Page 61 of Her Protector Daddies

No pressure.

“No pressure,” I repeated to myself under the lukewarm spray of the hotel shower. This hotel was acting as the base of operations since it was right across from where the Gala was being held. The LAPD had bought out several rooms that were filled to the brim with cops. Thankfully, Jay had pulled some magic and I had a room mostly to myself where I could gather my thoughts and prepare.

I’d agreed to this because anything to put Andrés behind bars was a good step forward in my book. Nearly dying too many times than I cared to count had felt like a solid reason but the gravity of the meeting hadn’t fully settled on my shoulders. It felt like a dream until suddenly it was all I was faced with.

My stomach tied itself in knots, churning so rapidly that a constant buzz of acid tingled at the back of my throat. My fingers trembled as I dragged them through my soaked hair, and I turned my face into the spray with my eyes closed.

All I had to do was get Andrés to work with me in hunting down my father. That would be enough to get the arrest ball rolling and with him behind my bars, there’d be nothing stopping my father from coming back and ridding himself of all the shit he stole. Consequences be damned.

I could do this.

Couldn’t I?

Doubt swirled around my confidence like substances mixing together as one. They settled, hand in hand, as weights in my chest and my next breath was shallower. My only comfort was the three men who had become so incredibly important in my life. While none of them could attend with me, they would be in my ear the entire night and I would use that to keep my cool.

Turning my face this way and that, another pulse of strong nausea stabbed through my gut and I winced. Stepping back from the spray, I stepped against a warm chest and my heart lifted in surprise. Turning, I came face to face with Bailey who had the softest smile on his face that I had ever seen.

“You made me jump,” I laughed softly, brushing water out of my eyes to squint up at him.

“I thought you might like some company,” Bailey said, placing his hands on my bare waist. Just one touch, and I was immediately grounded.

“Company to wash or to stop my mind from talking myself out of this?”

“Bit of both.” Bailey stepped forward and coaxed me back under the spray far enough that the water began to land on him too.

Watching water droplets run down the curves of his muscular torso was a welcome distraction. I reached out and traced a few of them with my fingertips, half wishing I could stay in this moment forever. Just the two of us, surrounded by warmth with the world blocked out by the sound of water hitting the tiled floor.

No drug lords. No nerves. No thread of death.

Bailey’s touch was a constant. After squirting some Orange shower gel onto his hands, he lathered them up and started to cover my body in the soap. Out of all three men, Bailey had always struck me as the one with the hardest edge and fastest temper, yet his touch here was so gentle it was reminiscent of Tyler and my heart throbbed just once.

Having the three of them here would make this moment utterly perfect.

“It’s okay to be nervous,” Bailey said in a low voice, his eyes locked onto mine. “It’s okay to be scared.”

“I know. I assume it’s also normal to feel like you’re constantly on the edge of throwing up?”

Bailey’s hands moved across my shoulders and down over my breasts as he nodded.

“That part never really goes away.”

“Great. As long as I don’t throw up in his lap, we’ll be good.” That, unfortunately felt like a probability given how unsettled my stomach had been for weeks now. Keeping food down had been difficult and the constant nausea from nerves was making sickness feel like an old friend.

“I promise you, nothing is going to happen to you tonight.” Bailey’s soap-covered hands lightly grasped my hips and turned me around to face the spray, letting the water wash away the subs clinging to my skin.

“Is it protocol for you to say that?” I joked.

Suddenly, he spun me back around so quickly that my hair whipped with me and slapped sharply against my left shoulder.

“I mean it.” Bailey’s eyes were darker and the familiar grimness that usually graced his face was back. “All of us, we’re here for you and we’re going to make sure this goes off without a hitch. I—we care about you, Selena. Beyond the badge. We will get you your life back.”

He spoke with such passion that I couldn’t help but believe him and a small smile crept across my lips.

“Well, I kind of like my new life,” I replied, sliding my hands across his ribs and around to his back, where muscles flexed under my fingertips. “Three gorgeous men at my beck and call, more sex than a girl knows what to do with, an adorable kid that kicks my ass at Mario Kart, and I haven’t seen my shitty boss in weeks, so I’m seeing a lot of perks here.”

Maybe it was wrong to turn this all into a joke, even if my words came from a place of honesty. My nerves were getting the better of me and I wanted to lean into the protective edge so evident in Bailey’s voice.

“Maybe aspects of your new life can tie into your old one,” Bailey replied, and he leaned in close, his lips an inch from mine.

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