Page 3 of Her Cruel Bodyguard

“That makes the both of us,” she swallows, and I am not sure what to make of that.

“I will do you a favor,” I lock eyes with her so she knowsthat I mean what's about to come out of my mouth, but I feel like the blood inmy veins runs hotfrom her proximity, her eyes,her body. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I don’t have to do what?” She folds her hands across her chest again, lifts her chin, and glares at me through lengthy, encasing obsidian lashes.

“You don’t have to marry me,” I stand, a mistake that I can’t undo because of how clumsy it will make me appear and I value Eva’s judgment of my person a little too much than is considered healthy.

“It’s not up to me.”

“It is…”

“Did you not hear my father?” She throws her hands in my face. “Did he sound like he is going to ever change his mind?”

“I am telling you, you can choose differently,” I am fucked because I both want to be chosen and not be fucking chosen. I take a moment to breathe her in and say, "I won't do anything to you." She smells like life, fuck. “I will keep my distance until after the marriage,that might not evenhappen if you so much as say the words.”

She flutters her lashes, scoffs, and takes a step back, “What do you mean?”

I don’t have to close the distance, but I do. I do not have to touch her face to explain myself, but my hand goes up of its own accord. It’s like every part of me functions independently when she is concerned.

“Eva,” the pad of my fingers brushes her porcelain skin, a little stroke from her cheek to her cheekbone, and she shudders out a breath, “You can marry whomever you want,” and I am making it difficult for both her and me by not keeping my fucking hands to myself, “I will disappear and never show my face again if that is what you want. If that will make you happy. If it means you get to have the life of your dreams.”

I tilt my strokes to brush a wandering strand of her hair behind her ear, then brush the ear with my thumb and index finger, relishing her irregular breathing. It mirrors my heartbeat being this fucking close to her and touching her this way.

“I will go against your father’s desire, all you have to do is say the word, Eva,” I grit, wishing I could clip my tongue for that slip.

She steps forward, her body subtly plastered to mine and my body singing songs of arousal. She tilts her head, straining as she throws it back to hold my gaze.

“Go to hell,” she grips my hand and rips it off her face.

It is exactly the place she and her father will send me to when they find out about my secret, I think bitterly. She deserves better and better is nowhere near me.

I tip my head, understanding that I have been given a direct order.

Fair enough.

CHAPTER TWO

EVA

Epic declaration of nothing.

He is telling me that he would vanish from the face of the earth, and I have no doubt that he could, but for what reason?

He would much rather disappear, acting as though he is letting me make the choice.

We are looking into each other's eyes, and I'm waiting for the unlikely possibility that he may back away.

“What am I supposed to do with that?” I drop my hands on my waist.

My body, my heart, my mind, my everything spring alive at the scent of him. Being this close to each other is as exhausting as it is exhilarating.

“Whatever you wish to do with it,” he maintains his expression void, but it is not his face that is my tell-tale, it is his eyes. Those rich green orbs disclose all that he tries to repress. And right now, they are telling me he cares about something. I am not sure what, though.

“Being forced to marry me must be horrible for you, isn’t it?”

“Eva, I didn’t mean…”

“You had to say it this way so as not to hurt little Eva’s fragile heart,” I puff my words out, enunciating all the way as if it will balm the sore spot his rejection has punched in my heart, “But I have good news for you.”

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