Page 18 of Jealous Bodyguard

Stacey turns away, her body rocking with what I assume are sobs. Making me feel like a prick for upsetting her because that’s never my intention.

Craning my neck down, I shift my face to meet hers. The coy smile playing on her lips that show her perfect little white teeth tells me she’s not crying. She’s chuckling to herself.

“What?” I ask, feeling like I’m being left out of something funny.

I thought I was being deadly serious just now.

“You're jealous, aren’t you?” she says, challenging me with a raised brow. Giving me a wistful look that’s enjoying me squirming a little once it’s clear how utterly obsessed and, yeah, insanely jealous for her I really am.

She’s right, though. I know I’m more than jealous, even of her own father. All those years, having her all to himself, but it’s the thought a lowlife like Castor would even think-

But there I go again. I’ve just claimed her as my own, bred her like no man alive ever could, and I’m still wanting to hunt anyone down who even looks like they might be thinking about looking at Stacey let alone anything else.

“I think it’s cute,” she decides, pecking my lips and looking every bit a young woman coming into her power now. Realizing she’s far from helpless when it comes to dealing with me at least.

“Cute?!” I whine.

I’m not trying to be cute. I wanna rip the guy’s throat out, whoever he is.

“And just where do you think you’re going?” I ask her when she slips out from under the covers. My jaw dropping at the sight of her perfect nakedness. My eyes spoiled for choice of which part of her to zoom in on first.

“I’m gonna go… freshen up. I think that’s what you call it, isn’t it?”

She blushes when she says it. That and the sight of her fully naked in my lake house make me take stock of my situation instantly.

I’m the luckiest man alive… She’s just so damned perfect!

“Need a hand?” I offer, softening my tone to match the instant change in my mood. Seeing her eyes shift to the growing tent pole under the sheets before she makes a face makes me smile.

“I’ll manage,” she says unconvincingly. Gulping hard and overcoming her own internal struggle. The instinct to come back to bed for some more of what she knows I have an endless supply of for her.

I watch her perfect apple-shaped ass shimmy to the adjoining bathroom, leaving the door open so I can watch her as she explores her new surroundings before she takes a shower.

She’s all yours, Slade. Don’t panic.

But I know it’s not me that needs educating on the fact. Just her father and anyone else who thinks they have any claim to her from now on.

12

STACEY

Steve’s everything in a man a girl could want. But catching a glimpse of myself in the floor-to-ceiling mirrors of his bathroom makes me wonder what on earth he sees in me still.

If it’s even a fraction of how hopelessly in love with him I am already, then I guess he’s right. We’re supposed to be together, for now and for always. There’s no point trying to deny destiny a moment longer, let alone a whole twenty-four hours.

I tell myself to let Steve do all the talking when it comes to daddy finding out. But that only makes me think about my mom for some reason. That and just how I’m even going to begin to tell daddy how I feel about Steve.

About how I want to be with him from now on. It’ll kill him inside, though. Just like when Mom left, that’s the only part of it really eating at me.

Mom fell for a younger guy, gave up her reputation and the social status being married to my dad has, but she broke his heart without meaning to.

They’ve never divorced officially. Dad would never agree to that. But I can see now that no matter who it is, when you find the one, it’s the only thing that counts anymore.

I catch Steve spying on me not so subtly from the bed. Giving me the same look, like he did the moment we first met. And just like his kisses, every time, it feels like the first time. The same butterflies in my belly. The same flush of desire for him rippling through every cell in my body when I get mesmerized by those dark, smoldering eyes of his.

Mom and I were never really close. I’ve always been a daddy’s little girl. Until today, that is. I never got to ask her why she did it, though. Leap into bed with someone half her age, I mean. I was too young to really understand at the time.

But after today, I forgive her. I understand maybe why mom did what she did a little better. Knowing that hurting my dad was the last thing she’d want, it would have hurt her more if she didn’t follow her own heart.

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