Page 53 of South Beach Bodyguards

Why?

To say what I need to say.

As soon as I figured out what that was.

Better late than never.

That was more than a slap. That was a knife in the chest.

Tonight?

Yes.

I need to explain.

She didn’t understand that I didn’t bring a lot to the table, and that what I had to offer wasn’t enough. But I needed to try. I needed to be the man I had always claimed I was- not my mother’s son. I needed to stick.

So explain it to me. And I don’t mean in a text. Show your face. Show me I wasn’t wrong to trust you. I’ll be up until midnight.

“Fuck.” I rolled my shoulders and swallowed hard. She was killing me. “Dude, I have to go.” I pulled the earbud out and jammed it into my pocket. “You’ve got to cover for me.”

“Are you serious right now?” Alejandro stared at me.

“I have to talk to Isabel.”

“Now? You had all afternoon!”

“Yeah.”

I drove faster than I should have, which was becoming a habit, but I know had the urgency that I had waited too long. That I couldn’t fix this. I had been surprised that she was moving into her own apartment. In my head now I always pictured her in my old bedroom, my abandoned possessions mingling with hers. I could see her glancing back at me over her shoulder, her eyes earnest, her need clear. She had wanted me.

I had taken her.

And I had taken off. One time my boxing coach had told me that to prove you’re a man, sometimes you have to bow your head and ask for forgiveness. That it might be the toughest match a man could face. I knew now he was right.

When I got to the apartment it was dark from the outside. I knocked, bouncing from foot to foot, restless.

She opened the door. Naked, except for a silky robe. The kitchen light was on in the recesses of the house, so she was obscured in the shadows, but I knew what I was looking at, and it was a whole lot of luscious skin and soft curves peeping out above and below the fabric.

My mouth went dry. “What are you doing?” I stepped inside and shielded her body with mine. “Fuck, Is, someone might see you.”

“It would be nice if someone would see me,” she murmured. “Someone like you.”

God, she was destroying me. “I see you. Trust me, I see you.”

“Come on in.” She held the door open. “I have a robe on, by the way. You’re always forgetting this is Miami. Full coverage means no cut outs on your minidress.”

I wanted to argue but that would be a way just to avoid a discussion that was long overdue. “I’ve been worried about you,” I started, not sure how to navigate these choppy waters.

“Then why wouldn’t you at least text me? You just left me in that hotel room, Ryan, and I know you weren’t going to work. I may be inexperienced with men but I’m not stupid.” She sat down on the couch I had brought over from the house, and the robe gaped at the apex of her thigh. I saw firm thighs, tempting me.

I didn’t know how to explain. “I was trying to protect you.” Crossing my arms across my chest so I wouldn’t touch her, I stood in front of her and shook my head. “Actually, I was trying to protect myself. You scare me.” It was almost impossible to force those words out of my mouth but I did. I couldn’t look at her though. I stared at the wall above her head.

When she touched my arm I jerked, startled. She had stood back up and moved in close to me.

“Hey,” she whispered. “Tell me why you would be afraid of me. I’m the least scary person you know.”

That forced me to look down at her. How could she not understand? And why the hell was she torturing me by being almost naked? “Is.” I uncrossed my arms and brushed her hair off her forehead. Her rich brown eyes were locked up on mine and I saw all those questions there. And the love. I saw love. Or something I hoped could grow in to love. It made it easier to admit my own weaknesses. “Because I think that you are by far the most amazing woman I’ve ever met and I could fall in love with you if I let myself and that is really terrifying to me.”

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