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Riley’s face burned with embarrassment at how transparent she was to her brother. He’d always known exactly how to read her, but this was uncanny.
Slowly, unable to hide from his question or be simultaneously swallowed by the floor, Riley nodded and braced herself for an outburst of disapproval or reprimand.
“Ha!” said Matt instead, half laughing. “I knew it!”
“You’re not angry?”
“Angry? Why should I be angry? You’re an adult and quite capable of making your own decisions. So far you seem to be pretty good at making the right ones. Besides, if there is any one person in the world good enough for my little sister, it’s Nick. The guy saved my life, what can I say? I know he’ll be good to you.”
Riley embraced her brother. “Thanks for understanding, Matt. That said, if you start dating the angry nurse, I’m disowning you.”
In a perfectly healthy state, Riley knew he would have roared with laughter at that. Instead what came out was a husky, but nonetheless hearty chuckle. “Stop. Stop,” he said between laughter. “You’re killing me here.”
11.
Excitement bubbled in Riley’s belly as she stepped onto the stage in front of the hall full of people. The Chancellor of the University of London smiled pleasantly at her as he handed her her degree, rolled up and tied with a red ribbon. It was one of the proudest moments of her life and the only small mark on the otherwise momentous occasion was that Matt wasn’t there to see it. She owed her degree to him after all.
As she proudly strode to the other end of the stage, clutching her precious achievement, she thought with great anticipation of the future that lay ahead of her. She was due to fly back to Miami in a week’s time in search for work. Her and Nick had maintained their promise to each other, texting almost every night, and she felt closer to him now than ever before, even though they had been a world apart the entire time. She couldn’t wait to meet him at the airport, to wrap her arms around him and smell his oaky cologne, touch his sun-kissed skin and feel the life force behind his lips.
As she turned to face the crowd, she felt as though she were standing at the edge of a dream, at the momentous threshold of the rest of her life: a life of joy and wonder. Without the distraction of her studies, she knew that the next week would feel longer than the sum of the last six months without him.
As she scanned the cheering crowd, her peers lining up beside her, waving to their relatives who had taken time off to attend the ceremony, her eyes landed upon two men dressed in smart business suits. At first they seemed so far out of the context from which she knew them that her mind refused to recognize them for who they were. When the taller of the two men lifted his hand to his lips and blew her a kiss, their identity finally registered and she thought she might faint from sheer emotion. It was Nick and Matt, standing side by side, grinning proudly at her.
She wanted to dive off the stage, dash over to them and squeeze them both as hard as she could. Instead she waved at them wildly, practically hopping on the spot.
The line of her peers wound down off the stage and back to their chairs where they sat anxiously listening to a lengthy address. Riley could barely sit still, she kept glancing backwards into the crowd, wondering if she had imagined seeing them at all.
At the end of the ceremony, she spotted them in the foyer and dashed towards them, throwing her arms around both of them simultaneously.
“You guys!” she said. “What are you doing here? It’s so good to see you!”
“You didn’t think I’d miss my little sister’s graduation did you? Actually it was Nick’s idea.” said Matt, smiling.
She turned her full attention to Nick then and kissed him full on the mouth. “I missed you so much,” she told him.
“I missed you too, sweetheart,” he said. “Congratulations.”
She kissed him again, this time to confirm that he was really standing in front of her.
“Hey, come on,” said Matt. “Take it easy. I’m standing right here. That man needs his lips for smooth talking clients, he doesn’t need you ripping them off his face.”
Riley laughed and did her best to restrain her affection. After six months, it took a lot of will power.
“Matt, you look amazing. You’re all healed up.”
“Yup, neck still gets a little stiff every now and again, but otherwise I’m fit as a fiddle.”
She turned to Nick again and when he smiled at her, she couldn’t help stealing one more kiss. Sorry, Matt, she thought, I’m seizing this day.
THE END
Billionaire Bodyguard
1
From across the nightclub, April’s eyes met those of the handsome stranger’s again. And once again, she quickly returned her attention to the pink cocktail in front of her.
It was bad enough that she had had to tell her fiancé that she was working late just to spend some time with the girls, now she found herself swapping glances with a stranger across a club that she should have outgrown years ago.
