The Bodyguard's Bed (Seduction Series Book 2), page 8
“Of course.”
We went behind closed doors and I spoke a bit about the situation. “His name is Wyatt. He’s sort of stalking his ex-girlfriend. She’s staying here. Her name is Desiree Hawkins. I spotted him in the hotel last night. Michael looked for him then and I’ve looked for him today. We couldn’t find him, so I just wanted to see if he was asking around for Desiree.”
“Oh…I see. Well, I haven’t heard anything. Last night Claire and Robin were working and we can check with them later today. Claire comes in in a few hours and Robin comes in later.”
“Okay. I’ll be back around then,” I said. I backed up and opened the door. “Keep your ears open and if you hear anything, please let me know.”
“Will do,” she said.
I left the room and thanked the young man behind the desk, then rounded the corner and nearly ran into Cammy as she was coming the opposite way. “Hey!” she said. She tilted her head. “You didn’t answer your phone when I called you last night,” she said. She looked angry and I glanced at my phone and saw her missed call, but since I had turned the phone off, I didn’t get any calls or messages.
“I’m sorry. A crazy busy night,” I said. “I really do apologize.”
She shrugged. “Whatever! So, heading out for a jog. Wanna come with?” she asked.
I looked down at my attire and gave her a smug grin. “Sorry, but duty calls.”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. Perhaps we can make an appointment to get together next month.” She started to push past me, but I reached out and grabbed her arm to stop her.
“Don’t do that,” I said. “You know that I would spend time with you. I’m just extremely busy.”
She crossed her arms in front of her. “I thought the point of your job was to watch over me. Well, you’re doing a lousy job at it.”
I couldn’t get angry at her words. I knew they were spoken in haste. I also knew that no way, no how I could tell her what I had been working on. For one reason being that it wasn’t Cammy’s concern as to what all was going on with Desiree. I didn’t know what Desiree had told her and I wasn’t going to be the one that had spilled those beans. Plus, Cammy wouldn’t understand why I was working so hard to help Desiree out.
“Please don’t be like that,” I pleaded. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t there for you last night. You have to know that it was hard for me too, but this is my job. Just understand that.”
“Yeah…I get it.” She still pouted as she tried to pull from me.
“Don’t I get a kiss?” I asked.
She arched an eyebrow. “Maybe you should have been there for me when I needed you.” She then twirled around and left me standing there. I watched her go and shook my head in disbelief. I didn’t understand her most the time, but I supposed that was just women in general.
I turned around and headed back to the elevator. I had left Desiree for more than an hour and she could have been up by now and already gone. Yet, when I reached the floor, I realized she wasn’t, at least she wasn’t gone. I opened my door and found her up, dressed back in her old clothes, and the bed already made.
She looked at me. “Hey, almost sent out the FBI looking for you,” she said, laughing slightly.
I was glad to see she had a sense of humor in her, despite what she was going through. “Well, I did some searching and Wyatt wasn’t in your room and the desk is going to be keeping an eye out for him. Plus, I’ll be checking in with the staff from last night, later today.”
She nodded. “Sounds like you’ve been busy.”
I shrugged. “Just trying to do what I can.” I looked at the bed. “You didn’t need to make the bed. You might need to sleep in it again tonight.”
She shook her head. “I appreciate what you’ve done thus far, but I really should just go back to my room. After all, I can’t hide away all the time, right?”
I nodded. “Guess not, but are you sure? Maybe I can stay in your room for a night or two, just to make sure that he doesn’t get to you.”
She tilted her head. “That’s a sweet offer, but Cammy won’t like that and we are right down the hall from each other.” She heaved a sigh. “This is really for the best.”
Again, she was right, but that didn’t mean I wanted her to be that strong. “Let me get another guard to stay with you then. He can park himself outside your door and you won’t even know he’s there.”
She thought about that for a moment, before she shook her head. “If we do that, he won’t come around. He’s smart. If he wants to get to me, …he will. It won’t matter how we try to avoid that.”
“Fine!” I reluctantly agreed. “At least let me walk you back to your room.”
She smiled. “That I will accept.” She moved closer to me and shook her head. “I really can’t thank you enough though. What you’ve done has been great.” She reached up and brushed a slight kiss on my cheek.” I smiled as she pulled away.
Our eyes locked and in that moment, I wondered what it would be like to kiss her lips. As I was thinking that, she leaned up and kissed me softly on the lips. It would have been the simplest of things if I would have pulled back and told her that we really shouldn’t, but I allowed the kiss to deepen, until she fell against me. She slipped her hand around the back of my neck and I didn’t stop her. The kiss lingered until my heart started racing and the blood started pumping furiously through my veins and then we stopped.
Her mouth hung down and she looked like a ghost. “I….am…so sorry,” she stammered. She stepped back from me and I shook my head.
“It’s alright,” I quickly said.
She looked away from me, regret all over her face. “It’s not alright. I just stepped over the boundaries and I should be ashamed.”
I reached out and cupped her elbow in my palm. “Des…listen to me. You weren’t alone. I let the kiss linger because it was…nice,” I finished off. “This is not your fault. Please don’t beat yourself up over it. It happened and no one needs to know.”
She looked up at me. Her soft eyes looked timid and scared. “You’re helping me out and I don’t want things to get awkward between us. I should have controlled my feelings. It just happened and it will never happen again.”
I nodded. “Emotions are a funny thing, but we both know why it happened. It won’t be awkward. It didn’t mean anything.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said again.
The way she was apologizing for it, had me a little thrown for a loop. It wasn’t a reaction I wanted her to feel towards the kiss, but I had to remind myself why she was feeling this way and that it wasn’t anything more than a feeling that she was playing with fire.
“You don’t need to apologize,” I said. “I understand.”
She nodded. I opened the door and started to leave the room, but she stopped me with her hand. “I’ll go by myself. I’ll be fine.”
I opened my mouth to ask if she was sure about that, but she was out the door before I had a chance to. I watched her get on the elevator and I could only hope that she was alright.
I stepped back into my room and went over to the bed, where she had neatly placed my clothes. Sure, I would need to have them washed, but I picked up the shirt and gently took a whiff of it. A smile crossed my face. I should have been upset that the kiss happened, but instead, I was thinking about it and wondering if it would ever happen again.
As I was standing there with my shirt in hand, there was a knock at the door. I rushed over to it, thinking it might be Desiree again. However, when I swung the door open, it was Cammy on the other side. “Oh…hey,” I said.
She tilted her head. “Expecting someone else?” she asked.
“No…why?” I asked.
“Well, you looked all frantic to open the door and then when you saw it was me, your face fell.”
I tried to hide my roll of the eyes. “I think you’re being a tad paranoid,” I said.
She shrugged. “Perhaps, but anyway, I wanted to come and apologize.”
I raised an eyebrow at that. “Apologize? Really?”
She nodded. “I wasn’t being fair to you. I know you have to work and I’m sorry, but I was missing you last night.”
So, she justified the reason she was being hard on me earlier. I just listened and nodded periodically. When she was finished ranting, she hesitated.
“Do you forgive me?” she asked. She put her lips in a pouting position and I smiled.
“Nothing to forgive,” I said, “But a little bit of understanding goes a long way.”
She smiled but didn’t acknowledge that she even knew what I meant. “Great! So, do you want to hang out today?” she asked.
I thought about that and nodded. “Sure! What do you want to do?”
She pondered over it and pushed me back into my room. “Maybe a little make-up session, where we make out.” She laughed as the door closed behind us.
I snickered and my lips went to hers as I pressed her against the door. We kissed for a few seconds there, maybe a minute, when she whispered. “Let’s take this to the bed.”
While we kissed we walked back over to my bed. I forgot all about the lounge pants and shirt that was on my bed, but that was the first thing she noticed. She stopped kissing and reached down for the t-shirt. She took in the scent and then gave me a curious look.
“What’s this?” she asked.
I snatched the clothes from her. “Nothing!” I nonchalantly said.
She looked down at me. “Really? Smells like women’s perfume on your clothes.”
I pretended to smell it, then shrugged. “Are you sure? Because I think it just smells like laundry detergent.”
I put the clothes on my dresser and turned back to her. She was glaring at me now. “Don’t make me out to be stupid,” she said. “Are you sleeping with someone else?”
I sighed and didn’t even know what to tell her. I tilted my head. “I’m not sleeping with anyone else. I’m not cheating on you. Just know that.”
She tiled her head and surveyed me, probably trying to see if she could believe me. “But that is some woman’s cologne, right?”
“You know it is,” I quietly stated.
She looked away from me and her eyes went to the clothes. “And I’m just supposed to believe that you aren’t cheating on me?”
“You’re supposed to trust me,” I quietly said.
She looked up at me and she was deep in thought. She sighed and then shook her head. “I’m going to need to do some thinking,” she said.
I nodded, but I was thinking that this was just her being crazy and she would either get over it or not. It was really up to her and I was just going to wait to see what her outcome was.
Chapter 8
It didn’t take Cammy long for her to agree that she could just trust me. By the next day, we were back on. At first, I wasn’t even sure that I believed that it was worth going forward. I was getting a bit tired of her spoiled girl attitude, but I did enjoy a lot of time that we hung out together, so I went with it. Plus, the sexual chemistry between us was off the charts.
So, aside from having to worry about her, I had to also keep my eyes on Desiree and Wyatt. I hadn’t seen him around and I only watched Desiree from afar. Since the kiss, I decided to keep my distance, at least for a little bit. It was just easier that way and Desiree didn’t come around me, so I figured she was thinking the same thing, but I did still have to talk to her about Meghan Parker, but I decided to just give it a few more days.
However, that didn’t mean that we would never see each other around and after a week, we had such an encounter. She was coming down the hallway when I was leaving Cammy’s room. When she saw me, she looked like she wanted to run the other way, but I was quick to speak up.
“Hey, Des,” I said.
She smiled and fell in step with me to the elevator. “Hey!”
We stepped on the elevator together and there was no turning back. “It’s been awhile,” I said. “How’ve you been?” I asked.
She nodded. “Not bad. And you?”
The ride down to the lobby was slow, awkwardly slow. “Oh well, I’m doing fine. I guess I was wondering more about if anything is new with Wyatt. Have you heard from him?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No…it’s been pretty quiet the past week.”
“Great! Maybe he’s moved on,” I said.
She looked at me and our eyes locked as the elevator door opened. “Well, it’s possible, but…” Her words fell off as she stepped off the elevator and I followed after her. She turned to me. “When he’s the quietest, he’s usually the most dangerous.”
I didn’t want to hear that. I thought about that. “Well, I want you to know that I haven’t given up. I’m still looking out for you.”
She smiled. “I appreciate that, Xander. I do.” She looked around, until she added, “I’m going to meet up with a friend. I’ll see you around.”
She turned to go, but I stopped her by putting my hand on her shoulder. She froze. “Just be careful, Des.”
She turned over her shoulder and looked at me. “I will. Thanks!”
I let her shoulder go and she took off. I stood there for a moment until I saw her meet up with some woman in the lobby. They took off and they were laughing and leaving the hotel. I could only believe that she would be just fine.
It didn’t mean that I wouldn’t stop thinking about her and wondering when she was going to get back to her room. That night, I stayed over at Cammy’s room and kept my ears peeled for any sound coming from Desiree’s side of the hallway.
After Cammy was sound asleep and it was after midnight, I did hear some commotion in the hallway. I looked over at Cammy and found her stretched out and snoring, so I got out of bed. I pulled my pants back on and went to the door. I peeked out in the hallway and didn’t see anything, so I opened the door and peered down to where Desiree’s room was. I looked back and saw I would have a few minutes, so I padded out into the hallway in my bare feet and wearing no shirt.
I walked over to Desiree’s room and leaned against the door, just to see if I could hear any movement coming from inside. After a minute in that position, I found that I wasn’t alone in the hallway. I turned around and found Desiree standing. Her arms were crossed and she was glaring at me. “What are you doing?” She hissed. She looked at my chest and rolled her eyes, looking disgusted. “Go back to Cammy.”
“I was concerned and wanted to make sure you got home safely,” I said.
She shook her head and opened up her hotel room. She turned around and looked at me. “I am fine. You don’t need to worry about me. I shouldn’t have brought you into my problems. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t say that. I’m glad you did, but I’m all in, so don’t push me away now.”
She looked away from me. “Okay…I’m not pushing you away, but you need to go back to your girlfriend before she suspects you’re over here talking to me. If you don’t, then you are not going to be the only one in trouble. Please…just go. I’m fine and you don’t need to worry about that anymore.”
“Okay!” I said. “I’m going.” I backed up and she shut the door, locking me out. I turned around and spotted another person in the hallway. An older man that was looking at me in a disapproving fashion. I smiled and waved slightly and then went back to the room.
It wasn’t until I was standing at Cammy’s door that I remembered I didn’t have the key. I dug in my pockets and was assured that it wasn’t there. “Dammit!” I mumbled.
I stood at the door for a moment, before I lifted my hand and knocked on the door. I really didn’t have another choice. After a moment, when I saw she wasn’t going to come after just one knock, I knocked again.
This time, I heard movement. She came to the door and opened it up. She stared at me. “What are you doing out in the hallway?” she asked. She looked annoyed.
“I thought I heard something and I forgot the key. I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “Whatever!” She turned around and I followed after her. She fell back into bed and was snoring before her head hit the pillow. I closed the door behind me and walked back over to the bed. I kicked out of the pants and laid down in the bed. I was able to sleep better now, just knowing that Desiree was safe back in her room. I cuddled up against Cammy and wrapped my arms around her. She relaxed against my arms and I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
Another three days went by and I tried to be positive in thinking that Wyatt was just out of the picture. Of course, it seemed a bit naïve to think that, but the fact that he wasn’t around, made me believe that he was suddenly gone and had moved onto other things.
One night, when I was thinking that things were just calming down in every facet of our lives, I went to the club for C Jay’s next performance. When I got there, I found Lou, her drummer standing on the stage, but he was the only one there. “Why isn’t everyone out here practicing?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes and tossed a look over to the backstage. “You know Cammy, she sometimes gets unbearable and everyone pays. She’s throwing a tantrum back there.” He went back to doing his drum rehearsing as I turned to the left and headed back stage.
“You are not wearing that,” she said.
“Cammy, you are being overly dramatic,” Desiree said. “It’s just an outfit. No one cares what we dress like anyway. All eyes on you.”
I stood back and listened. “You’re not going on stage if you don’t do as I say. Take that off and find something else.”
“What’s wrong with what we’re wearing?” The backup singer named Joy asked.
I looked at their attire. I had to agree; I saw nothing wrong with it. They had leggings, with skirts over it. The skirts were short, but the leggings were there. They each then wore a top that didn’t cover their stomach. It was something that I would have easily seen Cammy wear.
“You are too…too…you are showing too much skin. That’s what’s wrong. Find something else, or you’re not going on stage.”
“Oh brother,” Desiree said. “Fine! It’s not worth it. We’ll change.”
