Falling For Her Bodyguard: A BWWM Suspense Romance (9 page)

BOOK: Falling For Her Bodyguard: A BWWM Suspense Romance
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When the morning
rolled around, she dragged herself out of bed. All she really wanted
to do was sleep, but she knew there would be no point when Marco
started calling her. He wouldn’t let up. As the studio loomed
ahead, she was nervous. She knew the words to her own songs, but it
was easy to forget when the lights were on her and the crowd was
screaming. Instead of the feeling of ultimate bliss that image used
to conjure, she felt her stomach twist dangerously. She pressed her
hand to it, closed her eyes trying to filter out the anxious
feelings.

Instead of traveling
upstairs, she headed straight back in the building. It was set up
already for her to practice. The band that she played with was
already there, setting up. She chatted with them for a while getting
hugs from them. She liked the band she worked with. They all gave her
encouraging words as she took her spot in front of them.

“Okay, let’s
start from the top,” Marco was saying.

Kenzie nodded and
closed her eyes. She tried to block the world out, tried to find that
place that meant so much to her. As the music started she nodded her
head, feeling the rhythm of the drums course through her body. At her
cue, she opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Her eyes flew open.
She felt a wave of sickness crash over her. The mic slipped from her
hand, smacking against the floor. Loud, squealing feedback filled the
room as Kenzie rushed for the door to the bathroom.

She was almost happy
she hadn’t eaten that morning. She heard a knock on the door,
but ignored it. Was that stage fright? I’ve never gotten stage
fright in my life. Kenzie had always thrived from the energy of the
crowds, the attention, the adoration. Now, just the thought of that
many people standing in front of her as she tried to squeak out the
lyrics to her own songs made her head spin. The door cracked open.
She waved a hand, yelling go away. Once the door was closed, she
picked herself up, washed her face and took a deep breath.

“I can do this.
I will not let that bastard control my life.”

Kenzie lifted her
shirt, ran her hand over the scar on her belly. It would never go
away, just like the fear he’d planted inside of her brain. She
shoved the thought away, a scowl on her face. That wasn’t true.
She couldn’t let him win.

She pushed off from
the sink and adjusted her hair and clothes before she left the
bathroom. Everyone was looking at her with concern, but she ignored
them. Marco tried to touch her arm, she shrugged him off. She
wouldn’t show weakness in front of anyone.

“Sorry about
that. Again,” she said.

Several times after
that Kenzie tried to force herself through the song, but whenever it
was her cue to sing, she froze. She started to get more frustrated
with herself by the minute. The more she tried, the more she could
hold down the rising feeling of nausea, but she hadn’t even
finished one song yet. Her body felt tired, beat down.

“I’m
sorry, I’m just really tired today. Maybe I’m sick or
something. I think I’ll just go home.”
Marco nodded.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure you’ll feel
better tomorrow. Get some rest.”
Kenzie gathered up her
things without a word. She gave him a nod as she left the room,
closing the door behind her. Quickly, she wiped the tears from her
eyes before anyone could see. Clearing her throat she pushed off of
the door before she headed outside. The sun held no pleasure for her,
the hot summer day no warmth. The only thing she could think about
was her career slipping out of her fingers like sand. It was enough
to drive her mad.

She saw the guard down
the street, waiting in his car. She turned down the next street
instead and slipped into a bar. It was easy to drown her pain in a
bottle of vodka, so that’s what she did. She spent money until
she was out of cash. As she stood, she almost toppled over, but
caught herself. The world spun. She felt a hand on her shoulder
making her jump.

“What are you
doing? I thought you’d let us know when you were done with
practice.”

Kenzie shrugged
Brick’s hand off of her, but he wasn’t so easily
dissuaded. As she tried to order another drink, he pulled her from
the barstool before taking her outside. She was too unsteady on her
feet to fight back, so she let herself be dragged along down the
sidewalk until they reached the car. He deposited her inside.

“Take her to the
house. Keep an eye on her.”

As the car took off,
she leaned against the seat, her eyes on the ceiling. It wasn’t
fair. Her life was being taken away and none of them understood that.
Kenzie felt herself spiraling, felt her life spinning out of control
as her head slumped onto the glass. What was she going to do? Her
only dream in life was slipping away.

The next week was a
lesson in repetition. She went to practice, choked, stumbled through
everything before she quit. Only each day brought more agitation,
more anger. The guards couldn’t stop her from lashing out,
sneaking off, drinking until she couldn’t see straight. Still,
Gianni was no where to be found. She longed for him in a way that she
couldn’t comprehend. Whenever she asked about him the other
guards said he was away on personal leave, but would be back soon. It
frustrated her more.

After a week of no
results with her practicing, she ditched it all together. If she was
going out, at least she’d have fun doing it. Every night she
went to a different party, flirted with a different stranger, drank
until she forgot the pain of what was happening to her. It didn’t
fill the emptiness she felt, but it was enough to make her pass out,
enough to keep her from thinking about the pain.

Cassie tried to call
her, comfort her. She suggested she could come over, help her calm
down on more than one occasion, but Kenzie declined. She didn’t
want to have to move again. Besides, the only person she wanted to be
around was herself. She didn’t even take Ben’s call the
day of their date.

Not long after her
mood slipped, she saw her face on the TV, in magazines. They were
saying she was having a mental break down, that the man who’d
tried to kill her was causing terror in a psychological way. She
stayed away from the TV and the internet. It was all too painful.
They had no idea what was going on, but they would paint her any way
they could get a story. Celebrities breaking down always did seem to
sell the magazines and keep up the ratings for a show. It felt as if
the world was simply waiting for her to spiral out of control.

Kenzie tried to return
to practice, but every time her hand drifted to the door knob she
froze. It was too much, too soon. What did they expect from her? When
she had exasperated the other guards, they seemed to mostly leave her
alone.

She sat in the house,
nursing a hangover when the front door opened. Gianni stepped through
in his plain clothes, jeans with a maroon t-shirt. She leaned back
further into the couch. As much as she was pissed off at him, she
couldn’t help the excitement that coursed through her body or
the sense of comfort.

“What’s
going on?” He asked.

Kenzie shrugged.
“Nothing. Reading a book,” she said pointing to it before
pretending to be reading it again.

Gianni walked over to
her slowly. “No, I mean what’s been going on with you?
I’ve been hearing about you drinking, sneaking out, taking off.
I thought we had agreed you’d try your best to be careful.”

“I’m
alive. Why do you care? Wasn’t your vacation with your
girlfriend more important than protecting me?”

Kenzie could hear the
anger in her voice. She hadn’t meant to let him see that side
of her, the ugly side, but there it was. As she felt herself becoming
overwhelmed with her emotions, she rose from the couch to leave the
room. She almost knew it wouldn’t be that easy and it was
confirmed when Gianni followed behind her into her room. The place
was a mess of discarded take out containers, ashtrays filled with
butts, laundry on the floor.

“Tell me what’s
going on?” He said softly.

Kenzie cleared a space
on the bed. “Nothing. Just go away,” she said as she
pulled the blanket over her head.

She felt the mattress
move under his weight. He pulled the blanket back and wrapped his
arms around her waist as he’d done before. His breath on the
back of her neck was comforting, stimulating.

“Are you mad
because you saw me with a woman or because I left you by yourself?”

Kenzie found herself
choking on tears. “I don’t care.”

“Liar.”

She felt him stand up
before she heard him push things off of the bed. When she moved the
blanket, he was slipping underneath the covers with her. She tried to
wipe her eyes quickly, but he wouldn’t let her.

“Cry if you need
to cry. Stop trying to prove to everyone that you’re so strong
when you’re not. Let yourself feel it.”

Kenzie wasn’t
sure what it was about his words, but she burst into thick tears. She
buried her face against his chest. His arms circled her body, holding
her close as he rested his chin on her forehead. She let herself cry,
her body shaking against his until the only thing left was dry
hiccups and sniffling. When she was done she felt that old
embarrassment work its way up forcing her to hide her face. His
finger went beneath her chin.

“Stop trying to
hide, there’s nothing wrong with letting yourself be sad, but
when are you going to stop? When are you going to not let this get
the best of you?”

As she gazed into his
eyes, she felt the anger melting away slowly. How could he get her to
open up so much, no one; not her mother, best friends or therapist
seemed to be able to get her to let them in completely. Here she was
wrapped up in his arms, their bodies pressed together and her tears
staining his shirt. She wiped her hand across his shirt.

“You know,”
she said still sniffling. “You still haven’t told me
about that woman I saw you with.”

“I thought you
didn’t care,” he mumbled against her hair.

She slapped him on the
chest making him laugh.

“I’ll tell
you all about it, if you eat something. I’ll even cook for us,”
he said. “Deal?”

“Deal.”

Chapter 7

Gianni whipped up
omelets for them while she sat on a chair with legs drawn up to her
chest. The house was empty except for the two of them. She wore a big
t-shirt that fell down to her thighs, the sleeves so long they
slipped over her hands unless she rolled them up. It felt comfortable
to sit around Gianni even in her junk clothes as she called them. He
sat a plate in front of her. There was only a small portion of eggs
and toast as if he’d already known that her appetite was gone.
Still, she had promised to eat so she picked up her fork before she
cut into the eggs.

“Now?” She
asked.

Gianni sighed. “One
track mind.” He took a sip of orange juice. “Yes, now.
That woman was my ex wife.”

“You were
married?” She asked in surprise.

“Yes, I’m
not completely undesirable to all women.”

Kenzie grinned. “I
never said that. What happened?”

Gianni shrugged as he
popped another piece of egg into his mouth. “We were young.
Dated all through high school so we thought it didn’t make any
sense not to get married. We were only nineteen, completely different
people than we are now. We realized that in our late twenties,
divorced, but remained good friends.”

She nodded slowly. “So
why did you take a week off?”

“Her mother was
sick back home in Italy. She had to take care of her and wanted to
know if I could watch her daughter Samantha. I’ve known
Samantha since she was a little thing so I told her yes. Me and that
little girl had a blast.” He paused, reached a hand across the
table. “Of course, I didn’t know you were having such a
hard time. Why didn’t you just call me? I only found everything
out this morning when Brick called me.”

Kenzie shrugged. “I
didn’t have your number.”

He scoffed and shook
his head. “You could have gotten it from anyone. That’s
not it. You were going through a hard time and didn’t want
anyone to know. Am I right?”

Kenzie shrugged. “I’m
fine.”

“Bullshit.”

“Look, I don’t
need you or anyone else analyzing my life okay? If I say I’m
fine, I’m fine.”

Kenzie stood up,
grabbed her plate before dropping it into the sink. She was surprised
that it hadn’t broken. When she turned around, Gianni was in
her face. She tried to go around him, but he was blocking her path.
Frustration colored her features.

“Move.”

Gianni ignored her.
Instead, his hand went to the back of her neck, pulling her close.
She felt the urge to melt as he held her close. He leaned down, lips
moving against hers with a hunger she only faintly knew he possessed.
Fluttering filled her stomach, the nervous anticipation of his hands
roaming her body made her forget her anger.

“Your problem is
that you think you have to fight all the time. That you think I
didn’t give a shit about you. And you thought that one evening
was all there was. I never said I didn’t care about you,”
he whispered the words against her lips.

Kenzie felt the anger,
frustration, sadness that she’d gathered over the past week
slip from her grasp. In his arms, it all meant nothing. His fingers
trailed the line of her neck, as his tongue danced within her mouth.
She found herself giving in to her emotions, the tears that graced
her face a release she didn’t know she needed. His thumbs wiped
the tears away, he replaced them with kisses on her cheeks. She sunk
into him.

Passion flared up like
a fire, consuming them both until their kisses ignited each other.
His hands roamed over her smooth brown skin, his fingers slipping
beneath the hem of her shirt, dragging across the fabric of her
panties. She let out a deep moan, one filled with longing as her
fingers gripped his arms. She never wanted him to let go. He spun
them both around, picked her up in his arms before depositing on the
cool wood of the table. His hands were ripping at her panties, but
his mouth was locked onto her neck. His lips traveling to her
collarbone, leaving teeth marks in his wake.

BOOK: Falling For Her Bodyguard: A BWWM Suspense Romance
7.94Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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