The Heiress & the Bodyguard

by Ryanne Corey

  “Why?” Not that Julie minded. She wanted to be close to him. It was all she had thought about since leaving the diner: everything that lay ahead. They had gone shopping for marshmallows and hot dogs, exchanging hot looks and eloquent sighs as they walked up and down the aisles. Purchasing lowly hot dogs had never been so erotic. Home again, she had changed into one of her new outfits, tan shorts and a scoop-neck navy tank top. She knew she looked good because when Billy saw her, he couldn’t say a word for a full minute. She was learning more and more about him. When his emotions were close to the surface, the teasing banter stopped and a taut silence took over. He’d walked very slowly across the room, took her hand and pressed a single kiss in the center of her palm. The palm, Julie discovered, was a very sensual part of the body.

  They settled themselves on the blanket side by side before Billy answered. “The thing of it is,” he said cheerfully, “it’s illegal to have a fire on the beach here. I figured we could get away with it if we kept it small, but I fear the entire Laguna fire department could very well show up at any second.”

  “But you’re a policeman,” Julie pointed out. “Doesn’t that give you a few extra privileges?”

  “Not when you’re burning down half the town just to roast a hot dog.” His smile fell off. Her innocent statement reminded him of the lies that still stood between them. He’d been trying to forget, to give himself a few precious hours of pretending the winds of fate were finally whispering in his favor. Was it too much to ask, that for once he had something clean and pure and precious? Julie was something beyond his realm of experience. Everything in his life until he’d met her had been soiled, compromised and unpleasantly realistic. Julie was the polar opposite of everything he’d ever known and everyone he had ever met.

  Julie looked at the ocean waves curling softly against the sand, slowly creeping inland. “At least we have plenty of water to put the fire out. You have to look at the positive side of things.”

  Billy stared at her beautiful profile, at the half-moon shadows her thick lashes cast against her delicate skin. The fading sunset cast a hazy rainbow of violet and rose over her porcelain complexion, giving her an ethereal, otherworldly look. Again, he thought of angels. “You’ve taught me that.”

  She looked at him, her eyes stretched wide in surprise. “I’ve taught you something?”

  “Is that so impossible?”

  She grinned, thinking back to her ineptitude when it came to pumping gas. “Highly unlikely. I don’t get out much, you know.”

  An odd quiet fell between them, the same storm-tossed silence that had lingered with them since they’d left the diner. Julie shivered, though not from the cool evening breeze.

  “Are you cold?” Billy asked immediately. “I could run back and grab you a sweatshirt.”

  Julie shook her head. “I’m not cold.” She held his eyes, a shy smile tilting the corners of her wide mouth. “I’m trying to send you a message with ESP. I’m concentrating very, very hard. Can you hear me?”

  For all her innocence, the message in her eyes was unmistakable. Billy swallowed over the knot in his throat, running a hand through his dark mane of hair. “Something about…the six damnable inches between us?”

  “You’re a regular psychic, Officer. What else?”

  His gaze drifted to her beautiful, beautiful lips. “Something about my kissing you?”

  “Wrong,” Julie said softly.

  “Wrong?” The poor man looked devastated.

  “It was actually something about—” she rolled over to her side, eliminating the six damnable inches “—my kissing you.”

  And she did.

  His lips felt so good to her, so familiar and welcoming. Her eyes fluttered closed as she savored the sensations coursing through her mind and body. She slanted her head this way and that, lightly exploring the softness of his mouth. Her tongue edged the corners, riding liquid fire in its wake. Softness and gentleness were replaced by a sweet deep hunger so quickly, her mouth parted with a fierce little gasp. In a clinical situation, it could be said she had reached the outer perimeters of her experience.

  But Billy knew that, just as he seemed to know everything about her. He took over without missing a beat, rolling her onto her back, his hands pinning hers above her head. Still his mouth plundered hers, never sated, seeking more and more. As the length of his body settled perfectly over hers, a prickling heat fused their skin together. He began to ache, deep down inside. He felt her hips rocking ever so slightly with an age-old, primitive move. Arching. And this was just a kiss. Like the bonfire, it was all out of control almost before it began.

  Julie’s hands dug into his hair, loving the cold silk running over her fingers. The kiss was an exercise in contrasts, soft yet demanding, hard yet gentle. So many sensations all coming at once, driving every rational thought from her head. He created a need in her, and she truly thought she would die if it weren’t filled.

  The sand shifted beneath the movements of their bodies, creating a slight hollow like a well-worn bed. Julie’s breath caught in her throat as Billy’s hands slipped beneath her shirt, fingers splaying over warm skin.

  “I didn’t plan this…here…” He couldn’t form the words between his kisses.

  “I did.” Like his, her hands had pulled the back of his shirt from his jeans, exploring the smooth stretch of skin with ardent hunger. Her fingertips touched a scar, ran along the puckered edges. Beneath him, her eyes took on a softness and wisdom he had never seen before.

  “So many things could have taken you away from me. In the beginning I thought it was exciting, the life you lead. But now…when I think I might never have met you, when I realize what could have happened to you—”

  “Don’t.” He kissed her gently on her forehead, his hands trembling on either side of her face. “We’re here now. And having you appear in my sorry life is nothing short of a miracle.”

  “I’m the one who is lucky.” She pushed his hair back from his forehead, smiling as it fell right back over his eyes. “You look like a little boy, Billy Lucas. Except for your eyes, and…” she blushed like a red, red rose “…and other things.”

  “Speaking of other things…” In all his life, Billy had never had so much trouble asking a simple question. Probably because he’d never held an angel in his arms before. “You’ve never been with anyone?”

  “No.” She wasn’t embarrassed. In fact, on some subconscious level, she was supremely grateful there had been no one before him. It made the whole experience even more precious. “Just you, Billy. Only you.”

  It was a gift he had never been given before. He felt tears choke his throat, which absolutely no one from his former life would have believed. Billy was not a man of great emotional sensitivity, or so they believed. He was grateful everyone had been wrong about Billy Lucas, including himself.

  “I would never want anything to hurt you,” he said. “Are you…I need to know if you’re…”

  Her smile was that of a grown-up woman. His question in the heat of passion told her again just how much he cared. “Perfectly safe. I’ve been waiting to meet you since I was eighteen years old. I wasn’t about to leave anything to chance.”

  Billy rested his forehead against hers, taking a long, hard breath. “The bonfire in a public place is illegal. Our personal fire in a public place is also illegal.” Then he grinned, because he was Billy, and his sense of the absurd popped up at the most inopportune times. “I forgot about the weenie roast. How hungry are you?”

  She assumed great solemnity, resisting the urge to drag his lips back to hers. “I’m very hungry, Billy.”

  “Really?”

  “Now ask me what I’m hungry for.”

  “Oh, boy.” Billy spent a hard thirty seconds considering the consequences of a private act in a public place. “For an angel, you have the most devilish mind. Will you walk me back to the condo? And up the stairs? And tuck me into bed?” And make time stand still, he thought silently.

 
“Yes, Billy,” she whispered.

  She’d been waiting to say that single little word all her life. Staring at Billy’s tangle of dark hair above his crinkly blue-blue eyes, at the flush of his skin that made him look hot and golden to her, she knew the wait had been well worth it.

  It wasn’t his first time, but it felt like it.

  They stood face-to-face in the upstairs bedroom, the quiltless bed separating them by six feet. How had that happened? Billy wondered.

  “Look how far away you are,” Julie pointed out softly.

  “I’m right where I should be. You’re the one who went to the wrong side of the bed.” Oh, that was good, Lucas. Why don’t you just tell her you’re paralyzed with desire and ask for a little help? That ought to impress her.

  “Your voice is shaking,” Julie whispered.

  “So is yours.”

  She tilted her head to one side, that secret, Mona Lisa smile back on her face. “I’ll meet you in the middle.”

  They both smiled, hanging on to one another’s eyes like a lifeline. At almost the same time, they slowly climbed on the bed, crawling across the mattress on hands and knees until their mouths were within touching distance. Their kiss was soft and sweet, lingering long after it ended, like a particularly haunting song. The melody of love, Billy thought with uncharacteristic romanticism, was far different from the dull meter of meaningless passion.

  It was his first time, after all.

  Still on their knees, they rose up chest to chest. Julie’s eyes were luminous as she stared at him, dazed with utter longing. He memorized her features with his mouth, kissing her forehead, her cheekbones, the tip of her nose and the softness of her chin. She sighed, hanging on to his shoulders for support. She had no backbone, no means of support for her wobbly limbs. Billy’s head slipped to her neck, his mouth raining kisses from beneath her earlobe to the base of her throat where a rapid pulse hammered. His hands spanned her waist, fingers nearly touching.

  “You’re so small,” he whispered against her skin, his breath coming as softly as a caress. “Fragile…”

  “I’m not fragile,” Julie gasped, feeling his hands moving upwards to the thrust of her breasts. They felt so heavy, weighted with desire. “I’m…I’m…Ohhh…”

  He kissed her deeply, his thumbs brushing over suddenly hard nipples. The kiss went on and on, until they were both gasping for air.

  Billy shook back his hair, the surface of his skin burning feverishly. He needed to see her, to memorize everything about this moment. The expression on her beautiful face was like a sonnet, sweetly evocative and utterly captivating. Tumbled hair, swollen lips, angel eyes. What had he ever done to deserve this woman?

  He reached for the hem of her tank top, slowly lifting it up over her head. Julie cooperated like a child being undressed for bed, holding her arms high above her head. The tank top went sailing, landing on the dresser. Still she held his eyes, watching his features as he stared at her white lace bra that left nothing to the imagination. His hands slipped behind her back, fumbling for a long minute.

  “I’m trembling,” he explained hoarsely. “I can’t get the—”

  With a shaky smile, she reached behind, unhooked the bra and sent it flying after the tank top. A slight flush of embarrassment sheened her skin, but the desire in her eyes remained hot and burning. Billy opened his mouth to say something, then decided to put it to better use. His kisses trailed from her throat to her breasts, giving devoted attention to first one, then the other. Julie was completely unprepared for the rush of pure sensuality that shuddered through her. Her head fell weakly back on her neck and her eyes drifted half-closed. Heaven. This had to be heaven.

  But there was so much more. They kissed with broken gasps, hands searching and discovering. Billy shrugged out of his shirt with fierce impatience, wanting to feel skin against skin. Naked from the waist up, they came together for the first time. Her breasts flattened hard against his muscled chest, the most intimate connection she had ever had with another human being. Unashamed, excited, greedy…she felt so much, wanted answers to her half-formed thoughts and questions. She wanted.

  They fell backwards on the bed without breaking the contact of their lips. Billy’s weight was hard and thrilling over the restless movements of her hips. Her knee shifted between his legs, touching him there, trying to find new ways to get closer to him. Every movement she made, every gasp, every inexperienced touch, incited him to a deeper arousal. Fingers fumbled at waistbands, wanting to be closer still. The second coming together of naked skin was powerfully seductive, a flame that fed on itself. Now there was nothing between them, nothing but warm air, explosive need and a simmering dampness on their flushed bodies.

  Billy had magic. He knew all the secrets of her body better than Julie knew them herself. His hands were gentle and seeking, knowing where and how to touch her. His lips carried kisses to places that made her whimper with unexpected pleasure. Billy had magic that lifted her up on a powerful wind, magic that left her there hovering until she thought she would go mad. Everything in her body was arched, urging, straining. And when Billy entered her, she went even higher, floating on a mindless plain of desire. She’d heard stories of what poor virgins endured—clinical tales of the birds and the bees designed by Harris to put the fear of God in her. Messy business, he’d said, blushing so hard, she expected steam to come from his ears. For procreation, not recreation. And vastly—ahem—overrated.

  Harris had lied.

  When Billy began moving within her, Julie’s hands dug into his shoulders, and she bit her lips as her head twisted from side to side on the pillow. She was quickly frantic from the growing intensity of the age-old rhythm. This was a new universe of sensuality, filled with hot sparklers and swirling clouds of glitter. She tried to keep her eyes locked with his, mesmerized by the emotions she saw in his face. He was wild-eyed, tense and hungry. His eyes, his hands, his body made claim on her in every way he knew how.

  Mindless, shivering, she began moving with him. She was utterly deaf to the anguished pleas she made, but Billy heard and answered them all: “Please…yes…give me…”

  It was all he could do to wait until she reached her summit, watching with fierce pleasure as her eyes opened wide and her breathing broke in jagged, gasping pieces. Beneath him, her angel face took on the luminous shimmer of pearls, enhancing her femininity and beauty to a level that stunned him. She was a revelation to him, delicate and womanly in every sense. She was a miracle. His miracle.

  “I’m so grateful for you,” he whispered, the words breaking over the tight emotion in his throat. Had the little sound he made lived to grow up, it might have been a sob.

  When the blessed relief came for him, it was both a death and a rebirth, agonizing in its pleasure. Billy had never known such volatile passion could be tempered with such soul-searing tenderness. He could hardly see her through the sparkling moisture gathering in his eyes. Not tears, because Billy had never cried in his life, and certainly not because of an unbearable happiness.

  Not tears, he thought, his shaking hands framing her lovely face. Big boys don’t cry.

  A single drop trailed down his cheek, wetting the hot skin at the base of Julie’s throat like a subtle, intimate baptism. He closed his eyes until he had himself under control, then looked at her again, bright fever spots burning on his cheeks. He had finally found it, the elusive, never-before-attained feeling of completion. He was in awe of her.

  “It’s never been like this before,” he said hoarsely. “I didn’t know. You are…the world to me. A world I’ve never seen before.”

  She pulled his head to her breast and held him with exquisite gentleness. “Billy,” she whispered, tenderly smoothing his hair. On her lips, his name sounded like a prayer.

  “What?”

  “Just Billy.”

  Eight

  Julie couldn’t sleep, because she had something very important to do.

  She had to look at Billy.

  She sat
cross-legged on the end of the bed, staring at the man sleeping so soundly smack-dab in the middle of the mattress. The sheets were so tangled and wrinkled, it looked as through they’d fought a whirlwind and lost. Billy’s hair was likewise a victim of the wild wind, boyishly tousled around his sleep-flushed face. His cheeks were crinkled from the pillow, dusted with the beginnings of a dark beard. He slept folded up on his side like a baby, mouth parted and one fist curled on the pillow beside his head. With the rose-colored sunrise gilding his smooth brown skin, he looked much younger than his years.

  But he was no boy.

  Julie was wearing one of Colin’s large white T-shirts and nothing else. It had more to do with being a bit chilled than with modesty. Last night she had learned many new things about herself. She was remarkably un-modest in the right situation. Her enthusiasm had more than made up for her lack of knowledge. Billy had told her so a number of times throughout the night.

  “Wish number one,” she said very softly, smiling at the man who controlled the rhythm of her heart.

  “I heard that,” he said quite clearly.

  “Of course you didn’t. You’re asleep.”

  He grinned, eyes still closed. In a proud little sing-song: “I’m wish number one…”

  “You’re full of yourself this morning, Officer. Maybe I wasn’t looking at you when I said it.”

  “You were.” He opened his eyes and turned over on his back, looping his arms around his neck. His thick-lashed eyes were still weighted with sleep, but sparkling with bright blue humor and supreme confidence. “I know these things. I was trained to be very observant. And right now I am observing you wearing one of Colin’s white undershirts. I don’t like your skin so close to Colin’s undershirt. Come here and I’ll take it off for you.”

  “I was cold,” Julie explained.