Total pages in book: 11
Estimated words: 10569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 53(@200wpm)___ 42(@250wpm)___ 35(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 10569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 53(@200wpm)___ 42(@250wpm)___ 35(@300wpm)
She shows me the message, and even though I want to rip the phone from her hands, I don’t. “Melody…”
She stops me. “No, explain that to me.”
I reluctantly read the DM. “Are you a top, Melody? You seem like you’d be one. I’d happily be your bottom.”
Melody lifts her shoulders. “What does that even mean? What’s a top? What’s a bottom?”
I rub my hand across my face. I’m exhausted, and I have a long night ahead of me it seems with all these fucking comments, but she’s not going to leave this alone. “A top means the person likes to be in charge during sex. A bottom is more submissive.”
She snorts. “Well, shows what he knows because I am definitely a bottom. I like a man to take charge.”
My mouth falls open. I can’t be having these conversations with her and how the hell am I going to keep up this fuckin’ charade after what she just confessed? I clear my throat and start to talk. “Can I have my phone back now?”
She holds on to it. “Why?”
“Why do I want my phone back? So I can do my job.”
She laughs bitterly. “Deleting things from my social media is not part of your job. I mean, yeah, if they were threatening me or something, I could see it. But that was all harmless flirting.”
My voice is hard as steel. “They shouldn’t talk to you like that.”
“You can’t delete my direct messages, Hayes.”
I know I’m being an ass, but I’m not going to budge on this. “I can if I feel like they’re disrespecting you. I won’t stand by and let men talk to you like that.”
She looks almost bewildered. “But that’s not part of your job.”
I grit my teeth. “I’m making it part of my job.”
“But why?”
I almost tell her exactly why. I want to scream that she’s mine, but I catch myself before I lose it. “Because.”
She laughs. “That’s not a reason. Why do you care, Hayes? None of this makes sense. You’re almost acting like a jealous boyfriend instead of my bodyguard.” She looks me straight in the face, searching my eyes. “But that’s not it. You don’t think about me like that… so why—”
I’ve had enough. My heart is racing as I make the confession. “I do think about you like that… I think about you all the fucking time. When I’m with you, I don’t trust myself to look at you because you’ll know exactly how I feel about you, and when you’re on that stage, it kills me to see all those men thinking they could possibly touch you, kiss you, be with you like that.”
I inhale a few breaths and nod. “You’re right; patrolling your social media and DM’s is not part of my job, but I can’t fucking stand it, Melody. I can’t handle the way they talk about you. And yeah, I’m jealous. Fuck yeah, I am.”
She gasps and puts a hand over her heart. “Wait… are you saying… you, uh, m-m-m-ean—”
I scoot over toward her and put my hands on her arms. “It’s okay, take your time.”
She looks at me with wonder on her face, but she doesn’t try to talk again. I know she’s self-conscious about the stutter when it happens, but she shouldn’t be with me.
“I think you’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen. I want you, Mel. I’ve wanted you since the day I was hired to protect you.”
She shocks me when she says, “I want you too.”
chapter
five
Melody
“I want you too,” I tell him. “Every night that you’ll give me.”
“All of my nights, Melody. They’re yours. I haven’t looked at another woman, let alone touched one since we met.”
Five years! He hasn’t touched a woman in five years? I mean, yeah, I don’t know when he’d find the time. Even when we’re not on tour, he lives in the same penthouse apartment with me.
I look at his beautiful face, the same one I’ve been looking at for five years. Brown hair, brown eyes, neatly trimmed beard and full lips. Lips that I’ve imagined kissing more times than I can count. The sincerity etched into his features. When I lock eyes with him, the heat reflected back at me warms my entire body.
“I feel like I’m dreaming. I-I-I—” I take a deep breath and push out the air. “I’ve thought of this moment so many times. But nothing in my imagination could compare.”
“You have no idea how many times we’ve shared a hotel suite and I’ve watched you prance around in those tiny shorts of yours just begging to be touched.”
“I do not prance,” I say with a laugh. “But it’s nice to know that you actually notice.”
He picks me up and puts me on his lap, straddling him. “I’ve always noticed.” His fingers curl into my hips as he presses me flush to his body. “I notice everything about you.” He brushes a finger over the shell of my ear, then down to my collarbone. “Like this cluster of freckles right here. I want to play dot-to-dot with my tongue.”