones. “Let’s start with the basics, wolf scout.”
“Out of all the things you can call me…” But it never stops Farrow from choosing this. My aunt created the Wolf Scouts as a wilderness & survival scouting organization that includes all genders. It gained national recognition, and yeah, I still help in the summer as a troop captain. “And whatbasics?”
“The basics.” He edges up to the lip of the counter. His face only a few inches from my face. “Every time you leave your townhouse, I’ll be escorting you. I walk in front of you. I enter rooms before you. I go where you go until you return safely home.”
I slowly blink, my skin scorching. Imagining Farrow with meall day, every daythis quickly is like digesting a gallon milkshake in one gulp. I have a fucking brain freeze. I rub my jaw that’s a razorblade.
Farrow tilts his head. “Okay?”
“I’m making a revision.”
“To the basics?” He glances at Akara, and they share a look that I can’t decipher.
