Page 14 of Her Bossy Bodyguards

“New look?” I asked a question right back.

She raised her shoulders. “I found this in one of the closets. What’s the point of dressing up like I’m going anywhere, anyway? If I’m going to be held hostage until further notice, I might as well be comfortable.”

She nodded toward the alarm clock in my grip. “So, are you going to tell me what you’re working on, or is that classified information?”

“Just a makeshift explosive.”

“Wait. What?” Natalie’s eyes went wide. “You’re building a bomb in the kitchen? Isn’t that super fucking dangerous?”

“Only if I accidentally drop it or something—Whoops!” I purposely let the alarm clock fall out of my hands.

She let out a primal scream, as she ducked underneath the counter. A few seconds later she peeked back up at me, her frame slowly coming back into view. And I couldn’t help but laugh at the look on her face, thoroughly amused by her response to my prank.

“You’re an asshole!” She was laughing now, too, as she reached for a roll of paper towels on the counter, swiftly throwing them right at my head.

“Sorry. I couldn’t help myself.” I smirked as I picked up the alarm clock. “I’m not building a bomb, though. I’m just sweeping the place for bugs.”

“Bugs?” She hummed. “You think this place might be bugged?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged. “Maybe not. That’s the problem with safe houses. You never know if you’re safe or compromised until it’s too late. There’s a lot of things you can bounce back from in this world, but being compromised is rarely one of them.”

“You talk like you were in the military.”

“That’s because I was,” I answered. “I used to be a sniper. Kingston was one, too.”

“And is that how you two met?” she pressed. “Being in the military together?”

“Nah. Kingston and I didn’t meet until we were both back in the States,” I explained. “We actually ran into each other at a job fair for veterans. It’s always hard when you first come back, trying to find something to fill the void. But King and I got to talking and realized that we didn’t need to find something else. We needed to find a way to make our skills work for us, instead of the other way around.”

“And that’s how you two ended up as Bolin and Trapper?” she asked. “Anything interesting happen along the way?”

“Unfortunately for you, that’s the whole story.” I smiled over at her. “Sorry it’s not longer, so you could have a little bit more entertainment than what we have in the cabin.”

I slightly winced at the thought of having to stay at the cabin, too, its limited entertainment options being old DVDs and a small collection of books. Kingston had made sure when we first picked this place as a potential safe house that there weren’t any traces of technology in the cabin, which meant no Wi-Fi, no streaming services, no smart devices, either.

The next few days were going to be boring as shit. Even with all my training, being bored was still the hardest part of any mission, the sensation of it gnawing away at me like a fly that wouldn’t stop buzzing near my ear. And while I had wild thoughts of how tonotbe bored, picturing myself slipping into Natalie’s bed and keeping her warm all through the night, I knew better than to break Kingston’s rules again. Besides, after knocking that frat boy out cold at the party, I had a feeling I was already on thin ice.

And I wasn’t going to let Natalie Hanson be the one to push me over the edge.

The next daycame and went without much of anything happening. Kingston had left me on shift to look after Natalie while he went to grab the rest of her belongings from the campus and catch her father up on what was going on with her current situation. And as I sat on the living room couch, watching sunset turn to twilight through the cabin’s oversized windows, I was filled with nothing but regret.

Damn.

Maybe I should’ve taken Kingston’s advice about getting laid when I’d had the chance. Being left alone with Natalie was about to drive me out of my mind. I just couldn’t stop thinking about being inside of her, my brain supplying me with image after image of how perfect she’d look as she bounced on top of my cock.

No.

I couldn’t go down that path. I couldn’t break the rules. I just needed to find a way to occupy my time, something that would completely distract me from any inappropriate thoughts about the woman who was always so fucking beautiful, even when she was walking around the cabin in borrowed clothes.

“Zeke?” Natalie’s voice was singsong as she stepped in front of me. She had one hand hidden behind her back, and while the motion would’ve usually set off all my inner alarms, I knew better than to expect that she was hiding a weapon. “Are you busy?”

“Not at all,” I admitted. “Just waiting for Kingston to get back with your stuff. Maybe with some more information, too.”

“Look what I found!” Natalie interrupted me and finally revealed what was in her hand. It was a bottle of whiskey, its top still on, suggesting it’d never been tasted.

“Where’d you find that?”

“Underneath one of the floorboards in my bedroom.” She beamed.

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