Page 4 of Brooding Bodyguard Summer

“You might. Tell me who you are. Why my father hired you.”

“Neko. I do this for a living. This is all I do, protect people from threats, from what wants to harm them. He hired me because I should never have been able to get this close to you. Someone does want to harm you. But you know that, don’t you?”

Nodding, I take another step closer. I’m almost touching him now. I tremble with holding back. “Yes. I know someone is out there watching me all the time. I can’t see them, but I know they’re there. It could be you.”

Neko’s eyes narrow before he moves fast and I gasp. I am hauled against his hard body, touched by a man for the first time in my life. I am immediately obsessed with the weight of him against me, the warmth. I press closer, tilting my head back to hold his gaze.

“I won’t ever hurt you, Noemi. I promise you that. Doesn’t mean I am not a threat because I should not have stayed here all night. Watching you. Listening to you sleep. I should not be touching you right now. Why the hell am I breaking the rules?”

“Whose rules? Yours? Or my father’s?”

“Mine. I have rules I never break on an assignment. I broke half of them the moment I got in this room last night.”

I want him to go explain, but I get distracted. His hands have slid around my waist, pressing to my backside. There is no space between us now, I feel all of him. He is…he is hard between my thighs, pressing heavy against me. Unable to help myself, I reach between us to touch him, to touch something I feared I may never get a chance to.

“Fuck, you can’t do that,” Neko hisses, backing up. I recoil before he moves again, hips rocking forward, pushing him back into my hand.

“I’ve never touched a man before, Neko. You must know that. If my father hired you, I assume you know a lot about me. More than I might ever get to know about you. Would you just let me…feel it?”

“Fuck. No, you can’t touch me this way. At all. I am not here for you to try things on, Noemi,” his voice turns harsh and I back up as if he struck me.

I am across the room, at the window where I watched him last night. I am used to being told no. To being refused things. Denied. It always hurts a little when my father won’t let me go to out on my own or to the lower market to shop for my paints or my oils. This hurts in a brand new way.

“I am going to talk to your father,” his voice is close again, but I don’t bother to find him in the room. “I will tell him I am on your assignment until we find that threat. This sort of thing can never happen again. I understand he has kept you locked up, Noemi. It doesn’t mean you get to behave the way you just did. I won’t let us get so close again, it is a rule. I just….”

“Just what?” I strain to hear his words, needing them so badly.

“I couldn’t help myself.”

His words are there but I know he is gone.

Good thing he is coming back—because I have every intention on trying things on him.

Chapter Three

Neko

I’ve never done anything so stupid in my life.

Twenty-four hours ago I would argue that Panama was the stupidest thing I have ever done. This though…it ranks right up there. What the hell was I thinking spending the night in her bedroom? Why did I let her get so damn close to me? Let her put those pretty hands on me and…feel how turned on she hand me just by fucking breathing?

What the hell was I thinking? What am I thinking now, following the beautiful girl around the Lower Market while she shops to her heart’s content? I am giving her just what her father said not to. Space. Freedom. Only I am right behind her, my eyes on the crowd…whenever they’re not on her.

Seeing her in her window last night, something inside of me began to ache. To burn. Bright and hot, as she sat in the window looking as alone as I felt. In a tiny nightie that showed off all her curves, her wide hips, her full tits, those thick, creamy thighs. Fuck, I have never gotten so turned on just by looking at a woman. I have never allowed an assignment to get to me.

“Neko,” her voice sing-songs the way that has been driving me mad all day. “What do you think of this?”

Pulling my gaze from the bustling crowd, I focus on what she’s showing me. Fuck, she’s stunning. I’ve protected pop stars, socialites, and the most famous models in the world, but I’ve never been this close to the soft, quiet beauty Noemi possesses.

“It's beautiful, Ms. Lane,” my words scratch my throat as I force them out, reaching out to touch a crystal necklace she is holding.

From the moment I stepped into her bedroom last night, after hours sitting there in our silent stand-off, I was entranced by her. Maybe it was because I’ve not slept in weeks. Could be because I have been so damn alone for too damn long. Or it could be because the moment I was near her, all that darkness, all that noise, it was gone.

Smelling her lilac scent, hearing her calm breathing as she slept, it soothed me in a way nothing has since Panama. Hell, if I am being honest, it was a kind of peace I am not sure I’ve ever known. Having her close, knowing she was safe, that I would keep her from harm, it settled something that has been off center inside of me for a long time.

“It is, right? I want it for Clara…ever since my mother…”

Pain darkens her eyes and I hate it. I spent last night pouring over her dossier. No siblings. Mother killed five years ago, at the hands of one of her father’s enemies, though it was never proven. A loving yet closed off father. Clara their housekeeper, Shari her tutor, and Thea her auntie were the women in her life who tried to make up for the loss.