by Anna Lewis
“Oh, so you were there at the scene?”
“Yes, the police called us after it happened.” He shot a hole. “I need to start seriously looking for a security agency.”
“Hey, Anthony, you have a security company, why don’t you do it?” Luke asked slyly.
“I install systems—surveillance and alarms, that kind of stuff. We don’t do the protection side of things,” Anthony answered.
“C’mon man,” Matty pleaded. “Do this for me.”
“Nope.”
“C’mon, until I can mobilize a security agency, Ari is really freaking out.”
“Why? Was her life threatened too?”
“In a sense.” Matty supposed the threat to her business was a threat to her life.
“Fine, I’ll give you one week to get an agency on this and then I’m done,” Anthony said.
“Thank you so much Tony, this means a lot, man.”
“Sure.”
Anthony Charm ran his fingers through his thick blond hair and smiled a cool looking smile. Anyone that looked at him would see a man who seemed to be in his early thirties and looked like he had come from money, they wouldn’t know that he was in fact in his forties. His mother had been a waitress who hadn’t been able to afford anything besides good education for him, and that he had been so poor after high school that he had joined the Navy SEALs and built himself up to the position he was. He was the CEO of a huge Security agency now, it brought in a lot of money but sometimes Anthony missed the action of being in the navy, and he wished he could have it one more time, this project looked like a little danger would creep back into his life, and if that wasn’t the case he was ready to leave.
Anthony wouldn’t admit it, but he was mildly interested, just mildly. He had been so bored since he had left the navy, starting his security company hadn’t kept him busy for long, and lately now that his company was no longer a baby but rather growing nicely, he had been itching to get back into the action, looking for something to do that was more active. Working for Matty seemed like it could be fun, at least for a moment. He had heard so much about the break-in that had happened, mostly because it had been a stupid and obvious plan. He suspected that the criminal hadn’t been after the designer’s life so much as he had been after scaring her, but for what purpose? He didn’t know, he couldn’t tell. But working as a bodyguard could be fun…or at least distracting.
***
Shelly was working overtime again, the launch of the company’s new collection was coming up and Ari was putting so much pressure on her to deliver as much as possible and she couldn’t disappoint her, not even if she wanted to start her own fashion house, and she was such a perfectionist that she wouldn’t want any bad designs attached to her name.
“Shelly?” She raised her head from her drawings to see her assistant Doris come into her office, she was wearing a short gold dress with a bow in the middle, it looked a little inappropriate for the office, but Shelly wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that.
“Yes?” Shelly said, impatient to get back to her drawing.
“I saw that you didn’t approve the designs that I sent you for the new collection,” she said, throwing some sketches on the table.
“That’s right,” Shelly said, her pitch stable. Doris’ designs had been more skanky than classy, and the collection was supposed to be about classy youthfulness, she didn’t know how many times she could tell one person that.
“Can I ask why? My designs are good,” Doris said. “You would know that if you weren’t so backwards in your style.” That did it.
“What did you say to me?” Shelly dropped her pencil and turned to face her assistant square on. The girl fell silent. “You do know that I am your superior, right? And I have the authority to fire you.” She stood up and advanced.
“I didn’t mean—”
“I tell you what to do and you do it,” She was usually a cool headed person who didn’t let much disturb her, but Doris was getting out of hand and she knew from experience that if she didn’t call her out on it, she would become uncontrollable. “If you have designs that fit the theme of this new collection, then you can provide them, if not keep your designs until such a time as they are needed,” she finished. “Do I make myself clear?”
“Yes Ma’am,” Doris said tight lipped and then turned to go. There was clapping behind Shelly and a “My, my.” She turned around to see a white blond guy leaning against the door frame behind her and giving a slow clap. He was really tall and really built, he had a blue track suit on, it looked to be last year’s Louis, limited edition.
“Do I know you?” she asked a little cautious. She had just been through an ordeal, she didn’t know who planted the bomb, and for all she knew this strange man could be the person that was after her.
“Yes, in more ways than one.” He smiled, a cocky ass smile like he knew something he wasn’t telling her.
“Hey Shelly, how you doing?” Matty said coming out from behind the tall guy.
“Mr. Blueborth,” Shelly said standing straighter. “Hey.”
“Sorry, I had to take a call. This is Anthony Charm, he is an ex-navy SEAL officer,” Matty said addressing Anthony.
“Hi,” Anthony said smiling, he looked half bored.
“Hi,” Shelly said waving.
“Mr. Charm is going to be your new bodyguard,” Matty said.
“My what?” Shelly asked in surprise.
“Bodyguard,” Matty repeated.
“I don’t need a bodyguard,” Shelly said. She hadn’t even been consulted before this decision had been made, and that made her kind of mad. “I am a thirty-four year old woman, I can take care of myself.”
“No one said you can’t, we just want you to have extra protection until we can beef up security here.” There was no way she was going to go for this.
“I’m sorry Matty, but I refuse to have someone following me around.”
“You didn’t talk to her?” Anthony asked. “I thought she knew about this already.” He sounded half bored still. Shelly wondered if there was anything that could make this man look anything but bored.
“Shelly after what happened, you need a bodyguard until we know what’s going on.” Matthew worrying about her was refreshing in a way, she had lost her parents at a young age, and the only person that had had to worry about her ever since was herself. She softened a little towards him, but still held firmly on her ground.
“No Matty, I won’t give you approval to do this, I’m sorry.”
“Why? Your life doesn’t matter to you?”
“It’s not that, it just feels weird to have someone following me around,” Shelly said. “Especially someone I don’t know.”
“Even though it’s someone that can protect you?” Matty asked.
“As far as I don’t know him, I don’t trust him.”
“Well do you trust me?” he asked.
“To an extent.”
“Then trust him to an extent. He will protect you. Why don’t we try it for a few days and see how it goes, like a test of some kind? He doesn’t have to go home with you either, just protect you from the comfort of the office. After work hours, you are on your own,” Matty said as he tried to convince her. “How does that sound?”
“Like a plan,” she said.
“Great! I will leave you two to get acquainted.” Matty said as he walked out of the room.
“So, can I call you Tony?” Shelly asked when the room was empty.
“Call me whatever you want,” Anthony said with a smile.
His smile was so pretty and so hard not to notice. Shelly smiled back, brushing off a familiar feeling in her head. Why did that sentence seem so familiar? She usually wasn’t attracted to white men, not even good looking ones like this one who were tall and looked like they had been dipped in some sort of sweet sugary goodness. But there was something different about this one, he somehow seemed familiar to her, like she knew him from somewhere but she couldn’t remember where
. His face wasn’t familiar, it was just the air around him that seemed like something she had experienced before.
“Tony it is,” said Shelly. She liked the name, it sounded badass and full of mystery. Just like him.
“We have met before,” he said after a short silence between them.
“Really? Where?” So, she seemed familiar too? Maybe it hadn’t all been in her head and she did really know this person, now if only she could figure out where she had met him from that would be nice.
“You really don’t remember me?” Anthony asked, a twinkle in his eyes, something she was just noticing.
“No, tell me,” Shelly said, more eager than she should be.
“Na,” he said playfully.
“C’mon,” Shelly said, almost whining.
“Alright, the best I can do is give you a hint.” Anthony said.
“Ok, let’s hear it.” She smiled.
“How did you spend that two grand?
***
“What?” Her eyes where the size of two large saucers. “No.”
Anthony just stood there with a big goofy smile on his face as Shelly kept trying to process what was going on. “No, no, no, no,” she repeated, closing her eyes and hitting her palm to her forehead. She couldn’t believe what was going on right now, he had been the one she had given the lap dance to? What had she done? At the time, it had seemed like such an innocent fun thing to do, meet a stranger at a club, give him a lap dance and forget it ever happened. She hadn’t counted on said stranger also being her bodyguard, there was no way this was going to work.
“You are a really good dancer by the way.” Anthony gave a cocky smile. “Do your colleagues know what your side hustle is?” he laughed.
“That is not my side hustle,” she blurted. “That was just one wild night of fun, nothing wrong with that.” She was so confused. How could he even be here right now? “How could you know who I was and still come here today?” She couldn’t believe that anybody in their right mind would do that.
“Well, I came to make back my two thousand dollars sweetheart. Money ain’t easy to come by you know?” Was he kidding? What kind of game was this?
“Are you kidding me?” she said, her eyes firing up. “You are doing this for two thousand dollars?”
“Of course not,” he laughed. “I just came as a favor to Matty and then I saw you. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, I didn’t bet on this job being much fun.” She sensed that he was the type that got bored quickly. “However, my favor expires after one week, if I’m still here by then, then I would be doing this for ten thousand dollars.”
“What? Matty would pay you that?”
“I am very expensive sweetheart, be happy that I am here to save the day.”
“No, no, absolutely not. I am going to tell Matty that this can’t work and you can just agree with me or something.”
“Now why would I do that?” He moved to a chair to sit down. “I’m just gonna sit by myself in this corner while you explain to Matty, your boss, why you are changing your mind about having me protect you even after you just agreed five seconds ago to let me do it.”
“I changed my mind, people change their minds,” Shelly said trying hard not to look at him. The man was sexy as hell, and he looked at her like she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. His looks were so plainly obvious that she never wanted him to stop.
“Well you could tell him why you think you have changed your mind, but I am gonna tell him the truth sweetheart.”
“You wouldn’t dare.”
“Try me.” He cocked his lips.
“Why would you even want to do that? You have nothing to gain from doing this.”
“On the contrary, I have then thousand dollars to gain from protecting you sweetheart, so I’m gonna be here for a while.” Tony didn’t care about the money, money wasn’t a problem for him, and if he was being honest with Shelly he would tell her the truth, he found her interesting and he wanted to see just how interesting she was. But he suspected that that would drive a wall between them, make her cautious of him and self-conscious when he was around, he wasn’t willing to let that happen.
He gave off that cocky smile again, that smile that she would love to hate but found herself being drawn to.
“Fine, but keep your distance please,” she said as she took her seat and got back to work.
It was already past 6pm and she was still buried in work. She hadn’t eaten anything all day and now she was humming as she typed something on her MacBook. Anthony found her intriguing, with the way she brushed her hair out of her face, her hair was so sexy, the long kinky curly tendrils falling way below her shoulders in different directions like they couldn’t be tamed. He still remembered them as being the first thing he had noticed that day at the club and it was the first thing he had noticed this morning as well. He studied the way she was with her designs, the way she held her pencil, her level of concentration, she looked so innocent and pure that he wondered how anyone would want to hurt her.
“Aren’t you gonna eat something?” he asked her, a little worried. She didn’t say anything, she had been ignoring him since he arrived. “Gonna keep on ignoring me, are you?” he asked.
“Yup.”
“You know I’m not going anywhere right?” he said. “I am here for your protection.” She dropped her hands and turned to face him.
“What kind of guard are you anyway?” she asked, cutting him off when he was about to respond. “You haven’t done anything remotely like a bodyguard all day. You haven’t cased the place, haven’t tried to go through my past dealings with people to know who may be after me, all you have done is sit on that couch all day eating my cheerios straight from the box,” she finished in a huff. “I think I am better off protecting myself than leaving my safety in your hands.”
“Well,” Anthony said not really sounding bothered by her declaration. “Every bodyguard’s system is different, you have to know what works for you and stick to it.”
“But that can’t be right. Matty says that you are an ex-navy SEAL, then that means that you must have had to follow a strict disciplinary system to get to where you got to, therefore you can’t have a different system, all systems have to be the same.”
“Well…” he fished for what to say. “You don’t want to see me when I use the discipline that the navy gave me.”
“Sure, whatever.” There was silence for a while, but then Anthony broke it.
“A bunch of my friends and I are going for a birthday party later tonight, would you like to come?” He didn’t know why, but watching her work for such long hours showed him more than ever how fragile she was, and he really didn’t want to leave her all by herself. Besides she needed to eat and he suspected that she was going to hold it off until it was too late. She worked too hard, oblivious to everything going on around her.
“Nope.”
“C’mon, it could be fun Shelly. You have been working all day,” he coaxed.
“No thanks, I am fine,” she said, head still buried in her work.
Anthony stood up. “I am not taking no for an answer,” he said, jacking her up with one hand and taking her coat from a coat stand near her door with the other hand. “We are going.”
“Aren’t you being a little handsy?” she asked, not sounding the least bit angry.
“Nope, you work too hard, you need a break. C’mon, we will grab dinner before we head out,” he said looking into her eyes. There was a moment of silence where he thought she was going to punch him, but instead she rolled her pretty brown eyes and said, “Fine, give me a second to freshen up.”
Anthony felt like he had just closed the most difficult business deal imaginable.
***
Shelly walked into the office the next day to see that her assistant had dropped some new sketches on her table. At a glance, she could see that it was a considerable improvement over the old ones, but they still just didn’t look good enough. Taking off her ja
cket she sat down to write some notes on the sketches for Doris. Her assistant had been becoming unbearable to handle for a while now, and Shelly suspected that it was because she blamed her for taking her job.
Shelly had taken the interview for lead fashion designer straight after she finished school, and she had gotten it because she had a portfolio to prove how creative she was, and a recommendation from one of the best fashion houses in New York City as well. It hadn’t been much of a surprise when she had been offered the position, a few other companies had offered her jobs as well. However she had gone for the one with the highest pay, and three years later she was earning more than any of her school mates. She hadn’t known that her assistant had interviewed for a promotion to the same job role and hadn’t gotten it, but Shelly had been unapologetic when she had found out. She hadn’t done anything wrong as far as she was concerned in taking the job, and if her assistant was any good then she would have gotten the job instead. Doris needed to get her act together and start acting right before Shelly was forced to take the matter up with the boss.
“Hey,” Shelly turned around to see Anthony walk in. He had on a grey tracksuit, an iPad in his left hand and a cup holder with two cups of coffee in his right. This man looked like he had just rolled out of bed, yet he still managed to look sexy.
“Hey,” Shelly responded, turning back to her work to hide her smile. Last night had been a very different experience from the ones she was used to having. He had taken her out to have seafood at Kelsey's, one of her absolute favorite restaurants in Atlanta, and then from there they had gone to his friend’s birthday party. There Shelly had found out fast that she wasn’t with just an ex-navy SEAL officer, but an ex-navy SEAL officer that owned one of the biggest home and business security companies in Atlanta.
Anthony’s company provided security systems to more than half of Atlanta, and that was impressive because he had started just a few years ago when he had gotten out of the navy. The market had already been heavily saturated but his clients had come fast because of his connections and wonderful customer service skills. Knowing this about Anthony had made Shelly see him in a different light, maybe that was why she had made love to his lips before the night had been over. Yes, Shelly had kissed Anthony. She felt so embarrassed.