Page 23 of Auctioned to the Billionaire Bodyguard

“He wrote some pretty sexy stuff, you know.”

I felt my skin turn wildly hot, and I knew it showed on my face.

She giggled. “You’re cute.”

I was not cute. I was tall, skinny, had spotty skin, braces, glasses, and dressed like an accountant according to Nico.

But the compliment worked like a charm. I grinned. “No, I’m not.”

She gave me a coy smile and looked at me closely. “You will be,” she said, knowingly.

After that she’d sat with me during breakfast, and we’d talked about anything and everything. She was a weird combination. She was intimidating. Her beauty and self-confidence made me feel like some sort of alien creature next to her. But she was also easy to talk to. I wasn’t sure how or why, but I loved it.

I found out everything about her. She was finishing up her first year of college, she was going to be a lawyer, she didn’t want to be anything like her socialite mother, and she was dating some loser named Brad.

I managed to find a way to talk to Carmen every day during spring break, and by the time we left, I was well and truly in love.

I found a reason to go home with Nico for every break that my parents didn’t need me home. Reynolds was always going, and sometimes our friend Paolo would, too.

I loved West Bay and hanging out with my friends.

But the real reason I was going was to see Carmen. Always Carmen.

***

Byron, Age Twenty

At twenty, I’d finally grown into my body. I was six foot five, built, filled out, and knew I was handsome as hell. I’d had a couple of girlfriends and had ridiculous amounts of sex with each of them. But I wasn’t like Nico, Reynolds, and Paolo. They slept with anything with breasts.

I wouldn’t touch a girl without dating her first. And there’s no way I would cheat on a girlfriend. I was a one-woman man. I guess I was old-fashioned, but that’s just who I was. Sure, I might find other women attractive, but I was solidly with my girlfriend when I had one.

I decided to go home with Nico and the other guys at the last minute at the next college break. I hadn’t been to West Bay in a while, and I hadn’t seen Carmen in years. She was busy finishing up law school and rarely came home.

I thought my crush on her was a thing of the past. I knew Reynolds and Paolo had crushes on her, too, but they hadn’t been anything like mine. They all used to tease me, but it didn’t even bother me. I knew I couldn’t hide it.

But I was confident that if I saw her now, it wouldn’t be a big deal. I’d probably exaggerated her beauty in my mind, anyway.

Plus, I was with Stephanie. She was the daughter of one of my parents’ friends, and they’d been trying to push us together for ages. It had finally worked, and we’d been dating for a year. I knew my parents were hoping we’d stay together and I’d propose to her one day.

I wasn’t sure if I was interested in that, but I loved her. And I loved sex with her. She was pretty uninhibited in the bedroom compared to the only other girlfriend I’d had. Stephanie looked so ladylike, but she was wild and kinky during sex. It was fantastic.

So, I wasn’t worried about Carmen.

Until we were goofing off in the pool one day and she’d walked out in a thong bikini. I wasn’t the only one who immediately stopped playing our weird version of water polo and stared. Reynolds and Paolo had, too, and Nico sighed.

“Goddamn, Carmen! Could you wear a normal suit around my friends?”

She looked at him over her sunglasses. “This is the most normal one I have.”

I gulped. Her breasts were very large. Much larger than Stephanie’s. And her ass was just… out there. It was all golden and firm, muscular but plump at the same time. She was fucking perfect. And I couldn’t look away.

And that’s when I noticed something. She was looking at me, too. She was trying not to make it noticeable, but I could tell.

“Come on,” Nico said. “It’s time to get ready for the party tonight anyway.” Nico had four brothers as well as his sister. It was always someone’s birthday, it seemed, and even if it wasn’t the Salazars were always celebrating something.

“What’s the party for?” I asked. I had packed my tux like he’d asked us to, but I couldn’t remember if he’d ever told me.

“It’s my graduation party,” Carmen said. “I’m officially done with law school. Now I just have to pass the bar, and I’ll be a practicing attorney.”