In love with my bodyguard

*Tessa*

The message I have been waiting for all night comes in.

"I just arrived at the location. You have roughly twenty minutes to be here before the doors close. Please try to make it this time."

And then, another one enters.

"I love you."

Marin peers at my phone from over my shoulders. "You should stop grinning so wide if you want your bodyguards to suspect your intentions."

The smile on my face dies immediately as my eyes scan the room, searching for them.

The first one is standing by the door, dressed in a dark suit that stands out so annoyingly in the loud club. Even the neon lights bouncing all around do nothing to change its colours.

"She looks so serious," Marin mutters, rolling her eyes. "Do you think she is as dumb as she looks?"

I giggle under my breath. "Shall we find out?"

Marin nods eagerly, falling into step with me as we sneak out through the side doors of the club. The doormen outside give me a look, but I tip them enough to let me off just this once.

Clutching onto my best friend's hands, we stay glued to the wall, our breaths raging all around us and our knees bent. We don't stop until we reach the stairs by the side of the building.

But rather than go up, we hide underneath it, finally letting our laughter out.

"That was fun," Marin breaths, holding on to her chest like we just ran a marathon. "Remember the last time we did this and your brother fired everyone? Do you think that will happen a second time?"

"I hope it does," I reply, pulling down my dress to reveal just the right amount of cleavage. "And this time, I hope he doesn't hire any more. I'm tired of them following me around like I am some President's daughter."

"You might as well be on the path to that," Marin reminds me. "If your brother wins the elections, he isn't going to stop at the Senate level. None of them do."

I groan loudly just as a shuffle of footsteps halts in front of us. A frustrated sigh follows next. Marin and I hold our breaths. The next few minutes will determine whether we make it out of here undetected.

"Shit! I can't believe you lost her again!" The leader of the security detail that protects me yells to the rest of them. They are ten in number.

Ten.

Who do they think I am?

"I'm sorry, Sir," the lady blurts. I would have felt sorry for her if she didn't scowl at me each time I asked to be left alone. "She was right on the dance floor with her friend and then, suddenly..."

"All your excuses won't matter if something happens to her!" he snaps. "Find the kid and take her home."

Instructions are belted out, and footsteps follow until I cannot hear any of them.

"Do you think it's safe to go out now?" I whisper, turning to look at Marin.

"All we have to do is make it out to the streets and flag a taxi. By the time they notice us, it will be too late."

"Okay," I say, excitement coursing through me. Wes, my boyfriend, has been waiting for us in the second location. Marcus has no idea he exists, and honestly, I prefer it that way. God forbid the boy gets scrutinized a million times because he's my boyfriend.

"On the count of three," Marin mutters, taking my hand. "One, two, three!"

We don't see him coming. One minute, we are bolting down the road to flag down a taxi, and the next, I am slamming into a brick wall.

"Hey, pretty girl," he sneers, a sick smile on his face. His friends are not far behind, flanking him like a pack of wolves. Marin stays glued to my side, her eyes jerking all around.

"Where do you think you are headed?"

"Don't touch me," I warn in a low tone. "My security detail is just around the corner. If you mess with me, I promise that it will be the last thing you do in a while."

"Oh!" He mock-trembles, wrapping his arms around his face. "I'm so scared. Please tell your security detail to go easy on me."

"They are big and scary, you know?" Marin mutters weakly, conveniently pushing herself behind me.

"Right." The man looks around pointedly. "So, where are they?"

He takes a slow step forward, and I take a corresponding one away from him. He smells of liquor and smoke in large amounts, and his eyes look unfocused. My gaze darts from where I am to the road, gauging how long I have to run and what my chances are.

Where are those bloody security details when I need them?

The man keeps walking until my back hits the wall. He presses his face towards mine, and I look away at once, shutting my eyes so tight and praying for a miracle that I have never believed in until tonight.

Marin's gasp echoes through the night, and next, I hear something slam into another body, hard and fast. My eyes crack open slightly just in time to catch the man standing in front of me drop to the ground with a thud.

The other men back off at once, but the other men in suits come out of nowhere, a minute too late. The man who attacked the one who was going to harass me takes a step closer, planting his imposing self in front of me.

The first thing I notice is his brown eyes, devoid of light and life. They seem to suck into my very existence, causing me to remain rooted to the spot. I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.

Not even a whisper.

The stranger sweeps my feet off the ground abruptly without a word and stalks in the direction of a jeep waiting on the curb.

And the scary part? None of the other guards bats an eyelid.

"What the fuck is this?" I scream, my tongue finally working. "Let me go!"

But he doesn't budge, his feet hitting the terrace in a rhythm until he reaches the jeep and pulls the door open.

"What are you all doing?" I yell at the other security detail. "This man is kidnapping me. Marin? What the hell!"

They all stare at me in silence, with an indecipherable expression behind their eyes.

He pushes me into the back seat and holds on to my face firmly, forcing me to look into his eyes.

"Your brother might think you are cute, but I don't. So, if you don't want to get tossed out of a moving vehicle, shut the fuck up."

*Tessa*

"Get me out of here right now!" I shout at the top of my voice for the umpteenth time, but the driver doesn't even give me a second look. I might as well be a soothing song playing in the background.

And for some reason, I do not doubt his threat to throw me out of the jeep. We move past a jeep, and he looks at me from the rear view mirror, as if reminding me his words are still alive.

"Whatever." Giving up, I huff and throw my back into the leather seat, thinking of all the possible means of escape. "My brother is going to find me, just in case you think you can get away with this. And when he does, he is going to break every single finger in one hand. You are going to wish you had never met me."

"Do you always talk this much?" he questions suddenly, his forearm gleaming under the night lights as he makes a turn.

I swallow from the look, suddenly feeling parched. It seems like the temperature in the car has been turned off a notch.

"Do you always pick up little girls in the middle of nowhere?" I throw back, pulling my gaze off his damn arm. He is going to be a dead man soon, once Marcus finds him.

Silence settles in the car for five minutes, and then, his voice pierces through it again.

"In fact, I do."

I frown, trying to understand what he means by that, realizing he is answering the question I asked over five minutes ago. Our eyes meet in the mirror for a slow second before he pulls back his gaze to the road.

"Your dress..."

"What about it?" I snap at him, hating this situation. "Or are you now a fashion cop too?"

He shakes his head slowly. "Never mind."

I go back to my thoughts, looking outside the windows.

I cannot die like this. Not with the list of all the things I hope to achieve glued to the wall in my bedroom. And Marcus. He might be too protective of me, but I know he loves me.

He is sure going to cry when he hears about my death. There's Marin, too.

Gosh. I am the only friend she has in college.

I am not sure if Wes is going to cry, though. A few weeks ago, I had a fight with him about staring at the ass of another girl. He said he was just looking, and that got me even madder. Maybe he will think it is a good riddance.

The jeep suddenly comes to a halt, and I look out the window just as the man steps out from behind the wheel. My eyes widen in surprise when I see that I am back at home, the red lights pouring from the grand porch.

The stranger doesn't hesitate to pull the door open and lift me over his shoulders again, stalking in the direction of the entrance.

"I have working legs, you know?" I blurt, not expecting a response.

"I also know how well you tend to use them," he shoots back. His voice stands out in the night, piercing through the quiet. "Be still. We will be in really soon."

"Who are you to tell me what to do and what not to do?"

"You will find out soon."

Our living room comes into focus, and he places me back on my feet gingerly in the centre of the living room. The stranger is twice my size, easily towering over me. His eyes filter through my features, and suddenly, I feel a strange heat overtake every inch of my body.

His gaze comes to rest on my chest, and I follow his gaze. A loud gasp escapes my lips, and my eyes fall wide open when I see what he is staring at.

"Fucking pervert!" I scream, dashing for one of the throw pillows on the couch and putting it protectively over my chest. My little dress is made of silk with a plunge in the neckline. With all the carrying around, it must have shifted out of place at some point in the night.

I remember when he mentioned something about my dress in the car, and I don't think my eyes can get any wider.

"It has been like this for more than fifteen minutes, and you didn't think to say anything?"'

He shrugs with a cocky expression. "I tried to say something. You really need to work on your ability to listen more than talk. It will do you a lot of good."

I feel myself losing it. "You are just a fucking psycho!" I yell, pointing a finger at him. "If I find out that you took any weird pictures of me, I am fucking suing you in court."

He seems amused by my expression, staring down at me like I am some cheerleader.

"Arghhhh!" I turn around to head into my room when Marcus strides in from the hallway, making me halt in my steps.

"I heard yelling in the hallway," he mutters, looking from me to him.

"That has to be all her," the stranger replies, still with that bloody amusement laced in his tone. "For someone as small as her, she sure sounds like she swallowed a speaker."

"Careful," my brother warns with a small laugh splayed on his face. He walks past me and pats the stranger on the shoulders. I see him flinch, but it is gone so fast that I might as well have imagined it. "Tessa can be really touchy when anyone calls her little."

I whip my head around. "Marcus, who is this brute and what is he doing in our house?"

"Well," my brother plops down on the lounge couch and crosses one leg over the other. "This brute is your new bodyguard, Knox Pierce, and he is going to be here a while, so I advise you to get along.'

"What? No! No! No! No! This cannot be....No!"

"Tessa, you said you didn't like walking around with ten bodyguards. I got you one. It is not up for discussion. And you should be grateful I am not keeping you grounded after the stunt you pulled tonight."

I bring my gaze back to Knox, and he winks at me.

The fucker was the one who told my brother.

"Nice boobies," he mouths, before winking again and walking out of the house.

*Tessa*

The last thing I remember is the feel of a soft furry cat underneath my feet, but suddenly, that dream is yanked away from me. My eyes fall open when the shrill of the alarm clock hits, only that it sounds louder than normal.

I groan, my eyes searching around the space for the source of the disturbance. But it is hard to miss him. He is standing directly over my bed, staring at me with a grim expression. The alarm clock is in one hand, pressed over my ears.

"What the hell!" It feels like I am always screaming with Knox around, but it doesn't seem to bother him as he doesn't flinch. Instead, he turns off the alarm and slides it back onto my nightstand.

"Your first class starts in thirty minutes. Get ready." He strides over to the door, covered in black, but at least it is not a drab suit like the others. He is in a pair of track pants, with an armless shirt that leaves almost nothing to the imagination.

His ripped muscles are on display, and it makes it harder to remember why he is in my room again.

"Tessa!" he calls from the door. "You have twenty-nine minutes now." He stops, then a mischievous glint appears in his eyes when he narrows them in my direction. "And it isn't pretty to drool while sleeping."

When he steps out, I hurry to the mirror and see a line of saliva trickling down the side of my mouth.

"Urghhh!" I groan, bothered that he saw me that way. I reach for my box of wipes, but stop when I hear him call from the hallway.

"Twenty-eight minutes!"

Ignoring it altogether, I dash into the bathroom for a hurried bath. Usually, I never minded going late to classes. The professors usually ignored me most of the time, and it worked for me. And even my former bodyguards loved the break because it gave them time to do nothing since watching over me, apparently, is a full-time job.

I finish in thirty-two minutes, and by the time I walk out of my closet, I meet Knox standing in one corner of my room. He looks so out of place, his whole masculine self in the midst of every shade of softness and pink.

Yet, in an odd way, he blends in at the same time.

Knox stares at the wall, and at first, I wonder what has gotten him so curious until he shifts a little, and I see it. I panic at once, rushing to the wall to block the list away from view.

"Why are you in here?" I question, glaring at him.

"Your twenty-eight minutes ended four minutes ago," he shrugs.

"And?"

"And there are records of you scaling your window to avoid going to classes. We can't let that happen now, can we?"

"Leave!" I blurt, pointing to the door.

Knox shakes his head. "I give the instructions around here. Grab your bag. Let's go."

Frustration works its way around me. "You know the only reason you have a job with this family is because I am yet to tell my brother to fire you, right? Do you know how easy it will be to make that happen? All I have to do is tell him I was harassed while you were on watch. Or worse, kidnapped."

I take a slow step towards him. My eyelids flutter from the proximity, but I try to act like it doesn't bother me.

"You know what will happen to you after that, right? Gone, just like the wind."

He peers at me like I am the most boring essay he has read in the world. When my lips snap shut, he scoffs and steps back. "Lead the way, Tessa. Or we can do it my style."

I remember the other night, and at once, I feel red patches across my cheeks. I am in a very short tennis skirt with a white button-down shirt, and I really don't want my ass out in public.

"Fine," I mumble, grabbing my purse and heading out. I look back in time to see him take in the list for the last time, a snicker on his lips.

"You don't have the liberty to laugh!" I say as I march through the hallway and into the living room.

"I do and I will."

He doesn't open my side of the car. Instead, he just walks around and gets behind the wheel, turning around to ensure I get in, too. I sit at the back and let him act like my driver for today. I will never sit next to him in the same car.

Knox peers up at the buttons of my shirt. "I hope they are fastened properly."

Just those words are enough to make me want to hurl something at his perfect face. Instead, I curl my palms into fists by his side.

"They are. Thank you for your false concern."

He pulls his gaze away and pulls out of the area. "Trust me, it isn't false. I don't want to see your boobs hanging out again. The mere thought of them is enough torture."

I don't know whether to get upset or respond with a sarcastic comment. I have only known him for less than twenty-four hours, yet Knox Pierce has managed to render me speechless.

We arrive at school, and he still doesn't get my door, so I alight myself, throwing him a frown before I head in the direction of my first class. Knox stays close when I walk in, but the moment he darkens the doorstep of my classroom, everyone notices him.

Their eyes drink him in greedily, and the girls begin adjusting their tops, batting their eyelids flirtatiously.

I have concluded that there has to be something wrong with me because why on earth am I getting upset about something like this? Over someone that I do not even like.

"Oh my God!" Marin walks up to me, sliding in beside me. "Isn't that the hot guy from last night?"

I roll my eyes. "Yes. The night you let a total stranger take me away. You are supposed to be my best friend."

"Hello!" she snaps her fingers in my face. "Have you seen him? He is going to squeeze me into dust if I make one move, and I just..."

"Tessa Lane, where the fuck were you yesterday, and why weren't you answering your phone?"