Page 119 of Little Sunshine

“Because of the whole thing here,” I muttered, the cheeks on my face flaring hotter than my other ones.

His brows lowered. “What thing?”

“When I tried to steal that wallet. Now you think I’ll steal again so you made me go to Sunrise and here, and then you had that security guard follow me to make sure I wouldn’t do something. Which, like I said, I know why?—”

“I had you come with me because I like you close. I feel like I’m coming outta my skin when I’m too far from you.”

“You do?”

I wasn’t acting coy or trying to be cute. I also wasn’t faking being obtuse.

There was nothing fake about it.

“Mila, if I had my way, I’d tie you to me.”

Even though I knew it was an exaggeration, my mouth went dry.

Areas farther south on my body had the opposite problem.

“As far as security, it’s not because I don’t trust you.” He lifted a hand to cup my face and swept his thumb over where my cheek had been scraped and bruised the worst. “It’s other people I don’t trust.”

“But that was just random, not a planned setup. There’s no threat.”

“There’s always a threat.”

It hadn’t occurred to me that the guard was for my benefit since I’d been taught that security was always bad. When I was young, they would follow Veronica and me through stores. They’d been right to because once she caused the distraction, I stole whatever she’d told me to.

No one ever suspected the cute kid.

When I was older, they would follow me around because I had poor-person stench on me. Since I carried a lot of guilt from my earlier crimes, the reminder was never a pleasant experience.

I also wouldn’t have ever guessed that Ash’s motives for bringing me with were positive. I’d been left alone for days at a time—or longer—for as long as I could remember. My mom hadn’t wanted to be around me. Nan and Pop had liked a day or two, but they’d been older. They hadn’t been equipped to raise another kid.

Friends. Crushes. My first boyfriend.

They’d all left after deciding they couldn’t deal.

But not Ash.

Word by word, he dismantled the fortress of justifications I’d built in my mind until it started to resemble a flimsy house of cards.

“If that guy wasn’t you secretly keeping tabs on me, then why didn’t you just tell me about him?”

“First off, if I wanted to secretly keep tabs on you, I wouldn’t send a uniformed guard to do it. This place is wired with enough cameras and undercover security, I could track you from the time you exited the elevator till you left the property. About not telling you, you’re right. That’s my bad. My mind was on something else, and I’m used to guard duty being commonplace with Juliet.”

“Wait, Juliet has a guard?”

“A rotation of them.”

“Why?”

“I want security on you as a precaution because I know how dangerous Vegas can be. Juliet needs security on her because she’s married to Maximo. Any target on his back is also on hers. And as a business owner, he’s collected his fair share of enemies. Now that shit is more settled, it’s typically just hotel security with her, but if one of us goons isn’t busy, we volunteer. Usually, it’s Marco since his main job is bodyguard anyway. Didn’t you see him?”

I thought about my time by the pool. My attention had been on Juliet and the guy I was aware of. I hadn’t even noticed anyone else.

I shook my head.

Ash squeezed my waist. “I might’ve mentioned it had you texted like I told you to.”

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