Page 103 of South Beach Bodyguards

One of the waitresses chose right then to interrupt and laughingly drag me onto the floor for karaoke. “Do you mind?” I asked Wester. “It’s kind of tradition here.”

I was known for a really over-the-top ludicrous version of Piano Man. It was my claim to fame and one of the few ways in which I was totally willing to make an ass out of myself. I wasn’t nervous to sing it in front of Wester. I actually decided to add a little sexy. I figured he wanted real, this was it. But he surprised the hell out of me by making his way across the bar and coming in front of the microphone with me.

Wester could actually sing. His voice was way better than mine. It was strong and deep and sexy and I faltered just briefly, giving a startled laugh, handing him the microphone. “What the hell?” I mouthed to him. Out loud I yelled, “No talent? I call bullshit.”

He put his arm around me to pull me in so we could sing together and I leaned against his chest, liking the way that felt. We were in harmony, his voice powerful enough to smooth out mine. Everyone was clapping and singing along and it was the most fun I had had in a long time.

When the song ended, the host, Chris, gave me a stunned look and said, “Well, well, Olivia’s been holding out on us. Bring your man back again next week, Liv. The audience loves him.”

I expected Wester to be annoyed but he just gave a wave and a bow and took my hand and led me back to the table. He got close to my ear and murmured, “Can I kiss you yet? Is that allowed?”

“I think that you should do whatever feels right to you,” I breathed.

To my surprise, he pulled back. “Then I think I’ll wait. I don’t want to rush it.”

That would be him turning the tables on me. Damn it. I had no one to blame but myself. But it probably wasn’t cool to be kissing a guy at my workplace, anyway. So I gave him a wink. “That would be a start for us.”

Wester laughed. “I’m trying to mix it up. Keep you on your toes.”

When he grinned at me like that, it wasn’t hard to imagine that I could fall head over heels in love with him. He was the oddest mystery to me, yet at the same time so transparent. He was perhaps the most like me of any man I’d ever met. Falling in love with an emotionally unavailable bodyguard wasn’t in my life plan.

But I was doing it anyway.

After a few more drinks and a lot more laughs, when Wester took me home I invited him in. He shook his head.

“Sorry, Olivia. I can’t be trusted to keep my hands off you if I go inside.”

He was in my doorway, his eyes filled with lust. I wrapped my arms around his neck and watched those baby blues narrow with suspicion. “I don’t want you to keep your hands off of me.”

“Is this a test? A trap or something?”

“No.” I was never more sure of anything in my whole life. All night I had been watching him, wanting him. I needed to know what it was like to be with Wester on these terms—my apartment, nothing looming over us. No threat. No attempt at a goodbye. Just us. “I just want you. I don’t need you. I don’t have anything to prove. I just want to feel you.”

“Holy shit,” he muttered. “You’re destroying me, you know that?”

“Why is that?”

“Because I can’t say no to that. You know I can’t.” His hands were already around my waist, drawing my body in closer to his.

“I don’t want you to say no. I want you to be a yes-man.”

His answer was to lift me off the floor and carry me over the threshold. “Then yes. A thousand, fucking times, yes.”

Now that was sexy. I vowed to regret nothing I ever did with him ever. He had an ability to turn me on that was unprecedented. All I wanted was to lose myself inside his eyes. When he kissed me, everything made sense.

Once inside he kicked my front door shut behind us with his boot and he pushed me up against the wall. “Olivia.”

“Yes?” He was kissing my neck and I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe.

“What do you want from me? Tell me what you want,” he urged.

For a second I thought he was talking about something more than sex, and I was confused, but then he added, “Tell me where to touch you.”

“Anywhere. I like when you do whatever you want.”

“Oh, yeah? So I get to do whatever I want? I like the fucking sound of that.”

It might be insane to give a man like Wester free reign over me, but he made me lose my mind. “Go for it. Give me everything you have.”

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