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I don’t respond and he doesn’t say anything else. He just stares at me, his blue eyes are emotionless and hard and I frown at the way he’s looking at me.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I whisper before turning around to grab a glass from my cabinet. I’m preparing to hop on the counter to grab it when I sense his presence, and when I turn around, he’s standing behind me. He grabs the glass that was just barely out of my reach and pours the sparkling water into the glass for me. I narrow my gaze at him.That’s…new.I was used to him doing things for me but not usually things I could easily do for myself and rarely while I was home.
“I don’t like it,” he says, breaking me from my thoughts. He slides the glass to his right for me to grab. “I like order and organization and I think this has the potential to bring chaos and a lot of drama to your life and I work very hard to avoid that for you. This is going to make my job harder, you know.”
“I do.” I hop up on my counter so I can be closer to his eye level and take a sip of the water. “Don’t be mad at me. How about a raise?” I give him my best cheesy smile and slide a hand under my chin.
He shoots me a glare. “I’m not mad at you and you know it’s not about the money. I worry about you, okay?” His eyes dart to mine from where he was staring into space. “Someone has to.” His nostrils flare angrily and I can hear the implication. My parents would be livid over Paxton cheating on me.
They went to war over me for much less. Shitty directors, rude co-stars, and news outlets they felt didn’t treat me with the respect they thought I deserved—my parents were there to let anyone and everyone know what wouldn’t be tolerated.
So, a potential cheating scandal and a man who broke my heart? They’d be out for his blood.
And his reputation.
And probably monetary compensation for emotional damages—my dad was a great lawyer.
His words slither down my spine and I hate the way it makes me feel.Almost like they’d be disappointed.He doesn’t wait for me to respond before he’s moving out of the room and towards the front door without another word. Damian stays in the guesthouse that sits just to the left of my house. There have been times he’s stayed in the main house, but for the most part, he has his own space. The door slams behind him just as I meet the familiar hazel eyes of my best friend, Veronica Walters.
“What’s his problem? He almost ran me over coming in.” She points behind her as she pulls her sunglasses off and tosses them in her bag before moving around the island and pulling me off the counter into her arms. “Hiiii.” She envelops me in a hug, squeezing me hard. I texted Veronica everything that happened from the plane and I had to beg her not to call Paxton and cuss him out.I am still not one hundred percent sure she listened.
“He has some thoughts over the fact that publicly I’m not breaking up with Paxton yet.”
She lets me go and leans against the island. “Probably because he’s in love with you.”
I shoot her a look, tired of that same narrative she’s been spewing for years. “He is not.”
“Have you seen the way he looks at you?”
He’s my bodyguard, of course he’s got his eyes on me all the time.“Like he’d take a bullet for me?”
“Exactly!” she squeals.
“That’s his job.”
“That’s not how he looks at you.”
I roll my eyes and my lips form a straight line. “What?”
She puts her hands under her chin and beams from ear to ear flashing me her hundred-watt smile that has scored her countless toothpaste commercials and print ads. “He looks at you like you’re his reason for breathing andthat’swhy he’d take a bullet for you not because of what you pay him.”
“V, he is not in love with me.”
“I don’t know why you’re fighting my theory so hard like you haven’t been horny for him since the first time he looked you dead in your eyes and told youno.”
I wince remembering that night and embarrassment flares through my body in memory.
“First of all,” I hold a finger up, “it was before that,” I joke, “and secondly, it was a harmless crush when I was eighteen. Can you give it up? Besides, don’t you remember what happened the one time I tried it?” Before I’d met Paxton, I’d tried to channel my inner Whitney Houston from The Bodyguard—yes, I realize how cliché that sounds,and let him know that I was interested by not so subtly asking him out. He was definitely not having it and we definitely did not end up in bed together.
I would say that movie gave me unrealistic expectations, but I know quite a few people that have fucked their bodyguards.
Unfortunately, I am not one of them.
“Because he knows that being with you in that way would get in the way of protecting you! Hello? Besides you had the whole dead parents thing going on for a while and he’s all you had and kind of took on a parental role.” She bounces up and down on the balls of her feet excitedly. “It’s actually quite romantic.”
I blink at her several times. While she’s the only person who can get away with using humor to talk about my parents’ deathsbecause it’s the way I cope with it,I’m a little irritated that she’s making it a part of this theory that Damian has feelings for me. “You’re actuallyquiteannoying.” She shrugs and moves around me to open my refrigerator and goes straight for the bottle of rosé in the door. She grabs two wine glasses and I put a hand up to stop her from pouring me a glass. “I’m jetlagged and exhausted and haven’t eaten much. I am not getting wine drunk with you right now.” I shake my head knowing that one glass of wine with Veronica could quickly turn into two bottles.
“You just found out your boyfriend is cheating on you and you don’t think getting wine drunk is the answer?” She points at me before snapping like she’d just gotten another idea I’m sure I’ll like even less than wine. “You know what? You’re right. Tequila is the answer. I’ll rally the troops for tonight. Imagine how he’ll feel seeing you out in the streets without a care in the world. Maybe we should stage a run-in with someone. I’ll see what everyone is doing tonight.”
