Page 132 of The Bodyguard

At one time, she’d almost loved him, or at least thought she had, desperately needing the attention that Pham had given easily.

But it wasn’t real.

Knowing that made it betterandworse.

A damp, cold cloth was pressed to her forehead. Angela moaned. It felt so good.

“There you go.” He held the cloth against her skin. “Take a couple of slow breaths.”

She hadn’t realized how fast her heart was racing. Angela tried to slow her pulse. She inhaled through her nose, dragging in deeper, longer breaths.

“There you go,” he repeated soothingly. “Nice and easy.”

The heart-racing nausea slowly ebbed. Angela propped herself against the bathtub.

Sawyer sat on the tub’s edge and smoothed his strong hand over the back of her head. He brushed her hair off her cheek and the washcloth and resumed stroking the back of her head. Finally, she’d caught her breath.

“Are you good for a minute?”

“I’m fine,” she managed, sounding hoarse and unbelievable.

Sawyer kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be back.”

Angela turned the cloth over and pressed its cooler side to her forehead again. With her head between her knees and her arms crossed protectively over the top of her head, she tried to steady her racing thoughts.

Sawyer returned. “Take a drink of water.”

She peeked up and took the glass. Her hand trembled, and deciding it was better to use two hands than to let the glass shatter on the tile, she sipped.

“Good, sweetheart.” He returned to his perch on the tub’s edge. “It will be okay.”

She wasn’t sure if that was true.

“Do you want me to call Ibrahim?” he asked.

She shook her head. “There’s nothing he will tell me that he hasn’t told me before.”

Sawyer frowned but didn’t try to convince Angela that she was wrong. He didn’t have to. She knew it, but that wasn’t what she needed.

“Have you seen Pham since Titan rescued you?” he asked, though she understood he knew the answer.

She shook her head. “Only in the news.”

He slid down beside her and put his strong arm around her shoulders. She folded into him.Thiswas what she needed. Him holding her. Protecting her from the world as he always did.

“Pham doesn’t freak me out.” But saying that ratcheted her nerves into a tsunami again. “I just—”

Sawyer squeezed her close. His lips pressed to the top of her head. “Whether he does, or he doesn’t…” He inched back and lifted her chin with his fingers. Sawyer waited until he had her focus. “You’re not going to face that monster alone.” His thumb swept across her cheek. “You’ve got me. All of us.”

She had Sawyer. She always had him. Angela nodded. When he looked at her like that, she felt invincible. She folded the damp washcloth and hung it on the side of the tub. “I couldn’t do this without you.”

“Sure you could.” He smiled. “But you wouldn’t have had as much fun along the way.”

God, she loved him. She loved him so much it hurt.

Sawyer tipped her chin up again and kissed her lips softly. After an eternity of feather-light kisses, his forehead pressed to hers. Angela crawled onto his lap and traced her fingers down his temples, his cheeks, and his chin, carefully studying every millimeter of his face. This bond would be gone before too long.

“What’s on your mind, Ange?”

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