Page 47 of Guarded Rebellion

“Yes.”

I swallowed and wiped my mouth with the napkin before setting it down for a final time. Depending on his remarksabout what he thought he saw brewing between me and his niece, I might not have a solid appetite to eat more after this conversation.

“Are you able to concentrate on this assignment?” he asked.

“Of course, sir.”

“I’m not surprised that she is resistant to the presence of security,” he added. “Notwithstanding the incidents that occurred last night…”

“She is reluctant to have orders directed at her, but she is taking them in stride.”

He arched one brow, still too pensive and thoughtful for my liking. Or perhaps he was merely entertained and getting a kick out of Eva’s sudden clumsiness. “Is she takingyouin stride?”

Hell, he had to word it like that.Taking me?That phrase caught me like a sucker punch to the gut.Oh, shetookme well last night.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

When he assigned me to watch over Eva, I’d wanted to request for someone else to handle the task. Now, since I’d grown used to having her near and wanting her with me, even on my lap with her sweet ass marked red from my hand, I couldn’t stand the chance that I’d be ordered off the job.

Hearing the Boss question me and put me on the spot like this irked me. And it worried me. The moment grew tense and awkward, and that was without Eva here to be adorably clumsy.

“I am committed to always serve the family,” I said dutifully and honestly. “No matter the assignment or job.” He’d called me an extraordinary soldier earlier, and I welcomed the compliment. He’d praised me with a remark that I was skilled.

I’d served Eva last night—in the manner of giving her hardcore pleasure she hadn’t known how to ask for other than acting out.

“Of course. Of course,” Oleg responded. He didn’t speak dismissively, as if he were shooing my concerns away, but I never could be sure how loyal he would be tome. As one of his men.

If I hadn’t been taken in as an orphan, if I’d been born into the family in some distant degree, I wouldn’t have felt like an outsider lurking on the edge of the naturally close Baranov group.

A sense of truly belonging was something I dreamed of finding. It didn’t matter what kinds of sacrifices I made or how many, I would always recall the lost identity of being a nobody.

“I trust you willalwaysdo right by the family, Lev,” Oleg said as he sat back in his chair. He eyed me closely, but I knew better than to squirm or show a single sign of being uncomfortable under his scrutiny.

One nod was all the acknowledgment he seemed to need from me. Clueless as to how I could appropriately and quickly end this topic, I began to explain my opinions and thoughts about what had happened on the campus. He didn’t impart many details to me, at least not any new ones.

Soon enough, though, he bade me take my leave and I set out to find Eva.

She sat, reading, but looked up at me with such hope burning in her blue eyes that I couldn’t handle the pressure of her seeking me out. Of her wanting me and appearing interested to be near me again.

This can’t go on.

If the Boss was already noticing something simmering between us, it wouldn’t take long before he’d jump to conclusions. About her purity. About my desire for her or her neediness for me. An attraction that sparked and flamed as quickly and heatedly as it did between us would be the end ofmy hope to belong here. Oleg Baranov would not forgive me for taking something that never should’ve been mine.

Just a job.

She’s just a job.

Last night was a lapse in judgment, one we shared, but it had to be the one and only lapse I’d allow.

If this meeting with Oleg had shown me anything, it was that I had to retreat. I had to ignore this need to have her and keep things strictly professional between us. She was my charge and I was her bodyguard.

If I didn’t keep my eye on the game and just focus on keeping her alive and safe, it would only be a matter of time before I’d be kicked out of the family, the only one I’d ever felt like I had.

“Eva, what happened between us last night?—”

She shushed me as we walked out of the house together, glancing over her shoulder, clearly worried someone could hear me. “We can’t talk about it.”

I nodded, appreciating her candor with a pang of hurt. I hadn’t counted on her to shoo me off. Unless she was only worried about our having a discussion about our intimacy whilehere, where the Boss resided.

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