Page 30 of The Bodyguard

Sawyer floated closer. The water rippled between them. He brushed wet strands of hair off her cheek. “What is it, Ange?”

The warm touch on her cold cheeks made a shiver run down her back. Angry, humiliated tears burned in her eyes. “I’m embarrassed.” She couldn’t look at Sawyer and turned toward the wall. “Damn, the chlorine is starting to bother my eyes.”

His hands rested on her shoulders, and slowly, he pulled her toward him. Her tears fell, burning hot on her pool-dampened cheeks.

Sawyer squeezed her shoulders then turned her around with a half-cocked smile. “You want me to go beat him up or something?”

She laughed. “Of course not.”

Then he saw the tears. That made them fall faster. “Breakups suck. Even ones that you want.”

She swiped her cheeks. “God, this is so embarrassing.”

“They sure as hell are nothing to be embarrassed over.” He wiped a tear from her cheek and left a trail of pool water where the tears had been. “Don’t let a little prick like that bother you, all right? You can do so much better.”

“It’s more than that.”

He waited, as still as a mountain in the center of the empty pool room. Water lapped. Silence hung heavy until she had to break the quiet.

“Paul said that he thought we had a pragmatic relationship, not a romantic one.”

Sawyer’s eyebrows drew together. “Why would he think that?”

Her chin dropped, and Angela stared into the pool water. “We never acted very much like a couple.” She flushed, and a scorching blush ran down her neck. “We haven’t beentogetherin a long time.”

She could’ve sworn he would have jumped away, but the water between them remained still. Sawyer didn’t say anything. What was there to say? Her long-term relationship had been based on the hope of establishing a political dynasty.

Sawyer touched his index finger to her chin and lifted her face. “You have had a lot going on. Nothing is embarrassing about that, Ange.”

The back of her throat burned. “We haven’t—” She corrected herself. “I haven’t been with him in a romantic sense since before I was abducted.”

Sawyer’s lips parted. Pity darkened his eyes, but he rolled his lips together and steadied. She bent her knees until the water lapped below her bottom lip. If only she could disappear into the bottom of the pool and resurface after he left. But Sawyer didn’t move. Her dark hair floated around her shoulders. “Kind of pathetic, huh?”

The silence said so much.

“Yeah,” she continued, breaking the silence. “Pathetic. I get what you’re thinking, but you have to understand—”

“Why the hell would I think that?” He dropped his head back and stared at the rafters before taking a deep breath. “Trust me, Angela, you have no idea what I’m thinking.”

She hated the pity. If only Sawyer would get out of the pool, they could forget that she’d said anything.

“I want to understand. He asks you to marry him. You don’t have a physical—or really, any relationship. It ends. You’re upset.” He cocked his head to the side. “But there’s something more that I’m missing. Why are you so mad?”

“I think he’s been with other women.”

His eyes narrowed. “There’s more. That’s not why you’re upset.”

She tried to sink underwater.

Sawyer caught her. “Am I wrong?”

He wasn’t going to let it go. She could walk away, but he’d wonder. She’d eventually tell him, and all of the buildup would multiply her embarrassment. No, it was better to mimic her mother’s style of awkward news delivery and just rip off the Band-Aid. “Paul said I was frigid.”

Sawyer’s forehead furrowed as if he didn’t understand what she had just said or what Paul had meant.

She backed away from him, cheeks hot and eyes burning. “I was with him for years. It didn’t bother me because I didn’t want to see him. But not having sex? That wasn’t my problem. I never thought, ‘Oh, gee. I wish I could have sex with my boyfriend.’ So maybe there is something wrong with me.” She rubbed her eyes. “You know what? Maybe I’m just angry because he might be right.”

CHAPTER NINE

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