by Tina Folsom
“I’m not.”
Surprised that he didn’t take the lead-in to talk about his job, something most men liked, she dug further. “So if it’s not medicine what do you do?”
“Security things.”
“You mean like a security consultant?”
“Not exactly.”
“Military?” God, she hoped not.
He hesitated as if contemplating what to tell her.
“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s f—”
“I’m a bodyguard.”
Of their own doing, her eyes instantly roamed his body. Yes, he was tall, and when he’d carried her, it had seemed without effort. She’d felt his muscles flex beneath her. Yet he wasn’t just muscle and strength. He had speed too. The quickness with which he’d grabbed her and moved her out of the way of the speeding car, had been a blur.
Excitement and disappointment collided inside her. He was a man with a dangerous job, somebody so very different from herself, from her ordered life. A man not to get involved with no matter how hot he was and how much she owed him. She didn’t need to add another person to her life who she would worry about. She worried enough about her parents. That took all her energy. There was nothing left for a man who would be gone for days on end, likely without a word. No, she would never be able to do that.
The one-night-stand she had contemplated only minutes earlier lost its appeal. She didn’t want to be tempted to want more. Because things happened, and what if a one-night-stand turned into two nights, a week or a month? It was the same reason she never dated a policeman, fireman, or anybody who was in the military. A bodyguard fell into the same category.
With regret she allowed her lips to form her next words. “It’s getting late. I should call a cab.”
He seemed jolted by her answer for a moment. Then he emptied the last of his drink and looked into his glass. “I’ll make sure you’ll get home safely.”
SEVEN
Aiden insisted on waiting for the cab with her. As he helped her into the taxi, his mood was gloomy.
Why did it bother him that Leila had suddenly cut their impromptu evening short? He should be relieved. But after telling her about Julia and their adventures together, he’d felt a strange sense of wanting to open up to her, when he rarely talked to anybody about his sister.
Why Leila’s mood had suddenly changed when he’d told her he was a bodyguard, which came pretty close to the truth, he had no idea. Her rejection should suit him fine, but for whatever reason he didn’t like it. Intellectually, he knew that the more distance he could keep between him and her, the better for everybody involved. They weren’t friends, and she should never make the mistake of seeing him as such. Neither should he want anything from her but her compliance, so he could protect her. End of story.
No, it’s only the beginning, his inner voice insisted while his heartbeat accelerated in agreement.
Not wanting his thoughts to go farther down that road, he watched the taxi disappear around the next corner and pulled out his cell phone. He dialed Manus’s number and started walking in the direction his car was parked.
“Yeah?” his second answered immediately. Of all people, the council had assigned Manus to him.
“I need you to check on a license plate for me. My charge was nearly run over by a car tonight.”
“No shit.”
“Could be a coincidence . . . ”
Manus snorted. “Since when do you believe in coincidences?”
Manus was right. He didn’t.
“What’s the plate number?”
Aiden recited it from memory. “I didn’t get the last number. There was some dirt on the plate, obscuring it.” He’d only had a split second to read the plates as the car had whizzed past him. But his preternatural senses had picked up what they could anyway.
“What kind of car was it?”
“Toyota, looked like a Corolla.” A very indistinct car, like millions of others.
“Give me a few hours. I’ll text you what I find.”
“Good, I’m going to Leila’s place now—”
“Ah, it’s Leila now. Interesting.”
Aiden’s hand tightened around his phone, anger surging. “Dr. Cruickshank’s apartment,” he corrected through clenched teeth.
“What’s she like?”
“Not your type,” Aiden bit out, his hackles rising once more. It would be a cold day in hell if he ever allowed Manus to guard her in his stead. She was his assignment. His responsibility.
“Ah, so it’s like that now.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You want her—Leila, is it?—for yourself,” Manus guessed.
“Bullshit! She’s my charge, that’s all. I don’t get involved with my charges.” He obeyed the rules. Even if his body wanted something different this time. Something that would not only break the Stealth Guardians’ rules but his own code of ethics.
“You’ll see the light one day, believe me.”
“Just do your job!”
Aiden disconnected the call and looked down the dark alley at the entrance of which he’d parked his black Ferrari. It was the same type of alley where only days earlier he’d lost a charge. Shaking off the unpleasant memory, he unlocked the car and slunk into the driver’s seat.
The engine howled seconds later, and the car shot into the street. Traffic was light, making it easy to slip back into his thoughts even though he didn’t want to.
He forced his thoughts away from Leila and back to his best friend. Best friend? He had no best friend anymore: Hamish was gone, by the looks of it seduced to the dark side by the demons. Was that what had happened? Had he turned bad? If that was true, then next time they met, it could be as enemies, clashing swords.
It was a gruesome prospect, one that for a moment even drowned out his thoughts about Leila. Aiden felt the blade that was lodged in the side of his right boot, a dagger forged in the Dark Days. Would he have to use this weapon against Hamish one day? He felt his heart contract painfully at the thought of it, but he knew it had to be done.
As a Stealth Guardian, Hamish knew too much. He was aware of the portals that connected all compounds with each other. Like worm holes, they allowed their kind to step into a portal at one compound and emerge, seconds later, at another, even if it was thousands of miles away. It made travel between their strongholds child’s play. But should demons ever get wind of the location of their compounds and therefore the portals, they could destroy the Stealth Guardians from within. A frightening prospect, and the reason why no charges were ever allowed inside the walls of any compound, even though it would be the safest place for them.
Aiden pulled the car to a stop opposite the small building Leila lived in. Her apartment was on the second floor and faced the street, making it easy to watch from the outside. The lights in two rooms were on, the living room and her bedroom. Earlier, before he’d gone to Inter Pharma, he’d entered her apartment, passing through the locked door as if it were air, and had scoped out her place. He’d found nothing amiss, no traces of demon activity, nothing unusual.
Her bookshelves were stuffed full with medical textbooks, her coffee table littered with medical journals, and her refrigerator bare. He knew that Inter Pharma had a canteen, and he assumed she ate there rather than cooking at home. The apartment was neat, yet it lacked the frills he’d encountered in other women’s homes.
His sensitive hearing picked up the ping of a microwave, and moments later he saw Leila limping back into the living room, plate in hand.
Aiden drummed his fingers against the steering wheel, contemplating whether to go up there and sit with her. He knew it wasn’t necessary, because from the short distance he was at, he had no trouble cloaking her with his mind. She would be invisible to any demon in the vicinity. Yet, something inexplicable made him want to draw closer.
The decision was made for him when he heard a doorbell ring in Leila’s apartment and saw her rise. His head shot to
the front door of the building, but there was nobody.
He catapulted from the car and raced across the street, bolting through the door and up the stairs. He turned the corner after the first flight of stairs and looked up to the next landing, just as Leila opened the door to the young man who hovered there.
“Hey, Jonathan,” she greeted him with a tired smile, but a smile nevertheless.
Who the hell was this guy? Her boyfriend? Aiden perused him quickly: tall build, slim, short blond hair, his arms behind his back, dimples in his cheeks when he smiled. Which he did now. He positively grinned back at her.
“Hey, Leila. I heard you come home. Didn’t want to miss you.”
Aiden noticed how she leaned against the door jamb, her injured leg slightly lifted off the floor. Darn, this guy shouldn’t keep her. Didn’t he see that she was tired and needed to rest?
“I was just about to turn in . . . ” Good, it seemed she wasn’t in the mood to talk to this interloper.
He brought his hands to his front, and Aiden instantly went on alert, in case he was about to touch her. Yet, his hands held a square box about ten inches long on each side, wrapped in colored paper, a ribbon and a bow around it.
“Just wanted to be the first one to give you a birthday present.”
“Ohh,” she cooed. “You shouldn’t have.” Yet she took the box from his hands.
Now get lost, Aiden wanted to growl.
Jonathan raised his finger. “But you’re not allowed to open it until tomorrow. It’s not your birthday yet.”
She smiled back. “Promise.” Then she paused. “I’d invite you in, but . . . ”
No!
Aiden took a few steps up toward them to interfere if necessary.
“No, no, don’t worry, I can see you’re tired. We’ll hang out some other time.” Then he bent toward her and kissed her on the cheek. “Happy Birthday!”
Piss off!
“Good night, Jonathan, and thanks again.”
She turned and disappeared back in her apartment. Aiden watched as Jonathan waited until the door closed behind her, then walked up a flight of stairs. So that jerk lived in the same apartment building. This wasn’t good. It meant he had to stay with Leila day and night, there was no way around it. He couldn’t allow this guy to slip past him.
He put Jonathan on his mental list of people to check out. For all he knew the guy could work for the demons. He was clearly human, but that didn’t mean a thing. The demons had plenty of humans on their payroll—humans who didn’t even know who they were working for.
The asshole had kissed her, only on the cheek, but nevertheless it was a kiss. Leila hadn’t seemed surprised by it either, as if he’d done it before. Had he?
Aiden looked down at his hands that had balled into fists, as if wanting to hit someone, preferably Jonathan. What the fuck was making him so aggressive?
He knew he couldn’t jeopardize this assignment and draw attention to himself, so he forced himself to relax and unclench his fists. If the council got wind of his erratic behavior, they’d take him to task. Not even his status as the son of the current Primus would help him then. Not that it had ever helped him before: now that he thought of it, he’d never received any preferential treatment because of it. On the contrary, sometimes he felt that he was being treated harsher just because he was Primus’s son. Well, he didn’t care. Whatever they threw at him, he could handle it.
Without another thought, he entered her apartment. Whatever was driving him, he didn’t care to analyze.
EIGHT
Aiden smelled her arousal.
Leila had taken a brief shower after finishing her dinner, a shower he had forced himself not to watch. It was inexplicable enough that he lusted after her. Watching her as hot water ran down her naked body would have snapped his control like a twig in the path of a herd of elephants. Merely imagining pearls of water trickling over her lush flesh made him wish for a dip into a frozen lake to cool down his overheated body.
Now she lay in bed, naked, the covers pushed to the side.
He glanced at her face, but her eyes were closed. She wasn’t sleeping yet and she wouldn’t for a while, because he knew what was coming next. Anticipation made him hard and battled with the guilt that he felt rising in his chest. Because what he was doing was dishonorable. He should give her privacy, but he couldn’t tear himself away. A better man would have left her bedroom and gone into the living room, guarding her from there. Maybe he was just as depraved as Manus. Wasn’t that what his second had alluded to a few days earlier? That given the right woman, he would disregard the council’s rules the same way Manus did?
Or maybe rasen was controlling him, despite the fact that he was fighting its influence.
Aiden allowed his hungry eyes to travel over Leila’s nude form: from her graceful neck and the little indentation at the base of her throat, alabaster skin stretched over well-toned muscles down her strong biceps to slender wrists. The curves that made up her luscious torso were more than just a little enticing. Despite the warmth in the room, those dark nipples that sat on perfectly round breasts were beading. Hard and demanding, they topped beautiful mounds of flesh and fairly screamed to be caressed.
As his gaze descended, sliding down through the deep valley between her magnificent breasts, he salivated. From farther south, where a dark canopy guarded a treasure he wanted to taste, her aroma drifted to him more intensely now. Without having to look, he knew she was wet there. If she spread her legs, he’d see sweet honey glistening on her rosy flesh.
At the juncture of her thighs, strong legs met, legs that could envelope a man and make him forget everything. Those toned legs could cross behind his back and tighten so she could pull him closer to her as he thrust into her. With her strength, she could force him to go deeper, take her harder, faster.
Aiden wiped pearls of moisture from his brow, but couldn’t take the deep breath he needed. Leila would hear him otherwise. Only shallow breaths entered his lungs, and they did nothing to alleviate the heat in his body or calm down his racing heart. All he could do was admire her. She was perfect, her body that of a goddess.
When her hands moved, he widened his stance, giving his ever growing appendage more space between his legs. It felt like a release, but he had no time to enjoy it, because Leila’s hands now spread over her breasts.
With languid strokes, she massaged them slowly, her fingers circling her erect nipples. They seemed even harder than before. If he could swipe his warm tongue over them, he could find out exactly how hard.
No! He shouldn’t think of this. He should leave the room now, give her the privacy she deserved and stop watching what he had no right to see. But as much as he tried to command his legs to move to the door, they remained frozen where they were. He had no control over his body. As if something or somebody was controlling him. Was it rasen that had taken over his body, or was it simply the desire he felt for her? A desire so unreasonable and yet so powerful that he didn’t know how to combat it. This wasn’t him: he wasn’t a man who sought this kind of forbidden thrill. On the contrary: he prided himself on his honor, his ethics and the emotional detachment with which he treated his charges. Why couldn’t he do the same with Leila?
Again he tried to make his legs move toward the door, but his silent command remained unanswered.
Instead, he looked back at her. Her lips parted and issued a soft sigh as if she’d waited for a while to do this. Did she touch herself like this every night? Was this what she did to release the stress of her work? And as her protector, would he be tempted to witness this night after night? Would he have to go through this torture every night, where one part of him urged him to grant her privacy and the other forced him to watch?
When she tweaked her nipples, she moaned again, this time louder. At the same time, her legs fell open and for the first time, he saw the pink flesh that was hidden there. The little light beam from a streetlamp that drifted into the room from underneath the curtains, was
sufficient to illuminate what he wanted to see, and his superior night vision did the rest.
Aiden took an instinctive step closer, unable to tear himself away from the tantalizing sigh. The scent grew more intense as he approached, and it only heightened his hunger. Almost as if she was drugging him with her aroma.
With rapt fascination, he watched as her hand wandered down to her stomach and reached between her legs, while her other hand continued kneading her breast.
Her body twisted and flexed with every move of her fingers, while her moans cut through the silence in short intervals. When her second hand joined the first, she spread her legs even farther, giving him a view that nearly catapulted him over the edge. She dipped one finger inside her glistening channel while her thumb stroked the engorged bundle of flesh at the base of her curls.
Her soft sighs and moans filling the room, he closed his eyes for a moment, shocked at the intensity of emotions that overwhelmed him. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen a woman pleasure herself, but this was the first time it aroused him to the point of pain. Keeping his control had never been this hard. But he couldn’t allow himself to act on his desire. She was his charge, he reminded himself. He should leave the room now and forget what he’d seen.
Her rhythm sped up, and he could feel how her breathing turned into short bursts. “Oh, Aiden,” she murmured unexpectedly.
Her words made his heart stop as a shock wave rippled through his body.
Did she know he was there?
His gaze shot to her face, but her eyes were closed, and she was too engulfed in her own emotions to sense him. But if she didn’t know he was in her bedroom, then why had she called out his name? Had he misheard because he so much wanted her to call out to him, to scream his name as she came?
“Aiden,” she whispered again.
This time he heard it clearly: his name. She was calling for him. It could only mean one thing: as she pleasured herself, she was fantasizing about him! But then why had she rejected him earlier? Was it simply because she didn’t trust him? He was a stranger to her, but plenty of women went to bed with strangers, and he’d seen interest in her eyes at first.