Page 8 of Billionaire Bodyguard Summer

I lift up her legs and slide her panties off, drape them on the ruined rock pile, spread her thighs, and drop to my knees in front of her, breathing her in deep. I feel at home for the first time since the last time I lost her.

She abandoned me in Halo City after two days of fucking. After I saved her life. After our rendezvous in Vance’s office. I thought we were on the verge of marriage until I woke up to a cold and empty side of the bed.

She never touches the bank account I created for her, the ten million dollars, no questions asked and no strings attached, if only she’d leave him, leave this life.

She’s a mystery. I’ve come close to death before, just trying to figure her out.

And I’ll do it again.

But first I bury my face between her thighs, tonguing her fast but gentle, lapping up all I can get from her and lusting for more. She leans back, propped up on her arms, creating space, breathing hard, head thrown back, face to sky, when all I want is for her to close in on me, to press the soft swell of her belly against the top of my head, to crush her breasts against me, her breath hot on the back of my neck, every part of her touching me, holding me.

All I get from her in return is one fist in my hair.

It’s enough. She drives me wild. I thrust reflexively, my hips reaching for her, and I lick harder, my hands clenched tight around the flesh of her ass. My knuckles scrape against the stone. I ignore the pain.

She rocks back and forth until she bucks hard, fist tight against my scalp. Her hips reach for me in the throes of orgasm, but she presses her mouth into my hair and stifles her scream.

I resent not being able to hear her cry out, full force, when she comes.

Someday we’ll be together, and we’ll be safe, I tell myself, but I don’t know if I believe it. I stay inside her as she calms, feeling her breaths slow, and I rest my forehead on the thick of her thigh.

The triangle of vacant space under my bicep, and atop Mia’s thigh ignites, a flash that makes my eyes hurt. The light’s brighter than any sunlight since I’ve been in Sunbreak Harbor.

The soundburst of the explosion tears up the coast to meet us where we sit, echoes off the cliff wall where we’re already too breathless to gasp.

I’m so far gone on Mia my mind struggles to process the blast, the bright light in my periphery. A stray firework.

No. Too big, too loud.

I turn, and a slip in the marina’s engulfed in fire.

“Your boat,” Mia whispers.

six

. . .

Mia

I standover him in the living room and watch him sleep for another moment, but it’s not ethical to let him go on like this: he’s snoring like a chainsaw.

Even if Icouldhave fallen asleep for a few minutes after last night, no I couldn’t.

I should have let him sleep in the bed, but we wouldn’t have gotten any sleep then, either. And he’s already too close to me. I can’t let this, us, happen again. Not now, when we’re so close to wrapping the case.

Hopefully Harvey thinks Armin is dead, and turns his attention elsewhere, but I can’t bet on it. I wonder if I was the target, too, if he saw me sneak onto the catamaran. If so, we’re going to need to change the strategy of the investigation. If I’m the enemy again now, Harvey’s not going to blab into my breasts the way we need him to.

I have to meet with my team lead ASAP, no doubt about that. I brace myself for the argument that’s sure to erupt. I’m going to have to pretend it’s a client. And then Armin’s going to want to follow me, despite the attempted murder.

Even more because of it.

I swat at his bare feet. “You’re snoring.”

Armin chokes himself awake, splayed on a couch that wasn’t built to accommodate a man of his size, one knee up in the air, his foot dangling off the edge.

“I wouldn’t if you were with me,” he mumbles, and reaches for me, groggy, smiling slow at the sight of me. It melts my heart, as usual, and I hate him for it. I back out of his reach.

“I’ve got to go. There’s coffee in the kitchen. Help yourself to whatever you can find in the fridge.”